“You really know how to test the limits of my patience.”

Gou Jia threw Abby’s mother into a dark cell that smelled of moisture and moss. Abby and Arden caught their mother as she fell, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders and shielding her from the man staring down at them.

“What did you all think you could do? Escape from us in our own territory? What type of plan could Sun Cai possibly have that ended with all of you escaping?” Gou Jia questioned, then shook his head at the group’s silent response.

“Fine. Don’t speak. It'll all be over once we find Sun Cai.”

Gou Jia’s eyes flickered, not being missed by an attentive Abby, and he left the cell area to head back up to the sect. A short while after he left, Arden spoke up as he leaned against the cold metal walls.

“We need to hurry with the plan; if we don’t—”

Abby and her mother moved in sync as they shushed Arden. He looked confused until Abby explained.

“There’s no way Gou Jia puts us together to sit here and do nothing. He wants something from us.”

Abby’s mother nodded and added to Abby’s explanation.

“He probably wants us to talk about something we shouldn’t be, or even worse, he’s preparing to use us as bait for Sun Cai. Though I’m beginning to have doubts about whether or not he will come back….” Abby’s mother trailed off on her words, causing Arden to hurriedly speak on behalf of Sun Cai.

“He wouldn’t abandon us! He’s… he’s trying to escape from Gou Da. And, he has to try and coordinate you-know-what in the sect. That must be it. He’ll come.”

“If Gou Jia is setting a trap here, I pray he doesn’t.” Abby’s mother said.

“He has to.” Abby countered.

“Of course I will.” An aged voice suddenly slipped into the conversation, causing a light to shine in everyone’s eyes. They looked to the source and watched as a small firefly light flittered through the gap in the cell doors and rapidly expanded to a full-sized Sun Cai.

“I was waiting for Gou Jia to fetch Mrs. Collins before I came to take you all out of here. But we have to be quick about it. I’ve disabled their eyes, but it won’t last long with Gou Da looking for me.”

Sun Cai approached Arden and looked at the rooted mess wrapped around his hands and feet. His finger drilled into the restraint, and within seconds, a heat blazed into the roots that burned them into nothing but cinders.

Sun Cai did the same for Abby and her mother.

“Come, we have to get out of here—”

Suddenly, a shout travelled into the prison with the force of ten thousand bulls charging. The voice belonged to one that everyone knew well.

“SUN CAI! COME OUT!” Gou Da’s shout accompanied a pressure that creaked the rusted cell bars.

“How did he find me already?” Sun Cai cursed and used his cultivation base to cancel Gou Da’s pressure on everyone.

“Watch out, everyone, we are breaking out the fast way.” Sun Cai reared his fist back as a small, orange flame flickered on top of his hand. As he punched, it seemed like a vacuum of wind and fire echoed from Sun Cai’s fist, blasting a hole in the wall that led outside.

The group quickly escaped and made it outside the cell, only to look around in confusion.

They were surrounded.

Abby watched Bloodthorne Sect Disciples of all stages and forms chanting as they formed an encirclement around the cell building. The strangest thing was that they weren’t spaced side-by-side but were spread out in various spots.

“SUN CAI, SURRENDER NOW.”

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“For what? To die?!” Sun Cai quickly yelled before a look of realization flashed on his face. With lightning-quick movements, he moved to take out one of the weak Qi Condensation disciples that surrounded them, but he wasn’t fast enough.

A hurtling sceptre intercepted Sun Cai’s charge as Gou Da quickly stopped Sun Cai from interfering. Stuck in a battle, Sun Cai yelled out to Abby’s group.

“Take out one of their disciples! We can’t let them activate a formation!”

Unfortunately, Sun Cai was too late already. The disciples, who had been chanting all this while, finished and raised their hands to the sky, where a cobblestone platform floated. Atop the platform, Gou Jia held a knife that nicked his finger, releasing a single drop of blood that hit the platform. The platform glowed a vivid crimson, and the single drop of blood rapidly multiplied into a fountain that released streams of blood downwards.

Bloodthorne Formation – Bloodthorne Dome

Dozens of screams echoed as Abby’s group tried to take out the chanting disciples, but the wounds they inflicted sprouted odd roots. These roots blocked any escape from the ground as they battled against Abby’s group and spread out.

One unlucky disciple that Arden killed even had the roots explode out of his body and begin to climb towards the stream of blood leaking down from the platform above them. When the root met the blood above, it rapidly expanded outwards, connecting with many others that sprouted from the disciples’ bodies. Together, the roots formed a net that held the group in. Light eclipsed Abby’s group as the roots finished connecting above them, blocking any possible escape.

Abby sliced her watery whips against a cultivator, releasing more roots from their body. She grimaced at the slim prospect of escape and watched behind her as Sun Cai struggled in his fight against Gou Da. At that moment, Gou Da knocked Sun Cai toward them with a violent swing of his sceptre.

Gah!

The roots above them briefly parted as Gou Jia approached atop a tendril of roots. He hopped off and walked alongside his eldest brother, who faced Abby’s group with a cold expression.

“Gou Da,” Gou Jia spoke as a hint of hesitation appeared in his eyes, but he quickly crushed it.

“Finish them.”

Cough, cough!

Before Gou Da stepped towards them, Abby felt heat rush from her body. She released a mouthful of blood that sizzled and stained the ground.

Cough, cough, cough!

Following her, Arden, Mrs. Collins, and even Sun Cai began to release blood from their mouths as a strange power activated within them. It forced heat to pass through their bodies as an inactive pill previously hidden in them activated.

“No!” Gou Jia shouted as he watched Abby’s skin turn a blotchy red colour. He quickly rolled up his sleeve, revealing the image of a skull with roots wrapping around it glowing with activation.

Screech!

Suddenly, a screeching cry echoed into the sect as the mountain below them lightly tremored.

Gack! Cough, cough!

This time it was Gou Da and Gou Jia’s turn as their connection to The Matron abruptly weakened and destabilized the powers coursing within them.

“Matron!” Gou Da called out before his attention shifted. With deft movements, he grabbed Gou Jia out of the way of Sun Cai’s sneaky, fiery punch and leapt with him outside the Bloodthorne Dome. Before long, the platform at the top raised higher and shot away to an unknown location.

Meanwhile, Sun Cai fell to his hands and knees. With resolution in his eyes, the flames gathered on his fists rapidly proliferated and spread across his entire body, scorching the ground beneath him as the fire burned hotter and brighter. In an abrupt spike of Qi, the hidden pill deep within him was burned to a crisp.

Huff, huff.

The flames burning around Sun Cai’s body died down, and he gazed back at Arden doing the same but at a slower pace. Instead of rushing to his disciple, Sun Cai moved towards Abby and her mother, who had bloodshot eyes.

Sun Cai placed a hand on each woman’s back, and his Fire Qi seeped into their bodies with the utmost control.

“Don’t—d—destroy it!” Abby spoke through clenched teeth as she felt the Fire Qi wrap around the activating pill. Sun Cai’s brows twisted from concentration, but he did as Abby asked, and instead of destroying the power, he forced it out of their bodies.

Cough, cough!

Another puke of blood released a wiggling root from each woman’s body, and they collapsed from the strain. With heaving breaths, Abby watched Sun Cai rush to Arden’s side and assist him with purging the enemy power within his body. After feeling a touch of strength recover her body, she lifted herself up and gazed at the root wiggling in the ground nearby.

The wiggling root was attempting to enter the ground, but a ball of water quickly engulfed it, bringing it to Abby for closer inspection.

“Is—is that the shell of a pill?”

As Abby’s eyes traced over the wiggling root, she noticed fragments of a pill container that often encapsulated the medicinal pills of the sect. But these fragments were unique. They weren’t like the medicinal pills that she often used while training.

Abby had only seen a pill container like this once. They were from the crimson pill that Gou Jia forced them to take when they first arrived.

“Likely, a contingency plan.” Sun Cai spoke from nearby as Arden flopped to the ground in exhaustion. Sun Cai walked over to Abby, releasing a stream of fire that burned away the root nearby Abby’s mother, still attempting to re-enter her body.

Sun Cai held his hand toward the contained root in Abby’s hand, but Abby shook her head.

“I need it.” She simply spoke and watched as Sun Cai’s brows raised in confusion. Abby didn’t explain anything, not yet. She needed to test something first.

But Abby had a feeling that the fate of many rebels would rest on one single wiggling root.