Not all silences were made equal.

Theirs was a terrified one. The silence of the Tenth Green Hell, terrifying. Chen Haoran could only wonder where between those two extremes the Puppeteer Beetle fell. Not once did it make a sound. Not it nor the parasite worm controlling it. Not when it charged them. Not when Chen Haoran had turned its body to mush and hacked the pieces that remained. It spoke volumes of the type of environment the Green Hell was, that its monsters avoided making any sound whatsoever even up to their final moments. Things were not that quiet for no reason. No mere hunting adaptation could be responsible for such a thing.

Gazing at the piles of squashed, smoking meat of the alien worm and its zombie beetle Chen Haoran was forced to consider that it too had things it feared within the Tenth Green Hell. Such that it would not utter a peep even when dying in the most horrible way.

There was a scratch of something against wood.

And that it might be following them.

They had maintained enough self-control to not openly panic and only secretly panic instead. Xie Jin harvested the core of the Puppeteer Beetle under Chen Haoran and Phelps’s vigilant guard then they beat a retreat in a random direction. The jungle was the same anyway. It wasn’t like they would get less lost. Devil trees wept hot smoke as the Stainless lotus’s purity aura swept over them. Chen Haoran found himself wishing he could retract the aura somehow, wrap it around themselves rather than cover an area. 50 feet was nothing compared to the trees let alone the scale of the jungle itself but Chen Haoran felt it was still far too large.

They did their best to move quietly. Using qi to lighten their steps to be as feathers. They took care to avoid crunching leaves, and scraping roots but Chen Haoran still felt the sound of their feet brushing against the dirt was too loud.

The was a scratch of something against wood.

Chen Haoran shared a look with Xie Jin.

They started running.

All thought of stealth was thrown to the wind as they flooded qi to their legs. The devil trees surrounding them became a wicked blur of dancing forms. Like a rock dropped into a still pond their sudden acceleration threw the whole jungle into a flurry of activity. Solid shapes emerged from between blurred trees, finally pushing through the curtain they’d been hidden behind. Chen Haoran had conjured a thousand images of the denizens of the Tenth Green Hell in his head before seeing them, he knew whatever he imagined would be wrong but he did not expect how. The monsters that crawled out of the dark to hunt them were living nightmares or freaks of nature but surprisingly banal in their form. Snakes, beetles, lizards, mosquitoes, butterflies, and a host of other insects and creatures, far larger than they had any right to be of course but otherwise surprisingly tame compared to what he’d expected them to be.

Then they started killing each other.

The snake opened itself down its middle, splitting into two halves that surrounded a beetle and recombined to engulf it whole. A giant mosquito speared straight through a lizard only for its skeleton to discard its skin and run away. The butterflies fell on unprepared predators and enveloped them with crystal wings, flesh morphing an combining until both forms disappeared and became a liquid-filled cocoon. Those were the opportunistic ones, the predators who decided to make prey of Chen Haoran’s and Xie Jin’s predators. Others yet ran up to the Stainless Purity Lotus’s aura to mixed reactions. Some flinched away from it and fled as if burned. Others stopped a distance away and chose to attack other targets. Some entered and froze. A few died outright within the aura.

Chen Haoran swept his sense over all of them and yet he couldn’t track a single one of the creatures through it even though he could see them. He had no time to dwell on the strangeness. A streak of red and gray feathers barreled through the aura and headed straight for Xie Jin. It was by far the strangest beast present, it looked like a parrot if someone had taken away its wings and elongated its body like a ferret. Chen Haoran switched courses, intercepting it with a hard kick to a beak that felt like steel. The parrot-ferret thing went backward and Chen Haoran flew forward matching pace with Xie Jin. The sound of dirt shuffling had him look back to find the parrot monster assailed by two scorpions as soon as they spotted an opening.

Gods. Had they been surrounded the whole time?

Why were they still quiet?

Chen Haoran ran. Monsters pursued them. Some hunting them. More looking for an opportunity to hunt their own kind. It gave Chen Haoran the impression that it was less they were prey inside the Green Hell and more that they were bait. It was not a good feeling.

“Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran called, reaching out his hand. Xie Jin grabbed it without looking and with a roar the Yellow Dragon flew from Chen Haoran’s head and engulfed them in yellow qi. Red light mixed with yellow.

One step beyond beasts.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

They were carried away from the silent violence. Chen Haoran was going to have words with whoever penned the original verse of the Heaven-Rank technique because one step did not, in fact, take them beyond the beasts. Some still stubbornly pursued them and more seemed to creep out of the shadows of the devil trees. They were just the most obvious thing to target. Perhaps the easiest too but Chen Haoran did not want to dwell on that.

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin suddenly said. “Roar.”

He shot Xie Jin a dubious look.

“Do it,” Xie Jin said with a nod.

“In for a penny then,” Chen Haoran muttered. He conveyed the thought to the Yellow Dragon. On a dime their momentum was arrested as the Yellow Dragon twisted its body and faced their pursuers. Chen Haoran could feel satisfaction bubble through his link to the dragon. It seems all the running away they had been doing had frustrated it to no end.

The Yellow Dragon reared its head and roared.

It was like thunder in the silent jungle. The monsters chasing them, each one at a level capable of giving Chen Haoran a fight stiffened and froze in their pursuit. The leaves of the Devil Trees rustled from the force of the roar, sounding like unwilling hissing as they rubbed together. Fresh black sap burst from sunken eyes.

The monsters fled.

Back into the shadows and poisonous fog, they went. Both the beasts in the open following them and even more that had been hiding in wait. Chen Haoran futilely cast his sense to track them to no avail. They disappeared as quickly as they came. The jungle quickly returned to silence, save for the smoking tears of the Devil Trees that seemed even more tortured than before.

Chen Haoran did not feel safe.

“Walk me through your plan, Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran whispered.

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“Just a thought,” Xie Jin whispered back. “Your Spirit has proven effective on Gu before so I figured the same would apply to Green Hell’s denizens.”

“One small issue. Did they leave because of the dragon or because of the roar?” Chen Haoran recalled the utter silence of the rapid violence they just experienced. If sound is what scared these creatures then why? What made these things refuse to go bump in the night?

Phelps shifted uncomfortably across his shoulders and quietly whined.

“We need to keep moving,” Chen Haoran declared.

“Agreed,” Xie Jin said.

They picked a path that was probably one of the four cardinal directions for all the complete lack of them in the Green Hell and walked, not ran, away. Running was bad. As they had just proven.

The trees judged them as they left.

----------------------------------------

Chen Haoran didn’t know how long they walked for. His nebulous grasp on the passing of time had been lost ever since they entered the Green Hell. The jungle certainly offered no hints what with its green sky and tortured trees. All he could say is that they walked for long enough to make even a Liquid Meridian tired and as such they stopped to take a break. Chen Haoran leaned his back against one of the devil trees and settled Phelps on the ground next to him. Much as the sloth wanted to sit in his lap it was simply to dangerous to completely relax and so his sword was laid across his legs instead. Xie Jin sat cross-legged in front of him. His Gu flew freely between the Stainless Lotus’s aura and the Green Hell’s poisonous air.

“Be careful letting your Gu roam,” Chen Haroan said. “I’m pretty sure they were targeting you earlier because of it.”

“Yeah,” Xie Jin agreed, looking perturbed. “It’s not completely unexpected. It’s in a Hell Bug's nature to devour their own kind. We use that principle to make Gu.”

A paranoid thought wormed its way to the front of Chen Haoran’s mind. “Xie Jin if that’s the case then is it possible for Hell Bugs to become Gu themselves once they eat enough?”

Xie Jin shook his head. “Gu are a strictly man-made creation. A developed Hell Bug could approximate it I guess but that’s only because they’re the origin of a Gu’s powers. They completely lack the rituals we use.”

“When you say they can approximate a Gu’s powers. I’m assuming the reverse holds true as well? A Gu can do what a Hell Bug does but better?”

“You’re talking about their disappearing,” Xie Jin said. It wasn’t a question.

Chen Haoran nodded. “I’ve tracked Gu before. But I couldn’t sense a single one of those monsters even when they were right in front of me until they released qi.”

“My Gu couldn’t track them either,” Xie Jin said, then he paused. “…for now maybe.”

“Real illuminating Xie Jin.”

Xie Jin scowled and flipped him off. “Do you know what makes a Hell Bug different from other beasts?”

“Considering you’re my sole source of information on most things South and you never told me. No, I don’t.”

Xie Jin rolled his eyes. “Well, they’re not special or unique, in and of themselves. A Hell Bug is a Hell Bug because it comes from the Tenth Green Hell. When they escape and breed that energy is gradually diluted over the generations. Part of the process of Poison Jar Ritual is to re-concentrate that power before turning it into Gu miasma.”

Chen Haoran processed that information. He glanced over at the Beetle Gu. It had molted yet again for the fourth time. It looked bigger even, though only by a fraction. “Xie Jin. What is going to happen to your Gu?”

Xie Jin looked over at his Beetle Gu with an expression that was half worried and half… expectant. “I think I’m learning the reason all Gu return to the Green Hell once they’re freed.”

“Will it be safe?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know but…. no shaman who’s ever gone into the Green Hell has ever returned.”

Gu being what they were it was easy for Chen Haoran to imagine they’d rather abandon their shaman rather than leave the allure of growing stronger in the Green Hell. If their strength grew beyond what the shaman could control on top of that…

Perhaps the local wildlife wasn’t the only reason a Shaman never made it out.

“Then again things might not play out that way,” Xie Jin hurriedly assured Chen Haoran and perhaps himself as well. “Black Bone Gu don’t return to the Green Hell anyway so how it affects them may be different. Plus I’m a genius shaman and you’re you so no matter what I won’t lose control of my Gu.”

Chen Haoran sighed. It wasn’t the most reassuring but it was better than nothing he supposed. “Maybe it’s a good thing Bao Si isn’t with us. Less Gu to worry about.”

“Ah,” Xie Jin said, looking conflicted. “Yeah. The Three Worm Sutra. It’d be bad if she came here.”

“Something the matter, Xie Jin?”

“Well, the Three Worm Sutra is just as stupidly dangerous as me performing the Poison Jar Ritual by myself. Maybe even more so,” Xie Jin said.

Chen Haoran stared at him. Xie Jin met his gaze for a brief moment before looking away. “You wanted it didn’t you?”

Xie Jin deflated. “Yeah. I wanted it.”

“What’s so special about it? Besides the obvious?” A flash of familiarity rose from the fog of memory. “You told me a story about three worms before I’m pretty sure.”

“Granny Three Worm,” Xie Jin said. “The method is descended from her.”

“I thought she was just some fairytale?” Chen Haoran said. “How is she related to the Black Bones?”

“She isn’t related to us. Not directly at least. I guess you could say she’s related to all shamans.” Xie Jin shook his head. “But whether she was real or not the Sutra is real. Maybe it even belonged to her. Or not. Or maybe there was someone who inspired the stories. Stories of Granny Three Worm were old when the Queen Mother of the Western Mountains was young and no one knows when she was young.”

“Sounds confusing,” Chen Haoran simply said.

“Either way the Three Worm Sutra is probably the most venerated and feared method among shamans. Just as if not more so than a Golden Silkworm Gu.”

“Because it lets you control three Gu?”

“No, because it lets you use three Gu.”

“The distinction being?”

“Half of why the Sutra is feared is because it requires controlling multiple Gu at minimum in order to be practiced. An exercise in death for all but the best shamans and even then it’s a matter of when you’ll die, not if,” Xie Jin said. “Splitting your attention between Gu like that is lethal and there’s the added difficulty of the Gu trying to eat each other because they don’t like sharing. If you can successfully do it however the Three Worm Sutra allows you to synergize the power of the Gu multiplicatively. That’s the other half of why it’s feared. It turns a shaman from a threat to a force.”

“And the reason it’s venerated?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It’s the pinnacle of shamanism,” Xie Jin said. He drew his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around his knees. “There have been plenty of Golden Silkworms in Zumulu’s history but no true master of the Three Worm Sutra. All the geniuses who ever came close inevitably slipped and fell when they were about to reach the peak. But if they could… the legends say Granny Three Worm roamed Zumulu as she pleased. From its highest mountain to its deepest caverns and across its most dangerous jungles. Everywhere she went she freely took and dispensed old age, disease, and death. If people could gain even a fraction of that power… well, it should be obvious.”

Chen Haoran nodded. It certainly sounded like an immense power. “It’s a bit surprising your Elders let Bao Si practice it then if it’s so dangerous, given her status and all.”

“She’s Bao Si.”

Chen Haoran thought about it.

He conceded the point. She was indeed Bao Si.

“She was able to practice it with the help of the Grand Elder. She would seal a Gu in the form of a tattoo on Bao Si. Some kind of secret method or something.” Xie Jin said. “Of course, that was after Bao Si proved herself but she was always going to be the Grand Elder’s apprentice no matter what.”

“And you never got the chance.”

“No.”

“So then you performed the Poison Jar Ritual by yourself,” Chen Haoran said. There was no judgment in his tone.

Xie Jin hunched over. “Yes. Of course, after I did that there was even less reason to let me learn the method. There were doubts about my character and how it’d affect the nature of my Gu. They didn’t think my Gu would let me survive trying to bond with another one.” His lips twisted into a small, bitter smirk. “Of course, there were some who were worried not that I would fail but that I would succeed.”

“That’s an absolutely ridiculous worry,” Chen Haoran assured him. “Seeing as how useless you were comprehending the Seven Colored Steps I don’t know how anyone could think you a threat.”

Xie Jin snorted. His expression shifted to one of noble disdain. “Sorry, I can’t compare to peerless Brother Chen who needed literal enlightenment to learn the Technique.”

“Point,” Chen Haoran said with a smile.

They shared a soft laugh. Phelps snuffled at Chen Haoran’s leg. Xie Jin’s Gu flittered between purity and poisonous. Signs of its fifth molt already beginning to form. The jungle was quiet. Even the black tears of the Devil Trees had long since dried. Their small joy was loud in the Tenth Green Hell.

There was a scratch of something against wood.

It was behind him.

Chen Haoran’s sword was a silver blur as he whipped from its scabbard and felled the great tree with a single cleave. The Devil Tree collapsed to the ground with an unwilling roar of wood and slammed against its evil kin, smashing branches and stripping bark. When it fell to the ground it did so with a heavy thump that Chen Haoran felt in his heart.

On the other side of the tree was nothing.

In the shadows of the jungle, countless green eyes opened.