On the back of Yi Xiurong’s peacock feather, they soon arrived at the Shrouded Peaks. At the base of the lowest of the sect mountain, smoke rose from Xu Xiang, the sect town. Higher up on the outer sect mountain, flashes of light evidenced the exchange of techniques.

This close to the sect proper, the entire sky had turned a deep red, like a blood-soaked sunset. Even within the purifying light of Yi Xiurong’s presence, He Yu could feel the Sunset Empress’s influence scratching at his mind. Promises, hollow yet seductive all the same, whispered in the depths of his thoughts. They asked for his obedience, his subservience. They offered unfathomable power in return.

He Yu stood up. “Let me off here,” he said. They were close enough. Whatever was going on in the sect town wouldn’t slow him down too much. If his friends still lived, they could handle themselves for a little longer.

“Be careful,” Zhang Lifen said, making no effort to mask her concern. All pretense was gone from her posture and voice.

“I will,” he said, cupping a fist in salute.

“I mean it, He Yu. Don’t throw your life away for the sake of some ideal. Not here. If I don’t see you again before all this is over, make sure you live.”

He Yu swallowed down the lump in his throat as Zhang Lifen and Yi Xiurong disappeared towards the inner sect mountain on the back of Yi Xiurong’s peacock feather. The reality of how serious things had turned finally sank in. Jin Xifeng was free. She would come for the sect, and he wasn’t yet ready. None of them were.

When He Yu entered the outskirts of the sect town, a First Realm cultivator rushed towards him. At first, He Yu just thought his junior was seeking aid, or protection. He cupped a fist in salute. The First Realm produced a jian and attacked.

The Spring Rain Mirror turned the blade aside easily enough. A moment later, the jian lay on the ground, and He Yu held the outer disciple by the wrist. Any attempts to question the disciple were answered with a stream of barely coherent nonsense about power and promises. He Yu had to activate the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment to make any sense of it.

A sweet voice whispered in the disciple’s ear, promising him wealth and status and power. All he had to do was submit. Submit and attack the sect. He’d been in Xu Xiang when the voice started its whispers, and he’d succumbed almost instantly. He Yu couldn’t really blame him—he heard the voice too, and even knowing what it was, it took a small but noticeable portion of his attention and will to resist.

He Yu pushed a spike of qi into the disciple’s lower dantian. The First Realm’s cultivation base surged, disrupted by the foreign heaven qi now coursing through his meridians. He fell to the ground with a spasm, fighting against his own cultivation base, and the small spike He Yu had implanted. He Yu hoped he’d not done any permanent damage with his attempt at disabling the disciple—but if he were honest, someone of such a low cultivation base wouldn’t likely survive the day, anyway.

Inside Xu Xiang, He Yu found the signs of fighting everywhere. Mortals lay dead and wounded throughout the streets. Several fires spread from one building to another, and a few of the town’s buildings had collapsed. First and Second Realm cultivators did battle. It seemed random whether they would turn their attention to He Yu as he drew near, or continue fighting one another. Their choice mattered little; none of them could pose a threat to him.

Rounding a corner, He Yu caught sight of Chen Fei. A Second Realm swung a large war-club at her. The club rebounded off one of her barriers. She made a quick incantation gesture, and another barrier sprang up around the Second Realm, sealing both him and his cultivation base. As she turned away from her disabled opponent, relief washed over her features as she caught sight of He Yu.

“He Yu!” she said, rushing towards him. She caught him up in a fierce hug. It was practically a tackle, and he had to push a bit of qi into his body enforcement to remain standing.

“I,” he stumbled over his words. “Hello. I’m glad you’re alright.” The whole thing caught him out. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted by something like this.

As he disentangled himself, Chen Fei seemed to have realized how forward she was being. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Me too,” he said. Putting the last of his composure in place, he pointed to the sect town. “What happened here? Besides the obvious, that is.”

“I’m not entirely sure. I was here buying some things when that happened.” She turned to the red pillar piercing the sky. “I heard her voice. Like in the wilds. Then everything just sort of went crazy. I’ve been doing what I can to keep people safe, but I’m the only one down here.” She cast a glance to a nearby mortal laying motionless against a ruined wall. “What could have caused this?” she asked, turning back to He Yu.

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“Kong Huizhong. The Emissary is dead. When he died, the demon core he’d pacted with returned his cultivation base to the Empress. At least that’s what Yi Xiurong and Zhang Lifen think happened.”

“Wait,” Chen Fei said, horror breaking across her face. “So we’ve been making her stronger by attacking the court?”

He Yu grimaced, then nodded.

Chen Fei turned to the west. “What now?” she asked, voice small.

“First, we find the others,” he said. “Once we’re all together, we decide what we do next.”

She visibly relaxed with his answer. “Alright, let’s go.”

They headed towards the path led to the lowest of the sect mountains and the outer sect. Now that there were two Golden Cores moving through Xu Xiang, all the First and Second Realms had eyes only for them. Chen Fei’s techniques were more than capable of disabling the lower realm cultivators—far more so than He Yu’s were. She sealed most of them behind formation barriers. By the time they’d reached the foot of the path, the violence in Xu Xiang had all but ended.

The peace didn’t last. The instant they set foot upon the path leading up the mountain, themist spirits fell upon them. This time, however, they weren’t a frightened Second Realm, and a powerless First Realm.

Although the spirits attacked with far more aggression than they had been back then, the gulf in power between He Yu and Chen Fei compared to the spirits was insurmountable. Metal and stone and heaven and wind scattered the spirits, blasting or crushing their forms into diffuse qi that faded into the mists. The whole thing still bothered He Yu, though.

That not only the disciples in Xu Xiang, but also the spirits on the path, would be driven to such an irrational display of aggression didn’t give him much hope for what lay ahead. He’d seen enough of what Jin Xifeng’s influence could do. How she drove beings with such a low cultivation base to such a suicidal frenzy, he couldn’t have said. For what purpose she did so, he couldn’t have guessed. All he could see were the effects. And the effects were mindlessly destructive.

It began to make sense that she could have felled an entire generation of experts. That she could have brought the whole of the Dragon Empire to its knees.

Their journey through the outer sect was similar to their experience in Xu Xiang. First and Second Realm disciples would attack in groups. Chen Fei would quickly disable them, and then she and He Yu would move on. The occasional Third Realm would attack as well, and they would take a bit more effort to deal with, but they posed little threat. The main thing He Yu noticed was that most Third Realms seemed capable of resisting whatever influence drove the rest of the disciples to their frenzy.

“I wonder what the difference is?” he mused after pointing it out to Chen Fei.

“There were Fourth Realm beasts with the rest when we were in the western wilds,” she pointed out. “So we know she’s capable of influencing at least the Golden Core level.”

It could have been distance, or time, or the number of individuals. He couldn’t have said, and his speculation was cut short by an attack from a group of First Realms. He supposed the answer didn’t really matter. It wouldn’t change anything about their immediate situation, anyway. The one solace he took from the scene was that, based on what he could see on the higher mountains, there wasn’t any immediate evidence of fighting. Maybe they could get a better grip on what was happening once they reached the inner sect.

A fiery presence eclipsed everything else in the area. Like a burning mass of insatiable flame, Ren Huang slammed to the ground a few feet away from He Yu and Chen Fei. Dressed as he typically did in his baggy pants and open vest, he also had the wolf-tooth club he’d carried in the wilds resting on one shoulder. A disciple rushed him, and Ren Huang grabbed him with his free hand. Without even looking, he flung the disciple into a building.

“Junior Brother He, Junior Sister Chen. I am glad to see you’re safe,” he said in his usual low rumble. “All inner disciples are to report to the inner sect mountain to muster for the defense.”

“Defense?” Chen Fei asked. He Yu was glad she had. He was dying to know himself, but didn’t feel he was familiar enough with Ren Huang to break propriety.

“A horde of beasts approaches the sect from the west.”

Now He Yu felt he could speak up. “Pardon, Senior Brother, but couldn’t the core disciples handle it on their own?”

Ren Huang pinned him with a stern look. “Do you think you saw even the tiniest fraction of what lay in the west during your brief time there? Do you not realize what the pillar of light stretching to heaven means? We will require every bit of strength the sect can muster if we are to have any hope.”

He Yu bowed over a clasped fist. “This one apologizes, Senior Brother.”

For an instant, Ren Huang’s normally stern expression and fierce demeanor dropped. In that moment, He Yu realized he was likely far older than he appeared. Zhang Lifen was considered young for her advancement, after all, and she’s already lived for over sixty years. How much older would Ren Huang be?

His voice was still a low rumble when he spoke, but there was a softness to his tone. “My peers and I will do what we can to protect our juniors, but we can’t do everything on our own. We need you nearly as much as you need us. Focus on the foes that you can defeat, and leave the stronger ones the core disciples. The elders stand by for when they are needed as well.”

He dismissed them with a wave. He Yu and Chen Fei remained silent as they made their way through the outer sect, each lost in their own thoughts. Ren Huang’s shift in demeanor was what concerned He Yu the most. It wasn’t that the core disciple had lacked confidence, but rather he seemed resigned. As if the conclusion of the day had already been decided.

Zhang Lifen’s obvious concern returned to He Yu then, too. She’d always been so quick to throw him into danger, and never once had she shown any real concern for his safety. Like she’d known with absolute certainty that what she’d gotten him into was within his capabilities to handle. Even if he didn’t know it himself.

This time, it was different. This time, it felt like the end.