Void or Death? Which do you think is deadlier kid? Ha! Trick question. The real answer is that whatever your opponent’s got up their sleeve is the deadliest. Doesn’t matter if it’s a chopstick or a talisman, if you don’t treat your enemy deadly serious then whatever they got is the deadliest thing you’ll have the pleasure of experiencing. –Captain San Pele of the Wandering Legion

* * *

We stepped gingerly out onto the street. The cultivators from the Lunar Hunt were nowhere to be seen, likely having moved to some other section of the market while Pharyx and Pollen had been shopping. Despite the apparent lack of watching eyes, we still decided to take few risks. Xinya held Pollen’s hand, rather than mine, making it seem as if the two were mother and daughter while Pharyx and I kept several paces back.

“When are you going to tell her?” I asked the hornet quietly.

“Who, Pollen?” he shrugged. “She has even more tools to figure it out than you did. Getting over the apparent gender roles insects are mired in is a small task when compared to the predator/prey relationship. If she can’t get over the idea that a man can be queen, then there’s no point in pursuing any diplomatic resolutions with the bees.”

I sighed. “And I presume you have some kind of plan in mind to help her learn to respect you?”

The sun hornet gave me a crooked grin. “Of course. I’m a master at wooing both men and women alike.” My ears grew hot at the memory of his behavior in his throne room. Were I not grieving a previous love, I might have fallen for his antics.

“I doubt Pollen will be so easily convinced.”

“She doesn’t need to be,” Pharyx admitted. “As long as I can show her that I’m worth more than your average drone, it’ll be up to her to figure out the rest.”

I let the matter drop. At the end of the day, a treaty between the hornets and the bees was up to the queens of the two hives. Pharyx was well within his rights to object to such a treaty on account of Pollen’s behavior, and I was only an outsider with little influence on the overall outcome. All I could do was hope that Pollen’s prejudice wouldn’t get in the way of showing Pharyx just how sweet she could be.

We turned a corner and found ourselves in the same square where I’d fought the spider witch the first time. It was scrubbed clean of the blood and deathly qi of the walking corpses, but many threads of silk still hung from this part of the town.

“Why haven’t we seen any spiders yet?” Pollen wondered. “I know they’re nocturnal, but you’d think they’d be keeping a patrol at least.”

“I, for one, will be glad to know they didn’t,” Pharyx answered.

The four of us ducked into a tea shop and took a seat. After negotiating with the proprietor to use our honey as currency, the waitress brought us several cups of steaming tea. In truth, there wasn’t much negotiating involved. The honey was so infused with qi that the tea shop could use it to attract any wandering cultivators who came to town. Those of the Lunar Hunt, and the actual provincial guards who were in charge of keeping the peace on the Moon-Soaked Shore were much more lucrative clientele than we were. As far as they were concerned, we were trading liquid gold for a few cups of water, some tea leaves, and a bowl of steaming congee for Xinya, all of which Pollen flavored with even more honey. She had a nearly never-ending supply of the stuff.

“So, the rumors say the Witch herself is in the temple of some wind god or other,” Pollen began.

Pharyx nodded. “Removing her will give us a chance to work together before we’re wing deep in spiders.”

I rested my head on my hand and looked out the window to watch the few brave souls who dared to step outside rush from place to place. The truth was that the temple wasn’t just to any old wind god.

The people of Heimian could have picked any spirit or Ascendent to worship. I’d seen lands where spirit beasts were worshipped as protectors of the land, and thus, carved out their territory. In fact, many Ascendents in every era were worshipped as gods. Though only yokai, shades, and some forms of spirit beast could accept the offered spiritual energy from the prayers of mortals, the cultivating ascendents still used it as a means of controlling the masses through religious doctrine, with many sects enforcing that rule.

However, the people of Heimian had chosen the Wind Master, otherwise known as the Sword Saint, to worship. I wasn’t sure why the man I knew had instituted a religious following, or if it had even been his doing. What I was quite certain of, however, was that that temple would be rich with the spiritual presence of the Sword Saint. Even if he was dead, would he recognize me and reach back from beyond the grave to send me back to prison?

I shook my head. It was silly to worry about such things. The Sword Saint was dead, and even if he had still been alive, it had been tens of thousands of years since we’d last met. There was no way he’d recognize me, not in this powerless Bronze body.

“But, how are we going to get her to come out during the day?” Pollen continued, completely oblivious to my internal struggles.

Pharyx didn’t have an answer. He sipped his tea, eyes closed to think. She was right, of course. During the day, we had an overwhelming advantage. Between Pharyx’s sun aura being most powerful during the day, and the fact that both hornets and bees had terrible night vision, trying to stage our attack during the day was critical to our success.

But, how to lure our enemy into conditions that were favorable for us?

“Why don’t you bait a trap?” Xinya offered. The little girl had been listening intently the entire time, clearly eager to be of assistance to the three older cultivators. When the two spirit beasts frowned in confusion, the little girl continued. “Well, if you want the fish to swarm, you bait the water before casting your net. That’s what Dad always said. He always said that the best bait made a greater haul than fishing in better waters, but that was because he was always pushed to the edge of the reef.”

I smiled at the girl. She was right. With the right bait, we could get the witch to come out on her own. The question was what bait would be most effective.

“So, we send Tsuyuki in to lure her out.” Pharyx nodded in agreement, but I nearly spit my tea all over the hornet.

“Wait?! Why me?” That spider was crazy, but why was I the first one Pharyx decided to throw under the cart?

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Pharyx blinked in shock. “Because you beat her last time?”

“You did that as much as I did!”

“Ah, but I wasn’t the one she was keen on killing and raising as an obedient, but beautiful, corpse,” he said. “Honestly, I would normally be insulted that she didn’t think I was a suitably handsome face, but she never got the chance to see me in this form. If she had, then I would surely be the most qualified to be bait, but alas, I yield that honor to you, Master Tsuyuki.” The hornet winked at me with a mischievous grin. I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache beginning behind my eyes. He might have the sun-touched mischief look that could turn heads, but he still had nothing on my looks…

“You do have the best kept hair of the three of us,” Pollen added. Chiho trilled its agreement.

“Of course I do,” I snapped. “I was the heartthrob of the cultivation world since well before any of you were born.” I crossed my arms in a huff. When silent confusion reigned over the table, I sipped the hot tea before me to cool the heat that was rising in my cheeks.

“You do realize that spirit hornets and bees both live longer than our mundane counterparts?” Pharyx prompted.

“Of course I do.”

“He thinks himself a god,” Xinya said sagely, eating a spoonful of congee. “Says he’s been all over the world, too. All the way to the Indomitable Mountain and back.”

“And yet he doesn’t know about the Summoned Isle?” the hornet queen teased.

My cheeks burned even hotter. “Look, I’ve only ever been to places on this continent!”

“The Indomitable Mountain isn’t on this continent,” Xinya corrected. “Miss Jaili says it’s on the other side of the Akumai Straight.”

“What?” I had never heard of this Akumai Straight, and last I checked, the Mountain was definitely on the same continent as my dominion had been. The Avatar of the Earth and I weren’t particularly great friends, but we were still Ascendents of the same dynasty. I’d toured his entire empire, just as he’d done mine.

“Are you sure you’ve actually been there?” the little girl narrowed her violet eyes suspiciously.

“Of course I have! It was just…” In another era? Another Ascendent dynasty? The age of legends?

I sighed and slouched in my seat. This world was complicated. I’d need to get my hands on a map. Who knows what kind of geographical changes had come to pass during my imprisonment.

My three companions looked at me, expecting me to finish the sentence I’d started. However, as I lacked an answer that kept with both my previous statements and my cover as a perfectly normal cultivator, they would be disappointed. I cleared my throat.

“Fine, I’ll be your bait, but, if my corpse ends up dancing on her strings, I will become a shade through sheer force of will to haunt each and every one of you.”

* * *

The Wind Master’s Temple in Heimian was a meager place as far as temples go, but it was still a grand structure as far as a small backwater town was concerned. The compound had a small outer wall to contain the garden and the temple itself. On a normal day, the upper floors of the building would open their windows to air out the temple and let in the wind qi that was the principal element of their patron Saint. However, now, those windows were closed tight to keep the sun from entering the den of monsters within.

As soon as I passed through the gates, I could smell them. Death and blood clung to the air, along with another smell like rose perfume. The perfume had been applied generously to the building, but all it had done was provide a sickening sweetness that did nothing to overpower the death qi that practically seeped from the walls.

A few priests still remained in the temple itself. Their faces were gaunt from sickness, and the only thing that overpowered the fear in their eyes was the exhaustion. Yet, despite their condition, they continued to care for their temple grounds. The floors were scrubbed clean of blood, at least in the main shrine, and the statue was spotless.

I stared at it. The face of a man weathered by age stared back at me with sharp eyes. He was so…old, and yet, the fierceness of youthful vigor still shone through in his posture. At his hip were two swords. One was Razor Wind, the Saint’s loyal companion, the blade that had struck down the Moon itself. The other made me choke. I’d recognize the moon charm tassel of Eclipse’s hilt anywhere.

“Jinshi, did you really insist on carrying my sword for so long?” I whispered.

A creeping sorrow built up in my heart. Knowing that the Sword Saint was dead and coming to terms with it were two different things. We’d been more than friends. He was my cultivation partner, the love of my life, the Saint of my Heart…

It all seemed like a dream, now. The realm we built, the love we shared…the love that shattered, all because of me. I deserved the nail Jinshi had driven into my heart, and the scars it left behind, but, with him dead, there was no way to say just how sorry I was…how much I missed him in the years locked in the Labyrinth.

For my sword to be at his waist…did it mean that he really did miss me? Had he kept it close to keep a part of me with him? The blade was shattered. It was worthless to him otherwise.

Or did he keep it as a trophy? A symbol of his success in destroying me so completely? He always did keep tokens from his enemies: the tooth of the Great Fox Demon of Lan Valley, a scale of the South Sea Leviathan, the silver earring of Heartbreaker, the first shade we’d defeated together…the Shattered Sword of the Darkened Moon could easily fit into his collection.

I kept my silence and lit a bit of incense. This place held none of the Jinshi I knew, but it felt wrong to leave nothing for him. Maybe, in whatever afterlife he’d passed to, he could see me and feel the sincerity of the offering. Maybe we’d meet again in the spirit realm…someday.

“Hey! Don’t you know the temple is closed?” The voice was soft and feminine, but filled with spite and malice.

I turned my head to see a woman dressed in a soft pink dress with a red fan before her face. Her hair was a rather unusual shade of tawny orange that would have made her quite the exotic beauty in this part of the world. However, her skin was as pale as a corpse, and I spied several lines of stitches across her arms. As soon as she saw me, though, her fan dropped. I didn’t recognize her face, but she clearly recognized mine.

“It’s you!” she gasped, her voice draining of all its former malice. “The cultivator! I knew you’d come back!”

“Do I know you?” I asked. She closed the distance between us quickly, but, in the last moment, her left foot caught on her right and she stumbled forward. I reached out and caught her, as was only good manners.

“Stupid two legs, how do humans manage with so few?” she grumbled before looking up into my face with an almost adoring expression. “What a dashing hero you are? Done playing with the buzzing little bees, are you? I knew you couldn’t resist my offer.”

That’s when it hit me. Why had the Spider Witch been collecting body parts? Why did this woman have stitches on her arms, as if they were literally holding her flesh together?

This was the Witch of Heimian, the very spider Pharyx and I had mistakenly allowed to live.

The realization hit me like a runaway carriage, and I quickly fled several steps back, letting her fall to her knees. She blinked several times in confusion before standing upright once more.

“I take it from your expression that you’re not here to accept my deal?” she growled. Her fan snapped open, and she glared at me over the top.

“I thought Pharyx and I beat you hard enough that you wouldn’t come crawling back,” I answered. “It seems I was mistaken. Congratulations on your humanoid form, if you can call it that.”

The Witch narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot. “Oh, laugh if you want! I worked hard for this body and almost didn’t get the chance to use it thanks to you and that stupid wasp!”

“How did you manage to survive? I’ll make sure not to repeat the mistake.”

“You won’t get the chance, this time!”

The Witch waved her fan, and the air grew thick and stale. Death qi, I had no doubt of it, filled every corner of the room, and I pulled my free sleeve over my nose and mouth before breathing in too much of the invisible toxin. Nearby, the priests began to choke and cough, but they weren’t cultivators. One by one, they fell. They were dead before they hit the floor.