Rui Yifu was maintaining a careful balance of his weight on the cracked tiles on the roof of the half-demolished clinic. The purified water that moved in a perpetual circle behind him was the only thing keeping the heat from the sullen embers from eating into his newly rejuvenated skin. Lin had been quite nice to exchange a swim in his carefully cultivated pond in exchange for the Bamboo Eater's book, although Rui Yifu also thought that he was likely not considering the fact that it would get drained to be used as a weapon against Lang Lang. While the purified water was relatively easy to get in one of the underwater cities, it had likely taken Lin a long time to replicate it with the plants available to lower grade shamans, cultivators, and herbalists. Now the plants were laying in the courtyard, crushed and burnt.

How unfortunate, he thought. If he still lived after removing Wang Huaqing's head, he would have to help Lin find new plants. He glanced down at his hands, the skin no longer was cracked and raw from age, weakness, and curses. It would not last forever, but he hoped it would last long enough.

The great Lord of Hounds was stumbling away gushing corrupted blood from the wound on his stomach dealt to him by Liu Xie, who was following at a slow stroll.

Carefully shifting his weight to ensure he did not easily topple off, he moved down the roof and leapt at the edge to land on the ground with more or less grace and followed Liu Xie with light quick strides.

They did not have to walk very long to find where Lang Lang went. Rui Yifu could feel a prickle moving over his rejuvenated flesh as they drew closer to a strange white building. It was built in a style common to local deities in small towns, sitting atop slightly raised ground with stairs leading to its sanctum, and with pillars holding up a short overhang above the door, although it also showed strange add-ons facing southwards that resembled a house. Poorly yet earnestly made wooden statues of fierce looking almost dog-esque creatures stood near the entrance. Getting closer to it led to the prickle on his skin forming into full on goosebumps. The scent of ash and the pressure of negative spiritual coagulation weighing heavily. Yet more notably were numerous people who stood outside the shrine with determined looks in their eyes.

They were young and old. Men and women. Among them were the scarred, the lame, and those disfigured from disease. Some burly men and strong looking women were up in front holding anything from dulled meat cleavers to large sticks as weapons.

"Not another step!" One man yelled fiercely as Liu Xie came closer. "I don't know who you are, but you've come far enough!"

"Ah," Rui Yifu held up his sleeve to cover his mouth. It would be in poor form to make an ugly sneer around such tense people. He moved to stand beside Liu Xie and the people flinched slightly but none fled. "Liu Xie, these people must have all been those collected by Lang Lang."

"...Idony is in there," Liu Xie pointed inside the shrine.

"How do you know?" Rui Yifu had heard about the tunnels from Lin and was fairly certain Liu Xie's hearing was not that good that he could hear people talking underground while he was caught up in a fight.

"I'm her father, I can feel it," Liu Xie answered simply as though that explained everything. Rui Yifu felt it had something more to do with the fact she had been drinking Liu Xie's sap as tea for seas knew how long. Liu Xie took another step and the man in front closed his eyes and screamed, running forward with a wooden mallet in hand. For his bravery he was rewarded with Liu Xie moving out of his way at the last moment, sticking out his foot to trip the man and letting him land face first on the dirt with an unimpressive 'thud'.

"Don't."

A large dog had appeared at the entryway of the shrine, its head was bowed with age and blackened blood stained its white fur, dripping down its haunches and onto the white stairs it toddered down.

The dog was no mortal creature. Even in such a state it brimmed with twisting power that would normally make mortal humans flee. But this was Lang Lang, he would not knowingly cause his people such terror.

They were afraid for a different reason.

"Lord Lang Lang please don't go!"

"Stay here!"

Rui Yifu was unsure how to feel for the demon lord. Certainly he had been a thorn in the side of the heavens, but what crime had he really committed that had not been done in self defense?

He looked over to Liu Xie, whose hand was gripping his sword and his eyebrows were furrowed.

"Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself," Rui Yifu muttered under his breath.

If either party was planning to attack each other, those plans were immediately dashed when a small red form broke past the anxious crowd that still seemed to be internally debating on whether they would swarm forth to defend their lord. The air grew still with held gasps as the child put herself right in the middle of Liu Xie and Lang Lang, holding out her arms to either side of them as though she could actually stop them both if they so chose to move. She looked different from how he remembered. Her cheeks had filled up and her limbs were no longer bruised sticks. Even her hair had been done up, somewhat, although running around seemed to have undone the careful work put in. Lang Lang had somehow managed to take better care of her than himself or Liu Xie, he realized with some shame that made his chest burn slightly.

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Driven by half-remembered instinct, Rui Yifu took several steps forward to pull the little girl out from between the two yet Liu Xie raised a bloodied arm to stop him. Thick sap blood fell slowly on the ground, settling into the dust.

"You're both being dumb!" She yelled, the combination of her heavy accent and shrill childish voice startling all three people near her and cutting through the tense atmosphere like a knife through flesh. Even Rui Yifu was taken aback. Where was that shivery anxious child from before? "Stop fighting right now!"

"If he's going to kill me, I would rather he just do it and leave my people in peace," Lang Lang's words sounded more like a breeze through exposed ribs than a true voice.

"He's not going to kill you, because I said no!" She jabbed her finger at Liu Xie. "Lang Lang has been very nice to me! He saved me from those bad people, and then he gave me food!" There was an angry emphasis on the word 'food' as she glared at Liu Xie. "Everyone here likes him a lot and he helped them so you can't kill him!"

Liu Xie was quiet but Rui Yifu could see his eyebrows were raised. "...In nothing I've heard about Lang Lang has he ever been called aggressive," Rui Yifu said with an affected idleness. "Every story told, from those in teahouses to the barracks, say he's only been aggressive when provoked."

After a moment, Liu Xie flicked the blood from his sword and sheathed it. "I didn't actually have any plans on killing him," he admitted with a sigh. "But when he wanted to fight, I couldn't help it."

"You have poor self control then," Rui Yifu replied, "and terrible negotiation skills as well." He waited for Liu Xie to respond, but instead the white clad man walked towards Lang Lang.

"I said stop fighting!" Zhu'er yelled again.

"I'm not going to fight him," he said in appeasement, holding out his hands with palms out to show no hidden weapons. "I'm going to help him."

Rui Yifu stood in his spot for a moment, watching Liu Xie come closer and closer to the dog. The dog backed up slowly, growling softly even as its hindlegs collapsed behind it from weakness. Then in one quick movement, Liu Xie lifted up the dog with one arm wrapped around it and grabbed Zhu'er with the other, quickly carrying them both to the shrine in such a hurry that the crowd scattered from his approach and Rui Yifu had to run after him. Lang Lang looked very undignified being carried like a sack, his blood sizzling against the fabric of Liu Xie's clothes as he was carried to a large statue of a gentle faced woman with a dog at her side. She was not ornately dressed, nor were there grand offerings or surroundings, but it was clear that careful attention was regularly paid. The place was clean, a small bowl for offerings in front of the statue was new looking, and the smell of decent incense permeated the place. In front of the statue, at its bottom was a small shallow gap that disappeared beneath it Despite such appearances however, the atmosphere of the place felt absolutely clotted. Like old curdled blood in a corpse left in the sun. It made Rui Yifu mildly nauseous.

Liu Xie unceremoniously dropped Lang Lang to the ground, who fell the very short distance with a wet 'splat'.

Behind them, Rui Yifu could feel the many different eyes of the townspeople watching them with terror and apprehension. Their bravery had mostly left them but they could not bring themselves to flee. He looked back up at the statue which observed everything with a placid gaze. It was Lang Lang's mistress most likely, who else would a dog create a statue to except their deity? In this way he had immortalized in death what he failed to defend in life. Rui Yifu wondered if it was possible for someone deceased for so long to become a true deity, or had she already spent her time in the afterlife and been brought back for another chance upon the wheel? Zhu'er's sudden cry pulled him from his thoughts to pay attention to what was happening before him.

There was a strange shifting sound and the feeling of heat, crackling flames as Lang Lang's body deteriorated rapidly into ash, flowing down the gap at the statue's base to go beneath it. Fur and meat fell away first, followed then by blackened bones. "He's dying!" Zhu'er yelled in alarm.

"He's not dying," Rui Yifu tried speaking kindly, "he's just lost the energy to maintain any corporeal form. He's going to rest now," yet he glanced back at Liu Xie and then at the statue as though expecting Liu Xie to strike it down.

This spot was where Lang Lang chose to put his real body in long ago, if it was destroyed too, Lang Lang would cease to exist. A demon could not continue to exist if its original body was gone; it served simultaneously as their first source of power and as their anchor to the mortal world.

But that was not what Liu Xie did. Instead Rui Yifu watched, with rapidly increasing bewilderment, as the man bit off his own third finger on his left hand as easily as one might bite into a bun. The digit snapped off and immediately started dribbling blood as Liu Xie dropped it into the offering bowl. Zhu'er had been forced to watch all of this close up since Liu Xie had not yet put her down and looked very green in the face.

The atmosphere of the shrine shifted. There was a pressure on his spirit, like a heavy blanket had been placed upon it to smother it out.

"From now on, no one will bother you," Liu Xie said, "but until you've recovered, your people will need to be on their own."

"I'll come visit! When you get better!" Zhu'er immediately spoke, trying to lean down to the gap beneath the statue and not quite making it as Liu Xie held her too tightly. "I'll come, okay!? So get better fast! I'll bring my mommy too!"

Rui Yifu watched the flesh on the bloodied finger wither, pulling away like sticky leaves to reveal the wooden bones of the fingers. The sharp scent of medicine mingled with incense and ash. He looked over at Liu Xie who seemed considerably unperturbed about biting off his own finger. Everything about this man was wooden, Rui Yifu thought, from his bones to his movements. Nothing about him was real. His name was a blatant pseudonym, his body was a flesh shrouded puppet.

Rui Yifu's eyes narrowed. This being was never human. What was he?

"Boss!"

Bo, Li Baobao, and Ji Ying were trying to climb out of a hatch near the northwest corner of the sanctum, at the same time. This left Bo and Ji Ying crushed against each other and Li Baobao's arm helplessly slapping against the ground as he tried to find something to hold onto. Bo swore at Ji Ying as Ji Ying elbowed him to place both hands on the floor and drag herself free, Bo scrabbling after her, and Li Baobao finally making his way out wearily.

Bo looked around, from the statue, to Liu Xie and Zhu'er, then to Rui Yifu, over to the nervous and now confused people peeking in. "...Is the fighting over?"