I followed Wim as he raced out of the room, but even with Lightness of Being, I couldn’t remotely keep up with him. He simply vanished from my sight, but when I emerged from the caves into the moonlit beach, I found him simply standing at the entrance, staring up at the cliff face. I couldn’t see what he was looking at, but he seemed to understand that.

“It is as Rider-of-Sunset-Tides claimed, Xu Xing,” he said, his voice calm but bitter. “The cursed. I see dozens of them, pouring from the tunnel entrance. Some few come this way, but most ascend the stairs that climb the cliff face.” He shook his head. “We cannot allow that. If they are as the students we just faced, able to spread their condition through their venom, then letting them spread into the wilds will unleash a plague upon the lands.”

“And that’s just assuming they’re only coming out of the tunnels this way,” I added quietly. “If they’re also coming out into the school above, they could spread into the city. They could infect half the city in one night.”

Wim’s eyes went wide. “By the celestial heavens, you are correct, Xu Xing,” he said. He turned as the rest of our group appeared in the cave’s entrance.

“Master of the Brilliant Desert Sea, what unfolds?” a woman in black and red shirt and pants with a sword at her side asked, her voice worried.

“The cursed emerge in great numbers from the tunnel above,” the old man told the others. “We must also assume that they attack the School of Earthly Fires and thus the City of the Sunrise Moon.”

“How shall we proceed?” a man in cream in brown asked nervously.

“They must be held here,” Wim said. “If they break free, they can spread their plague throughout the city and beyond. All will become cursed, and eventually, the Wheel will grind to a halt.”

He looked at the woman in black and red. “Bearer-of-the-Singing-Blade, you will lead this group up the stairs to hold the mouth of the tunnel.”

“My honor, Wader-in-the-Morning-Waters,” the woman bowed, her hand pressed to her chest.

“Xu Xing, you and my daughter must hold the stairs at the top of the cliff,” he said, turning to me.

“These two students?” a man in green and pink scoffed.

“Those two students defeated Delver-in-Diamonds, a Sky-ranked cultivator,” Wim said mildly. “They are more than capable.”

“Especially with me at their side,” Bai Ren moved forward. “I follow Xu Xing in this battle, Wader-in-Morning-Waters, and they will need my flames.”

“Very well. Then I will go through the tunnel and defend the school above. We will hold them.”

“Okay, I like the plan,” I said slowly. “But how do we get to the top of the cliff, exactly?”

“Like this,” the old man smiled. I felt his hand on my arm, and suddenly, the entire world just shifted. I didn’t even feel a sense of motion, but the beach vanished, replaced by the forested cliff top. I stumbled as a bout of dizziness rose in me, but it quickly settled. I blinked in astonishment and confusion.

“What the hell…?” I didn’t even finish the phrase before Wim vanished, reappearing a second later with Bai in tow. The woman stumbled, just as I had, and I reached out to steady her. Wim disappeared again, finally returning with Jing. Of course, she only wobbled slightly instead of almost falling as Bai and I had. Jing’s preternatural grace always surprised me.

“You three must hold here as best you can,” Wim ordered. “I will secure the school.” He vanished once more.

“How the hell does he do that?” I muttered.

“It is an ability that most Spirit-ranked cultivators have,” Jing observed. “He can move from place to place without crossing the distances between. I will be happy to discuss it later, Xu Xing. For now…” She pointed to where the first of the cursed crested the cliff and began to run toward us.

The man was human-ish, but only barely. He hunched badly at the shoulders, his long arms almost dragged the ground, and his bare feet were wide and thick. His eyes were blood-red, and his teeth were jagged and serrated. He didn’t say a word, and I didn’t see any intelligence in his eyes as he rushed at us with a roar.

His charge ended when a blast of flame slammed into his chest, followed by Jing’s foot. The cursed flew backward, sailing off the cliff, screaming the whole way down. The one behind him, though, didn’t even flinch as the second man charged at us. I blocked his clumsy, talon-fingered swipe and responded with a knee that knocked him backward to soar into the air his compatriot just passed through.

Jing and I moved forward to block the stairs. I could feel the moonlight bathing me in its radiance, and I pulled on it, hard, sucking as much of the celestial illumination into myself as I could. My shirt felt like a barrier, so I slipped it off, letting the moonlight bathe my chest and back. Power rushed into my spiral, and I took a deep breath. This was going to be bloody, but that was fine.

Bloody was kind of what I did.

I activated Guardian of the Heavens, coating myself in celestial qi, and met the first cursed with an elbow strike to his chin. He staggered off the steps, screaming as he plummeted over the cliff, but I already moved to the next one. I blocked his half-assed punch and swept his legs out from beneath him, where the horde of cursed crushed and trampled him, knocking his broken form off the staircase. I lashed out with fists and feet, dodging and blocking, sending cursed flying to their deaths.

Beside me, Jing’s feet whirled in a deadly dance. She moved with epic grace, slipping past blows and smashing her heels and insteps into exposed faces and chests. Ribs and jaws shattered, and the force of her blows hurled the cursed screaming from the cliff top. A huge cursed charged past his brethren, shoving them aside as he rushed at Jing, but he screamed as black-tinted flames curled around him, licking at his face and chest. Jing snapped a side kick into his stomach that sent him hurtling backward, knocking two more of the unfortunate cursed off the stairs with him.

Still, they came. I stopped counting how many I’d killed at fifteen; after that, the night descended into a whirlwind of gnashing teeth, ragged claws, and flailing limbs. The cursed attacked without skill or tactics, trying to overwhelm us and tear us down by sheer numbers. We responded by fighting with terrifying efficiency; every blow was lethal, and no movements were wasted. We fell into a rhythm; I locked the cursed up, keeping them from leaving the stairs, while Jing and Bai finished them off with kicks and flame.

Qi flowed from me like water, but I kept fighting. The forest behind me wrapped me in wood qi, and the moonlight bathing my skin filled the air with celestial energy. I pulled mercilessly on both, dragging their energies into my core until my spirals and dantian all swelled with the excess power. I channeled back out into blasts of light and waves of rippling vines, but the power was coming in faster than I could hold it. The energy surged into my meridians, flooding my body and soaking into my flesh. I felt the power seeping through me, and as it did, my body grew lighter, faster, and stronger. Blows that once knocked the cursed back a step now hurled them to their deaths, and claws that would have pierced my skin dragged along my chest and arms ineffectually.

The flood of cursed never ceased. I could feel Jing flagging beside me, and Bai’s flame blasts barely scorched the attackers’ flesh. I moved to the center of the stairs, giving them both the respite they needed. I was flush with power, energy that needed an outflow, and the cursed were the perfect targets for that. My fists and knees darted and flashed, slamming into corrupted flesh and bringing screams of pain from my victims. I smelled burning meat and realized that by blows were searing them, pouring celestial energy into them.

I pushed myself to move faster. A hand flailed at me, and I locked the elbow and shattered it with a twist, shoving the screaming cursed off the stairs. I caught an upraised foot and lifted it, flinging the kicker backwards to the death. My fist darted out and slammed into a twisted, bestial face, knocking the man backwards. Lightness of Being filled me without being summoned, the qi flowing through me according to my will, not some esoteric pattern. Embrace of the Jungle tore cursed from the stairs, and men screamed as their tattered clothing erupted in thorns that hooked into their flesh, resisting their attempts to tear the serrated spikes loose. I kicked out knees and hurled bolts of light into chests and faces. I smashed fists and elbows into twisted flesh. The creatures screamed in rage and pain as I pushed them backward.

Jing rejoined me a few moments later, but the tide of battle had already turned. Instead of holding, we moved forward, taking the battle to the cursed. We mounted the stairs side-by-side and began descending. Jing’s kicks flung cursed backward to crash into others of their kind, and more blasts of flame blinded them, allowing us to knock them from the stairs. We moved down steadily, until we stood before the tunnel entrance. Cursed still stood within it, surging toward us. Below us, more of them pressed the rest of our forces, who fought to keep them from escaping onto the beach.

“I’ve got the tunnel,” I told the women grimly. “Can the two of you get the ones below us?”

“Of course, Xu Xing,” Jing said calmly.

“Good. I’ll hold here until you can bring everyone up.”

I stayed at the edge of the tunnel, out where the moonlight still bathed me. The cursed crashed against me, and I pushed them back, searing their flesh with celestial strikes. Bolts of power tore through two of them at a time, and long wooden spikes erupted from the stone walls to impale those who got too close to them. Thorny vines wrapped around bodies, pinning them and ripping into their bodies.

I lost all track of time, but the floor below me was slick with blood and gore when Jing reappeared, her kick knocking a cursed back into one of my serrated wall spikes. A black-robed figure stepped to my other side, her long, straight blade flickering and dancing as it skewered another of the cursed.

“You fight well, Xu Xing!” the swordswoman laughed as her blade slipped among the cursed. “I am honored to finish this at your side!”

“Ditto,” I grunted, blocking a cursed fist and ramming a thorn-covered knee into the man’s solar plexus, tearing into his heart diaphragm and lungs. I sidestepped a kick, shattered the outstretched leg with a hammerfist, and drove my other fist into the man’s throat, ripping out his jugular with the serrated spikes covering it.

Suddenly, I found myself standing in the tunnel, my fists raised, without an enemy facing me. Boiling blood steamed from my body, filling the air with a sharp, acrid scent that mingled with the odor of fresh blood, offal, and a fetid miasma I associated with miasma. Bodies lay scattered before me, limbs shattered, skin burned by fire, and flesh torn and beaten. The carnage was terrific, and I heard more than one person behind me gagging at the sight.

I wondered if the fact that it didn’t bother me in the least should have bothered me.

Everyone stood in silence, staring at the devastation. It hadn’t even really been a fight; the cursed had flung themselves to be slaughtered. The quiet filled the tunnel, which was lit by a soft radiance. It took me a few seconds to realize the glow came from me; my skin was lit from beneath by the massive amounts of celestial energy I’d pumped into my body.

I forced myself to stop absorbing the moonlight that bathed my back. My dantian still felt full, and my meridians surged with power. The glow didn’t die, but I hoped that as I used up the energy inside me, it would.

“What now, Xu Xing?” Jing asked quietly, staring at the mass of corpses. Her eyes and face were haunted, and I realized that this was probably her first time killing another person, as well. I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, not speaking for a minute. There really wasn’t much I could say. Like Bai, she’d lost something today, an innocence that she could never regain. Unlike Bai, that loss was something she’d have to live with for years.

At least, hopefully.

“Did we lose anyone?” I asked quietly.

“Yes,” the swordswoman said simply.

I rolled my eyes. “How many?”

“Seven. Some succumbed to qi poisoning; others were torn apart by the cursed.”

I nodded. That was half our force, but hopefully, we were done with fighting. “Okay, let’s follow the tunnel into the school. There aren’t any side passages until we’re back beneath the school, but keep an eye out, anyway.”

“As you say, Xu Xing. Lead on.”

The tunnel was filled with the bodies of cursed, most probably the ones Wim killed on his way through. The door sealing the end of the tunnel stood in shattered ruins, and the beasts that had been penned there were all slain. I led the party through the passages back to the stairs into the school without incident. We emerged on the surface and followed the trail of torn and broken doors that Wim left back to the entrance to the school’s main building.

Wim stood in the school’s courtyard, surrounded by bodies. A dozen or so students and one instructor from the Earthly Fires huddled at the side of the courtyard, pressed against one of the dormitory buildings, their faces plainly terrified. The old man looked at us as we exited and nodded once.

“The tunnel is secure?” he asked.

“Yep,” I nodded.

“Well done, Xu Xing,” he smiled, placing his hand on my shoulder. “You have done a great thing. You discovered a plot that would overturn the Wheel itself and helped to foil it. Even now, the Inner Elders of the sects lead an assault on the Inner School of Earthly Fires. By the rise of the sun, the school will be no more, and all trace of this abomination…”

A sudden boom ripped across the city, and Wim fell silent. He whipped around to stare at the crystalline towers of the Inner City, and I turned my gaze to follow his. The tallest of the spires pulsed with a dull, orange light that beat like a heart, bathing the city in its sickly radiance. A moment later, a ring of fire erupted from the spire, washing out across the city. It ripped harmlessly past me, but from the look of fear on Wim’s face, whatever happened wasn’t harmless.

“Father…” Jing spoke up, her voice quiet, but he silenced her with an upraised hand.

“The Brilliant Ocean Sect is fallen,” he said quietly, pointing to the light that seeped down the tallest spire, staining it orange and brown. “The School of Earthly Fires now commands. The City of the Sunrise Moon is theirs.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could, the world froze around me. I stared as the outer gate opened, and a familiar-looking old woman walked through, her gaze focused on me.

“Well, well, well, John,” the woman who’d gotten me into all this said, her voice amused. “I have to admit, you’ve succeeded beyond all my expectations.”