Liyan stubbed the torch out on the upper corner, leaving a soot mark on the stones. The passage laid in twilight rather than the pitch black of before, lit by the light leaking through the walls. Liyan hurried ahead, then gestured Chen Wuya down. Low to the ground, at ankle-height, a metal grate about the width of a palm peered into the chamber.

Chen Wuya bent and peeked through.

Their chamber peered down into a huge chamber from halfway up its wall. Stairs wound around the outside of the square chamber, leading down to the bare earth far below. Robed figures clustered close around a golden altar, murmuring a wordless chant. From here, their backs blocked the top of the altar, preventing Wuya from getting a better look.

Ming Jinhai wound around the stairs, leading the delicate woman by the hand. Hers fit into his palm, tiny and beautiful like a porcelain doll’s. They moved slowly, the woman in no particular rush.

Abruptly, she drew to a halt. Ming Jinhai turned back, concerned. She lifted a delicate hand and coughed. Blood splattered her handkerchief.

Ming Jinhai bent and whispered something in her ear. The woman hesitated, then nodded. Smiling, Ming Jinhai scooped her up and carried her in one arm. Like that, the two descended faster.

Chen Wuya lifted a lip. Ugh, spare me.

“So pretty. I wish I was her,” Liyan murmured, leaning near the grate next to Chen Wuya. She turned her head and suppressed a cough.

“She’s just wearing nice robes. Anyone could look good in robes that nice,” Chen Wuya muttered.

“You think so?” Liyan asked, hope shimmering in her voice.

He snorted and fell silent.

In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Ming Jinhai reached the bottom of the stairs. He set the woman down and took her hand again, leading her toward the altar. The robed figures parted, and Chen Wuya at last glimpsed the object upon the altar. A golden sword stabbed at an angle into the altar. Red tassels dangled from its handle, the blade pure gold.

He narrowed his eyes. That’s Song Dahai’s sword, isn’t it? A golden sword, how ostentatious. How much of a silkpants do you have to be to use a gold sword? Ha, a martial deity? More like a merchant deity. I bet he bought his way into Heaven. I thrashed him without even learning his name when I sealed the gods, and good riddance.

The sword wavered before his eyes. He stumbled back, furrowing his brows. What…

Pain stabbed through his head. The seal holding his memories back wavered, threatening to break. Chen Wuya pressed both hands against his head to dull the pain and grit his teeth. Do I have to seal my memories again? I—

Fur. Four paws. A delicate, twitchy nose and a long hairless tail.

Pain in his back. Horrid, unspeakable pain. The world distorted around him, growing smaller. No—I grew larger. His muscles swelled. The hair on his body grew thin as his body grew. Red light burned in his eyes. Acid pain dug into his back. He tipped his head back and roared to the sky. A dark aura sprang up around him.

Qiu Xuanwu’s mind faded, pushed back by the rage of the rat. The world faded, body no longer under his control. The rat rampaged, charging down the street. It swept out a huge paw and snatched up a passerby, gnawing her in half.

Stop! This is…

Men and women screamed and fled. He chased after them, teeth smashing together. He pounced and gobbled up a man. Another ran at him, sword drawn. His blade pinged off the rat monster’s tough skin.

I can’t do anything. Something is controlling this monster!

“I must slay the rat monster!” Song Dahai drew his sword back and charged at him, plummeting to earth. He jumped aside, but no use. Song Dahai chased after him.

For the second time, a sword plunged into his heart. Red-hot blood poured into the ground. Qiu Xuanwu sagged to earth. Why…

“Hero?” Liyan gripped his arm, peering into his face.

Chen Wuya shook his head. The pain faded, and so did the memories. They settled quietly into the back of his head where they belonged, hiding out of sight once more. Sucking a deep breath, he looked around. Where…

Right. The temple. The altar.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, eyes flickering almost fearfully over his face.

He shook his head. “I’m fine.” He knelt at the grate again.

In the temple below, Ming Jinhai set the girl down. He stood back while she approached the altar, an enigmatic smile on his face.

The chanting grew louder. An aura of golden light emanated from the sword. It grew larger and brighter until it glowed nearly as bright as the sun. Chen Wuya raised his hand to block the light, even behind the grate.

All at once, the light rushed at the girl and struck her in the chest. She gasped a breath and stumbled back, eyes wide.

From the floor;s angle, gold light streamed into the girl and stopped there, but from above, a different story revealed itself. The light passed into the girl and out her back, into Ming Jinhai’s chest. His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed, and his enigmatic smile grew ever so slightly wider.

Chen Wuya’s eyes narrowed. I knew it! There’s something sketchy here!

On the altar, the golden light grew brighter. Underneath the sword, a shape appeared. Chen Wuya circulated his qi to his eyes and blinked repeatedly, enhancing his vision. The brightness became less bright with every blink, until he could see through the golden light to the sword and the altar beneath.

Shockingly, the sword struck through the altar. Beneath the altar’s golden surface, it pinned a tiny, dark body to the bare earth. Stuck in that body’s back was a thick black nail.

Chen Wuya’s eyes widened. He stared, not at the sword or at the nail, but at the body, the tiny, dark-furred body hidden in the altar.

Isn’t that… my rat body?

All this time, the altar and the sword have been sealing my rat body?

But… why? I had no divine power anymore. I couldn’t cultivate or accumulate power. My body was an ordinary rat’s body. There’s no reason to seal it.

The energy continued to stream from the sword into the girl, and through her into Ming Jinhai. A strange color flickered in the energy for a single breath, barely enough for Chen Wuya to catch. He frowned. “That color…”

It flickered again. He closed his eyes the second it faded, reviewing the image in his mind. That color…

His eyes opened wide. He’s extracting the virus from my rat body! Ming Jinhai isn’t curing the sickness at all. He’s reviving it as he undoes the seal on that sword!

Behind the girl, Ming Jinhai made a hand symbol. Black viral energy coiled around his hand and streamed into his body. He flicked his hand again, and a thin stream of black passed into the girl’s back. From here, the power of the golden light overwhelmed the fluctuations of the black energy, but the black light was much darker than before, condensed into a purer, more virulent energy.

Chen Wuya’s eyes flickered. He backed away from the grates, face expressionless. He licked his lips, and his hands clenched.

At last, a vicious smile spread across his face. Heaven might stand for this, but I won’t. I think it’s time this Ming Jinhai learned how tall the mountains reach.

Liyan stood as well. She stepped forward, peering at his face. “It’s amazing, no?”

“That’s a word for it,” Chen Wuya said darkly.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

He smirked and turned away.

“Wait, hero—”

Rushing after him, Liyan tripped on a brick and fell against the wall. A heavy thump rang out, echoing into the round room outside their passage.

Chen Wuya caught his breath. Shoving Liyan aside, he whirled and bent to stare through the grates again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Liyan repeated, bowing over and over again.

Far below, Ming Jinhai looked up, directly at the grates. Their eyes met. Ming Jinhai widened his eyes and raised a finger toward them.

Chen Wuya shoved Liyan away, into the next room.

Golden light beamed toward him, through the grate. In the space of a breath, it struck him in the chest. Chen Wuya stumbled back, grabbing his chest. No one else had seen, not the girl, nor the chanters, nor Liyan, head tilted away from the blazing light, but he had. Embedded in the gold light was a strand of black.

He coughed. A grim smile spread across his face.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”

“Run. I’ll distract him,” Chen Wuya murmured.

Liyan froze, then shook. “This servant doesn’t deserve—”

Chen Wuya lifted a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. She looked up at him, big eyes watery.

With all his strength, he pushed her away from him. She flew through the air with a yelp and slammed into the wall in the passage behind them.

Chen Wuya kicked with all his might, putting his qi behind it. The stone wall crumbled, flying in. Even that had cost most of his qi, but he didn’t care. Striding out onto the staircase, he looked down his nose at Ming Jinhai, eyes narrowed. “Fake.”

“You dare—” Ming Jinhai replied, scowling.

Before he could finish his sentence, Chen Wuya turned and ran up the stairs, red robes streaming after him, short black hair catching the air like raven feathers.

The golden light died. Ming Jinhai hurtled after Chen Wuya, leaping a flight of stairs with each gliding step. His golden ornaments clattered as he rapidly closed Chen Wuya’s lead.

“Did I hit a nerve?” Chen Wuya mocked. He sped up, operating his movement technique. He could only leap half a flight of stairs with every step, but he ran harder than Ming Jinhai and opened his lead once again.

“I’ll teach you to mock your elders,” Ming Jinhai snarled.

“Elders? You’re a thousand years… no. A thousand lifetimes too early,” Chen Wuya shot back.

Ming Jinhai shut his mouth and narrowed his eyes, speeding up.

The gap between them closed again. Chen Wuya frowned and sped up. His energy ran short, barely able to fuel the burst in speed. I only have enough strength to keep this up for ten breaths. He narrowed his eyes at the door high above them, then turned and hopped onto the railing. Not hesitating a moment, he leaped into the void.

Ming Jinhai stopped, taken aback. The square room opened up below him. Far below, the sword glowed. The delicate girl stared up, her eyes wide.

Chen Wuya soared across the gap and rushed at the staircase opposite, a flight up from where he’d been. He yanked his legs up to hop the railing. His shoulder slammed into the wall. He bounced off and kept running, hurtling toward the distant light of day.

Three stories up, a pair of open doors beckoned. Sucking in a breath, he quickly gathered qi, then jumped up on the railing again for a second leap.

“Close the doors! Activate the seal!” Ming Jinhai bellowed from below.

A pair of guards peeked into the room. Seeing the fleeing Chen Wuya and the pursuing Ming Jinhai, they quickly snapped to and began to draw the doors shut. Gold light flickered along the lines of the door’s decorative gilt, racing along the lines of a sealing array. Long before Chen Wuya reached the top, the doors would be closed and locked. Even from where he stood, the oppressive power of the seal beat down on him, attempting to stop his qi from circulating. If the door shut, there would be no escape.

Chen Wuya’s expression flickered. He took a deep breath, then drew on the demonic qi buried inside him. Instantly, it roiled with power. The tumultuous qi swirled in his veins, excited to be used. He slammed his foot down, shattering the railing, and burst up at the closing doors with his full speed.

The guards stared, wide-eyed. They saw a red blur dart through the doors, and then the doors shut, closing Ming Jinhai on the inside and Chen Wuya outside.

Chen Wuya turned back, a mocking grin on his face. “Ah, elder, are you afraid to fight me? Going so far as to close yourself inside a locked room, tsk tsk.”

Inside, Ming Jinhai howled and beat on the doors. “Let me out! Open the doors!”

“The—the seal,” one of the guards stuttered.

“Quickly, unseal it!” the other snapped back.

“It won’t! Once the seal closes, it takes an incense stick’s time to open, no matter what!” the first replied.

“I don’t care what you have to do. Open the door!” Ming Jinhai shouted.

Chen Wuya smirked.

“Hey, you!” One of the guards took a half-step toward him, but before they could think of catching him, he whirled and sprinted off. In no time, he was a blur of red on the horizon. A dozen breaths later, he stopped circulating qi and ran like a mortal, weaving through the crowds. Spinning around a corner, he slowed to a walk and tucked his sword into his robes, disguising himself as completely as he could. He glanced back just to be sure, but no one followed him.

When he turned around, he found his nose inches from an expanse of white robes. Chen Wuya dug his heels in and barely stopped himself in time.

Already knowing who he’d find, he looked up, slowly.

Fen Long grinned back. “It truly is fate, Junior Brother.”