Culling Melati’s drones wasn’t particularly difficult. While numerous, they lacked the ability to manipulate ki as naturally as Melati herself without her direct control, and those Melati did control wouldn’t fight back at all—though most of her focus went towards keeping the ones within the walls from causing trouble. They were roughly equivalent to third-stage beasts—which might have been catastrophic in such numbers on the mainland, but were barely an afterthought for Yoshika.

Yoshika couldn’t reconcile the time difference between Chou’s realm and the outside world to focus on both at once, but regular multi-tasking was still well within her abilities. So while Jia, Eui, and Kaede took care of thinning out Melati’s numbers, Meili, Rika, and Eunae attended to Zheng Long.

As they entered his hut, they were met by an usual pair watching over him. Yu Xian and Ja Yun both stood and bowed as they entered, but Yun did a double-take.

“Welcome back—Rika?!”

Rika swept her girlfriend into an embrace that lifted her off the ground, armor and all.

“Yun! It’s so good to see you again! I’ve missed you.”

“I—I missed you too! How—oh, of course, Yoshika brought you over like Lady Hayakawa.”

“Hopefully not exactly like that, but yeah. How have you been?”

Yun blushed, glancing self-consciously around the room.

“F-fine, I guess. It’s been pretty rough, but we’re managing. Could—could you put me down? Please?”

Rika chuckled and set her back down. As much as she loved making Yun blush, she was also acutely aware of the fact she was sharing thoughts and experiences with the rest of Yoshika. Going too far would just make everyone involved uncomfortable.

Meili returned Yu Xiang’s bow.

“You two have been taking care of him?”

The Awakening Dragon cultivator nodded.

“We’re the weakest ones here, so it fell to us while the others took care of the, erm...Miss Melati’s...progeny?”

He was trying so hard to be polite that Yoshika couldn’t fault him for the awkwardness. It was an admittedly strange situation.

“What about Han Yu?”

“He may be focused on alchemy, but he’s still a core disciple. The...swarm isn’t as numerous as the army was, but they’re more spread out and difficult to engage. Senior Brother Han Yu determined that he held more value in this battle as a combatant rather than support.”

That was uncharacteristic of him. Yoshika thought Han Yu was the type who preferred to fight from the back lines. Well, if it meant she didn’t have to argue with him again, so much the better.

Eunae knelt down next to Zheng Long, who simply stared listlessly ahead without acknowledging her.

“How is he?”

Yu Xiang turned to her and bowed.

“Princess Seong, yes? I won’t pretend to understand how the ambassadors are able to bring so many of you into this realm from outside, but I’m glad to have your assistance—even if Senior Brother disapproves. Senior Zheng Long’s condition hasn’t changed much. He moves of his own volition if coaxed and maintains his cultivation enough to sustain himself, but otherwise he just...sits there.”

Eunae was a little bit irritated at the title, but she wasn’t going to press the matter. It was probably better if this was something she did in her official capacity as a princess of Goryeo anyway.

“Let me take a look, then...”

Yoshika wrapped her domain around Zheng Long’s, and examined him with her soul sight.

It was difficult to determine what exactly she was looking at. While she’d had plenty of practice with both Yoshika’s soul sight and Eunae’s intuitive grasp of souls, her only experience combining the two was with Heian’s progenitor spirit.

Zheng Long’s soul was nothing like the great panther’s. His domain felt hollow and empty—as though the concepts were there, but lacked a will behind them. She had the macabre thought that if spirits left corpses, this is what they would look like. But Zheng Long wasn’t dead, nor was his soul entirely broken.

Deeper within the hollow shell of his domain, Yoshika felt Zheng Long’s spirit—as proud and ambitious as ever, but trapped within his own unformed soulscape. She felt his frustration like a tiny glimmering ember burning away deep within the ashen pit of his soul, desperately seeking the fuel he needed to reignite his inner flame.

Eunae furrowed her brows.

“This might be difficult. I don’t think his soul is actually damaged, per se, so much as it is altered.”

Yu Xiang grimaced.

“The demon? Some last-minute spite-fueled mutilation of his soul?”

“No. Yang Qiu’s manipulation of souls is mostly limited to the exchange of power. She can ‘eat’ a soul, and if pressed she can return what she’s taken provided she hasn’t already refined it into her own cultivation—or ‘digested it’ if we wish to maintain the analogy.”

“I’d rather not. So what, then? Just a natural consequence of having one’s soul half-eaten?”

Eunae shook her head.

“The nature of the change is too specific and deliberate to be a coincidence. Zheng Long’s awareness is completely detached from his soul, but it’s still there. Even I would struggle to enact a change so sophisticated—no, he must have done this to himself.”

“What? Why?!”

Ja Yun looked down at her feet with a pained expression.

“It’s to protect himself, isn’t it? Xiao Chong was basically tearing his soul apart bit by bit, so he just...disconnected. To protect his sanity.”

Rika nodded solemnly.

“Probably. I have to say I’m kind of impressed. A lesser man might have just crumbled entirely, but he managed to keep it together long enough to keep some part of himself alive, if only just.”

Meili shook her head and sighed.

“Yeah, but now he’s stuck like that. And Ja Yun, her name is Yang Qiu.”

“To you, maybe—she still gets angry if anyone else tries to call her that.”

Huh. Something to look into later. Eunae returned her attention to Zheng Long’s soul, gently probing for a way that she might help him without making things worse. Yu Xiang hovered behind her pensively.

“Is there anything you can do?”

“I’m not sure yet. He’s essentially turned his soul into a protective shell around his mind, but his awareness is buried too deep to find its way out again. Effective at guarding him from trauma, but too effective. Nothing I do to the surface will reach him, and I fear attempting to go deeper may shatter what’s left of his mind entirely.”

“I don’t understand.”

Eunae frowned. It was difficult to put into words what she simply understood from intuition. Matters of the soul were often abstract, and even the best metaphors would be twisted beyond comprehension when trying to describe the experience. Nevertheless, she gave it her best attempt.

“Think of Zheng Long’s soul as a fire—that seems to be how he understands it himself. Normally, the ‘shell’ around him would be the fuel for that fire, but in order to protect himself from a storm, he built it into a shelter. Now the storm has passed, but the remaining embers are too weak to reach the fuel.

“My power is destructive in nature. I can carve and reshape, but something is always lost in the process. I fear that Zheng Long’s present condition is so delicate that a heavy-handed approach will not only burn away what little fuel he has left, but also smother the precious remains of those embers before they can ignite.”

Yu Xiang let out a shaky sigh.

“So then there’s nothing we can do after all?”

Eunae shook her head.

“I didn’t say that. While we’ve typically taken a direct approach to these things, for once there may be enough level heads in here to consider a more subtle method. What he needs is a beacon to guide him back to the surface. I can provide one part of that—a gentle nudge in the right direction—but more importantly, we need something to fan the flames of his emotions. To draw out the strength and passion that led him to cling to life so dearly in the first place.”

Meili pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

“I’ll go get Yue.”

Eunae covered her mouth and giggled.

“Not just her. Han Yu as well and...Jia.”

“Jia?! We don’t even like Zheng Long, and I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”

“Nobody said we had to invoke positive emotions—just strong ones. You or Eui might do as well, but for best effect—it should be Jia.”

Meili sighed.

“Fine. We’re on our way back with Yue now. I’ll trade places with Jia dealing with Melati’s drones.”

A few moments later, Jia arrived with Yue and Han Yu in tow, trying to ignore the latter’s complaints.

“I don’t appreciate being ordered around, Miss Lee. I tolerated it before, but with Zheng Long in his present condition it falls to me to represent my sect with grace.”

Jia sighed.

“Han Yu, I understand how stressful this all is, but regardless of what you might think, we are trying to help you.”

Yue rolled her eyes.

“Don’t waste your words, Jia. Han Yu, you haven’t an ounce of grace to spare worrying about the sect’s reputation when your own is in such dire straits.”

“And whose fault is that?!”

“My faults are my own, as are yours. The point I’m trying to make is that your current behavior is doing precious little to redeem your reputation.”

Ja Yun groaned.

“How do you two manage to never stop fighting?”

Yue shrugged flippantly.

“Years of practice. Alright, Yoshika, what do you need us to do?”

Eunae frowned.

“I’m not sure, to be honest. Start by holding his hand. We need to invoke a strong emotional response. Don’t worry that he’s not reacting—he can hear and understand you.”

“Alright.”

Yue knelt down at Zheng Long’s side and took his hand in hers. Eunae sensed a tiny flicker within his soul at that, but not nearly enough yet.

“Well here we are, ‘Darling.’ If you were that desperate for my affection, there are far less extreme measures you might have taken.”

Yoshika sensed a stirring within Zheng Long’s soul.

“Good, that seems to be working. Keep talking to him—you too, Han Yu.”

Han Yu scoffed.

“This is ridiculous. What am I even supposed to say?”

“Just talk to him. Anything you want to say to him, or think he needs to hear.”

“Very well. Zheng Long, how long are you going to let this farce continue? If you really can hear me, then surely you realize how weak this makes you look. How are you going to rise to the top of our sect as an invalid?”

Yue whirled on him with a scowl.

“Han Yu, that’s not helping!”

“And your mocking is? You were always his greatest weakness. If not for you, Zheng Long would have already ascended to the rank of elder and we wouldn’t have been forced into this ridiculous suicide mission. I knew, long before your betrayal, that you would be the cause of our downfall.”

“Oh really? And you were, what? Protecting him from me? Don’t make me laugh, you worthless little leech. The only reason you care about him at all is because he’s your meal ticket. Like your master, your greatest ambition is to wield power that isn’t yours.”

Han Yu’s face twisted into a furious grimace. Yoshika had seen them fighting before, but their cuts were deeper than usual, and they had practically forgotten why they were here in the first place.

Jia stepped in to intervene before it could come to blows.

“Uh, guys, I don’t think we should—”

“And you!”

Han Yu whirled on her, his fury quickly latching onto the new target.

“Worthless upstart! We should have killed you and the disgusting rat girl the second Yue dragged you in. You corrupt everything you touch, and now our mistake has allowed you to spread your plague across the entire continent. First the young master, then the academy, and now Zheng Long. Will you not be satisfied until you’ve brought ruin to the entire world?!”

Before Jia could respond, Yue strode forward and slapped Han Yu across the face.

“How dare you?! You ungrateful lout! Do you have any idea how much—?”

“Y...th...i...ts...”

Zheng Long’s voice snapped the entire room’s attention to him, even as weak and breathless as it was. Eunae seized on the chance and reached into Zheng Long’s soul to coax the tiny flame further towards the surface. She had to be careful not to harm him, nudging the embers of his awareness towards his domain with infuriatingly gentle prods and allowing his own soul to do most of the work.

Yue clutched his hand tightly.

“Zheng Long! Can you hear us? Please wake up.”

Han Yu tried to pull her away.

“Get away, woman—you’re smothering him.”

Their bickering fanned the flames of Zheng Long’s soul, and slowly but surely the light began to return to his eyes as his awareness found purchase on the outer shell of his soul and gradually began to ignite.

“Y-you...b...oth...i...ts...”

Yue leaned in closer.

“What? What is it?”

Though the connection to his soul had been restored, it was still weak. Zheng Long’s recovery would be an arduous one, but Yoshika was confident that he'd be able to walk the rest of that path on his own.

Zheng Long took a few deep breaths to collect his thoughts before trying again.

“You are both...idiots. What...would you ever do...without...me?”