SOMEHOW, Chu Wanning was unscathed. In that critical second, it was Mo Ran who'd reacted quickly enough to lunge between him and the figure cloaked in dark, billowing green. The dagger sank deep into the flesh of his shoulder, leaving only the hilt with its silver snake pattern protruding. The cloth around it was swiftly dyed red. Mo Ran grimaced, but cold light shone in his eyes—the predatory expression of a falcon finally sinking its talons into the wily rabbit.
"Hua-zongshi." He clamped a hand around Hua Binan's outstretched wrist. The man still gripped the dagger. Bracing himself, Mo Ran pulled the knife out of his shoulder with a squelching sound. Cold sweat beaded his forehead, but he still gritted his teeth and sneered. "Trying to stab my shizun in the back—as if I wasn't around?"
The night breeze rippled through the gauze once again hiding the ruin of Hua Binan's face. "Mo-zongshi. How long have you suspected me?"
"Since you were afflicted with snake venom and stayed at the foot of the mountain."
Hua Binan smiled thinly. "Oh…that couldn't be helped. After all, I was hoping to get rid of so many of you back at the main hall."
Mo Ran clenched his jaw. "Then why were you trying to stop Xu Shuanglin?"
"Why not? Was I supposed to let him discover the Rebirth formation he'd so painstakingly constructed was fake? That'd only make a mess of things."
Chu Wanning had struck the dead center of the mysterious array, but as Tianwen fell, he realized to his surprise that the formation was too powerful to be easily broken. When he turned to see Mo Ran wounded and Hua Binan behind him, he cried out in alarm. "Mo Ran—"
"Don't worry about me," said Mo Ran. "Focus on destroying the array. I've got things handled here."
Chu Wanning had no choice. Within the array was a force more malevolent than any he'd encountered, dwarfing even the Heavenly Rift at Butterfly Town in its power. Pouring all his spiritual energy into Tianwen only kept it from progressing further. There was no way he could destroy it alone.
Jiang Xi had also realized what was going on. He stood in disbelief that the strongest sage in the world had been scheming behind his back. Face white, he said at length, "Hua Binan, you…"
Mo Ran was still gripping Hua Binan by the wrist. Hua Binan didn't turn, but he did smile at Jiang Xi's voice. "Sect Leader, don't be reckless. Guyueye Sect teaches its disciples to always keep one's guard up, a rule I've engraved into memory. That is why I left heart-tunneler insects inside quite a few of you on the way here."
Everyone paled. After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd burst into murmurs and shouts. Hanlin the Sage had planted insects inside them? They suddenly felt itchy all over. Though no one had experienced any effects, every crevice in their bodies now felt like it could be hiding a lethal tunneler.
"Hua Binan, you're crazy!"
"Evil!"
Some grew so agitated they burst into tears, frantically patting themselves down. "Where? Where is it? Did he get me? I didn't even talk to him; maybe I'm safe…"
One of the more outspoken cultivators couldn't stay silent. "Hua Binan, you asshole! Stop lying and playing dirty tricks! Many of us here are the best of our sects—you really think you can threaten us?"
Hua Binan waved a hand without the slightest hesitation, and the speaker froze. Eyes bulging, he clutched at his neck and collapsed to the ground, rolling as he screamed.
Pus and blood streamed from his nose and eyes, which rolled up into his skull. He spasmed and shook, releasing his bowels in a stinking mess. Within seconds, he fell quiet and lay limp on the ground. His skin shrunk and cracked. From his open mouth, still shaped around a scream, emerged a red insect gorged on human blood. It was shaped like a spider, but had ten spindly legs on either side.
It had happened in the space of a minute. Those still furiously denouncing Hua Binan went white and silent.
"It's small, but it can kill you in an instant." Hua Binan's voice was gentle. "If you'd prefer to avoid more carnage on the scale of Rufeng Sect's rather precipitous fall, I'd advise you to stay where you are. Don't fuss, don't make noise. Just listen obediently to what I have to say. Especially those of you from Guyueye." His gaze fell upon Jiang Xi, then the group of green-clad medicine sect cultivators clustered behind him. "Out of loyalty to our sect, this humble one won't harm any of you."
Jiang Xi's cheeks were ashen. "Hua Binan! Are you truly so brazen?"
"Ah, not quite." Hua Binan seemed to remember something. "Sect Leader, there's a tunneler in you as well. Those with weaker cultivation will die immediately, but your cultivation is strong. You might hold it off for a week or more."
Jiang Xi gritted his teeth. "Over the past dozen years, Guyueye has done you no wrong. Why are you doing this?!"
"I have my reasons, of course, but I don't necessarily care to share them." He turned to look at Chu Wanning, then at Mo Ran, who was still facing him in confrontation. Finally, he turned back to the crowd.
"Right. Now, none of you have the means to tell who has an insect on them and who doesn't. But this is a matter of life or death. If you're smart, I'm sure you know which side to take."
There was a gravid silence. Then a clear and gentle voice spoke up from the crowd.
"Tunnelers are drawn to fire," Shi Mei said from where he stood beside Xue Meng. "If you trigger an ignition or flame talisman in your hand, look for a bulge beneath your skin. If you see one, you've been implanted. If you don't, you're safe."
Hanlin the Sage narrowed his eyes. "Shi Mingjing, you read my books in secret?"
A faint flush colored Shi Mei's face. He was unused to being the center of attention and looked somewhat awkward now that everyone's eyes were on him. "When Shizun was in seclusion, this one sought instruction from Guyueye. I didn't read the sage's books. I discovered these bugs on my own and…did a little research…"
"Shameless thief!" Hua Binan raged.
Brows drawn low, Xue Meng swiftly came to Shi Mei's defense. "What's there to be ashamed of when dealing with backstabbers like you?!" He lit a talisman as Shi Mei said and saw nothing beneath his skin. Grinning, he tugged on Shi Mei's arm. "Awesome, all thanks to you! Look! I'm clear!"
Seeing this, the others followed suit. Cries of "I don't either!" or "Oh no, there's one in me!" echoed over the Soul-Summoning Platform.
Hua Binan closed his eyes, then curled a lip. "So what if you can figure out who does or doesn't have one? Those of you who've been implanted better listen up! Step forward, help me take down Chu Wanning and Mo Ran, and I won't mistreat you. Or end up like that," said Hua Binan, pointing at the cultivator who'd been sucked dry by the tunneler.
The first to bow to his threats was a female cultivator from Guyueye. She leapt to Hua Binan's side as everyone watched, chin jutting in arrogance. Mo Ran was stunned the little traitor had the nerve.
"Sorry, Sect Leader," she said. "I stand with the sage—not just for self-preservation. I've always admired the sage's skill. I joined Guyueye to learn from him. Never mind the insects—even if I wasn't cursed, I would gladly serve the sage."
She shot a glance at Hua Binan. Though he was locked in battle with Mo Ran, there was a smile on his face. It seemed her little speech had satisfied him. She relaxed and addressed her fellow disciples. "Senior Sage himself said that he won't harm those of his own sect. The choice is easy."
She waited, but only three more cultivators came to stand with her. The others glared furiously at them.
The three newcomers made their own speeches. "Guyueye has declined under years of Jiang-zhangmen's leadership. Times change—if it weren't for Hanlin the Sage, I would've left a long time ago."
"The sage is powerful. We'll only follow the strong."
Some Guyueye cultivators couldn't hold their tongues anymore and snarled, "Traitors! How dare you?!"
"That's right! Traitors!"
"No backbone at all! Get the hell out of Guyueye!"
She hadn't expected so many people to stand unflinching in the face of the heart-tunnelers. For a moment shame shone on the girl's face, but even with cheeks flushed she persevered. "Say what you like! We've wanted to leave this rotten sect for ages. Go on and shuffle behind Jiang Xi like mindless corpses!" She turned to stare at her ex-sect leader. "I, Ling Biran, sever all ties with Guyueye and with Jiang—"
Jiang Xi leveled her with an icy look, face impassive. He cut her off before she could finish. "Who even are you?"
"I—I'm Ling Biran—"
"A name I would not remember if you recited it to me a hundred times a day," Jiang Xi said. "You're no great loss."
Despite her embarrassment, she bit her lip and continued. "Heh, I hadn't expected a sect leader to act this way."
"Have you never met me?" Jiang Xi scoffed. "Guyueye has thousands of disciples. I'm certainly seeing you for the first time. To be honest, if this hadn't happened, someone of your caliber would never even have spoken to me."
With that, he swept his sleeves, sending a spiral of fragrant smoke into the air as he dove toward Hua Binan. The two traded several near-instantaneous blows.
Hua Binan was already facing a difficult opponent in Mo Ran; now that Jiang Xi was here, it was clear he wasn't their match. As the fight slipped away from him, he commanded the heart-tunnelers to activate. All of those cursed immediately felt an unbearable pain gnawing at their skin.
"Ah!"
"H-help!"
Jiang Xi froze as well. But he was the leader of Guyueye. Without missing a beat, he tapped several key acupoints to halt his pain. White-faced, he resumed the fight alongside Mo Ran.
Hua Binan wasn't stupid. With a crook of his fingers, he commanded the insects in the Guyueye disciples who'd come to his side to fall still and snapped, "Fight."
Those wavering watched the cultivators who'd defected to Hua Binan freed from their pain. They rushed toward him, a good half of the crowd falling to their knees and shouting at Hua Binan.
"Sage, please! Undo the curse! We're willing to serve the sage!"
"I can't take it anymore, it hurts too much… Hua-qianbei, please…"
Hua Binan smiled at Mo Ran, who was fighting fiercely. "See, Mo-zongshi? Medicine is the strongest art of all."
Jiang Xi struck at him with Xuehuang. "Medicine? Is a master of dirty tricks like you fit to speak of it?" He turned to Mo Ran. "Help your shizun with the array. I'll handle this."
Hua Binan sneered. "Sect Leader, I see you're bent on making an enemy of me today."
"Don't waste my time."
"Trying to fight me despite the tunneler inside you? Jiang Yechen, Jiang-zhangmen, you must really be tired of living."
"And you should decide the length of my life?" Jiang Xi scoffed. "If I don't stop you, you'll ruin the good name of the healing arts entirely!"
The two men most skilled in medicines and poison began trading blows in earnest. Poisonous powders and hallucinatory drugs played between flashes of their blades.
Seeing Jiang Xi could hold his own against Hua Binan, Mo Ran turned to help Chu Wanning. Yet before he reached him, a dozen people garbed in tawny yellow came rushing toward him.
"Huang Xiaoyue!" Mo Ran spat.
These were indeed high-level disciples of Jiangdong Hall and Huang Xiaoyue. The man himself stood in the wind with his robes flapping and stroked his beard. "Mo-zongshi, tunneler insects are no joke. We're entirely at his mercy. This is a matter of life or death, so we must oppose you. My apologies."
It wasn't just him; strong fighters from the other sects who could no longer endure the pain came charging toward him as well. The Soul-Summoning Platform descended into complete mayhem as the two sides clashed. Conflict sparked within each sect between those who'd been cursed and those who hadn't, those who'd turned traitor and those who stayed true. The once-united crowd faced off against each other in dozens of small battles.
Jiang Xi held nothing back against Hua Binan. But as the last line of defense between Chu Wanning and the crowd, Mo Ran was beset on all sides. He fought off wave after wave of Huang Xiaoyue's cultivators, while Chu Wanning poured all his spiritual energy into countering that mysterious array. On the other side, Xue Zhengyong and the disciples from Sisheng Peak kept the traitors from pressing closer to Chu Wanning and Mo Ran. Shi Mei was running between the cultivators who'd rejected Hua Binan despite being implanted, trying his best to destroy the insects. He knelt and clutched at a young man who was rolling on the ground. The man grabbed Shi Mei's arms and howled. "It hurts… Kill me, please, kill me! It hurts too much, I don't want to join him, I don't want to! Kill me! Please, kill me! Kill me!"
"It'll be over soon," Shi Mei comforted him, bringing fingertips to the inside of the man's wrist.
"I can't take it anymore—!"
"Look at me. Look into my eyes."
But the man couldn't hear him. His fingers were crooked into claws, spasming like a fish hauled ashore. "I can't take it anymore…" he panted.
Shi Mei was left to grab his face and turn it by force, prying his eyes open with his fingers as the man thrashed and kicked. His nails left red gashes on Shi Mei's arms and hands.
"Look at me, look at me!"
The man gasped for breath, regaining some focus as he stared, teary-eyed, at Shi Mei. Lips moving through an incantation, Shi Mei stared deep into his eyes. Suddenly, the man flinched, feeling something rise from his stomach and crawl into his chest, then his neck, then the back of his throat.
He flung himself onto his hands and knees. As a wave of nausea broke over him, he threw up a great pool of stinking vomit. Within it lay a twisting red heart-tunneler.
Shi Mei reduced the insect to dust with the point of a finger. He rose and shouted, "The tunnelers respond to optomancy; the curse can be undone! I can help you!" He ran around shouting, "Stop fighting! It can be undone; stop fighting each other—it can be undone!"
Few people heeded him within the chaos, and his voice had never been loud. It was swiftly swallowed in the screaming clamor of clanging swords and shouting voices.
But Jiang Xi heard. He tensed—optomancy? Just as many insects were drawn to flame and light, some were also drawn to optomantic techniques. Like a moth seeking flame, they could be guided outside of the body, where their effects could be nullified.
It was clear Hua Binan had also heard. He swore, a ferocious light glinting in his eyes. "I weeded out all Guyueye's cultivators familiar with optomancy on the way here. I didn't expect shitty little Sisheng Peak to have someone capable of the art. Truly"—the blade in his hand screeched against Jiang Xi's Xuehuang, sending sparks flying—"a youth to be feared!"
Withdrawing his blade, he flew backward, bat-like, and leapt toward the surging crowd.
"No!" Jiang Xi realized too late what Hua Binan was trying to do. He swiveled to follow, but the tunneler had done its work: his heart seized. He spat up a mouthful of blood, then crashed to his knees, bracing himself on his sword to stay upright. His bloodstained lips parted as he watched Hua Binan speed toward Shi Mei. He wanted to warn him, but his voice was a murmur. "Watch…out…"
Shi Mei was removing the curse for a Taxue Palace cultivator. After heaving out the tunneler, the pain faded; she quickly rose to help Shi Mei. "Stop fighting!" she yelled. "Come here! He can draw out the insects—it's possible!"
Xue Meng was also trying to stop the fight. He dragged a dozen people over to Shi Mei while shouting: "Enough, enough, bear with it, stop yelling. It'll be over soon, really soon, who do you think my shidi is? He's strong, on par with Guyueye disciples, I—"
He turned to call to Shi Mei, but as he looked up, the words died in his throat. "Shi Mei! Behind you!"