Chapter 36: Madness

“Alang!”

As the flames flickered out, the stench of charred flesh drifted over alongside a mournful wail.

Gu Xianwang found herself caught between enemies front and back. She clung tightly to the mountain folk as a shield, spinning in place atop the grass mat. The three bowmen stood positioned at each angle, leaving her scarcely any blind spots. From the corner of her eye, she glanced to the side and saw the female archer from before cradling a thin, blackened corpse, her shoulders trembling faintly, though she no longer wailed.

Was that her kin?

Gu Xianwang rubbed her aching jaw against her shoulder. One arrow for one life—she had no idea if they thought it worthwhile, but something deep within her had shifted. The death of a life unfolding right before her no longer stirred the same empathy it once had.

Judging from what had happened earlier, the marrow bees likely wouldn’t attack anyone who had lost their God Eye. Every bowman who had entered the forest this time bore Double Pupils in their eyes. The child who had ambushed her from the tree probably hadn’t been part of the original strike team; he must have trailed along secretly.

At the sound of Aqiu’s voice, grief and rage twisted the faces of the three bowmen. They drew their bows tauter still, their gazes turning icy, as though this fiend before them had started the blaze herself.

“I want you to pay for my brother’s life with yours!”

Gu Xianwang was in the midst of blowing fiercely to fend off an incoming marrow bee when the female archer snarled something in the local dialect that she couldn’t make out. In the blink of an eye, two arrows streaked forth in rapid succession, offering no quarter for breath.

Gu Xianwang didn’t even raise her head; the whistling alone told her the woman no longer cared for her hostage’s life. She released her grip at once, shoving the man hard in the back for momentum as she leaped backward. The instant her feet hit the ground, she snatched up the grass mat too.

She had a hunch the female archer wouldn’t let her escape easily. Clutching the mat, she draped it over herself and barreled toward the nearest man.

At the same moment, two dull thuds echoed from behind. Gu Xianwang whipped around to see Long Li bursting from some hidden spot. With a swift grab and smash, she dropped the pair in an instant.

Before Long Li could shrug off the quiver, Aqiu loosed two more arrows. Dodging amid the chaos, Long Li plunged five fingers into the quiver, snatching five bamboo arrows between her knuckles. Rather than strike back right away, she dropped low and melted into the underbrush once more.

Gu Xianwang: ?

When had she figured out how to keep from being swallowed by the living soil?

The man she had shoved away took an arrow to the arm but didn’t utter a peep. Gu Xianwang had figured without the mat, the living soil would claim him swiftly, but he rolled down the incline, tumbling into the foliage just before it could.

Peering through gaps in the leaves, she spotted the flash of his dark blue garb moving fast—like a low crouch in hurried retreat—heading out of the Living Soil Forest. No wonder Long Li and these ambushers could navigate the Living Soil Forest; secret paths ran beneath the bushes.

Long Li had meant to leverage the edge of shadow against light, goading Aqiu into redirecting her fury, but the woman charged straight at Gu Xianwang without a thought for her own safety.

Aqiu wore quivers slung at both hips, one of them Alang’s discarded own. Out for vengeance, she meant to carry him into the fight too!

Gu Xianwang hadn’t yet mapped the secret paths when the female archer unleashed a volley from behind. One shaft pierced a marrow bee clean through; orange flames erupted along its length, hurtling toward her like a fire dragon.

Aqiu pressed relentlessly, brooking no dodge. Gu Xianwang gritted her teeth and whirled her knife, narrowly escaping the arrow’s blaze. Searing heat grazed her arm, followed by a scorching sting. Marrow bees ignited at temperatures beyond the ordinary; in moments, they could boil every drop of moisture from a body. Only now did Gu Xianwang grasp why that youth had carbonized in under a minute.

From the opposite direction came another whistle of flight. A bamboo arrow nailed Aqiu’s calf. Gu Xianwang looked up to find Long Li nocking another, out in the open now, done skulking. The shot carried a plain warning: advance no further.

Aqiu skidded to a halt, fixing Long Li with a frigid glare. She bent, wrenched the arrow free, and flung it aside with a spray of blood.

Far from stopping, she surged forward faster.

Wanting to play for keeps?

The sight ignited something in Gu Xianwang’s chest, her blood roaring like strong liquor down her throat. She dropped into a roll, fetching up on the grass mat beside the man Long Li had felled. She swept her waist knife low, the flat sweeping upward in an arc like a paddle, smacking a marrow bee back at them like a ball from a racket.

Aren’t you relying on that God Eye to fear no Marrow Bee attacks? How about I send a fireball right your way!

Gu Xianwang swung her blade down without pause. She leaped onto a long vine, swung twice to build momentum, flung the grass mat aside, rolled across the ground on landing, and rose to her feet already deep within Hanging Head Forest.

She hadn’t seen it, but Aqiu had loosed her arrow like lightning, piercing the exploding Marrow Bee clean through. If Long Li hadn’t severed the arrowhead with perfect timing, that flaming shaft would have burned straight through the vine in her grip.

Gu Xianwang stood tall, the hive of countless Marrow Bees buzzing right behind her. This place could be their altar—or the spot where they nurtured the God Eye. As long as this Female Archer retained a shred of sanity, she ought to know the consequences of loosing arrows in this direction.

“Long Li,” Gu Xianwang called. She was about to tell her to tackle the madwoman and tie her up when Aqiu truly paid no heed to the Marrow Bees and fired!

Clang, clang, clang—three Bronze Kettles crashed to the ground in quick succession. Gu Xianwang dropped flat, and before she could even glance back, a deafening buzz erupted en masse. Then Long Li burst from the side, delivering a sharp hand-chop to the back of her neck that knocked her out cold.

~~~

Sara had been pinning Ye Chan down in a nearby thicket of bushes. To avoid assaults from the Living Soil, she’d picked a spot right on the boundary line. That mad hag’s barrage of arrows had nearly toppled the nearest Bronze Kettle to them.

Fine, shoot at Gu Xianwang if you must—but what kind of aim was that?

It wasn’t until those three arrows struck true on three targets, sending the Bronze Kettle across from them tumbling down the slope, that Sara abruptly spotted the two figures lying in the pit opposite.

Chak shoved the Gu Witch’s corpse off him, rolling away with the grass mat and a layer of thin soil. Old Dog scrambled up alongside him.

Sara’s eyes bulged. How long had these two old foxes been skulking here?

Had no one even noticed?

If the bee swarm hadn’t stirred, would they have lain there until the mountain folk swarmed and slaughtered them all?

“Damn it,” she hissed under her breath, terrified of alerting the Marrow Bee horde.

Gu Xianwang swept her gaze around and pieced it together. Their positions had been in plain sight of these mountain folk the whole time. Whether they hid or not was entirely up to the locals’ whims. This time around, it seemed they planned to let none escape.

Long Li whispered, “We can’t push through here. We’ll have to loop around from the side.”

But Gu Xianwang fixed her stare on Chak and Old Dog, scrutinizing them intently for a moment before saying coldly, “My Senior Brother isn’t here.”

Chak turned to meet her gaze from afar. He sneered, baring a mouthful of gleaming white teeth as his thumb slashed across his throat in a beheading gesture.

Was he implying they’d already killed Yao Cuo?

Gu Xianwang clenched her fists tight and turned first to Long Li. Deep down, she still harbored a thread of hope she couldn’t voice aloud. Long Li had made her a promise—Gu Xianwang wanted to believe she wouldn’t betray it.

Long Li, however, hadn’t caught Chak’s gesture right away. Her eyes scanned the forests flanking Hanging Head Forest, her brows knitting tight. “Too late.”

Gu Xianwang hadn’t heard clearly. “What?”

Too late. Giant Banners were advancing swiftly through the woods on both sides. That escaped bowman must have gone to raise the alarm. Judging by the banners’ colors and designs, they were meant to block fire.

In other words, these mountain folk were dead set on burning them alive inside Hanging Head Forest.

Over a hundred Marrow Bees circled the scattered bones nearby, perhaps reorienting to their destroyed hive. Moments later, they seemed to grasp that their home had been ransacked—and they turned their fury on Gu Xianwang.

Faster than the bees came a volley of dark arrows whistling from the dense woods.

What had started as scattered ambushes had escalated to a full onslaught. Giant Banners in the vanguard, arrow barrages bringing up the rear—an ancient battle tactic, but in this primordial forest against Gu Xianwang and the others with no modern weapons, it was tantamount to a massacre.

Sara wanted to drop flat and play dead like those old foxes, but a dozen arrows rained down on the back of her head from every direction—no honor, no mercy. Even if they didn’t turn her and Ye Chan into pin cushions, they’d bring the Bronze Kettles crashing down.

Sara: ???

What the hell kind of altar was this? Just shooting away like that?

Where was the damn respect!?

Cursing did no good. She kicked off with her legs and ditched Ye Chan first, scampering like a monkey along the fringe of Hanging Head Forest, burrowing deeper in.

They had blocked off three sides, leaving one face open. Even a fool could see it was an invitation into a trap. Whoosh! Long Li spun around, raising her elbow as her fingers clenched tight. She caught the incoming arrow from behind right in front of her chest and snapped it in two.

She noticed then that Gu Xianwang’s eyes were locked on Chak and Old Dog, following their every move. Putting it together with her usual patterns of behavior, Long Li reached out to grab her hand and calm her down. But suddenly, there was a stir behind her—Aqiu had woken up without anyone noticing. She kicked off the ground in a lunge, an arrowhead pinched between her fingers, and stabbed straight toward Gu Xianwang’s back.

Long Li didn’t hesitate. She lashed out with a sideways kick, slamming into Aqiu’s stomach and sending the woman flying through the air.

Gu Xianwang merely glanced back once before plunging into Hanging Head Forest amid the swarm of Marrow Bees. The bees were coming for her anyway. If the Sinkhole’s rainforest went up in flames, none of them would make it out. She wasn’t so deranged that she’d drag everyone down with her.

Death was acceptable, but only if there was a reason for it. She had entered these mountains to save people. If she truly couldn’t succeed, then at the very least, she had to get Senior Brother out in one piece.

She leaped and dashed wildly through Hanging Head Forest, but for some reason, the Marrow Bees chased after her without attacking. Gu Xianwang didn’t register this at the time. Her eyes fixed on Chak, she charged like a tiger or leopard. By the time she tackled him to the ground, they were almost at the edge of Hanging Head Forest—even Sara had been left far behind.

The instant she made contact, Gu Xianwang vaulted onto Chak’s broad back. Her forearm sliced like a blade around his neck. She hooked her wrist to lock him in a chokehold. But Chak was a veteran. He shrugged his shoulders at once, jerked his head back to ram her, seized her shoulders in a crushing grip, twisted at the waist, and slammed them both to the ground with her as the cushion.

Towering at six foot three and built like a water buffalo, with well over two hundred pounds of muscle and bone, he nearly turned Gu Xianwang’s insides to mush. Her hand-to-hand skills were solid enough, but she had scant experience in real brawls—let alone taking a full-force slam from a brute like this.

Sparks exploded through her mind. Her thoughts shattered like a dropped glass vase, scattered and empty, unable to focus.

Chak figured that smash and pin would knock the woman out cold. But after a split-second daze, she only clamped down harder. She refused to let go and even sank her teeth into his neck.

Right over his carotid artery. Before her jaws could fully close, Chak shoved off the ground and sprang up. His right fist hammered toward his own neck. Gu Xianwang’s legs coiled around his waist like strangling vines. She threw up one arm to block the blow. Her teeth tore into his flesh, her eyes blazing red with terrifying fury as she growled through clenched teeth, “Where’s the man you captured?”