Dark waves churned across the sea. Chen Wuya had just stepped out of the meditation room when he slipped on the wet flagstones beneath his feet. Catching himself against the wall, he felt as though a stone weighed on his chest. The red mark in his right palm was still burning, as if someone had wrapped his veins in threads of fire.
Mo Feng's shout came from afar. "Chen Wuya! Get out here!"
He did not answer, gritting his teeth as he walked on. As he passed through the outer hall, he saw Bai Zhi sitting on the stone steps, her head slightly bowed, fingers pressed to her palm, her brow tightly furrowed. He knew she was enduring it—the pain from one end of the Twinborn Curse was passing through from him to her.
He did not stop.
The moment he stepped through the stone gate, the sea wind slammed into him. Eight massive black shapes circled the waters beyond the island, swimming slowly. They were sea beasts. Some had mouths full of sharp teeth; others had whip-like tentacles. Every one of them was larger than a fishing boat. Green liquid sprayed from their mouths, and the instant it struck the reefs, white smoke rose. Several of the shore's mechanism cannon emplacements had already collapsed halfway.
Mo Feng stood beside a shattered cannon frame, holding the wreckage of a mechanism bird in his hand, his face pale. "The acid is corroding everything too fast. We can't hold out at all."
Chen Wuya walked to the shore and watched the sea beasts' movements. Their attacks had a rhythm, but the distance between them was loose, and their paths did not align. The octopus-like sea monster at the front had just finished spraying acid. As it turned, it nearly crashed into the