Bai Zhi's hand fell limp. The instant her body went slack, the Dragon Maiden caught her. Her face was deathly pale, her lips utterly bloodless, her breathing so faint it was nearly imperceptible. Chen Wuya reached out to grab her, but his fingertips touched only a patch of cold, damp air.
Holding Bai Zhi, the Dragon Maiden retreated several steps and gently laid her on a stone platform at the edge of the array diagram. The runes there had already dimmed, leaving only a faint halo flowing along their edges. She glanced at Chen Wuya without speaking, merely shaking her head.
Chen Wuya knelt on the ground, one hand still braced against it. Blood continued to flow from his palm, mixing with the blood Bai Zhi had left behind and dragging a dark-red streak across the floor. He tried to stand, but his legs trembled too badly for him to muster any strength.
Then his left arm suddenly burned.
It was as though fire had ignited inside his bones. He looked down. The curse mark, once no bigger than a fingernail, was now swelling. Raised veins bulged beneath his skin, slithering up toward his shoulder like snakes. The black patterns rapidly turned blood-red, splitting open in three places and spitting out viscous threads.
The threads writhed in the air, condensing in the blink of an eye into three thick tentacles that shot straight for the Dragon Maiden's face.
The Dragon Maiden twisted aside, swift as a gale. Yet the tentacles seemed to have eyes; they bent midway and continued their pursuit. She raised a hand and formed an ice blade, slashing down. One section of a tentacle was severed, black mist spraying from the wound. When it hit the ground, it hissed with corrosive force.
"The thing inside you has