The nine faces on the bronze door looked even more ferocious in the dark red glow. The light spilling from that crack was like a fire burning up from the depths of the earth, casting the three of their shadows into twisted, distorted shapes.
Chen Wuya stared at the gap in the door, one hand still resting on Bai Zhi's shoulder. He had taken the slip of paper she had just pulled out. The ink had long dried, but the words seemed carved into his eyes with a blade.
"If you see a crescent-shaped scar, please kill him for me."
Less than three breaths after the words fell, the stone holes along both sides of the passage suddenly let out the scrape of metal against metal.
The rain of arrows had come.
Sharp arrows sprayed out from every direction like a swarm of locusts, so fast their paths were nearly impossible to see. Mo Feng reacted first. With a shake of his pack, he opened a bronze-colored umbrella. Its canopy spun, erupting in a dense clatter as it met the first volley of arrows.
One arrow grazed Chen Wuya's cheek, cutting a line of blood across it.
He did not dodge the second. Misaligned Force flowed backward through his meridians, exploding into stabbing pain within his sea of consciousness. A system prompt instantly appeared: [High-frequency vibration sources detected. Locations locked: three points to the left front, five points to the right rear].
He raised a hand, palm aimed at the cracks between the floor tiles, and poured Misaligned Force into them.
The arrows that should have shot straight ahead twisted sharply at the instant they left their slots, as though an invisible hand had snapped them around. Several powerful arrows wheeled about and streaked straight toward the Demonic Cult elder