Black mist poured from the ferocious beast's mouth, spreading slowly like layer upon layer of oil-soaked curtains. Wherever it passed, fine cracks spread across the stone, and the air filled with a rotten stench. The wound on Chen Wuya's left shoulder suddenly twitched, as though something were writhing beneath his skin. He gritted his teeth and forcibly guided the Misaligned Force in reverse. True qi surged backward through his meridians and crashed into his sea of consciousness, shaking his vision black.
He did not fall.
With his palm pressed to the ground, the Misaligned Force rippled outward. An invisible ring of waves spread from beneath his hand, making Bai Zhi's body tremble as it swept past her feet. Her lashes fluttered, and she finally came back to her senses. Mo Feng leaned against a broken stele, his throat bobbing as he forced down a mouthful of blood. The two guardians' descendants sat slumped on the ground, their eyes dull, until the tremor reached their feet and they abruptly looked up.
"Don't look into its eyes!" Chen Wuya's voice was hoarse, yet it pierced the black mist. "Close your eyes. Listen to the sound!"
No one answered, but Bai Zhi moved. Bracing herself on one knee, she touched her sword tip to the stone and launched herself into the air. Her form swept through the low air like the wind. Rather than lunging for the beast's head, she went straight for the joint of its left hind leg. Her blade grazed its scales with a piercing scrape, then she swiftly withdrew.
The beast's right claw, just about to swing, paused slightly.
That instant was enough.
Mo Feng gritted his teeth and raised a hand, tapping the ground in three places with his folding fan. Moisture seeped from the cracks in the