Fire Rose from Beneath the Ground

A muffled bell sounded outside Jialing Pass. It rang only once, but everyone in the camp preparing to change shifts stopped in their tracks. Qian Renxue was ready. She ordered Spirit Hall's soldiers to act only on her new commands. Xue Beng's side posted last night's forged order at the camp gate. Anyone who brought another order on the same paper would be detained and questioned first.

Ning Fengzhi invited the commanders from both sides to the bridgehead and asked each to send a military physician to examine the rescued Deacons and Feng Ce's family. After the bell, many soldiers thought the other side was about to activate a formation. Some had already loaded their crossbows. The physicians came out of the clinic and announced before everyone that the two imprisoned Deacons bore marks left by the same kind of chain. Only then did the commanders order their men to unstring their crossbows. As one string came loose, a row of clasps clicked open around it.

Yuan Yu, Tang San, and Hu Liena descended through the beast yard's well. Someone had reconnected the old drainage channel, and blood had risen past their ankles in what had once been a dry trough. Yuan Yu unfurled the Wind-Settling Banner first, directing the poisonous mist overhead out through an abandoned well no one used. Only then did he slowly guide his fire pattern toward the first blood nail.

The well shaft was narrow, and the Wind-Settling Banner's reach extended only a hundred yards or so. Farther away, red mist still hugged the walls. Tang San sent the Blue Silver Emperor ahead to scout and detected someone knocking behind a stretch of brickwork. The three changed course. Yuan Yu tapped the loose bricks open with the back of his blade. Sure enough, an old