Rain in the Old City District

Before midnight, rain began to fall over Heaven Dou City.

Water streamed from the eaves and gathered into muddy ribbons in the narrow alleys of the Old City District. There were no lights from the Crown Prince's Mansion here, no golden roofs of the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. Only low tiled houses, damp plaster, and wooden Gates blackened by rain.

Bai Jin stood at the mouth of an alley. Rain had soaked the outer layer of his black coat, but his Silver Hair remained perfectly dry.

When raindrops came within three inches of him, they seemed to strike an invisible surface and slide gently away.

Ma Hongjun watched enviously. "Mr. Bai, can you teach me that move?"

"Learn to stop setting yourself on fire first."

Ma Hongjun shut his mouth.

Tang San crouched by the wall and rubbed a little muddy water between his fingertips. Mixed into the mud were a faint fishy smell and gray powder from withered Blue Silver Grass. He looked up at Bai Jin and said quietly, "This is the place."

Bai Jin nodded and swept his gaze over the others.

"Dai Mubai, guard the front Gate. Xiao Wu, go with Tang San. Zhu Zhuqing, cut off the back alley. Ning Rongrong and Oscar, stay up high. Fatty, watch the fire. Don't let them burn the houses down."

"What about you?" Xiao Wu asked.

Bai Jin smiled. "I'll make them regret opening the Gate."

Zhu Zhuqing vanished into the rain first.

Like a shadowcat that had truly melted into the night, she moved without a sound. A moment later, a brief, muffled thud came from the back alley. She dragged a Soul Master in a white ghost mask down from the wall before he could even raise the alarm.

Tang San's Blue Silver Grass spread with the rainwater, hugging the ground as it slipped through the warehouse's cracks.

Many people were breathing inside.

Children, Soul Masters, and several wildly unstable fluctuations of Soul Power.

His face darkened. "There's an array inside."

"Then we'll break it."

Bai Jin raised a hand, and a purple Soul Ring lit up.

Azure.

The warehouse's heavy wooden Gate suddenly caved inward. Bolt, chains, and lock were wrenched together by a terrifying pull of Gravity, twisting like scrap iron. Before the Evil Soul Masters inside could react, the Gate crashed to the ground.

The sound of rain flooded into the warehouse.

The stench of blood struck them.

A dark red array had been drawn in the center of the warehouse. More than a dozen children were tied along its edge, their faces pale. Several missing Soul Masters lay on the floor without a wound on them, yet their Soul Power had been drained away, leaving them like empty skins. At the far end of the array stood a man in a blood-red robe, half a white ghost mask covering his face. The shadow of a huge blood spider floated behind him.

Six Soul Rings lit up beneath his feet.

A Soul Emperor.

The Blood Spider Soul Emperor froze when he saw Bai Jin, then burst into wild laughter. "Spirit Hall got here fast!"

Bai Jin stepped over the threshold. "Don't misunderstand."

The Blood Spider Soul Emperor sneered. "What, you want to talk?"

"No." Bai Jin raised his eyes. "I'm in a hurry."

As the words fell, a Yellow Soul Ring lit up.

Several Evil Soul Masters attacked at once. Poison needles, spider silk, and blood-red Soul Power surged at Bai Jin from every direction. But every attack stopped three inches before him, like a downpour plunging into an invisible deep sea. They sank in, slowed, and finally struggled even to tremble.

The Shrek group charged in from both sides.

This time, they did not fight their own separate battles as they had in the Soul Fighting Arena.

Dai Mubai held the front line without chasing glory. His White Tiger Fierce Light Wave struck only the enemies, never the array. Every step landed along the lines Bai Jin had drawn that day, forcing the Evil Soul Masters away from the children. Xiao Wu flipped past his shoulder, bent at the waist, and burst forward with the speed of a white shadow in the rainy night. After kicking away an iron hook, she immediately returned to Tang San's side.

Tang San saw an opening.

The Blood Spider Soul Emperor's flank was exposed for an instant. In the past, Tang San would have thrown a Hidden Weapon without hesitation and crippled one of his legs. But from the corner of his eye, he also saw a little girl huddled beside the array. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes brimmed with tears, and the iron chain around her wrist was turning red along the array's lines.

Tang San's fingers paused for half a breath.

Then he pressed the Hidden Weapon back into his sleeve.

Dai Mubai activated White Tiger Possession and slammed two Soul Elders aside. Xiao Wu sprang up from the Blue Silver Grass and kicked through the iron hook binding the children. Instead of rushing to attack the Blood Spider Soul Emperor, Tang San used his Blue Silver Grass to shield the children first. Then he slipped past the array's edge with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. A cold glint flashed at his fingertips, severing three Soul Power nodes.

One corner of the array went dark.

The Blood Spider Soul Emperor's expression changed. "Blue Silver Grass? So it is you!"

Tang San's heart tightened, but his hands did not stop.

He heard the words Bai Jin had spoken that day.

The situation would change. So would the enemy.

Save the people first.

Blue Silver Grass wrapped around the little girl's waist and pulled her away from the array. Tang San turned aside to evade a strand of blood spider silk, then drove his fist into the throat of an Evil Soul Master lunging at him. The man grunted and staggered back, disbelief filling his eyes. He clearly had not expected a Blue Silver Grass Soul Master to choose a punch at close range.

Tang San himself froze for an instant.

Bai Jin stood in the Gate. Without even looking at him, he drawled, "Not bad. Your hands still work."

Zhu Zhuqing struck from the shadows. Her Netherworld Hundred Claws flashed, slicing open the wrist of an Evil Soul Master who had tried to detonate the array. Behind a broken second-floor window, Ning Rongrong sent beam after beam of light down from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

"First: Strength! Second: Speed!"

Dai Mubai roared and drove the enemies on the front line all the way back.

Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line swept low across the floor, but he forced it to stop short of a wooden pillar. Sweat beaded on his forehead. "Burn people, not houses. This Fatty remembers!"

Oscar tossed sausages down while shouting, "Remember not to burn me too!"

Ning Rongrong did not laugh.

Sweat had appeared at her temples. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda hovered above her palm, its light flickering rapidly. For the first time, she truly understood that support on a battlefield was not about who shouted the loudest. It was about seeing, amid the chaos, where each person's next move might falter.

Dai Mubai's strength needed renewing. Xiao Wu's speed could not lapse. Tang San needed an instant of steady Soul Power while severing the array. And when Zhu Zhuqing's retreat was blocked, she needed just enough room to draw half a breath.

Ning Rongrong bit her lip and did not call a single boost wrong.

Oscar glanced at her. Suddenly, he stopped joking and silently aimed his Recovery Big Sausages more accurately beside everyone's feet.

Amid the chaos, the Blood Spider Soul Emperor suddenly spat out a cloud of black-red poison mist.

The mist was not aimed at Bai Jin. It was headed for the children.

Tang San's face changed.

He tried to rush back to defend them, but two Evil Soul Masters tied him down.

Bai Jin's eyes went cold.

A black Soul Ring lit up.

He.

The air exploded.

A blast of repulsive force hurled the black-red mist away along with the two Evil Soul Masters. Half the warehouse roof was torn off, and rain poured through the opening. The Blood Spider Soul Emperor staggered back several steps as though a heavy hammer had struck his chest. A crack split his mask.

"A Soul Saint..." His voice shook. "A level seventy-three Soul Saint can't have power like this!"

Bai Jin raised a hand. His azure eyes shone through the curtain of rain.

"Why do you Evil Soul Masters always love saying something's impossible?"

The purple Soul Ring lit up again.

The pull of Azure pressed in from every direction, wrenching the blood spider shadow behind the Blood Spider Soul Emperor out of shape. With a roar, he unleashed his sixth Soul Skill. The spider's legs became eight blood blades that slashed down at Bai Jin.

Bai Jin did not even blink.

Limitless unfolded.

The blood blades stopped in midair.

The next instant, Bai Jin threw a punch.

There was no dazzling Soul Skill. Just one utterly clean punch.

The force of his fist tore through the rain and struck the Blood Spider Soul Emperor's chest. Bones cracked sharply. He smashed through the warehouse's back wall and landed in the mud, unable to get up for a long while.

For an instant, the warehouse fell silent.

Bai Jin shook the rain from his hand. "Told you I was in a hurry."

Tang San carried the last child to safety. When he turned and saw what had happened, shock ran through him, but he did not stand there staring. He immediately crouched to inspect the array and found a broken black token at its center.

Two characters were carved into the token.

Slaughter.

Bai Jin walked over, the smile on his face fading.

Tang San pulled a blood-soaked fragment of a page from beneath the array. Most of its writing had blurred, leaving only one legible line.

Beneath the Imperial City, seven days from now, the Gate opens.

The rain grew heavier.

Zhu Zhuqing returned from the back alley and said quietly, "The rear is clear. Two got away."

Bai Jin nodded. "Let them go."

Xiao Wu frowned. "Why?"

"Someone has to go back and report." Bai Jin tucked the black token into his sleeve. "Otherwise, how will they know someone unreasonable has turned up at their Gate?"

Tang San looked at him. "What does 'beneath the Imperial City' mean?"

Bai Jin did not answer at once.

He looked into the distance.

Beyond the rain, the outline of the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace lay hidden in the darkness, like a great beast resting silently.

"It means..."

Bai Jin bit through the candy stick, his voice as soft as falling rain.

"The tea at the Crown Prince's Mansion is probably about to get more expensive."