The black-clothed figure was Yun Ying. With the help of the drug unique to Unknown Island, He An had fallen into a deep sleep after drinking the pear soup, and she had secured her prize with ease.
Deep in the woods several dozen yards away, she bounded swiftly as the wind and came to stand atop a towering iron cloud fir. Pulling down her face covering, she revealed a delicate, pale face. She looked back at the dim light in He An's dwelling and murmured, "I'm sorry... for Qu Yong's sake, I had no other choice..."
The moon shone bright among sparse stars, and tree shadows crowded the silent mountain path. Yun Ying flitted through the woods like a wisp of blue smoke, finally stopping before a small abandoned temple.
The temple had long since fallen into ruin. Only half a door remained, hanging partly closed; inside, the divine statue had toppled, and cobwebs covered everything. Beneath the pallid moonlight, it looked especially sinister.
She approached the temple entrance cautiously. A dry branch suddenly snapped beneath her foot, its crisp crack piercing the silence. Several bats, long settled in their roosts, startled and fluttered out from among the rafters.
"M-Master!"
Only after calling out did she realize her voice was trembling. The wind blowing through the temple swept the last note against a broken wall, shattering it into a few threads of sobbing.
The wind abruptly changed direction.
The pines roared in waves. Bark rustled on trees that had seemed limp and drooping, and branches twisted into uncanny curves. A dead branch at the very top slowly reached down, forming a withered hand in midair. Its skin was black as the bottom of a cooking pot, its nails tinged bluish gray. When the shadow solidified completely, it revealed a Black,