Chaoge had been sealed off.
Royal Wanted Notices covered Vermilion Bird Avenue.
The heads of Yin Jiao and Yin Hong were worth a thousand gold pieces and a marquisate of ten thousand households.
The night wind swept down the long street. Every household had shut its doors, every light had gone out.
Above the city walls, the Dark Phoenix of Fortune gave a low, mournful cry. Pink demonic miasma spilled from the palace, clinging to eaves and street corners, swallowing the sounds of human voices bit by bit.
"Quick!"
Yin Jiao dragged Yin Hong into a narrow, dark alley.
Half an hour earlier, they had still been princes of Great Shang.
Now, the crown prince's crown and sash lay shattered in the muddy water. Blades had slashed their brocade robes, and a trail of blood stretched deep into the alley.
Yin Hong braced himself against the wall, his chest heaving.
"Brother... I can't hold on much longer."
His eyes were red, his voice trembling.
"But I don't want to die at that demon consort's hands."
Yin Jiao whirled around, covered his mouth, and pressed him into the shadows at the corner.
"If you want to make them pay their blood debt to Mother, stay alive."
He lowered his voice, his eyes threaded with blood.
"As long as we're alive, that demon consort won't sleep in peace."
Yin Hong shuddered.
That scream in the side hall still pierced his heart like a nail.
His mother's tears of blood.
The palace servants' cries.
The old general's final words before he fell: "Run!"
Everything compressed into a ball of fire, burning so fiercely that he dared not cry again.
He gritted his teeth and nodded.
Just then, a harsh scraping came from the mouth of the alley.
Scrape, scrape.
Scrape, scrape.
Yin Jiao's pupils contracted sharply.
Through a gap in the wall, he saw a pair of eerie green eyes.
Then an enormous wolf's head poked into the alley.
The Wolf Monster opened his mouth, exposing interlocking fangs. Foul saliva dripped onto the stone paving, raising wisps of white smoke.
Yin Hong's face turned deathly pale.
Their pursuers were no longer just the imperial guards.
The demon consort's reach extended from the palace into every street in Chaoge.
"Roar!"
The Wolf Monster roared in excitement and lunged.
"Run!"
Yin Jiao hauled Yin Hong up, smashed through a dilapidated wooden door behind them, and rushed into the backyard of an abandoned house.
The next instant, the courtyard wall exploded.
The Wolf Monster smashed through the bricks and stones, pursuing them inside.
The brothers scrambled over a low wall, rushed past a woodshed, and plunged into another alley.
The demonic miasma behind them grew thicker.
A Pig Monster with jutting tusks crushed the paving stones beneath its feet.
A Snake Monster slid out of a gutter, hugging the ground.
They did not immediately pounce to kill.
They tore through the guards with their teeth and ripped apart the escape routes, as though herding the two princes in a particular direction.
Yin Jiao did not notice.
He knew only that fewer and fewer people remained beside them.
"Your Highnesses, go!"
The last guard swung his saber and blocked the alley entrance.
The blade had barely flashed before the Snake Monster coiled around his legs.
Only half a scream escaped the guard before the demons' roars swallowed it.
Yin Hong glanced back. His stomach churned, and he nearly fell to his knees.
Yin Jiao caught him and dragged him onward.
"Don't look!"
His voice was hoarse.
"Looking won't save him! Only by staying alive can we honor them!"
Yin Hong bit his lip hard and kept charging forward after him.
The city gate lay just ahead.
Fang Bi and Fang Xiang were the last path to survival their mother had left them.
If they could reach the gate, they still had a chance to escape Chaoge, seek out the Four Great Lords, and demand justice for their mother.
But when the brothers rushed out of the long street, both froze in their tracks.
The city gate was shut tight.
Two corpses clad in the Fang family's battle armor hung from the gate tower.
The night wind blew, making their tattered cloaks snap and flutter.
Yin Hong's vision went black.
Yin Jiao clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
Their last escape route had been cut off.
Several sorcerers in Daoist robes looked down from the gate tower.
Tokens of the State Preceptor's Residence hung at their waists, and black panthers were embroidered on their cuffs.
Yin Jiao recognized them.
They were Shen Gongbao's disciples.
The sorcerer at their head sneered.
"Yin Jiao, Yin Hong, His Majesty has decreed that whoever takes your heads shall receive a marquisate of ten thousand households."
"Where else do you think you can run?"
As his words fell, soldiers lying in ambush surged out on both sides of the gate.
Blades and spears rose like a forest, and torches flared.
Before them stood the sorcerers of the State Preceptor's Residence.
Behind them lurked three demons.
Every retreat had been severed.
Yin Hong picked up half a broken brick, his hand shaking badly.
"Brother, if we really can't escape..."
His throat tightened.
"I'll at least hit them once."
Yin Jiao glanced at him.
This little brother, whom their mother had sheltered behind her since childhood, now had mud and blood all over his face, yet he no longer cried.
Yin Jiao suddenly smiled.
His eyes reddened as he did.
"Princes of Yin Shang may fall, but they never kneel."
He picked up a Broken Blade from the ground and shielded Yin Hong behind him.
"Whoever comes first gets cut first."
The Wolf Monster growled, crouching low on all fours.
The Pig Monster scraped its tusks together with a piercing sound.
The sorcerer on the gate tower raised his hand, talisman fire kindling in his palm.
"Kill."
That single word fell.
The demons lunged as one.
At that very instant, Yin Jiao suddenly felt heat against his chest.
He jerked his head down.
The half-piece of a jade talisman his mother had pressed into his hand before they parted was giving off a faint warmth.
The warmth pointed beyond the shadows of the city wall.
The Mass Burial Grounds lay there.
Neglected graves crowded together amid waist-high weeds.
Farther in, part of a ruined temple's eaves was faintly visible.
Yin Jiao had no idea what that place was.
He knew only that it was the sole direction with no soldiers waiting in ambush.
"Yin Hong, charge with me!"
Yin Jiao roared and hurled the Broken Blade straight at the Wolf Monster's eye.
The Wolf Monster tilted his head to dodge, but the hilt still struck the bridge of his nose, making him falter in pain.
Seizing that opening, Yin Jiao grabbed Yin Hong, abruptly changed direction, and charged into the Mass Burial Grounds.
"They've gone into the graveyard!"
The sorcerer's expression shifted slightly.
The Pig Monster, however, gave a strange laugh.
"All the better if they go in there."
"That place is thick with yin energy. Even their souls won't escape."
"After them!"
The shouts of pursuit bore down on them again.
Yin Jiao and Yin Hong stumbled over the neglected graves.
Loose stones tripped their feet, and withered bones lay half exposed.
An icy wind swept through the grass, sounding like countless people whispering in the dark.
Yin Hong's face was pale with fright, but he stayed close behind Yin Jiao and no longer complained of exhaustion.
The ruined temple drew closer.
Its doors stood half shut. The plaque above them had rotted, leaving only half the character for "fate."
There was no light inside the temple.
Yet near the incense burner, the faintest trace of purple lay hidden beneath the ashes.
The jade talisman against Yin Jiao's chest grew hotter and hotter.
With no time to think, he dragged Yin Hong up the stone steps and shoved open the ruined temple's doors.
Creak-
The stale smell of incense ash struck them in the face.
Inside, the temple was desolate, cobwebs hanging down.
The offering table had not completely collapsed.
The nameless divine statue in the center had its eyes lowered, its face obscured by dust, as though it had slept through this troubled world for many years.
"Barricade the doors!"
Yin Jiao lifted the broken table and braced it against the temple doors.
Yin Hong rushed over too, wedging half a door bolt firmly into place.
Once they had done all this, the brothers collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.
The sounds of impacts soon came from outside.
Thud!
Thud!
The temple doors shook violently, and dust rained down.
"The Fortune of Yin Shang Orthodoxy rests on them!"
The sorcerer outside shouted harshly.
"Break down the doors! Capture one alive and butcher the other as an offering to the demon banner!"
The Wolf Monster raked his sharp claws across the door panels, sending wood chips flying.
The Pig Monster slammed into them hard, making the entire ruined temple shake.
Yin Hong's face was deathly pale.
"Brother..."
Yin Jiao did not answer.
He tightened his grip on a broken piece of wood and stood in front of Yin Hong.
Even with only one breath left, he would fall before his younger brother did.
Thud!
A crack opened in the Temple doors.
Eerie green wolf eyes pressed close to the gap, staring fixedly at them.
A chill swept through Yin Hong.
Yin Jiao raised the broken wood, ready to fight to the death.
But just then, the shadows behind the Divine Statue suddenly stirred.
A chill ran down Yin Jiao's back.
There was something else in this Temple!
The Wolf Monster outside seemed to sense something too, and the pounding on the doors abruptly stopped for half a breath.
The next moment, a languid voice drifted out from behind the Divine Statue.
"What's all this racket?"
The dark figure slowly rose.
A pair of dark golden eyes opened in the shadows.
"My master ordered This Emperor to guard the Temple."
"And you dare ram the doors?"