~~~

“Can it be done?”

Fan Bingbing hums as she considers his question.

“It is one thing to differentiate between the traps that are still working and those that are not, but to modify them… It is not impossible, but it will be dangerous.”

Not impossible. They are such sweet words under the circumstances.

“I submit myself to the guidance of the Exploration Division.”

~~~

Qing Jin.

The name echoes in Qu Rou’s head like the tolling of a bell. During the banquet, Qu Rou had dismissed the pill-making contest as a simple spectacle to disguise the machinations of the Elders. The two disciples brought before everyone were not worth paying attention to. That had been his thinking back then. Had he known that Qing Jin’s deeds were no fabrication, Qu Rou would have imprinted Qing Jin’s Qi into his memory.

Alas, there is no time to lament what could have been. Especially not when the opportunity to fix his mistake lies before him.

The pebbles on the floor quake as Qu Rou bursts into the temple. His shoulders heave with every breath he takes but not due to any fatigue.

They heave with rage.

It takes him a fraction of a second to examine his surroundings. He feels the myriad creatures crawling inside the temple, and his aura rises to scare them off. The power of a cultivator in the Fourth Level of the Earth Realm blankets all before Qu Rou pushes on with unimaginable speed. His are not the silent steps of a thief but the brazen charge of a wild ox rampaging through a busy street. That the floor does not crack under his strength is a testament to the quality of the materials used to build the temple.

As Qu Rou nears the first intersection, he sees the corpses of several Spirit Beasts lying on the right corridor. That indicates the disciples fought their way through there.

However, Qi does not lie.

When Qing Jin’s soul fragment left the temple to speak to him, it left a trail behind it, and that trail has not yet faded away. For some, the temple may be a labyrinth of multiple levels, but Qu Rou can see his path clearly. He steps confidently onto the left corridor.

And activates the first trap.

A vicious torrent is unleashed from the far end of the corridor, flooding everything and leaving no room to dodge. Were it not for the pungent smell that accompanies it, Qu Rou would have dismissed the clear liquid as mere water. As he runs towards it, his Qi reaches out to the liquid and examines it. There is no intent within it, certainly nothing that can harm his soul.

Perhaps some acidic concoction?

He spits.

Inelegant, perhaps. Qu Rou will omit this part of the story from his recollection if anyone asks. Regardless, it does the job. The spit reaches the liquid before the liquid reaches him. It allows Qu Rou to appreciate how the fluid reacts to the intrusion, gauge its lethality, then dismiss it as relatively harmless.

Qu Rou breaks right through.

The acid stings his robes and irritates his skin. However, that level of damage is easily repaired. Indeed, Qu Rou does so before he has reached the end of the hall. Though he may not be able to reconstruct his entire body from nothing like Heaven Realm cultivators can, as an Earth Realm cultivator, Qu Rou’s regenerative abilities are still far above most. It is his soul that dictates the shape of his body. And so, all physical damage can be fixed without effort. Only the smell is left.

He could have easily avoided it all had he just retreated temporarily, but that is not an option. If Qu Rou waits too long, the trail left behind by Qing Jin’s soul fragment will fade away. It is bad enough it has already been hours since Qing Jin’s soul fragment first left the temple. The sheer number of Spirit Beasts dwelling in the place and high-amount of ambient Qi muddy everything up.

Without the trail left by Qing Jin’s soul fragment, there is a decent chance the disciples could end up escaping before Qu Rou finds them. It is one of the reasons why Qu Rou chose to wait outside until now.

He cannot waste any time.

With lightning-fast movements, Qu Rou clears the first floor in under three seconds and enters the temple’s lower levels with the same tempestuousness. He senses the many Spirit Beasts moving about.

Soon, he hears them as well.

Qu Rou can barely see them in the darkness beneath the temple, but he can feel as countless enormous spiders come crawling from around the corner. For the first time, Qu Rou stops running and draws his bow. He takes one of the feathers in his hair, and a jolt of Qi morphs it into a large arrow, which he aims at the creatures.

He lets it loose.

The spiders die.

The giant arrow rips through the corridor. It doesn’t even need to hit Qu Rou’s foes. The force behind it is such that the spider’s bodies are torn to shreds in its wake. Cracks appear on the wall as it hits it, and the impact reverberates all around. Still, the cracks are not deep enough for the arrow to be left embedded in the wall. Instead, it merely clatters to the ground.

[Shooting Star Step]

Qu Rou blurs towards the end of the hallway with his clan’s secret movement technique. More spiders await him around the corner. There are so many they crawl over each other’s bodies to advance.

Another arrow clears them out.

[Shooting Star Step]

Fire. Advance. Fire. Advance. Qu Rou falls into a simple pattern as he makes his way through the temple. The spiders are no match for his arrows. He does not even need to aim. A single shot is enough to clear the way every time. The only problem is the sheer number of creatures that block his way. It is not just spiders. There are all sorts of Spirit Beasts trying to attack him. Creatures of fire and flesh, of smoke and earth.

How can there be this many? It is as if all the Spirit Beasts in the temple are gathering in his path, but that makes no sense. Most Spirit Beasts should know better than to approach a foe beyond them. That is why he flared his aura as soon as he entered the temple!

A trap opens up above him.

A hail of spears come down the ceiling. Qu Rou grits his teeth. The corridor is too narrow, and the spears are coming down too fast for him to draw his bow in time.

He swings it instead.

Qu Rou's bow is supple yet incredibly strong. It is not made to be swung around like a mace, but that does not mean he can't. Though it makes him scream with indignation on the inside, there is no other choice. A swing of his bow knocks three spears out of the way. The fourth spear he needs to grab. The fifth, he kicks. For the sixth, he moves his head out of the way, but it graces his cheek, drawing a line across it.

Before blood has a chance to seep from the wound, his regeneration has already taken care of it.

Another [Shooting Star Step] takes Qu Rou to the end of the corridor, and for the first time, Qu Rou takes a moment to gather himself. He has been using his clan's movement technique to briskly clear the corridors, but being in the Earth Realm makes repeated use of it a chore. It is preferable to merely running, but the curse of the Earth, gravity, tries to hold him regardless of how he chooses to move.

Qu Rou does not stop for long. Not even for two seconds. No matter what, he cannot falter! Else, the trail will vanish before he reaches Qing Jin.

Blades. Acid. Noxious Gasses. Even though most of the traps in the temple should have already been triggered by those who came long before him, Qu Rou keeps running into them. They force him to slow down, to be more mindful of his steps in the darkness. No longer can he just dash in without worry. He has to do things like grab the corpse of one of the spiders and throw it ahead of himself to see what it will trigger.

Still, he clears the first few underground levels with no wounds on his body.

It is not that nothing managed to hurt him. Rather, his regeneration can heal every minor injury with ease. Qi burns around him, constantly keeping his body in perfect shape. He has his bow on his right hand and an arrow on his left.

A roar comes from behind Qu Rou.

He turns around in time to see a Spirit Beast emerge from his shadow. A Shadow-Dwelling Devourer, a rare type of Spirit Beast with the innate ability to move through shadows. It is big and hairy, with powerful muscles and menacing claws.

True Realm, Ninth Level.

Far stronger than anything Qu Rou has faced in this temple so far, yet it is still only in the True Realm. The creature’s instincts should be telling him it is no match for him. Indeed, despite their fearsome name, Shadow-Dwelling Devourers are cowardly by nature. This creature should be doing its best to avoid him instead of trying to attack him. The spiders should also have avoided him due to the difference in strength.

Why do they attack him so fiercely?

Those thoughts flash through Qu Rou’s mind as he raises his bow to shoot at the beast.

Qu Rou flinches.

Something tickles at his back and leaves him startled. A blade, he realizes belatedly. Not seeing it in time would have been a death sentence for most people. For Qu Rou, the feeling is little different from a drop of rain falling on the back of his neck. It is not pain but surprise that makes him flinch.

The Shadow-Dwelling Devourer’s claws close in on his face.

Qu Rou’s pride as an archer screams as he’s forced to block the beast’s claws with his arrow, holding it like a sword. He grits his teeth and pushes the beast back with a burst of strength, slamming him against the temple walls. The creature tries to sink back into the shadows, but Qu Rou’s Qi holds it in place. His soul clashes against the Spirit Beast and grinds it down.

His arrow goes right through the beast’s head.

All while the mysterious blades keep striking his back.

Qu Rou turns around, furious. An arrow clears the hallway, but there is no sign of the one who attacked him.

And yet, more and more blades keep coming towards him.

They are not steel or flame but sound. As a single arrow from Qu Rou overpowers them all once more, he realizes what is happening. Unlike his arrows, these sound blades freely echo across the corridors of the temple. He has heard of something like this before. One of the Eternal Flame Clan’s allied Sects dedicates itself to sound and music. This must be one of their techniques.

As he ventures deeper into the dark temple, Qu Rou’s steps are accompanied by a never-ending melody. It is quick and fast-paced, just like the attacks that come along with it. Countless blades of sound try to wound his body, but they are to him as summer rain.

And yet, he cannot do anything to stop it. The one attacking is beyond the reach of his bow. He could even be on a different floor!

The blades, the Spirit Beasts, the traps.

They are all nothing more than annoyances!

Qu Rou grits his teeth as more spiders get in his way. Always more! Useless vermin too idiotic to know better than to challenge him!

The floor opens up under him.

For some reason, Qu Rou cannot step out of the way in time. The rigors of the Earth Realm do not allow him to boost himself out of the pit using [Shooting Star Step]. All Qu Rou can do is slow down his descent to the bottom. He senses the many spiders awaiting him down there. However, they are little more than an afterthought. As soon as he touches the floor, he’s right in front of it. He does not need eyes to see, but he lifts his head up, all the same, to look up at the monstrosity before him.

Earth Realm, Level Six.

The Mother Spider screeches.

Qu Rou has his bow up in an instant. Before he can fire, the Mother Spider spits acid at him. Qu Rou blurs to the side with [Shooting Star Step] and fires. His arrow strikes the Mother Spider’s legs.

However, it fails to pierce the Spirit Beasts’ body.

Qu Rou raises an eyebrow in surprise as the spiders screech all around him. He blurs to the right as the Mother Spider’s legs come down. The arrow in his hand is already loaded with his Qi.

He fires it.

Then another.

And another.

With powerful eight shots, Qu Rou clears the room of most spiders. He charges his next arrow and fires it at the Mother Spider. The beast screams as it lands right in one of its eyes. It lashes out and swipes at Qu Rou with one of its massive legs, forcing Qu Rou to quickly blur out of the way.

He is not fast enough.

Qu Rou’s face morphs with shock as the Mother Spider’s leg slams right into him and knocks him against the wall. He screams as acid rains down on his body. A burst of Qi pushes it away, his body already regenerating as the Mother Spider comes in for another attack.

Qu Rou is forced to raise his bow to block. The Mother Spider’s strength bears down on him, and his bow creaks in protest. Still, Qu Rou holds on, Qi burning around his body, healing his wounds and nourishing his strength. The Mother Spider pulls its leg up to come down for another blow, and Qu Rou takes a feather from his hair. A jolt of Qi morphs it into a mighty arrow.

There is no time to nock it, so Qu Rou throws it at the Mother Spider like a javelin. It sails through the air and pushes back the beast, giving Qu Rou enough time to back away and fire from his bow. The next arrow flies right towards the Mother Spider.

It misses.

He misses.

Qu Rou is left so stunned he barely remembers to dodge the blast of acid from the Mother Spider.

His bow is bent.

It was the last blow that did it. As Qu Rou fires his next arrow, he takes the damage done into account. The arrow strikes the Mother Spider’s body head-on, yet once more, it’s not strong enough to pierce its body.

He needs to use more power.

Qu Rou tries to blur out of the Mother Spider’s way. However, once again, he’s not fast enough. A glancing blow sends him flying. He gasps in pain but holds on to his arrow, pushing more and more Qi into it. The Mother Spider spits acid at him, but Qu Rou manages to dodge this time.

More power.

Six jumps with [Shooting Star Step] take him as far away from the Mother Spider as possible. A part of Qu Rou’s mind has to wonder why it takes him six steps when he should be able to clear miles with a single one.

The Mother Spider charges.

Qu Rou stands his ground.

The Mother Spider is a massive beast that moves with impossible speed. Every single one of its steps causes tremors across the entire room. Its sharp mandibles clack ominously, ready to tear him in half.

Qu Rou stands his ground.

The Mother Spider screeches and launches a blast of acid at him. The arrow in Qu Rou’s hand glows with mighty power, shining a light in the darkness, but he does not fire it yet.

He dashes in.

His body screams as he pushes through the acid. It doesn’t matter. It is mere physical damage. No attack from a brute beast such as this can damage his soul. Closer. He needs to get closer still. His body is already regenerating even as the damage is being done. Qu Rou pushes through the acid until he’s right below the Mother Spider.

Qu Rou fires his most powerful arrow.

[Sun Splitting Shot]

The ensuing explosion rocks the entire floor, punching a hole through Mother Spider and bringing Qu Rou to his knees. His eyes widen as the Mother Spider’s corpse starts to fall down, but his legs lack the strength to flee.

Mother Spider’s corpse crashes right on top of him.

Gasping in pain, Qu Rou manages to crawl out from under the corpse. He takes a deep breath as his body focuses on mending itself and…

Wait, something is… wrong…

Qu Rou turns around immediately. A spear coated in potent lightning heads right towards him. His body is suddenly wracked by coughs. He tries to raise his bow but finds it has been lost under the Mother Spider’s body.

That does not mean the spear reaches him.

His Qi roars as he brings his fist forward. His muscles scream and tear themselves apart from the amount of Qi he pushes into the limb.

The spear breaks under his might.

“No more tricks!” He roars, trying to stop his coughing. “I can sense you, Qing Jin! I know you are here!”

Why did he not feel him before?

Why can he not pinpoint his position?

Why is he coughing so much?

“That request is easily granted, Senior Brother,” Qing Jin’s voice echoes on the walls. “I have no more tricks to play.”

Where is he? Qu Rou looks left and right but cannot find him.

How can an Inner Disciple hide his Qi so well?

“However, I also have no need for more tricks,” Qing Jin says, finally appearing before him. “Have you not-”

Qu Rou blurs right towards Qing Jin with [Shooting Star Step]. In the blink of an eye, he has Qing Jin by the throat, only for Qing Jin’s body to suddenly vanish.

Another soul fragment? Qu Rou frowns. No, that is not-

Qu Rou starts coughing once more. His lungs scream in pain. What is happening?

“Have you not noticed, Senior Brother?” Qing Jin’s voice echoes on the walls. “You haven’t been breathing.”

What?

“I suppose it is not surprising Senior Brother has not noticed,” Qing Jin keeps speaking as Qu Rou tries to get his coughing under control. His chest burns.

“A cultivator in the Earth Realm like Senior Brother has refined his body to the point where it can work with very little oxygen. However, that does not mean your body does not need it at all,” Qing Jin says as he appears on the other end of the room.

“Enough!” Qu Rou blurs towards Qing Jin but once again goes right through him.

“It merely means Senior Brother has so much Qi that breathing simply isn’t a concern most of the time. However, if we take steps to remove the oxygen around Senior Brother, the situation becomes different. Especially if Senior Brother is too busy fighting Spirit Beasts and healing from minor injuries all the time. At every turn, the damage Senior Brother was healing was greater than Senior Brother thought it was.”

“Impossible!” Qu Rou roars. However, even as he says it, his mind supplies a simple enough way to do so. Any disciple with enough control over fire should have been able to lower the amount of oxygen in the lower levels of the temple.

However, how could they guarantee he would be too busy fighting Spirit Beasts to notice? How did they make them all attack him so fiercely?

“The water that hit me when I first entered the temple,” Qu Rou realizes. “That was a lure.”

“Not the water, but rather the scent,” Qing Jin replies. “It was quite dangerous to make. We were not confident it would work on every creature in the temple, but at the very least, it needed to work on the spiders. I also needed to make sure my soul fragment traveled along the path that was most full of spiders so Senior Brother would follow that trail. It was all quite difficult.”

“So what?!” Qu Rou yells in between coughs. “You still have not wounded me! You still have not beaten me! I have more than enough power to kill you! My soul will not falter!”

“No,” Qing Jin says, appearing before him once more. “That is not how it works, Senior Brother. Your soul and body are one. Your body has been slowly suffering all this time, so you have continuously and recklessly been supplementing it through your soul. However, in doing so, you have exhausted your soul as well.”

That’s not… That cannot…

Above!

Qu Rou looks up to see a hail of attacks come up from above the pit. Blades of sound and steel and flames of different colors. They are attacks from the disciples he ignored in his search for Qing Jin. His Qi roars as he tries to force back the attacks through the sheer force of his aura.

A lone blue fireball manages to reach his arm.

Qu Rou screams.

His mind distantly categorizes the attack as a technique that seeks to upset the balance between the Yin and Yang Qi in a person’s body. A mere parlor trick from a weak disciple that should never work on someone like Qu Rou, who is in the Earth Realm.

However, Qing Jin is right.

All this time, his body has been chipped away, forcing Qu Rou to rely more and more on his soul to impose its image over it. Again and again, he regenerated without realizing how extensive the damage being done to him was. The balance between Yin and Yang in his body has degraded to the point even a simple technique now greatly upsets his Qi.

And so, at that crucial moment, Qu Rou falters.

Qing Jin does not miss his chance. He closes in and lands a single attack before a weak backhand from Qu Rou sends him flying against the wall.

The tiniest prick of pain forces Qu Rou to look down at his chest.

There is a small, bluish needle embedded there.

“That is a dragon bone needle made from the bones of an Earth Realm dragon,” Qing Jin says weakly. Qu Rou has been weakened so much he couldn’t kill him in a single blow. “They were a gift from my master, but that one is special even among them. You see, it is one of six that was inside me for three years while I was exposed to a deadly poison. Even if you are in the Earth Realm, your body will not overcome it, Senior Brother. The only issue was weakening you enough to use it.”

However, Qu Rou is not listening anymore.

Qu Rou is already dying.

~~~