The three patrolling cultivators were in view now, coming straight for them. Eui’s eyes narrowed as she focused her resolve and began to call the essence of destruction forth from within her. She was going to tear their fucking throats out.

Just as she was about to launch her assault, something slammed into her out of nowhere, pulling her away and dragging her through the shadows into a world of twilight. She started to lash out in retaliation, but came up short when she looked into the glowing blue eyes of the assailant that was pinning her to the ground.

“Jia—no, Lee Hei?!”

The world crashed back into focus, and Eui could see her own red eyes looking back at her—she looked deranged. Lee Hei’s voice echoed in her head.

“Are you back with us, Eui?”

Eui blinked, then frowned.

“Was I ever not? What’s going on, how did you surprise me like that?”

It should have been impossible for Jia and Heian to do anything without Eui noticing, much less combine with each other and sneak up on her. Lee Hei leaned in close as if to whisper in her ear, then bit her hard enough to draw blood from the earlobe.

“Ow! What the fuck was that for?!”

“For not listening! I don’t have time to tell you everything, just remember.”

Without further elaboration, Lee Hei stood up and dove back through the shadows to retrieve the others. Eui’s head was throbbing with pain, and there was an ache in her chest around her demonic core, but she tried to remember the last few moments.

Her stomach lurched at the memory. She recalled everything perfectly—Jia telling her to stop, Heian offering to help, and Lee Hei moving according to instinct to pull everyone to safety. Except it wasn’t quite safe. Eui looked at the twilight world around her, frowning. The memories were distant—as if they’d happened to someone else even though she’d just lived through it a second ago. She’d heard Jia’s voice, and just chosen to ignore it. She hadn't wanted to stop, she’d wanted blood.

The idea of losing control like that was haunting, but Lee Hei was right. They didn’t have time to worry about it right now. The patrol was rapidly falling on them and they had no idea how effective this dimension hopping trick would be. Whatever this place was, it wasn’t the same as the spirit realm.

Lee Hei surged back through the shadows with Rika, and Seong Misun in tow before dashing off towards Ja Yun and Eunae. Black sparks crackled across their bodies as they staggered forward, and Seong Misun’s eyes darted back and forth taking in her surroundings.

“What the hell?! Ancestors take me, is this a dimensional space?!”

Eui shook her head.

“No, it’s...hold on...”

She focused her thoughts on Lee Hei, trying not to get distracted by the way her tail swayed with each leap—this was serious.

“What is this place, exactly?”

Lee Hei’s answer came in the form of a torrent of thoughts and feelings, and Eui reeled as she took it all in at once. Shadow, safety, a place between.

“Uh...it’s like...a space between the physical and spirit realms. A shadow world, I guess. I think that’s why everything looks weird, we’re seeing the physical and spiritual superimposed on each other.”

Rika nodded.

“Makes sense. Figures that Jia was hiding a secret like this up her sleeve.”

Eui scratched her cheek.

“Actually, we’re kind of figuring this one out as we go.”

Rika snorted and shook her head.

“That’s even more like Jia. What’s with all the...things at the edge of my domain?”

Misun crossed her arms.

“Yes, I sense them too. They’re almost like spirits, but fragmented and incomplete. They are also extremely hostile, but too weak to actually encroach past my domain.”

Eui swept her domain across her surroundings, and the darkness scurried away from her. It watched and it waited—stalkers following their prey. Scavengers. They were everywhere, omnipresent and all but invisible against the shadows.

“I don’t know. I think they’re like...proto-spirits? Bits of essence that have gained life, but not enough to form a soul.”

Misun scowled.

“You’re just making that up.”

Eui shrugged dismissively.

“I’m all ears if you’ve got a better theory.”

Misun didn’t get a chance to retort as Lee Hei tumbled out of a shadow carrying Ja Yun and Eunae. She twisted in the air to land on all fours as the other two fell sprawling on the ground. Lee Hei popped back up onto her feet and put her fingers to her lips.

“Shh! No more talking. Stay still. We’re hiding now.”

Eui ducked behind a tree as the cultivators arrived in the clearing and began their search. Their voices echoed strangely, but she could clearly hear them speaking to each other.

“I thought you said you’d definitely found someone. There’s nothing here, Tao Hai.”

The wind cultivator, Tao Hai, shook his head as he responded to the apparent leader.

“Senior Lin, there were people here. Nearly a dozen of them—I felt it on the wind.”

Lin sighed.

“I trust your technique Tao Hai, but not more than my own eyes. This clearing is empty.”

The third one shrugged.

“Perhaps they fled. I’d expect nothing better from savages.”

Tao Hai shook his head.

“Impossible! I’d have detected that. It’s as though they disappeared entirely. Look, there are disturbances in the underbrush here—they are using some kind of technique to hide, I’m sure of it.”

Lin scratched his head and grimaced.

“It could have been beasts, Tao Hai. Maybe the savages repelled a few of them. But you are the best detector among us, do you sense anything else amiss?”

Tao Hai closed his eyes in meditation, and Eui felt the mana begin to move around her. She shot a nervous glance at Lee Hei, but her possessed girlfriend wasn’t moving from her spot, watching the three cultivators with intense focus.

The cultivator finished whatever he was doing and opened his eyes again, looking straight in Eui’s direction. She ducked further behind the tree.

“There’s something here, I’m sure of it. The spiritual energy is disturbed as it passes through.”

The man walked straight up to where Eui was hiding and began to circle the tree, frowning. There was no way for her or the others to stay out of sight, but his eyes passed right over her. He reached out with a hand, and Eui began to lean away when Lee Hei’s voice sounded in her mind.

“Don’t move!”

Eui froze, and Tao Hai’s hand passed right through her face. She felt his qi in the air as whatever technique he was using swept through the space she occupied, but the man just frowned.

“This doesn’t make any sense. I can sense someone here. Their qi is as clear as day, but it’s motionless. There’s nothing to touch, and the wind passes undisturbed. It’s as though a person’s soul hovers here untethered.”

The leader’s eyes sharpened at that.

“Astral projection? One of the false gods Sovereign Shen warned about trying to spy on us?”

The yet unnamed third cultivator raised an eyebrow.

“Out here in the middle of nowhere on the southern border? Why? Maybe it’s a stray spirit or something.”

Tao Hai shook his head.

“I know how to identify spirits—this feels different. Wan Guo, try striking this place with your technique.”

Finally, Eui had a name for the useless third wheel of the scout patrol. Wan Guo grimaced at the order.

“You want me to waste qi flailing at ghosts? This is probably just some anomaly left behind by the beast wave—you’re overreacting.”

Lin frowned at the man, holding his chin in his hands for a moment before coming to a decision.

“Do it. If Tao Hai’s suspicions prove false, you can have his time in the meditation hall for the next month.”

Wan Guo’s eyes widened in surprise, but when Tao Hai didn’t object, he shrugged and strode forward, standing right in front of Eui and pointing a finger at her. She held her breath and tensed up, trusting Lee Hei to warn her if something dangerous was happening.

Essence gathered at the tip of his finger before a beam of searing light shot forward. Eui stifled a scream as it pierced her shoulder and burned painfully. Tao Hai continued to pass his hand back and forth through Eui while Wan Guo kept his technique going, lazily picking his ear with the other hand.

“Anything?”

Tao Hai shook his head with resignation, stepping back away from Eui.

“Nothing. No movement or response as far as I could sense. Perhaps this anomaly really is some kind of echo. I think we should bring this back to the Sect Master.”

Eui had to suppress a sigh of relief when Wan Guo’s technique stopped. She didn’t dare risk healing herself yet, for fear that it would give them away. Wan Guo put a hand on his hip and glared incredulously at Tao Hai.

“You’ve already lost a month of closed door training, and now you want to disturb the Master in the middle of his? You’re courting death, my friend.”

Lin stepped in and waved him off.

“It’s fine! Clearly this isn’t an urgent problem. We’ll send a few outer disciples to monitor the anomaly and inform the Master when he’s free. Let’s report back already, Xiaoli is going to be furious if I’m any later than I already am.”

Wan Guo scoffed.

“I can’t believe you’re letting yourself get so whipped over some outer disciple. She’s certainly beautiful, but surely you could do better?”

Lin waved a hand dismissively as the trio began walking off.

“Tch, as if I’d expect a lecher like you to understand matters of the heart. Perhaps your cultivation would be faster if you learned to think with the organ between your ears instead of the one between your legs.”

Eui kept holding her breath as they walked off, waiting for what felt like an eternity until they were finally out of sight. Finally, she allowed herself to stop holding back.

“Fuck! Ancestors damn it, shit! My arm! Hei, did you know that was going to happen?”

The girls gathered around Eui to make sure she was okay. Lee Hei fidgeted awkwardly, biting her lower lip as she inspected Eui’s wound.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure what would happen, I just knew we needed to stay still.”

Rika cringed at the nasty hole that had been burned into Eui’s flesh.

“Holy shit, Eui, you took that like a champ. I don’t think I’d have been able to stay still through that.”

Eui tried to shrug, but stopped herself before she could make her shoulder worse.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been through worse. At least I can just heal it off...wait, Hei, can I heal myself or do we still need to avoid using essence?”

Lee Hei shrugged.

“We should ask Master, she’s just—”

She cut herself off as she turned towards the other side of the clearing where she’d left Ienaga and her sisters, and Eui felt a wave of fear and uncertainty radiating off of her. Instead of her family, there was a growing wall of darkness, blotting out the forest. Eui didn’t know what it was or what it meant, but it filled her with unease. There was something wrong with the gathering darkness.

Eunae followed Lee Hei’s gaze and shuddered.

“Jia—or...Hei? What is that?”

“I don’t know, but it’s bad. We need to help them.”

Misun crossed her arms under her chest and scoffed.

“You mean I need to help them. Anything that could threaten Ienaga Yumi is not something you lot would be able to put so much as a dent in.”

Ja Yun, of all people, was the first to protest.

“Where were you while we were fighting that Magma elemental again?”

Misun blushed and looked away.

“That was different! Besides, the Ice elemental was much stronger.”

Rika snickered and rolled her eyes.

“Sure...”

Eui ignored the banter and focused on Lee Hei. She was frozen in fear, as if she knew something that she wasn’t telling the others. Eui approached cautiously and wrapped her good arm around her possessed partner in as comforting a gesture as she could manage.

“What’s wrong? I’m sure Ienaga is keeping your family safe from whatever that is.”

Lee Hei nodded.

“Probably, yes. I’m not worried about them—well, I am, but that’s not it.”

“What, then?”

“I think I know what that darkness is. What all the little shades poking at the edge of our domains are. They’re spirits.”

Eui nodded along.

“Well yeah, we already guessed that didn’t we?”

Lee Hei shook her head.

“Not that kind of spirit, look—”

She pointed at the mass of darkness, and Eui had a hard time making out the black-on-black figure that Lee Hei was trying to indicate. Thankfully, she didn’t need to—through Lee Hei’s eyes, she could see it clearly. The silhouette of an oversized bird, standing out against the otherwise shapeless mass.

Eui didn’t understand at first, but then realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. The giant chicken that Master Ienaga had defeated during the beast wave had looked like that. Now that she knew what to look for, Eui spotted a few other silhouettes among the dark shapes—another bird and a toad.

Lee Hei met her eyes and nodded.

“That’s why they are malformed and fragmented. They aren’t spirits that haven’t fully formed yet—they’re souls that have died.”