WHAT SURGING TIDE? The mass that poured toward them was a deluge of venomous snakes.
Chaos erupted in the narrow tunnel as the crowd turned and ran, trampling several cultivators to death in the crush. Jiang Xi pushed Nangong Si ahead. "You go first; I'll deal with things here."
He turned and scattered glimmering powder from his sleeves. The moment the snakes smelled the powder, they stopped and curled up in fear. "Everyone calm down," Jiang Xi shouted. "Retreat to the great hall—don't push!"
When he had stopped the tide of snakes, he hastily caught up to the rest at the stone doors, where Nangong Si was studying the dragon carving. "What is it?"
"The demon dragon must have been possessed," Nangong Si said. "I want to check on the Dragonsoul Pool."
Jiang Xi grabbed his arm. "What are we going to do about all those snakes? I didn't bring that much repelling powder—they'll come rushing back as soon as it wears off."
"I'll take care of it," Ye Wangxi said.
She'd been trained in Rufeng Sect's shadow city since she was small, and was more suited for fighting in dark and cramped spaces than anyone else. Even if Nangong Si was reluctant to leave her behind, Ye Wangxi's determination was written clear on her face. They had no better choices. Nangong Si laid a hand on her shoulder. "It's too dark here; I know you don't like it. I'll come back as soon as I can."
Jiang Xi and Nangong Si were last to leave the tunnel. As soon as they emerged, Huang Xiaoyue pounced with a ferocity beyond anything a white-haired old geezer should possess. "Nangong Si! Don't you dare say you don't have a hand in this!"
Nangong Si had reached the end of his patience. "If I were controlling this," he shouted, "would you still be standing here safe and sound? Get out of my way!"
Huang Xiaoyue blinked in shock, then pointed a finger in Nangong Si's face. "Look here, the mask is finally off! Showing your true colors at last? Acting the saint all along, but now that we're in your territory, you raise your voice at your elders. You still think you're the little prince of Rufeng Sect? How dare you look down on the rest of us!"
"Huang Xiaoyue." Someone else had had enough. Jiang Xi did not suffer idiots. His next words were clipped to sharpness, snapping out like whipcracks: "Do you think I don't know precisely what you're trying to do?"
That accusing finger darted back into Huang Xiaoyue's sleeve. His face paled, but he maintained his composure. "I'm but an old man seeking to avenge his brother. Perhaps Jiang-zhangmen can't empathize with—"
"Of course I can't empathize with Huang-daozhang." Jiang Xi fixed him with a cold stare, his eyes like two sharp blades unsheathing. "After all, I haven't the slightest interest in Rufeng Sect's treasures."
Huang Xiaoyue stumbled a few steps back, staring dumbly as he gaped like a beached fish, incapable of forming speech.
"Nangong, go on ahead." Jiang Xi said.
But the Dragonsoul Pool was right there. It was clear with one glance that there was nothing unusual about it. He paced around it several times but found no evidence of tampering. Nangong Si shook his head. "I'll go take a look in the front hall."
The layout of the hall was more complex, and all the Zhenlong pawns were still within. Nangong Liu, too, had been left in the hall. When Nangong Si entered, he found him fast asleep, clutching his basket of tangerines.
He stood before his father for a while, eyes vacant and red around the rims. He didn't dare stay too long, nor wake his dad who'd been reduced to a pawn. He only looked at each face in turn, hoping to find some clue.
He hadn't examined things so closely when everyone else had been here earlier. He only knew the hall had been separated into two halves, paradise and purgatory. As he studied each puppet, he saw many familiar faces—the fourth uncle who never liked Xu Shuanglin had fallen into purgatory and was roasting over the flames, while the handmaidens who'd served in his courtyard, Farewell to Three Lifetimes, were chasing butterflies in paradise. He even glimpsed his own grandfather among the crowd. But Nangong Si had no time to grieve. He'd suddenly sensed he was about to see a certain someone, someone who…
He heard it. Through the whispering tide, he heard it. A soft and shaking murmur—
"Si-er."
Nangong Si's head snapped around as if struck by lightning, tears welling in his eyes. In the hazy fog, he saw a faint silhouette garbed in teal. He staggered toward it, shouting hoarsely. "Mom! Mom!"
His falling tears seemed to clear his vision. On the side of paradise stood Nangong Si's mother, Rong Yan. Like Nangong Changying, this woman's willpower was unbending, and Xu Shuanglin had left the minds of the pawns in the hall intact. Her destroyed body still recognized her son as soon as he entered her field of view, though Nangong Si was very different from the boy she'd last seen him as. Shaking, she reached one stiffening hand out toward her son. "Si…er…"
Rong Yan was wearing the clothes Nangong Si had last seen her in. He knelt before her, returning to that bygone year in an instant—to that unremarkable night at Rufeng Sect. A mother had gone to her son's study in search of him, and the full moon had watched through the window.
Nangong Si knelt before her, looking up at her face. His chest was bursting with words he wanted to say, but what left his mouth were a few trembling syllables: "Mom… If the whole world praised him, he rejoiced not; if the whole world blamed him, he despaired not…"
Time flowed backward.
The stern mother of the past stood by the window, slender brows drawn together. "What comes before 'if the whole world blamed him, he despaired not'?"
The child stammered, unable to answer.
She had departed from this world too early. When he'd knelt before her black coffin, he still couldn't fully recite the last volume his mother wanted him to learn by heart while she was alive. Now, across the tumultuous years, this recitation was finally made whole.
He knelt just as he had on that moonlit night. Their silhouettes mirrored the scene in his memories, but his past resentment had become agonizing grief, and that long-dead beauty had become someone else's pawn.
Rong Yan patted Nangong Si's hair, his cheeks, and in the end, took hold of his bloodied hands. Her eyes fluttered shut. "Si-er, I'm under his control, completely at his mercy. I could lose my mind any time…but Si-er, you must believe me… Everything I say is true; everything I'm saying now is what I thought when I passed. I hate what your uncle has done, but I'm grateful to him…"
"Mom…"
"If it weren't for him…turning me into a pawn, how could I see you again…and tell you…" Rong Yan stiffly, slowly, bent down. Shaking, she reached out and gathered Nangong Si tightly into her arms. "When I left, my greatest regret was…" She choked and fell mute, but it wasn't because Xu Shuanglin had taken control. She held her son so tightly, continuing in a quavering voice. "My greatest regret was that I'd never, ever, hugged you properly. I never held you like this…Si-er… I love you, too."
Nangong Si cried himself breathless. "I know… I know, Mom. I've known for a long time."
The ground quaked beneath them. Rong Yan flinched, eyes snapping open. "Wangli's blood oath is about to break…"
"What?"
"Wangli's blood oath is about to break! Here, I've seen it grow weaker every day!" Rong Yan grew agitated. "Si-er, you mustn't risk yourself. I need to stop him… I need to stop Nangong Xu…"
Wiping his face, Nangong Si held up a hand. "Mom, what did you see? What oath is going to break?"
"Listen to me." Rong Yan paused, pupils shrinking. For a moment, it seemed as if she'd fall under the sway of the spell again, but she clenched her jaw and resisted the black Zhenlong chess piece's power with her own mortal mind. "Listen. Nangong Xu has gathered five holy weapons, which have drunk their fill of the blood of thousands. Using them together, he can cut the bond between the demon dragon and the Nangong clan."
"Cut the bond?!"
"Correct. The dragon's sinew was the first bond he cut."
"So those revenants outside attacked again because the dragon's sinew was cut?" cried Nangong Si.
"Yes," Rong Yan rasped. "The second is the dragon's scales."
Nangong Si recalled the venomous snakes they'd faced; they'd likely transformed from the dragon's scales.
"Third, the dragon's tail."
"Was that shaking just now the tail?" asked Nangong Si, growing ever paler.
"Correct. After that is the dragon's head and then the body. If Nangong Xu succeeds in using the fifth weapon, we'll lose all control over Mount Jiao… It will never…never again accept the sect founder as its master…"
Her face contorted, and she fell silent. Xu Shuanglin seemed to have sensed her betrayal and was doing his best to corrode her body. Rong Yan moaned, burying pale fingers in her hair. "No…no…"
"Mom!"
"S-Si-er…" She surfaced again at the sound of his voice. Like someone dying of thirst spying a clear spring at last, she clutched him desperately to her, face written with helpless dread. He'd never seen such powerlessness in her. Heart twisting, Nangong Si wrapped her in his arms. He'd been just a boy before. His mom had always been stoic and stern; she'd rarely shown affection. Now, he could finally protect his mother. Even if this was a passing illusion—the lingering final wishes impressed on her body after her souls had gone—it was enough.
Rong Yan was bent low, shaking in Nangong Si's arms. When she finally lifted her head, her face was stained with the telltale bloody tears of Zhenlong pawns.
Bitterness pooled in the back of Nangong Si's throat. He reached out to wipe those tears away, but he couldn't do it; no matter how he tried, they only smeared across her face. He closed his eyes in pain.
"I can feel him… He's noticed me… I haven't much time," Rong Yan said. "You have to listen. He's breaking the blood oath to…to create a new bond with the demon dragon. At that time… Ah!"
Her mind went slack; she couldn't continue. But Nangong Si suddenly understood. "At that time," he said, face bloodless. "When Wangli obeys him alone, all of us on Mount Jiao—all of us will die?!"
"This cannot come to pass!" mother and son cried out in unison.
Nangong Si looked down at his mother. "Mom, what do we do?"
"Nangong Xu hasn't perfected this forbidden technique…" Coldness flashed over Rong Yan's face. "He…he can't control the Zhenlong chess pieces. That's why he's facing the backlash, and that's how…I'm somewhat lucid… I know what to do. Listen to me."
Hands viselike around Nangong Si's fingers, Rong Yan looked around the hall. Her gaze fixed on her husband's body. The earlier quake had woken Nangong Liu, who was clutching his basket of tangerines and looking around in confusion. Rong Yan watched him the way an eagle would eye a snake in its den.
"Someone must die." The words escaped her vermilion lips. "Si-er, you have to kill him."