"Mo. There's something in the mist." Chen Mo stopped running. His chest was heaving, his broken ribs screaming, his shredded arm hanging useless at his side. But he didn't care about any of that. He cared about the way Meng Yao's voice had gone so quiet. So careful. Like she was afraid of waking something up. "What is it?" She pointed into the fog. At first, he couldn't see anything. Just the endless white void that had swallowed the valley whole. But then his eyes adjusted. And he saw it. A wall. Not a normal wall. This thing was massive, towering, so tall it disappeared into the mist above them. It was made of some kind of black metal that seemed to drink the light around it. Moss hung from its surface in thick, ancient curtains. The stone beneath it was cracked and worn, crumbling under the weight of centuries. "That's not natur

  The first howl came from the darkness. Then another. Then a hundred more. Meng Yao's head snapped toward the temple entrance. The massive star-iron gates were still sealed, but something was pushing against them from the outside. Something huge. Something hungry. "Mo." She shook his shoulder. His body was limp, cold, unresponsive. His eyes were open but empty. Trapped in whatever vision had consumed him. "Mo, wake up. Please." The gates buckled inward. A crack appeared in the black metal. Then another. Through the fissures, she could see them. Glowing white eyes. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Spectral forms pressing against the barrier, their bodies translucent and wrong, their jaws dripping with spiritual decay. "Ghost beasts," she breathed. "The temple's energy is attracting them." She looked down at her broken daggers. The blades were chipped and dul

  "Get your jaws off of her." Chen Mo's voice was quiet. Controlled. Absolutely certain. The ghost beast that had been pinning Meng Yao to the floor suddenly found itself lifted into the air by a single scaled hand wrapped around its spectral throat. "Mo?" Meng Yao's voice was barely a whisper. "Mo, you're awake. You're really awake." "I'm sorry it took me so long." He squeezed his fist. The beast's spectral form shattered into a thousand fragments of light. The other ghost beasts scattered, fleeing into the darkness of the temple, their howls fading into terrified whimpers. "Are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down beside her. His hands were gentle as he checked her wounds. "Did they hurt you?" "I'm fine." She tried to smile. It came out as a wince. "Just a few broken ribs. Nothing I haven't handled before." "Your

  The scythe's edge kissed Chen Mo's throat. A hair's breadth. A whisper of steel against scale. Then he was moving. The Dragon-Spine exploded through his vertebrae, white-hot lightning racing along his nervous system. He ducked under the blade, his body folding at impossible angles, and drove his scaled fist into the Sect Leader's ribs. The impact was like punching a mountain. The Sect Leader didn't even flinch. "Cute," he said. His scythe spun in his grip. The butt of the weapon caught Chen Mo in the jaw, sending him flying across the temple floor. He hit the crumbling stone and bounced, rolling to his feet with blood streaming from his split lip. "You're fast," the Sect Leader observed. "But speed without power is meaningless." "Mo!" Meng Yao's voice cut through the chaos. "His scythe! The souls inside it are

  "You took everything from me." Chen Mo's voice was hollow. Broken. His scaled hand was buried deep in the Sect Leader's chest, his fingers wrapped around the old man's still-beating heart. "I took your family. I took your freedom. I took your future." The Sect Leader gasped, blood spilling from his lips. "And now I'm going to take—" "No." Chen Mo squeezed. The heart burst in his grip. "No, you're not." The Sect Leader's eyes went wide. His body convulsed once. Twice. And then he was still. Chen Mo pulled his hand out. The blood was warm on his scales. He didn't look at the corpse. He didn't care about the corpse. He only cared about the woman lying on the stone floor, her chest barely moving, her eyes fluttering open. "Mo?" Her voice was so weak. So fragile. "Did you... did you get him?" "Yeah." He fell t