"Did anyone else receive a summons?" Jiang Lang asked, forcing a calm he didn't feel.
"No. Luo Chen is out guiding souls. Bai Long is… somewhere else, likely harming himself."
Jiang Lang felt a pang of pity for Bai Long, whose torment was constant. "What else did you need to show me?" He touched the towering pillars beside the staircase before ascending.
"It's better if I show you," Lin Fan replied.
Jiang Lang followed, passing their lavishly furnished entertainment room. "Feng Yue has been here, I see," he commented, noting the images on the large screen.
Lin Fan didn't respond, his pace quickening. Jiang Lang understood. Forcing Lin Fan to acknowledge his celibacy was unkind.
Reaching Lin Fan's quarters, Jiang Lang's gaze swept over the unfamiliar computer system and numerous screens. "Attempting to rule the mortal realm?"
"Not at all. Merely observing it. It's the most effective way to protect ourselves and earn a bit of coin." Lin Fan settled into a chair before the main screen, typing rapidly. A blank monitor flickered to life, displaying lines and shapes. "Alright, take a look at this."
Carefully avoiding contact, Jiang Lang stepped closer. The blurry image resolved into trees. "Interesting, but not urgent viewing."
"Patience."
"Hurry," Jiang Lang countered.
Lin Fan gave him a wry look. "Since you asked so politely… I have hidden sensors and visual devices throughout our territory to detect intruders." A few more taps, and the screen shifted, a brief flash of red appearing and then vanishing.
"Go back," Jiang Lang said, tensing. He recognized the heat signature. "Human?" The form was small.
"Definitely."
"Male or female?"
Lin Fan shrugged. "Likely female. Too large for a child, too small for a grown man."
Few dared to venture onto the desolate hill, day or night. "One of Feng Yue's fleeting companions?" Jiang Lang asked.
"Possibly. Or…"
"Or?"
"A Hunter," Lin Fan said grimly. "More specifically, bait."
Jiang Lang's lips tightened. "Surely you jest."
"Consider it. Messengers always arrive with packages, and Feng Yue's conquests head straight for the entrance. This one carries nothing and is moving erratically, stopping frequently at the trees. Perhaps planting explosives or surveillance devices."
"If she's empty-handed—"
"Explosives and devices can be small."
Jiang Lang rubbed his neck. "Hunters haven't troubled us since ancient times."
"Perhaps their descendants have been searching all this time. Perhaps they've finally found us."
Dread settled in Jiang Lang's stomach. First Yan Lie's summons, now this intruder. Coincidence? He recalled the brutal wars of the past, the rise of the Hunters, and the blood feud that ensued.
The heavens had been using the Hunters as their greatest weapon, using women as lures. That was how they had killed the keeper of Distrust. The demon had survived, however, emerging twisted and enraged. Its current whereabouts were unknown.
"The heavens must despise us," Lin Fan said. "What better way to harm us than to send Hunters now?"
Jiang Lang's dread deepened. "Surely they wouldn't risk unleashing the demons upon the world if we were gone?"
"Who truly understands their motives?" Lin Fan replied. "We must act, Jiang Lang."
Jiang Lang glanced at the water clock. "Summon Feng Yue."
"I tried. He's not responding."
"Call—"
"Do you truly believe I would have disturbed you so close to your sundown if anyone else were available?" Lin Fan's gaze was intense. "You are the only one."
Jiang Lang ran a hand through his hair, frustration mounting. Let it perish out there, Kuang Bao urged.
"If it is a Hunter," Lin Fan said, as if sensing his thoughts, "or bait, we cannot let it live. It must be eliminated."
"And if it's innocent, and my curse takes hold?" Jiang Lang countered, suppressing the demon's influence.
Guilt flickered across Lin Fan's face. "That is a risk we must take. We are not the monsters the demons would make us."
Jiang Lang gritted his teeth. He was not cruel, not heartless. He hated the darkness that constantly threatened to consume him.
"Where is the human now?" he asked. He would face the night, no matter the cost.
"At the river border."
A short journey. He had barely enough time to arm himself, find the human, guide it to safety if innocent, or kill it if necessary, and return before his sundown. Any delay could be fatal. Others on the hill would also be in danger when Kuang Bao took over.
His only purpose would be destruction.
"If I don't return by the hour of the rat, have someone search for my body, as well as Luo Chen's and Bai Long's." Both Death and Pain visited him each night at that time.
Jiang Lang knew he couldn't guarantee his brothers' safety if he transformed in the open. The anguish of harming them would be immense.
"Promise me," he said.
Lin Fan nodded, his eyes bleak. "Be careful, my friend."
Jiang Lang hurried out. Before he reached the middle of the hall, Lin Fan called, "Jiang Lang, look at this."
Returning, dread washed over him again. On the monitors, he saw four more red blips, larger than the first, closing in. "Damnation. I'll deal with them all." He moved swiftly to his chamber, bypassing the sleeping platform.
His room was bare. He had destroyed the other furnishings in fits of rage. Now, only the metal sleeping platform remained.
Hurry! He donned dark clothing and strapped blades to his body. No ranged weapons. He and Kuang Bao agreed on one thing: enemies deserved a close and brutal end.
If any of the humans in the forest were Hunters or their bait, nothing could save them.
Jiang Lang moved like a shadow through the corridors, the castle walls humming faintly with ancestral energy. He passed beneath the watchful eyes of old portraits—former guardians who had succumbed to their curses or vanished into madness. None of them had found peace. Would he?
The gate hissed open with a whisper of shifting metal and stone. The wind outside was cold, laced with the scent of pine, blood, and something far more ancient. The sun hung low—an orange smear nearing the edge of the mountains. Not much time.
He descended the stone steps two at a time and disappeared into the forest beyond the outer wards.