Su Luo froze, robe half-removed, and stared down at her. Wei Shan's eyes had closed, and thick, dark blood welled around the iron bolt, soaking into her white robes, pooling beneath her body on the earthen floor.
Lin Yu took one of Wei Shan's hands, holding it between both of hers. "Too late?" Su Luo felt the world spin around him. "But she still breathes..." Lei Ming shook his head grimly.
And Su Luo saw the truth of it. The young woman's breathing was already shallow, the pauses between breaths growing longer. The blood that had flowed freely now barely seeped from the wound.
The three of them knelt around her in the dim light, watching in horror as Wei Shan's breathing slowed, slowed, and finally ceased.
Su Luo studied her face, the sharp features, the proud nose, the high cheekbones, the parted lips. Such fierce intelligence, such determined strength, now smoothed into an expression of peace, like one entering meditation.
Then her body began to fade. Subtly at first, becoming translucent like morning mist, before disappearing completely.
The iron bolt dropped to the blood-soaked earth with a sound like a funeral bell, revealing a wicked crescent-shaped head designed for maximum damage.
Lin Yu grasped at the space where Wei Shan's hand had been, as if trying to catch smoke, then covered her mouth in shock.
"Who launched those bolts?" Lei Ming growled, rising and facing the depths of the corridor. "Show yourself, coward!"
Su Luo felt an ugly rage arise within him, familiar in a way he couldn't understand, welcome and hot and demanding like the fire of tribulation lightning. He tore his gaze from the bloody earth and stood, scanning the hallway depths for enemies.
Nothing moved in the shadows.
After the vast space of the first chamber with its immense scale and brilliant illumination, this corridor felt cramped, mean, deliberately constructed to diminish and trap. Lei Ming's head nearly scraped the low ceiling, and the dull light came from a hemisphere of pale jade embedded in the wall, glowing with sickly luminescence that created more shadows than it banished.
Frustrated by the lack of targets, Su Luo turned to examine Lei Ming. "You are wounded."
"Merely a scratch," the large man growled, refusing to remove his hand from his bloodied side.
Clearly it was more serious than he claimed.
Su Luo clenched his fists and stalked down the hallway, Lei Ming beside him. He could feel his companion's fury like heat from a forge, and it matched his own.
"This one will strangle whoever is responsible," Lei Ming declared, and Su Luo believed every word.
"Wait for us," Lin Yu called, hurrying to catch up.
But there was no one else in the corridor. No weapons, no mounted crossbows, no visible trap mechanisms. Only a wall at the far end with a black door set into its center.
"How is this possible?" Lei Ming stopped and turned in a slow circle, then glowered at Su Luo. "What just occurred?"
"A formation trap," Lin Yu said quietly. "A spiritual formation triggered by our entry?"
"But to what purpose?" Lei Ming's voice could have cracked stone. "I expected to meet an immortal or receive explanations. Not a belly full of iron."
"This one knows not," Su Luo replied softly. "Perhaps answers lie beyond that door." "Leading to what? Another trap? Is this some celestial being's idea of entertainment?"
Lin Yu bit her lower lip and shook her head firmly. "That first chamber, the scale of it, the feeling it carried, was too grand for mere entertainment. Whatever is happening here has profound purpose."
They stood in silence, studying the dismal corridor. Su Luo searched the walls but found no sign of the iron bolts that had missed them. When he returned to where Wei Shan had died, he found no trace of her blood or the bolt that had claimed her life.
"Gone," he said, crouching to pass his hand over the earth where she had lain. "Her blood, the weapon, vanished as if it never existed."
Lin Yu stopped beside him. "As if it never happened at all."
"Do you think she has returned to her chamber?" Lei Ming pressed his palm against the iron wall and strained for a moment, muscles and tendons standing out like iron cables, then gave up. "No way to return, regardless."
"Perhaps," Su Luo mused, scooping up a handful of earth and letting it trickle through his fingers. "That vision we all experienced before awakening, was it of dying in this place? Do we return to the chambers each time we fall?"
"No," Lin Yu said, stepping back with visible distress. "That cannot be true. This one refuses to accept it."
Lei Ming rumbled deep in his chest and turned toward the far door. "Only one path remains."
"Only one path," Su Luo agreed, rising. "Perhaps we will find answers beyond."
"Should we... should we speak words for Wei Shan?" Lin Yu glanced between them, then back to where their companion had died. "This one is uncertain of the proper ritual."
"Why not?" Su Luo took a deep breath, forcing down his anger. "Wherever your spirit has gone, Wei Shan, may you find the peace that eluded you here."
Lei Ming grunted agreement, and together they turned toward the far door. "Who enters first?" Lin Yu asked.
"This one will go," Su Luo said, moving forward.
Lei Ming hurried to match his pace. "We should alternate. The burden should not fall on you alone."
"It is merely a door." Su Luo studied it as they approached. "We will open it carefully and observe what lies beyond."
"This one approves of that strategy," Lin Yu said, raising her hand before quickly lowering it.
They gathered around the door. It was heavy and crude, seemingly forged from pure iron, the hinges massive and red with rust. Su Luo breathed deeply, grasped the handle, and slowly, carefully, pulled down. He heard some mechanism withdraw, then gestured for the others to take cover.