Silent Mountain loomed before us, a dead thing of a place. Save for the banyan trees and scrub brush clinging to the base, it grew sparser the higher one looked, the summit nothing but bare rock, devoid of a single green shoot.

Bai Huaqian led me past the banyan trees, past the slow, shuffling line of zombies, right up to the maw of a cave. A wave of heat wafted out, the air inside palpably seven or eight degrees warmer than the outside. The old man wasn't wrong, it seemed; this hole did indeed tunnel straight up the mountainside toward the lava.

Inside was absolute blackness. Bai Huaqian illuminated the path with her flashlight, revealing walls jagged with strange, harsh rock formations, and a floor riddled with pits and dips. The benefit of being controlled was that I didn't need to watch my footing; despite the uneven terrain, I never once stumbled. In normal circumstances, I would surely have taken a tumble or two navigating such potholes. Bai Huaqian herself had already slipped twice. Seeing her fall made me desperately want to laugh, but the muscles in my face were pulled so tight I couldn't manage even a twitch.

Environmentally speaking, this place was utterly unsuitable for human habitation—stuffy, hot, and utterly lightless. I couldn't imagine Li Xiaoshu and my elder sister hiding in such a spot, suspecting they might have been mistaken. If they were mistaken, wouldn't that be a blessing? My sister would avoid disaster, and I, at least, might buy myself a few more days of life.

Bai Huaqian pressed onward, and I pushed forward, one step after the other. The zombies didn't follow, nor was there any sign of Li Xiaohao. When we reached a junction where the tunnel split into three paths, Bai Huaqian halted. She handed the flashlight to me, bit down hard to draw blood from her right little finger, squeezed a drop of black ichor onto her left palm—just as Hou Dayong had done on the Sea of Lost Souls—and closed her eyes in meditation. The black blood split once more: half flowed toward her chest, and the other half tracked toward the left-hand tunnel opening—that was our destination.

Bai Huaqian clapped her hands together, flicking off the excess blood, then snatched the flashlight back from me and started toward the left passage. I followed in her wake, pushing myself forward with every step.

Along this route, I tried countless times to focus my will and break free of her control. Whenever I felt my steps being dictated, I fought the command with every ounce of my resolve. If she forced me to quicken my pace, I strained every fiber to slow down; if she willed me to slow, I tried desperately to speed up. After half a li, I felt a dull ache behind my eyes. It wasn't entirely without effect, but the results were disappointingly subtle.

The left tunnel widened the further we went, gradually becoming spacious. The jagged, harsh rock gave way to formations of crystalline stalactites. These stones grew like bamboo shoots, some reaching up from the floor, others hanging down from the ceiling in thick clusters above and rows beneath our feet. The air lost its dryness, replaced by a noticeable increase in moisture; on several parts of the wall, we could clearly see droplets seeping through.

At the very end of the tunnel, Bai Huaqian stopped. It was a dead end; there was nowhere left to go. She swept the beam of the flashlight around, scanning the walls, searching for something. I wanted to ask what she was looking for, but I couldn't even manage to part my lips a fraction of an inch.

Finally, the light settled on a spot on the ground ahead. It was clear of rock, and beneath the beam, a shimmering, reflective surface was revealed: a pool of dark, still water.

Bai Huaqian knelt by the pool and slowly lowered her feet into the water, perhaps testing its depth. It seemed deep; she kicked her legs a few times within the water, then frowned and drew them back out.

It was at that precise moment that Li Xiaohao materialized behind her, silently, inexplicably. He hadn't followed us into the cave; yet, somehow, he had appeared now from nowhere.

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