Ten minutes later, only the Village Chief and I remained alive outside the ancestral hall, the ground littered with mangled limbs and torsos, severed clean, lying askew. I stood frozen, not daring to move an inch, terrified he would shift his attention to me and strike me down with two swift cuts.

"Heh heh," Wang Jue chuckled, walking toward the Village Chief and saying, "Only fifty-four. Forty-five short. What do you suggest we do?"

The Village Chief spat blood, remaining silent, glaring daggers at him.

Wang Jue continued, "When I arrived, I found not a soul in the village. It was like a ghost town. Then I got to the hall and saw so many people—quite pleased, actually. But after the slaughter, only fifty-four. The whole village has far more people than this! Where have you hidden the rest?"

The muscles in the Village Chief's face twisted into a grotesque semblance of a smile, as if mocking Wang Jue's question. He spoke slowly, word by deliberate word: "Did you truly believe I would beg you for mercy? Thank you for your little monologue; it bought us crucial time. If you think you can find them, then go look."

Before the final syllable of "look" had fully dissipated, the Village Chief used his remaining arm to push off the table, exerting force with both legs, and launched himself at Wang Jue like a frog. His left and right legs clamped around Wang Jue’s waist, while his hand and neck formed a vise, locking onto Wang Jue's shoulders with brutal tenacity.

"Now, quickly..." the Village Chief roared with every ounce of strength he possessed.

Hearing the Village Chief shout toward me, I snapped back to reality. My hands fumbled in my pocket, drawing out the peach branch seeds, and I darted toward Wang Jue and the Chief. I yanked at Wang Jue’s T-shirt and jammed the peach seeds inside the collar. The branch slipped down, lodging itself in the creases between the T-shirt and his belt. It seemed not to have made contact with Wang Jue’s actual skin.

At that moment, the homicidal demon’s eyes burned crimson. He brought the scythe around in a savage backhand, hacking wildly at the Village Chief behind him, showing absolutely no sign of being subdued.

"It has to touch the skin!" As he spoke, the Village Chief endured the rain of blows from the scythe and bit down hard on Wang Jue’s ear with his mangled mouth, refusing to let go.

I scrambled forward, digging frantically around Wang Jue’s waist, unable to find the peach branch that had slipped down his beltline.

Sensing my maneuver, Wang Jue exploded in fury, whirling the scythe back in a vicious sweep that struck the Village Chief directly in the chest. In that instant, the mouth clamped on his ear sprang open, and the hands and feet restraining Wang Jue went limp. His body lost its support and slid off Wang Jue’s back. Immediately, I became the focus of the demon’s attention. He shoved me back with the scythe, then lunged forward violently, one hand clamping shut around my throat, the other raised mid-air. He roared, "I intended to spare you, but you chose otherwise!"

Just as the blade was about to descend, I finally managed to grasp the peach branch nestled in the cloth folds. Pinning it through the fabric, I slapped my palm hard against his body. Wang Jue released his grip on my neck and began to struggle violently, so I simply circled my arms, locking him in a tight embrace around his middle. He rocked twice, then his body went slack, the scythe clattering to the floor as he collapsed heavily against me.

Fifty-five people... Looking at the now-silent Wang Jue, I let out a long, shuddering breath, realizing that neutralizing one demon had cost fifty-five lives! How many more killers would the Sea of the Undead generate!

The moon had climbed directly overhead. I lowered Wang Jue, walked a circuit around the pile of corpses, anxious that Old He and Xiao Shu might have become Wang Jue's victims. Thankfully, I didn't see their forms among the bodies. Given Wang Jue’s earlier comment that everyone except those in the hall had vanished, I feared Old He and Xiao Shu were with them.