The click of the twin-bladed dao echoing through the falling ash was louder than thunder.
Ye Chen didn't have the Qi left to summon a blade, but his instincts didn't care. He shoved Xiao Mei behind him, putting his battered body between the girl in crimson and the two women he had just dragged through hell to save. The green veins of the Key beneath his collarbone pulsed with a weak, desperate warning.
The girl in crimson leaped from the ten-foot ridge, landing on the jagged volcanic rock without making a single sound.
Up close, she was striking. Her dark hair was tied back in a messy warrior's knot, and her amber eyes held the sharp, predatory gleam of a mountain cat. She moved with an untamed, explosive grace that contrasted sharply with Yue's cold, floating elegance.
"Relax, boy," she said, her lips curving into a smirk as she slid the dao smoothly into a leather sheath at her hip. "If I wanted to harvest your Celestial Key, I would have taken your head while you were busy coughing up your lungs."
"Who are you?" Ye Chen demanded, his voice rasped raw. He didn't lower his guard.
"Li Rong," she answered easily, her gaze sweeping over his bruised, sweat-drenched chest. She didn't hide her appreciation of the raw, masculine Yang radiating from him. "Rogue cultivator. Bounty hunter. And currently, the only person standing between you and the local wildlife."
Behind Ye Chen, Xiao Mei bristled. Despite her exhaustion, the sheer possessiveness in her dark eyes flared. She stepped out from behind Ye Chen, her small hand clamping firmly onto his forearm, her freezing Yin immediately rising to counter Li Rong's fiery, confident aura.
"We don't need a hunter," Xiao Mei said, her voice dripping with ice. "We survived the Shadow Sect's Sector Commander. We can handle ourselves."
Li Rong laughed—a rich, throaty sound that carried effortlessly through the desolate peaks.
"You barely survived a transit array, little sparrow," Li Rong teased, her eyes flicking to Xiao Mei's protective grip on Ye Chen's arm. She took a step closer, leaning into Ye Chen's personal space just enough to test the boundaries. "He smells like roasted copper. His Yang core is leaking. Another spike of adrenaline, and his meridians will cook themselves."
Yue, brushing the volcanic dust from her ruined white silks, finally spoke. "She is correct. The transit drained him. He needs hours of meditation to stabilize, or the Key will begin consuming his physical shell."
Li Rong glanced at the silver-haired Guardian. "I like her. Cold, but practical."
"I am not here for your amusement," Yue stated, her violet eyes narrowing. "Why approach us, Li Rong? What is your angle?"
"Simple," Li Rong said, turning her attention back to Ye Chen. "The Shadow Sect put a massive bounty on the heads of rogue cultivators in the southern provinces. They burned my master's pavilion. I've been hunting their scouts through the Ashen Peaks for a month. When I felt a spatial matrix tear open the sky, I knew Commander Feng's prey had escaped."
She reached out, tapping a slender, calloused finger directly over Ye Chen's heart. The touch sent a sudden, startling jolt of warmth through his chest.
Xiao Mei immediately slapped Li Rong's hand away. "Don't touch him."
Li Rong's smirk only widened. "Feisty. I like that too." She looked Ye Chen dead in the eye. "You are the ultimate bait, Ye Chen. If you travel with me, the Shadow Sect will come running straight into my traps. In exchange, I keep you alive long enough to reach the Second Celestial Gate. A mutually beneficial arrangement."
Ye Chen felt the heavy exhaustion dragging at his bones. He looked at Xiao Mei, trembling but defiant, and Yue, whose silver aura was flickering dangerously low. They couldn't survive another fight today.
"Fine," Ye Chen said, his voice hard. "But we lead."
"Deal," Li Rong winked, turning on her heel.
But before they could take a single step, the gray ash falling from the sky suddenly stopped drifting.
Ye Chen frowned, holding his hand out. A flake landed on his palm and hissed, searing a tiny blister into his skin.
It wasn't ash. It was falling embers.
"Move!" Li Rong yelled, drawing her twin-bladed dao as the cracked earth beneath them began to glow a furious, molten red. "The Second Gate's array just woke up! The Trial of Fire has already started!"