By Pei Jing’s seventh step, Elder Xiao of the Talisman Hall still had his hand inside the iron case. One of his swollen fingers caught on the silk around a Five-Fold Earth-Crushing Scroll. Years ago, he could draw and open seven scrolls before a man reached him. Now the iron dividers caught his knuckles, and his grip slipped.
Pei Jing reached him before the scroll cleared the case. He caught Xiao’s wrist and held it against the iron. A short strike of Martial Saint qi went through the elder. Xiao tried to draw a breath. His knees gave, and the iron case landed on the terrace with the scroll still inside it. He slumped against a pillar.
Meng lay by the drain. Xiao’s breathing had stopped too.
Across the courtyard, Chief Alchemist Hu had backed into an arched nook. His marten coat was open, and Pei Jing could see scars from old treatments on his chest. Hu had spent sixty years keeping his body alive with medicine made from blood that other people had paid for. Now he was crying too hard to get a grip on the flask he had taken from his coat.
“Stay back!” He held the flask out in both hands. The black clay was the size of a walnut. “Seven-Heart Devouring Toxin. It melts granite. I’ll bring down the whole terrace.”
