“Ready?” Lu Na asked Nugua.

  “Give me half an incense stick before setting it off.” Nugua sharpened her claws on a rock.

  “You know we don’t have incense here and my sense of time is terrible.”

  “Then count to three hundred, slowly.”

  That Lu Na could do.

  Nugua disappeared in front of her.

  Lu Na used her spirit sight hoping to see her, but she couldn’t. How was it that her spirit could be so stealthy like that? And more importantly, could Lu Na learn that technique from her? It would make traveling a lot easier if no one could see them.

  Lu Na made one last change to the spirit attracting device. She didn’t want it to keep working so she put on a timer for it. It was something she picked up from the manual.

  Lu Na was surprised that she hadn’t thought about doing that earlier. By simply having the device stop working after it used a certain amount of spirit energy was brilliant. She wondered if there were other things she could put in to either limit the strength or add new functions afterwards.

  Lu Na got up. It was about time. She hadn’t really counted but it felt right. With a twist of the red paper, it activated. The entire device lit up in white, then red, then green, then black, then yellow before going back to white. It cycled through all the elements, calling all the spirits nearby.

  If Lu Na had to guess, after being powered by the null metal, it might even call the spirits from outside the labyrinth. Would that be enough to get them to break the walls of the labyrinth, freeing them?

  Lu Na didn’t wait around as she ran as fast as she could toward the south side. She clenched her left fist the entire way in case she needed to use any of her wards. She made it back to the waiting spot Nugua indicated.

  “Hey, who are you?” a man called out.

  Lu Na looked up. It was one rebel in a yellow uniform. He held a spear.

  “I’m lost,” Lu Na said, a little out of breath. “I left the camp with my friend to look at the buildings and we got lost. Can you help me?”

  The man looked Lu Na up and down for a moment.

  “You look familiar.”

  Lu Na looked away.

  “Maybe you saw me in the market earlier? I’m just a simple maid.”

  “For who?”

  “Leader Yang Deli,” Lu Na said. That was the only name she knew of all the rebels.

  “You lie. He’s got no maids as pretty as you.”

  Lu Na blushed. That wasn’t what she was expecting.

  “You must be one of those prostitutes trying to run away. Come here.” The man reached out with his free hand.

  That would not happen. Lu Na turned to face the man before punching forward with her left hand. It was enough to activate the tiger claw technique.

  The man’s eyes widened just a second before he blocked the technique with his spear.

  “You’re a summoner. Then that means I don’t have to play nice either.” The man thrust his spear at Lu Na.

  Lu Na turned her wrist left and a weak earth wall rose from the ground to stop the spear. It was just enough for her to dodge left. She kept raising earth walls behind her as she ran, in different heights and thickness.

  “Ugh,” the man yelled behind as he tripped on one of the walls.

  It was one of the few things Lu Na wanted to test in Jie’s village before she was interrupted. These earth walls didn’t need to be walls for them to stop others. If her brother could use them so fluidly, so can she.

  “Stop her! A summoner has attacked the camp!” the man yelled.

  Alarm bells rang in the camp.

  “You’re dead now, girl,” the man said. “They’re going to—”

  Lu Na turned toward the camp and noticed that all the bells rang. Everyone in the camp was rushing toward the south side. Her spirit attraction device was working in full force.

  Lu Na stopped. The man ran back toward the camp, ignoring her.

  At this distance, she could see a mass of spirits gathering on the small hill. Lu Na guessed that in a very short while, the device would stop working and the spirits would attack the camp.

  Lu Na only hoped that they would have enough time to set up a strong enough defense to not be overrun completely. That would be a tragedy that she never hoped for.

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  It was as if the heavens laughed at Lu Na’s naivety.

  When the device stopped working, the spirits attacked each other. Many of them broke off and charged the camp, but the bulk of them were killing each other.

  That didn’t happen last time.

  The entire camp had most of their soldiers fighting off the spirits that slammed into their wall. Nugua was right. They were better prepared than Lu Na thought. It goes to show the difference between trained men working together and summoners.

  The other surprising thing was that the camp had spirits fighting for them as well. Her spirit attraction device didn’t pull summoners’ spirits away.

  Lu Na didn’t have time to ponder anymore. Now that the entire camp was busy with the attack, she had to meet Nugua at the gate. Hopefully, she could save Sun Ren and Hen Li.

  Nothing was ever easy.

  When Lu Na got there, she hid right away behind a fallen wall.

  A small platoon of rebels stood in front of the gate while a smaller group of summoners fought against Nugua. Meanwhile, Yang Deli stood at the gate with Sun Ren and Hen Li still tied up and kneeling on the ground.

  This was not good for Lu Na. She was hoping for Nugua to sneak in and free Sun Ren and Hen Li. How did she get caught by Yang Deli’s forces?

  “Young Miss Lu. I know you’re out there, watching this,” Yang Deli said, his voice amplified by a spirit technique. “Give me the key and I will allow these two to go and I will spare your spirit as well.”

  What should Lu Na do? On the one hand, she knew that without her friends or Nugua, she wouldn’t be able to overtake Yang Deli or the army he had. The rebel leader had shown no mercy when dealing with her. Even a child knows that if she gave him the key, he would murder them all.

  Before Lu Na could decide, she felt a tug on her pants. She looked down to find one of Baihu’s white fox pups.

  “Baihu! I’m glad you’re here. I’m not sure what to do.” Lu Na stooped and picked up the fox pup. Her fur wasn’t as white as it was before and there were nicks and cuts along her body. “What happened?”

  The white fox pup whined.

  Of course Lu Na couldn’t hear her. A device she would need to make in the future would be one that would allow her to communicate with other spirits.

  “Where are your other pups?”

  The white fox pup whined more.

  “I’m sorry, but this is not helping. Is there something you or Sun Ren want me to do?”

  The white fox pup nodded. She jumped out of Lu Na’s arms and trotted away.

  Lu Na didn’t want to move away from Yang Deli, but maybe Baihu had a better idea of how to solve this. She followed the white fox pup back into the alleyways of the old buildings. They stopped at a short building with all its walls intact.

  Lu Na followed the white fox pup inside. It was not a kind sight. Four of the white fox pups were dead, covered by a sheet. Four others were in different states of shock and injury.

  The white fox pup that brought Lu Na there whined again.

  “Do you want me to heal them?” Lu Na asked.

  The white fox pup nodded.

  Lu Na kneeled on the floor next to one of the white fox pups. The cuts looked as real on them as they would have on regular animals. The only difference is, instead of leaking blood, they leaked spirit energy.

  This was the first time Lu Na examined their “blood” though. She pulled out her spirit wand and waved over it, trying to stop the bleeding. All it did was gather the spirit energy at the tip. So instead, Lu Na tried to reverse the wand’s technique so the spirit energy would go back into the body.

  That didn’t work.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Lu Na said. “They’re not humans and even if they were, I wouldn’t know how to heal them either. I’m not a doctor.”

  That’s when inspiration hit her. Lu Na remembered the doctor Uncle Chen called for Sun Ren when they first ran from the Wintersweet Sect. There was a special technique the doctor used that allowed him to close a wound made from a spirit attack.

  Lu Na didn’t pay too much attention at the time because the doctor performed it so fast, but now was a great time to remember. She closed her eyes to focus on that memory. More importantly, she focused on the technique the doctor used.

  Lu Na took out a piece of yellow paper and used her spirit wand to draw an approximation of the technique. She looked at the whining white fox pup.

  “Look, I’m going to try something. I’m not sure if this will work. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t, okay?”

  The white fox pup whined again, but nodded.

  Lu Na activated the piece of yellow paper. The technique focused spirit energy at the center of it and glowed green then yellow until it became a mix of both colors. If it did what Lu Na hopes it did, then this should seal the injuries. It won’t put the spirit energy back, but that’s not what she needed right now.

  Lu Na took a deep breath and placed the paper on the injured white fox pup. The yellow-green colors swirled before turning white. The cut was closing up on the spirit.

  It was working.

  Except it only worked on one cut. The moment it sealed the cut, the yellow paper burned up. At least it worked and didn’t explode.

  Lu Na created new ones using her yellow paper. It took a bit of time before all the white fox pups were all mended. They weren’t healed despite that. At least one of them looked like it was having trouble breathing.

  “Now what?” Lu Na asked.

  The white fox pup that led Lu Na here yipped before walking up to each injured fox pup and ate them. That was the only way Lu Na could describe what it did. It opened its mouth and absorbed the other pup. After absorbing all the injured ones, the white fox pup turned back into her human form.

  “Thank you, Young Miss Lu,” Baihu said. Her white dress had tears in it as if it was missing chunks. “Thanks to your healing, I could absorb some of my pups back and that has allowed me to change back into this form.”

  Baihu sat down on the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. At that moment, she looked like a lost young woman, unsure of what to do next.

  Lu Na thought that was probably how she looked. Except she didn’t have the luxury. Nugua was still fighting with the summoners.

  “Baihu, we have to help Nugua.”

  “I’m sorry Young Miss Lu, I don’t think I can help you. I tried to save Sun Ren when she got captured, but I’m not a fighter. I can only create distractions.”

  “That’s all I need. What can you do?”

  Baihu clenched her fists and it glowed white.

  “At most, I can spare one of my fox pups. If I use it any more, I won’t be able to maintain this form.”

  “Do you not have any other techniques? Nugua had more than she ever shared with me.”

  Baihu laughed.

  “That monster has centuries of experience and knowledge even before the Xia dynasty. Despite me taking on this form, I’m not the original nine-tailed fox of legends. Sun Ren’s sifu shaped me this way. So no, all I can do is give you another fox pup as a distraction.”

  “Then that’s all I need.” Lu Na gathered up all the burned pieces of paper.

  “Will it?”

  “It will have to be.”