Realizing they had likely become the targets of the Blood-Defying Sentinels, Hao Lan and the others lost all former arrogance. They rode with grave caution, urging their horses ever faster toward the Soul-Suppressing Alliance.
Ji En, astride his donkey, struggled to keep pace. By a forest stream, the group halted to rest. Ji En busied himself setting up a fire for lunch.
While he was gathering wood, sudden cries from Hao Lan and the others downstream made him drop everything and run. At the lake's edge lay a massive white crane, its wings spanning more than a zhang. Its crimson crest was stained with blood, its body pierced by arrows, wings and legs shattered. It lay dying, its breath faint.
"That is the mount of a cultivator!" Xiao Wei exclaimed.
Lin Feng examined it and shook his head gravely. "The wounds are fatal. No hope of recovery."
Ji En suddenly pointed toward the lake's center. "Look there!"
Floating face-down upon the water was the figure of a woman.
"A female cultivator!" Xiao Wei recognized her at once.
Lin Feng read the signs. "The crane only just fell. She cannot have been in the water long."
"Ji En! Save her!" Hao Lan commanded.
Ji En's heart sank. Such deep mountain lakes often hid monstrous serpents. Yet with a life at stake, he clenched his teeth, stripped off his outer robe, and asked the others to draw any lurking danger with thrown stones. Then he slipped into the icy waters and swam cautiously toward the body.
Turning her over, he saw a young female cultivator, her face deathly pale, but her body still warm. He grasped her and began to drag her back.
"Ji En! Beware!" came Hao Lan's warning cry.
Ji En turned—and his blood froze. A serpent as thick as a man's torso slid from the reeds, churning the water as it sped toward him with dreadful force!