“That’s hardly fair,” Renwu pointed out. “He is obviously larger than her. Going by surface area, we’d be at risk to lose more.”

“Very good point, Renwu.” Xialing nodded emphatically in agreement. 

The rat-headed spirit wrinkled his snout in irritation. “What would you like instead to even out the deal?”

“Gold, jade, silk?” Renwu immediately listed. 

“Just the human girl, and we’ll play a game of dominoes as you’ve suggested,” the dog-headed spirit growled.

“I don’t particularly mind if it’s dice or even a coin toss instead,” Xialing said.

“The human girl and a game of your choice,” the dog-headed spirit insisted. 

Xialing and Renwu exchanged a glance. 

“Fine,” Renwu said. “We’ll play a game of dominoes. Are you familiar with the rules for Turning the Heavens?”

The dog-headed spirit grunted in acknowledgement.

“Wonderful,” Xialing said with an amiable smile. “We’ll play one round. Winner gets to have both of the humans.”

“Wait, I haven't agreed to anything yet,” Lanyun whispered urgently to Renwu as the rat-headed spirit went off to procure a set of dominoes.. 

Renwu raised an eyebrow at Lanyun. “You wish to object? When it was you who originally lost the girl and insisted on finding her again?”

Lanyun glanced at the young girl lightly trembling in the grasp of the dog-headed spirit. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide, staring fixedly at the ground. She was visibly frozen in fear. Ghost flower aside, Lanyun felt an innate sense of responsibility to do what he could to save her. 

“I suppose this is fair,” Lanyun agreed. “But isn’t Turning the Heavens a game of luck? What if we lose?”

Renwu shrugged. “Then I suppose you’ll begin your new life in the spirit realm as a delicious meal for these fine gentlemen.”

“What?!” Lanyun exclaimed. He lowered his voice after receiving a few questioning stares from nearby spirits. A crowd had begun to form around them after hearing about the game. 

“Don’t forget about our contract,” Lanyun reminded Renwu. “You agreed to ensure my safety.”

“You’re as noisy as a lark in the morning with your quibbling about the contract,” Renwu tsked in annoyance. His tone softened as he met Lanyun’s anxious eyes. “There’s nothing to worry about. Just look at Xialing’s confidence.” 

Lanyun glanced at the young man animatedly discussing something with the rat-headed spirit, who had returned with a table and two chairs in addition to the dominoes. After a couple more nods and a smile, Xialing regrouped with Lanyun and Renwu. 

“We’ll be starting in a minute now,” Xialing reported. “It appears that I’ll be playing against the spirit with the rodent head. Though, I believe the one with the canine head is the leader of their group.” 

Renwu nodded in acknowledgement. “I’ll keep an eye on him. You should stay focused on the game.”

“Of course.” Xialing gave Lanyun a reassuring smile. “Do not worry, my friend. I will not let them have you.”

“Thank you,” Lanyun said calmly, though he felt a knot of worry form in his stomach. “Good luck.” 

“Always,” Xialing replied. 

There was a hidden meaning behind the Fire Prince’s response, but before Lanyun could ask, a sharp cry sounded from the center of the crowd of spirits. Moving closer towards the commotion with Renwu and Xialing, Lanyun saw the rat-headed spirit shouting at another spirit with an abnormally long neck that accounted for at least a quarter of the spirit’s height.

“I’m so sorry,” the long neck spirit apologized. He attempted to bow in apology, but the length of his neck caused his head to nearly smash into the rat-headed spirit’s snout.

The rat-headed spirit hurriedly backed up a few steps to avoid the collision.

“What happened?” Xialing asked.

“This imbecile spilled tea all over the table,” the rat-headed spirit cursed. He then held the sides of his head in horror. “It’s on the dominoes too! Quick, someone fetch a towel to dry this off.”

Lanyun glanced over at the table. The onyx domino tiles lay in a puddle of tea, seeping into the crevices of the wooden surface. A few overturned ceramic tea cups provided further evidence of the accident that had just occurred. 

Within a minute, someone had procured a couple of small rags from a nearby food vendor and handed them over to the rat-headed spirit. Sorting through the domino tiles, the rat-headed spirit began carefully wiping the liquid off of each piece individually.

“Allow me to help,” Xialing offered courteously and began reaching for a nearby piece. 

“No!” The rat-headed spirit hurriedly snatched the tile away from under Xialing’s hand. Realizing his overreaction, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “It would be impolite for me to allow one as esteemed as yourself to do such menial tasks when visiting our domain.” He glared at the spirit with the long neck. “What are you dawdling around for, you dolt. Go fetch the celestial some more tea. And don’t spill it this time.”

Lanyun watched the long neck spirit about to bow again before seeming to remember his issue with that gesture and simply hurried away instead.

“Do the spirits recognize Xialing?” Lanyun whispered questioningly to Renwu in surprise. 

“No, they don’t know his royal status,” Renwu responded. “But they can sense celestial qi. All spirits have an innate sense of reverence towards us celestials. It’s likely a remnant from the deep devotion ingrained in them when they were still human.”

“You seem awfully pleased with that,” Lanyun remarked, noticing the cheerful tone in Renwu’s answer. “Though, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure you’re deserving of such implicit respect.”

“No need to be bitter towards others’ success,” Renwu chided. “Besides, isn’t your grandmother a devotee of us celestials? I’m not sure she’ll approve of such harsh words from you.”

“Don’t worry, once I tell her all about you, I’m sure her faith will change,” Lanyun retorted. 

Renwu was unperturbed by Lanyun’s provocation. “I highly doubt your opinion will stay the same after this quest. Now, stop talking. The game is beginning.” 

Turning his attention back to the table, Lanyun saw that Xialing and the rat-headed spirit were already seated across from each other. The dominoes had been evenly divided into four stacks on the table. “We’ll use a die to decide the order in which we go,” the rat-headed spirit said. “Whoever rolls the higher number will go first.” After shaking around the six-sided die in his hand, he released it onto the table. Four black dots revealed on the bone white surface. 

Before the rat-headed spirit could gloat in his high roll, Xialing casually picked up the die and tossed it onto the table. There were six black dots on top. 

The corner of the rat-headed spirit’s mouth twitched imperceptibly. “You have the first turn.”

Lanyun watched with bated breath as Xialing chose a tile from the stack nearest him and turned it face up before him. Lanyun had no idea what it meant. 

Turning the Heavens was a popular gambling game that Lanyun had often seen the men in his village play on the sides of the streets. However, his grandmother would always warn him and his sister about succumbing to the vices of gambling, so he never learned the rules of the game. He wasn’t sure if it would be better or worse for his nerves if he actually understood what was happening. 

Xialing and the rat-headed spirit continued choosing and turning over the domino tiles from the four stacks. The Fire Prince’s expression remained calm all throughout, and​​ the rat-headed spirit also maintained a mien of tranquility. Only the occasional sounds of oohs and groans from the crowd of spirits around them provided Lanyun with a sense of how the game was going. 

Unable to bear the anxiety of the unknown any further, Lanyun turned his attention away from the game. He glanced over in the direction of Ningning and met her eyes. Her pallid features appeared even more frightened than before. Despite his own worries, Lanyun mustered up his best confident smile and gave her a small wave, hoping it could bring some comfort to the young girl. 

Ningning returned his wave with a small smile. 

“He’s about to win,” Renwu suddenly said from beside Lanyun. He had been quietly observing the entire game with a serious expression, but now, he stood confidently with his arms crossed over his chest. 

The spirit on the other side of Renwu snorted upon hearing the celestial’s words. “What makes you say that? There’s still two more tiles for each of them to draw. Your friend’s hand could be arguably worse than his opponent’s at the moment.”

“Really? Do you want to bet on it?” Renwu asked.

“Three gold nuggets,” the spirit offered.

“Deal.” Renwu shook the spirit’s hand.

The crowd suddenly grew louder as the rat-headed spirit had just chosen his next domino tile. The spirits whispered excitedly amongst themselves while the rat-headed spirit had an extremely pleased expression on his face. The dog-headed spirit turned towards Lanyun with a big smile.

“What just happened?” Lanyun asked nervously, refusing to look back at the dog-headed spirit.

“He just drew a really good tile,” Renwu said nonchalantly. “He could probably win with that.”

Lanyun wanted to faint.

“...if his opponent wasn’t Xialing,” Renwu said. 

As if on cue, Xialing turned over his last domino tile and the crowd of spirits erupted in shouts. The rat-headed spirit panickedly flipped his last tile and shook his head in shock, visibly in denial of the results. 

“Such irritatingly good fortune as always,” Renwu muttered but he couldn’t hide the proud admiration reflected in his golden eyes. He turned towards the spirit beside him. “I won the bet, so hand over those three gold nuggets.”

The spirit shook his head in awe as he dug around in his purse and dropped the gold into Renwu’s outstretched hand.  “I’ve never seen someone actually collect all the tiles for a Heavenly Supreme combination before.” 

“That was a good game,” Xialing said to the rat-headed spirit with a cordial smile. “Please return the girl to us now and we shall take our leave.”

“T-this is impossible!” the rat-headed spirit sputtered in indignation. “I had all the good tiles marked with a special scent. You must’ve cheated to win!”

“That’s certainly a strange way to admit to cheating,” Xialing said with a frown. “Since I won regardless, I will turn a blind eye to your dishonesty this time.” He turned towards the dog-headed spirit and held out a hand expectantly. “Return the girl. I shall not ask you a second time.”

The dog-headed spirit bared his teeth. “This is the spirit domain, not the celestial realm. I don’t care who wins. Both humans are mine.” 

A hand reached out from behind Lanyun and covered his mouth. The heavy stench of iron and dirt assaulted his nostrils. As his kidnapper attempted to drag him away, Lanyun reflexively swung the item he was holding. The wooden bow splintered upon contact, and he heard a cry of pain.

Whirling around, Lanyun came face to face with an ox-headed spirit. There was a large wooden fragment lodged into the side of the spirit’s cheek. A dark purple substance slowly oozed out of the wound. 

Furious, the ox-headed spirit prepared to lunge forward at Lanyun when a thin red thread wound around his body, preventing him from moving any further. Seeing the ox-headed spirit immobilized, two more nearby spirits sprang into action. However, they only managed one step closer towards Lanyun before a rain of scarlet red shards pierced into the ground around them, stopping them in their tracks. 

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, the crowd of bystanders quickly dispersed from the scene. Only Lanyun, Xialing, Renwu, and the six spirits remained. The nearby vendors cautiously peeked at the scuffle from behind their stalls.

“Yinxing doesn’t want any fights before her festival,” Xialing said warningly.

“Don’t worry, it won’t be a fight,” Renwu replied calmly. As the tiger-headed spirit charged towards him, Renwu raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. 

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The first thing Lanyun noticed was the stench. A foul odor reminiscent of decayed matter flooded the surroundings that had been dyed in a dark purple. The six spirits were gone. In their place, pulps of flesh, green bones, and various internal organs scattered the spots they had once stood. A singular eyeball rolled into the side of Lanyun’s foot. He could clearly see the thin veins and the pink muscle still attached to the round object. Its red pupil stared hollowly back at Lanyun.

Renwu smirked. “It’s a one-sided massacre.”