As Heavens Divide

"What's that?" Rui Ming asked, standing behind a wall. He didn't start shooting just yet. "An ointment?"

"Could also be a water path method. Let's shoot it anyway." Xin answered. 

"Fine!" Rui Ming drew his arrow, dipped it into the cauldron held by Murong Zhan, and peeked around the corner again.

Swish.

The arrow hit the mantis' torso, then deflected away. A piece of its melting tip was left to glow on the creature's carapace. 

Hiss. The watery energy radiating from the mantis quickly neutralised the attack, heaving a small cloud of steam.

"Terrible." Rui Ming sighed. The mantis still kept stabbing and slicing the stones, creating a proper entrance for itself.

"Listen, humans! It's over! Come out, and I'll let you live! Your sect will pay a ransom, and no one gets hurt!" The voice came from behind the mantis. 

Xin thought for a second. A rank two master can't realistically threaten the sect like that. If the sect actually bothers to send a rank three master, and gives them preparation time, the yaoguai will be killed on the spot by a stealth attack or a mind affecting method. The higher the rank, the bigger the power difference. He's bluffing.

"Master Taowei, there is a water path method applied to the mantis! We need to neutralise it!" Xin called out to his master.. 

"Tu Qiang! Come 'ere! Grab this ball. Launch it." Master Taowei gave him a black mud ball. Xin understood this plan — spreading earth element mud all over the mantis would drain the water path method of its energy. Hitting it with a rank two method would also be good, for obvious reasons.

"Yes, master." Tu Qiang exhaled, picked up the ball and prepared to shoot around the corner, tightly holding his dao shard in the other arm. 

"Ha, master Taowei, you actually lived!" The yaoguai called out from behind the mantis. Wait, did he know his name in advance, or could he hear our conversation? "Tu Qiang, you're rank one, you can't use this rank two shard consistently! Just give up!"

"I don't care about his taunting." Tu Qiang exhaled again. He was trying to look composed, but it was clear to Xin that he was distressed. It seems that master Taowei spent some materials to recharge the dao shard again. Good.

Aim at the mantis. Channel.

Inject a small bit of your own qi. 

Trigger a chain reaction, use the energy accumulated by the recharged shard.

Time the release moment properly… 

Now! 

The ball spinned in the air, and flew towards the mantis. 

Smash! It crashed into the wall of the cave, flying diagonally, away from the intended trajectory. Not even close. An explosion of mud followed, but not a single grain of it reached the creature.

Xin's heart jumped. He wanted to call Tu Qiang a retard, but restrained himself. One trap card gone!

"Forgive me, master! I will atone this mistake with death! Let me launch another one manually!" Tu Qiang asked. Running up to a mantis that can shoot two rank two missiles would be a death sentence. It was their last stone, as well.

Master Taowei thought for a second, but Rui Ming spoke up:

"Give him the stone. I'll make sure he survives." 

"Hey, aren't you going to launch your attacks? This tunnel is your only opportunity to damage the mantis, you'll be cooked afterwards!" The yaogai kept taunting them. What a weird character this guy is, Xin thought. Yaogai usually embody their species' traits, but this one has the personality of a monkey brat, not a mantis.

Rui Ming put his hand over master Taowei's palm, which was holding the second ball, and gently nudged it towards Tu Qiang.

"Do it. Trust me." 

"Fine. What's your plan?"

"I won't say it." Rui Ming also suspected the mantis has a hearing method. "Follow me!"

He let Xin hold his bow and quiver, waved at Tu Qiang to follow him and ran out of the tunnel! Tu Qiang followed with a mix of confusion and blind trust.

The mantis stopped its digging, and looked at the two figures that emerged. It rubbed its pincers together, similar to how Xin activated Resonance Palms, and waved them towards Rui Ming!

Swish. Swish. Two metal qi infused discs emerged from its pincers, and pierced the air towards the Windsplitter. One was aimed directly at his shoulder, another one was launched a moment later, and was aiming for the spot towards which he would dodge.

Miss. Miss. Rui Ming remembered this shooting pattern, and adjusted his dodge!

He dove towards the first missile, but threw a gust of wind at it to redirect it slightly! It flew right near his ear, almost hitting him. 

Both discs then crashed into the cave walls, and got stuck halfway in. If this attack was strong enough to penetrate the stones like that, it was probably strong enough to slice a human in half!

Xin got a bit worried. Last time, it launched a thorn, this time, it launched a disc. How many methods does the mantis have?

Rui Ming instantly ran back into the tunnel. Judging by his speed, Xin concluded that he was probably hastened by that warm wind technique he often used.

Tu Qiang got confused for a moment, but then recomposed himself, ran up towards the mantis and activated a stone toss technique. At rank one strength, it was less powerful than using a rank two dao shard, but it was enough to break the ball and trigger its explosive property.

The mantis had no way to dodge, and was soon covered in black mud.

By the time the stone hit the creature, Rui Ming was already observing it from behind the corner. Should I preserve my energy or should I hasten Tu Qiang? Its vision seems to be obscured by the mud, and it seems that its ranged attack can't be launched again so soon. 

"Fuck you! You're that wind guy! Thought you were that guy who spat on me! You humans all look the same! Agh!" the yaoguai was losing his marbles, being outplayed by such a simplistic move. Was he looking at them through the iron mantis' eyes? Xin rubbed his chin.

Tu Qiang finally ran back into the tunnel, leaned on the wall and breathed heavily. It wasn't fatigue, just the nervousness.

Xin patted Rui Ming's shoulder. 

"Nice one, brother. Let's wait for the mud to take effect and start shooting." He handed him his bow back.

The creature was quickly expanding the tunnel, and being covered in black mud didn't hinder it in the slightest.

"There, the eyes." With his enhanced perception, Xin heard the yaoguai speak a bit quieter than his usual. Who was he addressing? Did he bring some help? What did this comment mean?

Xin had a wild guess, and quickly decided to test it. 

Tiger totem, please loan me your sense of smell!

It reluctantly obliged. It's good that I fed it a spirit stone, Xin thought.

A water bubble crashed at the mantis' eyes. In this dim lighting, Xin could not see the result of this move, but he suspected that the mantis' eyes were just cleaned from dirt. Shouldn't nullify the mud on its body, at least.

Rui Ming was already shooting his arrows at the mantis, but Xin took a small sniff and analysed the situation.

A familiar smell. Flowery perfumes, metal armour, human sweat. Blood. Su Xing! And the bubble... How do you explain it? There's only one way.

"The mantis' eyesight was hindered by the mud, but someone washed it away! It was Su Xing! He betrayed us!" Xin shouted out. 

"Bullshit! I saw him get killed!" Tu Qiang shouted. 

"You saw a bug sit on top of him, and heard his shouts stop! We don't know what happened! He works for the enemy master now!"

"The bug's melting a bit!" Rui Ming shouted. "I don't know how strong the effect is, but I am dealing damage!"

"Good, keep going! It will soon emerge, prepare to retreat into the hub!"Master Taowei didn't lose his composure.

Wu Xiaoyun called out from behind:

"Brother Xing, is it true? Are you alive? Is he holding you hostage?!" Her voice was filled with desperation.

"Come on, answer her." Xin could hear the yaoguai egging on Su Xing. "You know what to say, kid." 

"Listen, people! I survived, and the master granted me mercy! If you all surrender your shards and other valuables, we'll let you live! You have my word!" His voice carried a badly concealed nervousness.

"How could you do this to us?! What's wrong with you?" Wu Xiaoyun instantly broke down into tears.

"It was this or death, and I chose to live! Sister Xiaoyun, I love you like I love my real sisters, please make the others stand down! I beg you!" 

"Good." Xin could hear the yaoguai say.

"Master Taowei, what should we do?" Xiaoyun asked him in a shaky voice.

"Fight, what else! Shut the fuck up, you are distracting Ming from aiming! Xin, why aren't you firing?!"

Wait, why am I not firing? Xin dipped a bolt into the cauldron, held by Murong Zhan.

"I was scanning the battlefield and using my perception abilities. Sorry." He peeked around the corner and shot the mantis right into its chest.

"Make sure to hit the areas that Xing won't reach with his bubbles. The front, mainly." Xin advised Ming as he reloaded.

"Brother Xin, maybe we could negotiate a ceasefire? What do you think?" Xiaoyun asked.

"I am not letting the mantis rest! Shut up and get your shit together! Stand back!"

She looked at Xin, bewildered. Why was he hurting her? She regressed into a childish state, remembering the times when her father shouted at her. 

"Come, girl." Master Taowei firmly grabbed her and pulled her away. "We'll fight and kill Su Xing. Brace yourself."

"Uh." She made a weak sound that probably meant "yes", and nodded lightly.

"Running out of normal arrows!" Rui Ming shouted.

"Grab some bolts, fine!" Xin handed him four bolts. Rui Ming started dipping and shooting them, too. They weren't long enough for him to even draw the bow fully. It's better to let him have some bolts so that he doesn't waste wind path arrows on this.

Meanwhile, the mantis was almost done with the tunnel. Its pincers carved through the tunnel frame, and it was using its powerful front legs to just push the stones that fell from the walls away.

"Retreat into the hub! Move the cauldron! Rui Ming, Xin, don't get greedy!" Master Taowei barked his orders.

Xin finished reloading. Last shot. He looked at the mantis slowly breaking out of the tunnel. There was already a grasshopper behind it, and he could smell and hear more coming. He couldn't smell the mantis yaoguai, though. Probably some obscuring method. Su Xing's nervous smell was evident to him, though. What do we do with him? Is it possible to flip him? 

Lei, where are you?