Famine had polluted China. People were sick, starving, dying.

That was what I screamed inside my head as I sprang to the side, a slice of metal catching my shoulder in an explicit stab of pain that I tried to blank out when I crawled back onto my feet, facing the snarling beast before me.

Taotie looked nothing like I had expected when Bai Que said its cursed name, canines the length of my arm curving from the ceiling of its mouth, its body black and savage. Jagged stripes of white decorated the fur, flesh flecked with scars and marks from previous battles. Beetle eyes stared at me venomously as the great Taotie thrashed its giant head. The corner of its mouth curled, look hungry and dark with loathing.

Fengwu pressed itself up against my hand, adrenaline pulsing through my veins as I drank in the White Tiger's counterpart, a beast I would have to defeat before I reached my destination just like the nine-tailed fox had said.

I'd had my fair share of grappling demons and creatures that most people believed only existed in legends. But this - this would be more than just a grapple.

I readied myself into the stance I had been instructed to always keep, rooting myself to the ground as Taotie pawed the rocks, metal glistening around its body like snow.

I bit down on my tongue.

Curse the Heavens.

The Four Auspicious Beasts had sent me here to die.

With an earth-shattering roar that infiltrated the skies, Taotie reeled back onto its haunches, muscles rippling with power before the hulking creature lunged forward with a mighty jolt.

A silhouette of sin against the backdrop of gray, the beast pounced at me, and with a forceful thrust to the right, I narrowly missed the sharp, razored edge of its claws, all designed to shred and butcher and destroy. The momentum tossed me into a pile of heavy iron and steel, unpolished and filthy with age. With the ground shaking at the impact of Taotie's strike, I staggered from the mound of weapons, my forehead glazed with sweat and blood.

My grip around Fengwu tightened, the blade trembling in my hand.

The beast rounded on me, its short, unruly mane quivering with every foreboding step it took. I dug my feet into the rough ground, calming the erratic beat of my heart as with a purposeful stride, Taotie lurched for me again, crushing one foot on a nearby boulder to boost its body through the air in an arch of darkness.

I did the same.

With fearful dexterity, I hurtled my figure over the beast's head, spinning and spinning and spiraling until all that I could hear was the whistle of wind through my hair and all that I could feel was the touch of shadow and smoke against my skin.

I landed, sword in hand and legs immediately hooking around the frame of the White Tiger's counterpart.

Taotie kicked up its forelegs, bellowing with rage when I grasped a tuft of its shaggy black fur to keep from being thrown off its back.

Finesse boiled in my blood as I raised Fengwu over my head, what little light there was in this dark world glancing off the surface of the blade before it drove down toward the beast's head.

I felt the earth quake.

And with a plunge of dust and corrupt agony, the rocks caved in the moment my spine hit the ground with a defeaning thud, dirt spraying when I lifted my head, just in time to see the form of the black tiger launching toward me, wicked laughter glistering in its haughty eyes as it glared at me with one final growl.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then everything was silent once more.

Taotie's body sagged against my own, eyes horrid and slow and immaculately lifeless.

My head tilted to the ground, each breath I inhaled gradual and deep. And like a song of hollow victory, I extracted Fengwu from the depths of Taotie's stomach, blood pooling like a river around me.

With strength only some could muster, I shoved the carcass to the side, falling to a limp as I stumbled away from the site and back onto the road, pain like needles riding through my body in a numb ache.

I ignored it all, my eyes focused on that distant but perceptible glow of silver in front of me.

The rocks seemed to shrink as I lumbered by, the shields and swords and axes bowing down to me when I passed, the world a sudden reign of peace.

I halted where the road ended, a breath lodging itself in my throat.

Gingerly, afraid that I would somehow break it, my fingers skimmed the handle of the Sheet-Metal Rake propped against its iron stand, engravings of an ancient language I couldn't comprehend snaking up and down the material. It was cold to the touch, and impossibly light when I took it from its stand, letting it rest in the crook of my hand.

"How touching," a voice called form above me. I jerked my head up, every muscle in my body tensing once again at the sight of the nine-tailed fox dangling her pale legs over the brim of a rocky ledge. She was smiling, and it wasn't unfriendly.

I grabbed the hilt of my sword again, but Bai Que vanished from the ledge in a blink of an eye, reappearing beside me with a hand on my shoulder and her lips at my ear.

"I was just offering you my congratulations, Ningyue," she murmured, bare feet brushing the rocky terrain. "There's no need to be so hostile, is there?"

I moved myself away from her, away from her enchanting voice. "You knew who I was all along?"

She smirked. "Of course I did. Why else would I be here?"

"What do you want?" I asked, looking her up and down.

Bai Que only laughed, her hand traveling down my chest in a pleasant manner. And this time, before I could stop her, she fished out the miniscule flask tucked away in the folds of my fighting attire, her eyes sparkling delicately.

Like a breeze, she flipped the lid open, her free hand clasping around my wrist. I didn't have time to respond to the contact, and in a rush of white mist, my face was brought up to Bai Que's, her eyes like dark topaz that abruptly set my heart hammering.

With tenderness someone like her should never possess, she allowed a single droplet of phoenix tear to drip onto each of my wounds, the cuts healing automatically. And when the flask was empty and tossed to the ground with the rest of the debris, there wasn't a trace of the previous fight on me.

Bai Que stepped away, setting me free. Her care-free grin was back. "Try it," she said, cocking her head to the side.

I looked at her, perplexed. "Try what?"

She nodded at the Rake in my hand, giggling. "The Rake, young heroine."

I glanced down at the treasure in my hand, elaborate and lustrous and illuminated by its own precious glow.

I hesitated.

But with a thoughtful exhale, I carefully wielded the Sheet-Metal Rake over my head, the handle twirling between my fingers in a waltz of energy that sent the ground beneath my feet groaning and shaking.

And like fire, the earth rolled, every inch of the place that was once a dead field of bones cloaking itself in the finest, glorious greenery. Vegetation, flowers, trees - they bloomed until there was nothing left and until the entire land existed under the blossom of life, vines twining together and the sky filling with birdsong.

Bai Que joined me, her eyes like flames. "The world awaits you, young heroine," she purred, her her dress a phantom of light. "Only if you dare."

I smiled at her and examined the Rake in my hand before returning my gaze to the path where the life unfurled, journeying through the heart of China.

"I do," I whispered, and a new light blazed in my eyes.