"Run!" The prince shouted.

Hong'er moved first. With a face twisted into full concentration, she pulled out a talisman and raced to the prince's side, the paper glowing with soft yellow light. With a swift motion, she slapped it into the air. The qi roared from the talisman, launching a concentrated blast toward the four worms. The attack would not kill them, but it would buy them time. The prince leaped through the opening he had widened, landing atop a flesh-coated table in the dining room. Hong'er followed, with clan members diving through one after another. By some miracle, all twelve of them made it through. But their good fortune ended there.

A piercing screech split the air, followed by another, then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. More screeches echoed in the distance, each call answered by another, until the sounds multiplied throughout the castle. Prince Yang Jinyan gulped. Now every worm in the castle knew of their presence.

"Our cover is blown!" he shouted. "Run as fast as you can!"

Yang Jinyan leaped from the dining table, his cheeks bulging, and shot a giant fireball toward the wall before him. The orange sphere blazed like a miniature sun, and when it struck the wall covered in octagonal nests, it exploded brilliantly, blasting a hole through the wall. Leading the group, he flew through the smoking breach and landed in a tiny bathroom containing only a small pool. Instead of hot water though, the pool brimmed with red blood. Ignoring this grotesque sight, he cycled his qi and launched two more fireballs, each the size of his torso, at the next wall.

The Prince demolished wall after wall. Each time he created a breach, he leaped through and launched another blast before his feet touched the ground. To mortal eyes, his movements would appear as nothing but a blur. The rapid succession of explosions from his fireballs striking the walls thundered like war drums.

Several heartbeats later, he found himself in a room beside the ballroom—a modest guest chamber with a bed that could accommodate five people side by side. Through its glass balcony doors, he glimpsed the ruined City of Suns. Clouds of dust filled the air, and a monstrous abomination, nearly as large as the golden castle itself, loomed in the distance. Thousands more creatures converged in the sky, where explosions, mad cackling, shouts, and incomprehensible sounds merged into a cacophonous roar.

The prince suppressed his curiosity and turned his head, his cheeks bulging as if he were a squirrel hoarding nuts. Then, he unleashed a barrage of twelve fireballs, one as large as his head and eleven smaller ones. They struck the wall in sequence, with one massive explosion followed by eleven smaller blasts. The impact shook the room, filling the air with smoke and dust, and cracks spiderwebbed across the wall.

Soon, his group landed behind him, Hong'er being the closest. As they touched down, the dust cloud dissipated, revealing a vast chamber beyond the breach he had created. The ballroom was wide with a high ceiling supported by pillars. Where music, food, and entertainment had once been enjoyed, pink flesh now covered every surface from floor to ceiling. Its octagonal nests lent it the appearance of a massive beehive.

Yang Jinyan glanced toward the huge golden double doors that remained intact on the far side. Beyond them lay a hallway leading to the wide stairway that would take them to the next floor.

He prepared to jump, but a vibration beneath his feet stopped him.

"Move!" he shouted, and his clansmen scrambled to jump to the side. The flesh-covered floor where they had stood cracked open, revealing a massive pink worm with jaws spread impossibly wide.

It burst upward beneath one of his clan members, who reacted too slowly. Instead of engulfing him completely, however, the worm's pristine white teeth snapped shut around his neck. The worm's momentum then carried the body toward the ceiling, knocking the severed head aside.

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Yang Jinyan stared in horror at the creature. Though only the size of a cow, its maw could stretch wide enough to swallow a man whole. Its pink flesh writhed with terrifying human faces, as if dozens of people pressed against its skin from within, desperate to escape.

"Don't stop!" Yang Jinyan shouted. His command broke his clansmen from their frozen state. They began to jump toward the breach he created while the worm turned its body toward him.

Yang Jinyan pulled a brown talisman from his spatial ring. As the worm dove toward him, jaws gaping, he slapped the talisman against the ground. Instantly, the floor surged upward. A thick black pillar erupted from beneath the worm, growing as rapidly as a magical bamboo and driving the creature into the ceiling. Without hesitation, Yang Jinyan spun and launched himself through the breach, bursting through the lingering dust cloud into the ballroom beyond and followed his clansmen.

As his feet touched down, however, vibrations rippled through the floor. Worms erupted from the ground, walls, and ceiling around them. Liu Xing had said their attack strategy was not complex—they simply tried to devour their prey. But that simplicity made them all the more terrifying.

"Run, damn it, run!" he shouted at his clansmen, who were standing frozen in front of him.

Yang Jinyan sprinted forward, trying to close the gap between himself and the group Hong'er led as they raced toward the double doors. But before he could reach them, a worm plunged from the ceiling between them.

He cut his run short, diving to the side and rolling. As he prepared to leap toward the group ahead, two more worms burst forth, blocking his path.

Yang Jinyan's hand flashed, producing a red talisman. Upon activation, it unleashed a wave of molten lava that forced the worms aside, creating a path to his companions. He launched himself forward with such force that the flesh-covered floor cracked beneath him. Mid-flight, he saw two worms attacking the group while Hong'er activated talismans that split the ground and conjured binding vines.

"Watch out!" Yang Jinyan's warning cut through the chaos as a worm with the face of an old woman lunged at the group from behind them. His cry made the group turn around and scatter—Hong'er and four others diving left, the rest right. Yang Jinyan landed near the right group, his eyes fixed on Hong'er across the divide created by this specific worm.

"We need to split up!" he called out to the other group. They could not stay grouped together. It made them an easy target for the worms' coordinated attacks. More importantly, clustering their forces would only give the abominations a chance to eliminate them all at once. "Ensure Hong'er's survival!"

The Twelve Sun Armor, their objective, could only be worn by a woman—created by the second emperor for his wife, who had been stronger than him and had transformed their fledgling empire into a flourishing realm. Her story was steeped in betrayal and tragedy, but such details meant nothing now. Hong'er, as the strongest and only suitable bearer of the armor, had to survive.

"Yes!" came their unified response, ready to protect her with their lives.

"I'll meet you all there!" he called to the group.

His promise to reunite in the upper treasure room sounded empty. Yang Jinyan knew with crushing certainty that more would fall among the eleven remaining people. He might well be among them. Still, the promise gave them the strength to move forward.

The worm between them turned its head, its milky white eyes gleaming beneath its wrinkled face. When it turned toward Hong'er's group, the prince's heart clenched. He decided in an instant to draw the attention of every abomination in the room, giving Hong'er's group a chance to reach the upper levels first.

"Look at me!" he roared, infusing his voice with qi. The worms snapped their heads toward him. More burst forth—from floor, walls, and ceiling—until over fifteen abominations filled the vast ballroom. Each bore a different face: young, old, male, female. One particularly grotesque worm displayed a deer's features fused with human ones, flesh-forged antlers jutting from its forehead.

Hong'er's group fled at full speed. She activated another talisman to thin her presence. Then, with worry-filled eyes, she turned back once, as if yearning to join him. Then, her expression hardened, and she rushed for the double doors. Though he knew more obstacles awaited her group, for now, it was enough.

"P-prince, what should we do?" asked a man behind him.

Before he could answer, all fifteen abominations launched themselves at them like coiled springs unleashed.

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