The Iron Will of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo 2)

“How do we get back?”

He gave me an annoyed look. “So full of questions, like I know everything. I don’t think we can get back. At least not the way we came.”

“I would have thought the new King of Heaven could go wherever he wanted.” Drained of anger, drained of every emotion, I could call it like it was.

Erlang Shen didn’t look as celebratory as I’d expected. “First off, I would need the Great White Planet to make it official. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s not here. Secondly, I’m not sure if Princess Iron Fan was the source of the trouble to begin with.”

“What do you mean? She killed all those yaoguai. She nearly killed Ao Guang.”

“The last thing I said after I stabbed her was ‘Thank you for the Throne of Heaven.’?” He got up and stretched, grimacing as if the memory was embarrassing. “She laughed and said I hadn’t earned it yet. That was right before she exploded.”

I still didn’t get it.

“The mandate winner is defined as whoever defeats the ultimate evil threatening the Universe at the time the challenge is called,” Erlang Shen explained. “Princess Iron Fan was the Yin Mo, but I think there’s something out there bigger than her.” He pointed toward the peak of the mountain. “Take a gander in that direction with true sight.”

I did as he requested, without the surge of revulsion at complying with my enemy. Was this what calm people felt like all the time? Weird.

But turning my eyes on the summit of the mountain revealed a troubling presence that managed to pierce the layer of indifference I was wrapped in. An energy signature like I’d never seen before. The qi of demons and gods was like an open flame, raw-edged and flickering in eddies and whorls.

The top of the mountain, on the other hand, held an entire sunrise of power. It was a solid halogen mass, a radial scorch in the atmosphere. I couldn’t look at it for more than a moment. It hurt my eyes and defied my belief.

Erlang Shen watched me squint in pain. “I believe that’s what Heaven originally detected when this whole mess started,” he said.

Great. Princess Iron Fan had just kicked the snot out of us, and she wasn’t even the final boss. I didn’t see the point of playing this game anymore. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my parents again. I wanted to see Yunie. I wanted to turn back time to when I had Quentin by my side and our only concerns were which state landmarks we wanted to irresponsibly jump to next.

“There’s no ‘we’ here,” I said to Erlang Shen. “If you want to climb up there and get killed by whatever’s pumping out qi exhaust, then nothing would make me happier. I’d rather take my chances downhill.”

“I’m fairly s

ure down that way is an infinite slope into a never-ending abyss,” Erlang Shen said, pointing at the ominous layer of clouds. “And if your friends are still alive, and in this plane, our best chance of finding them is at the summit. We’ll have better odds of surviving this cursed place if we stick together.”

I thought about my options. He knew his way around the non-Earth realms better than I did. And he hadn’t been lying about needing to climb to the peak, both to find the others and to complete the Mandate Challenge. I’d watched him with true sight. He really believed he hadn’t won yet.

If I couldn’t stomach murdering Erlang Shen when his guard was down, I could always grab him and jump off the nearest cliff, I told myself. We’d fall forever, fighting for eternity. I could punch him as much as I wanted then.

I hauled myself to my feet. The deadness hadn’t left me, not yet. But I’d grind this out. I still had some fumes left in the tank.

He snorted at my labored efforts. “Good,” he said. “I was beginning to fear you’d become a sniveling little nuofu.”

I gave him the Italian chin-flick in response. If he didn’t know the gesture, he got the general meaning. Keeping him a safe distance ahead, where I could keep an eye on him, I followed Erlang Shen up the mountain.

24

I was starting to believe this place had been intentionally designed to mess with us as much as possible. The mountainside, though studded with little nooks and crannies of gray-pink stone that made plenty of steps and handholds, was angled in such a way that forced us to crawl upward on all fours.

Trying to go faster by beasting it with pure strength caused the rock surface to crumble like talc, leaching away the extra force. I also had the idea to stretch my arm out, plant my hand on the mountain, and then ride upward like a ski lift as my arm contracted, but I couldn’t shrink back to normal fast enough to make it worth it. The only thing I accomplished was looking like an idiot in front of Erlang Shen.

“This is stupid,” I said after my failed attempts to cheat the system. “You can fly.”

“Like I’m going to make myself an easily spotted target,” he scoffed. “You saw what happened to Nezha.”

I frowned at him.

“Get off your high horse,” he said. “You knew him for a single morning. I already told you that Nezha was my friend.”

He had, but I’d assumed he was making stuff up at the time. “Nezha was one of the few gods close to my age in centuries,” Erlang Shen said with genuine bitterness. “After you exposed me for a traitor, he pleaded for mercy on my behalf. So don’t you dare act like I’m incapable of feeling for him.”

We climbed in silence for another minute. The memory of Nezha must have been really eating at Erlang Shen, because he spoke again, unprompted.