Stuck.  Ma Qianle regretting ever agreeing to tag along on this mission.  It wasn't his responsibility and he didn't have to be here.  No bag of goodies was worth dying over, no matter how practical and useful it might be.  Still, he was here now, and there was no use in attempting to collect water that had already been spilled.

"If we can't kill them and we can't get out of here, what are we supposed to do?"  He asked.

Wei Yaling surveyed the cavern before them, a look of grim determination on her face.  The corpse soldiers were slow to react, but already they realized their prey had moved and were moving towards the group once again.  She looked at Ma Qianle.  "I said we can't break the ghost wall.  We, meaning the Impermanents.  You two, on the other hand, can.  If you can find the jade and get it away from whoever is in charge here, we can get rid of the ghost wall and these corpse soldiers at the same time."

"Couldn't we harm the corpse soldiers too, if we're not affected by the jade?"  Ma Qianle asked. "Even if one of us stays to fight, wouldn't that be better?"  All around him, the Impermanents were getting ready to enter combat again.

Wei Yaling shook her head.  "You're not ready for this on your own, and if whoever is controlling all of this has more corpse soldiers or ghosts as backup there's not much we can do to help.  Even if we can't kill these things, we can hold them at a bottleneck and buy you time to look.  Go, search the rest of the tunnels and take Keeper Ruan with you."

Ma Qianle hesitated only for a moment before, looking resigned, he said, "Fine.  Good luck."  He turned to Ruan Ye.  "Come on," he said, and then without waiting to be sure the other was following, headed back into the tunnel.  Though before it had seemed to be a solid tunnel that simply led between two points on the cavern wall, Ma Qianle knew that ghost walls were mutable things and what once led to one place could just as easily go somewhere else the next minute.

Ruan Ye gave a quick gesture of respect and thanks to the assembled Impermanents, then quickly followed close behind Ma Qianle.  "No arguments this time?  You surprise me."

Ma Qianle stopped and spun around quickly enough that Ruan Ye had to come up short to avoid running into him.  "Don't misunderstand me," he said coldly.  "I don't like you, and I don't want your help."  He turned away, unwilling to meet Ruan Ye's gaze, his voice softening slightly.  "But I'm not stupid.  I can tell I'm out of my depth here.  If my choices are working with you or death, I'll pick you."  From down the passageway, the sounds of fighting began to echo.  "Let's get going."

The two jogged down the tunnel, not wanting to go so slowly as to walk but too cautious to run.  Sure enough, before long they came to an intersection.  Ma Qianle came to a halt, realizing suddenly that though he somehow had to find his way through the maze of twisty passages, he had no idea how to go about doing so.  Navigating caves was known to be difficult at the best of times, but with the ghost wall in effect, trying to do so with mundane means was next to impossible.

Ma Qianle closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm his anxiety and extend his senses as he had that morning — had it really been only that morning? — to try and determine which direction might lead them to the jade and the one holding it.  There was...nothing.  Or rather, he was surrounded by so much that his senses, already weak to begin with, were overwhelmed.  The cavern was filled with power, the air suffused with the corrupted yin of resentment.  He could sense other auras mixed in with it, but as soon as he tried to grasp them they vanished.

'Damnit!' he thought.  'I've only been doing this for a month!  They're all relying on me and I'm just not strong enough.  There's no time for this!'  He reached into his pouch.  Among the various pills Ma Qianle had been given, there was one that could greatly enhance his abilities for a short time, but as he would be weakened when the effect wore off, it was for use only in emergencies.  But wasn't this an emergency?

Ruan Ye stopped him with a hand on his arm just before he was about to toss the pill into his mouth.  Ma Qianle looked at him questioningly.

"That is a qi enhancing pill, is it not?" Ruan Ye asked.  Ma Qianle nodded, arm still poised midair.  "Save it," Ruan Ye continued.  "It is likely you will need the strength more later than you do now.  I will attempt to find the path."

Ma Qianle was sceptical, but he dropped his arm and returned the pill to the pouch.  "Can you even sense the Zudang Jades?  You're not…" he began, but paused shortly into the sentence.  'What is he, actually?' Ma Qianle realized he didn't know. 'I know he's a Keeper appointed by the Heavens, but what exactly does that even mean?  Is he some kind of god or something?'

Ruan Ye ignored the words that were left hanging.  "I am not attuned enough to the aura of the jades to trace them, no.  But I can sense demonic qi.  If we find the bear demons who killed the villagers, perhaps we will find the jade as well."

Ma Qianle stepped back and made a "lead the way" gesture.  'It's better than wandering in the dark, at least,' he thought.

Ruan Ye stepped closer to the intersection, his dark eyes taking on a distant, foggy look in the cool light of the pearl.  In the darkness, his movements were as much a thing of sound as of sight — a soft footfall, the rustle of silk, the sound of his breathing.  Beneath that were the echoes of fighting and, from some distant unknown place, the slow dripping of water.  The stench of corpses was much lighter here, and the air held the quiescent cool dampness of the spaces below the earth.  Ma Qianle felt as if the whole world had shrunk to just the calm bubble of light that surrounded him and Ruan Ye.

It was but a moment before Ruan Ye broke that stillness.  "This way," he said, moving off immediately down the left hand passage, his eyes never losing their far-off look.  He led the way through the caverns as five minutes stretched into ten and then ten into fifteen.  They turned first one way and then the other, occasionally even doubling back on the passage they had just walked down as the ghost wall confused their eyes and shifted the landscape around them.

Ma Qianle was growing more and more impatient.  'How long is this going to take?'  he thought.  He had no way of knowing what was going on with Wei Yaling and the other impermanents.  They were fighting, perhaps even dying, to gain him and Ruan Ye more time.  In his heart, he knew that they would have come here regardless of whether he had come along or not.  This was their job, and they accepted any consequences.  But the fact still remained that he was the one who'd activated the array that revived the corpse soldiers and set the ghost wall.  He couldn't help blaming himself for any harm that came to them.

Finally, Ruan Ye came to a halt, extending an arm to keep Ma Qianle from passing him.  He spoke again, this time mind to mind. [They are not far.  Be ready for a fight.]

[They?] Ma Qianle sent back.

[We are outnumbered,] Ruan Ye replied. As he did so, a silvery saber appeared in one hand, presumably from the same mysterious place as the spear he had used earlier.  Ma Qianle did not fail to notice that the summoning was much faster and much less flashy than it had been previously.  [I suggest you keep that qi enhancing pill close at hand.  You are likely to need it.] 

Ma Qianle withdrew some of his own protective talismans from one of the pockets on his jacket.  Most were keyed specifically to protect against the yin energy of a vengeful ghost, but some were geared towards reducing physical damage instead.  They were not what he would have wanted in a fight against demons, but they were better than nothing.  He also retrieved the qi enhancing pill from his pouch and kept it in one hand, ready to swallow at a moment's notice.  He looked over and nodded his readiness to Ruan Ye.

He wasn't looking forward to his fight, but Ma Qianle had no other choice, and when it came down to acting or waiting to be acted upon, he'd rather be the one choosing the battlefield.