The mountain exploded behind them.
Xin hit the ground. Rock fragments flew over his head. The gate chamber collapsed inward. Something was pushing from below.
"The mass," Zhou shouted. "It is trying to dig out."
"Seal held," Dao Chen said. He was on one knee, bleeding from his shoulder. "The gate is closed. This is something else."
The ground cracked open.
A tendril of black energy shot up. Not from the gate. From a secondary point fifty feet away. The mass had found another path.
"We need to move," Shen Bao said.
Too late.
Three more tendrils erupted. Formed into shapes. Human shapes. Black energy constructs with no faces but with cultivation signatures that felt real.
The constructs attacked.
******
Shen Bao engaged the first construct with his broken sword hilt. The hilt went
