Fullepub 
Chapter Forty-One: What he Lives For
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
WHAT HE LIVES FOR
Our minds shear apart, dumping us in the yin-yang realm screaming, reeling, clutching our shoulders.
My every instinct shrieks at me to disconnect, to free myself from this soul-scorching pain, but I can’t. It would doom us both. Under my horrific shock and rage, I can still feel the Black Tortoise’s cold, slithering grip, groping for the Bird’s head.
If we stop fighting, it will crush our cockpit at once.
We swing the Bird’s long neck, flail its remaining wing, kick its claws, anything to shake the Tortoise off. Yet it clings on, seeping a crippling chill into us, slowing our already exhausted qi flows and weakening the Bird’s spirit metal. Fire types are the most brittle to begin with. Our every movement grates and grinds dangerously, as if rusted metal pushed to the brink of crumbling.
“Xiuying, stop him!” I try to plead through the Bird. This must be Zhu Yuanzhang’s doing. But the agony is so intense that it has drowned my mind in blinding sparks. I have no idea whether I got a single sound out.
“Hey!” the White Tiger roars in my faint view through the Bird. Dagger-ax in hand, it charges toward us through the scorching valley. Rippling heat and smoke distort its glassy white Heroic Form.
I cry out in relief, reaching for it—
A black tendril from the Water Emperor snaps around the Tiger’s legs. It trips and smashes to the ground, sending a shock wave through the forest flames. It gets dragged back to the battle chaos, clawed hands scraping through smashed-up trees.
My cresting hope bursts into dust.
There’s way too much going on.
No one’s going to save us in time.
Shimin, crumpled down with me in the yin-yang realm, squeezes me into his arms.
“Mei-Niang,” he says in my ear, voice breaking. “Catch Yizhi.”
“What—?”
He seizes total control of the Bird.
My senses shatter into ten thousand pieces, gyrating. Colors whirl. Sounds wail. Winds whistle.
My own flailing arms are the first things that come into focus again. Human arms.
I’ve been ejected from the cockpit.
