Hei Nuwang was very fortunate that Nuwa had not yet reached the dark chamber where the great mural lay engraved on an entire wall. The mural bore a map of the entire central building and its separate rooms. No, 'rooms' was no longer the right word. Components.

It was a family secret that the Palace of the Body stood on top of the deepest, widest mine pit in the world, built long ago by a demon warlord for his mortal slaves to work in before Nuwa's brother put an end to it. It was because of this pit that Hei Nuwang had a very special defense system put in. One that she was about to activate in the hope of trapping Nuwa and buying them enough time to find a way to fix this mess. It was much more complicated than rigging the entire palace to explode or collapse, but a part of her had protested the complete destruction of Nuwa's legacy.

Hei Nuwang knew right away were the secret switch was. She rushed to the mural and pushed on the throne room image with all her might, for the switch had been designed so that only the strength of a Child of Nuwa could move it. It sank three inches into the stone, and immediately the deafening sound of gears and chains filled the chamber.

Hei Nuwang ran back out the room, eager to escape the building before Nuwa found her again. If she remembered correctly, the system's pattern went from bottom to top, excluding the throne room at the very summit of the building.

The tunnel network right beneath the palace would be the first thing to go.


Mantis, Crane and Monkey literally smashed down the door as they escaped into the courtyard. Barely a second later the first of the purple elephants punched through the tower's exterior wall, showering the courtyard with rubble.

"Okay, what's your plan?" Monkey looked to Mantis as he held his arms over his head.

"You two keep those guys busy while I go get some firepower." Mantis said. "Kung fu won't work on those things, but there is something that will."

Crane's eyes widened. He'd figured out what Mantis had in mind. "Mantis, inside that tiny bug head lies the mind of a mad genius."

There was another crash as the second purple elephant burst out behind its twin. Together they started for the three masters.

"Okay, we'll distract them." Crane said, flapping his wings as he prepared to take off. He stopped and looked towards the central building. "Is it me or has that palace gotten really noisy?"


Po didn't recognise the aged wooden door he'd discovered after pulling Tigress into a higher, dry section of the tunnel network. He listened for any sign of Long Feng or another flash flood, but the only sound was the rush of the water, and the eerie sound of a woman humming. He set Tigress down and kneeled before her. She was breathing hard, her face betraying her pain. "Where're you hurting?" He asked.

"Head." She answered. Po tenderly touched the back of her head. He found blood on his fingertips. Fighting back panic, Po summoned his chi. When his paw was glowing he put it back on the bloody part of Tigress's head. After a while he stopped and checked. He couldn't see any wound. He was getting better at this. "How're you feeling?"

"A little woozy, but better." Tigress replied. "I guess that's my fortune cookie come true."

Po turned bright red. "Yeah... so did mine. Turns out Yujin was the woman from my past who shaped my future."

"You'll have to explain once this is over." Tigress looked Po up and down and frowned. "Po... where's the sword?"

Po went from bright red to ghostly pale. His head followed his eyes as they turned towards the tunnel behind them. "In the water. In Long Feng."

"You mean with Long Feng?"

"No. In Long Feng. Shifu's gonna kill me."

Tigress did not look very pleased that Po had lost a priceless artefact. Again. "Never mind Shifu. Help me up." She tried to not put too much weight on her half healed thigh as Po pulled her up and they went to the door. Po glanced at Tigress, worried at the sight of her slightly unsteady form, and opened the door.

All that stood before them was a ladder leading up a dark shaft.

"Looks like a way out to me." Po said. "You go first, Tigress."

Tigress started to climb as the boisterous sound of machinery reached their ears. Po looked down the tunnel and up the shaft, but he didn't see any traps activating. Deciding that whatever was happening was happening somewhere else, Po turned his attention back to Tigress. When she was higher up the ladder, Po reached out and grabbed the rung himself.

There was a tremendous clanking sound, and then the ground quite literally disappeared beneath his feet.

Po cried out from pure fright, his legs dangling in the cold air, until he got the sense to lift them and set his feet on the bottom rung. "Po?" Tigress called from up above.

"I'm okay!" Po cried back. "What the heck was that?"

Keeping one paw on the rung, Po turned his body to see what had happened.

The whites of his eyes became fully bared. The tunnel they had just exited was gone. There was nothing there but darkness. A fading grinding noise made him look down, and he caught a glimpse of something massive and round before it disappeared into the abyss. The shaft was all that seemed to exist now. "Tigress, where did the tunnels go?" Po squeaked. His old-Po fears were catching up to him as he clung to the ladder with all four limbs.

"This must be the special defence system Mengxiang warned me about." Tigress said, and she too looked afraid. "Po, we have to move, now!"

"Wha-"

"I'll explain at the top of the ladder!" They climbed quickly. Tigress pulled herself through the top of the shaft and pulled up Po after her. They were met with another, slightly wider shaft with another ladder. Tigress grabbed Po by the shoulders to get his full attention. "Po, when Mengxiang spoke to me, she told me that Hei Nuwang made some changes to the palace. She literally hollowed out the building, divided the different areas of the palace into sections, and set them to destroy themselves once the palace's defence system was activated."

"D-Destroy themselves?"

"The Palace was built on top of a massive pit that is thousands of feet deep. From bottom to top, each section of the palace's interior will be released from its supports and free-fall into the pit. Hei Nuwang designed it that way so all knowledge and resources inside the palace will be destroyed instead of falling into enemy hands."

"You mean the palace is collapsing from the inside?" Po felt sick.

"According to Mengxiang, the throne room is the only room that will be safe. If we don't get up there, we're dead."

Po nodded. At least they had a plan. "So where are we now?"

"My guess is we're in the spaces in between the sections. All we have to do is climb."

"Great. At least it's not stairs..."

"Po!"

"No time for complaining, got it!"

They climbed up the next ladder. This time at the top of the shaft, they stepped out onto a large stone square. Dozens of feet above their heads, they saw at least three massive shapes held in place by great chains and stone pillars, connected by stone rectangular tubes that were profusely leaking water in several places. Below them was a pitch-black abyss.

"Gods..." Tigress muttered. "That must be the palace's interior up there." She looked down at the stone shape they were standing on. It looked like a square connected to an even bigger rectangle. "And I think we're standing on the tomb and treasure chamber."

"Sorry, I gotta say it." Po said, his jaw loose from astonishment. "Awesome!"

"No, I'm giving you this one." Tigress said. "The tomb is connected to the throne room by a staircase." They turned round and saw something both good and bad.

Good: There was indeed a diagonal stone tube stretching up from the stone block they were standing on and disappearing in between the higher blocks.

Bad: There was a distant green, blue and red glow making its way down the tube towards them. It was the Sword of Heroes, sticking out of the shoulder of a royally ticked off Long Feng.

"Oh come on!" Po's shoulders sank almost as low as his heart. The bolder Tigress growled and started dragging Po across the top of the tomb.

"We have to get to the other stairs, come on!" She said quickly. They sprinted across the top of the treasure room towards the other tube, the one containing the stairs that led to the library. When they reached the tube, Tigress pushed Po in front of her and ushered him up the tube. It was steep, but luckily not so steep that they couldn't climb. Po climbed on all fours for a few seconds before looking back. He saw Tigress clambering up the tube after him. Then he looked higher and saw Long Feng reaching the end of the tube at the other end of the suspended block containing the tomb and treasure chamber.

That was when the block was released.

Breaking away from the chains and tubes, the tomb and treasure chamber plunged into the pit and disappeared like the tunnels.

Po gulped. If they had been a few seconds slower...

"Get moving!" Tigress yelled over Long Feng's roar of rage. Already the crazed demon rhino was climbing back up the tube on the other side of the darkness, eager to get at the duo. As Po continued up the tube towards the giant block that contained the library, he prayed to the gods that none of his friends were still in the building.


It took every ounce of Eagle Jr.'s reasoning and physical power to keep the red panda from trying to jump in after his student. "Master Shifu, no!" Eagle yelled for the seventh time, keeping a tight hold of Shifu's belt. "There's nothing we can do and you know it!"

"Let go of me!" Shifu shouted. "Viper!"

"We can't help her now! You've seen that this water isn't normal! We won't stand a chance against it!"

"VIPER!"

"FORGET IT, SHE'S GONE!" Eagle Jr. hovered in the air, suddenly aware of the sound of machinery mixing with the sound of the water. Reminded of the white palace's defence system, he felt a sudden, extreme urgency to get the hell out of this room. As he looked around for a way out, he realised that Shifu had stopped struggling. It must have finally sunk in that Viper was gone. Tigress had been the first, and they had no idea if the other students were still alive. The aftermath of this gruelling night was not going to be pretty.

"Shifu!" Cried a voice that sounded like neither Viper nor Nuwa. Eagle Jr. looked towards the walkway that stuck to the wall above the main dining area. Standing by a black door that led to the bedrooms was a frantic silver-eyed pheasant. "Shifu, this way, hurry!"

"Who is she?" Eagle Jr. asked.

"Hei Nuwang's sister." Shifu looked just as surprised to see her as Eagle Jr. felt.

"We have to get out of here now!" The pheasant yelled.

Eagle Jr. scowled. He didn't feel like he trusted this woman. How could a bird be related to feline anyway?

The pheasant scowled in return. Eagle Jr. first felt invisible fingers jabbing into his head, and then an uncontrollable desire to fly through the open black door on the walkway. Still holding onto Shifu, he obeyed this unnatural impulse. The pheasant soon joined them in the corridor through the black door.

First there was a deafening clank. Then the sound of stone breaking apart. Then a rush of air that ruffled Eagle Jr.'s feathers. Then the mess hall vanished.

Eagle Jr. hadn't felt so shocked since Yujin had telekinetically nerve attacked him in the other palace. The mess hall vanished.

Shifu's ears went flat and his jaw dropped. The pheasant's beak was set. The three of them slowly approached the end of the corridor. The black door was gone. In its place was a great black void. Far off into the distance, Eagle Jr. could see windows covered in ice.

Fighting off a panic attack, Eagle Jr. slowly turned to the pheasant. "Would you mind explaining to me what the fricking hell just happened to the mess hall?"

"Hei Nuwang's last resort." The pheasant spoke. She didn't look as shocked as the two masters she'd just saved from certain death. She looked livid. "She intends to bring down the palace room by room... and everyone inside it."

Shifu's face contorted. "She'd go this far to cover up her mess?"

"Yes. The throne room is the only safe place in the building. We have to hurry." She started to lead them down the corridor, but stopped and looked back at the red panda. "And don't worry about Viper. She's in safe hands."


At some point during the long wait for news from the Palace of the Body, Emperor Xian's anxiety became too much and broke away from the group to sort out his thoughts. This turned out to be a good thing, for they would have jumped out their skins had they been there to witness Yujin and Viper materialise in a red flash.

Xian leapt up from the flat rock at the same time his heart leapt in his chest. "Yujin! You're alright!"

"Yes, I'm fine." Yujin hurried over to him. Viper stayed where she was. "Listen carefully, Nuwa is in trouble."

Xian couldn't look away. The green dress... the tight black pants... the gloves and the shoes... she looked just like she did every day before the fire. If someone had told him at this moment that the Wall of Heaven was crumbling, he wouldn't have cared.

"I may know a way to save her, but we need her pure chi." Yujin said quickly. She was still wearing her helmet. Xian would die a happy tiger he could see her face... "The chi in the little girl was poisoned by Hei Nuwang, but I believe that the only remaining untainted chi is in your body."

"She's talking about when Su healed you." Viper said. "The severity of your injuries would have required a lot of chi. We believe Su may have left some behind inside you."

Xian touched his arm where his artery had been severed. There were times that he imagined that could see still feel the little girl's tiny paws touching him. "Go ahead. Take it. I owe her my life."

Yujin held out her gloved paws. When Xian took them in his, it was like holding lighting. He hadn't realised until now just how badly he missed her touch. The sensation of running water in his limbs wasn't as unpleasant as he thought it would be. When Yujin let go, her paws were glowing blue. She stared at them, breathing hard. "Yes... this is just what we need..."

"Promise me you'll come back." Xian said. He hadn't lowered his paws. "I can't lose you again, Yujin. Promise me you'll come back."

Yujin stepped close to him. A glowing red line formed in the front of her helmet and it split apart like a set of cupboard doors.

Xian nearly broke down right then and there. Her face had barely changed since she disappeared. She was every bit as beautiful as the day he'd lost her.

"I promise." She whispered. "I will come back."

"But not soon." Xian said slowly. He'd realised this as he'd looked into her luminous eyes.

He didn't expect Yujin to kiss him. With her glowing blue paws on his shoulders, she kissed him long and deep. She pulled away and the helmet closed up. She was the Dragon Empress again.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I love you, but this is far from over."

As Emperor, Xian understood. This whole mess had gone far beyond just the deaths of their family, and Yujin had responsibilities of her own. He did nothing to stop her as she returned to Viper's side and they disappeared in that crimson flash he knew so well.