“What now, Sage Tianlan? Will we head back to the safe zone?”

“There are a few more places with beast cores just lying around, but they’re a bit too dangerous for you. It’s probably best if we return.”

“Okay.”

Tianlan and Fang Wu walked through the various environments, stopping every now and then to observe the spirit beasts until they made their way to one of the regions adjacent to the safe zone.

When they got close to the boundary, Tianlan noticed some swirling grey clouds in the sky above a distant snow-capped mountain.

He knew it was likely Rhava going through his tribulation to reach the next realm, and curious, he decided to take a closer look. With his eyes, he had no need to move from where he was, he could see things clearly from where he stood.

Fang Wu watched as Tianlan’s expression became grim.

“Sage Tianlan?”

“You go on ahead, Wu. There’s something I need to do.”

Tianlan watched as Wu crossed the boundary then checked his map and made his way over to the rainforest region.

***

Shiva held a vigilant stance as she observed the beast floating in the sky above the mountain. It was a large tiger which had flames dancing at its feet. It was emitting a tremendous amount of heat, which caused the snow falling near it to evaporate.

“What are you doing here, Vajra?”

The tiger chuckled.

“What? Can I not offer my congratulations? It’s not every day that someone attempts to break through to the core refining realm.”

“Thank you for coming all this way. We know that this mountain isn’t the most comfortable place for you. But I hope you can understand that now isn’t the time to entertain guests. Rhava needs to concentrate on his tribulation.”

“I can see that. It’s just-”

Vajra blew out a ball of fire which travelled down towards the cave Rhava was lying in.

“What’s the meaning of this?!”

Shiva immediately launched her own attack. It was a blast of frigid air which neutralised the fire when they collided.

“Oh? So Rhava isn’t the only one who has made progress. But I’m afraid you’ll need more than that.”

Vajra inhaled then launched another fireball which was multiple times larger than the last. Shiva was forced to use all of her strength to defend against it, but she managed to neutralise the second one as well.

“This is our home ground, Vajra. You may be in the core refining realm, but it won’t be so easy to push me around now that I’ve reached the peak of the solidification realm. Go home.”

Vajra chuckled, amused that he had been unable to get past a little wolf, even after two tries. But that was where the fun ended.

“Perhaps that was the case in the past, but the two of you aren’t the only ones to have improved.”

Vajra inhaled once more, this time taking in a huge amount of air.

Even before he released his attack, the heat from his body was able to penetrate the freezing cold air and even caused Shiva to become uncomfortable, forcing her to use her qi to defend herself.

When he launched the third fireball, Shiva couldn’t see anything but orange. It was as if the sun had descended upon her. All of her resistance only managed to keep her out of harm’s way, but the cave had been destroyed, revealing Rhava’s form.

Rhava stood to his feet and gave Vajra an intense glare.

“So you've reached the second layer. Congratulations. But why do you want to see me so badly, Vajra?”

“There’s a little rule you might not know about, Rhava.”

Rhava sharpened his eyes.

“And what would that be?”

“Anyone who wants to reach the core formation realm needs to give me a drop of their essence blood first.”

“In your dreams.”

That was the last thing Rhava was willing to do. It would be the equivalent to selling his soul to Vajra. He would be able to inflict pain upon him at his whim and would even be able to kill him at the drop of a hat if he had a drop of his essence blood. It was hardly any different to being a slave.

Vajra looked up to the rumbling tribulation clouds in the air and shook his head.

“Like father, like son.”

Rhava furrowed his brows.

“What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t put the pieces together yet? How old are the two of you? 20? 21? And you’ve already reached the point where you’re able to make an attempt at the fifth realm, the core refining realm. With such strong bloodlines, how is it possible that your parents —who were older than you are when they met their end— had only managed to reach the lower layers of the solidification realm?”

Rhava gritted his teeth as he listened.

“I made the same offer to your father, but he refused. The same thing happened with your mother when her time came.” He sighed. “All they had to do was to submit to me and they would have comfortably made their way to the core refining realm. Who knows? They may even have surpassed me. But they chose to be stubborn, leaving me with no choice but to interrupt their tribulations. Unfortunately, they suffered severe injuries and weren’t able to reach their previous peaks even after years of recuperation. Don’t make the same mistake they did, Rhava.”

Rhava’s hairs stood on end, and so did Shiva’s. They bared their fangs as they eyed the floating tiger.

Rhava was the first to speak.

“Do you mean to tell me that it’s your fault our parents were killed?”

“That’s not true, and you know it. You were there when the humans came. I played no part in it.”

“How can you say that, Vajra?! You traitor!”

Shiva couldn’t stand to hear his voice any longer.

“If it weren’t for you, they would have been in the core refining realm! How could a few transcendent realm cultivators have slain them then?!”

“Control your sister, Rhava.”

Rhava couldn’t hide his open hostility. Instead of saying anything to Shiva, he took slow steps forward, not breaking eye-contact with Vajra for a moment.

“Why would you do this, Vajra? Are you that power-hungry? If you had worked together with our parents, the three of you may have been able to break free of the influence of the Shimmering Sword Sect.”

“Break free? Why would I need to do that?.”

Vajra was honestly taken aback by those words. It had been so long since he had held such a sentiment.

“I became a member of the Shimmering Sword Sect long ago.”

“What?!?!”

Shiva’s shock was plainly apparent. Never would she have thought she would hear those words from a fellow spirit beast in this place.

Rhava was also caught off guard by the revelation.

“Vajra. Your parents were killed by them too. You told us so yourself. How could you have stooped so low as to join them?”

“Personal gain. In exchange for keeping order in the third trial, they give me all the cultivation resources I could ask for.”

“So, you really are a traitor. If you think we’re going to join you, then you can forget it. Disrupt my tribulation, I don’t care, but don’t think for a moment that we’ll betray our lineage.”

As he finished speaking, Rhava was finally struck by the first bolt of his lightning tribulation. It was so intense as to bring him to his knees, but he resisted the urge to cry out in pain. His gaze was locked on to Vajra.

“I’m afraid that’s not good enough, Rhava. You see, my master has been wanting another core formation realm spirit beast for a while now.”

“Your master?” Rhava was struck by another bolt of lightning, which forced him to rest for a moment before continuing. “You signed a slave contract with a human?”

“What of it?”

“To think you had fallen this far. I was truly short-sighted to have thought of you as one of us.”

Vajra chuckled.

“I am an ally only to myself. I’ll do whatever it takes to advance my own position. You can call me all the names you want, but I’m afraid the end result will be the same. Give me a drop of your essence blood right now, or perish. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re irreplaceable. After all, your sister isn’t very far behind you.”

Rhava struggled to get back on his feet after the third bolt of lightning struck him.

“Go to Hell, Vajra.”

Vajra shook his head.

“Suit yourself.”

He inhaled a large amount of air before launching the strongest attack yet. It wasn’t just a fireball this time. It was a continuous stream of fire.

Rhava stood with his head held high as he resisted the pain of the lightning and watched as the blast of fire came towards him.

He summoned all of the strength his body could wield to launch a frozen breath of his own, but before he could release it, he saw a familiar form jump in front of him.

“What are you doing, Shiva? Move out of the way!”

Shiva ignored her brother and put up a futile resistance against the flames. Before long, she had been fully engulfed causing her to let out blood-curdling screams of pain.

Rhava’s eyes opened wide and he ignored the excruciating pain of the fifth lightning bolt to move closer to his sister. He didn’t want to get too close lest the lightning jump to her, but even from a distance away, he could see that she had sustained life-threatening injuries.

***

“Shiva!”

Tianlan heard a mournful cry coming from the snow-capped mountain which caused him to burst into motion. To anyone he passed, he only appeared as two streaks of blue light racing through the air.

He reached a rainforest and didn’t slow his pace at all. He weaved his way through the trees and adeptly manoeuvred past every obstacle in his way before abruptly stopping at a certain spot.

It was an indistinct area of the rainforest environment, not much different from others, but Tianlan knew there was something here that made it special. He wasted no time in taking a step forward, and as soon as he felt the wind rushing past his face, he used his Rail Gun technique to propel himself through the sky, travelling at an incredible speed towards the volcanic region.

As he entered the environment’s air space, he felt a wave of heat come over him, but he didn’t slow himself down at all. He needed every second at his disposal to make it in time.

Soon, he found the location he was looking for. There was a cultivator lying on the ground, seemingly asleep, but it was an otherwise unremarkable location.

Tianlan braced himself for impact and landed with a heavy thud some distance away from the exact location he was aiming for. He used the distance to build some momentum, and as he ran past the scalding hot surface of the volcanic region, he adjusted his speed and positioning, ensuring that as soon as his body entered the paralysing region, his foot touched the ground. In that very instant, what he saw transformed from a burning red environment to a freezing white one.

When the boy who had been lying on the ground finally got up, he witnessed a series of explosions in the snow forming a line all the up to the top of the mountain.

***

“Shiva! Why did you do that?”

“I-if I’m gone, then he can’t kill you, Rhava. There’s no one else who is close to the core refining realm.”

“No, Shiva! This isn’t how it was supposed to- I was supposed to be the one to protect you!”

Rhava’s heart was breaking right where he stood, but a small distance away, Vajra found himself quite amused.

The sound of his laughter triggered a furious response from Rhava.

“Vajra, you bastard!”

“Hey. I didn’t expect this either. But it works for me. If you make your decision quickly, I’ll extract the residual fire qi from her body. She may still be able to live.”

Rhava looked back down to his sister, tears welling up in his eyes. There was no choice to make.

He turned to Vajra, a droplet of blood forming on his forehead.

“Don’t do it, Rhava.”

“Shiva…”

Shiva had a smile on her face even as her body smouldered.

“I’m just joining Father and Mother a little early is all. But don’t you dare come visiting us any time soon, Rhava. We don’t want to see you for a long long time, you hear me?”

“Shiva…”

“You have to promise me.”

“I… I promise, Shiva. I promise.”

As she heard his words, Shiva’s smile faded away and her eyes closed shut.

Rhava’s tears flowed unrestrained as he raised his head to the sky and let out a sorrowful howl.

“You wolves are always so stubborn. It didn’t have to be this way. Oh well, I guess master will have to wait a while longer.”

Vajra inhaled in one last breath and exhaled a vortex of flame.

“Funeral Pyre!”

Rhava watched as the blast of fire travelled through the air.

At that moment, when he was at the end of his rope, he recalled the words of a certain boy.

If the day comes when you’re willing to call me brother, just call out to me.

He berated himself internally. If he had taken his sister’s advice earlier, perhaps the two of them would have had something different in-store.

He knew it was too late for regrets, but still, he couldn’t help letting the words escape his mouth.

“Perhaps I should have taken you up on that offer, Brother.”

It was quiet, barely a mutter, but even so, after he spoke those words he felt something on his shoulder. When he turned to see what it was, he saw a shadow walk past him. That shadow strode past Shiva’s body and stood boldly in front of the flames of death.

With a wave of his arm, the vortex of flames was made to swirl around the three, failing to cause any harm, and with a snap of his fingers, the heat and light were expunged, leaving only faint traces of the raging fire.

Standing amidst the falling embers, his silhouette brought a sense of comfort. A sense of comfort which was strengthened by the words he spoke.

“Don’t worry, Brother. I am here now. Everything’s going to be alright.”