"I like that tone. Now, listen. I can't take control of your whole body for long. If I were to try, your body would implode. To stop that implosion takes me an extreme amount of effort, which is why I've been asleep all this time."

Song Yi's eyes widened. He'd speculated about what had happened in the ravine, but hadn't been able to reach a conclusion.

After everything he'd seen over the last few days, he gradually came to think that the things the monarch had said when they first met seemed less ridiculous. By now, when offered this explanation for the events in the ravine, Song Yi accepted it immediately.

"What I'm going to do is take control of your arm only. That way, you'll retain consciousness. I'll need to recover for a while after, but not as long as last time. I can't do this often, though, so watch closely."

The salamander was only a few dozen meters away, now. Any closer and Song Yi would be in its attack range.

"Ready?" the monarch asked one last time.

"Yes, now hurry up!"

"Who are you telling to hurry up? If you keep talking to me like this then I'm not going to help you anymore."

Despite the monarch's relaxed tone, he quickly took control of Song Yi's arm.

The moment he did, Song Yi felt a tearing pain shoot through it, as though it were about to dissolve from the inside out.

The arm, now no longer under Song Yi's control, gripped the obsidian axe with a loose hand, holding the weapon in front of his stomach.

Song Yi watched closely, observing as he'd been told, when the sharpened bone base of the axe's handle was abruptly and viciously stabbed into his own stomach. Warm blood splattered out.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

The pain was unbearable. A thousand thoughts ran through Song Yi's head as he fought the sleepy feeling that grasped at his senses. Horror, betrayal, shock, confusion, disappointment, guilt, they all mixed together to play a litany of misery in his mind.

Using his left hand, he grabbed his possessed arm by the wrist, stopping it from inflicting further harm. But his grip was weak. He was losing too much blood.

Still, he fought to stay awake. If he passed out here, he was dead beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Relax. You did well up to here. Getting some of that salamander blood was helpful. Not bad for an illiterate urchin like you," the monarch's tired voice spoke out in his head, no longer controlling his arm.

"You bastard, what have you done?"

"Right about….. Now."

As the monarch said the word 'now,' Song Yi felt his dizziness and fatigue disappear. In their place was unprecedented power and energy.

Miraculously, when he pulled the axe handle out of his stomach, the wound healed completely.

In his entire life, he had never felt so strong as he did in this moment. Every muscle, every nerve was heightened to its maximum potential.

The salamander was upon him now, repeating the now tired move of swiping with its tail.

With a rushed flick of his wrist, Song Yi roughly severed the appendage in the place that was about to hit him. The scales that previously took all his strength to bite into were sliced in twain like butter. The end of the tail went crashing into the wall behind him, oozing thick yellow blood.

The beast howled in agony, its eyes turning red as it charged up another fireball attack.

There was no time to dodge.

Song Yi raised his arm over his shoulder and threw the axe with all his might, sending it spinning straight into the beast's mouth.

Before the salamander ever had a chance to react, fragments of its brain were sent flying out of a newly-made gash in the back of its head.

For a moment, Song Yi felt as though time were frozen. The raging salamander ceased all movement before crashing to the ground, a lifeless husk.

The beast had been slain, and the tribulation was passed.

Before he could rejoice, he saw wispy, ethereal black tendrils pulsing out of his body. As they exuded out, the overwhelming power he had momentarily possessed began to dissipate. With its exit, it brought a weak feeling to Song Yi's body, making it hard to stand.

"You tricked me."

The monarch yawned. "Had I told you to stab yourself in the gut, would you have done it?"

Song Yi abruptly kicked a stone at his feet, sending it flying. Still, he conceded the point.

"This black stuff?"

"Residual spiritual energy. Your axe absorbed it from the monsters you killed, and you got it when you stabbed yourself. Your pathetic body can't retain it any longer, so it's seeping out."

Song Yi frowned. "You mean when you stabbed me."

"You lived, didn't you?"

With a huff, Song Yi turned to open the door and exit the tribulation for good. But just before touching the handle, he retracted his arm.

Absentmindedly, he started scratching his fingers with his palm. His fingers were itching.

"Bai'er! I'm okay! I'll be out in just a moment!" he called.

He skipped over to the corpse of the salamander, standing on its giant head. Pulling on the edge of a scale with one arm, he used his obsidian axe to hack at the skin underneath and pry it off.

The monarch was dumbfounded. "What... what are you doing?"

"Liberating."

"Lib- what the hell! These things are useless!"

"Useless? These things are money!"

"Who would buy something like this? Sure, they're 'tough' but even you were able to crack one before I saved you!"

Song Yi smiled a terrifying, wolfish grin.

"There's always a sucker."

"Whatever, I can't stay awake anymore. Do what you want."

Song Yi managed to pry off a dozen more scales before he realized his bag was starting to get full. He'd already dumped out all the glow fruits and food he'd acquired in the forest two weeks ago.

With a mischievous glint in his eye, the last thing he did was hack off one of the salamander's fangs, leaving a gap in its front teeth. He stuffed the thing, which was no shorter than his forearm, into his bag. Given the size of the thing, though, it didn't fit, so it was left jutting out of the top conspicuously.

Feeling slightly stifled as he walked towards the door, Song Yi sighed.

"I should've brought more bags," he thought.

If the monarch were still awake, he would be choking. "This fellow's worldview is too small," he would've thought.

But the monarch was asleep, and Song Yi had looted as much as he could.

The moment he swung the door open, before he could even walk through, a blur slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his.

"Song Yi!" she cried.

Song Yi, already feeling weak, had almost been knocked over by Su Bai crashing into him. Unable to move his arms, which were trapped in her embrace, he smiled awkwardly.

"Sorry to worry you."

Remembering that Prince Zhang and Little Li were still nearby, she let go.

When she did, she noticed the large salamander fang protruding from Song Yi's holding bag.

"Big Bro Yi, this…"

"Oh, this? I'm going to sell it! Hey, do you have any more bags? Maybe I can get more of these…"

Su Bai was dumbfounded. Was this really her friend? Now, even more conscious of the other duo watching from the top of the stairs, she felt embarrassed in Song Yi's stead.

Just as Su Bai worried, the pair were watching from above. Prince Zhang scoffed in disdain and, although Little Li's mouth was obfuscated by him holding up the sleeve of his robe, one could tell from his eyes that he was giggling.

It wasn't just them, either. By now, Elder Mo had arrived once more to see what was going on.

"This fellow… did he really pass the second exam?" he thought. "And their time was only a few hours longer than the previous record. If it weren't for the Young Prince, they would've been the shining stars of this exam."

When he saw the obsidian axe strapped to Song Yi's waist, as well as the golden-embroidered red gloves on Su Bai's hands, he was even more astonished, though he didn't show it on his face.

"It seems I underestimated these two," he thought.

After Elder Mo congratulated them, Su Bai and Song Yi observed their surroundings for the first time.

The plateau at the top of the cliff was grassy, decorated sparsely with gigantic trees, far larger than those found thousands of meters below. Aside from twenty holes in the ground, each blocked off by a door, there were twenty cabins visible, circled around a paved courtyard.

Given that each cabin only housed one bed, it was clear that no more than half of the examinees were expected to pass the second test.

Even though it was already late at night, Su Bai decided to join Song Yi in his cabin to talk. She urgently wanted to know what had happened. How had Song Yi, who had lost a bout with an imp less than two weeks prior, managed to slay a salamander?

To be fair, he had improved during the rest of the test, becoming able to fight monsters far more dangerous than an imp, but a gigantic salamander was on a whole new level.

Unwittingly, he touched his forehead before explaining how he'd discovered the proper use of the obsidian axe. From there, the rest was simple.

"Which reminds me," he said, changing the topic. "How did you know how to use your gloves?"

"That…" she paused for a moment. "Li Jian has an identical pair."

"The hero of your country?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"How strong is he?"

"Honestly, we were so busy in the caves that I didn't have time to think about this kind of thing. Now, though, I realize that he's probably only a bit stronger than we are now. Well, at least based on what I've seen in exhibition matches."

They sat in silence for a moment, both speculating about the Hero of Ninghai.

With a crestfallen face, Su Bai asked,

"Hey, Big Bro Yi, do you ever miss home?"

There was a lengthy pause.

"You know," he began, "I only ever came in here to escape. I thought I was escaping death, but now I think that what I really escaped was life. I mean, living the wrong life."

Song Yi had never been one for lengthy conversation. Prior to entering the Blue Moon Sect Examination, he'd scarcely spoken more than a few words to any given person. But now, accompanied by Su Bai, as well as Wang Yanjing, he'd found people that he enjoyed conversing with.

Well, maybe he wasn't so sure about Wang Yanjing.

"Big Bro Yi, you sound like a wise old man," Su Bai giggled as she leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. "I miss home a lot. But you know, with you here this isn't so bad."

Song Yi wondered, not for the first time, if all girls acted like this, or if it was just Su Bai. Given that he didn't mind, he figured it didn't matter much either way.

The fireplace crackled, casting light out on the carpeted floor. The quality of these cabins really was far better than the longhouse they'd stayed in prior.

"Why did you stay here if you have family waiting for you at home?" he spoke softly.

"Because of the family member that is no longer at home," she muttered.

As she said that, unbeknownst to Song Yi, her eyes opened. Reflected in her pupils were the lithe flames of the fireplace.

Song Yi heard the tone of her voice and decided, wisely, not to question her further on the matter.

"Big Bro Yi, I'm feeling a little sleepy."

"Which cabin number is yours? I'll go sleep there," he said, helping her to the bed.

She told him and, after bidding her farewell, Song Yi went there to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

The remaining thirteen days passed in a blur. The morning after the time limit was up for the second test, the examinees stood assembled in the courtyard, all of them dressed in simple blueish-grey robes that the sect had supplied.

It was Song Yi's first time wearing what he thought to be luxurious clothing. He found it suited his tastes nicely.

Of the 42 that had passed the first test, only 18 had decided to take the second. By this point, there were 7 gathered in the courtyard.

Guessing that the other routes also had a 'waiting room,' such as the one he and Su Bai had been presented before the salamander, Song Yi surmised that some might still be alive.

Still, between internal backstabbing, running into other teams, and the brutality of the examination itself, there had certainly been casualties. Those who even made it to the waiting room were already few.

To his surprise, the girl from what Song Yi had previously thought of as the 'unremarkable' pair was still alive. Her partner, though, was nowhere to be seen.

"Those are the eyes of somebody who did what they had to to survive." Three days after the salamander fight, Emperor Wang had woken back up.

"How could you know that, geezer?"

"Pfft, how could I not?"

The monarch offered no further explanation beyond that, not even berating Song Yi for his form of address.

Aside from that girl, the remaining two had arrived together. They had been the last to emerge from the caves, only arriving two days prior.

They both had long grey hair, with similarly grey eyes. A single look at them would reveal that they were siblings, a brother and sister.

If one examined more closely, though, they would notice a fierce, wolf-like quality to the two. Their subtle confidence was dampened only by the fact that they were the last to arrive.

Finally, in front of the assembled seven, a young lady stood lightly on the grass, almost as though she were weightless.

Upon seeing her for the first time, Song Yi didn't have much reaction. But the other three boys, though they tried their best to hide it in various ways, couldn't help but feel stifled by her presence.

Even the cold and stoic Prince Zhang who, befitting of his status, had been presented many a beauty, turned a bit red in the cheek.

That was because the only word to describe this young lady was 'angelic.' She seemed less human and more like a being from a higher plane. Her skin was free of blemishes or imperfections, her blue eyes like deep pools of water that could drown a man.

Song Yi noticed the other boys acting odd, but couldn't figure out why.

"Do you know what their deal is?" he decided to ask Emperor Wang.

"Nope, no idea," the monarch said between coughs.

Song Yi failed to remember at that moment that the monarch didn't have a body with which to cough.

"Zhang Bo, Fang Li, Su Bai, Song Yi, Zhi Yue, Yu Yin, Yu Fenqing. Congratulations to you seven on passing the second trial. I was sent here today to bring you to the third, and final, trial. Please follow me."