Fog encased us as we struggled to keep our footing on damp rocks. Shallow pools of water formed from the melting snow marked our arrival into more tropical climates. The grey clouds above our heads meant it was only a matter of time before the rain started, fortunately, there was quite a clear path through the jungle which we could safely assume led the way to Gutura.

It became difficult to tell the time of day thanks to the dense cloud coverage, Safi and I were traveling wordlessly now, neither of us spritely enough for conversation. After 11 days of jungle trekking, Safi suddenly rushed forward. I saw the rope bridge as she arrived at its beginning.

“This is it,” she said. “The entrance to Gutura.”

“It’s quite subtle,” I remarked. The rope bridge was not particularly long and disappeared behind the mountain face unremarkably.

“They don’t want to draw attention to the settlement,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Are you going in, or…?” I asked as I watched Safi hesitate.

“I never thought I’d come here,” she said. “It’s just a little bit overwhelming.”

“Are you happy?”

“It’s certainly beginning to feel that way,” she said as she stepped onto the bridge, I followed after her. We rounded the mountain face and had to catch our breaths as the city revealed itself.

The rope bridge we were standing upon was one of many, stretched unceremoniously between each face of the towering crevice slicing through the mountain face. They were so numerous it was difficult to tell upon first glance where each one started and finished.

There was also a large, more permanent structure that connected the two sides of the crevice. It was carved crudely at the bottom but perfectly flat on top becoming a perfect bridge, it was topped by an intricately designed roof with dark stone tiles and bright red statues placed equal distances apart.

I moved my gaze to one of the crevice’s sides, where the city’s buildings were carved and shaped from the mountain’s insides. I saw precarious pathways placed perilously close to the large chasm between the two sides.

Towards the centre of the city the magnificent stone buildings looked to crawl deep within the mountainside, others further away were shallow and small. Some buildings had wooden balconies, roofs, and even extensions that hung over the edge.

Opposite the mountain city, across the tiled bridge, sat nestled in the mountainside a menacing tower intricately cut and humongous, it rose to a peak almost as tall as the mountain itself.

The tower stood lonely on the one side, the bustling city opposite looked bigger yet the tower’s aura demanded attention in its own way, it was an easy guess that the tower was the home of the Hall of the Mountain Gods sect.

Safi and I were standing on our rope bridge looking dumbly at the beautiful city stretched between a cracked mountain for far too long. There was no one nearby though so I allowed Safi to take in the wonders for a little longer.

“As good as you imagined?” I asked after a minute.

“I have to admit I may have underestimated it,” she said.

“Didn’t they have pictures in your books?” I asked with a laugh.

“Apparently very outdated ones.”

“Well, we’re not gaining much from standing here,” I said trying to chivvy her along.

“Speak for yourself, I think I might pass out.”

“That would be troublesome,” I said looking down at the brutal drop below us.

“Then you better give me a minute,” she said, still incapable of tearing her eyes away from the sprawling city.

Another couple of minutes and she finally walked forward, toward the city side of Gutura. “We might want to leave exploring the city till we have some money to spend,” I said, causing her to pause and turn around. Correcting herself she took the other bridge toward the sect.

We walked without looking down, the dizzying height of the chasm was enough to make my legs shake, I could see Safi was not faring well either as she walked slowly without letting go of the supporting ropes.

We eventually cleared the bridge and stepped upon the hard stone floor in front of the tower. We were surrounded by people now, the sect appeared busy. Two large doors stood open with people streaming in and out, we joined the crowd heading inside.

The tower looked much the same on the inside as it did on the outside. Notably, a large mural carved into the wall swirled up the length of the tower depicting powerful beasts native to this world. This mural was the first time I had found a truly masterful qi injected work of art on this world, it was almost dripping from each swirl and divot.

Safi was similarly taken by the piece but the oncoming crowd did not react kindly to sightseers as they barged us around. We were coughed out to the side which gave us time to get our bearings.

“What do we do?” asked Safi, completely bewildered by the number of people roaming the tower’s ground floor.

“I’m not sure, maybe we should ask for help.”

We found a woman wearing disciple dress clothes. “Excuse me, who would we talk to about joining the sect?” asked Safi politely.

The woman did not even process the question and directed us towards sect elder Hua. We hugged the walls of the tower as we approached the main cause for the crowds. A market full of disciples selling their craftworks, I looked upon the mural in a new light, it made sense for the mural to be so fantastic if this sect had an established crafting background.

We scurried around asking many different people about the whereabouts of sect elder Hua. None were any more helpful than the first woman. We sat to the side on a set of steps looking at the inside of the tower which was beginning to empty out, the night was moving in and we were no closer to finding sect elder Hua.

“Excuse me,” came a voice from behind us. We both turned to find a girl in disciples robes hiding her face behind a large scarf.

“Can you help us?” asked Safi who stepped forward making the shy girl step back. Safi noticed and apologised. “Sorry, we’ve been looking for sect elder Hua for hours, we just want to join the sect.”

The girl nodded behind her scarf and ushered us to follow her. Well fell neatly into place behind her and followed her up a staircase, ascending the domineering tower. “It’s a trick they pull on new recruits. Sect elder Hua doesn’t exist,” she said quietly.

I rolled my eyes, Safi looked a little angry but I caught her attention. I did not want to scare this helpful shy girl away so keeping Safi from antagonsing her was my number one priority.

“Sorry,” the shy girl muttered.

“It’s alright, rather than that I think I should be thanking you for rescuing us,” I said with a laugh. A small ritual like that was commonplace in large sects and if that was all we had to experience then we could consider ourselves lucky. “I’m Sen’o and this is Safi.”

“Chit,” she said with a minutely quiet voice.

“So, you’ve been put in charge of shepherding us?” I asked. She only nodded and continued walking. I ceased my attempts at conversation and followed her up the winding staircase. Gazing at the mural as more and more of it revealed itself.

Chit stopped in front of a rather plain-looking door and pushed it open, she waited for us to enter which we eventually did, not forgetting to thank her.

An aura pushed down on me all of a sudden before I could even see the origin of the powerful force a voice filled the room. “How old are you?” it blared.

“17,” I answered without hesitation.

“24,” said Safi.

“So old yet so weak, what could you possibly offer our hall?”

“I think you might be surprised,” I smiled.