TIAN PULLED HERSELF OUT OF THE ASHES OF THE FOREST.

Some of it remained. But a large chunk of the forest had been burned away. Motes of fading cinder fell around the girl, but it didn’t burn her. It was soft to her skin— cool to touch compared to the raging inferno she’d just quelled.

A gentle breeze washed over her, nearly knocking her off her feet. Tian looked up as a white fox stood before her. Its three tails flowed with the wind like the lapping water of a river at its delta. She closed her eyes and dropped to her knees.

“Master…” she choked.

“Child of Ren,” it said, voice ethereal, tone kind.

“I have failed.” She bowed her head to him.

The Sacred Beast didn’t react. Not at first. It simply stood there, looking around the destruction. Tian clenched her fists as she dug up the charred dirt beneath her. Tears streamed down her face as the ashen rain stopped.

“I tried my best— it was too much. I-I… I couldn’t…” Her breathing heightened. She tried to meditate, but couldn’t bring herself to. It was so much for her. Too much to handle all at once. Her core felt unsteady. She didn’t know why she was so emotional.

A tempest built up within her. A storm that threatened to explode and pour out in a scream. She felt pain— why did she feel pain? She cared not about the forest. Her unhappiness was about her failure. She was given a test, and she couldn’t complete it. Yet it shouldn’t have bore down on her this much.

She remembered her mother. She remembered the way Tiao had sacrificed herself to save her. Tian remembered resolving to grow stronger. So much stronger. Yet, even now, she was still weak. And it made her soul ache.

“Do you feel it?” the Sacred Beast finally asked.

Tian blinked away her tears and looked up. Her voice strained as she spoke. “F-feel… it?” What was she supposed to feel?

Her master just started forward. Its soft hoofsteps echoed in the empty burnt clearing. It came to a halt before Tian and met her gaze.

“The power. It courses through you. Your connection to the Dao now is greater than it has ever been before.”

She opened her mouth, but the Sacred Beast brought one of its three tails forward. It held it out, proffering it like a hand. Tian slowly took it and got to her feet.

“Unleash it,” her master said. “Let your emotions flow out. Show your strength to the world. Blossom for all to see.”

“Blossom…?” The girl was puzzled by this, but she listened to it. To the Sacred Beast that saved her life. To her master that had tutored her for all this time. She inhaled, smelling nothing but burnt trees.

The Qi within her bubbled. It frothed and pulsed. Her body trembled, shivering like a straw house in the middle of a terrible storm. But she refused to let her body collapse. She focused the power into the palm of her hands and brought them together.

When she exhaled, the world around her bloomed. The land around her was restored. Grass grew over the ashened dirt surface. Trees sprouted amongst flower beds as the sweet scent of nectar filled Tian’s nose. A golden aura spread out as she continued breathing out.

Slowly, surely, bits of the forest returned. Tian did nothing other than pour out the Qi raging within her. It calmed her soul. Calmed her emotions. Her heart no longer raced when she had breathed life back to everything within dozens of feet from her.

The Sacred Beast smiled. “You did it, child of Ren. You have become a Blossom.”

Tian looked down at herself. She stared at the palm of her hands. Then she saw her very own core, overflowing with Qi. Her lips trembled, but she bit down on them to stop the shaking. Her eyes watered, and she blinked away the tears. Steeling herself, Tian bowed to the Sacred Beast.

“Thank you, master,” she said in a shaky voice. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Her master just looked at her kindly. She straightened as it cast its gaze to the sky. Then it turned back to her and nodded.

“Indeed,” it replied. “And now, your training is complete.”

That made Tian pause. The words took a moment to settle in, and when it did, she realized what that man. The girl stood frozen as the Sacred Beast continued.

“You have ascended from the path of a Bloom into a Blossom. Next is the long step to a Florescence. To stand beside me at the brink of the pinnacle of power of Jhisie. Before the impossible heights of Spring. But— these are paths I cannot guide you through. It is a path you must pave for yourself, child of Ren.”

“You’re… leaving?” Tian stared at the Sacred Beast with round eyes, saying what it dared not to say directly.

“Yes,” it said in a morose voice. “I must return to the Fifth Heaven and find my kin. I have been separated from them for too long. I, too, crave the companionship of those around me. I am sorry, but this time always had to come.”

The Sacred Beast lowered its head. Tian tried to work her jaw. Unfortunately, nothing came out. Her mastered looked back towards the Fifth Heaven, high in the sky, shining its green light to the world below.

“I know this is hard. I shall make it easy for you, child of Ren. Goodbye, and I hope that, one day, we will meet again.”

With those parting words, the white fox galloped up into the air. It walked on nothing, yet it looked like it was climbing up tall steps. Tian panicked as the words sank in, and she moved without thinking.

“Wait, don’t go—”

Tian reached out as the Sacred Beast took off into the sky. She shouldn’t have been able to grab it. Her arms were too short. But the ground beneath her pushed up, propelling her to the sky. Enough for her to catch the Sacred Beast.

It looked back at her as it galloped through the air with its beautiful wings beating behind it. “What are you doing, child of Ren?” it asked in a panic.

“I-I-I—” She didn’t know what to say. They were moving too fast through the air for her to gather any words from her wheezing lungs.

“Let me go, child of Ren! I am—” It tried to shake her off. But she poured all her strength into her grip and held on.

The Fifth Heaven had been so close to them, but they strayed off course as the Sacred Beast failed to get rid of her. It plummeted away from the green gates, crashing through the sky like a shooting star, before vanishing as they struck another gate. One that was passing close to the Fifth Heaven.

The largest of the gates. One that leaked the worst of the Essences of all into Jhisie. One that everyone hoped would scarcely pass their lands. A place of nightmare and illusions. A world that would drive anyone mad.

The Seventh Heaven.

“No— the Sacred Beast called out as it tumbled through the portal with Tian.

The girl didn’t know what was happening. She just saw the Red Essence filling her vision. Then she passed out.