When Red came to, he found himself lying on a cold hard surface. His hands instinctively reached for his midsection, feeling around for the puncture wounds he suffered before touching the orb. They weren’t there.

‘Did my power heal me?’

Red doubted it. He did not absorb that much blood, and even then he had never suffered a wound that grievous. He took a risk against Rickard by giving the man his back, and even if he succeeded, Red didn’t know if he would survive. The boy didn’t even know if he would win by touching the orb.

However, he still gambled on it. Red couldn’t hesitate against someone like Rickard, and he hoped that when he won the trial, the hawk spirit wouldn’t let him die to his wounds.

His bet paid off.

“Clever.” a voice called out to him. “… It was a risky plan brought about by your own weakness, but it befits a true cultivator. The costs for your healing will still be detracted from your final reward, however.”

“That’s fine.” Red said, sitting up. “It’s better than nothing.”

He looked over at the source of the voice. The hawk spirit was floating in the air, staring down at him.

The boy examined his surroundings. He noticed he was also standing on air, and around him there were countless currents of water releasing blue light as they travelled, forming a sphere around him and the hawk.

He felt as if he was inside a dream. He extended his hand to touch one of those water currents, but they simply passed through his palm without making any contact, as if the boy wasn’t even there.

“Are we inside that water orb?” Red asked.

“We are.” the hawk nodded.

“What kind of water is this?”

“Water refined by Primordial Ocean Crystals.” the spirit said. “It’s one of the most valuable belongings of my master. It can be used to cultivate the purest Water Spiritual Energy in the world.”

“And you just placed it here? For anyone to touch?”

The hawk shook its head. “Even if someone managed to get their hands on it, they wouldn’t be able to store it without the proper equipment. This water can pass through almost every kind of physical matter.”

“Is it mine now?” Red asked with curiosity.

“Sure. As long as you are able to keep it all inside your body, you can take it.”

The boy frowned. He obviously had no idea how to do that.

“Why did you help me?” Red asked the same question he did before.

“I didn’t help you.” the hawk denied. “All I did was to make sure that this trial was fair to all competitors. Besides, you still had to prove yourself to reach this far.”

The boy still wasn’t convinced with the hawk’s explanation.

“Were you the one who placed that demon in the fog?”

“Yes.” the spirit nodded. “That was a mistake on my part. I was aware of the demonic energy you carry inside your body, but that was something that the restrictions inside the fog should have suppressed. I am still uncertain how the demon was able to detect you and could not interfere to help you due to the nature of my existence. Yet, you came out alive in the end and that is all that matters.”

“What if I didn’t?” Red frowned. “Were you going to let the others win?”

The hawk went silent for a moment. “… I would have been forced to, despite my unwillingness.”

“Why were you unwilling? Because they cheated?” the boy asked what had been in his mind the entire time.

“Indeed.” the hawk nodded. “They knew about certain aspects of this trial, something that shouldn’t have been possible, and even then I could do nothing but watch as they used their knowledge to traverse the obstacles that my master placed. It is an absolute disgrace to his name, and it’s not something that I would ever allow were I able to do something.”

Red followed his logic. “That’s why you used that necromancer.”

The hawk sighed in a human-like manner. “I was forced to, much to my reluctance. They were not restricted by the same laws that bind me. I was split between my duty of finding a deserving disciple as quickly as possible and my urge to punish those who would sully my master’s name… It was not a simple decision to make.”

Red frowned. “Why did you need to find a disciple as quickly as possible?”

Since the hawk was willing to tell him about these matters, the boy continued to throw questions at it.

“The ones who invaded this trial were mere proxies of an outsider’s will.” the spirit said. “Behind them there are strong cultivators specialized in divination who have been trying to locate this inheritance ground for decades already.”

“Divination?” Red was unfamiliar with the term.

“It’s the ability to gain insight into matters by reading the threads of fate. The specifics do not matter, but all you need to understand is that these cultivators figured out about the existence of this inheritance ground, as well as some of the trials prepared for it… Which was why I had to hurry to find a worthy disciple.”

“So you chose to open up the trial.” Red completed his sentence.

Things started to connect in his mind. The sudden disappearance of the monsters, the hidden tunnels located throughout all the forest - they were all caused by this spirit. However, there were still some matters that didn’t make sense to him.

“Isn’t opening up the trial even more dangerous if they’re looking for it?” Red asked.

“The opening you went through is merely a portal to the inheritance ground. If a cultivator stronger than what my master allowed tried to enter through it, one thought on my part would be enough to sever the connection from the inheritance ground to that entrance.” the hawk said. “It is not a fool-proof method, however, and I still took on a risk by revealing the entrance to the trial. It was still necessary if I wanted to find a true inheritor for my master, however.”

“So you ended up attracting some of their forces to the location, then.” the boy said.

“Indeed.” the hawk nodded. “I was fully prepared to sever the connection to that entrance, but thankfully, they didn’t seem intent on invading the place and perhaps thought they could acquire the inheritance through normal methods.”

What the hawk said made sense, but Red was more privy to the situation outside, it seemed. If it was the Empire that was looking into the location of this trial, then it would make sense they wouldn’t send strong forces to the entrance, considering it was in the middle of enemy territory. A more subterfuge operation was suited for that if they didn’t want to bring attention to this matter considering the Sects were monitoring their movements.

“What about the necromancer?” Red asked. “Why did you let them enter the trial?”

“I did not let them enter the trial.” the hawk shook its head. “They were already inside it.”

The boy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I said the method for stopping cultivators’ invasions wasn’t fool-proof. Long ago, that necromancer also tried to invade this inheritance ground through one of its entrances.”

Red’s eyes widened in shock.

The hawk continued. ”Luckily, my master had prepared some defenses in this place in case that happened, so in the end I was able to imprison them inside a formation. Unfortunately, I had to spend a lot of resources to accomplish that, and I sincerely doubt this world could sustain other attacks of such a level.”

“If that’s the case, how can they still control their undead from the outside world?” the boy asked in confusion.

“That’s because I allowed them to do it.” the spirit said. “Although I had opened the entrance to this trial, that did not mean proper candidates would reach it in time before those crooks. So I made a deal with the necromancer - they would help me scout the outside world for proper candidates and in exchange perhaps he wouldn’t end up under the control of another powerful cultivator from the outside world once they conquered the inheritance ground.”

Red frowned. “They agreed to that? Didn’t they try to negotiate for their release?”

“They did, but I would never accept such terms.” the hawk said. “I would rather raze this whole place myself than risk releasing someone like them with knowledge of these grounds into the outside world. In the end, they accepted the deal. In their mind, they must have thought it would be easier to convince a weak and naïve cultivator to free them than someone who was as strong as them.”

Dots connected like lightning inside Red’s mind.

“So that’s why they helped me.” the boy said. “They wanted me to free them.”

The hawk nodded. “Indeed.”

Red hesitated. “… They offered me a deal. A beneficial deal.”

“They did.”

“Aren’t you worried that I’ll agree to it?”

“Why would I?” the hawk shook its head. “You would need to be a fool to think that freeing someone countless times stronger than you and expecting them to hold up their end of the deal would end up well. Since you won this trial, I know you are not a fool.”

The spirit wasn’t wrong.

“Besides, these are problems you must deal with by yourself in the future.” the spirit said. “That formation won’t keep them imprisoned there forever, and you’ll eventually have to decide what to do. Perhaps making a deal with them once you’re stronger would be in your best interests.”

Red couldn’t really imagine how he would deal with such a problem in the future. However, there was still an even more pressing matter he needed to handle.

“The necromancer said the master of this place knows about the Moonstone mines.” the boy looked at the hawk with a meaningful gaze.

“They do.” the spirit nodded. “However, he hasn’t found a way to deal with the curse, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Red frowned. “You know about the curse?”

“I do. My master managed to lure a handful of creatures from one of the entrances of the Moonstone caves. They were all very weak, and mostly unremarkable, but the Spiritual Energy they kept inside their bodies was unlike anything my master had ever seen before. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to study it as on the night of a New Moon they all perished without exception.”

“This…” Red was baffled. “If that’s the case, how was that scorpion moving around?”

The hawk answered his question with a question of its own. “You come from that place too, right?”

The boy hesitated. Still, he nodded.

“My master experimented countless times on those creatures trying to find ways to stop this curse from taking effect.” the hawk said. “He studied the Moon, the energy, the pieces of moonstone these monsters brought with them to the outside… All except entering the caves itself. He eventually came up two partial solutions.”

The bird waved its wing, and a translucent image of a scorpion formed in front of it.

It continued. “If those creatures were kept in a deep hibernation, then the curse wouldn’t take effect.”

Red immediately eliminated that option. What difference there was for the boy between being dead and being kept in a coma to stay alive?

“The second solution was a formation he developed.” the hawk waved its wings again, and a complex pattern of symbols appeared above the image of the scorpion. “He tried to imitate the terrain of the underground that these monsters lived under simply by using samples of soil and moonstones. He achieved some success on it and was able to create a formation that could block out the absorption force of the Moon from reaching these creatures for at least a few years.”

A few years wasn’t a permanent solution, but it was better than nothing.

“Can I use this formation?” Red asked with eagerness.

“If you remained in this place for long, sure.” the hawk nodded. “As for creating this formation in the outside world? Maybe only when you reach the fourth realm.”

The boy immediately felt disappointed.

“I can teach you a simplified formation you may be able to use once you reach the Lesser Ring Realm, though.” the spirit said.

Red looked at the hawk with eagerness.

“First, however, I must ask you…” the hawk stared at the boy with sharp eyes. “Do you even know what this curse consists of?”

Red hesitated. It had completely slipped his mind in his eagerness to find a solution that he didn’t even truly understand this curse in the first place.

He shook his head.

“The Moon, or whatever being is in the Moon, absorbs the energy of creatures that came into contact with the Moonstone caves.” the hawk explained. “Death comes from when said creature can’t provide enough energy to this being, and it starts absorbing the creature’s vital energy instead.”

Red felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He recalled the very first time he had suffered under the absorption of the New Moon. The creature had taken all the Moonstone Energy from his acupoints, and when that had run out, it had also started taking something else from the boy’s body.

Red never knew what had been taken from him, but hearing the hawk’s words immediately left him with a horrible premonition.

The hawk sighed. “It happened to you too, didn’t it?”

Red nodded. He stared at the spirit with a frown. “… How bad is it?”

The hawk hesitated.

Under the boy’s unyielding gaze, however, it relented. “In your condition, you won’t live beyond thirty years of age.”