My hand moved the last piece into place. With a loud rumble, the stone wall next to me slid down.

Beside me, the human-form spirit of the space pointed toward the new hallway excitedly. Technically, he was a projection. One only I could see. He appeared to be a teenager with golden eyes and hair that mimicked the movement of his dragon whiskers.

“Master, we’re almost at the treasure I sense! Hurry! Hurry!”

I liked him better when he was just a weak voice in the back of my mind. I had a feeling this new projection ability of his was going to get me in trouble one of these days.

When the wall finished sinking, I cautiously walked into a long stone hallway that gradually declined.

“Move faster. We can’t let anyone else get it!”

I rolled my eyes. “Why is this treasure so important, anyway?”

He clasped his hands behind his back and floated backward while facing me. “That’s because it will allow you to block off individual sections of the space. And a few other minor things.”

I stopped. “It’s not going to take you several more months to upgrade, right? Because if so, then I may as well head back.”

“Oh, come on! We’re almost there.”

“How long will it take you?”

He hesitated. “About a day.”

I turned on my heel, but the spirit flew in front of me and held up his hands. “But I’ll only have to deny you access for an incense stick’s worth of time.” He held up one finger to emphasize his point.

Well, that was short enough. I turned back... and stepped on a stone that sunk into the ground.

Click!

Rumble!

That wasn’t a good sound.

I glanced back. The ceiling opened up. A giant boulder covered in sealing script fell to the stone floor. It started rolling towards me at an unnatural speed.

“Master, run!”

“I don’t need you to tell me that!” I’d already activated Consistent Step, Impossible Leap. In a fraction of an alchemy breath, I moved ten feet down the ramp.

The boulder kept rolling. The faster I went, the faster it moved.

“Is this a teleporting boulder or something?”

How would I know?!

A well-lit room was at the end of the ramp. I barreled into it and skidded forward, only stopping when I touched the stone wall on the other side.

The boulder crashed into the doorway and stayed there, trapping me inside.

The ceiling suddenly shook and started descending. I immediately ran to the boulder and tried to throw it into the space. It didn’t budge.

I raised an eyebrow at the spirit.

He shrugged. “It has an enchantment on it that makes it impossible to place in an extra dimension.”

I sighed, then glanced around the room. It only had blank walls. Was this just a trap meant to slaughter me?

Then again, my martial sister always told me that places that were put together by people could be taken apart by them. It just required knowledge.

Knowledge and brute force.

Actually, she tested me on taking things apart…

***

She pulled out three steel balls that had subtle lines where the pieces fit together and set them down on the floor of the smithy. Each one she took out was larger than the previous one. This wasn’t the first time she’d had me solve puzzles like these, but this time was a little different. Today’s goal was to get to the prize in the center as fast as possible.

I cut open the first sphere with a slice of sword Qi. Its pieces scattered and the stone in the middle dropped to the stone floor.

The second was made with a tougher material, so I sliced a chunk out of the piece holding everything together. I pulled it out, then physically tore it into its bits using my body cultivation strength enhanced with spiritual energy. The metal parts scattered onto the floor. I picked up the two spirit stones that had been at its center.

The largest and most complex-looking puzzle ball rolled away from me as I approached it. How had my martial sister managed to make it do that?! She was a master at creating these things. I knew that if I let it, I’d be chasing the ball around for hours, so I created a hand with spiritual energy, grabbed it, and brought it over to me. Then I removed two pieces quickly before tearing the rest apart. It fell to the floor, forming a pile of scrap metal. I collected the mid-tier spirit stone and turned to Lin expectantly.

She stared down at the broken puzzles. Her expression rapidly changed from amusement to pride, then to worry.

What was with that reaction?

“Your destructive talents are greater than I thought they’d be at your age.”

I scowled up at her. What did she mean by that?

She grinned wryly and smoothed my hair back. “Keep in mind that if you destroy a secret realm, I’ll make you create one before you ascend to immortality.”

Was she messing with me? I rolled my eyes. “You can’t just destroy a secret realm. They’re not that weak.”

Her eyes sparkled and her smile turned mischievous. “When you’re in Immortal Ascension and have obliterated a dozen secret realms and immortal treasures…” She stared off into the distance and giggled maniacally.

She obviously imagined forcing me to create secret realms. As if that were possible! Those things were usually there naturally. Also, I didn’t know what made her think I could just walk into a realm and break it easily. These were things that existed for thousands of years. If they could break, someone before me would have figured it out.

Seriously, if this was how she treated her younger martial brother, I’d hate to be her enemy.

Of course, this caused me to wonder about her past. What if I really had been her opponent in her past life?

Sometimes she treated me like family. Other times I wondered if she had plans to leave me at the sect and go off on adventures by herself. She had too many secrets... and I knew she wasn’t telling me the whole truth. But, while annoying, I would wait until she was ready to tell me.

***

The walls and floor of this room were all built with stone. The colors and textures of each brick were exactly the same.

“Master! The treasure is somewhere below this room!”

I nodded, pulled out my sword, then sent a blade of sword Qi at the tiles. It dug into the stone a little and didn’t cause it to break. This wouldn’t cut it... not fast enough, anyway.

A bit of stone debris landed on my head and I brushed it away while I considered the best way to go about pulling these stones up.

They were too close together and were stuck to each other as if some glue were holding them in place. Since I couldn’t break the stone, could I break the glue?

I slashed at the spaces between the tile causing it to separate from its neighbors. The ceiling had reached my head height and awkwardly bending my knees was getting uncomfortable, so I knelt.

I pressed my hand to the separated block and tried to send it into the space. Nothing.

“It’s still attached to the stone below it!” The spirit said.

So, I needed to get underneath it somehow and cut it out. There was only one thing I could think of...

I poured water into the cracks between the stone. Part of learning how to cook was warming and freezing ingredients. A spell Fairy Garlic taught me made freezing the water between the tiles and then heating it back up easy. So, that was what I did, rapidly freezing and melting the water I poured into the crack.

“Master! Try something else. This isn’t working!”

“Quiet.”

Since the ceiling was almost to my head again, I moved to sit cross-legged on top of the stone I was trying to remove.

Just a little more. Lin taught me that ice could create canyons given enough time. This was just a stone!

Pop!

There. I sent the block into my space and fell into the hole just as the ceiling sped up its descent.

The spirit had turned back into its small golden dragon form and hovered over my shoulder. “That was amazing! How did you know that would work? And how were you able to stay so calm?”

I narrowed my eyes at the little dragon. “I didn’t.”

Its little jaw opened wide.

“But if you freeze water, it expands. It even creates cracks in stone. So, I thought that if I froze and unfroze it enough, it might work.”

His tiny claws punched my shoulder repeatedly. Of course, he was just a projection, so they went right through. “You could have died if that didn’t work!”

“Don’t I have you?”

He cleared his throat and crossed his little dragon arms. “Of course, you do! If you hadn’t succeeded, you could have hidden inside my space and teleported to that evil Lin. Aren’t I the best?”

“Hey! She’s my martial sister. Respect her.”

“Oh, come on! Haven’t you heard her laugh?”

“It’s very unique... and lovable.”

“And evil.”

“Closer to crazy.”

He pointed at me. “Hah!”

“Which isn’t evil. Now hush. We need to go down.”

***

I pulled the next stone up the same way as the first. Then the next.

I quickly slashed all the sides of my fourth stone. And suddenly plummeted as the stone, which apparently had nothing underneath it, fell.

“Master! Careful!”

I pulled out my flying fan, then failed to activate it. With a grimace, I splashed into an underground lake.

Right. This whole spiritual forest had a flying tool ban. I must have forgotten since I’d almost died recently.

The entire room was disturbingly dark, so I put away my tool, then pulled out a night pearl. It softly illuminated the part of the underground cavern I found myself in. Most of it looked like a natural cave, but to my left, there was a shore and the hint of a structure further back.

The little golden dragon pointed toward it excitedly. “Hurry! We’re close!”

I swam over, quickly reaching the shore and leaving the lake. I used a cleaning technique, which was probably the spell I was most proficient with thanks to Sister Lin, to dry myself.

“Hey, there’s a light up ahead,” an unfamiliar voice whispered. Three people rounded the corner wearing the same clothes as the assassins who had tried to kill me.

“How did these jerks get here?!” The little dragon agitatedly flew in tight figure eights.

It had been several hours since we escaped them. It made sense that they’d send a few people to confirm my death. They must have discovered the maze where I’d landed and entered it. After exploring for a while, they must have ended up here.

I could feel that their cultivation was higher than mine but I couldn’t tell by how much. If there had just been one of them, I could risk fighting, but three? I had to run and get to someplace where I could hide for long enough that I could enter my space.

There was only one place nearby where I could do that.

Using Impossible Leap, I headed towards the stone structure.

“How is that brat still alive?!” One of them said as they chased after me.

“It’s just him. This will be easy.”

Just before I reached the doorway to the building, one of them stepped in front of me. I skidded to a stop. He looked out of breath.

“I had to use my movement technique because of you!”

“How is a brat in Qi Condensation so fast?” One of the other assassins spoke up.

The answer was that the techniques my sister taught me were the best! Unfortunately, they couldn’t completely overcome the difference between realms. At least not when facing three people.

The worst part was, if I became injured again, Sister Lin would kill me… with training. There was no way I’d let that happen! If those other two reached me while this guy blocked my path, I was dead… or at least exposed. Because I would have to use my space to escape.

I pulled out my sword and stabbed toward the assassin’s kidney. At first, he looked amused and put up a spiritual energy shield. Then, when my blade of sword Qi pierced through his defenses, his eyes grew wide. He dodged to the left. This gave me enough room to use Impossible Leap to enter the building.

“You idiot! You almost had him!”

“Or you could not kill me!” I yelled at them.

I ran down a long hallway as they chased me.

One of them sent a flying leaf attack over. I sidestepped it, but it still sliced my arm. Even though I had been hit, I’d still dodged so fast that my good shoulder slammed into the wall. Then, what was gray stone vanished, and I fell through an illusion.

Why does this keep happening to me? This was the second illusion I’d fallen into!

There was something more important here. They’d come after me soon. I took a second to look around the room to see four doors with the four main ascendant beasts: dragon, turtle, tiger, and phoenix.

“Quick. Choose the dragon!”

I ran toward it, clutching my bleeding arm.

The first assassin entered.

He sent a spiritual palm toward me. I put up a shield technique. Unfortunately, this guy had a higher realm and was augmented by demonic energy, so my shield only held for a second. The palm pushed me into the room, then a door crashed down between me and the assassins’ attack, saving my life.

A sourness spread through my chest, and I coughed up four mouthfuls of blood. This room was very small. It was the perfect place to escape into my space.

“Ah, we have a problem, Master.”

“What?”

“You won’t be able to open the space here.”

I stared at the spirit and wiped the blood from my lips. “Then why can I still talk to you?”

He winced. “I’m the spirit of the space. Just because you can’t enter doesn’t mean I’m not still here.”

Great, so I was stuck here until those assassins left. I took out a Lin’s Healing Dan, consumed it, then cycled my cultivation base.

My injuries, internal and external, healed completely. Of course, the blood was still there. And my sleeve was torn. If I wanted to hide my injury, I’d have to change my clothes.

Just before I could use the cleaning technique, the room rumbled. The wall opposite the entrance lowered halfway, revealing a space lit by night pearls. Five beautifully colored statues stood as if ready for battle. A green dragon, a red bird, a white tiger, black turtle, and a yellow dragon. Each had the name of an element carved into their base. Wood, Fire, Metal, Water and Earth.

Actually, these were ascendant beast statues!

“What is this?” I heard one of the assassins say.

“Ow! Can any of you go through this opening?”

Just before I could carefully reach my hand out, an illusion of text appeared in front of me.

Who will fight for you?

Then it showed a picture of each statue.

“Master. Pick one of the dragons. We’re obviously superior.”

I flicked the illusion away from me. Unfortunately, my hands went right through it… which caused me to accidentally press the black turtle image.

The black turtle and the red bird or phoenix moved forward. This couldn’t be good. How could a turtle beat a phoenix?!

Could I change my answer?

Of course, I couldn’t, since the text vanished as soon as I made my choice.

The two statues fought each other with surprisingly fluid motions. I seriously thought I was going to lose, but the turtle sprayed water all over the phoenix, causing it to fold its wings down and sulk like a half-drowned bird.

A scream came from the room next to me.

“Shadow 35? Are you still alive?”

There was no answer.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Good idea, random assassin. I pulled out my sword and sent a blade of sword Qi in between the stone tiles like I had in the previous rooms. The creator of this place must have put all his money into this area, though, because my slash did absolutely nothing.

Well, Lin did mention that, although places could be taken apart, I would have to be in a high enough realm to do it.

“Our goal is to find that brat, not risk our lives in a stupid game.”

“It’s too late.” His voice was laced with exhaustion. “We can’t leave unless we finish. But don’t worry, I’m sure the penalty isn’t death.”

Was this guy serious? Because that sounded an awful lot like Shadow 35 died.

“Then how do we defeat it?”

Oh… this seemed like a good chance to mess with them.

“I’ll let you know if you promise not to kill me.”

“Well, if it is not the dead brat?”

“Shadow 30?” I guessed.

“I’m Shadow 13,” He said with irritation.

“So, you’re not smart enough to be high up there, huh?”

“How about you tell me and I’ll make sure to leave you a complete corpse?”

“Deal’s off then.”

“I’m Shadow 23,” the other assassin said. “I’ll take you up on that deal.”

I sent Shadow 23 a secret sound transmission. “Notice the symbol for the element under the statue. For both of you to survive, you should choose the same element or one that is neutral to it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am. Do you think a turtle could actually beat a phoenix?”

“That… You’re smart. No wonder my client wants you dead.”

“But you should really be wary of your fellow assassin. He didn’t reach number thirteen because he’s a vegetarian… or maybe it’s your partner that should be wary of you.”

He chuckled.

***

A while later, I heard Shadow 23 say, “I’m choosing the tiger. Remember to pick it as well.”

“Of course!” There was a brief pause, then he continued, “Oops. My hand slipped.”

“What did you choose?” Shadow 23’s voice sounded stressed. I did warn him.

“The bird. I chose the bird. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Because mine slipped too.”

“What?”

The phoenix and the turtle statues moved out.

“You did that on purpose! You’ve been aiming for my spot for years!”

“Well, if you’d been honest and chosen the tiger, I wouldn’t have won. You brought this on yourself.”

The turtle once again won and a loud scream came from Shadow 13’s room.

New text appeared in front of me. “Who would help you the most?”

If we were dealing with elements here, like I suspected, then that meant I needed to choose the element that would help mine. And since I went into the dragon door…

I glared at the two different dragons on the field.

When I had rushed inside here, I only had a weak night pearl for illumination. I had no clue which one was mine.

I glanced at my gold dragon spirit.

“Go outside and check what my dragon’s color is.”

“This room is blocking my space somehow. It also cut off that attack. I… don’t know if I can. ”

“Just try.”

“I don’t want to risk it.” He looked at his dragon claws, took out a metal file similar to the ones Lin forged, and started sharpening.

Oh, this guy! He’d fooled me once with the treasure in the inheritance dimension before — convincing me that his upgrade would only last a couple of weeks when it took a few months! The only reason I was in this situation was because he sensed another precious item. Yet, he expected me to do all the work? Nope! I wasn’t going to be fooled a second time.

“Either you go out and look, or every night before bed, I’ll tell you all the ways Sister Lin is better than you.”

He dropped his illusory nail file and his floating whiskers straightened in shock. “Y-you wouldn’t dare!”

“I would. And I’ll give you to the count of ten…”

“No need!” He darted out and returned. His body drooped as he floated over to me. The gold scales on his back lost some of their luster. He rested his exhausted-looking head on my shoulder. “I saw it.”

I nodded for him to continue.

“Getting this information was difficult. First, reward me by telling me how I’m better than that evi—Fairy Lin.”

Was he serious? Whatever, I needed that information. “You can hold more things than she can.”

He nodded emphatically. “That’s right! I…” He stopped.

Before he could think too hard about it, I said, “Tell me the color!”

“Green.”

The green dragon has the wood symbol underneath it. Water nourishes wood.

“The turtle again!”

I selected it.

The dragon, the turtle, and the phoenix moved forward. The turtle opened its mouth and sprayed water on the dragon, causing it to glimmer and quicken its movements.

Then the dragon sprinkled green dust onto the red bird. Both its wings raised into the air and a blast of fire came out of its mouth.

That couldn’t be a good thing. Had I just supercharged my enemy? Had I lost?!

I didn’t have access to my space. If I died now, I would really die!

As the beasts returned, my hands shook. Fortunately, nothing else happened.

“Who would you choose to fight?”

Since wood parts earth, obviously the yellow dragon.

Once we’d both finished our selections, the dragons, the phoenix, and the tiger moved down.

The two dragons fought each other. I thought this would be like the first time where they’d pretend to win and lose, then go back to their places, but the green dragon sent a blast of azure sparks at the yellow dragon. Vines seemed to grow around the statue’s joints, breaking it apart.

What?

The little spirit froze, then looked down at me in shock as if saying, ‘How could you?’

I scowled at him. “We’re green, remember? Just because you’re gold doesn’t mean—”

A blast of fire came out of the phoenix’s wings and sprayed all over the white tiger. It melted.

All the statues returned.

The text returned. Who will you choose to fight for you?”

This time, the tiger and the yellow dragon weren’t options.

So, it was between the turtle, the green dragon, and phoenix. We didn’t know what would happen if we both chose the same beast. At this point, I wasn’t sure if the turtle could kill the phoenix and the overpowered bird could destroy the dragon. The dragon’s attacks would only ever help the phoenix. However, it might be able to damage the turtle.

There had to be a way to win this.

I laughed.

“What’s so funny, dead brat?”

“Well, you’re obviously going to choose the phoenix.”

“What makes you assume that?”

“Because the phoenix is currently overpowered, so if I choose the dragon, you’ll win. And you think that if I choose the turtle, we can at least tie.”

“Heh.”

“But I don’t think so. I think that it doesn’t matter how beefed up your phoenix is, it will still die when hit with water.”

“I can see what you’re doing. But it’s not going to work. You can’t fool an adult like me, kid.”

“Well, you could also assume I’ll choose the dragon, believing that the phoenix won’t attack its ally. Or in the hopes that some of its buff is still there, giving it enough boost to kill the turtle. But I think that last one will just end in a tie.”

“Shut up and pick one already.”

I guess we’d see who was right. I made my choice.

The phoenix and turtle statues moved forward. This was it. I would either die here or I’d survive. If I didn’t make it, Sister Lin would come searching for me. She’d cry when she found out. Probably from both anger and grief. All while pretending that she had something in her eye.

I didn’t want that.

Besides, if I died, I’d never find out what she’d been hiding from me. And never finding out would drive me crazy (though not as crazy as her).

Looking back, all the times I’d acted out hadn’t just been about poorly expressing my worries that she’d just leave me in the sect. Some of that stemmed from the frustration of knowing she was hiding something. The only reason I played along and pretended was because things always turned out okay in the end.

Even the crab mission ended with everyone still alive, and that thing was a fiasco.

If I died before I found out her secrets, I would definitely haunt her.

I swallowed as the beasts started fighting each other. My nails dug into my palm.

The turtle snapped at the phoenix, the bird snapped right back. Then a massive fire burst from its wings, causing the turtle to retreat into its shell.

The turtle was about to become burnt soup, wasn’t he?

I glanced at the golden dragon.

“Master… If you lose, I can’t… I won’t be able to save you.”

I couldn’t die here. “Turtle! Cover yourself in ice. Attack the phoenix with ice! Don’t let it win!”

Shadow 23 scoffed. “These aren’t real beasts, you know. At most, they’re automated puppets. They only have a limited number of things they can do and listening to your stupid instructions isn’t one of them. But I guess a child is still a child. And now you’re going to be a corpse.”

Except that I noticed the turtle had followed my instructions. The ice was just hard to see under all of those flames. Yes! Come on. Fight back.

After being on for so long, the phoenix’s flames died down to a normal size. That was when a blast of water burst from the turtle shell, spraying all over the phoenix. This time, the water put out the fire for good and turned the bird into an ice sculpture.

“No! This can’t be. I'd been winning. I was going to win!”

I covered my ears so I didn’t have to hear him scream.

“You’ve won! Collect your egg and enter the pillar.”

A pedestal with an egg rose out of the ground where the beasts were fighting and a cylinder of light appeared beside it. While rumbling, the half-wall lowered completely.

“You did it! Master Little Spring! Did it! Woot!” The dragon flew in tight, excited circles.

I grinned at him. “So, where is this treasure you wanted? Is it the egg?”

“That thing? No. I have no idea what that is, but it’s something you earned, so make sure to collect it first.”

I headed over to the egg. It looked a lot like a chicken’s but much larger. I placed my hand on its surface. It felt warm and wet. Wait a second. That was actually my blood. Between cutting my palm with my nails and my earlier injury, I had bled all over the place. And I’d been too focused on not dying to clean myself up.

I quickly used the cleaning technique. It cleared away the dirt, sweat, and blood on my body, then, before it could clean the egg, my blood seeped into the white surface and vanished. I felt something in my mind similar to my connection to my space’s spirit, but this was different.

Was this normal with treasures? Back when Sister Lin went through the inheritance my mother left me, she had me wipe some blood on each of the items so it seemed like it was a standard thing to do… but I didn’t know I could do that with beast eggs too. Then again, considering my poor martial sister’s luck with beasts, if I wished to learn about them, I would have to learn it on my own.

Was it possible that I had just signed a contract with a spirit beast? Or maybe I’d done so with the egg itself. I’d have to look into that later. But I didn’t think I should tell Lin. Just the way she looked at beasts, like she wanted to hold one but couldn’t, was so sad. I hoped that at least this beast, or whatever it was, would like her.

Now that I was out of the room, I was able to access the space, so I placed the egg in my room temporarily. I also changed into robes that weren’t sliced up.

“I found it!” The spirit had returned to human form and hugged the black turtle’s shell.

I blinked. “It was the turtle statue the whole time?” Maybe whatever that treasure was, had allowed it to follow my directions. Or, perhaps, making the beast obey instructions was the only way to win.

“Actually, it’s something inside. But let’s take the entire thing!”

It would make a good souvenir. Or maybe some scrap metal if I ever became desperate. Actually, if I was taking one … I may as well grab them all.

I may need to gift a few to Sister Lin to appease her fury... because there was one thing I realized after having so many near-death situations so close together. I would no longer patiently wait for her to tell me her secrets while doing nothing. Because I would die before she ever told me on her own.

Of course, calling her out on her lies would upset her. Possibly to the point where she might try to kill me. Which was why I needed something good. Hopefully, these statues were made of an excellent material she’d like.

***

While carrying the egg, I walked toward the rendezvous point I made with Clear Eyes Mad Tongue and Sister Lin.

As my martial sister stepped out of a cave, the yellow glow of the sun hit her hair just right, making her look like she had a halo of gold.

She looked more real than anyone else, but also ethereal. Like she’d vanish if I took my eyes off her for a breath.

Which was a silly thought. I’d definitely been thinking way too much lately about how she’d come from a strange world.

“Sister Lin!”

I thought she’d be excited to see me, but she crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes at me and said, “Did you sustain injuries again?”

How did she know?! Oh no. I had to lie. I didn’t want to go through hell training. But I had a problem. I could manipulate that assassin into choosing the phoenix to save my life, but for some reason — when facing Sister Lin — the lie that would save me turned into a lame, “What? No.”

And I could tell from her expression that, once we returned to the sect, I would suffer through intense hell-training.

Shit.