A silver-fur ape flew through the forest crashing into trees that did little to stop its momentum, breaking down and falling over. Two small figures leapt through the forest, swinging through the branches as they chased after the ape they’d struck and shot across the forest. The boys laughed cheerily streaks of thunder trailing behind them as they shot bolts of lightning one after the other at the injured ape.

“The one who beats the ape gets to keep all its treasure!” Yan Li exclaimed, shooting off with a crackle of lightning.

“Unfair!” Lei shouted, chasing after his brother. The two rushed off, burning with Lightning Qi as they chased after the beast.

The silver-fur ape ran, clutching the spirit herb treasure close to its chest. Its brothers and sisters had all already fallen to the kids, and only he had remained to guard the treasure.

A bolt of lightning struck the injured ape at the shoulder, throwing it onto the ground. The spirit beast roared, as the herbs it kept in its arms flung off and scattered onto the ground. With a slam, Li landed upon the beast with a lightning coated kick that pressed the ape down into the earth.

Lei quickly followed with a punch that ensured the ape would never get up again.

“I won!” Lei exclaimed, grinning at his brother.

“No, if I hadn’t caught up to the ape, you would’ve never been able to land your strike. I’m the one who won by catching it first,” Li replied, walking over towards where the spirit herbs were.

“Li said to beat the ape, not catch it. Lei won this round,” Lei said, stepping ahead of his brother as he picked up the spirit herb.

Li frowned, watching his younger brother. A moment later, he sighed quietly. “Fine, keep it. This one’s yours.”

“That brings me up equal to you,” Lei said with a grin, pocketing the herb in his pouch. His brother didn’t reply, turning to look around the forest as he searched for another target.

“There seems to be very little left to find in the trial,” Li said, glancing down at the dead ape at his feet.

“We’ve been finding many dead spirit beasts and empty trials now. Do you think we beat them all? What about the other disciples? Are we the only ones left?” Lei asked his brother.

“Hmm. We got three other disciples, with the two of us included that leaves seven more. Even if they all beat each other, there should still be some left,” Li replied. A moment later, he closed his eyes, meditating to sense the Qi around him.

A haze of Qi rose to the boy’s senses, mixing in with one another. Yet a particular one stood out to him, the sense of it strange and unfamiliar.

“Brother, there seems to be something there,” Lei spoke up, snapping Li out of his meditating. Li followed the direction his brother was pointing at, seeing sights of destruction far in the distance. Focusing in the direction, the boy reached out with his Qi sense and found a large amount of residual energy gathered up right above.

“Lei, it seems there was a battle here. Not of spirit beasts, but disciples. A few of them too. And not too long ago,,” Li said, an excited grin rising on his face.

“Let’s go check it out? We might find the disciples, if any remained,” Lei said, with an equally amused smile.

With a nod from Li, the two brothers ran through the forest, trailing the path of destruction and fallen trees, and singed branches. Very soon they found themselves standing within an odd clearing, with swatches of scar marks on the earth and burned splotches.

“These… sword Qi. Potent sword Qi. And fire, a lot of it,” Li said, glancing around the area. He could still feel the lingering fire Qi permeating the ground, mingling in with the sword Qi.

“Brother, look at this,” Lei said, pointing at an odd hole in the ground. The earth was fractured, a thick scar that brimmed with the sword Qi running through it that abruptly ended into a crater from a powerful explosion. Li frowned as he walked closer to the creature in the ground, bending down to touch the earth.

“There’s no Qi in here… none whatsoever,” Li muttered, glancing at his brother.

“Some kind of art?” Lei asked.

“I’m not sure, but this is starting to become interesting,” Li said, before something caught his eyes on the ground. “Blood marks. Almost faded, but still fresh with Qi. They head in that direction,” Li said, pointing towards a side bush. He turned to face his brother, and nodded.

There was no need to exchange any words, as the two brothers silently began to follow the droplets of blood on the ground. Step by step, they walked, tracking the ever decreasing trail of blood before when soon, something made them pause.

“The trail abruptly cuts off here,” Li said, turning towards his brother. “Something is strange. Even if the wounds healed, the lingering Essence and Qi should’ve remained.”

The two brothers stood around the grove of trees, scanning the area when Lei found something on one of the tree branches.

“Brother, there seems to be a formation here. ‘Conceal’ it says. I can’t undo it,” Lei exclaimed.

Li left the area of land he was inspecting as he walked over to his brother and checked the formation mark. Putting his hand atop the character, he flooded it with his lightning Qi, burning through the wood. A moment later, the wards lifted as the way ahead began to be visible.

“A hidden trial?” Li muttered out loud.

“There’s only one way to find out brother,” Lei replied, smiling and Li nodded.

“I’d thought we’d have no fun in here without any real threat or challenges. But perhaps I was too quick to speak,” Li said, thunder crackling around his wrists.

“The last one to reach the end will call the other Senior Brother for a week!” Lei shouted, dashing into the forest and Li quickly followed behind.

***

“This place is giving me the creeps,” I said out loud, holding the torch high in my hand as I walked through the mist filled dark forest. I could barely tell that it was morning anymore, the area around me drenched in darkness with the mist covering any gaps that may have been left for light to come in.

“This one did not take Lu Jie to be the kind to be spooked easily,” Liuxiang said, glancing at me with a smirk.

“Only fair to be spooked when we got told that we could die here. Not to mention, I dislike the way this mist clogs up my senses,” I said, waving the sword in front of me to wave away the almost cloud-like thick mist that covered every inch of the forest.

“Chii!” Twilight chimed, agreeing with my words.

“You’re the one who wanted to come here. I’d think a vampire spirit like you would enjoy being in a dark creepy and misty forest,” I said, glancing up at Twilight.

The little flower spirit bent as she sat on my forehead, as I met her deep red eyes. “Chii!” she exclaimed once more, though this time the meaning was lost on me.

“Labby feels like her nose is stuffed,” Labby complained, crackling with lightning briefly. She’d certainly not been enjoying our trip here.

“Children,” I heard Zhi Zhu speak, and I could almost hear the click of the tongue that would’ve accompanied the words, had the spider been human.

“So are you,” Liuxiang replied with a light hiss.

“Only in physique. Zhi Zhu is far more mature than that rat child and the plant-infant.”

“You don’t speak like this very often, Zhi Zhu. Sounds like the mist is getting to you too,” I replied, and found the spider suddenly growing very quiet.

“Apologies. It was.”

I saw Liuxiang nod lightly in thanks and I waved the gesture away. “Let’s focus on staying on this path. I definitely don’t think this mist is going to be the end of our troubles.”

We walked in silence afterwards, as I carefully held the torch up in front, lighting the way ahead. The forest continued to get darker and darker as we proceeded and soon, I could see only a few steps ahead of me before everything was a blur of misty white.

I stopped walking when Twilight pulled on my hair, chiming as she pointed to a side direction off the path.

“I’m not so sure about leaving the path Twilight,” I said to the little plant spirit who let out a frustrated chime.

“Perhaps it might be worth a look? She was the one who brought us here after all,” Liuxiang said.

I gave it some thought, before turning to look at one of the trees nearby. Walking over, I sifted through a few broken branches before finding a decent one. I trimmed off its branches, testing a strap of my already torn robes that I wrapped around the twig before I touched my torch with it, transferring over the fire.

“Hold this, I won’t go too far,” I said, handing the torch over to Liuxiang.

Turning, I followed the direction Twilight was pointing in, keeping the torch in front of me to light the way. I kept one eye set on the path just in case some formation of misty wood shenanigans may happen, keeping a thread of Qi attached to the way back.

“Chii!” Twilight pointed excitedly. “Tasty!”

I walked through the bushes ahead and found myself stopping to gaze at the sight in front of me. A field of flowers, growing around a massive tree that had fallen, that all glowed with a dim blue light, shining with sparkles like stars in the night sky. It was a mesmerizing sight, made all the more powerful by the wave of Qi that was washing over me.

I stared at the flowers. I had a feeling that a single bite from those flowers would fill me with more Qi than any of the spirit herbs I’d gathered.

Walking ahead, I touched one of the flowers. Twilight jumped down from my head, landing on the ground as she bit into one of the petals of the flowers. I saw the glow of the flower she’d bitten start to dim, as the flower on top of Twilight’s head began to take on a shimmer instead, lighting up with a dim red.

Crouching to my knees, I began to pick up a few flowers as well, deciding to leave some to not ruin whatever ecosystem had been formed in this location.

“If this counts as a spirit herb treasure then I probably just won the tournament,” I muttered out loud, as I set the flowers in my pouch.

I was so lost with picking up and gazing at the beautiful flowers that I didn’t sense the shivering mist that was swirling all around me until the last second.

“Master! Behind!” Labby screamed, shooting a bolt of lightning behind me.

I rolled to the side, feeling a large something pass over the area I’d been standing in. Turning over, I saw a massive owl-bear of mist glaring at me with glowing red eyes. A scar ran through the earth where it’d swept the earth.

“Chii!!” I heard a panicked chime. “Help!” the voice came to my bond, slamming me with a daze of panic and fear.

My gaze wandered in panic, before settling onto the bear's claw, as I saw Twilight clutched in them and my heart dropped into my gut.

With a roar, the beast lunged, as I rolled once more, dodging the attack. The owlbear dashed further into the forest and I rushed after it.

“Go to Liuxiang Labby!” I shouted, before I chased after the owlbear with everything I had, swearing internally.

If Twilight was hurt. I would make the beast regret every choice it’d made leading up to today.