After walking for a few minutes without noticing any treasures I finally realized how abundant the elemental qi was in this hidden realm. I began cultivating and was surprised by how much qi I was pulling in. I pulled out one of each of the elemental qi gathering pills I was given and ate them all. I began cultivating and immediately felt their effects augmenting the amount of qi I was bringing in.

I cultivated motionless for a time, but not feeling the breakthrough I was hoping for I decided to split my time between cultivating and searching for treasures. I wouldn’t be as efficient at cultivating if I was moving around at the same time, but I still had a mission in this hidden realm.

As I traveled, I encountered some tier two and three demon beasts, but so far nothing more dangerous than that.

***

Text pointed out another set of medicinal herbs and after verifying it for myself I harvested them and put them into my bag. I hadn’t found any treasures, or escaped from this jungle, but I had only been searching and moving for a few hours. I had no idea how large this hidden realm was after all. I kept searching and happened upon a small glade amidst the dense jungle.

Within the glade was a beautiful multi-flowered plant of iridescent hues.

“Wow, Text what’s that plant?”

“ANSWER: The Prismara Blossom is a flower with potent healing properties. It is a rare flower to find as it only grows under very specific conditions. ” Test said. I gazed at the flower for a time, mesmerized by the flowing iridescence. I was broken from my enjoyment of the flower by a group of ten Sword Dao Palace disciples crashing through the brush on the opposite side of the glade. I groaned when I recognized the man at the front of the group.

Fan Chen pointed at me when he noticed me and yelled loud enough that all of the demon beasts in the surrounding areas probably heard him.

“You! Girl! Time for you to fall to the hands of this young master!” He said. I rolled my eyes.

“We both know what happened last time we fought, Fan Chen. What makes you think it’s going to be different this time?” I asked him.

He motioned to the disciples behind him.

“No matter how strong you are, you can’t handle fighting all ten of us.” He said, cackling at the end.

Well he was right, there was no way I was going to be able to fight all ten of them. Before Fan Chen could order the attack I grabbed Shimmer and used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step next to the Prismara Blossom. I bent down and harvested the plant while Fan Chen was still reeling from me using a technique. He had unsheathed his sword, holding it in a defensive posture. I looked at him confused, and then realized he thought I was going to attack him. I smirked.

“Bye Fan Chen!” I said as I stepped back into the jungle and ran away from the group. I didn’t have the time to get bogged down by a fight with a bunch of cultivators. I barely heard a confused exclamation from Fan Chen as I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to further the distance between myself and the group. So many uses of my movement technique was a significant burden on my qi reserves.

A few minutes of running through the jungle later and I was stopped by a towering cliff face blocking my path. I could hear the faint shouts of the cultivators chasing me and had no choice but to choose a direction to go. I chose the left and ran along the cliff wall, looking for somewhere I could hide. I was constantly looking for caves or tunnels in the cliff face, but couldn’t see anything close by. A crashing sound from above was my only warning before a large boulder crashed down in front of me.

I yelped involuntarily and heard exclamations from the nearby cultivators. I flooded my body with qi increasing my speed along with manifesting my qi daggers. My speed nearly doubled as I jumped over the boulder and ran along the cliff face. Even with my speed boost, it wouldn’t be enough to escape for long. After a few minutes of running I finally found a cave in the cliff face and ducked inside.

I stayed as quiet as possible, using the time to gather as much qi as I could from the surroundings to supplement my reserves. The abundance of metal qi around me within the cave was a boon as I greedily drank in the surrounding qi. Metal was the element currently holding me back from my breakthrough to the highest stage of the foundation establishment realm. I didn’t have long to cultivate before I needed to stop. They would be able to sense me cultivating if they got any closer. I held my breath as I heard footsteps approaching from outside the cave mouth.

Shimmer let out a growl louder than I had ever heard from her before. The steps outside the cave immediately stopped and retreated at the sound. This gave me more time to come up with a plan.

Either they would give up on the cave because of the monster, or, more likely, they would be back with their whole team to try and take on the beast within the cave. I made my way to the front of the cave and peered outside. The group who had approached the cave had left one of their members behind. He was currently looking around, ensuring he wasn’t being ambushed by any other foes.

I decided I had no better time than right now to strike and launched myself at the man as quickly as I could, daggers held in my hands.

He noticed me approaching and was barely able to unsheathe his sword in time to block the blow from one of my daggers. I cut furrows in his clothes with my strikes as we engaged in a flurry of blows. He may have had better swordplay skills than I did, but it didn’t matter. I was much faster than he was. I managed a lucky blow to his midsection and he doubled over, giving me the chance to knock him out with the pommel of one of my daggers.

I dug through his pockets, emptying them of his treasures and herbs and took the pack he had brought with him into the hidden realm.

I rifled through it quickly, noticing a wooden token at the bottom. My blood froze when I saw the token, but upon turning it over, the stylized symbol of a sword floating above a wide plain was displayed on the token. I breathed a sigh of relief. I emptied his personal belongings from the pack onto the ground and stuffed his treasures and herbs inside of it.

I heard the sound of voices and footsteps approaching and fled back along the cliff face Shimmer in tow, trying to increase the distance between their group and us. I heard the shouting from finding their comrade and increased my pace. After running for another minute I found another cave in the cliff face. I ducked inside and made my way to the back of the cave to try and hide myself. I couldn’t run forever, even at my cultivation level so it was a much needed respite.

The ground as I walked into the cave felt strange but I didn’t have long to muse about it before I heard the shouting coming. I tried to run out of the cave and escape, but by the time I made it back to the opening I realized I had made a mistake hiding within the cave. Outside, two Sword Dao Palace disciples were standing watch over their surroundings but keeping an eye on the cave mouth.

I activated halcyonic maelstrom and launched myself at the two disciples, their movements and reaction speed hampered by my restriction technique. They drew their swords, but I was faster. I idly wondered why none of them were using qi techniques, but I didn’t have the luxury of dividing my attention from the fight.

I struck out with my daggers, but the combined efforts of both of the disciples covered for each other whenever I got behind one of their guards. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind one of them, letting go of my daggers and launching them at the second disciples. This gave me the opening I needed to punch out at the disciple in front of me. He blocked with his sword, but another flurry of punches from my qi infused body broke his guard and landed a few clean hits onto his midsection before the other disciple could fight off my daggers and come to his aid.

Before I could engage the other disciple, Fan Chen appeared to my left having come from the same direction I had when I escaped earlier. I looked to my right, but there I saw more of the Sword Dao Palace disciples, finishing the snare they had caught me in. I had only managed to take out two of the disciples so far, but now I was surrounded by the remaining eight.

Shimmer was still in the cave and I told her to make that growling noise again. She growled and some of the disciples turned to face the cave instead of me. I used this opportunity to step behind one of the distracted ones and strike out with my fists. I landed a clean hit to their temple as they turned around and they fell to the ground.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I wasn’t able to run out into the jungle as the remaining disciples closed in on me, forcing me to step back in front of the cave. I didn’t like my chances fighting in the open and made a decision. I ran back into the cave hoping that they’d be wary about entering the cave with the growling monster.

I hid within, out of sight of the yawning mouth and had Shimmer mimic the sounds of the monster fighting something. I made a show of it, punching the wall a few times to make loud crashes mimicking the sound of a fight. The whole cave shook even after I finished punching, which worried me a little bit but I didn’t have time to think about it.

“Do you think she’s dead?” One of the disciples asked after the sounds of the fake fight died down.

“I don’t know, but we’re going to go in there to check.” Fan Chen said.

They were going to find me. I needed to make a snap decision.

I took one of my daggers, sliced my arm and let the blood flow onto the floor of the cave. I waited as long as I could before the disciples would make it far enough into the cave to see me. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step further into the cave where Shimmer was waiting for me. I waited for the sound of the disciples finding the pool of blood and then made Shimmer make the growling sound again.

“I guess we won’t be grabbing her treasures.” Fan Chen said. By the sickly sweet tone of his voice, it was clear he was smiling.

I tried to move farther back into the cave, but collapsed from the blood loss. I remembered the healing pills in my pack and took one out, quickly swallowing it. I felt the wound on my arm close and felt better immediately. I held off on taking one of the qi restoration pills for the moment as I was hoping I wouldn’t be needing to fight anytime soon. I waited there in the cave for some time, glad my plan had worked.

I stood up on shaky feet, but when I fully stood up, I felt the ground beneath me crack and fall through. I yelped as I fell into the darkness below.

*** Jia

I watched in horror as the Sword Dao Disciples cornered Astra in the cave and went inside to find a pool of blood on the ground.

The city lord had hired a formation master to allow the crowd to watch in on some of the important events of the hidden realm competition and caught the tail end of Astra’s encounter with Fan Chen’s group.

The formation master moved the vision deeper into the cave to reveal Astra still alive. She took something out of her pack and ate it, a wound on her arm knitting closed. Shimmer was next to her, licking at the spot the wound used to be. The formation master, not sensing anything else exciting happening in the hidden realm, stayed on Astra until she stood up on shaky feet. The ground beneath her fell through and I gasped as she disappeared into the ground below, Shimmer falling in with her.

The formation master tried to follow her deeped into the hole, but before he could move further into the darkness, the vision formation became fuzzy around the edges and the screen backed up before returning to normal. Instead of trying to follow Astra down the hole again, the formation master shook his head before switching to a confrontation between some Sword Dao Palace disciples over a large treasure chest found buried in the ground. I began unsheathing my sword, ready to gut the man where he stood before Zi Fu wrapped his arms around me and pushed my sword back into its sheath.

“Remember who it is you’re worrying about. She’ll be fine.” He said. I knew he was right, but he should have followed her down the hole to make sure she was okay! I would just have to wait until she showed back up.

*** Astra

I woke up with a wet licking sensation on my face. I was laying down on the rough, rocky ground, no light around me. I used my qi swords as a light source to look around me. Shimmer, still trying to lick my face, was next to me with a concerned look on her face. I was surrounded by rocky walls and on the opposite side of the room I found myself in was an opening that led into darkness. Behind me I saw a small pool of water with a hole near the bottom that I wouldn’t be able to fit into.

I got up from the ground, dusting off my robes and grasping the qi swords in my hands. The remaining sword I put in front of me as I walked through the only exit to the rocky room and into the darkness. The pathway out of the room smelled of wet rock and earth, but an awful stench was wafting from the end of the hallway. A smell of offal and feces strong enough to make Shimmer and I cringe back assaulted my nose. I heard strange sounds coming from up ahead and stayed as quiet as I could.

As I crouch-walked further down the hallway, a small pinprick of light appeared a ways down. As I got closer to the light, the sounds I heard intensified. Snarling, growling, the gnashing of teeth, and nails scratching across the cold hard ground. A howl resounded through the tunnel and Shimmer growled back. I hushed the fox with a mental command and made my way to the opening of the tunnel.

I peered inside to see a cavernous room with myriad wolf-like creatures all surrounding a raised dais bathed in light from an opening in the ceiling above. Laying on the dais, a gigantic silver and black furred wolf was sleeping curled around a raised pillar Atop the raised pillar, a small ornate box lay, gleaming in the light.

I looked at the box with my qi sensing glasses and it shone in a bright blue-ish light. I didn’t know what was inside the box, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to beat that wolf on the dais let alone the smaller wolves surrounding it. There had to be at least a hundred smaller wolves of the tier two and tier three level. I could feel the aura of the larger wolf from where I stood and it was easily a tier four demon beast.

I might have a chance of beating the smaller wolves, but unless I got stronger I would find it difficult to defeat the larger wolf, especially after the fight with the smaller wolves. I looked around the room and noticed multiple entrances to other tunnels. I didn’t know which would lead me back to the surface, if any, but they were most likely my best bet for getting out. The problem was I wasn’t going to be able to get to those tunnels without the wolves finding me and attacking.

I retreated back into the tunnel and went over my options.

I could immediately go for one of the openings in the cavern, but without time to investigate the tunnels I may end up trapped in a dead end with wolves breathing down my neck.

I could try to fight all of the wolves, but I wasn’t confident with my current level of strength.

I could cultivate and try to break through to the highest stage in my spirit cultivation and try to escape but that ran into the same issues as just running down one of the tunnels right now.

Lastly, I could cultivate until I broke through and then try to fight all of the wolves.

I remembered the treasures in my pocket and realized that threw a wrench in my calculations. Maybe making a new technique would help in defeating the wolves or running away. I could make a new movement technique, but there was no guarantee that it would help me move faster than soft steps on the halcyonic sea. I could make a projectile technique. I didn’t have one of those yet and it would take care of one of my big weaknesses.

I thought about my options for techniques and decided that a projectile technique would be the most useful to me along with breaking through and trying to break through the throng of wolves and find an exit to the cave. The projectile technique would help me take on wolves from a distance and help me break through if I needed to escape.

“Text, are there enough treasures to create a projectile technique?” I asked.

“ANSWER: No. More treasures are required to create a technique.” Text said. I cursed. I needed to come up with another plan then. I started by cultivating. My plan still hinged on me breaking through quickly. I took another set of qi gathering pills and focused on my cultivation. The upside to my current predicament is that metal qi, the main type of qi holding me back in my bottleneck, was likely more abundant here than anywhere else in the hidden realm.

I cultivated and lost track of time, Shimmer would warn me if any wolves came to attack me. I focused on drawing in the qi from my surroundings sucking it all up. I don’t know how long it had taken me to break through but I felt that familiar wall in my cultivation when I absorbed enough metal qi. I pushed against it with my qi and pushed through, shattering the wall like a pane of glass. I felt power surge through me and knew I was stronger than ever.

Next I needed to deal with my lack of treasures. It was going to be risky, but I had a plan. I needed to draw in demon beasts one at a time into my tunnel and dispatch them. The overwhelming smell of offal and blood from the cavern should cover up the smell of my kills and the cores should supplement my treasures.

***

I threw my qi dagger, launching it at the next wolf. It sliced its hide from behind and when it turned to snap at me I recalled the dagger. Shimmer did her part, lighting up the fires on her tails and lightly illuminating our tunnel. The wolf fell for the bait, making its way into my tunnel, sniffing at the ground. This was the fifth wolf we had goaded into the tunnel, the remaining bodies dragged back down the tunnel so they didn’t get in my way. When the wolf approached closely enough, I launched myself at it, stabbing it in its neck before it could try to jump back. It growled and whimpered but fell to the ground within a few seconds. I carved the core out of its body and saw a *ding* in my vision at the same time I heard another growl from the entrance to the tunnel.

I cursed. The distraction must have alerted another wolf. I told Text to begin creating a projectile technique and launched myself forward. The wolf managed a startled yelp before I slew it.

I heard myriad growls come from the open cavern and hid behind the entrance from my tunnel. Wolves came over to investigate the slain wolf and a few began tearing off pieces and eating the corpse. I felt sick but backed up into the tunnel. I waited for a few minutes as the horrible sounds from the cavern continued. Once the sounds finished, I heard the padding of feet entering the tunnel and approaching. I knew I didn’t have much time, but luckily text appeared in my vision along with a painful headache, alerting me of my new technique.

I smiled and prepared myself before rushing down the tunnel.