She could "See" it - by now the inside of the hole was so dark that even her darkvision was not very helpful, but the exit did glow in bioluminescent light, she knew this light it was the same she had encountered in the crevice that Shi Shi had led her too.

In front of her was an eerie cavern, with her hole being about 20meters up from the ground, it was a distance she could easily take without much of a problem, the ground was mossy - which confused Kou a bit - but she still went on to the middle of the cave as she could see it.

A good look around showed that she was more or less stuck here - there was no tunnel which would go towards the gate, she could leave thru the hole but that would not help very much would it? The only thing she could do was go further in, as there was a tunnel that leads further into the darkness.

Currently on the other side of the door.

The moment Kou touched the moss on the ground the large copper door in front of the boys swang open, Jie Ciao had deliberately told Kou that she had to find some kind of switch for it to open after all, but it was just getting to the other side that was enough.

He had researched the trials around the outer sect in depth - in a library, with bribes of older students, he looked for clues in anything he did - he wanted to be the one that had his own fate in his hand - and would never rely on lady luck.

And for his young age, he had quite the calculative mind, smart enough to make useable friends, and ruthless enough to abandon them the moment they stopped to be of use. To his knowledge, this trial would give him a technique, and an incomplete one, but it was powerful in comparison to most things one found in the Archive... It would also harmonize well with the cultivation method he had.

Jie Ciao had never touched the Ancient Cloud Arts, after all, he came here already at mid-Yellow.

There were 4 pathways here, and each one of his 'friends' would take one, while he would deliberately choose the one that led him to the technique - he did not care what good or bad fortune his companions may fall upon, as every pathway held some kind of reward and peril.

In the end, he would take everything anyway...

Kou was still following the tunnel, the dim and eerie light was everywhere here, and the moss was still covering the ground, she had no idea about what was going on outside, she had not found the switch so they were probably still waiting in front of the door, right?

And so she made her way in deeper .. and deeper, after another 15 minutes she felt ..weird somehow - it was as if something was draining her really really slowly - just now she realized it. Maybe this was part of the trial? It was a creepy feeling - but for now, she was fine, her Qi reserves were a lot higher then people would suspect after she had started to cultivate in the new technique.

Another 10 minutes later.

She arrived in another cavern - the light here was a lot stronger, and her eyes went wide. In the middle of the room was a weird kind of altar, it was colored in many different shades of black, aside from 2 large golden bells hanging on two large pillars that went all the way up to the ceiling.

But the most shocking thing was that there was a person on that altar, sitting behind thick walls of seeming glass, was a person! Or... rather a corpse - his body was all shriveled up, his skin was a weird gray tone, she could see all the bones clearly thought the skin.

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The corpse's face was covered by white vail, with a black eye on it.

Kou froze, she had seen some human corpses on the streets, beggers thief's homeless people, they died sometimes and nobody cared - but... this corpse had an oppressive feeling to it she felt like an invisible force was pressing her down and it took all her power to just remain standing.

She could not turn around, she could not move at all - even breathing was hard, she felt like her very soul was suppressed in front of the corpse. Suddenly she heard a murmur.

It was nothing but inaudible noises on the outside but in her head, she very clearly heard a voice.

"Forced to stay, to forever see, death and yet still alive, I'm Kang Yi." It was a deep male voice, it send shivers down Kou's spine, finally, she could not remain standing anymore and fell to her knees.

"Crack"

The corpses head! It moved! The vail swayed to the side revealing a skeletal face, dark glowing, and empty eye sockets were staring at her. Kang Yi raised his left hand and pointed towards Kou, with each movement he brought with it the horrible sound of rotten wood breaking.

Kou felt as if something was leaving her, the feeling was a lot stronger then with the moos - but before she could even fight against it the glass around Kang Yi started to shine - chains formed around him and coiled around his corps - immediately the drain and oppression left Kou and she could stand up.

From their connection, she could feel to frustration in Kang Yi, for him she was a thick morsel that would nourish him - but he was unable to reach it thanks to the chains, once more the corpse started to murmur and she heard his voice once more in her head.

"As is my punishment, I shall oversee the trial." This time his vicious voice was filled with resentment - the altar opened and a dark cloak floated out, to land near Kou's feat. "Take this, and leave."

Kang Yi had been a gold core rogue cultivator over 200 years ago, by that point he had already been rather old. All his life he was obsessed with magical items and wealth, he had amassed a massive collection of items and spirit stones over his life.

As he was a rogue cultivator he was quite powerful but never had the backing of any large sect or power, and so to cultivate even without backing he... spend enormous effort to get his hands on a forbidden technique, by harvesting the eyes over other cultivators he could further his own.

He practiced this in secret for many years until his misdeeds caught up to him, he was at that point trying to break through to the late core stage, which would've made him one of the most powerful people in the empire! But an alliance between 3 sect leaders unearthed his dark practices and used that as a justification to capture him and bleed him dry of all his wealth.

One of them was the Ancient Cloud Sect Master, he at that point was in the mid-core stage as well. Together they breached his lair, they beat him down, bounded him with spells and split his wealth in front of his eyes, and Sect Master Ancient Cloud took his body - together with some of his wealth with him.

He was sucked dry by that Monster! He took most of his cultivation - placed him here to rot and had little children come by every so often if they were strong enough to get here he HAD to give up one of his treasures to them. Ancient Cloud wanted to torture him, knowing how much he loved them.

He would not let him die, and if he refused he would be tortured endlessly, it was a fate far worse then death - Ancient Cloud was a man worse then any demon in his heart.

Kou quickly picked up the cloak and left, her legs were shaking - her mind was in turmoil - this man was so scary - his mere presence left her shaken. So the way back... was a lot more draining for her.

The Moss.. that was draining her Qi seemed a lot stronger ..right now.

Somehow, she made her way back to her initial entry point, what would've been an easy to reach place was now a chore she almost could not do, using her daggers to climb up.. to the whole, her face pale and her Qi almost depleted.

Hours later.

Kou had somehow managed to make her way outside - there was no sign of the boy's group and she did not care for that matter, to her it was clear that this was some kind of trap - there was no leaver anywhere... She stumbled into the forest.

She wanted to go home, but... she simply could not make it, the Qi drainage the mental fatigue of nearly dying at the hand of Kang Yi - everything hit her and she fell over in some shrubbery.

She had dark shadows under her eyes as she closed them, she was deathly exhausted. The last thing she could hear before she lost consciousness where footsteps near here, she fought hard to stay awake, but it was meaningless ... she blacked out. Luckily she had made it out, falling unconscious inside the cave would've been her end.