“I am Gao Min Long, son of Gao Min Haoran and disciple of the Path of the Iron Tortoise. Within my clan, I am the greatest cultivator of my generation, and I have no intention of dying by your hand!” With the utmost sincerity, Gao Long introduced himself to Wei Fenhua.

Shao was standing next in line, and everyone turned their attention to him. He realized that he had no Path, no famous father, and no great achievements to declare. With this in mind, Shao kept his introduction short.

“Yang Lin Shao.”

Though Wei Huang Fenhua grimaced in distaste at Shao’s introduction, she turned to Xiahou Ren and waited for him to speak. Instead of introducing himself immediately, Ren rotated his arms and stretched out his legs.

“And you?” Wei Fenhua asked after several awkward seconds of silence passed.

“I think I’ll wait to introduce myself until after I’m a member of the Shigong Sect. I’m not obligated by the rules of the Rite of Initiation to give you unnecessary insight into my background, right?”

“No,” Wei Fenhua said, “you are not obligated to introduce yourself to me.” For a moment, her gaze turned toward the two dead men on the ground. “I merely thought to offer you the chance to live on in my memory should you die here.”

With a smile that did nothing to conceal the malice and determination underneath, Xiahou Ren peered at Wei Fenhua through half-lidded eyes and said, “Since I’m not going to die, there’s no reason for me to take you up on that offer.”

Wei Fenhua chuckled mirthlessly before saying, “You make a good point, son of the Xiahou Clan. I’m certain you have some grand scheme to defeat me. We shall see if it works. Which shall be victorious? Your mind or my blade?”

Yang Shao cleared his throat loudly. Once every person’s attention was on him, he said, “Before we get started, I feel that I should at least attempt diplomacy. Shen Jian told me that I should try to use my head more often, so here it is. Of the twenty participants who took the western path, we’re the only survivors. We’ve already been through a selection process with an 85% fatality rate. Wouldn’t it better serve the interests of the Shigong Sect if you just let us, a group of battle-tested upper-realm Lianqi, through that gate?”

“That’s a good point,” Xiahou Ren said, pointing one finger at Yang Shao.

A muted look of confusion appeared on Wei Fenhua’s face. “Shen Jian? No, that’s not important right now. How did the other fifteen die?”

“They were killed by a pack of divine beasts,” Gao Long answered.

Wei Fenhua turned her head toward an area that was blocked from Shao’s view. She began speaking in a language that Shao did not understand. A moment later, a man’s voice from out of sight responded to her in the same language. Whatever language Wei Fenhua spoke was more similar to Shao’s language than Louis’s language, though he still couldn’t understand.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What the Hell?” Xiahou Ren muttered. “Is that Japanese?”

Once again, Ren was using words that Shao didn’t understand. Based on context clues, Shao surmised that Xiahou Ren knew something about that strangely-familiar language.

“Do you know what they’re saying?” Shao asked.

“Kind of. I heard her say: second, test, kill, them.”

“Second test, kill them!?”

“She didn’t say that, but those were all the words I was able to understand from the sentence. I understood about a fourth of what she said. The unseen man either said ‘don’t kill them’ or ‘make sure to kill them.’”

“That’s an important distinction, Ren!”

Wei Fenhua turned back toward the three men, and Yang Shao frantically took up a fighting stance with his iron staff ready to block any incoming attacks. Her expression was unreadable when she said, “Your circumstances have been taken into consideration. We’ve spent enough time prattling on; attack me when you’re ready.”

The inner disciple slid her unsheathed katana out of her belt. With great speed and practiced precision, she took one of the limp red bands hanging from her sheath and tied it to her katana’s crossguard. Once the sheath was fastened in place, she held her sheathed katana loosely at her side.

“Huxian! Coordinate your attacks with Gao Long!” Xiahou Ren commanded the three-tailed fox standing at his knee.

Shao inhaled deeply and screamed like a wild animal preparing for a hunt, unleashing the Howl of the Black Wolf. Simultaneously, Gao Long consumed the fortification pill, and Shao could feel ki flowing from his direction.

The weak stream flowing from Gao Long was completely drowned out a moment later when a wave of ki flowed from the inner disciple and crashed into Yang Shao. This was the second most powerful ki disturbance Shao had ever felt, though it was still dwarfed by the torrential tsunami he felt the first time he met Shen Jian.

As soon as the effects of the black wolf’s technique strengthened Shao’s body, he crouched low to the ground and braced all four of his limbs on the ground. While her attention was split amongst the three of them, he would catch her off guard with the white wolf’s technique. All he had to do was get a few paces past her. Gao Long wouldn’t have to take a hit, because Yang Shao would pass her before she could react.

Eyeing the open air a dozen paces above Wei Fenhua’s head, Shao tensed all of his limbs at once and activated the Leap of the White Wolf. In less than a second, he was high in the air, and the red torii gate dominated his peripheral vision.

The corners of his vision were filled with red, but his vision’s center was a cloud of blue. With him, more than forty cun in the air, was the interposing form of Wei Fenhua.

Shao just barely had time to see Wei Fenhua’s expressionless face before an apocalyptic force struck him in the chest. An explosive pain shot through his body as the sound of shattering ribs and popping organs filled his ears. He had no time to see what hit him. A moment later, pain shot through his back as he slammed into the ground and dragged along the surface for more than a dozen paces, digging a deep trench as he traveled.

Blood leaked out of his mouth in a steady stream. Barely able to hold onto consciousness, Shao tried to take a breath, but his punctured lungs would not inflate. Fear grasped his mind as he tried frantically to breathe, but all he managed to do was produce the death rattle of a dying man.