“Weirdos,” Xiahou Ren said under his breath. Gao Long and Yang Shao could hear him, naturally, due to their enhanced hearing.

The tour continued for more than an hour as the four cultivators walked toward the Northern Gate. Once Liu Dan confirmed that Shao was back to a minimal level of physical capacity, they began jogging through Shigong Temple. According to Liu Dan, they wouldn’t reach the Lesser Treasure Hall for several hours at their current pace.

Surprisingly, even in his diminished state, Shao was able to keep up with Liu Dan’s brisk pace. He had always assumed that cross-country running would tire him out, but the long jog just filled him with energy. The last time he had run for a long distance, his village was being attacked. This was a nice change of pace.

Liu Dan gestured to the gargantuan building in the center of Shigong Temple as they ran. He called it the Yinmen Hall, though it was also called the Palace of the Hidden Sect. There, the leaders of the Shigong Sect met in secret. If you spent any time around Yinmen Hall, Liu Dan said, you would inevitably bump into figures dressed in all-concealing robes. Some within the sect believed that these cloaked figures were the true leaders of Shigong Temple.

After two more hours of ceaseless jogging, the four Lianqi reached the Lesser Treasure Hall, which was less than a li away from the Northern Gate. A part of Shao hoped to see a few participants who had passed through that gate, but he had no such luck. They had taken a much more direct route that was, with a few notable exceptions, much less fraught with danger. Once they were past Wei Fenhua, they ran into no more obstacles.

Liu Dan led them through the ki-enhanced doors of the Lesser Treasure Hall. Within, Shao glimpsed a glittering sea of weapons, armor, and other treasures that caught his eye. Could every item there truly have been a sacred treasure? The treasure hall was about the same size as the Armory, though the treasures contained therein must have been worth much more. Shao was sure that the items contained in that hall would be worth more than a mountain of gold.

Sitting at a table near the entrance to the Lesser Treasure Hall was a woman who, despite looking like she was in her late thirties, wore the green haori of an elder. She must have been the same age as Shen Jian, thought Shao. The woman must have been much older than she looked.

“Please excuse us, Elder Ying,” Liu Dan called out, and the woman looked up from a scroll she was reading closely. “These three men passed through the Southern Gate during the Rite of Initiation. They are each to take a single item from this treasure hall.”

“I hear and understand, disciple,” Elder Ying said as she rose to her feet. “Your duty has been fulfilled. You have the blessing of Elder Xiahou Ying to return and receive payment for your work today.”

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Shao took note that Elder Ying was a member of the Xiahou Clan. He recalled Xiahou Ren’s immense powers of perception, and he imagined what someone like him could do after a hundred years of training. It was no wonder the Shigong Sect tasked her with guarding the Lesser Treasure Hall. Shao was certain he could hide nothing in her presence.

With a bowed head, Liu Dan approached Elder Ying and held a small scroll out to her. The scroll was never unfurled; Elder Ying merely touched it for a moment before Liu Dan pulled it back and returned it to his pocket. It was difficult for Shao to sense over the whirlpool of ki created by the sacred treasures in the room, but he just barely noticed a trickle of ki pass from Elder Ying’s finger to the scroll.

Liu Dan withdrew, leaving the three upper-realm Lianqi there with Elder Ying. She took a brush in her hand and held it over a nearby unfurled scroll before saying a single word. “Names?”

“Yang Lin Shao.”

“Xiahou Bian Ren.”

“Gao Min Long.”

The short introduction drew to Shao’s mind their conflict with Wei Fenhua. Hopefully, this wouldn’t also end in a fight.

“I see. It’s rare for a member of my clan to join the Shigong Sect. How far did you progress down the Path of the Endless Web?” Elder Ying directed her question toward Xiahou Ren.

“Seventh-star. If you don’t mind me asking, are you related to the Patriarch Xiahou Chenggong?”

“I am of the main family, if that’s what you’re asking,” Elder Ying said with a smile that was eerily similar to the one worn by Ren when he was thinking up a scheme. “If you want to know more, you’ll have to do your own research, Xiahou Bian Ren.”

With a great amount of worry, Shao realized that everyone in the Xiahou Clan was just like Xiahou Ren. By the gods, he could barely handle one of them. At least they lived on the Golden Tiger continent and played a relatively small part in the affairs of Haishan. Shao could only imagine what Xiahou Clan politics were like.

“On to business, the three of you have been given the rare privilege of taking one item of your choice from the Lesser Treasure Hall,” Elder Ying said. “It is rare for inner disciples to be given such a privilege, and rarer still for outer disciples. Choose carefully, because it is very possible that you’ll never get another chance. Before we start looking around, do any of you have some idea of what you want?”

“I have some idea,” Xiahou Ren said with a shrug.

With the directness that Shao had come to expect from the man, Gao Long looked directly in the eyes and said, “Honorable Elder Ying, I want a Foundation Establishment pill.”

A pill? Shao wondered why Gao Long would waste his one opportunity to take any treasure from the treasure hall on a pill. There must have been some great significance to the Foundation Establishment pill that Shao didn’t understand.

Elder Ying reached for the table she had been sitting at a moment before. More than a dozen small wooden boxes were sitting on that table, and Elder Ying picked one of them up. Holding the box out to Gao Long, she said, “Here you go. We always get a few requests for these, so I kept them nearby.”