Gas Bag Din took a few deep breaths, and then, in a more composed tone, said:

"Everything in this world obeys the hidden Will of the Heavens. Only by following the millennia-old traditions of cultivation you can achieve true greatness and ascend to the heavens."

"Hm... Seems I was right" - I responded with a smirk. - "You really belong to the caste of slaves. Only slaves follow laws they don't understand and revere tradition as the ultimate value. Do you realize that even a thousand-year-old tradition can't excuse ignorance, right? But I suppose that's beyond your comprehension."

"You!!! You son of a mangy dog..." - I didn’t bother listening to the rest of his insults and exited the sphere's projection. Even in the real world, the sphere continued to emit his ranting: - "Your thoughts reek of the stench of sin!..."

I looked around, tossed the jade sphere into the air, and then hurled it directly into a hollow tree about fifty meters away. The angry ramblings immediately ceased. Dusting off my hands, I stood up and continued down the path toward the library. Looks like this tomb isn’t going to yield much. Well, let’s see what the library has in store.

I walked further and reached a spot where the path ended. Scanning the area with psionics, I noticed a directional arrow atop a tall boulder nearby. It was cleverly positioned so that it could only be seen if you either knew exactly where to look or thoroughly inspected the stone from every angle.

Scoffing, I followed the indicated direction. The path led to an endless steppe, with only a faint strip of forest and distant mountains visible on the horizon. Since I’d already been wandering through this "tomb" for quite some time, I decided to speed up. After all, only the first ten participants were likely to succeed.

About half an hour later, I reached the edge of the forest and spotted another marker stone near the beginning of a new path. However, just as I approached, three figures emerged from the trees.

"Finally, we found you" - one of them said smugly.

I stopped and examined my unexpected guests. These were definitely not fellow students. They were young men, probably around eighteen, all at the fifth level of Foundation Formation. Judging by the colors of their clothing, they were members of the Radiant Fingers sect. Unlike the practical brown-and-black attire preferred by our sect, these individuals wore white and blue accents, similar to those of the group we had encountered in the Valley of Deprivation. Their attire left no doubt about their allegiance.

"Are you sure you’ve got the right address?" - I asked dryly. - "Are you certain I’m the one you’re looking for?"

"Absolutely" - assured the tallest and most imposing of the group. He wore a tactical vest over his head, which added to his commanding presence. - "You’re that genius from the Heavenly Blades sect who suddenly caught the attention of an elder. We can’t let someone with your talent grow stronger. Your journey ends here."

The trio advanced toward me confidently, and I matched their pace by retreating just as steadily.

"The leader of our sect won’t be pleased to hear you broke the agreement" - I said, scanning for escape routes. Unfortunately, being out in the open area, my only chance of survival was to run, very, very fast. I activated my future-sight technique, but after navigating the labyrinth, my mental reserves hadn’t fully recovered.

"And that’s why he won’t hear about it" - the tall one laughed. - "Because no one besides us will be around to tell him."

With that, the attackers stopped playing games and charged at me. I turned on my heel and bolted, squeezing every ounce of speed from the Dance of Autumn Leaves technique. Initially, I pushed off the ground, then off blades of grass, then off the very air itself. Finally, I realized I could use the technique like a jet engine, propelling myself by bouncing off the Qi I had just used for my last step. In the end, I stopped using my legs entirely and hurtled forward like a rocket.

"What's this? What kind of technique is that?" - came the alarmed cries from behind me.

I didn't let my guard down, knowing that I couldn't simply outrun opponents of their level. Starting from the fifth level of Foundation Formation, cultivators could fly, making my advantage fleeting at best. My internal Qi wasn't infinite, and I was burning through it rapidly, lowering my cultivation level in the process. Scanning the surroundings and the future with my psionics, I finally found what I needed after a minute of "flight."

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My pursuers were still choking on my dust on the horizon, but I feigned running out of "fuel" and fell vertically from a height of a hundred meters. Seeing this, my pursuers let out triumphant shouts and picked up their speed. I, however, fell with a purpose, right at the entrance of another labyrinth... with traps. If I couldn’t kill this trio myself, the traps would do the work for me.

Landing smoothly, I examined the inscription above the entrance: "Forbidden Tomb." Who in their right mind writes word "forbidden" on a secret place? That alone is enough to increase the number of grave robbers tenfold. They should’ve labeled it something like "Second Eastern Small Agricultural Equipment Warehouse" and no one would bother stepping inside for decades.

I pushed open the door and entered a spacious hall lined with columns and several exits. The lighting was dim, but I caught sight of a ghostly figure turning into one of the passageways at the far end of the room. To anyone else, it might’ve seemed like a trick of the light. For me, with my psionics speeding up my perception, I saw it clearly — a cultivator's ghost saturated with Qi.

I dashed towards the passage where the ghost had disappeared, not because of it, but because I needed to act quickly. Just as I reached the passage, the main door banged open, and one of my pursuers appeared in the frame. He noticed me darting into the corridor and start chase.

I sprinted at full speed towards a trap blocking the corridor ahead. Until now, all traps I'd encountered could be bypassed with careful observation. Each had a single detector to trigger it. This one, however, had two detectors. Two strands of Qi crossed the corridor, one at knee height and the other at chest level. I dove between them and twisted to leap into a narrow alcove.

Behind me, my pursuer launched some technique that almost hit me. Moments later, he deftly jumped over the lower Qi strand... and hit the upper one.

Spears shot out from the floor and ceiling with blinding speed, skewering him thoroughly. He immediately stopped because flying became rather problematic when you were pierced through by several dozen spears. Remarkably, he didn’t die outright, as the upper part of his chest and head remained clear of the trap. Both of his arms were locked in place, making him no longer a threat.

Still, I didn’t step out of my hiding spot. Instead, I backed further into the alcove, suppressing my aura as much as possible to release only the faintest trickle of Qi into the environment.

"Roi To! Damn it! I told him not to rush. That idiot ran straight into the trap."

"Where’s the target?"

"I can’t see him. Can’t sense him either. This path is blocked now. We need to find another way around. No worries, the compass will track him."

From my experience in the labyrinth, once certain traps were triggered, they permanently sealed off the passage. This was one of those traps. Though the spears were thin and made of jade, they were as indestructible as the walls themselves.

I waited five minutes before stepping out of the passage and cautiously approaching the cultivator, who stubbornly refused to die. Honestly, this suited me just fine. When I got within about ten meters, I felt his hateful gaze lock onto me. The index finger of his right hand began to glow, but I was faster. For some reason, he had a knife sheathed at his belt. Using my "tentacle" technique, I yanked the weapon toward me and immediately sent it flying back — straight into his eye. His body gave one final twitch before going still. The blade that penetrated his brain instantly shut down any further thought processes, even though the body hadn’t quite realized yet that survival was no longer an option.

As I came closer, I tugged the knife out of his skull with some effort and delivered a single swift strike to sever his head, ensuring he wouldn’t be getting back up for a surprise second round. Scanning his body with psionics, I found only the knife I already held and a ring on the middle finger of his right hand. I slipped off the ring and clumsily removed his belt and sheath, turning my attention to the most crucial task — absorbing his Qi.

This cultivator was fairly advanced, so I had high hopes for what his Qi might offer. I began drawing the energy from his nearly lifeless body, simultaneously forming a new "storage vessel" for it in my left arm. Since I couldn’t physically plunge my hand into his dantian, I had to improvise by creating a channel of my Qi through his body to siphon the energy. Within five minutes, I had a respectable reserve of Qi, enough to push me right to the threshold of the sixth level. Who knows? I might even be able to break through. The energy was impressively dense, though controlling it was a bit of a challenge.

After I finished absorbing his Qi, I turned my attention to the spatial ring I’d taken from his finger. These rings could only be accessed with the original owner’s unique Qi signature, but I had plenty of his Qi coursing through me right now. Unfortunately, the contents were underwhelming: just five small Qi crystals and a couple of recovery pills. What kind of pauper was this guy? At least the ring itself was decent, boasting a capacity of about two cubic meters.

I decided to pull a clever trick to "re-register" the ring as my own. It required the owner’s unique Qi signature but allowed for minor variations. So I slipped the ring onto a finger of my left hand and began infusing it with my Qi, mixed with his in a ratio of one to nine. Once the ring recognized me as its new owner, I slowly began altering the proportions of energy. The gambit worked, and my predictive scan indicated that within an hour, the ring would fully accept me as its sole master.