“Ugh, finally.” An exasperated groan sounded out from Yu Xiang’s right, slightly startling him.

The boy that had joined the expedition alongside Su Rung had stepped forward, flanking the young reincarnator at the lip of the peak of the rock formation, with a hand raised to his forehead, as if to shield his brown orbs from the glare of the mid morning sun while he tried to get a better view of the giant clearing opening up before them.

He straightened up his back, one hand falling to his side while the other reached up to scratch at a wild mop of sandy hair.

“I was beginning to think we were never going to actually get to the center of this place.” Another despondent sigh escaped him. “Hopefully we won’t have to deal with many more of those overgrown bugs.”

Yu Xiang could not help but sympathize with the other young man, and was in fact about to voice his assent, but as he tried to come up with a funny quip to lift the mood he suddenly realized something so terrible it made his lips dry and his tongue become heavy and leaden.

He had no idea what the young cultivator’s name was.

He wrecked his brain ineffectually for that tidbit of information but came up blank, instead deciding to let out a sound of approval to try and stall any possible conversation from starting, at least until he figured out his name.

“Not much of a talker, eh?” The other boy commented in an obviously bored tone, making the green eyed cultivator start to sweat nervously, and respond with an awkward smile.

“Oi, Jin.” Yu almost turned around and kissed Su Mei as she walked over to them, only holding himself back because he was certain her brother would punch him off of the mountain, and he had no intention of discovering if his newly refined physique could weather such a violent impact.

“Stop bothering him with your blathering and come help me talk some sense into my brother’s thick skull.” She said in an annoyed tone, although her displeasure was obviously directed towards Su Rong and not the slouching young man, no matter what her harsh words might suggest. “He’s convinced himself that those spiders must taste exactly like shellfish and now wants to eat one, and I’m not in the mood to deal with his ass if he gets poisoned!”

Jin shuddered from the tip of his toes to the top of his messy hair, a reaction that was mimicked by the young reincarnator at his side. “Well, looks like I’m needed somewhere else right now.” The younger man turned his back towards the green eyed cultivator. “Thanks for the talk.” He quipped sarcastically.

Yu Xiang’s shoulders sagged in relief at having dodged a social bullet, inwardly reprimanding himself for not having memorized the other boy’s name before then.

The sandy haired youth took a few steps away from the lip of the mountain before he stopped abruptly, perking up as if he’d just remembered something. “Oh yeah!” He said as he turned his torso sideways to face him. “My name is Jin Shui.” He whispered slowly, an amused smirk sitting under a pair of half lidded eyes.

The green eyed cultivator cursed to himself as he watched the other young man walk away, chuckling under his breath at the older cultivator’s expense.

Shortly after that, the group of Golden Peak disciples started making their way down from the mountain and towards the enormous clearing, deciding to take a shortcut by sliding down the steep face of the peak.

It didn’t take them long to break past the treeline and into the clearing, and as they finally set foot onto the center of the hidden world a wall of atmospherical spiritual energy hit their unguarded senses, leaving them dazed for a second by the sudden and unexpected difference in the environment.

“Woah.” Zhen Yin exclaimed as she opened and closed one of her fists, cycling the chi inside of her body to attract the ambient energy. “This place feels like standing in a cultivation room in the inner compound.”

“How is that even possible?” Lin Fen voiced his incredulity, a frown marring his naturally beautiful features. “The Golden Peak is one of our continent’s greatest mysteries, a cultivation heaven which is in no small part the reason why our sect stands at the top of the region.”

The wild haired redhead shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe we found another such heaven?”

“I highly doubt that.” Intermitted Su Rong dryly.

Zhen Yin smirked playfully. “What? Don’t you think the heavens are smiling on our journey? This must be fate!”

The fiery cultivator let out a derisive snort. “Only fools believe in fate, and I’m sure the heavens have better things to do than peeking on a bunch of Constitutional Realm cultivators.”

Zhen Ai stepped forward next, surprisingly enough, and with a mischievous smirk playing on her lips. “Like keeping the pole stuck in brother Su’s behind from falling out.”

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The vulgar joke, coming from such an unexpected source, immediately sent the inner disciples in a collective laughing fit, while Su Rong huffed embarrassedly and rolled his eyes. Even Huang Lei, as dignified as she held herself, let out a few chuckles behind her raised fan.

As much as it warmed his heart to see his companions intermingle with each other, Yu Xiang was actually curious as to what exactly was making this place so rich in ambient spiritual energy, so he turned his head towards the one most likely to know the answer, one eyebrow raised in silent question.

Chun Dai immediately noticed his look and was gracious enough to explain. “This is no cultivation heaven comparable to our hallowed mountain.” He said matter of factly. “This is a result of this enclosed world siphoning energy from the outside without release, much like a cultivator does.”

His eyes then settled on the enormous tree standing at the center of the clearing. “As for why this place holds such a high concentration of energy then that would e because of this spiritual tree. Your senses aren’t sharp enough to sense it but it is attracting spiritual energy from all over this hidden world and acting as its anchor.”

The group of inner disciples slowly digested the new information as the stoic swordsman finished his explanation with a shake of his head. “If we were to break the boundary keeping this world separated from the outside then the energy in the air would lower exponentially as it would have much more room to expand and many more forces apart from the tree’s pulling at it.”

On the tail of the core disciple's lecture, the group of cultivators leisurely approached the giant tree, noticing with some trepidation that a large aperture leading deep underground was hiding between its winding roots.

“Looks like we found the nest of those stupid bugs. And of course, it’s smack dab in the middle of this place.” Yu Xiang commented.

The sole crimson clad disciple stepped forward, sending his aura down the tunnel’s entrance and scanning for both signs of life and for just how deep into the earth it led.

Chun Dai didn’t deign to share his findings with them, simply stepping back after a moment and motioning them forward. “We’re going down.”

Yu Xiang and his other had already guessed the swordsman would say that, but that didn't mean they were happy about it. But despite their hesitation and misgivings they still started descending the large artificial tunnel, after all, there was a sponsorship by the heir of their sect on the line, they couldn't just waste such an opportunity! No matter how unwilling they truly felt to fight the multi legged spiritual beasts in their nest.

And so they started their journey downward into the bowels of the earth in earnest, making sure to keep their senses sharp, and once again making use of the presence concealing technique taught to them by the unflappable swordsman.

Their pace was relatively slower to the one they'd taken above ground, and they didn't expect to meet any fierce opposition until much further, so they felt comfortable enough to converse to pass the time while making sure to never let their aura stop scanning their surroundings.

They had learned from their previous mistakes.

"You know." Began the green eyed cultivator in a reminiscing tone. "After our promotion exam I vowed to myself I'd never set foot into another dark tunnel for as long as I drew breath. But the universe seems to conspire against me at every turn, and I now find myself breaking that vow once again."

Many of his fellow exam takers echoed his feelings, much to the amusement of the more experienced Huang Lei.

"Come on now." She began with a bemused smile on her lips. "There is no need to be so pessimistic about things. After all, under all the rock and dirt that makes up the surface our home, there are bound to be countless untapped treasures that no cultivator has ever laid eyes upon."

"And for good reason." Intervened Feng Liu, one hand raised with his index finger pointing up. "Excuse me for being so blunt senior sister Huang, but I don't think humans like us were ever meant to walk these subterranean paths." Another round of agreements resounded through the tunnel's walls, only serving to make the noble lady more and more amused.

A gentle back and forth wave of her battle fan sent her dark bangs into a dance as her smile turned playful and her eyes narrowed in mischief. "Ah, but us mortals were never meant to cultivate either, but still here we are doing whatever it takes to reach for the heavens."

Feng Liu had no response to that but fortunately, Yu Xiang knew exactly what to say. "The heavens aren't infested with hordes of creepy bugs crawling all over the place." He concluded with a nod full of confidence.

Huang Leu giggled lowly behind her fan. "You have a point there, brother Yu."

A lull in their conversation started then as the terrain began to angle more and more sharply downward, forcing the inner disciples to half climb half slide down the rough tunnels.

This time it was the sandy haired cultivator who broke the silence, his voice carrying equal parts annoyance and genuine curiosity. "Why are these things even digging down anyway? I would have expected spiders to make their home on giant webs between the branches of the big ass tree!"

Zhen Ai answered the rhetoric questions, surprising the rest of them once again with both her extremely large breadth of knowledge and the fact she had said anything at all. "It depends on the type of spiders, actually." She said while sliding down the tunnel, flanked by her cousin on one side and Lin Fen on the other.

"These ones don't seem to be able to even produce any webbing, so I assume they are some manner of spiritual trapdoor spiders." She concluded offhandedly.

When she noticed the various stares pointing at her curiously she merely shrugged her shoulders. "I tried to raise some spiders of my own when I was younger." She said as if that explained everything. "I wanted to sew some clothes out of spider silk."

Yu Xiang shook his head, having already given up on making sense of the longer haired redhead's hobbies, and instead returned his focus on navigating through endless tunnels.

A while after that, the ground started leveling out once again, which immediately put every single inner disciple on guard, as it meant they'd probably reached the bottom of the nest, something that was confirmed shortly after by their sword wielding minder.

"Get ready." He said succinctly, but that was all that was needed to put everyone on guard, and as they finally saw their tunnel open up into a wider cavern they prepared themselves for what might as well be their biggest battle yet.