Midsummer came and went. As it turned out, advancing through the Fourth Realm wasn’t as simple as He Yu had first thought.

After the meeting with Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu, He Yu had returned home and taken his elixirs. Or what was left of them. He’d been certain as he entered his cultivation chamber that the potent mixture of heaven, wind, and water surging through his meridians would take him to the middle stage. He’d been wrong.

It wasn’t as if the elixirs were of no benefit, though. They just weren’t enough. Once they ran their course, he took a meridian cleansing elixir, and then consumed the few remaining scraps he’d still left over from the mine assault. That wasn’t enough, either. If there was one thing he’d come to fully realize, it was that advancing through Golden Core was a monstrous task. The easy part was truly over, it seemed.

Although he tried to complete a few more jobs for the sect during this time, he met nothing but failure. Before he’d confronted his two saboteurs, he managed to complete a few scattered jobs for what amounted to scraps. Now? He got nothing. Apparently, having the audacity to ask them for a reprieve, even offering to pay them for such, had only made them step up their efforts.

Rather than discourage him, as they obviously meant to, the difficulty only hardened his resolve. He threw himself into cultivation when he wasn’t desperately trying to scrape together contribution points. Although he still hadn’t advanced, his cultivation base still increased. If only incrementally.

One other thing that bothered him was the fact that Zhang Lifen was still absent from the sect. It was odd, thinking about how much he’d come to rely on her guidance since entering the inner sect. Although he’d somewhat resented her during his first year on the mountain, he’d since realized why she’d left him more or less alone.

Sect rules aside, there was little she could have done that he wasn’t better off doing for himself. The habits he’d formed back then had served him well. The foundation he’d lain even before advancing to the stage of the same name had carried him far. Those habits he fell back on now, pushing himself to reach for even greater heights.

Still, he missed their talks. Since entering the inner sect, she had truly stepped into her role of mentor and teacher—guiding him to the insights he’d needed. While he knew that bringing his current troubles to her wouldn’t end with her sweeping in and solving them for him, he knew she would give him the one thing he needed most right now. Guidance.

Of course, he still had access to Yi Xiurong. The First Disciple had assumed the role Zhang Lifen had taken before her departure. Two to three times a week she gathered He Yu and his friends for training sessions, pitting them against one another in drills and spars and contests. He Yu and Tan Xiaoling grew within the Fourth Realm, both of them increasing their cultivation base by inches. Chen Fei, Li Heng, and Yan Shirong were all now at the peak of Body Refining, and Yi Xiurong said she expected them all to break through before winter.

“Very good,” Yi Xiurong said, her voice clipped and severe. All five of the disciples saluted her as the sun dipped below the western peaks at her back. “Continue your efforts.”

The peacock feather she rode on materialized from within her storage treasure. She stepped on it, and was gone a moment later.

It was always a bit of a relief when she left. Just being around her made He Yu feel as though every little movement he made was being judged, and that she would find him unworthy at any moment. He knew it was just the effects of her presence, but it was still unnerving.

As He Yu turned to the path that would lead him back to his home, he saw Tan Xiaoling and Chen Fei off to one side of the training area speaking. He headed over.

As he approached Tan Xiaoling left.

Chen Fei shot a glance at the departing princess’s back and then flashed a nervous smile at He Yu.

“Hey,” he said as he drew near. “Everything alright?”

“Yes!” she said, with a bit too much enthusiasm. “How about you? Are those other two guys still giving you trouble?”

“Can’t get any jobs done, and now I’m more or less out of resources. My weekly stipend is barely enough to cover training.”

“Great,” she said. “I mean, not great, but I was going to ask you something that I thought might help, but you know if you weren’t having problems then there wouldn’t be much point, I guess.”

It was clear she was a bit embarrassed. Not to mention nervous. It amazed him that he could pick up on that now. The whole interaction would have gone over his head back when he’d first come to the sect.

“I get it,” he said. “What did you want to ask?”

“Want to go hunting?” She blurted the question out, the words running together.

“That’s it? Sure, when should we go?”

“Great!” she said, tension He Yu hadn’t recognized had even been there draining from her posture. “I found some thunder fairies when I was out earlier this week. They’re heaven aspected, and I know that’s not a common aspect here.”

An odd mix of disappointment and relief took root in He Yu’s chest at that. On the one hand, harvesting the cores of heaven aspected spirits would go a long way to boosting his cultivation in the absence of more refined resources. But he’d sort of been hoping for—what, he wasn’t sure.

That the two of them had been circling around this unspoken crush for a long time now wasn’t exactly a secret. He Yu was just more than a little amazed that she still had any interest in him at all, to be honest. Sure, they spent time together, but most of that was training. Or hunting. The occasional job. But the both of them always seemed to shy away from broaching the topic.

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As he always did, he pushed aside all the awkward thoughts and simply got down to business. It was what he understood, and could handle. They quickly worked out when they’d leave, how long they’d be gone for, and all the other miscellaneous details of their hunting trip.

Early the next morning, they headed off into the mountains that stretched off to the north of the sect. By midday they’d reached the area where Chen Fei had seen the thunder fairies. Making their way through the rugged terrain was far easier than it had any right to be—especially given the jagged peaks and sheer drops between them.

He Yu made liberal use of his movement technique, sailing across gaps and between outcrops with the winds tugging at his robes. To his surprise, Chen Fei didn’t seem to be hindered by the terrain either.

She would leap into the yawning gaps that stretched hundreds or thousands of feet below her with a burst of mountain qi as she activated the White Mountain Body Art. Just as the law of earth was about to reassert itself, she would create a platform with her family art, the Seventy-Two Blessed Symbols. The formation script would flare to life, and then another explosion of mountain qi would mark her next jump. Bounding between platforms she created, she could maneuver across empty air almost as well as He Yu could.

“That’s a pretty neat trick,” He Yu said, as he landed next to her after they crossed a particularly large gap.

“Thanks,” she said with a beaming grin. “I came up with it myself.”

“Wait, really?” he asked. He’d known that she was well on her way to becoming an expert in formation work. Largely because of Ren Huang’s earlier instruction, and now Yi Xiurong’s. But this? This was on par with creating a new technique out of whole cloth.

“Yep,” she said as they continued their trek, this time heading down into a valley that sparked and flashed with heaven qi thousands of feet below. “It actually wasn’t all that hard. Senior Brother Ren says the key to formation work is creativity. Not every solution has a straightforward answer, and sometimes the best solutions are the ones that are as surprising as they are simple.”

“Huh,” he said. “Once I’ve got some more spirit stones, maybe I could have you take a look at my guandao. It’s suitable for a Fourth Realm thanks to Princess Tan’s upgrades, but it’s still got a lot of potential.”

She frowned a bit at that, but wasn’t truly upset. “I’ve already told you, I don’t need you to pay me for that sort of thing. Anyway, I’m not anywhere near good enough to work on your weapon. Maybe after another twenty or thirty years of practice.”

Chen Fei laughed as she said the last part. He Yu thought she was underselling herself, but he wasn’t about to argue. They’d nearly reached their destination, and with the rich churning of heaven qi below, the only thing he could think of was the bounty that awaited.

The thunder fairies turned out to be a fantastic source of cores. Despite most of them being firmly equal to a Third Realm level of advancement, they were poor combatants. Sure, they could send out arcs of heaven qi, and had an annoying technique that could temporarily blind, but they offered little in the way of challenge. For the rest of the day, He Yu and Chen Fei swept through the valley together, trapping the fairies in formation barriers so they couldn’t flit away.

By the time night fell, they’d collected a good amount of the crackling, heaven-infused cores. Chen Fei found them a nook in the mountain face that was out of the wind to serve as a spot to prepare a meal and cultivate before heading back to the sect in the morning. As He Yu put together a fire, starting it with a flash of his own heaven qi, Chen Fei pulled out spiritually fortified slabs of meat from her storage treasure.

“Have you gone back and visited your home yet?” she asked once they’d finished their meal.

“No,” He Yu admitted. “It’s sort of slipped my mind.”

She merely nodded rather than speak in response.

After a moment, He Yu asked, “What about you? Do you ever think about visiting home?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be going back,” she said. There was an obvious note of melancholy in her words. He Yu looked up from where he was packing away the remainders of their meal. She’d leaned back against the stone of the mountain, her gaze fixed somewhere to the north. This felt like the sort of time he was supposed to say something. She wouldn’t have mentioned that she wouldn’t be going back if he weren’t supposed to, right?

“Why not?” The words had come out before he had a chance to really think, as he fell back into the habit of simply blurting things out. He’d thought that after reaching Golden Core and cultivating the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment for so long that he’d have stopped with that.

She shrugged. “Don’t see the point.”

This time, at least, it was clear the correct response was to stay quiet. Leave the door open and let her continue the conversation in whatever way she saw fit. So that’s what he did.

After some time, she spoke again. “It’s stupid, I know. I don’t really have any reason to be afraid of going back.”

“I mean, it’s not as if you’re weak or anything,” He Yu said. “Sure you haven’t reached Golden Core yet, but peak Body Refining is about the furthest most can ever hope to go. You’ve already formed a Wayborn Seed, so the Fourth Realm is basically a guarantee.”

Giving him a small smile, she said, “You’re right. But it’s not about strength. I never really fit in there. Everyone else is so,” she paused as though she were searching for the right words. “Self-reliant. That’s not me.”

That caught him off-guard. “It’s not? You’re the one who found this place.” He swept his arm before him. Not just their sheltered alcove, but also the valley they’d spent the day hunting in. “You guided us through the wilds last year, and most of your advancement resources have come from things you hunted. If anything, you’re probably the most self-reliant person I’ve met since joining the sect.”

“I couldn’t have made it up the mountain without your help. I wouldn’t have lasted the first year without Xiaoling pushing me. I wouldn’t have reached Body Refining without the mid-grade stone you gave me. I wouldn’t have placed as highly in the tournament without Xiaoling convincing me to join it in the first place.” She ticked off her points on her fingers as she spoke. “See what I mean?”

“So?” He Yu asked. “I wouldn’t have lasted if it weren’t for Li Heng. Or for you. Remember, it’s because of your friendship with Tan Xiaoling that I could cultivate at the waterfall. And also sparring with you. That went a long way to toughen me up. None of us got to where we are completely on our own. But none of us got here solely because of others, either.”

“I guess,” she said. Although she still seemed a bit subdued, she didn’t seem as melancholy as she did before.

“I’ll come with you, if you want,” he said. It was an impulse, and yet another time he spoke before thinking. He didn’t regret it the instant he said it, though. “If anyone thinks you’re not self-reliant enough, or whatever, I’ll just tell them how great you are until either they believe me or run away.”

That did the trick. She laughed. Then she covered her mouth before giving him another smile. Then she did something unexpected. She scooted over next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m glad I met you, He Yu.”

He fought down the brief panic that resulted from her closeness. What was he afraid of? He’d faced literal death more times than he could count now. So he rested his head on hers.

“I am too,” he said as they stared into the remains of their cookfire together.