Monks poured from the entrance. Only monks of the Peak Initiate and above were present, yet there were only a scant few of them. Most were in the Advanced Stage. Each was disciplined and hardened, likely experienced with delving into Hell’s depths.

“Teacher?” Dejiu asked quietly as he turned around. He saw a familiar bald head at the back.

“Xue Dejiu?” The head pushed through the crowd of weary monks.

“Teacher Jiansu!” Dejiu smiled widely.

Jiansu pushed to the front and pulled Dejiu into a warm hug. It wasn’t normal for monks to hug each other, but Dejiu couldn’t care. They were family in all but name. If we severed our mortal ties, then we could just make more.

Jiansu looked flustered. A confused face mixed with worry. Why wouldn’t he be? His prized and only disciple stood before him covered in daimon ichor. “Y-your hand! What happened? Who’s blood is this? Who is buried beneath here? No, how are you–”

“Alive? I killed it — the guardian.” Dejiu interjected. “I’m sorry teacher, but I was swallowed into this Pillarshard when I was sent to the Heifeng Prefecture. And from there–”

“Wait on your recount, Xue Dejiu. And Warrior Jiansu, I’d like to hear more of this disciple you have.” A booming voice said from behind the crowd.

Dejiu raised his head and turned to find the voice’s source before something whispered into his ear.

“Little monk, I’ll be hiding. Although it’s not needed now, I wouldn’t want to alert that Abbot of yours through his Arhats and those below them.” Bing Xin said before the invisible pressure inside felt weak and small.

Dejiu’s face twitched but thought nothing of it as he found the voice’s source. And he didn’t want to test his luck. His eyes narrowed at the silver prayer bead bracelet jangling on the monk’s wrist. It was an Arhat’s disciple, beneath only the ten Arhats and the Abbot himself.

Black represented Lay Monks. Red for Junior Monks like Dejiu. Orange for Warrior Monks like Jiansu. Yellow for Senior Monks. Silver for Arhat Disciples. Gold for the Ten Arhats. White for the Abbot.

Still, for such a monk to appear… was he in trouble? What warranted the appearance of such a high-standing monk?

The crowd parted like reeds swayed by a storm as the Arhat Disciple stepped forward.

“I too am curious as to how you survived, blood monk. The last I heard from Warrior Jiansu’s ramblings — you were a mere Low Initiate. How?” The Arhat Disciple said. There was a certain connotation when he said blood monk that Dejiu recognized and didn’t like.

His words sounded like a question but were more like a commandment. Dejiu gulped and stiffened. Amitabha, he looks intimidating. Is this what all Arhat Disciples look like? What of the Arhats themselves?

The man was lean and extremely tall. His frame wrapped in the same loose blue-white kasaya robes of the temple. His shaved head gleamed, and faint patterns resembling frost trails adorned his skin. However, piercing gray eyes stood in stark contrast to his sun-darkened skin. They were like storm clouds over a snowfield. Slung over his back was a staff capped with twin shards of ice.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Jiansu nocked a hand over Dejiu’s still posture into a bow. Understandingly, Dejiu continued the formal bow with Jiansu at his side with clasped hands.

“Honored disciple Xue Bing Lie,” Jiansu said.

The Arhat Disciple, Xue Bing Lie returned a bow before motioning the other lower-ranked monks to spread out and form a perimeter. “The blood monk… high Initiate, hm?” Xue Bing Lie muttered with a slight frown.

“I fought for my life in these depths, honored Disciple Xue Bing Lie. Strength and treasures follows that struggle.” Dejiu said, holding up the bloody bandages that covered where his right hand should be.

Xue Bing Lie waved at Dejiu dismissively. “Come, we’ll ascend to the surface. We can talk about your experiences on the way.”

Not going to heal my hand or something? Dejiu stifled a frown and nodded. “Are you not needed to oversee the other monks?”

Xue Bing Lie motioned for Jiansu to follow before he responded. “They’re accustomed to expansion in the Hells despite the few chances they get.”

Dejiu grabbed his spade from Feng Mu’s burial and followed Xue Bing Lie. Jiansu looked like he wanted to say something be decided against it and trailed behind Dejiu. Sorry, Teacher, but I’m worried about not being persecuted or put to death.

The trio walked in silence for a while. Dejiu didn’t know why, he was just waiting to be asked questions like an interrogation. But somehow this made it harder to breathe. Was it the exercise of climbing steps? His injuries? Or the Arhat Disciple’s presence?!

“I heard you two earlier. So you were swallowed by the sinkhole, huh? And I assume the Seekers Accord didn’t allow you to leave.” Xue Bing Lie said.

“Yes. But before that, I must mention I advanced to Mid Initiate with the help of a Hell Shard.”

Before Xue Bing Lie could ask further, Jiansu cut in. “You advanced with that? Thank goodness.”

“...I see. Your teacher personally slew a troublesome Advanced Stage daimon for that. Likely at the peak of it’s stage. I deemed it permissible for him to provide it to you. He was adamant on it.”

Dejiu exhaled sharply. “Thank you both, really. I would’ve died without advancing. I managed to kill a daimon before something beyond my means appeared. I circled past it and decided to descend the Pillarshard.”

“Just one emerged? Odd. Very odd. Usually, the entire Pillarshard would be flooded with daimons, especially the topmost chamber. Hundreds would be normal. Most want to ravage the surface lands after all.” Xue Bing Lie stroked his chin. “Though, that one you left above the surface did alert us.”

Dejiu decided against explaining the odd nature of the daimons he learned from Bing Xin about their progenitor. That information will just oust him simply because he shouldn’t be able to know it.

“Days passed and I became progressively stronger. But at the cost of that strength, I strained my meridians and core with many Hell Shards — more than I could even handle at times.” Dejiu said. His mind churned, trying to come up with a solution to the most pressing issue with the Feng Clan.

He can’t figure out a way to explain how there are eight bodies in the guardian’s chamber.

Dejiu exhaled slowly, the memory sharp in his mind. “When I reached what should have been the lowest level, I saw something that made me stop. An entrance to the Seventh Hell. Outside were cultivators. Not daimons, but people, ten in total. They claimed they only wanted to ascend to the surface once the time limit was passed. But I wasn’t sure.”

“I ignored them and descended below to the guardian’s chamber and managed to slay it alone,” Dejiu said, his tone somber. “Then I waited. If they spoke the truth, then once the Seekers Accord allowed them to enter the Pillarshard, they held the decision to ascend or descend. They decided to descend. And when they arrived in that guardian’s chamber, I protected myself.”

Xue Bing Lie’s narrowed his eyes. “How so?”

Against all instinct and reason, he admitted, “I killed them.”