The number of bones lining the passage walls thinned out and the passages themselves widened as white marble gave way to a mixture of other types of rock that looked natural and far older. The troughs of blood had also vanished at some point, heading somewhere else in the maze that was this dungeon.

Pan Tian led them into a massive cavern with a lake of blood that stretched off into the distance. An old wooden boardwalk was the only path forward. With forks up ahead. Some of the planks were missing and others had sunk down until they were just barely submerged in the blood rather than resting above it.

Stalagmites peeked up through the perfectly still blood lake and glowing, wriggling worms as big as Jie was hung from the ceiling amid slick, slimy webs, stalactites, and gnarled roots. They snapped their jaws at anything that buzzed nearby to their pulsing glow.

"Be on your guard here," Pan Tian said, "attacks can come from any direction."

Jie looked at the countless glowing worms on the ceiling. Their cultivation was extremely low. The strongest of them was only at the ninth star of the Disciple rank. They looked creepy, but she didn't think they were dangerous at all.

"What am I watching out for?" Jie asked as they walked along the boardwalk. Their footsteps and the creaking groan of old wood seemed impossibly loud in the quiet cavern.

"I don't know. The place changes. But, definitely watch out for bugs and blood elementals," Pan Tian said.

"The bugs don't seem very strong," Jie said.

"These ones are larvae," Ithilix said, "only babies. The rest will be stronger, Pr--Jie."

"Have you fought these things before?" Jie asked.

"The hive does its best to eradicate such pests," Ithilix said.

They continued along the boardwalk with Pan Tian leading the way and consulting her map frequently. How she made sense of the thing, Jie wasn't sure.

Occasionally, things would brush against Jie's spirit sense, somewhere beneath them in the lake of blood. But it was impossible to see into the dark liquid and not even a ripple moved across its surface.

So far, the creatures she'd sensed hadn't been all that strong, but they were definitely stronger than the worms above them, and not being able to see them bothered her.

***

They kept moving along the winding boardwalk paths. The path often split, but Pan Tian seemed to know where they were going. Jie did her best to keep track of where they were just in case they got separated and she had to find her own way back, but she lost track.

Once again, Jie was glad to have Pan Tian leading them. Though, from the glances at the map, it looked like most of the paths were unexplored. It made Jie curious about what else was out there in the cavern. It wasn't as though she could see all that far in the dim light of the glowing worms high above. Mostly, they relied on their lanterns. Everything in the cavern could probably see where they were going.

The blood under the boardwalk ahead of them bulged as something rose up out of the dark red liquid. It broke through the wooden planks and towered high above Jie and her friends.

Blood cascaded down its surface like a waterfall, revealing an enormous, monolithic statue of a familiar blood red woman with the same stern expression. Any blood that hadn't flowed off her when she emerged soaked into the red stone until it looked utterly dry and pristine.

"If they can, a smart cultivator does careful research before entering a tomb. But no matter how hard you try. No matter how well you make your plans, something will always go wrong. Can you handle a disruption to your plans? Can you adapt and overcome? Will you be one of my academy's prize students, or just another genius cut down before their prime?" asked the statue.

Something appeared within Jie's spirit sense, somewhere ahead of them in the blood. At the ninth star of the expert rank. Then, another at the eighth star, and another... and another... and another...

"Uh, guys... I think we need to go. Now," Jie said.

Her friends started to move but hesitated when they noticed that Jie remained still.

"Go!" Jie said, "I can catch up faster. If I don't slow them down, they'll catch you."

The others looked at each other, looking conflicted. Pan Tian looked particularly torn.

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"I'm asking you to trust me! Now go!" Jie snapped.

Pan Tian nodded.

"Do as she says. Go! Back the way we came!" Pan Tian barked, though her olive green eyes remained conflicted.

That finally got them moving and Jie's friends ran back while she stood firm.

More auras appeared within Jie's spirit sense. Like a horde coming through the blood. Ahead of her, the lake bulged and the boardwalk groaned as it rose unnaturally. Then, the boards shattered, flying in every direction as countless strong creatures raced toward Jie from under the lake.

Jie cycled lightning step and qi armor at the same time. Dragon lightning qi surged over her, crackling and snapping hungrily over her body.

Jie felt her friends running away. She sensed Xue lagging behind the others, hesitating, and she got the feeling over the subtle connection they shared that if she ran into trouble, he would come racing right back.

She smiled. That idiot cat would get himself killed if she couldn't handle it... but it still warmed her heart.

Whatever the things were beneath the lake, they stirred the lake into a froth as they raced toward her, ripping through the boardwalk as they swarmed toward her. She saw glimpses of them where they breached the surface of the lake.

They had a strange, alien appearance that reminded Jie of the creatures in the lake for the third trial. But, that'd been in water that supercharged her abilities and she had no desire to repeat the experience while blinded by and drowning in a lake full of blood.

Jie readied two dragonfists while still cycling her other two techniques. It was a relief in a way as she was still bursting with qi after absorbing and refining so much earlier. But, her qi was less controlled and far more chaotic and unstable, making it difficult to keep control of her techniques.

Jie backed away slowly as the creatures raced toward her, drawing closer and closer... shredding the boardwalk into a cloud of splinters that smacked against her qi armor.

Then, just as Jie readied herself to hold the creatures off and buy her friends more time to get away... the creatures stopped at the base of the statue. They waited there... some of them with faceless heads of swirling red liquid poking above the surface of the lake to stare at her. And she sensed vastly more below the surface of the lake with more joining them. Yet, they remained there. Unmoving.

Jie took a step back and the creatures gave no reaction. She took another step back... and another... unwilling to turn her back to the creatures as they congregated around the statue.

Jie kept her martial skills ready the entire time, her dragonfists crackling hungrily, ready for battle. But, the creatures remained at the base of the statue. Like loyal dogs waiting at their master's feet.

Eventually, Jie turned her back and ran toward her friends. She focused her spirit sense behind her just in case the creatures gave chase. But, as far as she could tell, they did not.

It didn't take long to catch back up to her friends. Jie sensed none of the creatures around them now and allowed her martial skills to dissipate. She still felt like she was bursting with energy which made her oddly annoyed that the creatures hadn't attacked her as she ached to stabilize her cultivation at last.

"That was quick," Pan Tian said, "should we be running faster?"

"No... I don't think so. They broke the boardwalk, gathered around the statue, and then just... stayed there," Jie said, "what does it mean?"

"I have no idea," Pan Tian said, "I haven't even heard of half the things that have happened to us this hunt."

"Should we go back then?" Jie asked.

"No. Just because they didn't attack doesn't mean they won't. Blood elementals would have no trouble keeping the boardwalk intact if they'd wanted to. They broke it on purpose. I think it's likely that the statue is controlling them somehow and she doesn't want us to follow the easy route. I don't want to try and fight those things in a lake of blood while we swim for however long it takes for them to stop chasing us. Foolishness like that is how people die on a hunt," Pan Tian said.

"So, what do we do?" Jie asked. Xue sniffed her and she stroked his head.

"The only thing we can do," Pan Tian said, "we move into an unmapped section. But... that means we could run into anything. Quite possibly something worse than that horde of blood elementals."

"You keep talking about blood elementals. What are they?" Jie asked.

"Just some blood that's collected enough Essence to turn into something else. This place has loads of them. And, before you ask, no blood doesn't usually turn into an elemental. The same way you don't need to worry about fire turning into fire elementals. It's not that easy," Pan Tian said, "I can't believe how weird and difficult this hunt is. But, I suppose the statues are modifying our encounters to account for your strength."

"I'm sorry," Jie said.

"Don't be," Pan Tian said, "you're carrying us through all of this and we're getting a lot out of it. If anything, we should be sorry. But we're not because we're awesome and treasure is great." She stuck her tongue out at Jie.

Jie rolled her eyes.

"Alright, things were dangerous enough on the main path. I did a lot of research and spent more than I'd like to admit getting my maps and notes, so if I don't know about it... there's a good chance that nobody has gone there before. Or at least nobody that came back alive," Pan Tian said, "and with the statues trying to make things a challenge for Jie... well... we need to be very careful. I hate to say it... but you should probably go first, Jie. I'll stick close to you and try to make sure you don't set off a trap, but there's a good chance we could run into something that kills me before I can even react."

"Maybe we should just turn back? I mean, we've got a lot of treasure, right? It's not worth dying over a chance to get a little more," Jie said.

The others looked at her like she was crazy.

"It's good practice for real tombs," Pan Tian said, "life is dangerous. And you're close to the Elementalist rank. How are you going to break through without life and death experiences? You need to push through your limits. We all do."

"I guess you're right..." Jie said.

"Don't worry so much. We've come this far, haven't we? Besides, you don't want the Chen family to win this contest, do you?" Pan Tian pressed.