Jie ran toward her friends, boosting forward with a lightning step platform, and causing her armor to react to the floor with every step for yet more speed. Jie ran headfirst into the skeletons, allowing her qi armor to trigger as she touched them. The weakest of them exploded while the slightly stronger ones were blasted away from her and sent flying back into the pit as she charged through the horde.

Yet, despite the skeletons moving slowly to her eyes, more were already taking their place as she charged through to her friends.

Pan Tian, Ithilix, and Xue were pressed back to back as Jie came up behind one of the monstrous amalgamations and slammed a dragonfist into its side. The force of her strike shattered bone and sent the creature exploding back into the pit but it began reforming even as it fell.

Jie unleashed two chain finger of light attacks to clear some of the undead around her friends and give them some breathing room as her mind raced.

There had to be a way to end the reanimation. She'd thought killing the necromancer would do it, but now she found her eyes drawn to the shattered remnants of one of the four obelisks around the statue of the red woman.

Yes, that had to be it, she was sure.

Jie unleashed a full-powered finger of light attack at each of the three remaining obelisks in quick succession, blowing them apart in an explosion of stone, dust, strange red energy, and crackling blue qi.

As the final obelisk broke apart, the undead auras around the room vanished and bones dropped to the floor or down into the pit with a tremendous crash.

"Thanks, Jie. We thought that would do it. But after we destroyed one obelisk, one of those bone constructs crawled out of the pit and forced us back. We couldn't get a hit in on the others," Pan Tian said. Blood ran down her face from a cut above her right eyebrow and Jie gave her one of the many healing pills she carried.

She gave one to the others as well, healing some nasty wounds on Ithilix and a gash along Xue's side.

"Well done, my students," said the statue of the red woman, "continue to the heart of the dungeon... and your greatest rewards."

A line of red energy raced across the ground from the statue, along the path to the sealed door that barred their way deeper into the dungeon. The energy spread through the door, highlighting the hieroglyphs upon it before it opened with a grinding noise and a rush of air with a heavy metallic scent.

They took a moment to gather themselves and check the room for any further signs of enemies. But the bones were still and none of them sensed anything. So, they took the time to gather up what items they could. Though, this trial had been stingy with rewards.

Still, they collected the rusty weapons that remained on the island. Nobody mentioned going down into the pit to try and get the rest, for which Jie was thankful and they walked back down the hallway to the zombies and necromancer that Jie had killed.

"Don't touch the scythe," Jie said, "I think it's cursed."

"Did you touch it?" Pan Tian asked.

"Only while covered by my qi armor... but it still tried to worm its way into me," Jie said.

Pan Tian nodded. "Take this just in case then," she said as she handed Jie a pill with a faint white glow, "it's a lesser cleansing flame pill. It should dispel any curses below the Elementalist rank."

"Thanks," Jie said with a mental note to get similar pills for herself when she had a chance. She placed the pill on her tongue and it melted into a strange, bitter-tasting, painless, tingling flame that flowed through her body.

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"Make sure you identify the scythe too," Pan Tian added.

Jie withdrew one of the scrolls Pan Tian had gifted her and used it on the scythe. The scroll glowed blue then burned away as knowledge hammered itself into Jie's mind.

A cursed, ancient scythe belonging to Ahket of the Silvermask order. The scythe will attempt to kill its wielder with a combination of qi and life drain before resurrecting them as an undead bound to Ahket's will.

The scythe retains some limited life drain properties and enhances Ahket's strength. It was once far more powerful but age and foreign powers have brought it and its master low.

A fitting fate for a traitor.

"Well?" Pan Tian asked.

Jie told the others what the scroll of wisdom said.

"Is there any lingering danger from contact? Does it bind to your soul or curse you with bad luck forever or keep draining you or trying to find its way back to you?" Pan Tian asked.

"Nothing like that. Just if you hold it, it tries to kill you. And if it succeeds, it tries to reanimate you as undead and make you serve Ahket... though I guess he serves the academy now..." Jie said.

"That's not too bad then," Pan Tian said, "If it weren't so specifically bound to its master, it'd be worth a lot more, I think. But it's old so some collectors might be interested in it. Are you more comfortable with using scrolls of wisdom now?"

"Yes," Jie said, "it's weird... but kind of cool. Thanks for teaching me how and giving me some. I appreciate everything you've taught me. And you, Ithilix. I've learned so much during this treasure hunt. From the both of you."

Xue pressed his head into Jie's hand.

"Yes, and from you too," Jie said as she scratched Xue behind his ears. He purred contentedly.

Pan Tian smiled.

"This one is glad to help," Ithilix said.

"When we're done in the valley, I'd like to go over some dungeoneering advice with you and make sure you know everything I can teach you if that'd be okay?" Pan Tian asked.

"Of course. I know so little and I'd welcome the chance to learn from you. I get the feeling it's pretty important for a cultivator to know how to deal with all these kinds of things," Jie said.

"Good. We'll do that then. Maybe you should join us and let us in on some hive secrets, Ithilix," Pan Tian said.

"This one is unable to give out any secrets, but this one would be delighted to assist and to learn in kind," Ithilix said.

"I'm looking forward to it," Pan Tian said, "now let me identify the scythe just to make sure it doesn't secretly mind control you and make you lie about everything you just said. Then, we can collect everything and move on."

Jie's blue eyes widened as Pan Tian used a scroll of wisdom on the scythe without touching it.

"Can that really happen?" Jie whispered to Ithilix.

"It's uncommon, but yes," Ithilix said, "Pan Tian is a good team leader. This one thinks even the hive would welcome her on expeditions when she's stronger. Though this one doesn't dare presume to speak on the hive's behalf."

It didn't take Pan Tian long to identify the scythe and confirm Jie was telling the truth. Then, the three stored the various armor and weapons while Xue stretched and yawned. It was almost effortless to store the items in their storage rings while avoiding touching anything as best they could.

Although Pan Tian identified a couple of the items and said they weren't cursed, they felt it was best to be cautious even so. Especially as none of them wanted to spare the time to identify everything in the middle of a musty tomb while in a race with all the other students.

"Is everyone ready to move forward?" Pan Tian asked when they were done, "I know the statue said this was the final test, but that doesn't mean that there's no more danger. We should still be just as alert."

***

They passed through the now open doorway and continued deeper into the dungeon, moving in a twisting spiral that wormed downward through the earth. Finally, they saw a soft light ahead and stepped out onto an arched stone bridge thirty feet above a lake of burbling blood in a vast cavern.

The air was thick with the metallic scent, and every breath tasted as though she'd cut her tongue open.

On four sides of the cavern, built into the walls, were enormous statues of the red woman. One of which had a hole in the stone through which they'd just come. The statues were far larger than the ones scattered through the trials and dungeon. Each was hundreds of feet tall and yet someone had sculpted them with great care. Each of them retained that severe, intense expression.

Although, unlike the other statues they'd come across, these larger ones seemed like ordinary red stone. If statues hundreds of feet tall could be called such a thing.

The bridge they were on led to an island of roughly carved rock the same height as the bridge. The floor of the island had been smoothed down and in the center of it was a large step pyramid with waterfalls of blood that ran down its sides and into the lake below.

At the top of the step pyramid, lit by a shaft of silver moonlight that streamed in through a hole in the cavern ceiling was a golden sarcophagus. Polished to a mirror sheen and filled with a mysterious aura.