"You want me to kill them?" Jie asked.
"Is that a problem?" Pan Tian asked.
Jie looked at the placid-looking bird creatures and swallowed hard as her palms started to sweat. She'd killed magical beasts before as part of the exam, she reminded herself.
"No problem," Jie said stiffly.
She clenched her hands into fists and used more of her speed. She zipped ahead of Pan Tian and slammed her fist into the neck of one of the Vruthka. She didn't waste her qi on a dragonfist, and instead relied on raw physical strength. Its neck shattered under the force of her knuckles and with a wave of her hand it vanished into her storage ring before it even hit the floor. Then, she moved on to the next Vruthka and the next.
It made her feel sick to kill like this, but she told herself that every part of the magical beast would be used. So could she really object to it and yet still consume them herself for food? She focused on killing each one as quickly and painlessly as she could and tried to ignore the flecks of blood that splattered her face and robes.
Pan Tian and Ithilix picked up their pace, but it was easy enough to slaughter the relatively weak vruthka and collect them in her rings while staying ahead of her friends. A few were vastly stronger. Even a couple at the Expert rank, but she still didn't even have to use her qi for them.
It didn't take long for the vruthka to notice her and scatter in every direction. But, between Jie's higher cultivation and her lightning step skill, she chased down and killed them with little effort. As she did so, she kept an eye on her friends, ensuring she was always close enough to assist them if needed.
"Woah! You're even stronger than I thought," Pan Tian said.
Jie didn't keep track of how many magical beasts she killed, but as they approached the tower, the vruthka scattered further and further. Until Jie would have to venture too far to chase them down. So, she fell back to Pan Tian and returned to her place in their formation rather than getting distracted chasing the beasts.
In truth, Jie was somewhat relieved at the excuse to stop killing the creatures.
"Good job," Pan Tian said, "they're not all that valuable, but you got so many and we didn't even slow down. At this rate, we'll catch up in no time. Some of those you killed would've given the rest of us trouble even working together. You're almost as strong as an elder, Jie. This is going to be the best Crimson Valley Treasure Hunt I've ever had. My brother is going to be so jealous that he couldn't come with us."
"Thanks," Jie said, "do you want to divide them up?"
"No sense in wasting time with that. The treasure is counted for our entire team, and speed is what matters. We can always divide the treasures up after the event is done. I trust you," Pan Tian said, "now stay close and be alert. There could be other students waiting to ambush us. Though it seems like Chen Huo couldn't get out of there fast enough when he saw you, Jie."
"This one thinks he does not wish for more broken bones," Ithilix said.
Jie almost felt guilty, but the images of what Chen Huo had done to Pan Tian and Pan Zhanshi were burned into her brain. No. He deserved what he'd got. A thousand times over.
The base of the tower had low, broken walls around it that might once have been houses or other buildings. Most of which were overgrown with vegetation and chunks of broken stone that looked like they could fit into one of the massive, floating rings above them. Jie sent wary glances upward after seeing those.
They spread into a looser formation and searched the area around the base of the tower but found nothing.
"Keep looking," Pan Tian instructed, "there's almost always something near the tower and I don't want us to have to backtrack later."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"You asked this one to say if this one found something strange?" Ithilix asked.
"What did you sense?" Pan Tian asked.
Ithilix pointed at an overgrown portion of the tower, thick with vines. "There's something with energy there... but it's shrouded somehow," Ithilix said, "this one can only barely feel the subtlest signature from it."
Jie focused on what Ithilix was pointing at but sensed nothing unusual.
"Alright," Pan Tian said, "I'll investigate. Jie, watch me. It could be a magical beast."
"But if it is, won't you be the most vulnerable?" Jie asked.
"Yes, which is why I hope you'll kill it before it chews my face off," Pan Tian said.
Pan Tian crept closer to the overgrown tower and Jie kept close by, lightning step, qi armor, and dragonfist already activated and ready for a fight.
Pan Tian's claws of light extended like a cat's. The sharp glass-like blades took on a white glow as the older girl cycled her martial skill and slashed the thick vines. The vines came apart, revealing an engraving in the stone covered by a hazy bubble of power. It was impossible to tell what it said through the strange fog covering it and nothing else.
"They used a concealment scroll? Jerks. No wonder it took so long to find it. I hope you break Chen Huo's fingers when we next catch him," Pan Tian said.
Pan Tian's storage ring gleamed and a blue stone with intricate lines of gleaming golden metal surrounding it appeared in her hand with a golden eye atop the stone itself. She pressed it against the bubble and the stone glowed. Jie felt a sudden shift in her spirit sense as the fog popped like a bubble and the tablet appeared in her spirit sense.
Pan Tian stored the stone with an irritated wave of her hand and grumbled under her breath. "Heavens, I hate that family," she said.
With the haze covering the stone gone, it was easy to make out what it said.
"When I was a girl, I dreamed of becoming a princess. Climb and learn the fate of dreams," Pan Tian read aloud, "climb what?"
Something new filled Jie's spirit sense. Shapes jutting out of the side of the tower. Though she couldn't see them with her eyes.
"Do you feel that?" Jie asked.
"Oh... well... that's our way up then," Pan Tian said, "let's go." She leaped up and landed atop an invisible shape sticking out the side of the tower and raced upward. Jie followed her with Ithilix and Xue not far behind.
They climbed higher and higher, atop the invisible staircase. If one could call the platforms with massive gaps between them stairs. The ground rapidly shrank below them as they climbed ever higher... the invisible stairs doing nothing to hide the deadly drop below them as the chill, howling, night wind whipped them. The wind seemed stronger than it should've been, especially as it'd been calm on the ground. And Jie sensed faint wisps of power within it as though it were enhanced somehow. Jie's blue hair constantly got in her face, and she was forced to secure it with a hairpin from her storage ring while racing up the invisible stairs.
The higher they climbed, the further apart the invisible platforms became, and the curved outer surface of the tower made the jumps harder. But their cultivation was high enough that they still made the impossible jumps between platforms.
When they were more than halfway up, Pan Tian leaped for the next platform and Jie felt it simply vanish from her spirit sense a moment before Pan Tian landed on it.
"Tian!" Jie cried as the older girl yelped and plummeted through the air where the invisible platform had once been. Without thinking, Jie dived off the platform she was on and hurtled through the air toward Pan Tian as she cycled her qi and used lightning step.
Jie caught up to Pan Tian before she'd fallen far, grabbed the back of the older girl's robes and then kicked the air as she formed a lightning step platform in mid-air. Jie jumped off the crackling disk of dragon lightning qi, rocketing them back up and onto the side of the tower where Jie grabbed a handhold upon the worn stone. Not far below where they'd originally been.
"Oh my gosh! Thanks, Jie! Disappearing, invisible stairs? The Crimson Valley is way too sadistic this year!" Pan Tian said as she clung to Jie for dear life.
Jie felt the stair reappear. "It looks like they're only there for a short time and then they vanish," she said, "we'll have to time it well. We should all move together. If they vanish, I can collect you guys and use my lightning step to go back up. You're all way too light to weigh me down. Just don't move or throw off my balance."
"We'll do that then," Pan Tian said, "can you throw me back up to the one Ithilix is on?"
Jie eyed the distance and kept part of her focus on her spirit sense, so she didn't accidentally throw Pan Tian into the invisible stair itself and crack open her skull or something stupid. Jie swung Pan Tian upward, using her incredible strength to send the older girl shooting upward and onto the platform with Ithilix.
Jie tensed and using her handhold, she sprang up and onto the platform with everyone else.
"That was... so scary," Pan Tian said, "I hate this tower. I miss the ground."
"It wasn't like this before?" Jie asked.
"No," Pan Tian said, "it's different every year... it looks like the Crimson Valley is in a dark mood this year."
"How can a place have moods?" Jie asked.
"Shh!" Pan Tian hissed, "it'll hear you."
Jie kept her mouth shut. This world is so freaking weird. She thought.
The invisible platform ahead of them vanished again.
"Alright, everyone go as soon as it reappears and stay close to Jie," Pan Tian said.