The invisible platform appeared, and they all jumped together. Landing on the smooth, invisible surface as the cold winds howled around them. Another invisible stair appeared above them.

"Go! Go! Go!" Pan Tian ordered, and they jumped.

They continued upward, moving as quickly as possible and only waiting occasionally for new platforms to appear or for them to fade and return lest they suffer Pan Tian's earlier fate.

Finally, they made it to the top and entered a hole in the side of the tower that led into a room with a burnished metal floor with an eight-pointed star embossed on it. The star looked like the directions of a compass and a ring with marked indentations linked the points.

Braziers sparked to life with dull green flames as they stepped into the room and out of the howling winds.

On the opposite end of the room, atop a raised dais was a statue of the same severe-looking woman that decorated the school. At her feet was a plaque of blood red metal that gleamed in the green light of the fires.

"Alright, nobody move," Pan Tian said, "Ithilix, can you help me check for traps?"

Ithilix nodded and her antennae quivered as she slowly crept along the room.

"There's something here... only one thing that this one can tell. But it permeates the whole room and this one doesn't know what triggers it or what it does," Ithilix said.

"I sense it too. That's probably the plaque," Pan Tian said, "it looks like we've found the first test."

Pan Tian led the way up to the raised dais and read the inscription aloud.

"My village was poor, but that didn't stop the bandits from coming to take what little we had. I hid, ran, and was spared their atrocities. They shattered my childish dreams. But I found new ones on the Path of Blood. Only much later did I possess the strength to enact my vengeance. Do you have the strength to stand against the darkness? The cunning to hide? Or will you be slaughtered and used like everyone else?" Pan Tian said.

"Does anyone else feel like this shouldn't be a test for children?" Jie asked.

The others returned confused looks.

"Nope. Just me... Awesome," Jie muttered.

The green flames in the braziers flared and swirled high into the air before crashing down onto the metal floor where they took the form of semi-transparent mostly human figures comprised of shimmering green energy. The figures surrounded the room and blocked the only way out.

They flickered in and out of existence like ethereal nightmares. Some carried ghostly images of weapons while others carried corporeal ones that gleamed in the dancing green firelight cast by the braziers. Their faces were a mixture of depravity, hopelessness, and agony. Those that had enough skin on their face to form an expression at least.

A translucent image of a blood red woman formed out of the floor opposite the green ghosts, wielding wicked sickles in each hand. The same woman as the statues.

"Remember me? No... how could you when you've never seen me? But finally, I can exact my revenge," said the red woman.

"What do we do?" Jie whispered.

"We pass the trial," Pan Tian whispered back.

"This village is ours. You're arrogant indeed if you think you can take it from us," said one of the stronger bandits, who even as an echo of a memory radiated the aura of a late Expert stage cultivator. Jie thought he might be the eighth or ninth star, but it was hard to tell as his aura flickered in and out as he did.

"Enough words," said the red woman, "my name is An Shen. Now scream for me, pigs."

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An Shen melted and vanished and all the ghosts or whatever they were snapped their attention to Jie and her friends.

"To the center of the room. Otherwise, they'll just phase through the walls and attack us. Watch under you in case they try to do that from below. Same from above," Pan Tian called as she charged to the center.

Jie used lightning step as qi armor surrounded her and she launched herself at the strongest ghost. Dragonfists formed around her fists, crackling with the intense power of her lightning dragon qi. He raised a rusty shield covered in runes and her fist slammed into it with a thunderous boom that reverberated through the room and sent him flying backward. He flickered, vanished, and reappeared behind Jie.

"They can teleport!" Jie yelled as she spun around his shimmering blade that trailed wisps of green-black deathly power like smoke. She lashed out with another dragonfist. He raised his shield too slowly and she hit him in the chest at full power.

Lightning qi pulsed through him, lighting him up from within like a green stormcloud. But it was like punching cobwebs. Her fist sank deep inside his chest with an unpleasant sensation that made her skin tingle, but her strike barely knocked him back and didn't seem to hurt him much if at all. He flickered and vanished. Then reappeared behind Pan Tian and Ithilix, his sword raised.

"Look out! Behind you!" Jie cried as he brought his blade down toward them.

An instant before his blade hit them, a crackling roar filled the air with a screaming rip. Lightning snapped over the ghost's form and he staggered forward, spinning around to confront his attacker and revealing long claw marks on his back that'd shredded his cloak. He flickered away and Xue roared as the semi-translucent ethereal white glow that covered him brightened.

"I guess the stories are true," Pan Tian said as she parried an attack from another ghost using her claws of light, "Spirit tigers really can-- Jie!"

Jie felt the powerful ghost reappear behind her. Jie whirled to face him and blocked his rusty sword with her dragonfist. The dark, deathly qi of his sword met her lightning dragon qi and exploded, knocking his sword arm away. Jie grabbed his shield and pulled it aside as she hit him in the face with another dragonfist.

But, once again, it felt like punching cobwebs. The ghost's snarls made her feel like she was doing some damage. But it was nothing compared to the claw marks Xue had left on the ghost's back even though his cultivation was well below her own.

Jie struck out again and again, keeping hold of the ghost's physical shield to try and keep him from teleporting away and attacking one of her friends. But none of her attacks seemed to connect properly with the insubstantial ghost.

More ghosts attacked her. But they were weaker and she avoided them between lashing out with fingers of light to keep them at bay as she pummeled the strongest ghost in the room with one dragonfist after another.

Jie felt a jolt through the bond she shared with Xue and then another one. She focused on it and got the feeling he was screaming something at her.

Then, something clicked inside her and she turned semi-translucent with the same ethereal white glow as Xue. She punched the ghost in the jaw with another dragonfist and felt his ghostly jawbone shatter from the impact. He gave an otherworldly shriek and swung his sword at her, but she caught his ghostly arm. He flickered in her grip but remained held as she kicked his knee, shattering his smoky green leg into green ichor and hissing deathly energy.

He cried out as he collapsed. Jie formed a dragonfist on her knee and drove it up into his face with a sickening crunch as he fell. He flew back through the air as his weapons slipped from his grip before he dissipated into green smoke and vanished.

Jie then sent out one finger of light after another at the other ghosts around the room. The bolts of lightning hit the slower, weaker ghosts with ease. Each one seized up like they were still alive and being electrocuted as they smoked, screamed, and crumbled into nothingness. Their cries echoed long after their forms broke apart and anything physical they carried dropped to the floor as they were destroyed.

Jie worked with Xue to clean up the rest and Pan Tian and Ithilix did their best to defend themselves.

The last ghost exploded with the blue crackling roar of dragon lightning qi and they all gave a relieved sigh.

"These tests are a lot harder than last time," Pan Tian said around panting breaths.

"How did the Chen family do this?" Jie asked, "those ghosts were incredibly strong. And if Xue didn't have that ability you both would've died."

"The tests aren't always the same for every group. I was much weaker when I went into the valley last year. But the group I was with just avoided anything that seemed too strong for us and the trials were difficult for our level but not impossible like this would've been. It might've given the ghosts less power against the Chen family. Or made them easier to hit. Or they might've done a completely different test," Pan Tian said, "spirit tigers are amazing against ethereal enemies... but how did you do that? Are you secretly a spirit tiger in human form? It'd explain a lot."

"No, I'm not," Jie said, "I think Xue gave it to me."

"What? How did Xue give you a magical beast trait?" Pan Tian said.

"Just a quirk of our bond, I guess," Jie said, "can we go? I don't want to be here if those things come back."

The plaque glowed and sent out four red orbs that zipped straight to them. Jie tried to evade it, but it homed in on her and hit her in the chest. Red energy swirled around her and her skin started to itch...

"That's the first plaque done," Pan Tian said, "let's collect their things and then we can go. Don't touch them though. They could be cursed."