Alex was tempted to suggest forming a party, but feared it would do nothing but ruffle Shi’s feathers. He had already stuck his head out too far once with the man. Much better that he keep a low-key profile at least for the rest of the day. Still, he had every intention of being prepared. He concentrated on stretching out his Qi Perception and using his other senses as much as possible while stepping into the portal in sync with Ling Ling and Ma Guo who each had each linked arms with him, as well as everyone else. And after an eternal moment stretched in an infinite cocoon of darkness, Alex found himself grinning from ear to ear as he was suddenly immersed the sights, sounds, and smells of a humid jungle all around them.

“Where are we?” Ling Ling spoke in hushed tones as she stared about in wide-eyed awe at the jungle before them. She flinched before the sharp screeches of monkeys that could be heard within the lush green canopy above their heads, so think that only the occasional ray of emerald green light pierced through rustling branches to caress the loamy forest floor. The air was thick with the scents of countless exotic blossoms and the loamy, earthy smell of gentle decomposition, scattered leaves crackling against their feet.

Alex couldn’t help but grin as he recognized the distinct cries of parrots and cockatiels, though he was awed more than anything else by the panoply of odors bombarding his senses, effortlessly noting over a dozen different varieties of blossom perfuming the air, biochemical mastery synergizing with his sense of smell beyond anything he had experienced in his previous life. For all that a part of him felt like it wast he most natural thing in the world. Like there had, perhaps, been plenty of incarnations where he had relied on that gift and many others, in that moment recalling all too well the first role he had ever taken by his master’s side. Yidushian inspectors bringing as much justice as they could to a corrupt world… before being forced to pay the most bitter price imaginable.

Alex shook his head, allowing the forest’s grandeur to wash away bitter regrets that had no place in this place and time. He let Elder Shi’s soothing words intending to calm the group of still linked students wash over him and through him as he closed his eyes, accessed his interface sheet, and much to his ecstatic delight, once more tuned in to gifts that not even the envelope between lives could keep from him.

You have successfully made use of Forest Sense! Forest Sense has synergized with interface map. You have successfully detected multiple anomalies of significance within 100 yards!

Alex’s eyes widened with wonder and no small amount of delight, his eyes snapping open to look in the direction he had sensed prizes of note as Elder Shi spoke on.

“See, aspirants? This rift leads into nothing more than an ancient memory of the forests that once covered this land, countless centuries ago. You need but look behind you to see the gate home, just a few feet away. Now, everyone stand at attention. Your goals for the next quarter glass are simply to see if you can sense the buildup of waste Qi within your meridians, and to make full use of your cleansing techniques to minimize the buildup you suffer during our...”

His words cut off when two students began to groan, one actually rolling his eyes and collapsing after just a few seconds exposure.

Linnea, who Alex was surprised to see had joined them, just shook her head and tutted. “Wow, they really aren’t cut out for rifts at all, are they?”

“That’s because they’re actually trying to purify their bodies of foul waste and ascend!” Tan Yi snapped. “They’re not taint-filled abominations using alien magics and artificial jewels that risk imperiling us all while stealing our city’s treasures!”

Elder Shi’s glare at Linnea soon included Tan Yi. “That’s enough from both of you!” He gave a frustrated shake of his head. “Alright, we’re returning a bit earlier than expected. These aspirants will be brought to the infirmary. We will then return with several more of you, and all of you will be expected to stay for a full fifteen minutes without complaint, if you ever hope to have permission to dare the delves at any point in the future.”

These words earn widened eyes and quick nods, more than a few students looking at the fallen pair with either contempt or pity. Yet none raced to help them up before Alex effortlessly scooped up the girl as Elder Shi grabbed the boy. “Very good,” he said, giving Alex an approving nod before turning to the others. “No need to link hands now, but best we leave as a group for safety’s sake,” he said as they all stepped through the gate once more.

“What happened?” Asked the ill-looking girl in Alex’s arms, gazing up at him in confusion as a cool breeze snapped her to alarmed wakefulness once more.

“Nothing to worry about. You got a bit dizzy, so I’m helping you get someplace to rest for a bit,” Alex assured her as he and Elder Shi quickly navigated the path up to the plateau once more, pleased to see that a pair of assistants wearing pale white robes were waiting for them. No doubt they were a contingency for just this sort of occasion.

Alex smiled reassuringly at the girl as he gently placed her in the bamboo and wicker stretcher that the closest attendant nodded toward, complete with a surprisingly soft pillow. Alex didn’t know whether to smile or cry at the sight of a full dozen stretchers, making it clear what the school thought of the student’s chances.

“What happened is that you found out that the rifts really aren’t a good fit for you,” Elder Shi said with a fatherly pat of the girl’s wrist.

To Alex’s surprise, she looked on the verge of tears.

“But it was so beautiful!” She said with a whispered sigh. “I could sense the beauty, the majesty of it for just a moment, before I was overwhelmed by… well, I don’t even know what it was?”

“No matter, child,” Elder Shi soothingly assured. “It’s no mark against you, I assure you. These first few days are about helping us get a sense of your predilections, interests, and how you will best blossom within our academy. If you enjoy gardens and groves, then all is far from lost! We could really use more talented cultivators in the valley below, and I suspect you’ll quite like it there. It’s lush, soothing, and quite a bit cooler than the city at midday, I promise you that.”

The girl’s tired eyes crinkled in a smile. “Really? That would be wonderful.”

“Indeed. Now rest here, child. And when you’re ready, practice the cleansing techniques we went over earlier today. Let the healer know if you need anything.”

“I will, Master Shi,” the girl solemnly promised, before immediately falling asleep.

Alex gazed down at the boy had yet to awaken at all. He gave a sympathetic shake of his head. “I had no idea it hit anyone that hard.”

Elder Shi gave Alex a thoughtful look as they proceeded back down toward the rift and the waiting students. “And how do you feel, Alex? Any sense of weight, spiritual burden or pressure, or uncomfortable buildup in your joints or lower Dantian?”

Alex grinned. “Honestly? I feel great! I don’t suppose I can make a quick request?”

Elder Shi gave Alex an intrigued look. “I’m listening.”

Alex hesitated for just a heartbeat, debating whether he should say anything at all, but the faintest look of displeasure at his momentary pause spurred him on. “I… sensed what I suspect are some choice spirit fruit and herbs when we were there. Would you mind if I journeyed just a short way into the woods to gather them?” He flashed his best smile. “I promise I won’t take more than fifteen minutes, or get lost.”

Elder Shi blinked. “You actually sensed spiritual treasures in the handful of seconds before two of your classmates collapsed?”

“Um… yes?”

The instructor frowned. “Alex, you know that most spiritual treasures are harder, not easier to find, than a jewel in a sand storm. Is it possible that you simply saw a pretty flash of color?”

“Actually I did see a pretty flash of color, and I think it might have been a spirit peach.”

Elder Shi gazed at Alex for long moments as they emerged from the path to the cavern entrance once more, catching a score or so of troubled gazes. “All right, Alex,” he said with a nod. “So long as you call out so I know exactly where you are, and so long as I sense nothing… untoward.”

Alex bowed. “This humble aspirant thanks you, honored elder.”

Elder Shi snorted before turning to the others. “As you no doubt witnessed, two of your number have already fallen,” he said in a no-nonsense tone. “They will both make a full recovery, of course. But neither will ever again be permitted anywhere near the rifts.” He exchanged looks with instructor Win, who sighed and nodded.

“We will now be going in groups of ten, linked as before. I will lead, Master Win will cover our rear. Should anyone else prove unfit for task, he will escort them out.”

“And I expect the rest of you to diligently practice your cleansing techniques until we return! For you’ll certainly need them,” Elder Win said with a warning look for the remaining students, earning over a dozen hasty nods as the lead ten linked arms and formed a group once more, a grinning Linnea somehow slipping into place to clasp his left hand far more intimately than protocol necessitated as they stepped on through.

And then after a moment lost in absolute darkness Alex opened his eyes to find himself in the jungle once again.

Before furrowing his brow, sensing that something was wrong.

His eyes widened.

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He quickly turned to Elder Shi. “Master, the forest has changed!”

“Of course it did,” Tan Yi snorted. “You clearly don’t know anything about rifts.”

Elder Shi frowned. “Do you sense it?”

Alex swallowed, closing his eyes, knowing exactly what the man meant.

You fail to detect any spiritual treasures within 70 yards.

Alex shook his head, cursing softly under his breath, even as his eyes vainly tried to pierce the undergrowth. “No, Master Shi. Though if you didn’t mind my taking a short walk...”

“Absolutely not!” Elder Win snapped. “No party was formed. No protocol or precautions are in place. None of you are trained for a delve. Allowing you children to wander off is a sure recipe for disaster!”

Alex winced and bowed his head. “This one apologizes for his foolish request,” he said, making sure that absolutely no blame fell Elder Shi’s way, even if it was clear from Win’s frown that he suspected that Shi would have happily allowed it, and that perhaps such wasn’t entirely per protocol. But considering that the pair were babysitting almost a dozen students now, and that more than a few were looking pasty-faced and visibly panting after less than a minute’s exposure, perhaps it was for the best that Alex stay right where he was.

“Alex?”

“Yes, Ling Ling?”

She began to tremble. “I think I’m going to...”

Forest Sense linked Perception Check made!

Alex winced when she vomited all over his thousand year old leather shoes.

Then her eyes widened as he drew his razor sharp dao in the blink of an eye.

“I’m sorry, Alex!” Ling Ling sobbed, gazing at him with naked terror.

But Alex paid her no mind, any more than he did Elder Win’s furious features, already knowing what he needed to do as he summoned forth his Enhanced Water Shield, infusing it with Wind, Steel, and Lightning.

“Shadow Pumas!” Alex roared. “Everyone get back through the damned gate!”

Time seemed to slow as students and instructors looked at him with either surprise or like he had gone mad.

Elder Shi furrowed his brow thoughtfully, clearly preparing to pepper Alex with questions there was no time at all for as the suggestion of shadowy death became an abrupt certainty, just seconds away.

“Alex! Link the party map interface!” Linnea hollered in his mind.

Alex wasted no time wondering how or why their party link was still in effect or if it now came automatically when they adventured together. He didn’t even know he could share what she wanted until he felt a curious tug, the girl somehow highlighting a strange concept his mind instantly translated to a blinking tab. He didn’t even have time to feel alarmed or violated, merely scooping and sharing the image as fast as thought, sensing her immediately stiffen and curse, her eye widening with stunned alarm turning to desperate focus.

“Cover our front, I got your six!” And the air heated with a sudden whirlwind of flame.

Win’s eyes bulged comically as he desperately summoned what would have been a devastating storm of spiritual energy even as he drew his sword, near crushing Linnea with his killing glare as a brilliant hot stream of ochre red and white-hot flames corkscrewed through the air promising death to any overconfident wujen who truly didn’t realize how much quicker a well trained Ruidian jewel master could strike, or at least Linnea could.

Quick enough for her fiery Crimson Corkscrew to blast completely through the Shadow Puma who had been springing for Elder Win’s neck, Linnea having managed the miraculous feat of forging a piercing flame strike that somehow pierced flesh as well as any sword, flash-boiling and erupting her prey from the inside out.

The Silver tier cultivator’s face paled, an odd look of apology, regret, and gratitude flashing over his features for just an instant as he realized he had been about to charge and strike a Ruidian girl that had just saved him from being mangled at the very least. Before cursing when he was abruptly showered with innards of flash-boiled spirit puma.

A scene Alex experienced as if it were his own, sensing the battlefield more clearly than he ever had before in his life. As if he and Linnea had just combined processing power, and were able to think and strike as one.

You have saved versus fatal blow!

Fortunately his dual awareness had no adverse effect in his ability to weave under the pair of pumas that were presently leaping for his back. Time seemed to stretch and slow with the pounding of his heart as he desperately weaved and darted past snapping jaws and disemboweling claws while lashing out with furious windmilling strikes that cleaved through flesh and bone, once more embracing a weapon that in the fury of battle truly belonged in his hands.

You have critically struck Shadow Puma!

His prismatic shield had been traded for fangtian ji without a second thought in the mad melee where attacks were coming from all angles, and he needed the full reach of his weapon to rip open the fresh pair of pumas that had just sprang for the trio of terrified students somehow huddling at his feet, one of them bleeding from a devastating injury as Alex roared and struck.

The Shadow puma that had thought itself so clever, ripping open students just beyond Alex’s range, soon learned the eternal error of its ways when enhanced an extra three feet of Windblade tore right through one paw and sliced open its jugular in an injury Alex could only hope was fatal as he spun around and lashed out with a roar, his polearm head now cleaving completely through the puma that had slunk from behind to tear out his own throat, the whirlwind of razor sharp steel in a swirling matrix of Water cleaving through his target as exquisitely as Black Swan once had in a blinding explosion of lighting sent the remains of the shadow cat spraying back from Alex and his companions, freezing the remaining handful of deadly stalkers in their tracks.

And for just a second, Alex had sensed the lightning’s hunger to continue its arc. To blast right through the trio of cats now roaring and leaping as one.

Quickness check made!

You have brought your deadliest art to bear!

All thoughts save survival fled Alex’s mind as he desperately dove to the side. But before spinning around with his fangtian ji now shrieking with a maelstrom of energy so intense that Alex felt it like a pressure wave. Daring to channel his deadliest art for the duration of a single perilous swing.

Prismatic Strike!

You have successfully struck your targets!

Fatality!

And as effortlessly as slicing through over-ripe fruit, the first and second Shadow Puma exploded in lightning and gore.

Even as the third got off with a single limb obliterated, yowling in middair as it lunged for Ling Ling’s throat.

Alex’s heart clenched with dread as he met sixteen-year-old Ling Ling’s terrified gaze… right before a furious corkscrewing stream of crimson death hammered into the final cat’s maw, it’s skull erupting in fiery crimson gore that splattered a screaming Ling Ling before she was nearly crushed by the weight of the dead cat that crashed into her.

But at least, by some miracle, she was still alive to scream.

“Thank you!” Alex poured his heart into the gratitude he felt for Linnea, naked and raw, no filter between their mind-melded forms, even as he raced to lift what was a truly massive Shadow Cat off a battered and sobbing Ling Ling.

And then it was over, Alex blinking as he took in just how many cats he and his friend had taken out.

“Friend? We’re so much more than that. We’re Battle Buddys, Alex! And don’t you forget it!”

Alex grinned at the thought.

“And what’s a mind meld? What’s Star Trek? Ooh wait, I’ve seen ships like those before in the sacred tomes!”

“Quiet, Linnea. The elders are giving us looks. We need to put them at ease.”

And it was true. Elder Win was giving him the strangest stare, even as Master Shi’s look of shocked wonder turned to a glorious laugh. “Well done, Alex! Linnea! That was absolutely masterful! I take it you two have hunted before?”

Linnea positively beamed. “Yup! We hunted together last night! That’s why Alex was such a sleepyhead today. We sort of pulled an all-nighter. And since we were still party-linked… it made it easy to fight as one.”

Her cheerful words were met by almost a dozen sober nods, everyone not injured gazing at the pair of them with looks ranging from confusion to ire to outright awe.

“That was incredible!” Whispered one youth as the elders rapidly hurried them to the exit. “I didn’t even see those things until they had already fallen!” He declared, flinching shuddering at the sight of one of the massive pumas easily as large as any lion.

“And how did he move so fast?” Said a girl with carefully braided hair who’s name Alex hadn’t caught, now gazing at him so curiously as Elder Win ushered her toward the exit. “Is he a speed cultivator? But we now know he’s definitely a Ruidian, right? So what exactly is he?”

“A bloody abomination,” huffed Tan Yi, for some bizarre reason glaring at Alex like the whole disaster was his fault. “This is the safest rift in the whole damned city! For so many of those creatures to ambush us at once is all their fault!” He glared and jabbed his finger in Alex’s face. “They radiate a foul taint that enrages the beasts and corrupts the rifts! My family has proof! These mixed-blood mongrels shouldn’t even be here!”

Alex blinked, momentarily speechless, as was everyone else at that declaration, before laughing in Tan Yi’s face. “Wow, that’s some twisted logic, good buddy! Blaming the guy who just saved your bacon for getting stuck in the fire. No ‘thanks for covering my six’ or ‘I owe you one, kung fu brother!’ Just ‘everything’s your fault, let’s pin the blame on you because I don’t like your eyes, or the color of your skin.’”

Alex crossed his arms and shook his head. “And now the whole class knows just how petty and pathetic you and your whole damn clan is, hating us so fiercely that they’ll even use my saving your life as a pretext to get rid of any outsider that they can.”

His bemused smile hardened as he gazed coldly at the wilting students about to pass him and leave the rift. “So let me ask you this, Tan Yi. How many lives would you have saved, if I hadn’t been here?”

The boy opened his mouth, but no words came out. No words could come out. All he could answer with was a snarl. Features that looked so Yidushian despite the darker complexion twisted in a snarl. “You’ll pay for insulting my clan, Ruidian. Mark my words!”

“Enough!” Snapped none other than Elder Win, eyes flashing as he held a groaning student that had come close to being disemboweled. “Exit now, and form an orderly line! We’re heading back up, and those who were injured are going to the healers immediately!”

In short order all that was left was Alex, Linnea, and Elder Shi, pinning them both with his gaze.

Alex winced under the sudden tension, forced to wonder if the spirit beasts merely marked the beginning of their trials within the rift, because sure as anything, Elder Shi had questions.