Alex quickly led them through the passage back to the forest proper, only now noting how different the forest was compared to the entrance. Here, the forests consisted of giant redwoods with an undergrowth of deciduous trees that looked surprisingly like elm, hickory, ash, and magnolia. Alex took a deep breath of pine-scented air, smiling at the sight of lush greenery as far as his eyes could see, instantly spotting delectable looking fruit hanging off the vine, near to bursting with juicy ripeness. But when his friends exclaimed with wonder at the ripe treasures that enticed them even from here with their deliciously fragrant citrusy scents, Alex’s hand was the first to reach out and grab shoulder or wrist, solemnly shaking his head, no matter their rank, not even Reny’s miffed stare staying his hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said with an apologetic smile. “But I think it’s best that we go back exactly the way we came.”

Dui Zhong’s impressive brow furrowed into a glower. “Is there a reason why we can’t claim those spirit apples even I can see hanging upon those branches in the distance? You and our desert princes might have profited mightily this day, but the rest of us would enjoy prizes of our own to remember this delve by.”

Alex’s smile grew strained. “Because once we leave this trail, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to find it again.”

The entire party stilled at that. Qing Wu gave Alex a pointed look. “Is that so.”

“Honestly, I can’t even tell where were going. My sense of direction is just… off,” Ya Ling confessed, giving Alex a curious look. “How can you even tell...” The her eyes widened, as she shared a knowing grin with him. “You smell it. Don’t you. On the wind.”

Alex winked. Because it was true. Not only the quiet rustle of the forest all around, but the wind as well served as a gentle guide, leading him back the way he had come. Even after enduring more than one flutter of anxiety by how close he came to abruptly losing the path, somehow he could always sense the way. No matter how how strange the twists and turns became. It had gotten bad enough that he had to link arms with his friends when, for some reason, they just couldn’t seem to register the latest twists to their path as he darted between the roots of a massive sequoia leading suddenly to far more humid air.

“How the hell did you do that, Alex?” asked a wide-eyed Dui Zhong as the others solemnly stared on while they caught their breath underneath the foliage of palm trees as the scents of pears, peaches, and apples were replaced by the scents of passion fruit, wild blossoms, and the faint whiff of feline musk.

“Do what?” Alex asked, puzzled by the looks his friends were giving him.

Ya Ling shook her head. “We came so close to falling into that ravine… or was it a cliff face that I almost bumped my shin against?” She shook her head. “I feel dizzy, just thinking about it. How did you even navigate that path?”

Alex frowned, now truly thrown off by the puzzled stares everyone was giving him, finally over his earlier odd flight of fancy that any deviation would be their doom. Because now he could clearly sense the rest of the way to the entrance, the entire forest lighting up on his interface map, the rift an odd void in the lush greenery.

“It wasn’t that hard, guys. And you were right, Ya Ling, the breeze did help a bit, always revealing a hidden path through the foliage. Anyway, I think I have a better sense of things now. It should be no problem going back the way we...” His voice trailed off as he looked back the way they came, as did his friends.

The redwood was gone.

And the path that Alex had followed so faithfully wound around to nothing but thick underbrush in just a handful of feet.

Alex rubbed his temples, suddenly feeling dizzy.

“Alex?”

“Yes, Linnea?”

“Where did those giant sequoias… that was the name you had for them, go?”

Alex shrugged. “Honestly, your guess is as good as mine, at this point. But the entrance is that way.”

Linnea’s anxious expression immediately blossomed into a smile. “Oh yes, I see! The interface map came back. Yay!”

Ya Ling gave her a strange look. “Interface map?”

Linnea gave an animated nod. “Me and Alex can see a 3-D holographic representation of the forest. Think of a map floating above your head that you can see with a thought, that doesn’t effect your normal vision at all. Anyway, it was gone while we were taking that strange path to find that mystical lychee tree that granted you and Alex wonderfully strange powers that wouldn’t mesh with me at all, but now our map is back. Thank goodness! That means we can leave, without being stuck in some 4-D pocket of folded space.”

Ya Ling paled at those words. “Somehow, that doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“Oh no, it’s really terrible!” Linnea assured with a smile. “But with the forest’s bounty and Alex’s gifts, we could probably survive for years before growing old and dying inside of it.”

Reny exchanged a glance with her husband. “Perhaps it’s time for us to count our blessings and call it a day. For we’ve already profited mightily in life experience and fortuitous encounters, and for all of us who received no prizes of note… nor have we suffered the inevitable build up of waste Qi that dooms all adventurers in the end.”

Dui Zhong snorted, before giving a rueful chuckle. “Fair enough. Not every delve will be profitable, and the fact that I feel absolutely no buildup of waste Qi at all is a boon that can’t be understated.” He gave Alex an appreciative nod. “Especially if our champion isn’t opposed to another delve in the hear future?”

“After today’s fortuitous encounter, I’d love nothing more!” Alex said wholeheartedly. “What could be better than the hunt for rich prizes and treasures, after all? Especially if there’s no long term consequence to us.” His smile hardened. “And that’s a good thing. Because if we’re not willing to risk these delves on the regular, at least until we can claim a Water core, it’s only a matter of time before a certain asshole clan tries to seize power. If that happens, I doubt Linnea or I will have any chance to delve these rifts at all.”

Linnea nodded grimly. “Yeah, at that point I think me and my kind will be fleeing this city before those assholes can outright lynch us. Because if the malicious glint in Tan Yi’s eye is anything to go by, it would only be a matter of time before they try to do just that.”

“Well we sure as hell aren’t letting that happen!” Ya Ling declared fiercely. “We’ll do whatever it takes to defend our friends and bring those Li assholes down. Right, grandfather?”

Qing Wu flashed an enigmatic smile. “We will of course do all we can for our friends. And Alex and Dui Zhong have the right idea. So long as it’s safe, we can dare these delves until we can secure this city’s future with a prize that will see us in good graces with headmaster or prince, because I’m most certainly not surrendering another Water core to anyone else. Then our position in the city will be secured, the Li’s will be considerably weakened, and disaster will be avoided without a bloodbath.”

“And now that that grim conversation is out of the way, and our young Ruidian friends sense the way back to the entrance, perhaps we can take the time to gather what spiritual treasures are on the way?” Reny pointedly asked, getting an abashed nod from Alex as he immediately led her to a handful of choice looking purple blossoms radiating a delightful mix of Air and Wood Qi, his own enhanced senses and connection to Wind sharpening his awareness like never before, suddenly aware of half a dozen prizes a now happily humming Reny would love, needing only moments with her trowel and the use of her ring to claim the spirit plants before her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Pristine Purple Blossoms detected! Unknown median market potency.

“Wonderful!” Reny said with a satisfied nod as she smiled up at Alex. “And I just know with those keen senses of yours that another prize can be found nearby?”

He gave rueful chuckle that took in all his smiling friends, Reny now definitely leading their expedition, before he suddenly froze.

Sensing what was wrong.

It wasn’t what he sensed, but the complete lack of it.

The branches were no longer rustling at all. Despite the gentle breeze he sensed trying to tell him something. Something important.

But now there were now absolutely no scents at all.

No rustling leaves that he could hear. No avian chirps or cries of locust or cricket.

And no cry of monkeys whatsoever.

Alex’s eyes widened in alarm. He tried to keep his voice cool and calm. “I think we should head back to the exit right now. Come on.”

Reny furrowed her brow, before paling by whatever she saw in his gaze. “Alex?”

“Come on. No time!”

He caught Linnea’s worried gaze. “Full mind-meld time.”

“Alex? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

And Alex only felt a moment’s lurch of dizziness as suddenly he was a young woman anxious about impressing the too-handsome muscular boy who both terrified and excited her, and who was hiding so many secrets even now from her. But she didn’t care. Her heart didn’t care. She only wanted to be… then her eyes widened as their senses combined. Alex’s affinity for Spirit and Fire Qi meshing so well with a girl born with a ruby’s brilliant affinity for flame.

Flickering points of angry red lit in the shape of jungle cats, wrapped in cloaks of Shadow so thick that no one lacking kitsune blood (wait, kitsune? They died out centuries ago!) could possibly hope to spot them.

Cats even now sniffing air smothered of all noise or sound that would reveal them, so great was their gift. Maws parting in gaping wide grins as teeth flashed, and they gleefully sprung for the unsuspecting prey below.

“Now!” Alex roared, the air flashing with a whirlwind of flame suddenly roaring to life to surround vulnerable cultivators who could see nothing at all as the predators leaped.

Far more clever than even Alex had realized, knowing just where to strike.

The air rang out with Reny’s desperate cry when shadowy claws burst through furious flame to rip open her belly with a single swipe.

For an awful, endless moment Elder Wu and Ya Ling stared stupidly at the sight of Reny collapsing, hands desperately clamping down upon blue-gray entrails spurting from her abdomen as she crumpled with a cry.

And for just a heartbeat, glaring yellow eyes snarled through the fire, eager to snap off the crumpled woman’s head with a single bite.

Then it was gone.

The air was suddenly filled furious yowling of a tiger-sized monster fleeing from the flame that even now lit up its right paw in obliterating retribution as the maimed creature now hobbled away as fast as three intact limbs could take it. It was clear to all that Linnea’s whirling vortex of flame was the only thing that had spared Reny from plunging into the cold eternal waters below.

Yet even now, two other cats were leaping through the air.

Alex felt time slow down to a desperate crawl, at that moment somehow both Linnea holding tight to the maelstrom of fame she could manifest for only so long before she herself would collapse, and the young man desperately cleaving forth with his fangtian ji, now surrounded by a fierce whirlwind howling about the blade at monstrous, flesh cutting speeds.

Yet the cat that had struck Reny had darted back so fast he that had no hope of striking it.

And the second massive panther that tore through Dui Zhong’s lamellar armor with chilling ease, sending the man lurching back with blood and steel plates raining down from his hip was so fast that Alex’s swing had no hope of connecting.

Alex’s heart began to pound as he was forced to appreciate the enormity of their peril.

Somehow, the supposed safest delve in the entire caldera had become a kill zone for the most fearsome pack of Silver Tier Shadow cats he had ever faced. When he was far below a Silver tier’s quickness, and they most definitely were not.

It was only thanks to Linnea’s furiously blazing swirl of ascended flame, and a debt he would gladly pay the forest in blood later as they left burning branches and embers in their wake, that they were even alive, the massive Shadow Panthers choosing only to snipe with swiping claws that were inevitably kissed with flame, as opposed to leaping for their throats in unison and ending this losing battle in one bloody swoop.

“Grandfather! What do we do?” Ya Ling’s desperate words were like molasses in the air as Alex did what he swore he would never do. But if he did nothing… their death was all but guaranteed.

“Linnea! Keep the fire vortex two paces beyond our friends! Head for the exit at a steady pace!”

“Qing Wu, enact Ice Storm around our party. Follow Linnea.”

“Dui Zhong, gather Reny. Follow Qing Wu.”

He had no time for words, just a rush of desperate thoughts that in two cases were far more than pleas. And if Qing Wu’s eyes became slightly glassy as a fierce maelstrom of icy shrapnel howled between Linnea’s barrier and their companions, then that was the burden Alex would bear when it was time to pay his due. Fortunately, Dui Zhong carefully grabbing a thrashing Reny in the height of mortal extremis was well within his capability, because there was no time for even an emergency healing. His friends had to flee for all they were worth, even as furious shadow claws now dared both ice and fire to make his friends bleed. And the sound of Ya Ling’s agonized cry made it clear those monsters had found blood once more.

Alex wanted to howl with fury as Ya Ling gazed stupidly at the spurting stump of her left wrist.

The cats had struck so fast that he had no time to counter.

Their death was now all but assured.

“Ya Ling, clamp left wrist under right arm. Minimize bloodflow to left arm. Follow Linnea.”

As he did what he should have done seconds ago. But had been too terrified to do. Forced to cross a line from which there was no going back. Making a puppet of a girl he could have so easily fallen for. A girl whose fierce spirit, passion, drive, and vitality had touched his heart.

Yet with her crystalline thoughts, thanks to Ruidian traits that could never be expunged from her genome, no matter how powerful a cultivator she became, she was little more than a puppet before his will, thanks to his mother’s ancient gifts and a history he doubted he would ever know. Knowing only that the Ruidians who had fled to this world had done it to escape a race of monsters that absolutely terrified them.

Monsters just like him.

Able to control a Ruidian’s thoughts the moment a link was established. Whether physical, psionic attack, or via interface.

And the most horrifying truth of all was that not even that was enough to save them from the shadow cats that were even now lashing out with fearsomely fast claws a desperate Alex couldn’t respond to fast enough, even when he embraced every remembered lesson, every killing arena he had ever dared before, his fangtiang ji rupturing the earth, the shaft of the weapon propelled to impossible speed and fury as Wind Crane kung fu added devastating momentum to his blows.

Only once did he draw blood, as his skills evolved in darkest peril once more.

You have successfully struck Greater Shadow Panther!

Greater Shadow Panther has suffered Superficial Wound!

You have achieved a breakthrough! You may now harness the force and fury of the winds to aid all your martial strikes!

Wind Crane kung fu has successfully evolved!

The words flashing through his mind meant little compared to the sudden rush of insights flooding him. Feeling the subtle shifts in air pressure, the silent vibrations his shadowy foes could no longer muffle from him. He could now instantly feel the subtle shifts in air pressure against his skin. Which means he knew exactly when his foes were about to spring, desperately twisting and furiously lashing out with his blade when the most powerful thrum of vibration made it clear that at least one Shadow Panther would brave the howling storm of ice and fire to launch for the throat of the only one successfully putting up a fight.

Alex himself.