Lu Na hated when Sun Ren was right. They were being followed and it didn’t take long before they saw the familiar dark blue tunics of the senior Wintersweet Sect disciples. Two elders of the sect, dressed in dark purple, led them. Luckily, they were still at a distance, but they were no longer hiding.

“How did they find us?” Lu Na asked. She rode atop Panhu, Hen Li’s spirit. It was like riding on a fast horse, wrapped in a rainbow. Apparently, the hound spirit’s five colors shimmered in spirit energy all around it as it moved.

“Somebody in the Lu compound must be spying for them,” Sun Ren said. She was jogging alongside the spirit. “In either case, we’ll lose them in the forest. But stay close. There have been reports of people being lost within.”

Hen Li was the one that had the greatest burden. He carried all their packs as he kept up with them. Yet the brawny monk didn’t look tired at all.

Up ahead was the mythical forest that they mentioned before. The trees were thick and the branches reached to the sky. Despite it being late afternoon with the sun ahead of them to the west, the forest floor itself was dark.

“I don’t like the look of that forest,” Nugua said.

“Do you have an alternative, Nugua?” Lu Na asked.

“No, but it’s reminding me of something. Tell Sun Ren to go through it as fast as she can.”

“Amituofo, it will be fine spirit,” Hen Li said.

“Well, if brawny monk says so, then I’ll believe him.”

Lu Na groaned. She thought after bonding with Nugua she might take up more of her traits and be more decent minded. That’s what both Sun Ren and Hen Li said. Their spirits adapted to their personalities. But Lu Na felt she was the one getting the mixed feelings whenever Nugua said anything indecent.

When they entered the forest, something tickled the back of Lu Na’s neck. She rubbed her neck to find nothing there. The dark forest created shadows everywhere. The only odd thing to Lu Na was that she didn’t hear any animals. Through their travel so far, she’s heard birds flitting everywhere and the occasional roar from a bear or tiger off in the distance. But here it was silent.

“Don’t worry about that,” Sun Ren said. “You’ll get used to the feeling. We’ve crossed the border and entered the Forest of the Spirits. We’ll get out of it soon enough.”

“Amituofo. It’s the concentrated spirit energy from the feral spirits that makes you feel that way,” Hen Li said.

Spirit energy? The closest thing to this feeling was when she was in the Wintersweet Sect. That place was swimming in it, yet it didn’t feel so suffocating.

“Nugua, can I use your spirit energy technique?” Lu Na asked.

“I wouldn’t suggest doing it for longer than a few seconds. Otherwise you’ll go blind,” Nugua said.

Lu Na reached for Nugua’s technique. The entire forest lit up with bright colors. This time, she turned it down herself after learning how from Nugua. It was beautiful. She saw colors swirling all around her that mixed with Panhu’s own colors. She saw the trees soaking up the spirit energy and watched as it swirled all around. It was a very pleasant sight.

Until she saw the large bear spirit right in front of them. It was as tall as the tallest trees, but it was lying on its stomach with its mouth open.

“Stop!” Lu Na yelled.

Hen Li and Sun Ren stopped their jog.

But Lu Na wasn’t stopping. Panhu kept pushing forward.

“Hen Li, make him stop!” Lu Na grabbed onto the spirit as it ran faster toward the large bear spirit’s mouth. But wait, maybe she should let go instead?

Before she completed her thought, Panhu disappeared below her. Lu Na pitched forward into the dirt. She shrunk as much as she could, protecting her head as she rolled forward. It took a while to stop and all she could feel were the rocks that she had the misfortune of meeting with her body.

A large drop of water hit her back, completely soaking her tunic.

Lu Na looked up to see the colossal bear’s mouth coming down upon her. Not again, not again! She spent enough time in the Wintersweet Ancestor’s mouth. She didn’t need to spend any more time in another spirit’s mouth or worse, their stomach.

Lu Na pushed herself up and made a mad dash away from the bear’s mouth. It was just outside the bear’s reach as it chomped down on air. She crawled away on her hands and knees, pulling herself as hard as she could on the same rocks she rolled over and the tree branches in her reach.

The bear spirit made the first sound she had heard in the forest. It was a low grumble and the grinding of teeth. It opened its mouth again and shifted toward Lu Na.

Lu Na flipped herself over and took out a spirit wall ward. She tugged the string and threw it in front of her. A spirit wall sprang up in front of her. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Except the wall didn’t expand as she programmed it to. Instead of making a long wall that would have blocked the bear spirit’s face, it was only the size of a kite.

“Nugua, what did you do? Why is it so small?” Lu Na asked.

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The bear spirit didn’t allow a response as it thrust its face at Lu Na. It collided with the spirit wall, stopping it right at the nose. It didn’t last long as the spirit wall cracked and then collapsed.

Lu Na took out two more spirit walls and activated them. These two used the null metal as batteries to power them. One of them created the same kite size wall that pushed against the bear spirit’s nose, stopping it without breaking. The other created a wider wall around Lu Na.

The bear spirit’s claws crashed into it a second later, shifting the entire ground and pushing Lu Na back.

Before the bear could strike Lu Na again, Hen Li stopped it with his staff.

“Amituofo, great bear spirit, please stop,” Hen Li said.

The bear spirit pulled its paws back and sat back on its haunches.

“Intruders, how dare you enter the Forest of the Spirits.” Its voice was deeper than anything Lu Na ever heard before. “Leave.”

“Amituofo, I apologize for intruding. We were just passing through. If you let us pass, we will be out of the forest as quickly as we can.”

Sun Ren tried to help Lu Na up, but she couldn’t move her. So instead, she sat her against a tree.

“Is anything broken?” Sun Ren asked.

Lu Na closed her eyes and did a quick inventory of her body. She wiggled her toes and lifted her legs up a little, but her hips stung too much to move it. Her arms felt fine though, although she knew they were going to be bruised. Nothing wrong with her chest or stomach.

“I don’t think so,” Lu Na said. “But my hips hurt too much to move right now.”

“Drink this.” Sun Ren took out a small bottle.

Lu Na opened the top and a strong herbal smell came out. It smelled a little sour. When she drank it, she almost gagged. It didn’t just smell sour, but tasted like badly fermented fruit. She held her breath and drank the whole thing.

“That’s some spiritual medicine that should allow your spirit to help you heal. When you can, we’re going to have to run. That bear spirit will kill us if we don’t. Got it?”

“I’ll try,” Lu Na said.

“If not, use your spirit walls to stall it as much as they can. Hopefully, the monk can protect us.”

Hen Li was still bargaining with the large bear spirit. It would have been comical to watch as he argued with a bear the size of a small mountain if the bear didn’t look angrier as it spoke with him. Its paws were easily taller than Hen Li.

Lu Na felt a trembling within her own spirit realm.

“That was close. Sun Ren’s medicine is allowing me to fix your biggest problems. You will walk in a few minutes. You were lucky.”

“What happened to my spirit wall Nugua? I thought I made it to expand around me.”

“I had to change it because the bear was too powerful for your ward. If I didn’t focus it the way I did, it would have torn you in half.”

Lu Na felt the trembling again. She placed her hand on her chest.

“Thank you Nugua, for saving me again.”

“I can’t let you die now that we’re so close to your mother.”

Lu Na wasn’t so sure this trip was worth it. She almost died. But she was already on the path. There was no going back now unless she wanted to give up her secrets to the Wintersweet Sect. That would never happen.

“Get up,” Sun Ren said. She pulled Lu Na behind the tree.

A large bear's paw dug the ground where the two ladies were standing.

“Amituofo, please. I don’t want to kill you. It’s against my path,” Hen Li said.

“Then let me eat you then,” the bear spirit growled.

“Amituofo, while I appreciate the parable of Buddha and the eagle, I have another obligation. So I’m sorry, but I—”

The large bear spirit slammed both fists on Hen Li. A large dirt cloud shot up from the impact.

“Run, the monk is dead.” Sun Ren grabbed Lu Na’s hand.

“Wait,” Lu Na said. Despite the cloud, she could see Hen Li’s spirit energy stronger than before through her technique.

Panhu, Hen Li’s five colored hound, stopped the bear spirit’s attack with its head. The puppy head had turned into the fierce head of a bone-mouth dog. With a push forward, the bear spirit was pushed back.

“Panhu, make sure he can’t hurt anyone again,” Hen Li said.

The bear spirit roared, but before it finished, Panhu charged it with a headbutt. The bear toppled over backwards, breaking large, thick trees like snapping chopsticks.

Panhu surged forward into the bear’s flank.

Hen Li held his staff up. A swirl of green energy surrounded him.

“Now that’s a summoner. Not only is his spirit strong, his brawny body is stronger,” Nugua said.

“Maybe one day I can do that too?” Lu Na said.

Nugua laughed.

“I’m sorry Na Na,” Sun Ren said. “I don’t think anyone can do that unless you were born with boundless talent and unlimited resources from a summoner sect. Besides, your strengths don’t lie in raw power like that monk.”

The bear spirit got up and knocked Panhu away like a puppy. It roared and charged Hen Li. The entire ground shook with every step.

Lu Na took out her spirit wall and activated it. She set one up in front of herself and Sun Ren. Then she did the same with an earth wall. She was still trying to figure out how to put two wards together at once. It would have saved her a bit of time, but with the addition of the null metal it made it more complicated. The different spirit energy they needed interfered with each other.

The ground stopped shaking, but another dirt cloud shot up. This time, it splashed against Lu Na’s walls. Nothing made it past.

“Ladies, you can come out now,” Hen Li said.

Lu Na turned off the wards and picked them up. The one upgrade she made was the ability to turn them off and reuse them. She didn’t have all the time in the world to keep making them, especially while traveling. Uncle Chen wasn’t too happy about that, as he wouldn’t be able to sell more.

But he did charge more for the new feature.

The large bear spirit had shrunk down into the size of a regular bear. It was nursing its bloody paws.

“Amituofo, since you are a thinking spirit, then understand I don’t wish you any harm. But you should rethink your ways. You should drop the killing knife and seek penance.”

The bear spat blood onto the ground.

“You Buddhists can believe whatever you want, but know that there is nothing after this life. That’s why I must eat whatever spirits to live.”

“Amituofo. It is not the goal of a Buddhist to live forever, but to seek enlightenment.”

“Maybe we can save the Buddhist dharma for someone that can be saved,” Sun Ren said. “Tell us bear spirit, which way do we go to get out of this forest? It doesn’t look like anything on the maps.”

The bear spirit laughed.

“You stupid humans always think you can map everything and be the master of it all. But you or your technology are no match for the power of the spirits. If you entered this forest and found me, then you are being fooled by the spirits of the forest. Somebody in here wants you to be eaten. If not by me, then by some other spirit. Now leave me alone or feed me!”

“Amituofo, we thank you for your guidance,” Hen Li bowed toward the bear.