Lu Na tried to reach into her chest pocket, but Yang Deli squeezed.

“No, none of that. We don’t need to play hide and seek with your inventions again. Stay still and this will be over soon.”

“You don’t have to do this. We can work together. If you kill my friends, I promise to kill you,” Lu Na said.

“Such a brave little mouse with very scary words. You have never hurt a fly. I can tell from just one glance.”

The bandits that surrounded Sun Ren and Hen Li hadn’t attacked yet. They were waiting for the larger group of men to make it over.

Lu Na had an idea, but she would not like it. Her bracelet was easily within reach. All she had to do was tap them with her free hand and hoped that Nugua was awake to help her. Otherwise, the results would vary wildly.

The biggest concern for her was the leather she used to protect from the burning null metal. If she activated the wards now, it would burn her wrist.

“You’re lucky that I’m not a true summoner. Otherwise my spirit would rip you limb from limb,” Lu Na said.

“Woman, you better stop talking or else I’ll feed you to my men. They haven’t been home to see their family for years. I’m sure after a night or two, you will be more pliant to my demands.”

“You’re a monster just like my spirit.”

“You can thank your emperor for that. Did you know I used to be a captain in his northern brigade? Once the money ran out, we were told to go home on our own. Then of course the famines and the natural disasters struck one after another. I’m only doing what I can to survive.”

“My spirit, Nugua, says the same thing. She’s only using me to get what she wants. She’s a terrible spirit to bond with.”

“What? Stop bad mouthing me already. I’m up,” Nugua said.

Just in time, as the bandits closed in on Sun Ren and Hen Li.

“I did it for my family and my men. The treasure we seek is to feed them. Not for glory,” Yang Deli said.

“But the way you’re doing it is despicable.” Lu Na reached over to her left wrist and tapped all the wards at once.

Instead of a spirit skin forming around Lu Na, a stone skin formed instead. It first sprouted from her feet, but quickly covered her entire body and encased her in stone. Because of the weight, Lu Na fell backwards onto Yang Deli.

When they both hit the ground, the earth skin shattered, freeing Lu Na. She rolled over as fast as she could and a large earth wall sprouted up behind her. With every use of her wards, her wrist got a little hotter. She rolled her sleeve up and shook her hand as much as she could to cool it.

Seconds later, a large ibex with green stripes smashed through the earth wall. Yang Deli was not far behind it.

Lu Na sprinted toward Sun Ren and Hen Li, but stopped.

Hen Li had summoned Panhu, his five colored hound spirit. Its face turned into the bone-mouth dog. With a loud growl, it pounced on the bandits.

Sun Ren disappeared into the form of a white fox pup diving in between the bandits’ legs. She appeared briefly in a flash of black as she slashed the bandits.

Lu Na ran again, but this time toward the labyrinth. She wished she had more time to study the patterns more and test what happened, but she didn’t have the luxury anymore. She wracked her brain as hard as she could to think of where it would send her.

Before the bandits came, she saw a pattern was emerging. The different blinking lights were showing specific locations that they sent them. But without actually being inside and scouting the area, there was no way to determine where they would end up. What if they ended up in a pit or something worse?

Her bracelet burned so much that she finally had to take it off. She turned around to see Nugua had erected a maze of earth walls behind her, forcing Yang Deli to either run around or bowl through them. However, he stopped when he realized some walls were reinforced with spirit walls as well. That scrambled his ibex spirit.

“You better hurry. That’s all I can do without burning up your bracelet,” Nugua said. She sounded like she was far away. She must have nearly exhausted herself again.

“I’m trying to think, but I do not know where any of it would send us. I don’t want to get us killed.” Lu Na went to take out another piece of paper, but saw a red glow within her chest pocket. She pulled out her silver phoenix hairpin. “Why is this acting up again? I pressed nothing.”

The phoenix was blinking with different lights. When Lu Na lifted it to the labyrinth’s platform, it was making the same pattern. Except the phoenix would blink blue from time to time.

Lu Na saw a panel of different characters from the Xia era and couldn’t read any of it. Qin Shihuang might have been one of the cruelest emperors, but at least he unified the writing system and made it simpler. The old Xia characters were too confusing. But she recognized them when she lifted her phoenix hairpin. It was telling her to press these specific symbols in a specific order.

“Sun Ren! Hen Li! I think I have a way in. Come quick.” Lu Na didn’t wait to see if they were coming before she punched in the combination. Yang Deli was going over the walls now by riding on his ibex and jumping. That was cheating!

The platform below her stopped blinking with the unique patterns and began glowing white. Something was happening. Lu Na used her technique to look at what, but all she could see was one gigantic piece of the platform moving into the other, connecting right below her.

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Lu Na looked up to see Yang Deli charging toward her on his ibex spirit. Its wicked horns pointed right at her. She guessed he would not take her hostage this time. But she was done playing the hostage, anyway.

Lu Na took out her slingshot and shot three tiger claw techniques at Yang Deli. Three large claws shot forth, cutting through the air. The ibex took it on the horns and kept charging.

Time to change tactics. Lu Na took out a spirit wall ward and an earth wall ward. She activated them one in front of the other. Next she took out a light ward and set it to the maximum setting.

Lu Na knew from experience anyone staring into it when it went off would go blind temporarily. But the problem was, the flash would only last a few seconds before it burned out. She was still working on a way to get it to keep shining longer, but that was a future project.

Next Lu Na took out an earth wall ward powered by null metal.

“Nugua, can you make a dome just outside of the platform?”

“Of course,” Nugua said.

Lu Na activated the earth wall ward and placed it on the floor. A round dome came up from the ground. Lu Na placed the light ward on top of the dome.

“Make it so that when he hits the dome, it goes off. It should buy us a little more time.”

Lu Na then walked over to a glowing section of the platform. It was glowing blue now, just like her silver phoenix hairpin. When she stepped on, a voice came out. It was in a language that was like what she was speaking, but definitely different. She only recognized a few of the words and she doubted they meant the same thing.

Lu Na made a quick turn to look at Sun Ren and Hen Li. They were both rushing toward the platform she stood on. The only issue though was that there were so many bandits right behind them.

The platform began glowing green. The voice was saying something else now that sounded like numbers. It was counting down.

The moment Yang Deli’s ibex spirit rammed into the earth dome, the light ward activated. It became so bright that anyone could have seen it from many li away. Yang Deli cried out as it struck him in the eyes.

Unfortunately, the ibex was unaffected. It kept charging toward Lu Na, regardless.

“Come on guys, hurry!” The last thing Lu Na wanted was for the platform to activate with Yang Deli standing on it with her. She wasn’t sure if it would activate again the same way for Sun Ren and Hen Li. She would be a prisoner of his.

Lu Na heard what sounded like “two” just as Hen Li tripped over a rock. Sun Ren picked him up in her arms and half carried him to the platform.

When they both stepped onto the platform, Lu Na shouted, “Go!”

The platform seemed like it understood and the whole world went black for a second. The next second, the world turned brighter. Soon after, all Lu Na could smell was a musty dampness in the air. It was almost as if she was in a bathhouse.

It took a few moments to adjust. When Lu Na looked at the sky, she saw a ceiling instead. But this wasn’t any normal ceiling. It had a mini-sun inside. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at.

“Nugua, do you know what’s going on?” Lu Na asked.

No answer. The only thing Lu Na could feel was overwhelming exhaustion and then nothing like she disappeared. She doubted she could push her anymore without her breaking. The last thing Lu Na needed was a spirit that couldn’t help her form her wards.

“I think that’s a sun powered by spirit energy,” Hen Li said. “I have heard of stories that some emperors of old had trained really strong summoners to create their own weather. Maybe there was some truth in those legends.”

Sun Ren collapsed onto the ground, taking deep breaths.

“Whatever it is, at least we’re not surrounded by bandits again.” Sun Ren laid back onto the ground, drinking from her waterskin. “You’d think that these bandits would learn from the last time we faced them. How many more of them do I have to kill before they get it?”

“Amituofo, we shouldn’t be so hasty in killing,” Hen Li said.

“We shouldn’t be killing at all,” Lu Na said.

Sun Ren sat up.

“I couldn’t kill anymore after what that ghost showed me. But if they pushed me, I wouldn’t hesitate.”

Lu Na nodded and sat down beside Sun Ren.

“Let’s take a break here for a few minutes and then see where we can go.”

The place they were in had a few buildings in front of them, all made of packed earth. There was no color at all anywhere. Everything was a drab beige. If Lu Na had to guess, the closest thing she could think of was that time they stopped in the alleyway after running away from the Wintersweet Sect.

“Take out the phoenix hairpin and see what it does,” Sun Ren said.

Lu Na took it out and it glowed bright red all over. With a simple tap on its head, a large map popped up like a moving image. It reminded her a bit of Sun Wukong’s scroll of immortality. Maybe they used the same type of techniques, except her hairpin was projecting light. It seemed a little more advanced.

The map showed all the sections of the labyrinth and a direct route they could take toward the center. There were a lot of red dots close to where they were. When Lu Na focused on that section, it expanded into a larger square. Apparently, there were many more red dots, but they were much farther than she expected.

“These must be the people who came in here,” Sun Ren said. “The hairpin is also kind enough to show us a direct path to the secret in the middle. I think we should follow it and worry about the red dots later. If we can see them, we can avoid them, right?”

“That would be the case if the hairpin was going to last any longer,” a female voice came from behind them.

As one, all three turned to look. Right before them was a half woman, half snake wearing expensive jade beads that draped over her front over an expensive silk robe. Her claws were the size of Lu Na’s fingers. Her snake half was as black as ink.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” the naga asked.

Both Hen Li and Sun Ren clenched their left fists, but nothing happened. No spirit showed up.

Without missing a beat, Lu Na threw up her earth wall ward in front of them and then a spirit wall right behind it. But it didn’t materialize the way she was hoping. A simple earth wall, thin and short sprouted up in front of them while the spirit wall became more of a spirit floor. The invisible barrier spread out on the ground like a puddle until it touched the earth wall and then went around it instead.

“What is going on Nugua? I know you’re tired, but I need you now,” Lu Na said.

The naga laughed, in a hissing way.

Sun Ren unsheathed her sword and Hen Li held his staff in a defensive position.

“Don’t you recognize your own spirit, Na Na?” the naga said.

Lu Na stared at the naga and recognized the jade beads. They were the same ones that swung when she grabbed Lu Na by the neck and threatened her life. This was the spirit she’s seen in the spirit realm every time she was pulled in.

“You’re Nugua?”

Nugua did her best to mimic Lu Na’s curtsy despite having a snake’s torso for legs.

“It’s me and I’ve missed this feeling.” Nugua stretched her arms up into the sky and bent backwards. All the beads jingled against each other. “I am so hungry.”

Nugua looked at the trio with a smile, showing off her sharp and deadly fangs.