Lu Na took the key and used her spirit sight to examine it. The last thing she needed was another surprise. This time, reaching for her technique was a lot easier.

The key had only one technique built into it. It was a fairly simple one, but it felt incomplete. There were a few patterns that just stopped and until she saw the door that the key fit into, she wouldn’t know what it did. Would it teleport her like the large device outside of the labyrinth?

“Thank you,” Lu Na said.

“Of course. I want you to succeed, if only for you to come back and save my people,” Jie said.

“How does it work?”

“We don’t know. None of us have ever journeyed to the center of the labyrinth and made it back. If someone solved it without that key, then we wouldn’t be trapped in the labyrinth anymore.”

“Then why are you giving me this key?”

Jie smiled.

“It’s because you might actually have what it takes to reach the center. You think those summoners that followed you into the labyrinth are the most dangerous things here? They won’t survive past the third level.”

Speaking of levels, Lu Na remembered the map. Jie must have been referring to the separate parts that were highlighted.

“Do you know anything else about any other parts of the labyrinth? We only found this area because it was highlighted on the map made by my mother.”

Jie shook her head.

“I know nothing you don’t know. We don’t leave this area ever. Unlike you adventurers, we don’t want to risk our lives. We’re content with living peacefully here, hidden behind secret walls.”

“And you won’t try to stop us from leaving?” Lu Na got up.

“No. So tell your spirit to stop slinking behind me, trying to attack me again. She won’t get another chance like last time.”

Nugua laughed a short distance away from Jie.

“I would not attack you. I don’t want to ruin my nails. I just wanted you to know that I could and that those branches of yours would be nothing for my claws.”

Jie rolled her eyes.

“I shouldn’t have taught you the trick to make you look human.”

“Oh ho ho, that trick wasn’t for me, but for Lu Na.” Nugua appeared right beside Lu Na. She grasped Lu Na by the chin and lifted it up slightly. “Look at this face and this body. She could be considered a beauty if she put on some more makeup, but since she won't, your techniques will allow me to make her more attractive.”

Lu Na pushed Nugua’s hand away.

“I don’t care about any of that.”

“But Na Na, understand. Once we leave this labyrinth, I’ll be stuck with you for a while longer. The last thing I want is for you to marry someone who is ugly. I can’t look at that every night as you sleep next to him. But if I make you prettier, maybe someone as handsome as Zhou Gongjin might take a liking to you. I wouldn’t mind staring at that face for the rest of your life as you sleep.”

Lu Na wanted to slap her spirit. Of course, it was something so stupidly vain.

“You know Nugua, I might just marry someone as ugly or as plain as I can find after this. I’m sure father knows plenty of men like that.”

Nugua hissed.

“You wouldn’t dare. I’ll be sure your mother knows.”

Jie recalled her branches.

“It looks like you two are fine taking it from here. And as another gift, I will get you all the clean water you can carry.”

“It would be great if you also gave us some food, Senior Jie,” Baihu said.

“Since you’re so respectful, I can give you enough food for another day in your travels. That’s all we can spare. I’ll prepare everything for you at the wall.”

Baihu bowed her head.

Jie clapped her hands and disappeared. All the metal walls that surrounded the tea house also retracted. It was dark outside already and only the moonlight shone through the windows.

Had Jie never been there this whole time or did she have a technique that allowed her to teleport? If Lu Na survived this labyrinth, she was definitely coming back to study everything there. Hopefully, her mother would be with her and she wouldn’t have to worry about playing these games with Jie.

Lu Na took out a few of her light wards and placed them around the tea shop. When she was done, she glanced at Baihu. Now that she had a minute to look at her Baihu was a lot larger than the average human.

“You will not attack me or anything are you?”

Baihu smiled, her two sharp canines glinting in the light.

“Silly child. I wouldn’t. Not only are you the prized friend of little Ren here, you’re the only one that can get us out of this labyrinth. Unless, of course, I chose to live with Jie. But that woman is more vain than I am. I don’t think we’d get along very well.”

“That’s good. It’s nice to finally meet you, by the way. You and Sun Ren have saved me more times than I can count. For that, I thank you.” Lu Na cupped her hands and bowed low.

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Baihu chuckled.

“You know, I advised Sun Ren to leave you many times. But you keep surprising me more and more with your little secrets. I only hope that you aren’t leading us to our deaths.”

“I wouldn’t dare. I’m sure that once we save my mother, everything will be fine.”

“Oh child, that will only be the beginning of our troubles,” Nugua said.

Lu Na held back the question in her mind. She could not deal with Nugua’s cryptic messages.

“Do you know how long it will take for them to wake up?” Lu Na asked.

Baihu glanced down at Sun Ren.

“Even with my healing, it will take her a few hours to wake. As for the monk, he will take longer, as his little pup spirit is too immature to help him.”

The five colored pup yelped when he heard that. He walked over and growled at Baihu before returning to Hen Li. All it did was lick the monk’s face while running around him.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to work on a few things.”

Baihu nodded her head and closed her eyes. She placed a hand on Sun Ren’s chest and it glowed white.

“Nugua, what are you going to do?”

“What else? I’m going to stare at the monk until he wakes.” Nugua slithered over to Hen Li and sat beside him.

This was the perfect time for Lu Na to work on a few things they were going to need going deeper into the labyrinth.

First, she cleared the table of everything. The very first thing she needed was to fix her bracelet. Lu Na wasn’t sure when it happened but ever since the bracelet stopped working, she felt defenseless. She had to change that.

Of course, there was also the other problem that slithered in the room. Lu Na realized she had been depending entirely too much on Nugua where her inventions were concerned. She never thought she’d be separated from Nugua until the day she died, but then what about those times her spirit left her like when she fought the Wintersweet Ancestor?

Lu Na can’t depend on anyone, least of all a fickle spirit that was out for herself.

She took out her spirit wand and another smaller tool that helped her etch the patterns onto her bracelet. With a small click, she unlatched her bracelet.

It had only been a short time when she first designed this, but even now Lu Na felt it was not enough. All those machines and devices she saw in this labyrinth sparked uncontrollable inspiration within her.

The first thing she had to do was develop a way for the bracelet to absorb the heat from the spirit energy channeled into it. That was where the small pipe Jie gave her came in.

It was made of null metal but like all its sister pipes, it never overheated. When Lu Na was in that room, she saw with her spirit sight that all the spirit energy was pushed through the pipe but never touched it.

Lu Na lifted the pipe in her hand to look at the inscriptions inside. It was a simple pattern. She was surprised she hadn’t thought about it before. All it did was push spirit energy away from the pipe itself while allowing it to flow through.

She should have known it was possible as her spirit wand pulled spirit energy to it. Why wouldn’t there be one that pushed it away?

It took her a short time to inscribe the pattern on her bracelet. Lu Na put it on and activated the spirit shields. She focused them only on her body so that they wouldn’t flow out or make weird shapes.

The null metal bracelet on her wrist was as cool to the touch as before despite using enough spirit energy that would have normally burned her before.

Now the next thing she had to do was fix how these wards worked without Nugua directing them. Lu Na couldn’t believe how spoiled she was when Nugua did most of the work when activating these wards. Sometimes it felt as if she could see behind her.

Sadly, the only thing she can do is make it so that the wards activate based on some standard shapes that she had in mind. For the earth walls, she needed them mostly to either form in straight walls or sometimes in a dome to cover them all around.

For her spirit walls, she needed two kinds: one that was like a second skin for her, while the other allowed her to project it in front of her to protect others. This one was probably the most difficult, as the spirit walls were mostly invisible.

Last, the only attack she had was the tiger claws technique copied from Sect Leader Wong. This technique was weak from the beginning because while Lu Na copied how it worked, she didn’t have any idea how Sect Leader Wong used his spirit energy to make it more effective. The only difference this time was that now with the bracelet not burning her wrist when she activated it, she could push it with the full power stored inside the bracelet.

Everything took a few hours to fix and improve. At the end, Lu Na also put in a unique pattern that would activate on its own should she ever fall unconscious or threatened. It would activate every defensive mechanism she had on her, even the ones that weren’t attached to the bracelet.

Lu Na yawned when she saw the sunlight come through the windows. She hadn’t worked on her inventions like that ever since they left her home back in Jianye. It felt refreshing, but she knew that this was only the beginning of her long journey. She had many more devices left to make.

Lu Na looked up and saw Sun Ren sleeping on a large nine-tailed fox. When had the spirit changed back into her animal form? Hen Li still had his head down at the table, but his pup finally went to sleep beside him. The spirit was on its back and his legs would kick occasionally.

Lu Na would love to sleep, but it wasn’t the time yet. She had to test out her bracelet or else she wouldn’t feel right.

“Nugua, are you awake?”

Nugua walked over in her human form. Lu Na wasn’t sure if that disturbed her more than her animal form, but she was too tired to care.

“How can I help you, child?” Nugua said.

“I wanted to test my bracelet, but I need someone to watch over my friends. Do you think you can do that?”

“Of course. We need them to survive, so I will do my best. Besides, I still have a few more things I want to change with Jie’s technique.”

Lu Na ignored the comment and walked out of the tea shop. There was no one else outside this early in the morning. Then again, Lu Na wasn’t sure if any of the people she saw earlier were actually people or were they ghosts? Jie had never been too clear about that.

Lu Na walked toward the other side, away from all the buildings. She crossed the point from where there was grass to where only the bare stone of the labyrinth laid on the ground. She walked up to the abandoned buildings on the other side.

Lu Na clenched her left fist and twisted her hand to the left.

An earth wall rose from the ground in front of her, forming a tall and thick wall. She did it again, but this time focused on the shape of the wall.

An earth wall rose to Lu Na’s stomach and no further. It wasn’t as thick as the first. That wasn’t what she was going for, but she had another idea.

Lu Na stepped on the shorter wall and found that it was solid.

“This can be useful.”

Lu Na flicked her wrist again, focusing on a different height for the wall. The next wall was taller than the one she stood on. She flicked her wrist a few more times and earth walls rose from the ground to meet her.

In a short amount of time, Lu Na made stairs for herself. Eventually, she could sit on top of the first earth wall she made that towered over all the other buildings. She glanced down at the steps.

Lu Na waved her hands toward them and all the earth walls crumbled back to the ground, creating a small mound of earth where they all once stood. Now, if she could do this fast enough, she might be safe from any attackers up there.

At least until one threw a fireball or an ice lance at her. But of course, that’s where she would use her other ward. Lu Na clenched her fist and twisted her hand to the right. The spirit wall formed into a spirit skin all around her in an instant.

That’s when she fell.