The supernatural darkness swiftly began to disintegrate, allowing the light from the lanterns to shine through and illuminate the cavern. This revealed Verus standing above the kneeling form of the corpse-like demon, with his blade sticking out of its chest. He’d put his sword right through its core, shattering the essence, and killing it instantly. A demon was still a spirit after all, even if it did have physical body.

Pale-faced, Escora stared with wide eyes. “Oh ancestors. I thought we were going to die. I was sure of it.”

She then collapsed into a sitting position. Her legs giving out beneath her as unexpected relief washed over her, draining the remaining strength from her weary muscles.

Verus stepped back from the demon, letting go of his blade. The fear he’d been suppressing burst forth, causing him to shiver now that the fight was over and his battle focus was withdrawing. He glanced at Escora and then over to where Warin was standing. His friend was still holding his lantern, but he had retreated all the way to the chamber’s entrance.

“What did you do?” Warin asked in awe.

Verus shrugged. He hadn’t really done anything fancy. “I simply stabbed it, and it seems the heavens smiled upon me.”

Coughing, Escora climbed shakily to her feet. She then put on a stoic expression, as if pretending she wasn’t having trouble standing, and studied Verus. “That wasn’t something that luck could save us from. It should have torn three Foundation Realm cultivators like us apart.”

“I really didn’t do anything too fancy. After charging in to save Warin, I thought I heard something move in the dark, so I lashed out with my blade. It seems God and the Archon guided me, because my sword found the demon’s core,” Verus informed his companions before taking a deep breath and leaning back over the body of his slain foe.

He hoped his companions wouldn’t ask questions that he had no answers for. Deceiving them even a little made him feel guilty, but he couldn’t explain what was going on within him. Not yet. Even he didn’t know what was happening with his battle focus.

“What are you doing?” Escora asked as she watched him move.

Verus gave her a look. “I’m seeing if this wretched corpse has anything of value on it.”

Warin gasped. “Are you sure it’s safe? Who knows what demons can do? Perhaps I should put up a ward or something first?”

“I’m quite certain I put a ki-reinforced steel blade right through its core, yes. Thus, it’s very dead,” Verus replied as he studied the rags the demon had been wearing. Most of it looked like garbage, but there was one dirty pouch tucked away in its shirt that was at least intact. He carefully pulled it out and opened it as his companions came over to watch. Inside were twenty-two purple ki shards and a small mirror.

“One purple shard is worth ten red, so that’s over two hundred red shards in there,” Warin announced breathlessly.

Verus took a shard out and studied it. It seemed like he wasn’t going to be short on cultivation resources for a while.

Escora nodded. “Even split three ways, this ought to last disciples like us quite a while. We’ll burn through purple shards like dry grass when we get to higher Realms though.”

That was true. The higher your Realm, the more ki you needed to reach the next, which meant you needed more and more resources. Verus couldn’t imagine being so powerful that he consumed purple shards like they were water, but the sect elders probably did.

Turning his attention away from the shards, Verus studied the mirror. It was the size of his hand, roughly rectangular, and completely without ornament. It didn’t even have a frame. Its edges looked sharp enough to cut. Despite that, it shimmered with a subtle silver light and was obviously not a normal mirror.

“Does anyone know what this is?” Verus asked his companions.

Leaning over, Escora squinted at it. “I’m not an expert, so I could be wrong, but mirrors like this are frequently used to send messages or observe things that are far away. They’re basically small gateways or windows into the enteral plane, so I would be very careful with it.”

“Is that how the demon possessed that poor soul’s body?” Warin asked as he glanced down at the corpse. “Did it come through the mirror?”

Escora shrugged. “Maybe, it’s not like there’s a shortage of spirits around here though.”

A window into the eternal plane… Verus stared at the silver mirror as it reflected the light from the lanterns. He could think of several ways to use that, but it was dangerous without a doubt. Touching upon the eternal could easily drive lower Realm cultivators insane. Even a glimpse could destroy him…

“Do you think the elders will confiscate it?” he asked, lost in thought.

“Probably, but it doesn’t do us much good anyway, and they’ll let us keep the shards,” Escora replied. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of caves and pitch-black darkness to last me forever, and I don’t want to wait around to see what else crawls out of that pit.”

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Neither Warin nor Verus wanted to stick around either, so the three disciples soon made their way out of the cave. The forest was the same as they’d left it. Hot, muggy, and full of shrieking bird calls and buzzing insects. However, it was still a paradise compared to the oppressive darkness of the cave they’d left behind and the things that had dwelled within it. Who knew how deep that pit went.

After their run in with death, the disciples decided to take it easy and find a place to relax and camp for the night, so that’s what they did. They ate, talked about their experiences, and cultivated until night fell. Mostly they cultivated, since neither Verus nor Escora were great conversationalists.

As the sun rose the next morning, they headed out to explore again and look for a water font. They didn’t find one that day, but Verus did detect a powerful source of water the next morning.

Hiking through thick clumps of ferns and bushes, they headed toward it, ready for anything. From experience, they knew that fonts could attract all kinds of troubles, from rival disciples to soul beasts.

As they moved, the roar of rushing water grew louder. Eventually, they descended down a tree covered hill and found themselves looking at waterfall. The water raced over a tall cliff and steamed down into a large pool of crystal-clear water that was circular and about twenty feet across. The pool was surrounded by cliffs on three sides and had a rocky bottom. The fast-moving water must have washed all the soil down the stream that led out of the pool.

Escora grinned as she took in the sight. “This is definitely the type of water font I was looking for!”

“Does it have a guardian?” Warin asked nervously as the three disciples carefully approached the water.

“There, l see a gold flash in the water,” she replied as she raised a hand to point.

Warin flinched. “A spirit?”

Verus studied the shape in the water and frowned. “Is that a koi fish?”

“I think it is. It’s a soul fish,” Escora replied with a laugh.

The fish was about five feet long and its scales shone gold. Its long delicate fins streamed behind it as it swam over to watch the humans approaching the edge of its pool with large intelligent eyes. The koi didn’t seem too afraid of them or hostile either. After looking them over for a few seconds, it turned away and began swimming around its pool again.

“I wonder if we can catch it and eat it?” Escora mused aloud. “Soul beast meat is a great cultivation aid.”

“Let’s not start a fight with one of the few things in this forest that doesn’t seem to want to kill us yet,” Warin told her. “Let’s just leave nature alone please.”

Escora sighed. “It’s not even a native fish. You imperials brought koi with you to this world.”

“We already have more resources than we know what to do with. Let’s not waste time. We came here to cultivate,” Verus pointed out.

Escora sighed again but didn’t argue. Instead, she sat down on a large flat rock at the edge of the water and began to meditate. Warin and Verus took turns on watch and set up their camp while she cultivated. Breaking through to the Tempered Realm would probably take her a few days at least.

Indeed, Escora meditated for the rest of the day without advancing.

“I can feel the nature of water ki all around me here,” she explained as they were eating supper that night. “The flow of water as it rushes through the air is revealing itself to me. I know I can use that as my enlightenment, but it’s going to take time, and I still need to absorb some more ki before I’m ready to advance anyway. My core isn’t quite powerful enough yet.”

When Escora began meditating again the next day, Verus couldn’t help but throw her a jealous look. She had everything she needed to reach the Tempered Realm, while he was lacking both a strong attunement and a proper cultivation technique. Even if his core grew powerful enough, he wouldn’t be able to ascend until he’d reworked the essence in his core using a real cultivation technique. The only one he had was the Way of Imperial Might but using that would doubtless result in him joining the army and forever put him on the path of mediocrity since his attunement to human ki was below average.

Verus’s thoughts turned to the silver mirror, but he quickly forced himself to focus on something more practical. When it was Warin’s turn at sentry duty, he found his own spot to cultivate at. That grew frustrating sometimes, so he worked through sword routines when he couldn’t stand it any longer. Having a weapon in hand relaxed him. He was gaining a real affection for swords, although he had no idea why. Perhaps all the danger he’d been in had simply shown him how valuable having a real weapon was.

Over the next few days, Verus’s progress at cultivating ki grew even slower. He was approaching the maximum amount his core could hold while still in the Foundation Realm. Trying to add more essence to his core while keeping the entire thing stable grew next to impossible.

“I need to ascend…” Verus hissed in frustration as he jumped up from his mediation pose and turned to glare at the forest.

It would be so easy to use the Way of Imperial Might to reach the next level. He already had a core made from human ki, all he’d need to do was reshape it using the cultivation technique, and that would carry him right to the Tempered Realm.

Logically, he knew why he shouldn’t do that, but not being able to ascend was still extremely frustrating. Escora and most of the other disciples were getting ahead of him. He had the talent and drive to surpass them, but his lack of attunement was holding him back! It was so unfair. No one worked harder than him. If only everything in the sect wasn’t rigged against him…

Taking a deep breath, Verus quashed his feeling of envy and pride. They were distractions and unbefitting of an ascetic. He needed to focus on what was, not what he wished the world to be. The physical plane would always disappoint. That was its very nature. Only by rising above it could you gain enlightenment.

Warin was out in the forest on sentry duty at the moment, so Verus took out the pouch he’d gotten from the demon’s corpse and looked in it again. His eyes quickly locked on the silver mirror, and a moment later he pulled it out. It was cool and unusually heavy in his hands.

Simply touching the artifact didn’t suck his soul of his body and throw it into the eternal plane, which was good. Sitting down on a rock, Verus gazed down at the mirror and examined his own reflection. With Warin’s help, he’d kept up his personal grooming in the forest, and his head was still neatly shaved, but he still looked a little worse for wear. He was dirty and he thought his eyes had a harder look to them now. Like he’d seen things beyond what normal people or sheltered temple wards had. Verus liked what he saw, it reminded him of an elder.

The mirror could do far more than show Verus his reflection though. If he was brave enough, it might even be the answer to all his problems.