The fountain was at the almost exact center of the spirit formation, although off by a few steps. The body of the fountain which seemed made of stone was stain by fresh blood.
Something was wrong there, Shin Sumi knew it. All around the stone build of the three leveled fountain were small pedestals very similar to those around the main statues that could be seen on the outer edge of the room.
They protruded by a meter or so and were perfectly placed around the fountain, which made them also not centered when taking the entire room into account.
Before she had seen the blood, Shin Sumi hadn't paid attention to that at all, focused as she was on the history of the place and the stories it told.
Now though it was different.
"That fountain and the stones around it are not part of the room. They were added much later. The ground is also covered in less dust and rubble."
Without another word, Shin Sumi took out her Gold Tyrant Flying Sword. The thin blade shone a golden light around her and seemed humming for battle.
Holding it in her small hand, Shin Sumi felt powerful like never before. After undergoing repeated refining with pure sources of Shinsoo, the weapon's quality had improved by a lot, and small intertwined vein like lines could be seen running along the base of the blade.
But Shin Sumi hadn't taken it out just for the sake of marveling at it's elegance and strength.
Standing about ten steps away from the row of off-center pedestals, Shin Sumi aimed at the fountain itself and let go of her sword.
Brute forcing it, she had put a lot of power into the sword, which spun at great speed and whistles through the air. Shin Sumi's arm was still finishing the motion when the tip of the sword penetrated the stone of the second level of the fountain.
The way she had thrown the sword, the power she had put into it and the point she had aimed at, the fountain should have almost exploded into thousand of pieces but it did not.
The second level of the fountain was cut clean off like it had been made of butter.
Immediately a shower of blood started raining from the severed fountain. Even more impressive, the fountain itself trembled and started... wiggling?
The row of pedestals sunk into the earth, followed by the fountain, all the while a roar echoed from below.
As it turned out, the fountain was only the tongue of a gigantic worm type creature, using its appearance to bait people to get closer, until they were inside the pedestal circle. By this point Shin Sumi had guessed that the array of stones were in fact teeth only waiting to crush everything that got close enough.
Shin Sumi was surprised, but not unprepared. She had somehow felt that something like that was about to happen, although she hadn't thought that her sword would find its way to the other side of the room after breaking the fountain.
"Oh no, I need to get it before that thing gets away or attacks!"
But it was too late. The tongue and the teeth had disappeared in the ground, leaving only a wide crater the size of a small house.
The ground was rumbling furiously under Shin Sumi's feet. Her sword was a dozen meters ahead, on the other side of the crater.
It was a very small distance, the likes of which she could cover in less than a second. She was halfway there when the earth split open under her feet, prompting her to jump vertically at the last moment.
Shin Sumi had only one thought "If only I could get my hand on my sword" before she felt a call from inside her.
It all happened in the span of time it takes to blink, and Shin Sumi naturally answered the call.
The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was saying something to her. Shin Sumi uttered one word mentally.
"Return!"
And the sword moved. Flying back to her hand faster than lightning, Shin Sumi held it firmly by the time she landed right besides the huge worm who just reached the apex of its attack.
The stone teeth closed in the air, grinding everything that was in the mouth, rocks, tiles and soil to dust. The teeth produced a deafening noise that was horrible in the ears.
As the creature fell back down, intending on hiding under the earth until the next attack, Shin Sumi spun on herself, sword in hand.
Hacking with all the speed and strength she could muster, Shin Sumi cleaved into two the giant worm.
A second cut parted what remained in the air. Then a third slice, and a fourth, all the way to eight slices.
The worm was defeated but would never know how. Like a vegetable prepared for a soup, the giant worm had been cut into evenly spaced slices.
A pond of blood filled the crater that remained in place. After breathing in relief for a bit, Shin Sumi's face was distorted by disgust as she plunged her arm into the remains of the worm.
An orange core was retrieved and given to the little nut. The fight was over.
"It was only an orange level beast? I guess it was pretty easy to cut down" she thought.
What intrigued Shin Sumi more though was her sword.
What had happened? How did the sword come back to her hand? Did it ask her?
The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was, as the name stated, a flying sword. It was part of a type of magical weapon that could be controlled at a distance by the user.
But as far as Shin Sumi's knowledge went on these matters, only Liquid Realm cultivators and above could accomplish such a feat.
"Has the sword already reached such a level?" she pondered.
Experimenting a bit, Shin Sumi found that she couldn't control the sword in the air, but she only had to give it a word through divine sense for it to return to her hand immediately.
Unknowingly, the bond that had formed between her and the weapon had been strengthened by their shared cultivation of the Veins of Hell Fire.
"That will surely come in handy in case of sneak attacks like that!" she said excitedly.
Every day now she found herself with renewed power and strength beyond her wildest imagination! To think that when she had arrived to the Dark Sky Starry Sect she was completely talentless and weak...
Now Shin Sumi had the power to protect herself and her friends, for sure.
If she could find them. She was, after all, lost in a giant underground maze where anything could potentially attack her from anywhere.
Shin Sumi was about to leave the plaza through one of the many entrances when she realized that the little grey nut wasn't anywhere on her body.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The glowing leaf symbol on her wrist clearly showed that the nut was outside, too.
Turning around, Shin Sumi found it next to the hole where the worm had transformed into a puddle of dark blood. Something of interest was there, that's what the nut was saying.
After all, it made sense because even if it was easy to forget about it, the point of this place was to provide a trial for the Rising Star Tournament.
Werever a powerful foe could be found, it was logical to have at least a simple treasure like a weapon for example.
Her face torn by disgust, Shin Sumi reached into the blood to where the little nut was indicating.
Shin Sumi took out a weirdly shaped object in blood colored wrapping.
Discarding the disgusting cover, Shin Sumi retrieved something that looked like a curved blade, the kind that draws strange arcs in the air when thrown.
The weapon was nothing impressive, and just a glance and a sliver of Shinsoo were enough to confirm that it was a low level artefact that probably wouldn't be useful for Shin Sumi.
But almost as soon as she had uncovered the blade, the little nut reacted strangely, not bothering with the weapon at all, instead turning to roll around the blood clad wrapping.
"... really?" sighed Shin Sumi, picking up what seemed to be hardened cloth... or parchment?
Using a bit of Shinsoo to magically remove the blood from the thing in her hand, Shin Sumi's eyes almost gained stars when she saw glowing lines appearing on the ancient-looking scroll.
"It's a cultivation technique for the Liquid Realm! Now that is worth something!"
In comparison to the useless strange blade, the scroll held a lot more potential in the eyes of any disciple.
Cultivation techniques were not uncommon, but they varied a lot depending on their grade and the use of a lesser technique could sometimes lead to reduced speed of cultivation or even blockages.
Usually the more potent techniques were only given to a disciple by their direct Master.
Of course common techniques were provided for any Liquid Realm Disciple, coming from the sect's base of knowledge. More techniques for specific cultivation purposes could also be purchased from the sect for copious amounts of spirit stones.
"With that I will be able to start cultivating towards the Core Development Realm straight away whenever I cross over to the Liquid Realm!"
Once again Shin Sumi thanked the little grey nut. What was even more important than finding a good technique was that the nut would refine it until it had achieved an even better grade!
Shin Sumi allowed the nut to dispose of the parchment, knowing that soon it would be enhanced and visible on one of the pages of the tree bark covered book that was secretly hidden by the nut.
The same thing had happened for the Shinsoo Gathering Manual and the Yin Aperture Shinsoo Awakening, and it had literally changed Shin Sumi's cultivation.
With a great mood, Shin Sumi finally excited the plaza. She was so happy and proud that she almost wished to encounter a lot more perilous situations as every time she seemed to uncover a great deal of treasures and opportunities.
But something was far more important than being greedy to her at the moment, and that was to find Lan Hui and Bai Xuengen.
***
The two young men had been chased for weeks now, Chu Erlong relentlessly following them through the depth of the earth.
Lan Hui was exhausted, but overall in a better shape than before. With his slow but repeated use of Shinsoo from his own reserve and spirit stones, the wound on his hand had stopped hurting.
That was something he could deal with back at the sect after the trial. It was a well known fact in the cultivation world that an injury to this degree, losing a few fingers, was not irreversible. Provided with the good kind of spirit medicine, even that could be mended.
But everything came at a cost. In order to protect Lan Hui, Bai Xuengen had fought against the waves of attacks that had been thrown at them.
The yellow robed man suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood on the floor. With a feverish look in his eyes, he looked at the hand in which the blood had fallen.
From the back of his hand all the way to the middle of his upper arm, a black trail that seemed to be releasing a dark and nefarious smoke covered his skin, like a tribal tattoo of some kind.
From the moment it had appeared, Bai Xuengen had successfully guessed what it was, considering Chu Erlong's background.
"The Black Cloud Curse... Is it acting up again?"
It was Lan Hui's voice that had spoken, breaking the tensed silence that weighed the atmosphere.
"Yeah. But now I'm fine again. Chu Erlong is going to attack again soon. If this goes on, we won't be able to last another forty eight hours."
The Black Cloud Curse was a famed divine art proper to the Chu Clan from which Chu Erlong came. It made sense that as talented as she was, she would have the full support of her clan in order for her to make full use of the Rising Star Tournament.
The Chu Clan had existed for a long amount of time, and had been working tightly with the Dark Sky Starry Sect almost since the sect split from the Sky Sect. As a result, the current leader of the Chu Clan, Chu Xuanba had even risen to the point of being appointed as the Great Elder of the sect.
As such, Chu Erlong had access to resources from the sect but also from her clan, like the Black Cloud Curse.
For a honorary disciple not having reached the Liquid Realm it would have been nearly impossible to gather up the Shinsoo necessary to use the Black Cloud Curse, but Chu Erlong obviously had in her possession more techniques and artefacts from her clan.
That was also the reason she could relentlessly launch wave after wave against Bai Xuengen and Lan Hui.
Apart from her followers of always like Fan Jue and Liu Qing, her massive force of a dozen or so disciples from red to orange robes could be explained by her influence due to her clan.
Which disciple, which nobody wouldn't follow her for a prospect of entering the famed Chu Clan or a promise of clan resources?
For someone like Chu Erlong, gathering enough people to serve her and accomplish her malevolent plan had been as easy as flipping her hand over.
And there was the Black Cloud Curse... Bai Xuengen had been afflicted by it the moment Chu Erlong had attacked him, right when he found Lan Hui in the ice tundra.
Chu Erlong had then suffered a strong backlash, unleashing a magic way above her limits, but it was nothing compared to what Bai Xuengen had been enduring ever since.
The black marks had been sapping away his strength slowly and also tracking him wherever he went, allowing the one who cursed him to follow them for weeks.
"And now the curse has flared up again" thought Bai Xuengen. According to the past weeks' experience and his own knowledge it meant that Chu Erlong was getting closer again, ready for another attack.
"If only we knew why Chu Erlong was attacking me, going so far as to use a curse from her clan on my protector..." lamented Lan Hui to himself.
The only person who could maybe answer these questions was without a doubt Shin Sumi.
Who could have guessed that Chu Erlong would go so far just because of Shin Sumi?
The girl's arrival in the sect had not been noticed by many, but Chu Erlong had randomly stumbled upon her and had even uncovered Shin Sumi's secret green talent.
Chu Erlong had even tried to kill her once and had Shin Sumi under surveillance for a long time.
The real irony was that from Chu Erlong's point of view, she couldn't back down now, persuaded as she was that Shin Sumi knew.
As such her real chance to beat the green talented girl was using Lan Hui, whom she had found by accident.
Chu Erlong was getting closer to the location were Bai Xuengen and Lan Hui had fled to.
She was thinking "once the yellow robed succumbs to the Black Cloud Curse, Lan Hui will be in my hands. I'll use him to bait Shin Sumi in the next ring. It will be either her cultivation or the boy's life!"
Chu Erlong really was heartless and ready to do anything to achieve her goals. And she had to do that before the end of the Rising Star Tournament.
The difference in levels was easy to compensate below the Liquid Realm, and Chu Erlong had utter confidence in her artefacts and resources. But with Shin Sumi's talents, how long would it take before she was leagues above her in all aspects upon reaching the next stage of cultivation?
Unbeknownst to her, she was about to find out sooner rather than later.
A few tunnels away from the boys' location, Shin Sumi was advancing randomly in large rooms, sometimes trying to read the murals and the characters she could find written here and there.
At the same moment, Bai Xuengen used a bit of his Shinsoo on his golden compass, trying his luck at a way out of their predicament.
Hope was slim if they couldn't escape Chu Erlong and her followers. Nevertheless, he couldn't and wouldn't resign himself to their fate.
Bai Xuengen hadn't arrived to this point to give up that easily. And he didn't have to as the golden compass shone brightly, the light of divination flashing in his pupils.
A golden silhouette overimposed on the shape of the walls in the room they were in. Only Bai Xuengen could see the golden figure while he used his compass.
By force of habit, Bai Xuengen cut off his connection to the compass after a single breath of time, not wasting anymore precious energy.
When the light disappeared from his eyes, it was immediately replaced by confusion.
"A person? How is that possible? The compass never showed me anything like that before!" he said to himself.
The magical artefact he trusted with all his soul had never shown anything else than the way towards his objective. For a second Bai Xuengen wondered if him being in this training spatial dimension had refined his cultivation to a point where the compass now showed more than before.
Shaking his head and the thoughts away, he concentrated on the new information. The Black Cloud Curse was slowly sapping away his energy and concentration.
"The key to get out of this situation is a person, and they looked close to here... Could it be..?!"
Bai Xuengen immediately started shouting like a madman, startling Lan Hui who was about to shut him down by fear of revealing their positions to Chu Erlong and her followers.
"We are right here! Brother Bai if you can hear me, I am Bai Xuengen, Lan Hui is with me! BROTHER BAI!!"
The powerful voice of Bai Xuengen enhanced by Shinsoo traveled the tunnels in a second, alerting not only Liu Qing who was ahead of Chu Erlong's group as the pathfinder, but someone else.
"Bai Xuengen... Lan Hui..." a soft but boyish voice escaped one of the paths close to the young men's location.
"Bai Fulong is here!"
After weeks of anxiety and search, Shin Sumi had finally found the two people she was looking for.