I used Consistent Step to reach the wall quickly while casually pulling the jade slip out of my hair and throwing it into my ring. Then after strengthening my arm with spiritual energy, I punched the damn stone.

It was solid. Didn't even crack.

If I had been in my previous realm I could have ripped this shit apart with my bare hands. Hell, I wouldn't have even needed to use my hands.

And I wouldn't have lost the kid.

My breathing quickened as I imagined that poor little 8-year-old who knew absolutely nothing just a few months ago dealing with all the horrors I’d seen in this fucked up Xianxia world. Like that one realm almost entirely made up of killer plants. Or that dumb dual cultivation trap I’d seen Bloodsword walk into that earned him another wife. Or that Demonic Cultivator blood bowl that squeezed the blood out of its victims... This kid was not ready for any of that shit!

I knew it wouldn’t work but I still sent a slash of sword Qi at the wall. A thick gouge was carved into the stone.

I had fucking promised to keep us safe! And I couldn’t do that if he wasn’t beside me!

I produced slash after slash, trying to dig my way into the wall. Of course, I did this out of frustration and not a belief that I could actually enter this way. My current weak cultivation was fucking Bloodsword’s damn fault. And even though it was a chance to do things better... I still hated being as weak as I was. Normally, I didn’t let it bother me. Normally.

“Hey, Little Fairy Lin. Stop,” Unyielding’s calm voice penetrated the haze in my head. “You’re not going to be able to enter like this.”

Fuck. I needed to calm down and think. Logic was king.

This was obviously an Inheritance dimension. It made sense that the damn universe’s favorite protagonist would randomly stumble into one of those. Of course, these places were beyond dangerous. They had killed greater cultivators and raised lesser ones to unknown heights.

Often they were created by dying masters who had yet to take a disciple but wanted to pass on their knowledge to those who deserved it... And if I had been at my previous realm, I could have cracked it open like a fucking egg and picked out my brother with little effort.

But I wasn't that near-immortal anymore.

So what could I do?

First, I had to have faith that my little brother’s luck would hold out. That he’d come through this trial mostly unscathed. He had his space. He had Ghosty McGhostFace. He had some medicine I made sure to leave in his bag. And he had all the things I had taught him.

Wait. He had his space, so maybe?

I tried accessing it myself but there was nothing... Or more accurately, the connection was still there but spread so thin that I couldn’t enter it, even with just my mind.

That meant, I had to wait for him to come back... but I couldn’t just sit here and twiddle my damn thumbs. Okay, that wasn't exactly true. I could technically stay here... if I wasn’t positive these people would leave me behind. And if they went without me, they’d — once again — run into that slaughter formation and end up dying.

That would make this whole goddamn trip worthless.

So, I couldn’t stay here.

Inheritances like this usually had the person who earned them come out in a completely different location. This was for the disciple’s own safety. Which meant that Little Spring would come out in a place that wasn’t here. Then where?

I spread out my divine sense and quickly found the spot. It had a similar feel as this rock.

I let out a breath and opened my eyes.

The Junior Sect Leader, looking concerned, peered at me. “Don’t worry. This seems to be an Inheritance Dimension. Your brother has a good chance of returning from it.”

I nodded.

”Unfortunately, we can only give him until daybreak. How about we set up a camp for you here if he’s still not back by then?”

I shook my head. “He won’t return here. When he does return, it will be at another location. We’ll have to find him then. Rather than wait. I'll set up a safe space for him. When he returns, he’ll find it and wait for me there.”

He frowned.

Fairy Blissful Jujube walked up to me. I guess she’d arrived earlier and I hadn’t noticed. “Are you sure? Won’t you be worried about him?”

I straightened my spine. “I have faith in his luck, if not his abilities.” What was that saying? ‘Luck was part of one’s strength?’

My eyes landed on Glittering Iron who stared out at the clearing where we’d set our camp up. He acted as if he wasn’t part of this. I decided that I was too upset to deal with him without trying to outright strangle his ass. So, I moved onto Justice. His face seemed to look cold but I could see the remorse in his eyes. And I once again realized how young this kid was. He really hadn’t experienced much of the world.

I sighed. It looked like I had to be the adult in a group of children.

“Senior Justice Reaching Divine Blade. Thank you for sparring with my junior brother. Although you did push him a bit too hard at the end, he still improved thanks to your exchange.” I bowed. “Also, because of your exchange, you’ve given him this opportunity. So, thank you. That said, you need to spar more with lower realmed cultivators in the future so that you don’t accidentally hurt them again.”

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He nodded quickly, and a slight blush appeared on his cheeks.

Now that I was mostly calm, I turned to my friend’s nephew and glared. “Senior Glittering Iron Omniscience. When you saw that my very young junior brother was about to crash into a wall, instead of catching him, you let him hit it. You even stepped away from him.” I used the few acting skills I possessed to make my eyes water. “Why? He could have been injured. Did you do this for revenge? I know he was rude to you earlier but he’s still just a child.”

Fairy Jujube frowned at Glittering Iron and he blanched, then he sent me a brief scowl.

Ah, was I making you lose face by letting everyone believe you caused a little girl to cry? Well, fuck you. You deserve it for purposefully stepping away from Little Spring.

“Senior Brother! They’re just kids. Please apologize.” Jujube said.

His jaw tightened. The bird spiritual beast on his shoulder peered at me with one eye as if it saw its worst enemy. “Why should I? She should be thanking me! If I had saved him, he wouldn’t have entered that Inheritance Dimension. This is a huge, once-in-a-lifetime chance for him.”

I wanted to laugh at that. Once-in-a-lifetime? More like once in a decade. Pretty soon dying old masters would be falling at his feet to give him their precious inheritances... If he survived this one.

“So, you feel no remorse for refusing to help a little kid?” I asked.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s not a kid. He’s a cultivator. And as a fellow cultivator, I think I gave him the best possible help .”

He then stormed off to go do whatever in his tent.

Fuck this asshole. Did he really think I would want my brother to get stronger like this? Frankly, suspicious old men or women handing out random and strange techniques was not a good way to build a solid cultivation base. I just hoped that Little Spring recognized that and didn’t fall for any tricks.

***

Later, I briefly left the group with the excuse that I wanted to look for him. Unyielding refused to allow me to go on my own and escorted me to the location where Little Spring would end up. It was in a shallow cavern. Surprisingly, no creature seemed to have ever taken up residence there, though that might have been due to the master of the dimension’s preferences.

“Senior Unyielding Firestorm, Please keep watch as I set up the protective formations.”

He frowned. “Are you sure that this is a good location?”

I sighed. It was so hard pretending to be a little kid. “Yes. My brother will find this spot and will be able to make camp here if it takes us a long time.” This was a little lie since I couldn’t exactly tell him that I knew because I was a badass — someone who had once been at Immortal Ascension Stage. Because that would sound stranger than the lies I’d already given him.

I turned to the small cavern. After some brief planning, I grabbed several dozen flags and placed them to form a protective isolation barrier... And while I was at it, I set up an obfuscation array so Little Spring could safely enter his space once he returned. While I had recently been teaching him a very basic obfuscation array, I’d still rather take care of it myself until I was positive he was ready.

I took out paper, ink, and brush and left a very short note for him to wait here for me. Using spiritual energy, I pinned it to the wall.

Not certain he’d see it, I took out the super cheap night pearl I’d purchased back in Golden Aspect City and attached it to the top of the page.

But just to be sure... I wrote up a few more notes and pinned them to various spots. That extra bit of paranoia I’d developed a few months back had reared its ugly head up again. Well, whatever. I must have seen too many movies as a kid where notes were accidentally knocked off tables causing huge — and stupid — misunderstandings.

As long as the kid didn’t return blind he’d fucking see it. The only other thing that I could have left that would be better, would be a recording (If I’d had one). I needed to grab an actual recording spiritual tool when I had the money for one. Too bad they were so damn expensive.

I sighed. His ass better be safe when he came back or I would find some way to punish it!

When I stepped back out of the cavern, I saw the Junior Sect Leader give me an appraising look.

“It seems like your Formation Masters badge wasn’t a fake, after all.”

I snorted. “Of course not! Once we reach the slaughter formation, you need to trust me. Even if I have to go in there all by myself, I’ll make sure we retrieve those Rhododendrons without issue.”

He nodded.

Just as I was about to leave, he said, “Fairy Lin, I haven’t known your little brother for long, but he seems like a reasonable child. I choose to believe that he’ll return triumphant from that dimension.”

I grinned. “Oh, he’ll return! Most definitely!” His return wasn’t what worried me.

***

The next morning I attempted to access the space. Of course, I couldn't. Little Spring wasn’t back. I sighed.

He was taking far too long for an inheritance at this level. Was he really going to come back safe, unharmed and as the same little kid I’d been raising as my little martial brother? Or would this incident irrevocably change him in some way?

If he came back as fucked up as the original Bloodsword...

No. I had to trust him. And trust that my brainwashing—er, ’training’ took.

Once again, the Junior Sect Leader gathered us together for the pre-leaving check.

That meant that it was time to go — without him.

“Soon, we’ll leave to the location of the second spiritual flower, the Resplendent Ochre Narcissus. We need one of at least fifty years, but the higher it is in age, the better for our purposes. Knowing the terrain these flowers usually bloom in, we can expect a location with many poisonous plants and insects, so everyone should take this antidote pill now. It should last a full day.”

He pulled out a bottle. With a few super cool-looking flicks, he sent one flying to each of us.

I poked at the red-orange antidote pill. Then I used my divine sense to double-check its quality. Since it wasn’t too far off from one I could currently make myself, I took it. While I had my own antidote pills, I’d prefer to save them for an emergency. They were different from this one; covering a larger and different variety of plants.

“Also,” he continued. “Be wary of the spiritual flora in this area of the forest. Many of them are dangerous and some may have small spiritual beasts protecting them. Carry your weapons at all times! Any questions?” He paused. When no one asked anything he nodded. “Then let’s go.”

***

It took us a little over four hours of straight running to reach the field of yellow flowers where the Resplendent Ochre Narcissus bloomed.

If I’d been ignorant of spiritual flowers, I might have thought I’d hit the jackpot. But while these flowers did look similar, in that they were all a dark gold yellow, most of these flowers were not the Narcissus we were looking for (which looked like a spiky daffodil). They were instead mutated flowers of varying types, and all very poisonous. Some were somniferous. Others itch-inducing. And that one to the right of me had pollen that was a bitch to get out of white silk.

I took a step further to my left to avoid it. I mean, I only had so many clothes. Most of my fortune had gone into cultivation.

Glittering Iron pointed to one that practically glowed in the sunlight. It appeared to be a perfect example of the flower we needed and with an age closer to two hundred years rather than the fifty we needed! It could produce higher quality medicine, making it easier for the Sect Leader to recover.

Asshole he may be, but Glittering Iron’s divinations could pinpoint a damn fine spiritual plant!