He Yu placed a hand on each of the bronze plated doors and pushed. They creaked open on rusted, worn-out hinges to reveal the dusty interior they’d guarded for so long. The disturbance of the stagnant air within kicked up a cloud of dust, sending golden motes to dance in the sliver of light that filtered in from the door.

  The group stepped in and surveyed what lay before them. A counter much like the one in the entrance of the Shrouded Peaks Sect’s manual pavilion sat off to the right, just inside the door. Rows upon rows of shelves stretched into the gloom, extinguishing any doubt about what this place might once have been. A dilapidated staircase led to the second floor and beyond. Past a railing, yet more shelves stood, housing whatever stores of knowledge still remained in this place.

  “This is incredible,” Yan Shirong said, making his way across the dust-caked floorboards to the nearest shelf. He very nearly picked up a rolled-up jade slip, but stopped himself, letting his hand hover a few fingers’ breadth above instead.

  He Yu joined him. This first shelf alone must have housed dozens of manuals. Most of the labels on the shelf had worn off or lay covered under layers of dust. The few he could make out gave him enough of an idea of what the shelf contained. Basic cultivation techniques, introductory texts to formations, alchemy, or crafting. Manuals containing basic martial techniques. The Cloud Dragon Valley Sect likely organized their knowledge similarly to the Shrouded Peaks Sect. Early realm manuals and the like would occupy the lower floors, with the more advanced knowledge living higher up.

  He looked up to where the pavilion rose above. Through the gloom, he could see at least another five floors beyond this one, but there could be more. Six floors in all wouldn’t be enough to account for the roof’s height above the treetops. He fought back an excited grin.

  “There has to be something here for us,” he said. The only problem was how to find it. Back when the sect had still existed, it would have been a simple matter. A disciple would have been assigned to help those with access find what they needed. But no such disciple remained. A small price to pay, in He Yu’s opinion, in order to access the whole of the Cloud Dragon Valley Sect’s manual library without restriction.

  “Let me handle this,” Yan Shirong said, turning to He Yu. His expression wasn’t one He Yu had ever seen on him before. Normally Yan Shirong affected a bored or disinterested attitude to anything that didn’t directly involve wealth. Now? His eyes positively shone with unconcealed excitement.

  He Yu could easily see why. This place contained a treasure trove of lost and forgotten knowledge. Secrets long forgotten. They might be the only ones to have come here in hundreds of years. Yan Shirong’s Wayborn Seen pushed him to seek out such knowledge. To learn secrets hidden or forgotten. To pry mysteries from the world and collect them for himself. This sort of place could very well help him glimpse his Dao.

  It came as little surprise, then, that he hadn’t waited for an answer. His presence billowed out, a hundred pairs of eyes blinking open over the whole of the first floor. A rift of shadow opened at his feet, and dozens of constructs poured out. Rats and birds and tiny homunculi, all fashioned of wood or bone and bound together in strings of shadow. They poured over the ground floor. The birds flitted through the gloom, making their way to the second floor and beyond. Tendrils of shadow sprang up from every crack and crevice, gingerly picking up old and decaying scrolls and slips. Yan Shirong’s eyes glassed over as his attention split between a hundred points of perception at once.

  He Yu and the others left him to his work. Although he couldn’t say exactly how long it would take Yan Shirong to sort through the vast wealth of knowledge in the Cloud Dragon Valley Sect’s manual pavilion, he suspected Yan Shirong wouldn’t take nearly as long as anyone else. Once outside again, they took stock of their surroundings.

  Half-concealed paths led deeper into the sect grounds. Some marked by broken stones, other marked only by gaps in the trees. The waterfall and its churning mass of water qi lay at the far eastern edge of the valley. Li Heng took a step in that direction.

  “There’s something there,” he said, his eyebrows drawn together in a slight furrow. “I’m not sure what, exactly, but something other than the water.”

  “Lead on,” He Yu said. There wasn’t any other obvious path for them to take, so this was as good as any.

  It took them the better part of an hour to cross to the far side of the valley. The spirits that had chased off Yan Shirong’s constructs when he’d found the place still kept a healthy distance. Their overall character was more of curiosity than aggression. A welcome change from the experience they’d had this deep within the Jade Mountains so far.

  As they approached the far end of the valley, the temperature steadily dropped. By the time drew close to the waterfall itself, a dusting of frost covered the ground and crept up the bases of most trees. Finally, the waterfall itself came into view.

  It plunged from hundreds of feet above, down a sheer rocky cliff. Where He Yu had expected to find a pond, of the beginnings of a river, instead sat a spire of ice. Its jagged edges reached out like grasping fingers, creating something of a star pattern. Mist curled off the ice itself and crept along the forest floor and through the trees. The mist carried the chill of winter even now. The cold pierced deep, and likely would have been too much for anyone under the Fourth Realm to bear. Perhaps a water or ice cultivator of the peak Third Realm might endure for a time.

  What He Yu could only assume was a dried riverbed ran off into the forest. Likely where the waterfall would have led had the Cloud Dragon Valley Sect not harnessed it for their ice cultivators. Qi flickered through a barely active script that ran in a ring around the jagged spires. Chen Fei confirmed the script was the reason for the ice. The scrips would need repair, should Li Heng want to use it for any extended time, but she said she’d be able to repair them with a little effort.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  Li Heng shook his head in disbelief. “I think I’ve found where to spend most of my time here,” he said.

  It was a boon for him, indeed. The potent ice qi—a subset of water that made up a significant portion of his cultivation base—would be a tremendous boon to him. The clearing would also allow moonlight to filter in at night, providing an ideal spot for him to cultivate in.

  He Yu left Li Heng to explore the area. Tan Xiaoling said she’d stay with Li Heng, while Chen Fei gave them both a knowing smile and said she’d come by to work on the script later. Leaving Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling to themselves, He Yu and Chen Fei headed back toward the main sect.

  They’d gone about halfway back when Chen Fei said, “Shame you didn’t find anything to help your cultivation.”

  “Yan Shirong will find something for me,” he said. “Tan Xiaoling seemed to think the sect’s name holds promise enough. What about you, though? There should be at least one formation manual in the library you can use. And maybe we’ll find something in the center of the valley. We still haven’t checked whatever formation is drawing in the qi from the mountains, yet.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, flashing him a smile.

  They’d been together long enough for him to see through that one. He looked over at her in the growing evening gloom. The sun had dipped behind the peaks in the west, throwing the mountain’s shadow over the whole of the valley. She flashed another smile.

  “Whatever it is, I’ll be around when you’re ready,” he said.

  “I have to go home soon.”

  This was a topic they’d circled around several times ever since their hunting trip in the Shrouded Peaks. She’d never fully opened up about why exactly she didn’t want to go home, and He Yu had never really pressed the issue. His answer had always been the same—he’d go with her if she wanted, and he left it at that. This was the first time she’d ever mentioned needing to go back, though.

  “What’s changed?” he asked.

  She looked down at her hands. A single formation character flared to life in her upturned palm, casting a silver glow over the path they followed. “I’ve reached the limit of my arts. Well, this art.”

  The Seventy-Two Blessed Symbols had been the bedrock of Chen Fei’s advancement so far. It was an incredibly powerful art, allowing her to create formations from nothing, so long as she knew the characters. The things she could do with it had routinely allowed her to fight far beyond others of her advancement, while also giving her more flexibility than anyone else He Yu had known. The requisite mastery of formation scripts she’d developed to actually use her art had likewise proved itself invaluable time and time again. He Yu hadn’t ever thought she could reach some kind of limit.

  “You know what I’m going to say, but I’ll say it, anyway. I’m more than happy to come with you.”

  “I know,” she said, pulling him over to a nearby stone bench that was, miraculously, somehow still intact. They sat down and she remained quiet for a long time before continuing. “Its not just that. I worry. Too much.”

  He didn’t know what to say. So he said nothing, just letting her speak when she was ready.

  “Like, of course, I’m worried about going home. What they’ll think of me. Sure, I’ve reached Nascent Soul, but I haven’t done anything. I don’t feel like I’ve earned it. But that’s something for later. What about Tan Xiaoling? She can’t beat her uncle. Not how she is now. What if she can’t break into Soul Refining? She won’t give up on this fight with her uncle. Especially not after he let her escape. Especially after the message he had you deliver.

  “But what about the rest of us? What if none of us can do it? Even if we can, what about the next step? Things are only going to get harder. We have so far to go, and we don’t even know what’s going on in the empire right now. All I know is what I saw. Jin Xifeng killed two Eighth Realm elders by herself. Two elders who could have killed all five of us just by fully releasing their spirits. They nearly did kill us, and we weren’t even a part of the battle.”

  He Yu squeezed her hand, swallowed, and said the last thing he wanted to say. “You don’t have to come, if you don’t want. I couldn’t ask anyone to put themselves in the sort of danger I’m walking into. Not if they don’t want to.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not what I’m saying.” Then she sighed, and let her shoulders slump. “I don’t even know what I’m saying. I just—it all seems so impossible. All of it. I don’t know what to do.”

  He Yu slipped an arm around her and pulled her close. “I haven’t known what to do for a long time,” he said quietly, almost a whisper. “I’ve been chasing this vague idea of what it means to be a hero. To forge a legend. I’ve thought that with each step, the answers would come. They never have. I just keep making the best choice I can see in the moment.”

  “Seems to have worked out pretty good,” she said, leaning in.

  “I still don’t know what to do. Except to keep moving forward. You’re welcome to come. If we need to make a detour so you can go home, we can do that. We made the detour all the way out here, after all. And I’ll help you in whatever way I can. Just like I’m helping Tan Xiaoling now.”

  “Thanks,” she said. They sat in silence for some time. Long enough for the moon to rise over the valley rim, and for silver light to filter down in slivers through the trees above.

  Then, when the moon reached its zenith, a pulse of qi washed over the valley floor. It had come from the center.

  Both He Yu and Chen Fei leaped to their feet. Although he couldn’t sense anything that might be dangerous, the flows of qi in the valley had shifted, growing markedly stronger than when they’d first arrived. A wordless glance was all they needed, and they set off to the center of the valley.

  Yan Shirong joined them when they’d nearly reached the center of the valley. “I’ve already sent constructs after the other two,” he said. “I tried to scout the valley, but something blocked it.”

  Soon they came to an opaque wall, rising from a ring of formation script softly glowing through the undergrowth. Yan Shirong tried to send another construct through, but it failed to pass through whatever barrier. Even the Peerless Judgment couldn’t show anything—something that sent a spike of alarm through He Yu. The technique had never just failed before.

  Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling arrived just as Chen Fei finished her assessment of the script. “We should be able to pass through. It only blocks techniques.”

  There was no discussion. As one, they stepped through the dome.

  The valley floor, once covered in trees and undergrowth, had been replaced by a plaza covered in a smooth expanse of jade tiles. At the center, a small open pavilion sat atop a raised dais, with a staircase spiraling underground. Four pillars glowing with golden formation columns supported the clay tile roof.

  Atop the roof lounged an expert dressed in flowing, golden robes. Two twisting horns swept back from his snow-white hair while his beard gently drifted on an unseen wind. He regarded the five of them with amber, slit-pupiled eyes.

  “Strange,” the unnamed expert said. Although he’d only spoken at normal volume, his voice carried the roar of distant thunder. “You weren’t who I expected. Explain yourselves to Patriarch Sun Lei of the Cloud Dragon Valley Sect.”