Elder Yang looked me up and down and scrunched up her nose.

  “I was wondering what kind of trash you picked up off the street Hazeon. I was expecting a lot more than this sickly looking girl with a disgusting myriad branch spirit root.” She said, injecting an amount of venom into her words I didn’t expect. We had never met before but the look in her eyes were telling me she truly hated me. I knew I deserved it, but she didn’t even know me. She should at learn why she should loathe me first. The girl a bit older than me, Rin, was looking confusedly between Elder Yang and I, apprehension and worry lining her face.

  Hazeon sighed before looking over to Elder Yang.

  “While I appreciate you giving your opinion, Elder Yang, I believe that there is more to Astra than meets your eye. Zi Fu had nothing but praise for her, and her abilities will be sure to impress upon young Rin just how useful, and capable, she is.” He chided the Elder.

  My stomach tried to twist itself into a knot at his words. The praise felt wrong. Elder Hazeon was talking me up because I was his disciple and he felt like owed me. I felt sick, but I did my best to keep my composure. I needed to get out of here.

  “Rin, do you know where we’re heading?” I asked the girl. She looked at me confused for a few seconds before blinking a few times and then nodding.

  “Uh, yeah I know the area pretty well. I grew up near the sect.” She answered. I nodded.

  “Then let’s go, we don’t have a lot of time and I want to get this mission done.” I said.

  I bowed to the elders and stalked out of the room. Situ Yin was nowhere to be seen. I waited for Rin to follow me out and then beckoned her to lead the way. She looked a little apprehensive, but walked towards one of the paths out of the sect.

  We had been jogging for a few hours, not at our fastest speed, but at enough of a speed that we were able to get a good distance from the sect. Despite her attempts to strike up conversation, I just kept jogging. Eventually we fell into a rhythm that was only broken by a sudden message from Text popping up in my vision.

  “Informational ping detected. Decryption finished. Locater beacon operational. Guiding user toward the location.”

  When I finished reading the text, it disappeared and a blue three dimensional arrow popped up in my vision and pointed off toward the right. Immediately following the appearance of the ghostly arrow, the ground began shaking and only stopped after a few seconds. We all stopped running at the sudden interruption and Rin looked around as if looking for an enemy for a few seconds even after the shaking stopped. Shimmer seemed unfazed, simply licking one of her paws as though to remove the offending dirt she built up from running along with us.

  “What in the worlds was that?” Rin asked. I shook my head. I didn’t know either, but I had a feeling it had something to do with this arrow now blocking my vision. It didn’t seem like the arrow would be returning part of my field of view until we followed it.

  I started walking in the direction of the arrow, off the well traveled road we were using to get closer to the mission location. Shimmer followed behind, with Rin yelling after me as I stepped off the path.

  “Astra! Where are you going?? What about the mission?” she badgered me.

  “I noticed something this way, we should check it out. Just…trust me on this.” I said.

  I looked back to the girl who looked like she wanted to say something, but she must have changed her mind because she nodded and followed as I led the way through the dense brush.

  At some point I was forced to coalesce one of my qi swords to use to hack through the dense sets of vines, hanging plants, and shrubbery flooding the forest. We were a few minutes off of the road when we finally stumbled upon a large rock formation jutting out in the middle of a small clearing. The arrow in my vision was pointing directly at the rock formation and even when I walked around the clearing, the arrow stayed pointing at the craggy outcropping. All of the dirt around the formation looked freshly dug up, making the whole piece of rock seem like it had just jutted up from underground. Shimmer began running around the clearing, apparently unbothered by the giant structure jutting out from the ground.

  The formation itself was well over ten times as tall as I was, and nearly twenty of me wide. I continued walking around the rocks until I reached the side opposite the side we entered the clearing from. There was no way to get inside the rocks, but there was an oddly flat piece of stone at ground level that was vaguely reminiscent of a door. I approached it cautiously and, once I was closer, I was able to make out the image depicted on the stone. A stylized flame was etched into the hard exterior of the rock formation and words were etched below the flame.

  “Let the wielder of the divine flame become the savior of the universe. We entrust the wielder with our last hope.” I read aloud. I traced it with my fingers while I was reading.

  “Astra, what language is that in? Why can you read it?” Rin asked. I was confused at her question until I squinted my eyes at the etchings on the rock. The words I could read disappeared and were replaced by a willowy, scrawling set of characters and symbols that I had no recollection of learning. I blinked a few times and then the words returned, as if they had always been there.

  “I’m not sure why. I can just read them…” I said, trailing off near the end as I began getting a bad feeling about this whole thing.

  I palmed around the door, looking for some way to encourage it to open when my hand landed on the stylized flame in the center of the rock. I felt a jolt run through me, then a strange, alien sensation entered my soul. It felt like it was searching for something. After a few seconds, the sensation faded and it left a feeling of…disappointment? In its wake. I was left with a strange feeling that I had been rejected by the rock before the whole clearing began shaking. Rin and I jumped back and the rocky formation began sinking into the ground. We watched in awe as the multi-story structure vanished beneath the earth and the soil was returned to a soft grassy clearing leaving no sign it had ever been there in the first place.

  “Wow… that was… really weird. Any idea why it just up and disappeared?” Rin asked, and I nodded.

  “I think it sensed we weren’t worthy. It might have something to do with the whole divine flame business the inscription on the door was going on about.” I said. Rin nodded.

  “Well I guess we can ask the Elders about this when we return to the sect, they might have an idea about what this divine flame is. We should probably return to the road so we can make good time to the mission site.” Rin suggested and I agreed. I got Shimmer’s attention and we followed our path back through the brush until we returned to the road and resumed our light jogging pace. We were still a few hours of running from where the ruins had been located according to Rin so I settled in for the rest of the boring journey.

  ***

  We ran for a few more hours before we reached the foot of a steep cliff climbing up high into the sky. A thin, natural walkway, worked its way up the cliff, zigging and zagging upwards. The ruins had apparently been discovered when a section of the wall halfway up the cliff had been disrupted and fallen in on itself the same day I had arrived in the Radiant Halo sect.

  We climbed the stairs and were wearing the location of the ruins when a set of voices became audible.

  “There’s nothing in these stupid ruins besides this weird altar and the map, let’s just go before anyone shows up.” One of the voices whined.

  I looked to Rin and we both nodded before dropping down into a crouch and carefully approaching the entrance to the ruins. We peeked around the edge of the ruins, me on top, Rin in the middle and Shimmer closest to the ground.

  Three inferno scorpion sect members were arguing while standing in a triangle, gesturing around the room as they yelled.

  “I’m telling you there has to be something in these ruins, who just closes up some room with a picture engraved into the rock??” One of the men, the one who seemed the most like a leader, said.

  “But Lu, what if someone from one of the sects show up to investigate?” One of the men asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

  “Don’t be such a wimp, Xian.” The leader said.

  “Those sect losers can’t even stand up to the might of our grand Inferno Scorpion sect. I’ve heard they adopt weak little cultivators from the continents to the south just to bolster their numbers enough to match up to even half of our sect’s strength!” He boasted. My fingers were turning white at this point from me squeezing them so much. I had finally had enough and stood within the doorway, swords at the ready. One of the cultivators noticed me and pointed, prompting his two friends to turn toward us.

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  “Well, well, well, look what we have here.” The leader began.

  “A blue haired girl followed around by a little fox? Our sect leader has a bounty taken out on you, girl. And I’m planning on collecting, after I’ve played around with you first that is.” He said, his disgusting face morphing into a grotesque grin.

  “Ew. I do not like that guy.” Rin said, her hands holding her arms and a sickly look on her face. I didn’t let my emotions get the better of me, no, instead I let the cold tactical calculation take over as I felt my emotions fade away. My body was taken over and moved on its own. I began charging the trio, but as soon as I stepped foot into the ruins, I felt a presence scan me. Right after I felt the presence scan me, the room shook, though my body ignored the tremors. A window appeared within my vision as a glow emanated from the ornate picture carved into the stone wall of the room.

  “Successor candidate detected. Aurion bloodline or Aurion inheritance detected.

  Initiating the TRIAL OF SHIRONIA. Transporting five lifeforms into the trial grounds to protect the successor candidate. Sealing the TRIAL OF SHIRONIA until the successor candidate succeeds, or is deemed unworthy.”

  I barely had time to read what the text said before I felt a pressure surround my body, and a strange, compressing, feeling overcome me. The world around me spun and swam, the colors all melding together. I unsummoned Shimmer in case this was a trap of some kind, and took back control of my body even as the world was flooded by a cacophony of sights, sounds, and tastes before fading to black.

  When my senses returned to me I was standing in the middle of a bustling city street. The sights, and sounds were so vivid and realistic. Had I been transported to somewhere else on Dou Can? I tried to hone my hearing to focus on what was being said around me to get my bearings.

  Before I could focus for more the a few seconds on the deluge of voices and conversations from around me, someone bumped into my shoulder.

  “Hey! Watch where you’re going, girl!” A burly man said as he sneered down at me. I could barely feel any cultivation from the man at all, where did he get the confidence?

  I bristled at the clear provocation, especially after what the Inferno Scorpion sect member had said.

  “You’re the one who bumped into me, you should be apologizing.” I reprimanded him.

  His face morphed into an furious glare.

  “Where does a weakling like you get off telling me what I should be doing?” He asked.

  Now I was confused. Couldn’t this guy feel my cultivation? Attacking someone below my level would leave a bad taste in my mouth. I decided I was going to be the bigger cultivator and began walking away, but before I could make it a few steps, the man yelled out at me before taking a swing at my head.

  “Hey! Girl! I wasn’t finished talking to you!”

  I tried to dodge the punch but I simply didn’t expect him to take a swing. His fist bounced off my head, not even moving me.

  “OUCH! What the hell! What’s this girl made out of? Steel??” The man yowled, holding his hand in pain. I rolled my eyes and started walking away.

  “Serves you right for not being able to see my strength!” I said, but before I managed to walk a few steps away from the man, a cadre of men and women in guard uniforms ran over to us.

  “Halt! In the name of the Shironia city guards, I command you all to halt.” The man in the front of the group commanded to us. I was surprised that they showed up so quickly, but being able to get these guys out of my hair quicker was a welcome sight.

  “What seems to be the problem here, citizens?” He asked, looking first to me and then the burly man who had broken his hand on my head.

  “That crazy cultivator broke my hand!” He said, shamelessly.

  I gaped at the man and how brazen he was. The guardsman was frowning in my direction at this point having hypothesized that the man was telling the truth by the state of the man’s hand. I rushed to get out my side of the story.

  “T-that’s not true! I was just minding my business when he tried to punch me in the head! His hand broke when he hit me because I’m of higher cultivation than he is!” I protested.

  The guardsman arched an eyebrow at me and then seemed to look past me for a moment before shaking his head.

  “Why would he try to attack someone much higher level than he is?” The guardsman asked. I… didn’t really have a good answer for that.

  “I-I don’t know why he did it! But it’s the truth!” I pleaded. I didn’t have time to get arrested, I needed to figure out where the hell I even was.

  The guardsman looked between us again and sighed, passing his hand over his face in a long, drawn out movement.

  “Unfortunately, young lady, even if you are telling the truth, without any witnesses to corroborate your retelling of events, we have no choice but to trust the injured party in this case.” He explained, motioning around to the nearby crowd we had gathered when he had first yelled at me.

  The previously curious city folk now averted their eyes from the guardsmen. The burly man’s two friends were giving everyone stink-eyes and, despite my pleading looks, the onlookers slowly dispersed. I looked back to the guardsmen and he gave me a shrug.

  According to the laws of the Allied Races and the Aurion sect, the more powerful cultivator needs to ensure that any incidents involving cultivators resolve peacefully within the city to prevent punishment. Don’t worry, I’ll ask for lenience in this matter, it will only be a few days of imprisonment, we won’t even put on the cultivation shackles so you can freely cultivate while you wait for your sentence to elapse.

  I sighed. I guess I didn’t have a choice. Making enemies of the, ironically helpful, city guards seemed like an awful idea if I wanted to get out of this trial.

  “That’s fine. I didn’t expect him to try to punch me but what’s happened, happened.” I said. The guardsman nodded and led me to a small guardhouse located nearby. I obediently walked into my cell where I stayed for the next three days, just cuiltivating or making small talk with the various guards. Apparently I had been transported to a city named Shironia which a was apparently a member city of the Aurion sect. I tried not to sound too suspicious while fishing for information so I wasn’t able to learn much more. On the fourth day, I expected to be let out, but nobody came, even when I yelled. I remembered something about the guards explaining that the guard station is soundproofed. I waited for nearly half the day before the entire guardhouse shook and one of the outer walls exploded inwards.

  When the dust settled, a leathery black body with matching wings walked through the wall and smirked at me. It licked its lips as if it had just seen something particularly tasty. I had already coalesced all of my swords and was eager to start fighting.

  The demon was merely a low level one, which made it quick work to decapitate it and leave the guard house. I was excited to finally get to kill some demons when I finally exited the guardhouse and saw the cityscape before me. The small smile that was building on my face dropped and my stomach fell out beneath me. The entire city as far as I could see was completely destroyed. Flames wreathed every inch of ground I could see mixed with elemental damage and residue of all possible elements I could think of.

  I heard fighting in the distance and did my best to quell the roiling emotions threatening to assert themselves. I took a few steps before the memories of the inter-continental competition came flooding through me. I dropped to the ground ands wretched, though I had nothing to lose to begin with. Even after I finished the involuntary purge, I was finding it difficult to focus, the emotions of that day pulsing through my head. I felt more demons approaching me and knew I was in no position to fight, despite my desire for revenge.

  I felt the cold calculation take over and my body stood without my prompting. I watched it cut through droves of demons as it headed toward the center of the fighting. After many minutes of running and demon slaying, I arrived at the main square of the city, right in front of the city lord’s manor. The last vestiges of humans in the city were huddled near the steps of the city lord’s manor, fighting off the stronger demon variants as best they could while slowly backing up toward a more defensible position as they lost more and more of their forces.

  From within my own head I was shocked to see someone I recognized among the remaining fighters. Rin was fighting alongside a beautiful woman with blonde, almost white hair. Rin flung flaming red chakrams with blade-like protrusions all along their sides through the demonic forces arrayed in front of her. Meanwhile the woman she fought alongside slashed out with her sword, creating impromptu glaciers extending out towards the edge of the square. Seeing the ice made my heart squeeze with how it reminded me of Jia. The rest of the fighters were slowly being overwhelmed, I needed to join them. My controlled body seemed to agree because with a flurry of uses of Soft Steps on the Halcyonic Sea I appeared next to Rin who nearly jumped out of her skin at my sudden appearance.

  “Astra! Where have you been?! I’ve been looking all over for you!” The girl yelled.

  I was unable to reassert control over my body so I simply watched as I cut down swaths of demons running at us. Rin seemed to war over pushing for me to answer but eventually had to return to fighting the demons.

  “After we get rid of these demons, you’re going to have to explain to me what’s going on!” She yelled before throwing a flaming chakram into the approaching demons.

  How was I supposed to give her answers when I didn’t even know what was going on?

  I resolved to do my best to explain what I thought was happening to her after we got rid of all of the demons. If my theory was correct however; I wouldn’t need to do that much explaining, the trial should be over once we’ve repelled the demons. I had calmed down significantly at this point, and was about to reassert control over my body when my body whipped around toward the city lord’s manor. My body immediately used Soft Steps on the Halcyonic Sea as many times as it possibly could to run away from the city lord’s manor. Before I could take control and make my body return to help Rin and the others, my body pushed my qi reserves to the limit by continuously using my movement technique. I never stopped running, not until a massive shockwave vaporized all of my surroundings and everything went white.

  When I regained my senses, I was standing in the middle of a bustling city street. I nearly dropped to the ground as I found myself in control of my body once more. I patted myself all over but, finding no injuries, I looked around. Everything I was seeing looked eerily familiar.

  Suddenly a screen similar to the one I saw in the ruins popped up in my vision and I hastily read over it.

  “Successor’s death confirmed. Restarting the Trial of Shironia.”

  “Extremely high moral compatibility detected.”

  “Number of retries remaining - ∞”

  “Please complete the trial of Shironia, successor.“

  “Give up? Yes? - No?”

  I didn’t know how to answer, nor why I was suddenly alive again, but according to this screen, even if I die, I’ll keep coming back to life until I complete the trial? Doesn’t that mean I could just keep doing this forever? Shouldn’t it just let me pass if I can retry it however many times I want?

  I suddenly felt ill and the memories of my death wracked through me. The crushing feeling of the shockwave hitting my body and crushing all of my organs and bones flooded my mind. Then I felt the searing heart char my body from back to front, every single one of my nerve endings being seared off after a flash of bright pain all across my body. I lurched forward, unable to keep my balance due to the sudden onset of vertigo I was experiencing.

  Instead of falling to the ground however; I ran into someone who was pushed out of the way for a moment. I looked up at them and tried to apologize before recognizing the sneering face looking down at me.

  “Hey! Watch where you’re going, girl!” The burly man spat out at me.