Lu Na gritted her teeth.

  “Why is there still a time limit?”

  The game master held his arms behind him.

  “I apologize for that child, but the platforms here are not working as intended. The lava was supposed to come up when you lost to wipe out all traces of this place, but over the centuries it has broken down. So I’ll give you a hint: run.”

  Lu Na wanted to argue more before Elder Hen grabbed her by the arm and yanked her into the first obstacle. It was a large stone circle that now glowed purple. The center hole had just enough space for a person to go through, but the glowing warned that touching it while going through would have painful consequences.

  “Child, focus. Ignore the ghosts, ignore the blabbering and get through these. The lava is not stopping.” Elder Hen pointed to the rising lava levels that had engulfed where they were just standing.

  Lu Na swallowed and realized how dry her throat was. She took out her water skin, took a long drink and passed it to Elder Hen. The old man drank it all and tossed the water skin past the obstacle.

  An arc of spirit energy shot out from the stone circle, vaporizing the water skin.

  “Why did you do that?” Lu Na asked.

  “I needed to see if we could walk around the obstacles. That would be a lot easier than jumping through a circle onto the other side.”

  Lu Na wanted to argue that she had other things they could have tossed instead of that. What if they needed the water skin for later?

  Elder Hen took out a tael of silver and threw it through the center hole. Nothing happened. He took out another and tossed it into the stone’s interior.

  The silver melted.

  “The ghost isn’t playing. This thing will vaporize us if we touch it.” Elder Hen frowned, probably thinking about how to get through it.

  Lu Na had a different approach. She crouched down, focusing on the hole at the center. With all her strength, she pushed off the ground and ran straight at the stone circle. Right before she collided with it, she jumped straight through.

  When she reached the other side, she did a small onto the ground before getting up. There was a small singed smell coming from her clothes.

  Good thing Lu Na wore a tunic instead of her usual dresses or robes. Going through that would have been disastrous.

  “Congratulations ongoing through the first physical trial,” the game master said. He waved his hand and the stone circle turned off.

  Wait, if the game master could control it, why didn’t he allow them to walk through? Or was there some type of device or technique forcing him to comply with the game?

  Lu Na used her spirit vision to look around the course. Maybe there was something controlling all this that she could turn off. Magic wasn’t real, so whatever or whoever was doing this would need to use spirit techniques.

  Elder Hen walked around the stone circle. The moment he passed through the former threshold where the skin vaporized he paused for a brief second. He took a deep breath and kept walking.

  Lu Na understood that feeling. She didn’t trust the game master’s word either.

  “Now you have to answer one question to move onto the next trial. Since this is a new game, you have three more chances to answer all the questions.” They sparkled in bright red.

  “We can’t read that,” Elder Hen said.

  “That’s not my problem. The Xia designed this trial for smart people. If you can’t figure out a two thousand year old script, then that’s your fault,” the game master said.

  “That’s not fair. How are we supposed to know what that means?” Lu Na said.

  “I’ll help.” Zi Xu appeared next to Lu Na again.

  “Where do you keep going?” Lu Na asked.

  Zi Xu smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He looked haggard. Could ghosts look like that?

  “I’m a ghost. We disappear sometimes.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Protecting your group in the earlier section took a lot out of me. I fear I might lose my mind. But that won’t matter when you beat this obstacle course.”

  “Please hurry venerable ghost. The lava is quickly reaching us,” Elder Hen said.

  The stone circle behind them had fallen over from the lava engulfing its base.

  “Yes, yes. This should be simple since it’s only reading.” Zi Xu looked up at the words, muttered to himself a little, before nodding. “This asks, ‘What are the five elements of spirits?’”

  “What? That’s it? The questions earlier were harder,” Lu Na said.

  Zi Xu nodded, his eyelids drooping.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I’m going to go rest for a while. I’ll try to come back when you need me again.”

  Before Lu Na could thank the ghost, he disappeared.

  “The answer is fire, earth, water, metal, and wood,” Elder Hen said.

  “Correct. Next obstacle.” The game master waved his hand over the next platform. Stairs formed from the previous platform going up.

  As Lu Na climbed up, she noticed they were on a ramp going up toward the top of the volcano. There was a small box at the apex of the obstacles. That must be where the prize was. The lava looked like it slowed down.

  The next platform had a long, narrow stone plank that connected two stones. This was going to be easy if all they had to do was cross.

  That was until the game master clapped his hands again.

  Fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the stone plank in fire. While simultaneously, water came down from the top, hitting the fire and causing steam.

  This time, Lu Na focused her spirit vision on everything that she could see. From the moment the game master clapped his hands, there was a spark on the far side of the volcano right above where the ghost Farida was sitting along with the Wintersweet disciples.

  Could that be what’s controlling everything?

  Elder Hen jumped into the stone plank and ran across.

  Lu Na had never seen the old man move so nimbly before. At least she didn’t have to go through the fire and the steam.

  Except they didn’t stop.

  “What’s happening? Elder Hen walked through. Why is it still on?” Lu Na asked.

  “Oh, I forgot to mention. Since you are the challenger, you have to do the physical tasks. Your ally can help you, but they can’t complete the trial for you.” The game master had conjured a lounging chair and laid down with his hands behind his head.

  Lu Na wanted to curse the ghost out. She only stopped herself because she knew the ghost had some leverage over the difficulty of these trials. If she angered him, he might make it harder.

  Lu Na got up onto the stone plank. The heat coming from the bottom was stronger than any coal pot she had ever used. She took one step forward and pulled her foot back fast.

  Hot, searing pain shot up her leg. Sitting down, she saw her shoe had burned through instantly. How did Elder Hen walk through this?

  “Don’t think of the pain,” Elder Hen said. He was sitting on the ground on the other side, bandaging his own feet. “Just run as fast as you can.”

  Lu Na winced. No, there had to be a better way than brute force. She clenched her left fist and focused on the stone plank. All she had to do was raise it higher away from the fire. She flicked her wrist left and lifted her left fist.

  Stone shot up from the ground, rising to meet the stone plank. It looked glowing red, as if the fire had baked it.

  No, that would not work.

  The stone plank shook below her feet. Lu Na looked down to see the lava had finally reached her. She had to go now.

  Lu Na gritted her teeth. She had a new idea. What if she converted all the fire spirit energy into water with Uncle Chen’s technique?

  She clenched her left fist and focused on Uncle Chen’s technique. This was a lot harder without Nugua helping her. She could sense the fire spirit energy below her, creating the fire.

  The null metal bracelet began burning her wrist from pushing so much spirit energy through it to power the technique. But better a burned wrist than destroyed feet.

  Lu Na released the technique while cycling the spirit energy from the null metal bracelet into her own spirit realm. The fire spirit energy below her turned into water.

  Steam shot up from the ground behind her as the water mixed in with the encroaching lava. The steam from before already made it hard to see. The new steam from the rapid cooling of the lava made Lu Na blind and really, really hot.

  It wasn’t her feet burning, but her entire body.

  Lu Na clenched her left fist and flicked it left. She raised the earth below her that contained all the water she had made. It rapidly cooled the stone plank as well.

  With unsteady steps, Lu Na walked forward, trying to remember where the stone plank was. She could have easily walked on the earth she raised up, but she feared that doing so might have violated some rules of the trial.

  When Lu Na made it to the other side, Elder Hen grabbed her arm and helped her down. The old man’s tunic was sleeveless as he used them to wrap his feet.

  “Good job of slowing the lava,” Elder Hen said.

  “Yes, yes, that was a good show. But now the question you have to answer in order to make it to the next challenge.” The game master reached into his sleeves. He pulled it wide open and peered inside. “It seems that I have misplaced the question.”

  As he said that, the lava bubbled up against the cooled off lava. It was rising again.

  “Come on, you’re doing this deliberately,” Lu Na said. “You’re a ghost. You were conjuring an entire feast before. You’re telling me you lost the most important aspect of this trial?”

  “I don’t lie.” The game master glared at Lu Na.

  “Then fine. If you can’t find the question, then let us pass. It’s not our fault that you lost the question.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, the question opens up the next section. Without the correct question, it won’t open. Unless you somehow sprout wings to get to the other side.” The game master pointed at another platform that reached over their heads.

  “Young Miss Lu, move. The lava is almost here.” Elder Hen moved to the very edge of their platform.

  Lu Na clenched her left fist and raised the earth to stop the lava from washing over them. Except nothing happened. The moment the earth raised from the ground, the lava dissolved it.

  “Since you’ve been so rude, I think I’ll take a little longer to find the question. Maybe you’ll be more respectful in the future.” The game master shuffled around in his sleeves.

  Lu Na’s wrist was burning. Soon it wouldn’t be the only thing burning if she didn’t think of something.

  Death by lava was not on her list of ways to die.

  Lu Na pulled the spirit energy from the null metal bracelet into her spirit realm and cycled it. The process was too slow. She wouldn’t be able to use the bracelet before being swallowed by the lava.

  “Is there nothing you can do, Elder Hen?” Lu Na tried to force the spirit energy to leave the bracelet faster, but it was like drinking water while her stomach was already full. There was only so much she could shove in there before she exploded and with spirit energy, that felt like a real possibility.

  Elder Hen sighed.

  “Yes, but I didn’t want to use it unless we had no choice.”

  Lu Na waved her hands at the rising lava that was now inches away from their feet.

  “Hold on to my tunic.” Elder Hen clenched his left fist. Fengma appeared, rising from the very ground they stood on. He straddled the horse spirit with Lu Na behind him and patted it once on the head.

  Fengma neighed before taking one giant leap from the platform, practically flying up into the air to the next platform. Its hooves stuck itself to the stone platform, just barely reaching the lip.

  Lu Na hung off Elder Hen’s tunic. If it wasn’t tied down to his body so well, she would have slipped back into the lava.

  The horse spirit pulled itself up onto the platform, step by step, keeping at least one hoof onto the stone. It was like a magnet, but instead of stone the horse spirit stuck itself to stone.

  Once they got on top of the platform, Fengma disappeared in a puff of spirit energy. Elder Hen laid on the ground of the platform beside Lu Na.

  “I really didn’t want to do that,” Elder Hen said.

  “Why? It saved us.” Lu Na was breathing hard. “Elder Hen?”

  Lu Na turned toward the old man. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving.

  “Elder Hen?” Lu Na reached down and put her hand above his nose.

  He was still breathing.

  With relief, Lu Na sagged back down to the ground. That last act made by the Elder must have exhausted what little life force he had left. She remembered that the old man had little left and kept alive through elixirs.

  Lu Na was now truly alone. How could she complete this trial now?