Lu Na awoke with her arms tingling. She had been sleeping on them and now she was paying the price. It felt similar to when Elder Xu used a technique to push out the remaining spirit energy within her body. Except that burned all at once as if she was really on fire.

  “Good morning Na Na,” Sun Ren said. She had been sitting beside Lu Na with a dagger out. It looked like she was carving a poem on the side of the fountain.

  “Good morning, Sun Ren. Did you get any sleep?” Lu Na sat up and stretched. Her back and side hurt. She would not complain about sleeping in grass again.

  “Yes, but I need little sleep. I just made sure that everything was quiet until everyone woke up.”

  “That’s good. Where are the Elders?”

  “Those old monsters need less sleep than even me. They’ve been talking about plans and such most of the night. They’ve also sent a few scouts ahead of us in hopes to see what we might encounter. The monk went with them.”

  “Oh? I would have thought Hen Li wouldn’t have wanted to work with his former sect.”

  “He insisted since he had the clear eyes technique. But they’ve been gone for a while.”

  Elder Hen and Xu walked up to the two ladies.

  “Good morning,” Lu Na said with cupped hands and a bow.

  “Good morning. We’ve run into a problem,” Elder Hen said. “The scouts we sent have been gone for too long.”

  “What do you want us to do about it?” Sun Ren crossed her arms.

  “Since you two seemed to have more experience here, we thought maybe you knew what’s going on.”

  “We don’t know. We never went down that way,” Lu Na answered.

  “Why don’t you send one of your disciples’ spirit to check?” Sun Ren asked.

  Elder Xu cackled.

  “You are truly ruthless to suggest we send our spirits into mortal danger. There’s no telling what would happen to them if they should die here. Besides, if you feel that way, why don’t you send yours, girl?”

  “Mine is trapped behind the rebels in the outer sanctum. I don’t know what happened to her.” Sun Ren scowled.

  Lu Na felt bad for leaving Baihu behind.

  “Then why don’t we all go as a group? That’s the only safe route as the way we came was filled with traps that we can’t see without Hen Li.”

  Elder Xu hummed.

  “Very well, I’ll use one of my minor spirits to scout for us. Get everyone ready to move, Hen Shimin.”

  Elder Hen nodded and set off to get all his disciples moving.

  “Meanwhile, is there anything you can do for my spirit to protect him?” Elder Xu asked Lu Na.

  “I can probably give him a spirit skin that can prevent most spirit techniques from hurting him. My other type of protection deals with using earth spirit energy to create walls. But I would have to be close enough to cast it.”

  “No, you can’t walk ahead,” Sun Ren said. “That’s too dangerous.”

  Elder Xu leaned in close, despite Sun Ren holding a dagger in her hand.

  “Look child. Without us, you would walk through these narrow hallways on your own, anyway. But beyond that, if you truly want this partnership to work, then you have to risk something as well.”

  “All you’re risking is one of your spirits. Lu Na’s life is worth a million of those,” Sun Ren said.

  Elder Xu cracked a smile. It was so wide that it looked like it would overtake the sides of her face.

  “I like you. I haven’t been contradicted since my sifu passed. So I’ll tell you what. I’ll walk ahead with your little friend and you can come too. If anything goes wrong, we can all defend each other.”

  “But—”

  “That’s fine with me,” Lu Na said. She pulled Sun Ren to the side. “Look, she’s right. We would be walking by ourselves, anyway. At least this way we can have a powerful summoner back us up.”

  “But that’s not how to negotiate. They have so many people and we saved them from certain death.” Sun Ren glared at Elder Xu. “We only have one of you and one of me. They have—”

  “I know, but if Hen Li was here, he’d say that all life is precious. Just because they have more people, it doesn’t mean that they’re worthless. So let’s try our best and find out what happened to Hen Li. Please, Sun Ren.” Lu Na held Sun Ren’s hand.

  “Fine. But at the first sign of trouble, we’re running. I’m not dying for these Wintersweet idiots.” Sun Ren walked ahead toward the hallway entrance.

  “She’s right,” Elder Xu said. “It wouldn’t be so bad if we sent a few more of our people out first to see what’s going on. Even if a few of my disciples die, it would be nothing for you.”

  It was Lu Na’s turn to glare at Elder Xu.

  “You and your sect might think nothing of these people, but they have families to get back to. I’m not like you or your sect that are so willing to sacrifice your disciples on the order of some monster you call an Ancestor.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Elder Xu cackled. It was a higher pitch than the usual.

  “I like you child. I hope that you survive until the end.”

  Lu Na rolled her eyes before joining Sun Ren.

  “I’m sorry Sun Ren. I know that you’re trying to do your best for us, but I can’t watch as others die.”

  Sun Ren patted Lu Na’s back.

  “It’s fine. You’ve not been trained since childhood to be a ruthless strategist like me. Sometimes I forget that other people have value beyond what I can use them for.”

  “Like Hen Li?”

  Sun Ren sucked her teeth.

  “Yes, that monk is the perfect example of irritating yet so helpful.”

  "Am I useful to you?” Lu Na asked. She thought that this was the perfect time to ask as Sun Ren was more truthful now more than ever.

  “Na Na, you’ve asked this before. You’re not useful. You’re precious to me.”

  “There’s a difference?”

  “You are as important to me as my father’s prized sword is to him. Now stop fussing and focus.”

  Lu Na smiled. She felt good, despite being reminded again. She had someone in this life that likes her for her. Now she could die happy.

  Not that she planned to.

  Elder Xu clenched her right fist and summoned her spirit. It was a sable, a weasel as small as a cat, and it had a dark green coat. On its neck, there was a small patch of red. It chittered at Elder Xu before dashing around to the Wintersweet disciples.

  “How did your spirit not manifest itself?” Lu Na asked.

  “Oh? While the labyrinth has its ways of forcing our spirits out of our bodies, I have my own techniques that capture and store spirits.”

  “That is amazing. So you’re saying you’re able to capture spirits with your technique and summon them like your own?”

  “Oh, I seem to have caught your attention. If you’re really nice to me, I might teach you how to do it. That and you would have to be my daughter. But I warn you, the requirements are brutal.”

  “What?”

  “Go ask your friend Lu Fen later. She tried to apply, but failed miserably.”

  If Lu Na could learn how to use that technique, what would stop her from creating her own army of spirits that she captured? She could picture having powerful spirits fighting for her without ever worrying about injuring herself.

  Xiao Zongse, get over here,” Elder Xu commanded. She raised her right fist and it glowed white. Her sable spirit squeaked and ran over. “Good. Now I’m going to ask you to scout for us. Be careful.”

  The sable nodded.

  “Girl, do what you can to protect him. Don’t forget to protect yourself too,” Elder Xu said.

  Lu Na clenched her left fist and flicked it right, placing a spirit skin over the sable spirit. Then she did the same for herself and Sun Ren. She tapped the light ward and it turned on.

  “Are you ready?” Sun Ren asked.

  “Let’s do this.” Lu Na was afraid of what was to come, but it also excited her. They were going to be one step closer to freeing her mother and getting out of there.

  There was nothing in the hallway. The only thing the group encountered was cold. It felt like they were walking up a mountain and the air was thinner, colder. At one point, Lu Na could see her breath.

  When they got to the end of the hallway, it opened up. They walked into a large open space that looked like the courtyard of a very rich merchant. In fact, it looked eerily similar to her own home at the Lu compound. The entire space was lit with large light wards hanging from the very ceiling, which looked lower than in the previous spaces.

  “Well, this is new,” Sun Ren said. “I was expecting to fight more feral spirits or something. But an empty compound is not the worst thing in the world.”

  Lu Na felt it before she saw it. She flicked her left wrist and raised three earth walls in front of them into a semi dome. Loud thuds hit the wall and some large blades cut through, poking out from the earth wall.

  Elder Xu’s sable spirit jumped back and wrapped itself behind Lu Na’s legs. It chittered non-stop.

  Just in case, Lu Na flicked her wrist again and raised another earth wall behind the semi-dome, this time made of stone. She would not take the risk of the first one breaking.

  “That was close,” Sun Ren said. She had her waist sword out. “How did you know?”

  “I felt a spirit technique activate. It was like my own wards. I didn’t know what was going to happen, though.” Lu Na focused on the null bracelet. It was getting hot already. She had to pace herself.

  The thuds finally stopped.

  “What do we do now?” Lu Na asked.

  “Hey spirit, go around the walls to look,” Sun Ren said.

  The sable spirit got up onto its hind legs and chittered at Sun Ren. Then, noticing that it wasn’t understood, it shook its head.

  Sun Ren kneeled down and stabbed her dagger into the ground next to the sable.

  “I’m not sure if you can understand this, but you’re here to scout. If you’re not useful, then there’s no point for you or your master to follow us.”

  The sable glanced at the dagger and squeaked in a high pitch. It scampered around the earth walls slowly. It stepped past the earth wall before running back.

  More thuds showered the earth wall. Soon there was the sound of metal on the stone wall.

  “Well, we can’t move past the entrance. Let’s head back,” Sun Ren said.

  “No wait, there must be something we’re missing,” Lu Na said. “If this happened every time someone came through here, wouldn’t the Wintersweet disciples and Hen Li be dead from this hail of blades?”

  “Yes, but it’s not worth risking our lives to figure it out. Let’s bring the two old monsters here. They’d have a better chance of surviving whatever it is.”

  “Let me try something,” Lu Na said.

  The thudding stopped.

  Lu Na kept her left fist clenched. She was going to test her theory, but she didn’t want to be skewered. The only thing she knew for certain was that the blades didn’t attack them right away, so she’d have time to raise more earth walls if needed.

  Lu Na waved her right hand past her stone wall before pulling it back.

  Nothing.

  Next she stepped around it and then back.

  Still nothing.

  Finally, Lu Na walked out into the open past her walls. She looked around, trying to figure out where the blades were coming from. Maybe it was coming from the ceiling or another device close by?

  There was a mountain of blades either stuck in the earth wall or clattered to the floor. Did the device run out of blades to shoot at them? Or was it something else?

  Slowly, she walked back behind the walls.

  “It looks safe, but I want to test one more thing.” Lu Na crouched down toward the sable spirit. “Do you think you can step outside and then run back in afterwards?”

  The sable spirit tilted its head. It chittered a little bit before running past the walls. In mere moments, it came running back.

  That’s when the shower of blades came back. Each strike hitting the stone wall, this time louder than before.

  Lu Na focused on the stone wall and felt it weakening, not from the sharpness of the blades, but the impact. She flicked her wrist left again to repair and strengthen the stone wall.

  After a few more seconds, the storm of blades finally stopped.

  “Hello back there. Are you dead yet?” came a man’s voice behind the wall.

  Lu Na recognized that voice. It was Zi Xu.

  “Don’t do that again or you will trigger the bigger trap. It will crush your walls and then your body, blocking this entrance. It’s so nice to see you alive and well.”

  No thanks to that ghost. He left them in that building that went up in flames. Before that, he tried to release nagas on them. It wouldn’t have surprised Lu Na if he was the one who sent all those feral spirits to attack them when the gates were first opened.

  “Let’s go back,” Sun Ren said.

  “No, I’m going to beat that ghost so hard that his own dead ancestors won’t recognize him,” Lu Na said.

  “As much as I would agree with you, but I don’t see how.”

  Lu Na took out a different kind of ward. This time, this didn’t have any special techniques written into it. It was a Buddhist talisman that she had made from an actual Buddhist temple. It was supposed to protect her and ward her from ghosts and such.