Lu Na was reminded how much she hated ghosts. This Zi Xu was probably the worst of them all.

  “You knew, didn’t you? You knew that to open the door, someone like Hen Li would have to use his spirit to break it.”

  “I had a guess. It’s not like I didn’t live for two thousand years in this place.” Zi Xu pulled a cup of tea from thin air and sipped it as he did before. He pulled another chair out and sat on it, as if waiting for the show to start.

  “We can’t do that. It will kill him.” Elder Hen clenched his left fist. His horse spirit, Fengma, materialized beside him. “I will kill anyone that tries.”

  Lu Na felt the Elder’s glare on her.

  “Honorable Elder, it would be the last thing I’d want from someone who has saved my life. Let me try to figure this door out. Maybe we won’t need that. Just cover me as I figure it out.”

  Lu Na took out her special made tool. She plugged it into the door to see what it can figure out. There was little hope of it figuring anything out from something so complicated but it was all she could think of at that moment. If she could figure out even just a little of what this door can do, then maybe she could figure out a way to open it without Hen Li’s spirit essence.

  Meanwhile, Lu Na flicked the key from the ghost of Qingxizhen. He mentioned that it wasn’t just a simple key. He had modified it to work on the door and release the ghosts. Yet no matter how much Lu Na studied it, nothing else came up. It looked like the same key that Yang Deli had.

  “Wait, someone get me Yang Deli’s key. I need to compare them.”

  “Got it.” Senior Wong dashed off after the iron helmet.

  Lu Na never expected someone like Senior Wong to listen to her orders. This was an interesting change. Maybe the labyrinth also changed her as well.

  Senior Wong came back with the key.

  “Yang Deli told me to pass on that his soldiers are tiring. They’re going to press our side soon, so whatever you’re going to do, do it fast.” Senior Wong summoned her metal rooster and charged out to reinforce the soldiers.

  Lu Na used her spirit vision to compare the two keys. It looked almost identical except the ghost’s key had one small switch near the back. It didn’t do anything unless it was plugged into something.

  Lu Na stared at the door again. There was no keyhole, unlike the first gate they entered. However, who said that she couldn’t make one? All she’d need was a spirit wand to gather spirit energy to create the patterns.

  “Does anyone have a spirit wand?”

  “Here, take mine.” Elder Xu passed a bamboo spirit wand to Lu Na. “Don’t look at me like that. I use it to attract spirits. How else do you think I bind them to me?”

  Lu Na had way too many questions for her. If they survived this, maybe she might take her up on her offer to learn from her. There’s got to be something unique about the Elder’s summoner arts where she can bind multiple spirits to her. If Lu Na could figure it out, she could have an army.

  Lu Na focused on the spirit wand to gather spirit energy. Normally the labyrinth was filled with spirit energy, but because of the summoners and feral spirits using the spirit energy in the air it was dry. The spirit wand couldn’t gather any more than a drip.

  What if instead of from the surrounding areas, she gathered the spirit energy from within herself? She’d never tried this before, but with the technique she learned from Elder Xu she could use the spirit energy from her null metal to power the spirit wand.

  Lu Na gave it a try. She pulled the spirit energy from her bracelet to her own spirit realm before cycling it through her body. The process has become easier and faster. Soon her spirit realm was brimming with spirit energy.

  Lu Na closed her eyes to focus on the spirit technique that Nugua has shared with her. She pooled the spirit energy at the tip of the wand as much as she could. When she opened her eyes, the spirit energy was so dense at the tip that feral spirits charged her.

  “Do something about that. It’s attracting the spirits,” Elder Hen said. He pushed Fengma to charge at the incoming spirits as the soldiers supported the horse spirit.

  Lu Na drew a key pattern on the door. It was similar to the one she drew earlier with the gate. Only this time, she made a small modification so that it could fit the ghost’s key. She made sure to leave some spirit energy in the pattern so that it could charge the key.

  The pattern held for the moment, but it was quickly fading against the door. Lu Na pushed the ghost’s key into the pattern and it locked. The key blended with the door and both of them turned a dark yellow.

  That’s when the wailing started.

  Ghosts seeped through the walls from all over. The room became freezing cold. A few ghosts passed through the spirits and soldiers alike, freezing them in place.

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  Senior Wong attacked the ghost with her rooster spirit. It went right through, but the ghost stopped after colliding with the spirit. Senior Wong winced.

  “What’s going on Zi Xu?” Lu Na asked.

  Zi Xu put down his cup of tea on a table he materialized.

  “Oh, it looks like whatever you did to the door created a beacon for all the lost ghosts in the labyrinth. You just made it interesting. Normally, the lost ghosts wander the labyrinth and ignore everything. You told them all to come here.”

  “Will that open the door?”

  “Child, I think you broke the door.” Zi Xu examined the yellow door and the key. “In all my years of living here and guiding adventurers to this door, you are the first to ever break it. Congratulations.”

  “How can I fix it? How do I open it?” Lu Na tried to yank the yellow key but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Oh, do I look like a Xia inventor? I don’t know. I was one of those poor unfortunate souls that was forced to come live in here.”

  “So you don’t know what to do?”

  “Dear child, it’s been a fun game for me, watching you struggle and doing all these little things. I think the best part is watching as you make a mess of things, possibly breaking it forever.” Zi Xu laughed, shook his head and went back to drinking his tea. This time he materialized an entire meal and a larger table. “Don’t worry, I’ll save a seat for you after you die.”

  “The only good news is that the spirits have retreated for now,” Elder Xu said. “The bad news is that these ghosts are attacking the soldiers and our own spirits.”

  “Use your spirits to block them. It feels terrible, but better than they attack our bodies,” Senior Wong said.

  Sun Ren dashed over to Lu Na.

  “I don’t know what you did, but you gave us a little rest.” Sun Ren drank from her waterskin.

  “Not from the ghosts,” Lu Na said.

  “Doesn’t matter. Better the ghosts than those spirits. They’ve already cut down a third of Yang Deli’s forces and the rest of them are in bad shape. Do you need anything from me?”

  “Wait, didn’t he have a ghost hunter? Can he do anything for us?”

  “You can ask him yourself.”

  Yang Deli walked over with his retinue. The ghosts seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier that surrounded him. The ghost hunter daoist walked over with his red wooden sword up when he saw Zi Xu.

  “Don’t mind me, I’m harmless,” the ghost said. He drank some more tea. “Don’t worry. You’ll all join me soon enough unless Young Miss Lu here and her friends accept what I told them.”

  “What did you tell them?” Yang deli asked.

  “It’s a secret.” Zi Xu smiled wide and winked at Lu Na.

  Lu Na was tempted to drop all her spirit inventions and learn the art of ghost hunting if only to banish Zi Xu. Why wasn’t he helping her?

  “Well, whatever you did Young Miss Lu, it’s stopped the spirits for now,” Yang Deli said. “I fear that it will only be temporary as the ghosts are dwindling. Is there anything you can do to open that door?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You’re not holding out on me are you? As I told your companion, Young Miss Sun that—”

  “The assassin!” the soldiers shouted as one.

  “Yes, the assassin, Sun Ren. I told her that we’re in this together. All I want is for me and my men to get out of this alive. I don’t care for the treasure anymore if you can promise me that much.”

  “Why should I trust you? You’ve betrayed me multiple times,” Lu Na said.

  Yang Deli lifted his shirt sleeve to show a small cut on his upper arm.

  “I made a blood oath to Sun Ren that if she can get us out of here, then I will follow her.”

  “It’s true. If he breaks the oath now, he will die a horrible death,” Sun Ren said.

  Lu Na pulled Sun Ren aside.

  “What happened? We saw you run off. I didn’t expect you to suddenly subjugate the rebels.”

  “This labyrinth has shown me that I have been uptight. So instead of listening to that voice inside my head telling me what’s right, I chose to do what I wanted.” Sun Ren leaned in close to Lu Na. “The actual secret was your spirit, Nugua. She had unleashed her nagas on them. You remember that? They were so ruthless that Yang Deli’s men surrendered to me when I stopped them.”

  “Nugua? Where is she?” Lu Na could really use her help. Maybe the ancient spirit could give her a clue on how to fix this or get in.

  “Nugua told me that she’s going to stay a little longer on her own to explore the labyrinth. She said she trusts that you will solve it.”

  “That selfish spirit.”

  Sun Ren took Lu Na’s hand into hers.

  “You got this.”

  Lu Na shook her head.

  “Zi Xu told me that the only way we can open the door is if Hen Li uses all his spirit energy to open it through his spirit.”

  Sun Ren’s face dropped.

  “That would kill him.”

  “We can’t do that. I can figure it out.”

  “If you don’t, we’ll have to tell Hen Li.” Sun Ren glanced at the monk. “One person shouldn’t be valued more than all the others.”

  Lu Na turned toward Elder Hen.

  “Tell that to the Elder.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Sun Ren walked over to Yang Deli. They started a heated discussion.

  Lu Na’s analyzing device made a ding. She took it off the door. All it said was DANGER. The other readings told her that the door wasn’t a normal door.

  That wasn’t very useful. She already knew that. There was another reading though that confused Lu Na. It looked like it said that it wasn’t a door at all. What did it mean?

  Lu Na turned back to the door. An idea struck her. What if she used the same trick she used with the ghost’s key, but this time push it into her silver phoenix hairpin. Maybe by doing that, she can recharge it.

  Lu Na took out the spirit wand again. This time, the pattern should be simpler. All she needed to do was make sure that they connected and the phoenix hairpin should do the rest of the work.

  When she was done, she cycled the spirit energy from the null metal bracelet into the hairpin. Unlike the ghost’s key, the hairpin was only taking in a small amount of spirit energy. Could it filter out the energy it needed and ignored the rest?

  The hairpin got hot. It was doing the same thing as her bracelet, holding excess energy while only absorbing some.

  Lu Na blew on her hand. This was the best she could do. She used her spirit vision on it to see that the hairpin did get a trickle of spirit energy. However, it was nowhere as much as what it had before. It was now or never.

  She plugged the hairpin into the pattern she made onto the door. The entire door turned orange.

  The ghosts’ wailing became louder. After a few moments, they stopped and disappeared.

  “Oh crap,” one of the soldiers said.

  The feral spirits roared before rushing back into the small room.

  “What did you do?” Yang Deli yelled.

  “Everyone back to your posts. Defend Lu Na to your death!” Sun Ren shouted.

  The soldiers were sluggish at first until the first feral spirit charged into the spikes.

  “I don’t know what you did, Young Miss Lu. But you better figure out the door quick or else we’re all going to die here.” Senior Wong summoned her metal rooster and joined the fight.

  Lu Na could only stare as her hairpin was stuck just like the ghost’s key. What can she do? She tried everything already. She glanced at Hen Li. Was she going to have to ask him to do this for them? Would he?

  Would Lu Na sacrifice herself for everyone there?