The days that followed were a frantic, stressful mess. Jie worked hard on her very special gift, relying heavily on Elder Shi's advice and abilities to create something unique. She didn't know if it'd work as she hoped... but she didn't know what else to do.

  It was far from her main focus, however, as Elder Shi, Xue, and Jie poured over the notes, memory stones, and treasures Headmaster Siluvius had gifted her. Each of them prepared as best they could for the dangers they'd face in the Cursed Lands.

  Just getting there would prove tricky enough.

  Apparently, there was a massive bounty on Jie's head, posted by an anonymous source. She scoffed every time she thought of it. Who did the Chen family think they were kidding?

  Jie finally made time to go over everything they'd gained in the Crimson Valley together with Ithilix while Xue lounged nearby.

  It ached in her heart to do so. Pan Tian should've been with them...

  But it still needed to be done.

  They identified everything they'd collected in the valley and split up the rewards between them.

  They'd already done most of it but now they finally had time to see what they'd found in the lake temple chests which turned out to be a generous amount of lower dantian cultivation resources.

  Other than the cultivation and body conditioning resources they acquired, they agreed to sell the vast majority of the other items. There was no sense in carrying around weapons they'd never use or artwork neither of them cared all that much about. So, they agreed to auction most of it off.

  Then, it came time to go through the Chen children's and Kanev's rings.

  Jie felt a bit foolish for not knowing much about what they contained when the elders had been so thorough... but she'd heard none of their words at the time.

  "This one has no claim to their contents, Princess. There's no need to share with this one," Ithilix said when Jie made it clear she planned to divide up the contents of the rings.

  "We were a team," Jie said, "we divide the loot between us."

  "This one was of no help. This one failed. This one does not deserve--" Ithilix said.

  "Don't say that," Jie said a little more harshly than she'd meant to, "you did the best you could. We're a team. We're sharing the loot."

  "But this one--" Ithilix objected.

  "I'm done debating it," Jie said, "we'll go through everything and divide it up. Pan Tian should get a share too... and I want to add some of what we gained in the rest of the valley to her share as well since I was carrying most of the loot. Could you give it to Pan Zhanshi?"

  Ithilix was silent for a moment as though she felt conflicted about whether to continue trying to argue. Then, she bowed her head.

  "This one thinks that's a generous gesture," she said, "this one doesn't think he has returned from the funeral yet. When he does, this one will be sure to give him her share."

  Jie nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She still hadn't spoken with him. She felt increasingly sure that he hated her.

  "This one still thinks you should keep everything from their rings. But... This one is grateful, Princess," Ithilix said.

  Jie nodded again and took out the Chen children's rings, deciding to start with them.

  Rapidly, the floor of one of the rooms in Jie's residence turned into a chaotic mess as the sheer volume of items and resources threatened to overwhelm them.

  They had piles of lower dantian cultivation and body conditioning resources that Jie couldn't be bothered to count. Instead, they split the volume up into what seemed a fair division and stored them.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The weapons and other items took significantly more time and Jie rapidly grew irritated with identifying and sifting through them when she planned to simply hand the lot over to the Onyx Pavilion to sell unless Ithilix had an objection.

  But Ithilix insisted that she ought to know what they were in case something would be of use to her.

  It was tedious work and Jie found herself drawn to some of the other items simply to break up the monotony.

  Chen Yi's and Chen Lisha's rings had contained two additional rings. The two were rather unassuming bands of metal. Each of them was adorned with half a metal heart symbol. When pushed together, the rings formed a full heart.

  A scroll of wisdom told Jie they were promise rings... the kind lovers gave one another.

  So that's what the headmaster had been talking about... Jie thought. There were also quite a few memory stones and love notes the two had exchanged.

  It seemed a strange thing to Jie. Not just because they were family... but because it was hard to imagine someone from the Chen family feeling any sort of tender feelings for someone else.

  She turned her attention away from them and looked over a collection of rectangular crystal cards Chen Yi had been carrying. Some were blank, semi-transparent off-white crystal. While others seemed to be made of the same material yet were imbued with color and a slightly animated display of a cultivator with numbers and a name.

  "What are these?" Jie asked, wondering if they perhaps contained the souls of cultivators the Chen family had killed. It seemed like the sort of thing they'd do.

  Ithilix looked up from identifying yet another weapon, glanced at the crystal cards, and then tilted her head quizzically as though Jie had just asked if water was wet.

  "They're Dantia cards," Ithilix said.

  "Dantia cards?" Jie asked.

  "Yes," Ithilix said and turned her gaze back toward the pile of weapons nearest her.

  "And what are Dantia cards?" Jie asked.

  Ithilix looked back up at her, then stood and carefully stepped around the loot filling the room as she made her way to Jie's side and sat beside her.

  "This one is surprised you've not heard of them before. They're for a game," Ithilix said.

  She selected one of the blank cards and stared at it as her green, poisonous qi filled it like deadly smoke pouring into a glass. The crystal card turned green and shifted to display an animated image of Ithilix whirling her deadly spear around her with masterful skill as her barbed tail lashed at the air.

  Under the image on the card were the words 'Academy Ithilix' and a small description box below it. With red numbers on the left and green on the right.

  "Cultivators imbue the cards and create one in their image like this," Ithilix said as she held the card in front of Jie.

  Jie stared at it, once again finding herself amazed by this strange world.

  Ithilix pointed at the red numbers. "This is the attack value of the card," she said before pointing at the green numbers, "and this is the health value."

  "Eight hundred and thirty five attack... seven hundred and ninety health. Is that high?" Jie asked.

  "It's a little higher than average for this one's rank," Ithilix said.

  Jie frowned slightly. "So, this shows how strong you are?"

  "It's just a game," Ithilix said, "the cards aren't very accurate.

  "And what about this?" Jie asked as she pointed at a small box of text in the description section of the card.

  Ithilix's Poison: Cards hit by Ithilix's attacks take additional damage every turn unless cured.

  "That's an extra ability. A lot of cards have them," Ithilix said, "sometimes a card you imbue will have different abilities or none of them."

  "Weird..." Jie said.

  Ithilix shook her head. "Not at all. Dantia is extremely common. This one is surprised that you haven't encountered it before," she said.

  "I guess I mostly just focus on training..." Jie said.

  "Would you like for this one to teach you how to play?" Ithilix asked.

  Jie considered that. She wanted to get back to training as soon as possible... but she couldn't help feeling a bit curious...

  "Will it take a long time to explain?" she asked.

  Ithilix shook her head. "The rules are quite simple. This one suggests that we play a game together so you can see how it works," she said, "though this one would like something in return."

  "What would you like?" Jie asked.

  "This one wants a card of you and one of Xue. And Pan Zhanshi may wish for one as well," Ithilix said.

  "I don't know if he'd want one of me..." Jie said.

  "This one is happy to have two if he does not," Ithilix said as though it were of no concern.

  "Alright... then can I have this one of you?" Jie asked.

  Ithilix nodded then withdrew two additional cards from her storage ring.

  One was of Pan Zhanshi, shrouded in shadow, looking intimidating. The other was of Pan Tian. She slashed at the air, creating arcs of resplendent moonlight qi.

  Pan Tian's face seemed more playful than serious though and she burst into silent laughter as she broke off her attack and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

  "Would you like these ones as well, Princess?" Ithilix asked, "This one has several of them."

  "I would," Jie said, suddenly finding herself ambushed by emotions once again. Though they weren't entirely unpleasant, and she found herself smiling at the miniature Pan Tian.

  Ithilix handed them to her.

  "When did they give you these?" Jie asked.

  "While we were working on your cultivation bracelet, Princess," Ithilix said as she held out a blank card toward Jie.

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0DM1R7ZNZ

  https://www.patreon.com/c/darengillingham

  https://www.subscribestar.com/daren-gillingham