Ling Qi closed her eyes and tilted her head back, resting it against the cool stone behind her. The mud and grime she had collected during the dream was gone, and she was no longer drenched to the bone, but she still felt drained. The task of keeping so many people moving while avoiding the attention of the cloud tribe outriders had been exhausting. She had largely been winging it the entire time, and despite the fact that she had gotten half a hundred people to relative safety, the achievement felt empty.

  The sight of a city falling to a massive funnel of wind was burned into her mind. It made her feel small and weak in a way that she hadn’t since before she had come to the Sect. It brought to mind memories of crouching in a water barrel, praying that a merchant’s guards wouldn’t find her,of running for her life from a street gang that had taken offense to her being in their territory. When she thought of all the people left in that city to die, it left her feeling cold and empty.

  “You can pick the next one, Xiulan. Just give me a few minutes,” Ling Qi said without opening her eyes. In the end, everything she had seen had happened long before she was born; it may as well have been a play. She wasn’t foolish enough to think she could have done anything to prevent the tornado, or even that she owed an effort to try, but it was unsettling that something as permanent and enduring as a city could be torn down so easily by the power of a higher realm cultivator. She should have realized the gap when she had seen the giant sinkhole Elder Ying had created, but Ogodei’s attack had been more visceral somehow.

  “Well, if you are offering……” She cracked her eyes open as Xiulan spoke, watching her friend peer at the three remaining trials. She caught the girl giving her a furtive look of slight concern though.

  Ling Qi couldn’t bring herself to comment on it. She knew she was being foolish. There would be plenty of time for meditation and reflection later, after the trial. Still, she remained seated, focusing on quieting and centering herself while Gu Xiulan considered the remaining options. Glancing toward the exit, Ling Qi noted that the intensity of the light hadn’t changed much; here, in the outside world, it seemed that only an hour or two had passed.

  “This one,” Xiulan announced, drawing her attention once more. “I have little desire to see the frozen seas in the north, nor to skulk about. Facing the beasts in the west is the best option for us together.”


  “Oh?” Ling Qi had been leaning toward the white owl herself, but she supposed Xiulan wouldn’t be interested in something like that. “What makes you think that one will be a straight fight?” She didn’t object, but she was curious as to her friend’s reasoning. “The last one wasn’t after all.”


  Xiulan frowned at the reminder. “I cannot guarantee it, of course, but it seems the most likely option for a fight compared to the other two.”


  “Fair enough,” Ling Qi said, pushing herself up to stand and moving beside her friend in front of the image of the malformed beast man on the wall. “Anything I should know about the destination?”


  Xiulan cupped her chin thoughtfully, taking the question seriously. “Trust nothing in the environment. The trees and plants are as dangerous as the beasts,” she responded. “Were this real, we would want lotions and medicines. The insects, air, and water contain many foul illnesses that may lay even a cultivator low. Unless the trial is to last days or weeks though, that should not be an issue…… but if need be, my arts allow for a degree of purification.”


  “Sounds like a lovely place,” Ling Qi said dryly, toying with the clasp at the end of her braid. “Anything else?”


  “We should stay together if possible this time,” Xiulan said. “I know little more beyond tales, but every person who has spoken of those jungles in my presence has called them dangerous.”


  Ling Qi raised an eyebrow but didn’t question that. Xiulan looked determined again; she seemed to be taking this trial as a personal challenge. Ling Qi was alright with that. She shared a look with the other girl and nodded, reaching out her right hand in time with her friend

  Once again, everything vanished into darkness

  The first sensation Ling Qi noticed was the heat, an overbearing, humid weight pressing down on her from all sides. As her vision cleared, she found herself in a clearing surrounded by a riot of color. Tall trees, stretching many meters overhead, yet lacking the rough, gnarled bark of the trees from home. Instead, their trunks were smooth expanses of green and brown, overgrown with bright red vines with flowering blossoms of yellow strewn about. The ground was uneven with the thick growth of roots and nearly invisible under the dense carpet of fronds and other flowering plants.

  More unsettlingly, the tree branches and the vines that hung from the trees swayed subtly despite unmoving air around them, any breeze long since choked out by the unbroken canopy above…… The ferns at her feet reached above her ankles and their pinnae were edged with red, uncomfortably reminiscent of a murderer’s knife She was glad she had not worn sandals or low shoes for this trial. At the side of the clearing was a stream, a little over two meters across. It did not look deep, but the muddy brown water was too opaque to tell for sure, the rippling surface only broken by the occasional flash of color. Fish, perhaps?

  The other detail that drew her eye was a path hacked out of the thick surrounding vegetation. Several stumps lined the path, their surfaces stained with deep red sap that seemed to quiver with life, sprouting little blossoms of green that visibly strained upward towards the gaps in the treeline overhead. The path extended well out of sight, curving around a dense copse of particularly massive trees.

  Before she could examine the surroundings further, the air in front of them distorted, and characters formed, seemingly drawn from the moisture in the air.

  “A survival test then,” Xiulan said, frowning as she crossed her arms. “I suppose a simple battle was too much to hope for.”


  Ling Qi glanced up at the sky, visible due to the gap the stream carved through the canopy. It was fairly early in the morning.

  “It looks like we’ll be here for a while too, if the last line is any indication,” she said, glad that her cultivation made her resistant to extreme temperatures. She had a feeling she would be drenched in sweat if she were still a mortal.

  “Quite,” Xiulan sighed, visibly dismissing her irritation as she focused on the task ahead. “I suspect we will want to keep moving. Staying still will likely draw more and more enemies.”


  “Or we might just tire ourselves out,” Ling Qi pointed out, listening closely. She could hear the sound of water falling from upstream. “If we can find a good defensive position, we might give ourselves an advantage.”


  “I suppose,” Xiulan said reluctantly, peering down the path. “Of course, there may be potential allies here as well. The natives do not damage the jungle so crudely to my knowledge.”


  “Well…… “ Ling Qi said, considering the options before them and the frustratingly vague instructions they had received. “I don’t believe that staying in one place is the best way to survive this,” she decided. It seemed like it would send the wrong message. And it’s not like they had a reason to expect rescue. If this were a real situation, what would hunkering down achieve?

  “I am glad to see you being less passive,” the other girl said agreeably, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “I agree, of course. Shall we take the path then?”


  LIng Qi nodded, peering down the torn-up path. The dirt was churned up as if the lesser plantlife had been torn up by the roots. “It might be dangerous, but yes, the path feels like the right way to start,” she said, glancing toward the treeline warily. “.…… And I don’t really like the way those vines are moving. I’d rather avoid them.”


  Xiulan followed her gaze and frowned. “I agree. They unsettle me,” she admitted, eyeing the subtly wriggling vines. “Sadly, I do not have enough qi to afford to burn them all.”


  “I would prefer that we not set the whole jungle on fire anyway,” Ling Qi said dryly, heading toward the path. “I might not mind the heat much, but unlike some people, I can’t breath in the middle of a cloud of smoke.”


  “As if you could not simply blow it away easily enough,” Xiulan retorted with a sniff, falling in beside her. “Shall we keep a moderate pace?”


  Ling Qi nodded. There was no reason to run or rush; they didn’t have a destination or a time limit after all. They could afford to be cautious.

  Picking their way through the stump-lined path without stepping into the gooey crimson sap that bled from the shattered wood was a trial, and maintaining footing on the churned dirt that writhed under their feet with new growth was hardly easier. Several times, Ling Qi nearly tripped when a fibrous feeler grasped feebly at her feet. It was even worse when they strayed too close to the edge of the path.

  The first time Ling Qi had allowed her attention to wander a little, she had to throw herself to the ground, losing several strands of hair as grasping, wriggling vines passed through where her neck had just been a moment ago. When they had come across a fallen tree lying across the path, several branches had whipped to life as they climbed over it, and jagged, claw-like twigs had drawn a line of blood on Xiulan’s cheek.

  Even more than such dangers though, it was the insects that truly made the trip hellish. Ling Qi was constantly feeling the pinch of some buzzing pest on her neck or hands, and even after swatting them by the dozen, there was always more. It was enough to make her consider deploying her mist and its hungry phantoms just to ward them off. She only restrained herself because she was certain that it would draw greater threats, and she was still wary of spending qi frivolously.

  The two were not without resources though. Ling Qi was adaptable, and so was Gu Xiulan. For Xiulan, it was as simple as letting her irritation surface, frying the little pests in snapping displays of smoke and sparks. Ling Qi found it easier to cycle the wind around her, little gusts of air blowing her own tormentors away.

  All the while, the sun beat down on them overhead, and despite the resilience that allowed her to traverse snowstorms without trouble or hold her hand in an open flame, Ling Qi found her head pounding painfully in the almost red sun’s light. She was able to keep going despite the headache, but it left her in increasingly poor temper when combined with all the other irritations. The two conversed little as they traveled, saving their breath for hiking, pointing out dangers, or conferring on bypassing obstacles.

  Ling Qi was tentatively optimistic about their choice of a trial. Despite the many, many irritants, they had yet to run across anything truly dangerous, and they remained mostly out of reach of the environment’s basic hazards. On the other hand, it was far too silent. There was the constant buzzing of insects, of course, but no birdsong or other signs of life as they followed the winding path north. Going by Xiulan’s uneasy expression, the girl had noticed as well.

  Their caution only grew as the two of them caught a horrible, cracking sound in the distance that Ling Qi was able to recognize as wood splintering and the yowls of some injured beast. She had a feeling they were coming up on the maker of the path. However, before they did, they found themselves at a crossroads. The torn-up path crossed with an actual road of sorts formed of flat white stones, caulked together with something glistening and red. The road was strangely undamaged despite the destructive path that continued unabated on either side.

  To the east, a good sixty meters down the road, the jungle opened up, revealing a vast field of bright yellow flowers taller than Ling Qi was. The jungle stopped abruptly at its edge, as if held back by some invisible wall. She recognized them as the flowers Sun Liling had summoned after after all. She felt a tinge of unease just looking at them, and the pounding in her head seemed to intensify.

  “It seems east is out,” Gu Xiulan replied tightly, her stance guarded as she glanced warily toward the continuing path where the animal sounds had ceased.

  “Yeah, I can agree with that,” Ling Qi said quietly, eyeing the flowers warily. “What is up with those anyway? Sun Liling summoned them in the council fight.”


  “The barbarians worship them,” Xiulan explained tersely. “They water them with blood and flesh. We need to move-”


  A loud crash and a bloodthirsty howl interrupted her. A massive figure slammed down across the road from them, cratering the torn-up earth as it landed. It was shaped like a human but huge and distorted, skin the color of tarnished bronze stretched tight over powerful muscle. Its belly was fat and distended, wobbling as it stood to its full height, and its face wholly inhuman with a mouth far too wide filled with twisting, curling fangs that dripped gore. Its eyes were solid black without iris or pupil, and sharpened spikes of black bone rose from its scalp like hair. Knobby ridges of bone protruded like armor from its flesh, protecting its vitals.

  There was no time to confer as the beast bellowed again and charged at them. Ling Qi felt a thrill of fear at the speed, and she belatedly realized that its physique breached the third realm. She summoned her flute and began to play, hurriedly backpedaling from the charging giant. Mist rolled out, and their surroundings cooled as her qi shrouded the monster, clouding its sight and senses. However powerful its body, its spirit was weaker, if still on a level with her own.

  As her mist rolled forth, Xiulan darted away in another direction, and blue-white flowers of flame bloomed in the path of the giant’s charge. They burst as it ran through them, and the bronze-skinned beast let out a furious scream that sent a shiver through Ling Qi’s bones as the flames scoured its flesh and left its bony growths blackened and crumbling.

  Its black eyes rolled angrily in its head, and its charge stumbled to a halt. The beast threw its head back and forth like a bull stung by insects, and for a moment, Ling Qi thought she had managed to make the creature lose them. Then its gaze snapped to her. She was still more than fifteen meters away, but something told her she wasn’t safe. She let her dark qi flow through her meridians, blending with the mist.

  The giant’s hand snapped out, open as if to grab her, and her eyes widened as the limb rocketed toward her, covering the distance in an instant, too fast to fully avoid. She felt its thick fingers close around her waist, and the world blurred around her as she was yanked back toward the beast. Ling Qi tried to flit away as a shadow but failed, something more than brute strength keeping her in the creature’s grasp.

  She heard Xiulan cry out, and lashes of dark red flame curled and pulled at the creature’s limb, burning deep black lines into flesh and muscle. But the giant simply snarled, ignoring the other girl in favor of dragging Ling Qi closer to its gaping, fang-filled maw.

  Threads 101-Descent 3

  There was not much to say about the first day traveling downward. She and Liao Zhu blazed through the path ahead, scouting out the tunnels Su Ling had marked for travel. They worked their way through winding, often tight tunnels and caverns aglow with fungal wonders and crawling chitinous wildlife. They marked down dangers and reported back, allowing the others to prepare to push through the caverns’ natural fauna.

  All the while, they descended, and the air changed. Where before it had merely been unpleasant and stale, touched by rot and decay, it soon began to burn. Although Ling Qi was strong enough to resist the effects, it nonetheless made her feel oily and unclean like she had wallowed in a sewage pipe. On a whim, she had tested the air by plucking out a hair and casting it away. The hair had sizzled and disintegrated before it touched the ground.

  All the while, the beasts around them began to grow stranger in form. The caverns grew more verdant, bursting with swollen and unpleasant life. As they approached their first campsite, they had to push through a veritable jungle of fleshy, pale blue ferns that glowed faintly in the dark and grew around the bases of towering, black mushrooms the size of trees. Twisted and misshapen things ambled and skittered in the dark on either too many or too few limbs.

  It had been well over two hours since she had last sensed a first realm creature. Even the clinging fronds that swayed and grasped at her as she passed through them were filled with an unpleasantly viscous energy dense enough to feel analogous to the second realm.

  “
” Liao Zhu’s voice echoing in her ear did not make her jump; she was more than used to it by now.

  “Collapsed passage, or something more lively?” Ling Qi asked under her breath, trusting in his communication art to carry her words as she moved along the perimeter of the cave, searching for gaps and side tunnels which might contain foes.

  “
” his voice answered back.

  “Almost finished with the perimeter. Be there shortly,” Ling Qi replied in a whisper. she thought.

  Hanyi grumbled.

  Ling Qi smiled. Zhengui had already proven useful; the roots and trunks that he grew could prop up unstable tunnels, which were quite common on the route they had taken. That must be why their enemies didn’t use the route they took. Hanyi, on the other hand, didn’t have much to do while they were avoiding going loud.

  she chided. She felt Sixiang tug at her senses then and turned her eyes toward a man-sized crack in the ceiling. She still had more investigating to do.

  Happily, it was just another brief dead end. Ling Qi was happy to emerge from the frond forest as she finished her search. Liao Zhu stood by their tunnel exit, his chimera beast already digging through the rubble, burning away stone with silver fire that bled from his eyes and brushing aside ash with his paws.

  Ling Qi gave Zhengui a nudge, and he materialized just outside the tunnel. It was almost routine by now, and she soon felt the subtle fluctuation of wood qi as roots began to break the surface, crawling up the sides of the tunnel.

  “The next cavern is where we planned to camp, right?” Ling Qi asked as she stepped back with Liao Zhu to let their spirits do their work.

  “Yes. Given that we have had to deviate slightly already, it would be best to allow Junior Sister Su to cast the bones again,” he answered.

  She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye. “You seemed a bit different talking to her. Why was that?”


  “Bombast and flirtation were not what she needed,” Liao Zhu replied blithely. “Rather, affirmation of her skill was the most important factor.”


  “I suppose so,” Ling Qi said, only to narrow her eyes. “Wait, are you saying I needed those things?”


  He chuckled. “Come, Junior Sister. They have broken through. We must prepare the camp for our comrades.”


  She huffed as he strode away and vanished between one step and the next. He just couldn’t stop messing with her, could he?

  With Liao Zhu sending the all clear back, it did not take too long for the others to catch up. While no one was wounded, the main group was still a little worse for the wear. Ji Rong’s tunic was stained with unpleasant fluids, and Xuan Shi’s defensive constructs buzzed and flitted around him agitatedly. Bian Ya was pristine, sitting side-saddle on her companion, her eyelids fluttering rapidly while she communed with the Sect’s base. Su Ling just looked agitated.

  She and Hanyi had prepared a small part of the next cavern, freezing and destroying the unpleasant flora to give everyone a place to sit and rest while Su Ling performed her divinations. It was not a long rest however, and soon, they had a choice before them. They were approaching the edge of the Sect’s mapping, and Su Ling’s divination revealed the passages they had been planning to take had collapsed, and it was beyond their ability to dig them out in a timely fashion.

  That meant that they were going to have to venture into the unknown sooner rather than later. The fires revealed two potential paths which their enemies did not occupy. So, Ling Qi and Liao Zhu set out again to do some preliminary scouting of the two paths.

  ***

  “It’s some kind of massive fungus thing,” Ling Qi said with a grimace as she returned. “It’s spongy and black, and it fills this whole huge cavern. There are passages we can move through in it though, and I didn’t detect any activity from the thing.”


  Sixiang whispered.

  “There was no activity in the material world,” Ling Qi amended.

  The others sat or stood in a small circle in the clear portion of the cavern. Guan Zhi nodded to her. “And the other, Liao Zhu?”


  “It is a most direct route indeed, a ravine many kilometers deep whose bottom was beyond my sight, Commander,” he replied, bowing with a flourish.

  Su Ling chewed her lower lip. “The first passes close to our enemy and is slower beside, but the second……” She trailed off, looking at the chitin plate inscribed with characters representing various levels of danger from spirits and beasts. It was shattered to fragments.

  “An ill-omen indeed,” Xuan Shi said gravely.

  Guan Zhi closed her eyes for a moment. “I would hear your thoughts.”


  “What’s there to say?” Ji Rong scoffed. “We can’t let the rats know we’re coming, so we go down the ravine. We just gotta deal with the danger.”


  “Miss Su did indicate that the fungal passages merely pass close. Should we exercise a little subtlety, I am sure we can slip by,” Bian Ya suggested. Su Ling’s mouth snapped shut, and Ling Qi was certain that she had been about to say something similar.

  “I am inclined toward the more efficient path,” Liao Zhu said. “Between Ling Qi and myself, I believe that any dangers may be bypassed or mitigated.”


  Xuan Shi frowned silently.

  “I don’t feel like it’s the best idea to tempt the unknown,” Ling Qi said slowly. “How close is ‘close to the enemy’?”


  “Estimating based on known enemy locations, the passages nearby are likely a supply route,” Guan Zhi answered.

  Su Ling grunted. “That about matches up with the divination. Low concentration but near.”


  “Then I think it’s the best path,” Ling Qi said, shooting an apologetic look at Liao Zhu.

  He merely chuckled. “I was merely expressing confidence in our abilities. This will be a different sort of challenge.”


  “My agreement lies with Miss Ling. This one has prepared resources for such trials, even if the hour has come sooner than not,” Xuan Shi agreed, giving her a nod.

  “Hope you put as much effort into them as you do sucking up to girls,” Ji Rong sneered.

  Hanyi complained in her head.

  Xuan Shi scowled at Ji Rong from behind his collar, but Guan Zhi silenced both of them with a look. “I am inclined to avoid unknowns at this point in the operation as well. The Sect has studied the enemy’s scouting patterns.”


  “What do we call these fuckers anyway?” Ji Rong asked. “Can’t just keep saying ‘the enemy.’”


  “Shishigui,” Bian Ya said quietly. “The corpse eaters.”


  Guan Zhi glanced at Bian Ya. “That is the term which has spread among those on the front line. The Sect has not yet officially adopted the term, but it will do.”


  Sixiang mused.

  There was a difference, Ling Qi thought. Despite seeming similar, the words used had different connotations.

  Sixiang whispered dubiously.

  “Disciple Liao, Disciple Ling, continue ahead, but keep the distance short. We will be coordinating more closely for this leg of the journey,” Guan Zhi ordered crisply. “Everyone else, back into battle formation.”


  Ling Qi stood, smoothing her dress as the others rose as well. For better or for worse, the choice was made.

  The passages that led on were less steep than some of the proceeding ones and far narrower at that, only wide enough for two men standing shoulder to shoulder at their widest. For Ling Qi and Liao Zhu, it was about a ten minute trip before they started to see signs of the fungal growth. It spread weblike through the corridors, clinging to the ceiling and walls in thick fleshy strands. Here and there, the fungal growth had peeled away from the ceiling to hang in drooping loops.

  As they proceeded down the tunnels, the growth grew thicker. Soon, they strode across a spongy mat of fungus, and the walls grew ever harder to make out. The whole of it tugged at her senses as well. The presence of the stuff seemed to fill her spiritual senses with a sort of blurriness.

  “Are you well, Junior Sister?” Liao Zhu asked. They stood outside the mouth of the passage that opened into the main body of the growth, a dark, circular tunnel that pulsed imperceptibly as if it were breathing.

  “Yes, it’s just distracting. No signs of hostility,” she said, shaking her head.

  her little brother proclaimed. She could feel his suspicion as he glared at the odd growth through her senses.

  “I suppose with your attunement, it would be,” he said. “In that case, while I travel ahead to mark out the presence of our foes, you will travel behind to map and study the environment.”


  For a moment, she wanted to object, but it made sense. One way or another, Liao Zhu was the better scout. She nodded.

  “Good. Relay reports at intervals of five minutes,” he instructed crisply. There was no playfulness in Liao Zhu’s voice. “You recall the emergency codes?”


  “Yes, Senior Brother,” Ling Qi said, already feeling for the connection which Bian Ya had bound to them before they left the main group. Like her spirit bonds, she merely needed to think in the proper way and the message would be sent.

  “I will see you soon, Junior Sister.” By the time his quiet words had faded, Liao Zhu was already gone, and she only caught the faintest flicker of silver to mark his passage.

  Ling Qi breathed out and turned her eyes to the fleshy fungal wall, reaching out to brush her fingers over the surface. It was warm, less warm than a human body but not by much. There were spores in the air, but they did not cling aggressively. She felt no fluctuations in her qi that would indicate harm.

  Zhengui thought to her.

  Hanyi disagreed.

  Sixiang decided.

  Ling Qi thought wryly. She squared her shoulders, gave her spirits a reminder to stay alert and ready, then flowed into the tunnel as a whisper of shadow.