Chapter 41:
In the end, I still hadn't figured out a good solution by the time our ship arrived at the trial grounds. I felt very frustrated as we departed the ship to gather on the massive island we'd reached.
The best idea I could come up with so far when it came to helping Xing Yaling was to try to speak with her directly and warn her out of sight. If I could expose the foxfire to her or rely on whatever business connection she had with Sun Xia to get her not to dismiss me, then at least she would be more alert to the possibility of someone trying to kill her.
Unfortunately, that plan went out the window the moment we arrived. Even before the ship came to a halt, she'd already disappeared with Elder Shen Di. One of the other Trial Overseers was leading everyone away from the ship now. And I doubted any of them would be willing to tell me where she'd gone.
Our options for protecting ourselves were only marginally better, as going to the Overseers was a bad idea. We might be able to get one of the Trial Overseers to notice the foxfire on us if they were willing to listen. Yet, once again, at best, we would only be showing that Qian Zhi was cheating a bit with his fox. And he would be able to get rid of the foxfire on Xing Yaling before we could prove anything else, meaning it was doubtful much would be done.
Another worse possibility would be that they didn't believe us. Which was possible, since I cultivated foxfire as well. They could very well assume we were trying to frame Qian Zhi, causing us even more problems.
In the end, our best bet really was to pretend like we didn't notice the foxfire. Then we could plant it far away from us, and hopefully, they wouldn't have any other methods of trying to track us down.
A possible solution, but it wasn't nearly good enough to calm me down. It didn't guarantee our safety and still left Xing Yaling in danger. And, of course, there was always the possibility that my assumptions were incorrect. If that was the case, then I was panicking and worrying for nothing. Which just made this all even more frustrating.
"Hey, look at that," Pan Song said from beside me, drawing me from my darkening thoughts. For some reason, he sounded rather excited.
We and the rest of the trial takers had been led far from the ship and into a cleared-out passage through a forest. At the other end of the long passage through the trees seemed to be… A really big stone wall and an iron gate.
I couldn't figure out what had drawn Pan Song's attention, however.
"What is it?"
"It's a ruin," Pan Song said in a whisper, though the excitement he felt was still quite clear. "I think the whole trial ground is an ancient ruin site."
I looked back at the wall we were approaching more carefully. It didn't take me long to see the signs I'd missed earlier. The walls themselves looked strangely pristine in the places they were intact. But the parts where the wall was broken and the land around the wall were in much rougher shape. The areas where the preservation formations had clearly failed or just did not reach were covered in moss and were worn down by the elements.
"Okay, I can see that now," I said as we came to a stop with the rest of the trial takers. We formed a rough semi-circle around one of the Trial Overseers. The rest of them were already gone, leaving the lone older woman with silver and jade color robes. "But why does that matter?"
"Because," Pan Song said, his voice lowering even further. "I brought the control plate with me. I'm fairly certain it will help with the formations here. If we are lucky, I might be able to bypass many of them."
"What, for treasure hunting?" I asked, just as quietly. Did he think we could find something good here to help protect us? That seemed like a long shot. No, maybe he thought he could control them.
"No, I can—" Pan Song started to say, only to get cut off as a spirit sense washed over us and likely everyone else.
"I am Elder Zhu Yan," the silver and jade robed woman said once there was only silence. "And I, along with my fellow overseers, will be watching over all of you during this trial. We will be ensuring all rules are being followed, and those who attempt to break those rules will be punished severely."
Elder Zhu Yan paused for a moment as if to let that sink in.
"Now, let me first introduce you to today's trial grounds," She said, gesturing to the wall and large gate behind her. "This is an ancient ruin called Stormcaller's Glory. It is a small city that takes up most of this island. It has long since been explored by the Starguard and other factions, and the treasures within have likely all been plundered. It has even been used as a trial ground in the distant past. However, this does not mean it is safe."
She paused again after emphasizing her last words.
"Even discounting the spirit beast seeded throughout the city, the city itself is still dangerous. Even more so than a regular ruin, as most of the barrier formations that keep others out have been broken. Some might have healed over time, but the majority are gone, leaving the more lethal killing arrays exposed as potential traps for the unwary."
"To some of you," she said, her eyes narrowing, "this might not seem like a major concern. You have the Trial Overseers watching over you, after all. However." She paused again, sweeping her gaze over everyone. "You should not take that for granted. On the honor of the Starguard, we will not allow you to be killed or crippled. However, should you truly be foolish, we elders can still live up to that promise by ensuring your healing goes well. After you've gotten a chance to experience what ill caution might bring and have failed the trial because of your stupidity."
There was another dramatic pause. I would have called it over dramatic if it wasn't for what she was saying. Guess they didn't want us acting like reckless idiots and making more work for them.
"The city is divided into three major areas," she said after another long moment of silence. As if she didn't just say she'd let us get badly hurt if we were dumb as long as there were no permanent issues. "The Outer Ring. The Middle Ring. And the Central District. These are defined by not only the ancient ruins but newer formations set up by the Starguard. All of these areas have been seeded with a variety of spirit beasts. Those in the Outer Ring are only at the early stage of Rank 1, with perhaps a handful at the mid-stage. The strength of the spirit beasts in the middle ring are primarily at the mid-stage of Rank 1, with some in the late. Finally, the central district is the same except with late-stage rank 1s and peak rank 1 beasts."
"I highly recommend that you remain in the areas most suited to you," Elder Zhu Yan said, her voice serious again. "To join the Starguard requires bravery. But that does not mean being foolhardy. Know your limits! Now, let me reiterate the main rules of the trial. You should have all heard it before, but young folk like you often need to be told twice…"
As the Elder Zhu Clan member started reciting the rules that were already explained during our sign-up for the trial, I was tempted to ask Pan Song to elaborate on what he'd mentioned earlier about the ruins. However, no one else seemed to dare to even whisper amongst all the trial takers, so I held myself back and just listened to see if there was anything new to be learned.
There wasn't.
She just explained how we would be given tokens that would record how many points we gained. We needed 25 points by the end of the 8-hour trial to pass, and could get points by killing spirit beasts or destroying other people's tokens. Destroying tokens disqualified the other person and gave you 5 points in addition to however many points the other person had gathered. The amount of points you got for killing spirit beasts, on the other hand, was based on the beast's level of strength.
An Early Rank 1 spirit beast was only worth 3 points. A mid-rank one was worth 10. A late-stage one was worth 50. And a peak was worth 200. Whoever deals the finishing blow to the spirit beast gets the points.
If we ended the trial with enough points, we could start off in the Starguard with more than a single bronze star, which was an indication of our status and ranking in the Starguard. More stars equaled more access to better-paying missions, as well as greater access to the resources of the Starguard Hall.
It took 50 points to become a bronze two-star Starguard. 200 points for three stars. And I tuned out the amounts needed for the other two as I doubted I'd ever get that high. Four and five stars were usually reserved for those at late or peak Qi-Gathering, and I had too much to worry about to try and reach so above my level right now.
Finally, when Zhu Yan was done with the basics of the trial, she went on to give us a reminder about the most important rule. That despite fighting between cultivators being part of the trial, trying to kill or maim our fellow participants was strictly forbidden. Any attempts at such things would be stopped and harshly punished.
It was just too bad that that might not be true in some cases. Or at least, that's what Qian Zhi wanted us to think. Whether or not he was right, and he had a way around this restriction, I still didn't know.
Zhu Yan finished things off by waving her hand in front of her, the long sleeves of her robes billowing open. As she did, dark objects shot out from her sleeve and headed to every one of the trial participants.
I quickly caught the one that appeared in front of me, seeing that it was a bronze token with the symbol of the Starguard on it—five stars overlaid on a single sword pointing upward. The only differences between this token and the Starguard badges was that the whole thing was bronze instead of black, and the stars looked hollow instead of full. There was also a number engraved on the bottom.
Mine showed a 28 there, and so did Pan Song's.
Once everyone had their tokens, Elder Zhu Yan took to the air. Before she left, she instructed us to go find the entrances we'd be entering the city from. Apparently, there were a bunch of entrance locations in the wall around the city, and they'd all been numbered so we'd know where to go.
We were to wait at our assigned entrances and would be given a signal to enter. The lower-powered cultivators would be getting a head start and being sent in first. They also seemed to have given people in groups the same entrance number, as none of the groups of people that had formed seemed to be separating.
Seeing that, I couldn't help but wonder for a moment if it might not have been better for us to have tried to find more people to team up with. But the previous arguments against the idea were still valid. More people meant we'd have to hunt down more spirit beasts in total. We also didn't have any time to get to know any of these people, so there was no guarantee that we wouldn't be stabbed in the back.
Perhaps if Sun Xia or one of our friends knew anyone else taking the trial as well, we could have teamed up with them. But that hadn't been the case, so we were better off just sticking to ourselves. At least with just two people, we could take advantage of our smaller point requirements. We could gather what we needed and then focus on avoiding trouble for the rest of the trial.
"Come on, let's go," I said to Pan Song after waiting a bit to ensure we were going in a different direction than Qian Zhi and his goons. When we got enough distance from the other participants and had room to speak alone, I decided to bring up the ruins again. "So what were you saying about what you could do with the ruins?"
"I might be able to take control of them," Pan Song said, leaning his head close and speaking softly. "Not all of them, of course, but perhaps the formation of a building. If we can find a building with an intact defensive array, we might be able to hide in there after we've gotten our required points."
"Oh," I said, excitement welling up in my chest. That would be amazing! And potentially remove a lot of our worries. "How long would it take you?"
"With that plate… about fifteen minutes."
"Alright then," I said, grinning. Then I looked at the entrance we were nearing—a perfect circle cut into the wall that was definitely not part of the original design. There was the symbol for 11 above the hole. "That's one problem solved… Now let's deal with another problem."
We stopped for a moment in front of the 11th entrance. We'd been at the back of the people moving this way, so it seemed this entrance was going unused. Qian Zhi and his goons had also gone in the other direction, so there were no worries that they'd be passing this location now.
Perfect.
I reached into my sleeves as discreetly as I could and pulled out the dagger that was strapped to my wrist. Using my sense for Foxfire, I figured out just where the flames being used to track us were on my robes. I bent over and, in a couple of quick motions like I was brushing away, I cut off that section of cloth. I was careful not to touch the actual tiny invisible flames.
I did the same thing for Pan Song's tracking Foxfire. It probably looked a bit awkward, but I was hoping that the Trial Overseers weren't paying too much attention right now. Given that things hadn't started yet and that there was no emphasis on people not doing things to prepare before the trial started, it seemed like a pretty safe bet. Especially if someone other than the Qian Clan member was the one overlooking this part of the trial grounds.
Finally, I tossed the two pieces of cloth next to the 11th entrance, right behind a bit of mossy rubble. With that done, I patted myself down one more time, and the two of us walked off.
"Hopefully, that gives us the time we need," I said quietly as we left the 11th entrance behind and started walking faster. Our actual entrance was much farther away. "Now we just need to figure out if there's anything we can do about Xing Yaling."
"We could try checking all the entrances," Pan Song suggested as we jogged.
I thought about it for a second before shaking my head. "We can keep an eye out for her out here. But I doubt the Trial Overseers are going to be willing to wait on us… And she might not even be at a visible entrance. She went ahead of everyone with Elder Shen Di."
"Then I don't think there's much else we can do," Pan Song said, grimacing. "Unless you want to risk searching the ruins for her instead of focusing on the trial?"
I grimaced at that thought as well. I didn't actually care about the trial more than someone's life. However, that would put us at risk of being found by Qian Zhi. Who might have a way of getting away with killing us. And if he didn't, then we'd get kicked out of the trial for nothing, as Xing Yaling wouldn't have been in danger then.
There was also the issue of the other trial takers. We could just end up running into them first, which was actually far more likely. And while that wouldn't get us killed, if they were strong enough, it could get us knocked out of the trial and leave Xing Yaling without a warning. At that point, our only hope was trying to get one of the Trial Overseers to pay attention to us and believe our claims…
Claims that could still possibly be wrong and were just a massive assumption on our part. If that were the case, then there could be some serious repercussions for us. Repercussions that Sun Xia might be able to shield us from, but could also cause her a lot of problems…
Shit… What was the correct choice here?
Before I could figure that out, we reached our entrance. And not long after that, a loud bell rang out in the distance. A barrier I hadn't even noticed over the hole leading into the ruins fell after a second ring, allowing us to enter the trial grounds.
It seemed that our time to go in had already come.
"Let's focus on getting our points first and seeing if we can't find a protective formation to take advantage of," I said as the two of us walked into the trial grounds. "We have a head start anyway, so we won't be able to find her yet. And if we have a place we can retreat to, then we'll be in a better position if we decide we need to take risks."
"Alright," Pan Song said, nodding. "Then we should hurry."
"Yeah," I said, and then the two of us took off.