They buried Xiao Jian in a dry plot of land close to the city.

  A heavy silence lay in the air, none of them speaking as they surrounded the newly dug grave. Sun Yuan and the other boys had heavy faces as they contemplated the dead, but it was nothing compared to Xue Lan’s. Tears streaked her face, filled with loss and regret, and a hint of stunned disbelief lay within her eyes.

  Yu Chen wanted to comfort her, but he knew she needed the space to grieve, preferring to be alone in her pain. She held herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest as she stared down at his grave.

  Shadows stretched across the ground, immobile in the unchanging light.

  It’d taken more time to calm Xue Lan than it had to recover the boy, moving enough rubble to pull his mangled corpse from the wreckage. She’d refused to leave, beside herself with grief and unwilling to accept what had happened. They’d eventually managed to move her away, before wrapping the boy in a bit of tattered sailcloth in order to hide the grisly view from her sight.

  His thoughts disappeared as she moved. A complicated feeling flashed through her eyes as one hand fell, caressing the sword that now hung from her waist in a slightly battered sheathe.

  She’d decided to keep it, to have something to remember him by. Maybe she’d even learn to use it one day.

  It was the only thing of his they’d managed to recover, other than his spatial ring. His other two swords had snapped under the weight of the debris, but this one was clearly a cut above the others, despite its simple appearance.

  The hilt beneath her hands had been bound in white cloth, and he knew the blade within the sheathe gleamed, perfect and unmarred.

  It had originally belonged to his father, one of the few remaining treasures of the Thousand Blades Hall, alongside the techniques he’d carried within his spatial ring. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the hilt, the young boy’s spatial ring standing out against her skin.

  Yu Chen knew the swordsman would want her to have them as well. And who knew? Perhaps one day, the techniques would flourish again, finding a new life within Xue Lan’s hands.

  Perhaps, at least for a time, the Thousand Blades Hall would live once more.

  Yu Chen’s eyes left Xue Lan, wandering across the others before looking over at the ancient city, filled with any number of lost and forgotten memories. A deep melancholy filled him as he contemplated his own future. Will this be me one day? Dead and forgotten, with nothing but a few things left behind to show I once lived? He shook away the thoughts.

  They left, once Xue Lan was ready, making their way towards the city in the distance.

  The next few days passed in a blur as they made themselves at home in one of the buildings near the center of the city.

  The joviality they’d once shared had fled, stifled now that the dangers in the hidden realm had made themselves known. A grim, haunting sensation had replaced it, hounding them as they overturned the city, looking for clues that might help them escape.

  It had already turned into a tomb for one of them.

  They split the city up, exploring it in sections. All of them, including Xue Lan, joined in to cover as much ground as possible. The young boy’s death had left her with a renewed sense of determination. She worked herself ragged, every day she was among the first to awaken and the last to return.

  Yu Chen discovered something strange during one of these trips.

  He was traveling with Serbo au Serbo, the two of them exploring a part of the city where the terrain was different than elsewhere. Most of the city gradually transitioned into farmland as they traveled, vast plots of land that had once fed the inhabitants, but the lands around here had become rocky and pitted, filled with strange holes that led down below the earth.

  “Should we take a look?” Yu Chen asked, looking towards the other boy.

  Serbo au Serbo nodded in reply.

  They entered together, looking around curiously as it transitioned into a long tunnel. He pulled out a glowing stone he’d purchased on the Auction Ship, a sundry item that was popular with cultivators as they emitted a blinding light when ejected with qi.

  They walked for a while but nothing interesting appeared, other than the tool marks, ages old, that still marked the walls. It was man-made, that much was clear, but Yu Chen couldn't say for what purpose. He was just about to turn around when the first hints of something strange appeared in the air. He sniffed, feeling his pores open up as he inhaled in the rich scent of qi.

  Qi that was heavily aspected with some strange energy he didn’t recognize.

  He looked towards Serbo in askance. A frown crossed the large man’s face as he considered the scent, but he shook his head, not recognizing it either. He lifted a shoulder in half a shrug before motioning forward.

  The strange energy in the air didn’t disappear, growing denser and more concentrated the further in they pushed. The smell was crisp, a sharp tang that filled the air and left a dry, metallic taste on his tongue.

  The faintest of gleams reflected from the light of the glowing stone he held. Yu Chen squinted, a frown crossing his face as he approached to see a strange chunk of ore glimmered on the ceiling. Yu Chen stopped, furrowing his brows as he regarded it, but his heart skipped a beat as something struck him.

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  He hurried forward, heading deeper into the cave.

  Serbo au Serbo raced beside him, running to keep up. “What hurry?” The barbarian asked, as he kept pace with long loping strides.

  “We need to see how much of this metal remains,” Yu Chen said, kicking up dust as he ran. “If there is enough Yan Ziqi might be able to use it to help repair the spirit vessel.”

  Serbo grunted, not saying anything else.

  The strange energy built to an oppressive level as they ran further in. Yu Chen took it as a sign, hoping that meant there was enough of the metal remaining to fix the spirit vessel Sun Yuan still carried.

  He frowned as his thoughts turned towards the wreckage. Thankfully, Sun Yuan had been able to activate the shrinking charm, even with the vessel in its current state. Although they’d had to ensure all the pieces were touching before they’d shrink. Still, the vessel was far from river worthy and would take them nowhere fast in its current form.

  Yan Ziqi wasn’t sure if he could fix it, but he’d need a source of spirit ore if he was ever going to find out.

  This could be the answer to all of their problems.

  Yu Chen came to a halt as the tunnel opened up into a wide cavern so large its edges disappeared into darkness. Gaping holes had been gouged from the few walls he could see, showing how heavily mined the area was. But it wasn’t empty. A smile crossed Yu Chen’s face as he watched the glimmering veins of ore light up beneath his glowstone.

  The energy in the air pressed down on him, extremely heavy, denser even than the earth qi he’d felt before. It felt sharp, prickling against his skin, and he felt something stir within him.

  A thought struck Yu Chen as he looked around, before smiling up at Serbo au Serbo.

  “Would you be willing to guard me for a bit?”

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Yu Chen took in a deep breath, centering himself as he sat on top of a throne he’d hastily assembled out of the spiritual ores scattered around the cavern.

  Thick, metallic qi whirled through the air around him, pressing heavily against his skin. He could taste it when he breathed in. It tingled, numbing his tongue with a feeling of sterility. He took a few breaths, circulating his qi before activating the Yellow River Tempering technique and pulling hard at the energy around him.

  The energy in the air responded, entering through his lungs and pores. Every breath delivered immense amounts of energy into his dantian where the technique seized it, shooting it through his meridians and redirecting it around his body.

  A low hiss of pain escaped from Yu Chen as the technique ejected the energy from his meridians, scraping it across his flesh with a razor sharpness as it began tempering his body. It was as though someone had taken a rasp to him, in a mad attempt to abrade away the impurities that lay within his flesh.

  The energy worked its way outwards from his meridians, slowly transforming his muscles and nerves into something better, something stronger, more real than before. The technique left nothing untouched, suffusing his flesh entirely as it pressed towards his skin, where it encountered the energy pouring in through his pores. The technique seized control of it, and Yu Chen bent over, clenching his robes in agony as a stabbing, shooting pain spread across his skin all at once.

  It was painful, the worst by far of all the elements he’d encountered. Just the touch of the air on his skin sent shockwaves across his raw nerves, as the energy reworked his body an iota at a time, the technique operating on a level smaller than he could see with his naked eye.

  And then the pain was gone as the last remaining impurities in his skin were extruded, pressing up to the surface.

  Yu Chen took a deep breath, but before he could do anything else the pain redoubled. He collapsed off the throne of metal, rolling onto the floor. His skin throbbed, his flesh ached, but that was nothing as the energy turned inwards, penetrating through his dense bones to assault the marrow within.

  It was a slow, painful process as the energy suffused them, driving out the impurities. He felt as though his marrow had become the ore, as the energy smashed down upon it like a blacksmith’s hammer, driving out the last remnants of weakness and reforging it into something stronger.

  Something denser, heavier, more resilient.

  Yu Chen gritted his teeth, doing his best to remain still as his body shook beneath the blows. The remaining earthen qi lurking within him was stirred up by this provocation, rising to the surface as the metallic qi struck again and again. It didn’t linger for long. The energy was seized in a tyrannical grip, brought to heel and used to nurture the metallic energy, feeding its growth.

  He could feel his body becoming heavier, his marrow filling with the dense metallic qi the blows left behind. It didn’t feel unwieldy however, to the contrary, he felt a new sense of control blossom as the energy gave his body a sense of stability it’d lacked before.

  The last blow rang out with the pure note of forged steel, but the technique wasn’t done yet.

  The metallic qi running through his meridians turned molten, scouring them clean. Another hiss escaped him as they were rapidly reconstructed, a deep strength marrying with the flexibility they’d already possessed, preparing him to handle enormous amounts of qi.

  The technique had one last target.

  Metallic qi raced through his veins and arteries this time, reinforcing them on a path that led straight towards his heart. A jolt of energy slammed into it, everything turning white as his heart skipped a beat.

  A buzzing whine filled Yu Chen’s ears, but he ignored it, his mind grappling to make sense of the impressions the metallic qi had left upon him.

  There was so much to understand now- far more than ever before, his mind having been subtly primed by the numerous Concepts that he’d encountered. Forced upon him, more often than not.

  The pain receded as he dived deeper, exploring the layered meanings that lay behind the seemingly simple Concept of metal.

  Metal was refinement, a ruthless refinement no different from cultivation itself, or the body tempering he was currently engaged in.

  It grew stronger in the face of adversity, using the countless trials it underwent as an opportunity to drive weakness from its form. If he could embody that, his future path would no longer be hampered by pain, and stagnation would become his only enemy.

  Suffering made it hard, unyielding, capable of cutting through all in its path.

  Yet that hardness could be a weakness. Too much stress could make one brittle, liable to snap under the pressure. It required not just hardness but flexibility - the thought cut off, his eyes widening as for the first time he saw something more, as the boundaries of the Concept he was exploring changed, merging into another.

  Was that wood? For a split second he’d felt it, the two larger concepts tied together by something in common, before his mind reeled back, returning towards the sensation of metal that suffused him.

  Where was he? Ah, yes.

  Metal was pure, and only through hardship could he himself be purified, transformed into something greater.

  He came back to himself with a gasp, his brows furrowing as he took in the blackness oozing from his skin.

  What was that?

  He didn’t know, but he knew who to ask. It was past time to have a conversation with Xiao Huang.