“Ok, what’s going on?” Xue Lan asked, her voice on edge.

  “I dunno, I kind of like them.” Sun Yuan said. “They’re growing on me. What do you think?” He said, looking towards Yu Chen.

  Yu Chen shrugged, ignoring the question. He knew Sun Yuan’s levity was partially an act. The boy was still sore from the loss of the Sleeping Lady, though he tried not to show it.

  “Whatever happened here was a long time ago.” Yu Chen said, frowning as he looked around. “It has nothing to do with us. We need to figure out how to get out of here.”

  “I wouldn’t mind finding a book of artificery laying around.” Yan Ziqi said, his voice filled with longing. “In fact, I wouldn’t mind staying here for a while. I could learn so much in this place.”

  Yu Chen snorted. “You’d be eating kelp before too long.” It wasn’t a risk at the moment, not with the number of provisions they all carried between them, but it would come to that sooner or later. “We can decide what we want to do once we find an exit.”

  “It’s not like we’ll make it far without a ship.” Sun Yuan spoke up, a hint of bitterness in his voice. His earlier joviality was gone as the truth of their situation weighed down upon him.

  “We’ll figure something out.” Yu Chen said, squeezing his shoulder. “We found all that ore and Yan Ziqi said he could use it. There’ll be someone who can repair her, If we can get on the river long enough to reach another city.”

  “I hope so.” Sun Yuan said, his voice forlorn.

  “Maybe Yan Ziqi will find that artificing book, eh?” Yu Chen said, jostling the other boy. “He’ll be able to repair her better than ever. Imagine how fast the formations will respond if he can run those little veins throughout the ship?”

  This thought at least seemed to bring Sun Yuan some cheer, no matter how unlikely it was. Yu Chen wasn’t so optimistic himself.

  He cast a glance towards the platforms, his eyes slowly trailing upwards. He didn’t know whether there was any escape from this sunken city or not, but he’d find his answers up there.

  The others followed as he stepped forward, ascending higher.

  Yu Chen looked around in confusion as he stepped off the platform and onto a small landing on the fifth floor. The room was wide open, completely empty aside from a simple stone path cutting a trail through the pool of reflective water covering the ground.

  There must have been some significance to the place, but he had no clue what it was. He took his first step, cautiously, then another. The others followed, the sound of their footsteps carrying through the air as they carefully avoided disturbing the water.

  Yu Chen cast a glance into the waters, but it was impossible to tell how deep they were from up above. Thankfully, nothing untoward happened, and they made it to the other end in one piece.

  They stepped onto the platform, rising to the next level of the spire. They hadn’t even made it halfway up when the sound of shouting came from above them.

  “Chang’er what are you doing?” They heard an apparition shout, his tone filled with panic and frustration. “There’s no time left, you have to go!”

  Yu Chen and the others stepped off the platform, watching the dramatic scene playing out in the foyer to the sixth floor.

  “You know I’ll never make it to the portal in time,” The other ghost replied, her tone snappish. “If only you had don-” She brought herself up short. “Enough, Han Moxuan. We must end this now, together. If there is to be any hope for this city, or for our baby.”

  The sound of panting appeared, growing louder.

  Yu Chen turned, watching as a third ghostly figure rose out of the ground behind them.

  “Eldest brother, I can’t find her anyw-” The apparition said as it stepped down from one of the platforms, but his voice cut off as he looked back and forth between the two of them.

  “Chang’er!” The younger ghost shouted, his voice urgent. “There you are, we must leave now!”

  “It’s too late Ji’er,” The female apparition spoke, her voice softening as she turned to face the younger man. “We will go to face him together, and do what must be done.”

  “You can’t!” The young man replied, his voice appalled. “My brother has told me about the baby,” He rushed forward, approaching the other two. “We must keep you safe!”

  “There is no more safety, Ji’er.” She replied, her voice growing cold as she turned towards to face the apparition. “Your brother has seen to that.”

  “Chang’er,” Han Moxuan replied, pleading with the woman. “There is still time, I can hold him off long enough for you tw-”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  She cut him off, her voice rising half an octave.

  “Hold him off? Hold him off?! What madness have you allowed Moxuan?! Yesterday you could have slew him out of hand but today the best you can hope for is to hold him off?!” Her voice grew hysterical. “The Hidden Sage, no! Worldhopper, Voidwalker,” each word was drawn out like a slur, ”the best you can do is hold off a single Riverlord?”

  This time Yu Chen could hear the spire rumble as the ghosts before them trembled in place.

  “Brother?” The younger one asked, his voice tinged with fear.

  “Let us go.” Chang’er said, her voice low and venomous. “And if this is to be the death of us then we will die together.”

  Han Moxuan said nothing, nor did his brother, their apparitions following the woman as she strode forward, her ghostly head tilted upwards with fearless abandon.

  “Strong.” Serbo au Serbo noted his approval as the ghosts disappeared. “Good woman.”

  “I guess they didn’t survive, huh?” Sun Yuan asked, scuffing the ground with his foot. “A shame, I wonder what happened in the end.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out, as talkative as they are.” Xue Lan replied, crossing her arms. An innocuous gesture, but Yu Chen saw the way her arms tightened, as though holding herself.

  Yu Chen looked over at her. She’d thrown herself into her research the last couple of days, losing herself in her work so she didn’t have to think about her own loss. The sight of the ghosts continued to bring it back.

  “How powerful do you think this Riverlord was?” Yan Ziqi asked suddenly, frowning as he looked around the strange spire.

  “More powerful than us.” Yu Chen replied. “Let’s just hope he’s not still around.”

  Yan Ziqi didn’t reply, but the mood in the group plummeted at his words.

  Yu Chen shook the thought off, but his heart beat a little faster as they headed further into the floor. The rooms around them were silent now, eerily so, and he almost missed the sound of the ghosts. How many people had once dwelled here, filling these halls with life and laughter?

  They’d been shown the memory of life, leaving the lifeless spire around them that much colder. Its empty halls felt menacing, the silence sinister and oppressive.

  The spire grew thinner the higher they climbed, and each successive floor was smaller than the last. It wasn’t long before the short hallway they walked through came to an end, revealing another large metallic door before them.

  Yu Chen stepped forward, reaching out a hand, but the door slid open before he could touch it. To his surprise a thick spiritual energy rolled out of the room, along with some branches of fauna so overgrown they flowed out of the doorway.

  A frown crossed his face as he stepped back, but it quickly turned into a smile as he took in the sight before him. He didn’t know how they’d survived but these spiritual plants were no doubt powerful, and just waiting to be harvested.

  He exchanged a glance with the group, and it was clear they all shared his thoughts.

  Sun Yuan strode forward, chopping down a small tree with a swing of his sabre. He leaned over, hastily collecting the thick, glowing sap that poured out of the trunk.

  Yu Chen and the others joined him, slowly spreading out across the floor as they collected whatever spiritual fruits and herbs they came across. Even Lan She stirred near his waist, flicking her tongue out as she tasted the thick spiritual energy in the air.

  It didn’t take long before they’d wiped the small garden clean, filling their spatial rings with everything they could grab.

  He took a bite out of one of the fruits, but he let out a cough, spitting it out as the power within nearly overwhelmed him. He sent the rest of it into his ring. It would be a waste to eat them now, He’d have to wait until he’d grown more powerful.

  Satisfied they continued forward, finding another platform to take them to the seventh floor.

  This room was the smallest so far, a wide-open space with only a single table that filled the middle of the room.

  Yu Chen went to step forward, but the three ghostly forms flickered to life in front of him before he could.

  “Tell me, Moxuan,” His name was twisted, made a mockery by her tone, “What is it he has planned? I want the details that you’ve hidden for so long.” The female ghost asked as she led the other two across the room.

  Yu Chen and the others rushed forward, staying close to the ghosts lest they miss anything important.

  “You know that Shui Hengjun,” Han Moxuan said, his younger brother hissing at the name. He ignored him, continuing, “plans to overdraw the leyline, flooding the city with power.”

  “Of course I do,” She snapped, “He’s done it before. You still haven’t told me why. Only that there was nothing to worry about. The first time was a test, the second an accident. And now this.”

  There was a moment of silence before Han Moxuan spoke. “He plans to discard his body, merging with the city and becoming something more than human.”

  “He’s a madman.” Chang’er breathed, but despite her words there was a touch of admiration, the sort of feeling you had towards those willing to consider the most outlandish of options.

  “Can he do that?” Han Ji asked, confusion evident in his voice.

  Han Moxuan hesitated before replying. “It’s possible. There are things in this universe that are stranger than you can imagine.” He shook his head. “He sees it as his only way forward, after the battle with Riverlord Yaojun crippled him.”

  “Of course it’s possible, he’s had Moxuan assisting him with this madness after all.” Chang’er accused, her voice dripping with venom. “This is why I spent so many sleepless nights alone, worried about you, while you were off gallivanting through the Shattered Expanse in search of some fool’s errand?”

  “Chang’er,” Han Moxuan began, his voice desperate, but she cut him off.

  “I will hear no more, Moxuan.” She said, her voice quieting. “You’ve made your decisions. Now all of us must live with them.”

  Yu Chen and the others came to a halt as the three apparitions popped, disappearing as they passed the table. There was a moment of silence as they contemplated their words.

  “Do you think he succeeded?” Xue Lan was the first to ask, breaking the silence.

  “The city is still here,” Yan Ziqi replied, shaking his head. “All these years later.”

  They grew quiet at his words.

  Yu Chen shook his head, stepping forward to examine the table as the others continued to talk behind him. To his surprise a massive map lay across the top, outlining the outside world. Markers stuck out of it, signifying important locations. One near the very center of the map caught his eye, a different color than the rest.

  It marked a spot along a tiny tributary, not so far away from the massive river that carved through most of the map. That was the city they were in, Yu Chen realized, his eyebrows climbing in shock.

  The size of it all humbled him. He’d thought the river they were traveling was so large, but it was tiny in comparison, and the Empire he’d once thought was so vast was nothing more than a small plot of land on the map.

  His eyes trailed around as he took in the dozens, no, hundreds of markers that dotted the map. Were those sects, he wondered, or perhaps… other Riverlords?