~~~

The Dead Plains are home to many ruins. Some are relatively recent, the results of ill-fated attempts to assert control over these lands. Others, however, are ancient even by the standards of cultivators. They are the remnants of mighty kingdoms forgotten by time. Many are the tales of people who have gone into them and found unimaginable treasures waiting within.

In the Eye of the Plains, there is only one ruin and no more.

“Incredible,” says a disciple as the structure at last appears on the horizon.

The temple has long since been deprived of its treasures. It has been mapped, sacked, and left to waste away.

That does not make it any less impressive to behold.

The outer wall stretches for miles, as if it was made to surround an entire city rather than a single building. Though most remains in good condition, a few segments have broken down and collapsed over the ages. Time and calamity have not been indifferent to it. Still, what remains forms a nearly perfect square around the temple

Despite its impressive length, the wall is only about as tall as a two-story building, extremely easy for cultivators like them to leap over. Indeed, that is precisely what they do, and in doing so, lay eyes on the temple for the first time.

Whether by accident or design, the temple stands in the very center of the Eye and, by extension, in the center of the Dead Plains. Though perhaps stands is a too kind word. Over three-quarters of the temple have been destroyed, left as little more than shattered columns and piles of rock. However, even what little remains of the temple is enormous. The distance from one end to another is best measured in miles. There are barely any right angles in its construction. Instead, the temple is dominated by smooth, curved lines. A blanket of green vines has grown over it throughout the ages.

“How can so much of it remain standing when it’s just out in the open like this?” someone asks, a disciple from the Armory.

“Compared to other areas of the Dead Plains, the Eye is far gentler,” Fan Bingbing reminds him.

They have all gotten past the wall and are carefully making their way towards the temple. The entrance is a narrow gate that can barely be seen from this distance. Liu Jin suspects the true main entrance of the temple collapsed a long time ago. What remains is just one of many auxiliary gates.

“While Spirit Beasts do roam the Eye, most species won’t go out of their way to destroy their environment for no reason,” Fan Bingbing continues. “A few may have made their home inside, however.”

Liu Jin is reasonably sure the number of Spirit Beasts living inside the temple is more than a few. Indeed, he can feel several creatures roaming around in there. That is not something they need to worry about, though. Their mission is to take one of the temple stones. That task can be accomplished by picking a piece from any of the fallen columns. There is no need for them to venture in.

“I don’t understand,” says a female disciple. She runs a hand through her hair and looks at the temple. “We only have to take a rock from this place and not some treasure inside? How will Patriarch Feng even know it is from the right place?”

“The location of this temple has been known for at least a thousand years,” Liu Jin says. “All the treasures inside were taken a long time ago. Only the building remains.”

The possibility of there being some undiscovered secret chamber within the temple does exist. However, expecting disciples to find it would be highly unfair. This temple predates all kingdoms on the continent. It is probably one of the many places that fell during the war between humans and demons four thousand years ago.

Whatever secrets it has kept, it has done so ever since. It will take people better than them to uncover them.

“As for how Patriarch Feng will know… Certainly, we could try to take any stone to the Patriarch, but do you really want to try to lie to him?”

All the disciples think of that for a moment and shudder in unison.

Not a single person among them is stupid enough to try that.

“Brother Qing is right. There is no point trying to cheat,” says the bald disciple whose name Liu Jin has yet to learn. He has heard it mentioned a few times, but it keeps slipping from his mind. Their continued survival has taken most of his focus lately.

“Why would we even need to cheat?” ask the blue-haired disciple. “We’re already here! We’re even the first ones here!”

“We might not be,” Liu Jin says. “Others may have come and gone already.”

It is hard to tell in the Dead Plains. The traces left behind by a cultivator’s aura are like footprints in the sand. Deep imprints can last for a long time, but the wind and the waves will erase them all the same. In the Dead Plains, which is home to several Spirit Beasts, this holds especially true. The Eye, in particular, has high amounts of ambient QI.

“True,” says Fan Bingbing. “There is little point in staying in the temple and waiting to meet with the others when our duty is to bring the stone back to the Eternal Flame Clan. They may even be back at the compound already.”

“Is… is that even possible?”

“It is for a cultivator in the Heaven Realm,” Liu Jin replies, shrugging.

“Brother Qing, if that is true… shouldn’t we all be more worried?” asks the blue-haired disciple with visible confusion. “This disciple admits to not being as learned as the rest of you but… You have all just admitted we could be losing the contest as we speak.” The blue-haired disciple looks at them helplessly. “How can you be so calm?”

The assembled disciples trade looks with each other. Finally, it is the bald disciple who answers.

“Junior,” he says. There is a slightly exasperated look on his face. “I do not mean to imply we are weak with what I am about to say. If we were in other Sects, we might be Core Disciples already or even Elders, but in the Eternal Flame Clan, we’re still just Inner Disciples. Even Sister Fan and Brother Qing would be courting death if they were to try to compete against a Core Disciple. Again, I mean no offense when I say this!”

“No offense taken. You speak with sense,” Liu Jin says. Fan Bingbing nods as well. The bald disciple looks more than a little relieved by that.

“The Core Disciples were always going to finish this contest before us,” the bald disciple continues. “Those in the Heaven Realm can even fly! There was never a moment where we could have defeated them in a contest of speed!”

In the aftermath of those words, the plains feel a little more empty and silent. Nothing the bald disciple said was untrue. Though no one said it, most were aware of it from the start. When they were chosen for this mission. When they were trying to escape the giant worm. When they were in front of the duke.

They knew they were never going to be the ones who secured victory for their side.

“Then...why are we even putting so much effort into this?” The blue-haired disciple asks.

“Because not doing it is even worse,” the bald disciple says, picking up one of the stones. “Let’s just-”

Liu Jin’s soul freezes. An overpowering sense of wrongness screams inside him with ear-shattering force. His body is moving before he is even aware of it. His hand reaches out to the bald disciple. A Qi snake is already half-formed around his wrist.

However, it is too slow.

He is too slow.

A flaming arrow pierces right through the bald disciple’s head before Liu Jin can pull him out of the way.

Shock ripples through the disciples of the Eternal Flame Clan as the bald disciple meets his end in less time than it takes for a hummingbird to beat its wings. Lesser beings would have been left stunned.

However, they are not defenseless commoners. They are prodigies beyond compare who have passed the Eternal Flame Clan’s selection exam. They are Inner Disciples who rose above their brethren through wit and strength. They have braved the challenges of the Dead Plains and survived.

Before the bald disciple’s corpse has hit the ground, every single one of them is already activating their movement techniques to dive for cover.

Even so, three more disciples die to the next three arrows.

Though they are all in the Spirit Realm, they cannot hope to prevail against these arrows. Their speed is too much. Their power is too much. There is no time for the disciples to talk. There is no time for them to coordinate. Even the focus required for Liu Jin to deploy his Qi snakes may be the difference between life and death.

They can all only flee into the temple and hope they make it.

[Ground Contraction]

Liu Jin learned the technique at a young age and quickly mastered it to the point where he could cross hundreds of yards with ease. Since then, Liu Jin’s mastery has only grown.

Desperate need forces him to move faster than he ever has before.

Liu Jin pushes so much Qi into his legs that his muscles scream in pain. His body becomes a comet moving in a perfect horizontal line towards the narrow gate. His elbow crashes against the threshold as he crosses it, and something there cracks.

As Liu Jin bursts into a grand hall, he desperately tries to slow down. However, he is moving too fast. Liu Jin barely manages to turn in time as his body slams into a stone wall.

“Ow…”

Liu Jin tries to get up and winces as pain flares up in his legs and elbow. He quickly stabs himself with a few needles to numb it temporarily. His Qi is already healing him, but he cannot afford to be distracted by pain.

An arrow crashes against the temple walls but does not break them. A temple created to endure the Dead Plains will not falter against that level of attack.

For now, they are safe.

As Liu Jin breathes a little easier, he takes in his surroundings. There are nine disciples in the entrance hall with him. Fan Bingbing is one of them, as is the blue-haired disciple who probably belongs to the Wong Clan.

Counting him, there are only ten of them.

There were twenty of them when they landed on the Dead Plains, but Liu Jin has little time to dwell on that. A tremor caused by another arrow hitting the temple brings all his attention back to the matter at hand. The arrows will not break through the walls, but there is still an archer outside who is much stronger than they are.

“Impossible,” Fan Bingbing says as she grabs hold of a wall to steady herself. Her eyes stare straight ahead, but Liu Jin has the feeling it is not the temple she is looking at. She has probably realized the same thing as Liu Jin.

The archer is firing from outside their sensory range.

Now that he is no longer running for his life, Liu Jin can sense the arrows traveling through the air before they hit the temple. However, there is no trace of the archer’s presence.

In other words, the archer has been killing them from miles away.

“A Core Disciple,” Liu Jin says, drawing all eyes to him. Fan Bingbing nods grimly. “It looks like one has stayed behind to thin out the competition.”

“But why?!” asks the blue-haired disciple. “You all just said we were not a threat to them! Why stay to kill us?”

A good question with many possible answers. Some of them are as simple as the disciple not wanting to leave anything to chance. However, they have no time to speculate.

A new arrow enters his field of awareness.

The others were quick and lethal, brimming tightly-focused power. This one is different, slower and more volatile. It sails across several miles, crosses the narrow gate, and lands right in the middle of the grand hall.

The disciples run.

Fire spreads throughout the grand temple as the Qi inside the arrow is unleashed in a massive explosion.

~~~

Seven.

There are seven of them now.

Only seven prove fast enough to avoid the explosion by heading deeper into the temple.

“What... what do we do now?”

The blue-haired disciple is the one who asks, but they are all looking at Liu Jin. Even Fan Bingbing looks to him for guidance. Some madness has deluded them into thinking he knows what he is doing any more than they do.

And yet, what is there for him to do but answer their call?

What good would come from betraying their hopes at such a dire time?

“There is only one thing we can do,” he says.

The explosion has collapsed the ceiling, blocking the way they came through. The archer cannot chase after them thanks to that, but it also means they’re trapped in here.

If they want to survive, there is no other way but forward.

~~~