Kenja decided not to inspect a gift camel’s hump and just be content that Elder Grunty had accepted his peace offering. He turned back to the pair of eyes and requested, “I wish to return to the sect, senior.”

The pillar closed his eyes. “Very well.”

A cracking sound emerged from the top of the giant pillar as a rock fragment was broken off one of its edges. Kenja’s eyebrows furrowed and his eyes darted to his right.

“Whoa, whoa, I didn’t do anything! Do you think I would crudely harm a little rock for no reason, my disciple?” Snail defended himself against the accusatory glare.

The rock floated down towards Kenja as it folded in on itself like a lump of clay until it took the form of a seal.

“Here is the Flowing River Sect’s seal. You will be able to freely enter and exit the Dragon’s Basin with it.”

Kenja accepted the seal and examined its shape. It formed a snake coiled in a sideways ‘8’, trying to swallow its tail in the center. The right loop had a minuscule pair of wings attached to the body.

It reminded Kenja of the famous Ryuga folktale of the snake that wanted to be a dragon.

One day, a travelling vagabond found an egg, but before he could cook it, a snake hatched free from the shell and fell onto the vagabond’s pan, jumping around hysterically trying to get out. The vagabond was hungry and still wanted to eat the snake, but the snake pleaded for its life and promised to serve the vagabond dutifully in return for sparing it. The vagabond reluctantly complied, and the snake became his servant.

During their journey, the vagabond would often regale the snake with stories of his adventures and other folklore, and the snake’s favorite stories involved dragons—the mythical, gargantuan reptiles of legend said to be similar to a snake except with wings, four legs and the power to rival anything under the heavens.

The snake’s eyes glistened at the mention of dragons, and his tongue would flick out of its mouth joyfully, eager to hear more. Their companionship continued until years later when the vagabond and the snake reached a large lake. The appearance of the lake caused the vagabond to remember another legend concerning this specific body of water.

Supposedly, a great dragon’s wings were severed above the lake, and although the dragon survived the battle, it was never able to locate its wings and was forced to live the remainder of its life grounded, looking for what it had lost so that it could take to the skies once more.

The snake was bombarded with a myriad of emotions after hearing the tale, but at the end of it all, he made a request of his master, the travelling vagabond.

“Master, please let me stay here to look for the wings. When I become a dragon, I will be a better servant to you.”

The vagabond didn’t really believe in the legend, but to the snake that he had taken care of since it landed on his dinner plate, he had become quite close with it. How could he deny it the chance at fulfilling his lifelong dream, even if he, himself, didn’t believe in its existence?

“Once you are a dragon, come look for me. I will be waiting for you.”

They parted ways with the snake’s head bowed down until the vagabond had left his sight.

Since the snake could not swim, he searched for the wings the only way he could. Every day, he would drink as much water from the lake as he could, until one day, the wings would resurface.

This legend had many different versions with different endings.

One ending had the snake find the wings and become a dragon before finding his master and living happily with him, inspiring people to pursue their goals step-by-step.

Another had the snake transform into a dragon before discovering that his master had passed away while he was searching for the wings, teaching others to value what they have and stop coveting what they lack.

A third version had the snake search its entire life without ever finding the wings, showing the danger of believing everything you hear.

It was one of Kenja’s favorite fables that held many lifelong lessons for him. Plus, it was an effective catch-all for younger sisters who had yet to experience the vicissitudes of adulthood. In fact, Kenja had made up one version himself, specifically where the snake kept drinking till he was full everyday and eventually exploded. This alteration was made back when he couldn’t afford to gather enough food for his sisters and hoped that this story would make them feel good about not being full after a meal.

A piercing sound interrupted Kenja’s reminiscing.

A gust of wind shot forth from between the pair of eyes and off into the distance, entering the surface of the basin and parting the water to reveal a dirt tunnel plastered against the horizon. It was below the water level, so moments later, the water filled in the gap that the giant Pillar of Will had made.

“Since you are near the peak of Qi Flourishing, you should be fine going through the tunnel.”

Kenja was put-off by the phrasing for a moment, but after thinking about it, he nodded in affirmation to the pillar’s words.

Having advanced from Body Tempering to Qi Flourishing by opening all his meridians, his body had already taken a step past the average mortal. Instead of holding his breath for one to three minutes, he could last many times longer, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes if he tried.

This was assuming he didn’t circulate Qi into his dantian and use it to double or triple the time, but for obvious reasons, Kenja hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Kenja clasped his fists and bowed with sincere solemnity.

“Junior will remember senior’s grace and is thankful to all the seniors for their patience with this young junior.”

The giant pillar closed his eyes and dissipated in a cool-looking manner befitting the leader of the pillars. The other wills gave Kenja smiles and nods of approval. Elder Grunty didn’t exit her pillar, but it seemed to sway side-to-side as if to bid her student farewell.

Kenja glanced momentarily at the pile of weapons, pills, manuals and other items he had left on the platform before jumping onto Sakura’s blade.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Snail yelled, interrupting the perfect departure.

Kenja and the other spirits frowned. Even Sakura’s hilt dipped in annoyance.

“What is it? We need to get going, Snail.”

“We bought ourselves some extra time just now, right? Let me have a go at these old geezers. It’s not fair you let the rusty hoe have a turn and not me.”

Kenja frowned at his words while the other spirits twitched at his words, afraid of what he was planning to do. Even the grand pillar’s will who had made a composed departure materialized a single eye in front of his pillar, glued on the boy’s back. It twitched madly in fear and distress at Snail’s implicit request.

Was he going to bully them until they yielded all their energy? Even under threat and abuse, they wouldn’t betray their responsibilities, but if they had a say in the matter, they also wouldn’t want to be pulverized into dust.

“I won’t let you force them against their will,” he stated with no intention of backing down.

The spirits relaxed at Kenja’s words. The sect was truly lucky to have found such a promising fledgling.

“Disciple, how long have you known me now? When have I ever made trouble for anyone?”

Kenja rubbed his glabella in frustration. It had been only four or five days since they met, and while Kenja wanted to say that that was insufficient time to know Snail, he couldn’t. Snail had already instigated a great amount of trouble in the sect. The cultivators who had their items and merchandise stolen, the sect desperately looking for the thief, the past wills of deceased elders being kidnapped or violently abused, it would be more troublesome to find someone that wasn’t troubled by Snail.

“You took one of the senior pillars earlier. If you mean what you say, then return him.”

Snail put on a look that said he was deeply aggrieved by Kenja’s accusation. “I didn’t take him! It was his good fortune to have come into my possession, and you want me to take that good fortune away from him? Do you have no heart, disciple?!”

The various wills had their eyes bulge at his response. When did being abducted and placed into a spatial storage item become ‘good fortune’?

What twisted logic!

Kenja was not in the mood to waste anymore time playing games. “We’re leaving.” He motioned for Sakura to fly in the direction of the tunnel.

“Okay, okay! Fine. I will make you a deal,” he quickly yelled out to stop Sakura from accelerating away.

Kenja frowned at Snail’s persistence but allowed him to continue.

“If I can’t make any of the pillars acknowledge you within three hours, I will eliminate the unfortunate boulder’s good fortune and return him.”

The eye listening behind them winced at the word make and its potential implications.

“And you won’t force them?”

Snail rotated his eyestalks in an eye-rolling fashion while exhaling an annoyed sigh. “I won’t force them.”

Kenja paused a moment before replying, “I’ll give you two hours.”

The color of the water had returned to normal with a lot of excess Qi making up for the rapidly depleting Yang in the sect’s moat, but there was no telling when the color would start converting to a darker Yin concentration. Kenja was unwilling to wait more than two hours if Snail failed to obtain him any acknowledgments up to that point.

“Fine, but if I do succeed, not only will I get to keep the garlic masher, but you have to let me spend half of the credits we gather.”

“Three percent,” Kenja stated with closed eyes and an emotionless face.

“How about forty percent?”

“Three percent.”

“You are shrewd, disciple. I will settle for twenty-five percent.”

“Three percent.”

“You sure know how to barter, disciple. We can agree on fifteen percent.”

“Three percent.”

“Okay! You got me good. I will accept ten percent.”

“Three percent.”

“You’re a great haggler, disciple. Your brilliance in negotiating is a given considering I am your teacher. Very well, I will take five percent and no less.” Snail’s face displayed a look of excited nonchalance as if he was unbothered by Kenja’s uncompromising stance during the negotiation, but if snails could sweat, he would be perspiring buckets right now.

Kenja’s face showed no change during the entire back-and-forth until Snail’s last comment which caused Kenja to furrow his brows in annoyance. The sly snail attributed Kenja’s successful negotiating to himself, so even his victory would be Snail’s victory as well. Despite Snail’s rudeness, Kenja opened his eyes and gave Snail a business-like smile. He paid Snail lip service, “Well, if you put it like that, I guess I have to compromise. Five percent will be yours if you succeed, Snail-sensei.”

After all, Snail had no leverage to negotiate with Kenja. A single acknowledgment from a pillar was unlikely to produce a yield greater than five percent of the total Yang they would accumulate, so it made no sense to give Snail more than five percent.

Most importantly, Kenja didn’t have much faith that Snail would succeed since it was still Kenja who had to earn the acknowledgment. What would Snail have Kenja do or learn within two hours that would impress these ancient elders? Also, one couldn’t forget that their fellow elder pillar’s return hinged on ‘not acknowledging’ Kenja, so this whole negotiation was likely a meaningless discussion.

Kenja took pleasure in handling business deals, so he didn’t mind the pointless bargaining with Snail.

“Now, let’s go have a look at that one pillar first.” Snail’s eyes shifted to their left at a pillar with a spirit who had several scars on his face and skin.

“You, Little Scratch Post, come tell this Supreme Snail about yourself and what you like!”