Everybody’s gaze was trained on Treasure. She’d been expelled off her hill. It was very unlucky for her but a stroke of good fortune for everyone else. She had the greatest amount of rings out of every single disciple. Not to mention she’d made an enemy out of everyone.

Musnuf swallowed. He could beads of sweat sliding down his neck. The back half of his robe was drenched.

‘Begin!’ Elder Rain’s voice resounded in their ears and they started rushing up the two mountains.

They were whispering to each other. The runeless hill was quite conspicuous. Rumors were abound about the state of that hill. Eleven of the hill-less disciples headed up Dragon’s hill. They had the best chance of obtaining that one.

One of them decided to go up the other hill. He looked quite weak and reasoned his chances were better on the other hill.

Musnuf was at a cross-roads with limited information. If he wasn’t on the platform but in possession of the ring, did that mean he could claim it? Was being on the platform a requirement? The elder had claimed that you had to protect the platform. However, the ring was an extension of the platform.

He started chewing on his lip. This was turning into a guessing game. “Give me my ring back.” It was Tranquil.

“Well, I don’t have it anymore. I dropped it.”

“Bullshit!”

He raised his hands up. “No hard feelings. It was a fair competition.”

Tranquil took a step back and her lips twitched. “Why are you so confident?”

Oh, crap. “I’m not confident, I’m just content. I can’t win with all of them there.” He made a sweeping gesture at the disciples heading up the hill. He sat down on his butt. It would be very hard to defend himself in this position. “I got Dragon to get off her platform. The rest is up to you. I know you can win.”

She stared down at him. He was sure she didn’t believe his spiel about giving up. He didn’t believe it himself but he just needed to wait for her desire to get up there. She turned around and ran off. Her back burst into flames and she was climbing up the mountain.

Now, what do I do? He started jumping up and down. His head was turned to the sky and he was waving at it. He felt ridiculous but what other way did he have? An amused voice burrowed its way into his mind.

‘Do you have something to say?’

He replied out loud. “Do I need to be present on that platform to claim the hill?”

The green clouds above him were placid, thinking, weighing and trying to come to a conclusion. The reply started with a short laugh and his heart sank down to his knees. ‘You’ll have to figure that out on your own.’

He started chewing his lip and then said, “Fuck this.” He started walking towards the warded hill. He was going to give himself the best chance to win. They could go there and fight it out among themselves.

He climbed the other hill to find a very fat disciple. He was sitting in the center, meditating. Carefree and confident. For him, it was just a matter of luck right now. He had no need to move.

How do I drive this one out? There was one other disciple here besides him but he didn’t have much of a clue as to what he was doing. He looked like a deflated balloon and start descending the mountain. He was heading to Dragon’s hill.

Musnuf was exhausted, with the bare minimum of essence reserves. He could conjure a few more illusions but it would leave him at a severe disadvantage.

“Hey!” He shouted at the disciple. He wasn’t moving. He shouted his throat out but he wouldn’t move.

A tiny one wouldn’t hurt. He crafted a green fire similar to the ghost flame right in front of his face. That got his attention. Musnuf dispelled it before he could realize it was fake.

He got up with a deliberation good for old people. He decided to stop a few feet away from the barrier. He was still wary.

“How many rings do you have?”

“Why do you ask?” He had a husky voice with gravitas to it. It was quite striking coming out of his pudgy mouth.

“Because I can help you win or lose.” He made a quick flame appear inside the barrier. It was small but got the point across.

“If you had enough juice to burn me up, you would’ve done it already.”

“That’s true but I’m not that good at fighting. Why fight when we can negotiate? There’s a difference between cultivator’s and beasts.”

He cracked a smirk at that. “Not that much of a difference when you get down to it but let’s hear it.”

“Loan me some rings.”

“Why?”

“You’re depending on a coin flip at the moment. You can refuse to cooperate with me and leave it up to faith or…” He took out the platform ring.

That got his attention. His eyes narrowed, the little organ in his head puttering around trying to make sense of it all. “How did you get it? If you were in possession of it, why weren’t you left behind on the mountain?”

“Think about it, nothing says that we have to be on the platform while protecting the ring. You’re assuming that being in possession of a ring leaves you on the platform but protecting it for a full fifteen minutes leaves you on it. Most people got their hands on a ring in the beginning, I’m assuming that the rules were different for the first round.”

The fat disciple was quiet. Musnuf decided to press on, “Loan me a few rings, I don’t have any at the moment. If your mountain collapses I’ll give you half of the reward. If my mountain collapses you can keep it all.”

Musnuf walked down the mountain with his pockets a tad bit heavier.