The afternoon shafts of light sparkled against the silver threaded robes of the guardian who could have been any fit, middle-aged cultivator, had he not radiated such vast, potent spiritual energy, now looking their way.

Freezing Alex in his tracks, even as Jidihu hissed behind him, her whispered warning traveling in shadowy currents that only a handful of ears would ever hear. “Ware, that is no Silver tier cultivator!”

Alex’s heart began to pound, shocked to find that, for all his growing might, and the arrogance to think he had taken even the first steps in forging an art that would allow its practitioners to slide through opposing currents of spiritual energy, he couldn’t move a muscle. Even his diaphragm was locked to paralyzing stillness as too knowing eyes locked upon his own.

You sense the peril of those you hold most dear!

Unorthodox Card: Jade Queens Upon The Board of Fate: Is now in play! You have claimed your pieces from the Board! - Note! All choices are final! You may NOT change these pieces for the duration of this game! (You may choose up to one additional piece with this card at a later date.)

Bronze Card: Avatar is now in play.

You have placed Avatar upon your pieces. Linked card allows linked coverage. Warning! Should either of your pieces perish while under the influence of this card, so will you!

You have switched to Dark Qi Metabolism.

Alex’s blood roiled with dread, sensing Hao Chan’s terrified alarm, and Yinzi’s animal-like panic, having come so close to asphyxiation once before. He immediately slammed down two cards in ways he couldn’t hope to explain, the unexpected cries of fury and outrage rumbling in the storm-laden clouds above as he embraced Dark Qi metabolism. He instantly felt like he was running flat out in the last mile of a track meet, his lungs heaving, his legs burning, the metabolic needs of three souls suddenly becoming his own.

An agony he would willingly endure for a thousand miles, for the sake of the sudden surge of desperate relief, and love, now flooding a party link he had yet to disband.

And then, between one heartbeat and the next, it was done.

The awful killing pressure had left.

Alex stumbled to one knee to wheeze for breath, Yinzi and Hao Chan crying out as they did the same, instantly caught up in a panicked Jidihu’s arms, Alex rapidly signing for all he was worth to prevent disaster as the guardian spoke.

“Why have you returned?”

The two thin boys in threadbare robes looking askance at the bridge and the dreams of a wondrous life of strength and cultivation that would never be their own were still gifted with the survivor’s instincts of any small, powerless creature forced to survive at the pounding feet of their betters. Both of them went wide-eyed and lurched back, immediately falling into Dogeza and crying out their unworthiness, before spinning around and darting for the path back to the city with such striking alacrity that Alex couldn’t help but wonder if maybe they had a warrior’s grace somewhere in their bloodlines after all.

Such was the spiritual pressure of the being who was clearly no mere instructor guarding the moonlight bridge, as good an explanation as any, Alex supposed, as to why this clearing wasn’t absolutely filled with Dongfang Hong’s men.

Alex locked gazes with eyes glittering like the starry heavens before falling into a 45 degree bow… and going no further.

When he spoke, he dared nothing but the absolute truth, unvarnished by a fox’s wiles.

“We seek to ascend up the steps, just as far as our abilities, and resolve, will take us.” His gaze hardened. “I would also hone my killing arts in the competitions that I know will soon be taking place, and if I possibly can, end the reign of a tinpot dictator, or at least make him stumble a single step, and force him and whatever infernal allies he has left, out of my school.”

The ancient guardian’s eyes softened. “So, you would rescue school that forged you in such a bitter crucible.”

Alex dared a smile, summoning, for just a second, the talisman he had risked oblivion itself to obtain.

The guardian’s eyes widened, before he tilted his head back and roared with laughter. “You? Not even I had realized… but I should have. What a fine jest, Disciple of the Fox!” Eyes heavy with the weight of death itself peered their way, for all that he flashed a grandfatherly smile. “By all means, aspirants. You are all welcome to dare the golden steps on this night alone, and ascend just as far as you might! But be warned. There are rules to this feat.”

“Rules?” Ning Jing asked, now hovering protectively by her daughter, right by Alex’s side.

The guardian solemnly nodded. “Your rank will be determined by just how many golden steps you can manage before exhaustion claims you, with multiple plateaus where you may take your ease and recover your focus before daring to go further up the stairs. A word of warning, however. To partake of the food or drink offered at any plateau is to acknowledge the end of your journey for the evening. Should your journey end before you hit the fourth plateau, denoting those with the potential for Bronze with a fully intact meridian configuration, the life of an honored servant sworn to this school, will be your destiny. And even here, there lies the chance for elevation, but only for the strongest servants, forging themselves along Peril’s Path in competitions that will forge them as no other force, save the steps themselves, possibly could.”

He flashed a knowing smile Alex’s way. “As this one could have told you, but respecting his position at this school, has forborne saying a word, as is proper and just. Your privilages as students of this school will increase with every flight of golden steps you ascend, past the plateaus of Bronze to the magnificent Saunas of Silver, and for those of you with the potential, all the way to the heights of Gold.”

The guardian’s knowing gaze met those of Elder Panheu and Tan Wu both. “I would invite both of you in particular to contemplate the glories of the spiritual waters flooding down the golden steps for as long as you dare. As high up as you dare. You might be surprised at the depth of the revelations revealed to you as you are purified in waters that will send so many others who would dare to match your feet hurtling through the heavens as shooting stars forevermore.

He smiled coldly into Jidihu and Ning Jings shocked faces, even as the men gazed at the steps with a terrible hunger Alex understood all too well, sensing the desperation in failed and forced Golds, both still desperate to become so much more. “And you too, girl who weighs herself down with a terrible burden that was never her own, have a chance to relieve yourself of burdens you should never have dared.”

Ning Jing crashed to her indestructible knees, gazing at the calmly smiling guardian with a look of horror. “How can you possibly...”

A hand effortlessly waved. Ning Jing’s eyes bulged as she was frozen to speechlessness, a single warning gaze freezing Jidihu in her tracks.

“Be Calm!” Alex thought to his suddenly alarmed girls as the guardian spoke on.

“It is your choice, of course. Just know that every step forward you take will be an agony, and a release. This is a trial that will reveal your greatest weakness, and reveal a path forward you had thought forever forsaken.”

Ning Jing lurched back to her feet, eyes filled with an animal-like flash of panic before she schooled her features, sinking into a combat stance, for all that they all knew they were powerless before this simple old man in silver-threaded robes. “And if I refuse?”

The guardian shrugged. “You are free to leave as of this very moment. Not a single one of you need step a single foot upon that bridge, or the golden steps beyond.” His gaze hardened. “But if you do, you are subject to my rules. You will have no access to whatever prizes are held in your storage devises, nor be able to make use of any gates, lest you’d dare face the most extreme environments that only one of you was forged to endure. But know this. A single step back will be like carrying a twenty stone bag of rice, and stumbling three or more steps back will most assuredly spell the end of your climb, as you crash back to the last plateau you had achieved. And if you fail even to make it to even the first plateau, it is the crevice and the River of Souls that will be your final resting place, for this incarnation at least.”

Panheu and the rest actually shivered at those words, the guardian chuckling softly. “Of course you might think to rescue your friends with a well-timed grab, or send ill-met rivals upon the steps hurtling from the glories of Bronze back down to the ignominies of servitude. Just know that every friend you rescue with a well-timed grab, and every foe you send hurtling down with a skillful punch or palm-strike will mean the sacrifice of a single plateau for yourself as well.”

The guardian held their eyes for long moments, before flashing a bemused smile. “But I see this batch of supplicants, at least, is free of bloodthirsty fools and has the benefit of the greatest fool of all who has dared these steps before. So whatever additional secrets he would reveal… he may. To you six alone.”

His gaze then turned to Alex who shivered, as if he were now gazing into the infinite nebulae of the starry night sky.

“You have already dared these steps once… supplicant. To dare them again is to face the full crashing weight of the waters, the currents as strong as they can possibly be, so close to the earthly realm, their weight only increasing as you continue to ascend. You would be daring what no one who has risen so far would dare a second time, knowing full well the price for failure.”

Alex ignored the concerned looks this declaration earned him, asking the only thing that mattered. “Which means the waters would wash against me with more force than ever before. Purifying my soul… aligning my configuration, to the absolute heights of perfection.”

The guardian snorted. “As if your insane configuration that stretches to the moon’s orbit needs any further purifying. But yes. It would. So long as you accept the price for failure.” The guardian gazed pointedly down the rift, and for just a heartbeat, Alex imagined he heard Shui Jun’s restless winding coils far below.

“Alex!”

He patted Hao Chan’s anxious hand.

“I do.”

The guardian dipped his head and stepped aside, gesturing towards the golden steps on the other side of the vast chasm. “Then by all means… proceed with my blessings, honored supplicants of Rising Phoenix Academy!”

Alex bowed his head in gratitude, and took the first steps across the vast, yawning chasm.

“Alex!” He smiled away Hao Chan’s startled cry even as a quiet corner of his mind screamed with alarm, finding that he had to actually exert effort not to sink through the bridge that had effortlessly borne his weight once before. He refused to let his nervousness show on his face, saying only. “The bridge is invisible. Just walk carefully, going straight for the golden steps ahead, and you’ll be fine.

He could sense how desperately Hao Chan wanted to hold his hand, before winking back at the Guardian. “What our friend forgot to mention is that the penalties for breaking the rules hold for anyone and everyone who fails to achieve at least the first Gold tier plateau. For it is no one’s place to judge whatever path leads to a ruler’s ascension, only commend and reinforce their growth. But the number of would-be high Silvers who end up as life-long servants is a lesson all on its own, so… there is that, of course.”

The guardian gave absolutely no response as Alex deliberately tested the being, for all that Jidihu glared at the girls under her care. “And my disciples will not serve as fools and lessons to a fox’s folly. You will avoid gripping anyone’s hands or bracing anyone… save yourselves, of course, should the worst happen. And I expect both of you to achieve Silver at the least!”

Alex’s smirked turned to a sudden lurch in his chest when he noticed the sudden shift in the golden shafts of light. “The bridge will disappear when the sun’s rays stop hitting it, and that includes brooding storms out of nowhere from jealous spiteful gods, so run!” Alex roared, not hesitating to do just that, nor to grab both his girls hands, whatever the supposed cost.

Even so, he very carefully and deliberately freed them both of his grip as they approached the first step.

“Get, up, quickly!” He urged, only breathing a sigh of relief when all of them were panting on the first golden step, and Alex so ready to grab even Tan Wu’s massive paw when the skies abruptly darkened with steel grey clouds, the crack of thunder, and a storm out of nowhere that by some trick of the wind, didn’t touch the steps in the least. But Tan Wu had made it across just in time.

Alex looked back at the grimly smiling guardian. “I judge no penalty as of yet, for the bridge is not the steps, but have a care, boy. Your hair is blowing in Qi’s currents even now, and you are only on the first step. You might not ascend nearly as high as you’d like to think.”

Alex bowed his head, chilled to find that he was indeed feeling the current that was even now causing his ancient changshan jacket to flap as his blond locks were toyed by the spiritual breeze.

Panheu’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t forget your arts, disciple.”

Alex grinned. “You are of course, right, Elder Panheu. But you see, I want to feel these currents washing through me, as much as I possibly can.”

He held all their gazes, never mind the yawning chasm just a single lurching step away. “And so do all of you.” He then gazed at a pale faced Ning Jing, cursing softly as she glared at her trembling wrists. “You do understand what he was saying, don’t you?”

Ning Jing’s gaze was one of horrified betrayal. “You knew this would happen!”

Alex quickly shook his head. “Actually I didn’t. But I do recall a conversation you once had when you were all fleeing Dragon Academy the first time. About the price you had paid for indestructible bones. The strength it gave you. The ability to embrace Dark Qi as a mortal, even if you might never ascend to Gold.”

Alex gently squeezed her hand. “How would you like a do-over?”

“Alex!” An alarmed Hao Chan hissed as Ning Jing’s anxious eyes peered into Alex’s own.

“Don’t worry. Our guardian friend very specifically stated the penalties of using our hands to force another off the steps, or to pull them up. Nothing says we can’t give moral support to friends in no danger of falling.” His smile hardened. “And nothing says we can’t brace each other with our bodies when fatigue sends us crumpling to exhaustion… so long as our hands touch no portion of their bodies while doing so.”

Panheu chuckled softly. “And who would know better than the fox how to stretch the rules of this game? Of course that also means you could snap kick any opponent off the steps, without facing any penalty at all.”

Alex held the man’s gaze. “It does. And that’s not something I would ever do.” He winked. “I saved my fights for the plateaus, the first time around.”

This earned a handful of hard grins.

“Of course, I’d be as happy as anything if we can survive this ascent without having to kill anyone at all,” Alex clarified, meeting Ning Jing’s panicked gaze once more. “Tell me you you’ve never wanted to be free of the burden you bare… to maybe savor a second chance to strive for Gold?”

Ning Jing’s desperate stare widened to one of wonder, before hardening to cynical caution, the look of someone wary of having desperate hoped yanked away with a mocking smile. “You really expect me to believe such a thing is possible?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m almost positive that’s what the guardian meant, and regardless, we really should start ascending these steps. We are sort of close to the crevice.”

Jidihu gazed down once and paled, and it was all Alex could do not to grab her before she gracefully twisted around and climbed the second massive step. “The boy is right,” she curtly said. “Time for us to ascend with all haste… and ready ourselves for whatever might be waiting for us at the first basin.”