It took almost a fortnight for me to reach the main tunnel and free myself. I thought it ironic that I had spent more time trapped beneath Four Element Sect than I had spent in my apartment. Whoever the woman was that had trapped me, hadn't been satisfied with just bringing the mountain down around us. She had a fallback plan in place in case I survived. Once I reached the open tunnel, I was forced to contend with a floor that had been seeded with illusion arrays.

I wasn't sure what they would do if they were triggered. And if I had been so exhausted from my ordeal that I had simply stumbled into them, I might find myself lost in their deadly environment. They should have worked. Without the torc giving me a chance for respite and the time needed to cultivate and refill my Qi pool, I would have never noticed them. But because I managed to rest and refill my Qi pool, my perception was working at peak efficiency.

I wasn't sure what might happen if the illusion arrays were triggered, and I wasn't taking any chances as to their purpose. I created a series of ball lightning constructs that I tossed at the floor, walls, and ceiling, blasting the controlling structure of each array and rendering them inoperable. The lightning arcing across surfaces to target each array before being grounded.

Once I was sure there was nothing else to worry about, I sent a soothing message through the companion bond. Storm had calmed down over the past week, especially when she had realized she could enter the torc when I did. She demanded a few more scritches and scratches than normal, but her demands for attention were as soothing for me as they were for her. Now that I was free, she returned to the area outside the Sect to hunt.

I sent a missive to Elder Shadow explaining my recent misfortune as soon as I was relatively certain I was safe. I included my supposition that the person involved must have been involved in the smuggling operation or connected to the Rift in some manner. I explained my belief that I thought she was a stooge, someone dispensable because it would only take me a matter of hours at most to find out who she was. Especially with the data-illusion system, the Sect had installed. It included a database of every Sect member and servant employed by the Sect.

"I knew you would live," a male voice said, catching the missive I had just released, punctuating his words by activating his fire whip.

This was the first time I'd run into Daniel since our arrival at Four Element Sect. I'd known he was here, of course. His intervention with Elder Dill had lost me a valuable spot in Alchemy Hall. But the last time I'd seen him was when Storm and I had defeated him during the tournament. The death of some of his bonded beasts had left him almost catatonic after our match.

I had known he'd healed and been given a position with the Sect. Elder Shadow had made a point of mentioning his presence and that we were banned from any type of fighting or dueling when we'd had our first meeting. Still, I hadn't expected to come across him, here of all places, and that I did could only mean that he was involved. More likely, his House was involved in the smuggling operation.

By showing up here, he had revealed his hand. He would have no choice but to kill me now. It was a stupid gambit on his part. He had already lost one duel to me. Why would he think he could win a second? Even if he had replaced his bonded companions, the damage to his soul when his familiars had died could not have been healed this quickly. No matter what kind of artifact or healing technique his family was able to employ, soul damage took time to heal.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to find you and your House part of the smuggling operation," I said as I equipped my bow, readying myself to attack.

Fighting in the tunnels would severely restrict my normal style. I liked to use open skies and my ability to fly as the backdrop for my martial techniques. While the cavern we were in was roomy enough to make traveling easy, they weren't so large that I could use those maneuvers I had grown fond of using.

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"Our House wouldn't be so crass as to involve themselves with something as pedestrian as smuggling," Daniel replied. "We simply know how to make use of the unsavory underground that exists in all Sects to our advantage. It made our tasks easier because Clan Velize is responsible for most of the enchanted paper used to make missives."

His hand holding the missive that I had released with an update to Elder Shadow proved the validity of his words. There should have been no way for him to catch or hold that missive. They were supposed to be tamper-proof.

Despite his bravado, he was nervous. His bragging punctuated by a tell, each of his words was accompanied by a small gesture, an unconscious flick of his hand that sent the whip he was holding to slither snake-like across the floor beside him. He may be trying to project calm assurance, but his body was transmitting another message.

He was afraid. I couldn't be certain of what, but I hoped he was afraid that my win in the duel wasn't a fluke and that I was just better than him. If he feared me, it would force him into making mistakes. On the other hand, someone so lost to fear that they simply struck out with no thought or control was hard to counter. I wanted him to fear me, but not to such a degree that he was lost to reason.

And considering how little time he had taken to heal, he probably was worried, especially now that I had advanced a realm. My recent gains working to escape from being buried under mountains of rock had only solidified my cultivation and advanced my stage firmly towards mid-level. That and the addition of lightning to one of the elements I resonated with made me even more formidable than I had been in our last fight.

"You've added something to the paper?" I guessed, pointing to the missive he had captured. " Some enchantment or rune so that you family gets a copy of every missive sent using that paper, as well as a way to intercept and destroy any that might be dangerous to your House?"

"We don't get a copy of every missive," he admitted.

"But certainly, from the more powerful people of the Empire," I said, understanding what he had left unsaid. "Probably from the Emperor himself. I wonder how he is going to respond when he finds out what your House had been up too."

The stillness of his whip was the only warning I had before he attacked. The fire imbued construct shooting out with a cracking noise that resembled a gunshot. I was over fifty feet away when he struck, which should have placed me out of range, but I had already learned from our duel that his ability with fire allowed him to launch projectiles using the whip as a focus and he was just as effective fighting at a distance as he was within striking distance of the whips metal barbs.

How he aimed with a weapon that seemed to dance and move with every twitch of his muscle spoke to the exhaustive amount of training he must have undergone. Whatever training he had, however, he managed it, he was able to hit whatever he targeted. Or at least he would have if I hadn't performed [Spin and Dive Into the Ocean] as he attacked, making sure I wasn't in the area he had aimed at.

I managed to get off one attack, releasing a [Tidal Fury] lightning-infused arrow before he forced me to dodge. An attack only possible because I had already spun the arrow up as I'd drawn and equipped the bow. I didn't have time to register the effectiveness of that arrow, too concerned with his secondary attack, a fire lance that was aimed at my new location.

My leaping somersault forward allowed me to move in such a manner that it appeared I was using his fire lance as a pole. An acrobatic feat only made possible because the bow I was holding served as a temporary staff. The flexibility from the wood the bow was created from allowing me to rotate around the fire, using it as the center for my frame of reference. A stripper's pole dance trick where I spun around the fire, tumbling elegantly with my Hanfu floating as I twisted into a type of exotic dance, something that any burlesque queen might perform.

The only difference was that I pirouetted around the lance by dodging vertically instead of horizontally. A move that was only possible because I improvised using the staff of my bow much as a pole vaulter might. I wasn't really spinning around the fire attack as much as I was avoiding it using the [Dao of Movement] in tandem with my leap while powering and controlling the spin using the bow.

Once I was standing again, I activated [Lightnings Rush] to get into melee range. My normal proclivity for fighting from the air and my instincts to maintain my distance had me balking as I dashed forward. But Daniel was more a ranged fighter. I needed to get in close to negate the effectiveness of that whip and those summoned fire lances.

If I could neutralize his weapons, the fight was as good as over. And my Tessen was a perfect melee range weapon.