“I wonder if there is a way for you to open the door from the other side?” I asked Toi once she had finished her explanation. “The door is trapped and will react if I try to force it from this side. But what if you open it from inside?

I slowly added water to the wall as I thought of that possibility. The wall was made of plaster, wood, and cement. The runes that were hidden within were already crumbling because of neglect. I was planning on soaking the wall thoroughly with water, then freezing it. It should expand enough to crack and send it crashing down.

If it still stood, I would use lightning to blast the weakened structure into rubble.

“I had looked to see if there was an array I could deactivate when I was inside. I didn’t see one, which isn’t surprising. The room would require a slip of jade, keyed to the room and the room’s defenses to deactivate the wards that have been engaged,” Toi informed me.

“Are there any skeletal remains left? Perhaps the Clan Leader died inside, and you can search his body for something that might work.”

“There are a few, but even if the key is on one of them, I wouldn’t be able to activate it. Those types of devices need an injection of Qi as well as Spirit. I am comprised entirely of Spirit energy.”

There was no hope for it but to muscle my way through the wall. It was a balancing act, trying to soak enough of the wall with water so that it could be destroyed without soaking so much that the floor and ceiling were affected.

It would not be a good thing to have the entire building’s structure come crashing down. However, it did give me a moment of pause when I considered if it might be better to go at this from above.

I decided against it. I was already worried about damaging the contents of the Clan Leader’s office. That damage might be exponential if the entire ceiling came crashing down and destroyed; however, many jade tokens might be shattered in the collapse.

I decided less was better in this case and stopped adding water sooner than I thought worrisome. A quick freeze of the area I had selected and the wall began to warp and crack. It took a few applications of water and ice before the first hole appeared.

A careful application of [White Crane Opens Wing] using my Tessen and an opening large enough for me to skirt through was revealed. I spent a few seconds cleaning up the opening before poking my head in for a thorough examination.

Perception extended and focused, I looked for signs of Qi before shifting my vision to re-examine the room using my new abilities to pierce the veil between realms and see what, if anything, my new [Spirit Sight] revealed.

There were traces of Qi. There would have to be. The Mystic Realm was a Qi construct at heart. But there was nothing that stood out, nothing that blazed with Qi. The same was true for any spirit energies. There were a few areas of patchy fog, wisps of spirit condensation that fluttered in the breeze the opening in the wall had allowed.

Nothing that was so concentrated or organized stood out. Nothing that looked strong enough to power a trap. The few bits of spirit energy that lingered were located near the skeletal remains Toi had mentioned.

The opening I had made wasn’t much larger than the circumference of my body, so I had to wiggle my way through to gain entrance. The leathers I was wearing made it more accessible. If I had been wearing a Hanfu, or if anyone had seen me trying to wedge my way past, I might have taken the time to widen the hole.

A brief burst of wind formed with me using my Tessen to clear the dust, and the room was returned to the condition it had been left in. There were no windows, but the room had sconces positioned strategically to illuminate the entire room. Sconces that still worked, their glow was shining brightly.

I planned on liberating a few of those hoping the secret behind their durability and long-lasting workings could be reproduced. It was hard to fathom how they could still work, emitting light in a city that had been abandoned for who knew how long.

The office was a mix of a meeting room, working area, and library. The library section was full of shelves containing quartz tokens, scrolls, and books. Tables and chairs were graced with paper and pens for those interested in taking notes. And the smell of wood and wax coated shelves and furniture had been lovingly maintained.

The quartz used for creating tokens was another technology that I planned to borrow. Quartz was an easily accessible and common gemstone, more available than jade. If I could repurpose this technology, copying and sharing knowledge would be much easier.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I first started by searching the bodies of those who had died. Looting the dead had become standard practice over the months I’d been here. The buildings I’d searched had been strangely lacking in the dead, but there had been enough that I had become accustomed to any concerns about sacrilege or blasphemy.

Each body had spatial devices. Most of them contained spirit stones that were all but drained by this point. There were potions, manuals, weapons, and treasures, but the real find was the body sitting at the desk.

I could only conclude he had been the Clan Leader because when I removed a ring he was wearing, there was an instant of connection, a static shock that lasted for the briefest moment.

At that moment, I felt the weight of the Clan settle like a mantle across my shoulders. The gates had recognized me as Clan Head when I’d entered the estate, but the passing of the ring had confirmed it.

My mind was flooded with information that any Clan Head would have.

The most important, at least for the future of my Fief, was the Writ of Investiture that was hidden within a safe behind the desk. With that Writ and the Clan ring, I was fully empowered to rebuild this Clan in my territory. The Writ was imprinted with intent, using Qi, Dharmic energy, and Spirit energy.

It was powered by runic arrays and formations that would give me the authority to claim and rebuild the claim even in my world ruled by the Empire and Sects.

I made short work of opening the safe and claiming everything stored within. Most of it would turn out to be useless. Deeds to lands and properties I would not have access to once the Mystic Realm closed. Still, there were a few pieces of jade tokens that contained martial techniques that allowed cultivators to incorporate the aid of a spirit companion. There were also a few pieces that were almost blinding in spirit energy, part of the regalia a Clan was entrusted with.

I slipped the ring onto my finger, hoping that with that physical representation of my status as Clan Head, any traps or wards that were left would be nullified. I was happy to see the ring resize to fit my finger.

With that taken care of, I turned my attention to the rest of the room, only to be confused. Browsing the library would have been easier if I had understood the shelving practices. I didn’t, and there were thousands of items that would have to be cataloged.

Something for Aki to sort through. I knew she would obsess over each item until she had them organized and copied. I would make sure to have a discussion with her about what would be allowed to be open for distribution.

I didn’t want to take any chances of anyone else getting access to this material. At least not until after the Cultivators that had sworn to my House or Clan had mastered them.

It was strange thinking about my duties and responsibilities as a Clan Head, but I now had the regalia and ring, and I knew that Clan Frost would be revived.

Without knowing what was rare or dangerous on the shelves, I decided to store everything, bookshelves and all, in my storage device. The process went smoothly enough. Whoever had constructed the shelves had planned for them to be movable, so I simply walked among the stacks, touching and storing each unit as I passed.

Removing the final row of shelves revealed a recessed door on the floor. I had thought there might be another room but had assumed it would be revealed hidden in the wall behind a bookcase.

It only took a second to open that hidden door to realize this room was different from the office. There was no light available. The opening was a yawning pit of blackness. The Qi and Spirit energy had been disturbed when I opened the passage and were swirling madly. I was unsure if that was a function of the shelving being removed or a defense mechanism concealed in the door to protect what was hidden below.

I retrieved a spirit stone from storage to use for light, dropping it down the opening. It worked to reveal what was inside and dispelled some of the creepiness that I had felt as I stared into the depths of darkness.

A few more spirit stones and the room was illuminated enough that I could see clearly. The spiral staircase opened into an almost identical room to the Clan Head’s office, smaller without the sections for meetings and work but lined with shelves brimming with tokens.

These had to be the rare manuals, possibly the Clan’s inheritance secrets specific to this clan. That would be a real boon for my House. I had no inheritance to offer my members. We were too new. As a barely established as my House or Dojo were, we’d had no time to discover any inheritance, even a barebones one that we could embrace or tailor to our needs.

I might be able to trade for a few of the more common inheritances, those shared among Sects, but if I could find something here, something unique and newly discovered, that would give my people another pillar to shore up our weaknesses.

I would like to excuse my following action as excitement. Taking that first step down that staircase without searching for traps was idiotic—a blunder of such stupidity that I barely reacted in time.

“SPIRIT TRAP!” I heard Toi scream in warning through the spirit link we had forged as the floor sealed and the outer door to the room that we had taken such care to circumvent activated.

The library pulsed with energy as the runes and wards activated. Concealed enchantments were built into the floor and throughout that hidden room. The enchantments melded to form a formation that began pounding against my inner sea and my soul structure.

Toi was gone. Her Spirit was sucked into an artifact of power. She still existed, our spirit contract still active, but the longer she was trapped in the artifact, the weaker she would get.

I had no idea what was happening to her, but I felt the slightest echo of fear and pain. Her emotions reverberated across our soul construct. Her fear and pain added a dimension of confusion and uncertainty that I was forced to deal with.

Confusion that I would have to overcome if I was to save both of us.