At Lei Chonglin’s roar, the air around them crackled with qi. In the scant seconds afforded to her by their surprise, Ai Mingxia tapped each on the temple, hard, adrenaline coursing through her as well as qi. The roots broke into mere slivers and Wu Jianzhu sprung upwards, clutching at his stomach.

 

“Why are you three being like this?” Lei Chonglin yelled. “I thought you were all friends —” He shook his head in disbelief. “And we’re in the middle of a test!”

 

Ai Mingxia sighed. She’d been confused as well; it’d all happened so fast. At least if they were warring against each other it was less likely they’d all gang up on her, but it was wasting time and it worried her how volatile her fellow disciples could be. The tension in the air was palpable, hanging like a shroud, even if they had stopped fighting.

 

“He insulted you —”

 

“He didn’t! I — I get you want to stick up for me, but Guo Qiuyue didn’t mean anything bad…!”

 

“Qiuyue said you needed to learn a lesson—”

 

“I meant that he shouldn’t suck up to people for his brother anymore,” Guo Qiuyue growled lowly, his hair spilling out his braid. He turned to Lei Chonglin. “Then Lei Yongrei will never learn. Eventually, he’ll offend somebody like Si Ma Zhilian but with a worse temper, and then where will the two of you end up?”

 

“Don’t threaten him, you shithead —”

 

“Guo She wasn’t threatening him. you overreacting bastard — Must everything be an insult to you?”

 

They were all overreacting, but at least they weren’t fighting anymore. Still, Ai Mingxia slammed Taoyun into the ground with all her strength, the jarring sound causing them to stop. “All of you, let Lei Chonglin speak.”

 

Lei Chonglin sighed, suddenly timid again. “I, ah,… don’t understand why you’re fighting over something so small. Um … Can this wait till the tests are over? Time is wasting.”

 

Wu Jianzhu and Guo Qiuyue shot twin glares at each other. Wu Jianzhu especially looked the worse for wear, Guo Qiuyue’s burning handprint imprinted into his arm. Ai Mingxia herself had dozens of small cuts in her hand that had mostly stopped bleeding already but were still open. Luckily, the shards of ice that had embedded itself was already melting and thus already cleaning the wounds.

 

“Fine,” Wu Jianzhu scoffed. “For you.”

 

Ai Mingxia almost groaned. This wouldn’t be good. “Luo Yanmei, what’s the status of the two groups left?” She asked, steering the conversation back into a sensible direction.

 

Luo Yanmei, sending one last glare in Wu Jianzhu’s way, closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. “There’s one group left, missing some people.”

 

At least the test itself was going smoothly. Seeing as Wu Jianzhu, who had previously been the closest to taking a leadership role, was busy scowling, Ai Mingxia said: “Then let’s go. We can take them.”

 

The trip to the fortress was equally tense. Luo Yanmei, still clad with a ridiculous amount of weaponry, and Guo Qiuyue flew in the front, muttering under their breaths. Lei Chonglin seemed to be … purposefully ignoring Wu Jianzhu as they flew behind. Ai Mingxia sighed.

 

Eventually, they reached the fortress. Since it had taken them so long to get here, Ai Mingxia didn’t doubt the other group had already familiarized themselves with it and probably laid arrays and traps down. Circling in the air like vultures, the five searched for a safe entrance. There were no attacks shooting at them yet, so either the other group was laying low or hadn’t noticed them.

 

“There’s a maze array around the entrance,” Wu Jianzhu pointed out.

 

“It’s not,” Guo Qiuyue refuted. “It’s a disorientation array, even if they look similar. I don’t think anybody in our year except possibly Si Ma Zhilian could cast one.”

 

“Si Ma Zhilian this, Si Ma Zhilian that — Why are you so obsessed with her? What’s so great about —”

 

“Guo Qiuyue is right,” Ai Mingxia interrupted the scowling Wu Jianzhu. “It’s a disorientation array, but it doesn’t seem to affect us from the air.”

 

“Ah! There’s an opening there,” Lei Chonglin remarked quietly, pointing to a small hole, large enough to fit into with some effort, in one of the northern towers.

 

Ai Mingxia considered. It could be a trap or an ambush, but scanning the rest of the perimeter of the fortress, she didn’t see any other openings. It was also detached from the rest of the fortress, so it was possible that the other group could’ve missed it. “Might be a trap.”

 

“We should send somebody in to scout. I volunteer Jianzhu, since he’s being so helpful right now,” Luo Yanmei sniped.

 

Before Wu Jianzhu could bite out a retort, Ai Mingxia interrupted. “I’ll do it. Your art’s not that specific in terms of location, and you can only sense lifeforms, I’d assume…?”

 

Luo Yanmei nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m working on it.”

 

Ai Mingxia nodded and flew forwards, completely silent. She dismounted Taoyun as she balanced precariously on a ridge at the side of the tower, and listened for sounds of movement. There were none, but that didn’t mean it was safe. Silently, she crept closer before peering into the crack.

 

There were no signs of an array on the stone floor, but Ai Mingxia still wasn’t satisfied. Eyes flitting around the room, she saw nothing any disciple could hide behind, nor any slits arrows or other weapons could shoot through. The room was small and enclosed, the door shut steadfastly.

 

Ears still peeled and on the tips of her toes, Ai Mingxia crawled in.

 

The instant her foot touched the floor, it crumbled to dust and she began to plummet into an apparently otherwise hollow tower.

 

Shit.

 

Scrabbling, she held herself up with wind as she grabbed Taoyun and sat on it, desperately trying to keep her balance. Chunks of rubble were already falling: Ai Mingxia could be buried alive. She staggered dangerously on Taoyun, attempting to keep her balance and try to lift upwards while dodging the more dangerous plunging stones with the wind aiding her, but dust was already beginning to get into her eyes and crowding her vision as the smaller parts of rubble pelted her.

 

As she was dodging a particularly large chunk of falling wall, another nailed Taoyun, and as soon as Ai Mingxia could feel herself begin to lose balance again and hear the sound of snapping she instinctively let go of it and jumped to the wall, powered by a burst of wind, trying to cling to it.

 

But the stone walls were slippery and smoothed over, and it was too late. Ai Mingxia almost screamed before she could feel the rush of wind that wasn’t hers and two arms pulling her up.

 

She blinked. Guo Qiuyue smiled reassuring down at her as they balanced perilously on his sword, barely dodging the rubble. She could hear Luo Yanmei right behind them yelling, “Liu Xiuying —” despite the pounding of her ears. Instantly, Ai Mingxia let her qi swirl and boost both swords as well, and the three narrowly escaped the collapsing tower through a large opening into the main part of the fortress.

 

Nerves rolling a thousand miles an hour, Ai Mingxia panted as she dismounted. “How — Thank you.” She raised her voice to be heard over the sound of rubble falling to the ground. To balance two people on one sword was difficult enough, but to do it in such a situation? Incredible. And their speed was truly remarkable; she hadn’t realised Luo Yanmei and Guo Qiuyue were such good fliers till now.

 

“We practised sword flying a lot when we were younger,” Luo Yanmei informed her, also out of breath. “Specifically, a lot of two person flying. We’re both pretty good though, no?”

 

Ai Mingxia nodded, still slightly dumbstruck. So both Guo Qiuyue and Luo Yanmei had been able to save her, it had just been Guo Qiuyue that had gotten there first, which was why Luo Yanmei had come along as well. If they had saved her when they could’ve let her die without any repercussions … Perhaps they weren’t after her head after all. “Where are Lei Chonglin and Wu Jianzhu?”

 

Guo Qiuyue’s face darkened, and Luo Yanmei groaned. “Ugh. The fucker said you’d be fine and he and Lei Chonglin would find another opening.”

 

Visibly trying the hardest to smooth his tone out, Guo Qiuyue spoke. “Asshole. I suppose the other group will now know of our appearance, then?”

 

Ai Mingxia sighed. “Yes. Hopefully, they really have found another way in.” Her adrenaline was dying down. Shit. Taoyun had been buried under the piles of rubble, hadn’t it?

 

Guo Qiuyue noted the expression that must have been on her face, and rubbed the back of his neck apologetically. “We weren’t fast enough to save your spear, unfortunately.” Ai Mingxia couldn’t suppress a sigh. She’d gotten used to how Taoyun was different from Hongmei, and wielded it just as easily. She could’ve snapped it into its portable form and held onto it, since clutching at the wall hadn’t worked anyways, or simply done better at dodging.

 

“Sorry. Can you use a sabre or bow?” Luo Yanmei offered. Ai Mingxia considered. She was mediocre at both, but she supposed she’d be more fit for using a sabre. “Or a sword. I can handle myself well enough with a bow."

 

“The sabre, please.” As Ai Mingxia took it, she noted her hands were caked in dust and bleeding aggressively, even more so than they had been already. The rest of her was too. Suddenly, she could feel oozing pain all over her body. She winced.

 

“You don’t look so good,” Luo Yanmei noted. “I’m not super good at healing big wounds, but I can probably heal small wounds and staunch the wounds for a bit.”

 

Ai Mingxia nodded. If Luo Yanmei and Guo Qiuyue were already out to kill her, they would’ve let her been buried alive. She doubted Luo Yanmei could fill her with harming qi instead of healing qi under Guo Qiuyue’s nose either.

 

Letting Luo Yanmei touch her wrist and press down, she could feel the small cuts close, the larger ones ceasing to bleed in a way that felt like having a stuffed nose, and the throbbing pain fading away until it was barely recognizable.

 

“It won’t last long. I put as much qi as I could while still having some left to fight, so it should last the rest of this test at least.” Luo Yanmei smiled at her, eyes crinkling up, and Guo Qiuyue did too.

 

Sabre in her hands instead of a spear, Ai Mingxia smiled back.