The deeper they traveled into the sect ruins, the less like a sect it began to look. Hallways that looked like they had once belonged above ground lay half-collapsed, brick wall shifting to sediment. Several areas had piled up with sand that made them impassable. Wu Jian and the others were forced to backtrack several times.

“It looks like this place was demolished,” Huǒ Shuchang said as he looked around.

Hou Jingshu shrugged. “Don’t forget this place was destroyed when several other powerful sects combined forces to attack it. I’m certain much of the damage done here was from that.”

“I don’t know. I think this place might be damaged from disuse,” Wu Jian said as he ran a hand over the wall. “It doesn’t look like damage done from techniques or battle. There’s a good chance this place escaped the fighting unscathed, but thousands of years of disuse have caused it to become like this.”

“Well, maybe,” Hou Jingshu said with a shrug.

They found several broken staircases that led deeper into the ruins. Sections of the stairs were just gone.

Huǒ Shuchang looked over the edge and whistled. “That’s a long fall. It's gotta be at least several hundred chih down.”

“How should we get down from here then?” asked Wu Jian.

“No choice. We gotta jump to those areas that still have stairs,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Wu Jian, Hou Jingshu, and Huǒ Shuchang leapt from one stair to the other. Huǒ Shuchang took the lead. His phoenix wings allowed him to fly briefly, so he would be fine if one of the stairs suddenly collapsed underneath him. That didn’t stop him from grumbling.

They found another hallway upon reaching the bottom, though it was buried under rubble and they had to climb to get through. The floor beyond that was broken. Down below was a tunnel filled with rocks and sand.

“Hmmm,” Huǒ Shuchang murmured.

“What is it?” asked Wu Jian.

“That tunnel was not naturally formed. A magical beast formed this tunnel. A big one at that,” his friend said.

“There are several kinds of magical beasts that are said to be living in the White Tiger Sect Ruins,” Hou Jingshu cupped a hand to her chin and murmured thoughtfully. “But I do not know any that can burrow like this.”

“We’re pretty deep into the ruins, right? I can’t recall any information on the lower levels,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang had researched the White Tiger Sect Ruins before deciding to enter. Only the uppermost levels of the ruins had been mapped out. Once a person went beyond the areas that had been mapped, they entered uncharted territory. This was likely one of the areas no one had been to before. Wu Jian remembered how they needed to stand on those platforms to get here. There was a good chance those doors had remained unopened all this time.

“We should proceed cautiously,” Wu Jian said.

Hou Jingshu nodded. “We’ll want to find and observe the magical beast before doing anything. We have no idea how strong this creature will be.”

They leapt down the chasm and landed on the ground in a crouch, then proceeded through the tunnel. Nothing about the tunnel gave away what sort of creature they would be dealing with. However, they did run into several scorpion magical beasts.

They were aptly called Stingers due to the large stingers on their backs, which dripped with poison. The average size of these magical beasts was about waist high on a human. They had ugly faces, giant pincers, and could spray acid from their mouths on top of poison. None of them were weaker than a cultivator at the Asura Realm.

“Haaaaaah!”

Wu Jian used nothing but raw strength to cleave one Stinger in two with his new sword. The attack kicked up sand and blood sprayed everywhere. He leapt back to avoid getting dirty.

Another Stinger was coming up behind him. He heard it scuttling across the ground. Wu Jian spun around and swung his sword with one hand, sending the creature flying into the nearest wall. It struck the wall so hard that its carapace cracked. It fell to the floor with a thud and twitched several times before going still.

Hou Jingshu was fighting three Stingers on her own. She thrust her spear forward so quickly that her weapon created afterimages. Chi erupted from her attacks every time. The golden energy took the shape of a dragon with its maw wide open as if to swallow the enemies before it. The Stingers didn’t stand a chance. Their bodies broke underneath the incredible assault.

Wu Jian turned to the last of his companions. Huǒ Shuchang was burning his enemies with fire. A simple wave of his hand caused fire to rush through the hallway, baking the Stingers to a crisp. The scent of sizzling flesh filled the air.

“Hey, Shuchang. I think you should stick to the rear and only fight as needed,” Wu Jian said after they killed all of their enemies.

Huǒ Shuchang looked up. “What? Why?”

“Because that fire of yours is indiscriminate and dangerous, that’s why. Did you not notice how close you came to burning Jingshu? Also, fire consumes oxygen. I don’t think we need to worry about running out of breath any time soon, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Well… yeah, that’s a good point.” Huǒ Shuchang’s shoulders slumped. “All right. I’ll stick to the back and only attack if needed.”

“Thanks.” Wu Jian was about to suggest they get a move on when he noticed Hou Jingshu staring at him with a blush. “Is something wrong?”

“Hwah?! Oh, no. Um… it’s just… you keep calling me by my given name… I haven’t said anything before, but…”

“Ah…”

Wu Jian had not even noticed that he didn’t refer to Hou Jingshu by her full name, which was what people did when they didn’t know a person very well. He’d been calling her by her given name only. That was something only people who were in a close relationship did. It worked with friends like him and Huǒ Shuchang, but it was also something you could call someone you were intimate with.

When a man addressed a woman without adding her full name, it was often a sign of intimacy.

“Ahem.” Wu Jian coughed into his… mask. “I apologize. I didn’t realize I was doing that. Should I, uh, call you Hou Jingshu from now on?”

It would have been more appropriate. Hou Jingshu did not know who he was right now. The feelings she had for Wu Jian might have made it fine to call her by just her given name, but she had no such feelings for Jian Wu. He cursed himself. This was another one of those bad slip ups that he hadn’t even thought about until it was pointed out to him.

“N-no, it’s fine. I… for some reason, I don’t mind when you call me that. F-feel free to keep referring to me by my given name,” Hou Jingshu said with scarlet cheeks.

“All right. I’ll keep calling you Jingshu then.”

“Mmm.”

The two of them stood in place, not saying a word. Wu Jian wondered about the sudden awkwardness he felt. Should he say something else? This had never happened before. It was normally so easy to speak with Hou Jingshu, but now that she had brought up his familiarity with her, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

“Ugh, could you two love birds cut that out?” asked Huǒ Shuchang. “You’re near constant flirting is making me nauseous.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who spends most of his time at brothels!” Wu Jian snapped.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’ve barely spent any time at brothels since we met. How dare you.”

“So you’re saying you spent a lot more time at them before we met? You should hold yourself to a higher standard and stop sleeping around, manwhore.”

“You shouldn’t disdain a man for his proclivities. Bedding women is the right of any man. I dare say that you aren’t a man if you don’t sleep with many women. Listen up, Wu. There are two things men long for in life. World domination and the domination of women. We seek to dominate the world to prove our ambition, and we seek many women because it is lonely at the top. Do you understand what I’m saying? Men dominate the world and seduce women to keep loneliness at bay once we reach the pinnacle of strength.”

“All I understand from that gibberish is that you like sleeping with women,” Wu Jian said.

“You’re hopeless. You’ll remain a virgin for the rest of your life with that attitude.”

“I’ll give my chastity away when the time is right.”

“Could you two please stop talking about this in my presence… please?” asked Hou Jingshu, face flushed red like a bonfire.

They continued walking through the tunnel, which branched off several times. It looked like this underground passage was a network of interconnecting tunnels. They would sometimes find themselves back at the beginning after taking a wrong turn, but they eventually emerged into a large room that contained a whole lot of nothing.

The room was shaped roughly like an uneven circle. The floor sloped downward from the sides toward the center in a cone-shape. Above their heads was a ceiling full of stalactites. Each one of those stalactites was larger than the average adult male and their ends came into sharp points.

He could not accurately judge the size of this space, but it was easily three or maybe even four times larger than the Zhou Clan’s arena in Zahn City. Wu Jian was surprised something like this existed down here. Had someone built this place? Had the magical beast who made these tunnels carved this place out? The idea that they might end up confronting whatever had created that network of tunnels set him on edge.

“Think we took another wrong turn?” asked Wu Jian.

“Seems that way,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Their feet crunched against the sandy floor as they looked around. While there wasn’t much present, there was one object that captured their attention. It stood in the center of this room—a massive scorpion. It looked similar to the Stingers they had been fighting so far, but it was about five times bigger. Wu Jian was worried that it would attack them, but it did not move, and after a moment, he noticed that its skin was an ash gray color like stone.

“Is that a statue?” he asked.

“I don’t know. What would a statue of a scorpion even be doing in a place like this?” asked Huǒ Shuchang, scratching his head.

“I don’t think it’s a statue…” Hou Jingshu narrowed her eyes. “I’ve heard about this before. Some magical beasts go into hibernation when there’s no prey to consume or natural treasures to cultivate. However, they will come out of hibernation when they… sense… prey…”

The trio looked at each other and unanimously agreed to leave. They slowly began backing away, but they didn’t get far before the gray stone-like substance flaked off the massive scorpion as it began moving.

Its pincers were the first parts to fully shed the ash-color, which he now realized was sediment that had built up from this creature remaining still for so long. The scorpion’s carapace was a bright orange vastly different from the dull tan of the magical beasts they had fought so far. Its stinger shed the sediment shortly after. It slammed the massive limb into the ground, kicking up a spray of sand and causing the room to shake. A roar erupted from its mouth as the creature fully shook off the sediment, revealing its brightly colored carapace.

Wu Jian could not sense its cultivation, which was likely why he assumed this creature was a statue. Now that he knew better, he understood that its cultivation was just too strong for him to get an accurate sense. That meant it was at least at the Human Limit Realm, but it might be even stronger.

“Uh… you two… I think we might be in trouble,” Huǒ Shuchang stated the obvious. They were definitely in trouble.

---