The false night had descended.
I moved through the plain with only the underground silence around me until a faint glow appeared in the distance, red and blue bleeding into each other at the edges, and behind it the smaller warmth of a campfire.
The spirits and the Bai group.
As I drew closer the blue spirit separated from the red and moved toward me first, its pace quicker than usual.
Behind it the Bai villagers had already noticed my approach, and I heard low voices carrying the news to the others.
"Hoho..." The blue spirit stopped in front of me.
"I knew it would be you who came back first. Being alone has its advantages. A group is always held back by its own numbers." It paused. "Good. Rest until morning. If the others return before then the second trial begins, and if not…"
"They will come back," I said with confidence.
The blue spirit looked at me. A moment later, the red spirit did as well. Neither expression committed to anything.
"If that is what you believe," the red spirit said, glancing at its counterpart.
Just then—
Footsteps reached us before either could continue. The Bai group had come over in full, a dozen of them moving through the dim underground light.
Among them, two distinct presences registered against my senses, older and denser. The weight of cultivators who had remained at that level for a long time.
An old man walked at the front beside Bai Feng, both of them heading directly toward me.
I turned back to the spirits and lowered my voice. "I have a deal to propose… And before you reject it, think seriously."
The two spirits exchanged a glance, then turned their attention to me.
"What can you offer?" the blue spirit asked. "If you're thinking of trading something from the trial grounds, don't bother. We have no interest in it."
"It is not from the trial grounds, trust me."
Curiosity surfaced in both their expressions.
"Then what do you offer?"
"Ah." Bai Feng's voice came from my left. "Sir, we meet again." He gestured to the old man beside him. "This is my grandfather, and also the village head… Actually, we would like to speak with you about something important."
Ignoring whatever they wanted to say next, I stepped past them both without slowing. "Blue spirit. Red spirit. Let's talk in private."
Bai Feng's expression fell. The village head, however, still wore a smile. Neither said anything further.
Without another word, I walked away from the camp. The two spirits followed after me.
....
Inside a small dark room, the walls were nothing but bare underground stone. A cellar adjoined it through a low opening in the far wall. Yue Lian lay there asleep, her breathing even and undisturbed.
I sat down on a wooden chair and waited quietly.
The spirits entered a moment later and the room shrank further with both of them in it.
The red spirit spoke first. "Before you make your demand, understand something. If you win this trial you become our master and everything we possess will be yours. In that light, whatever you intend to request of us now would already belong to you through victory. We are not fools, and we see the shape of a foolish request."
"I know that," I said. "Which is why the first thing I offer you is freedom."
The two spirits let out identical hums.
I looked between them. "You are soul spirits, if I am correct."
The red spirit nodded slightly.
"And I know better than anyone here what soul spirits are. If you find a way to free yourselves from this inheritance, you can possess a living body."
Both spirits grew serious.
"How do you know that? It is unusual for a demonic cultivator to know such things, until you…." the blue spirit asked.
But I did not answer him and continued.
"And finding a suitable mortal vessel would not be difficult. A body with no prior cultivation of its own is all that is required, and you already know this. But freedom from this place has to come first, and that is something I can provide."
I paused.
"The second thing will interest you more. Particularly as refinement masters."
I let the silence linger for a moment, then turned and pointed toward the cellar opening where Yue Lian lay.
"I offer you her spiritual eyes."
SILENCE
Heh, this was one of the reasons I had brought her here. A refinement cultivator could construct almost anything given sufficient materials, but there were categories of material that existed outside the ordinary, things that could not be found in any field or quarried from any stone. Spiritual eyes of her quality sat in that category.
The two spirits stared. Then, at the same moment, both of them smiled.
"You have a deal."
After the details were settled the spirits left and I remained in the room alone.
"That is done.. But I should not underestimate Chen Wu. With the system supporting him, his winning chances are still high."
I removed the scarf from my face and settled into a lotus position, letting the quiet of the room close around me.
After a short meditation, I reached for the second manual, the one the spirits had passed to me as part of the arrangement. I opened it and began studying the process of refinement from the basics.
The refinement process was already familiar to me.
"Purification, the spirits would handle that."
Which now left two requiring my attention. Forced fusion and inscription writing.
The inscriptions were unlike anything in the sect library. Characters I had never encountered, built on a structural logic that sat completely outside orthodox cultivation writing, and the manual approached them from the ground up.
Every refinement object carried its own inscription category. Attack weapons used one set of characters, defensive constructions another, binding and suppression tools a third.
The Binding Soul Seal I needed to construct belonged to the third category, and the inscription for it had appeared in the first manual as well.
"Mm. Interesting."
Time moved without marking itself and I read through the night without stopping. By the end, I had a basic understanding of the refinement process.
When I reached the final page and closed the manual the underground was still dark and the silence outside the room had the particular quality of the hours just before the false dawn.
I stood and walked out.
The spirits were already at the edge of the trial ground, facing the entrance passage.
I came to stand beside them.
"Looks like you have completed the basics. It will be easier for you now." The red spirit chuckled.
"The time is almost finished," the blue spirit said quietly. "I do not see them."
I looked in the direction of the Trial Ground.
"Are you sure? I can feel them here?" The moment I said it, they appeared.
Chen Wu's group came through the passage in pieces, some leaning on each other, some already past leaning and simply being dragged forward by the ones beside them.
Their exhaustion was obvious in every step.
I turned back to the spirits. "Let's not waste any more time. Start the trial."
"Hoho. Aren't you hasty?"