A Guide to Self-Rescue in the Cultivation World - Chapter 5

She was woken up by the pain.

Her eyes focused on the familiar rafters of her shabby little room in the Path of Ascension. A few weak rays of morning light filtered through the paper-thin window frame, casting dappled shadows on the floor. The air was thick with the bitter scent of herbal medicine and the faint metallic smell of her own bl00d.

“Hiss—”

She tried to turn slightly, attempting to avoid the most painful spot, but the slightest twitch of a muscle sent a sudden, searing pain—as if her entire body were being ripped open—exploding from her lower abdomen and shooting straight to her head.

Golden spots instantly swam before her eyes. Cold sweat drenched her thin inner clothes, but she choked back the suppressed cry of pain, forcing the tears that welled up in her eyes to retreat.

“Ouch.” Zhou Suyao sucked in a sharp breath, her mind producing an ill-timed, random thought: I guess my salted fish attempt at jumping the dragon gate just got smacked back onto the beach.

The large room was empty. She decided she had to get up, enduring the agony. She struggled to her feet and, wobbling, crept to the door one slow, turtle-like step at a time. Just as she pulled the door open, she bumped right into Second Senior Brother Qu Mingu, who was carrying a bowl of medicine.

“Awake, are we? You’ve got nine lives, short-stuff,” Qu Mingu raised an eyebrow. He set the bowl on a small side table and moved to help her.

Zhou Suyao ignored his irritating nickname, her gaze searching eagerly over his shoulder. “Where’s Eldest Senior Brother? Where is he?”

The moment she said “Eldest Senior Brother,” the jesting look vanished from Qu Mingu’s face. He firmly pressed her back onto the creaky bamboo couch in the room. “Don’t bother looking. He’s not here. Do you think everyone is like you, done with three days of groaning? And you’re already trying to walk around. You really have no fear of pain.”

He paused, his expression turning grim. Without a word, he brought the bowl of medicine over for her to hold and drink. After a long silence, he spoke heavily: “He went in alone. He single-handedly breached the Underworld to fish you guys out and clean up the mess you made. When he tried to get out, that female spirit blocked his path… He was forced to shatter his Spiritual Core to blast a path open. He’s lying even more stiffly than you are now.”

Zhou Suyao’s eyes snapped wide open. The medicine bowl nearly slipped from her grasp.

A Spiritual Core! Everyone knew that for a Daoist cultivator, it took ten years to form a Spiritual Seed, ten more for a Spiritual Heart, and another ten to generate a Spiritual Core. Only after forming the Core was a cultivator truly deemed to have broken free of the Heavens and entered the Spiritual Path. And Eldest Senior Brother had… had destroyed at least ten years of his cultivation just to save them.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out; her chest felt tight enough to explode.

“Why… why was he alone?!” Suyao still didn’t understand. “How is that possible? Where were the other Elders, or the people from the Xingcong Sect? Didn’t they notice anything wrong?”

Qu Mingu shook his head, lowering his voice. “The examination hall was complete chaos. The people outside just assumed the illusion was particularly intense. Only he… somehow realized you had genuinely fallen into the Underworld. No ghost pass, no token. He only told us three, and then he forced his way onto the path between Yin and Yang, throwing open the gate. When he finally got in, all of you—except for that second Qi Young Master, who still had a bit of strength left—were severely injured. He alone took the full brunt of the Ghost Spirits and the Ghost Soldiers…”

Mid-sentence, he froze abruptly, his voice catching, as if someone had suddenly choked him. At the same time, Suyao violently looked up.

Their eyes met, and they simultaneously thought of the same critical point.

“Second Senior Brother, tell me, why did I end up in the real Underworld?” Suyao asked, thinking aloud. “Didn’t they say the exams were all illusions? And to enter the actual Underworld, you absolutely need a Ghost Pass. I certainly don’t have one, so who would have one?”

“Maybe no one had one,” Qu Mingu suggested. “Third Brother mentioned to me before that there’s a type of high-level, dark art that can allow a living person to sneak into the Underworld. Do you think… someone secretly tampered with the four of you before you entered the illusion and opened a link between the Stone of Inquiry and the Underworld? That way, they could send you into the Underworld without anyone knowing.”

Suyao nodded. “That’s certainly a possibility, but,” she hesitated, “that kind of high-level art would likely require a high-level cultivator. Plus, they would have had to place the spell on all four of us simultaneously to send us all into the Underworld. Leaving the other three aside, for me, the only high-level cultivators I met before the competition were Master… and the Elder from the Xingcong Sect. They don’t look like…”

“Don’t look like what?” Second Senior Brother countered.

Right. Suyao thought. Master was so good to her; she would never believe him to be the villain without absolute proof.

But the Xingcong Sect Elder was entirely different. She had only met him once. How could she be certain he was a good person?

Fear, like cold stone, silently descended upon them, making it hard to breathe.

Finally, Qu Mingu let out a heavy sigh, raising his hand to vigorously rub Suyao’s messy head, attempting to break the strange tension. “Alright, short-stuff. You made it back in one piece, didn’t you? Drink your medicine and heal up. Even if the sky really does fall, Master and the three of us will be the first ones crushed. It won’t be your turn yet.”

“Qu! Ming! Gu! I! Can! Still! Grow!” Suyao instantly bristled, snatching the medicine container by the bed and throwing it with deadly accuracy at his infuriating face.

At the Foot of the Mountain

Meanwhile, at the foot of the Path of Ascension mountain, which didn’t even have a proper gate, a graceful young woman stopped. She was wearing a blue and white Xingcong Sect uniform and stood tall with an impressive air.

Seeing the newcomer, Wangcai (Prosperity), the local mutt who had been boredly digging holes at the base of the mountain, instantly started barking. Soon after, a dusty figure floated down unsteadily. It was Suyao’s cheap Master, the one who could make an immortal demeanor look like an old street hustler.

“Let me see… the aesthetic choices of those old fogeys at the Xingcong Sect. What sin did I commit that I have to see this bad omen as soon as I descend?”

The Master squinted sidelong at the girl. Seeing no change in her perpetually calm expression, he decided his comment was wasted. He turned his back and said, “This sect of mine, where even dogs and cats run away, is only full of sheltered lads. If you’re looking for someone, you must be looking for that girl Suyao?”

“Indeed,” the woman finally spoke, her voice clear. She bowed slightly, her manners impeccable. “I have been instructed by my Miss to visit Lady Zhou. I trouble the Senior Master to direct me.”

The Master snorted. “You are certainly more polite than your Sect Leader.” He pointed dismissively and tossed a string of very old-looking keys into the woman’s hand. “Just hold these keys and say ‘Zhou Suyao’ three times, and you’ll be transported directly to her mountain peak… Oh, right, remember to give the keys back to Wangcai before you leave.”

The woman held the string of icy old keys, a rare look of confusion finally crossing her face. “…Wangcai?”

The Master paused in his step and pointed his chin at the mongrel still digging holes. “There, that one.”

The woman: 

Back in the Room

“So, Mingluo—she suspects Xuan Yangming, that old man from the Xingcong Sect, might be involved in the exam disaster?” Zhou Suyao frowned. “But isn’t that her master? Why would she… choose to tell me this?”

“All of this is my Miss’s choice; I am not privy to more.” The woman bowed slightly. “My Miss also asked me to inform you that if you are willing to ally with her, you can go to the ‘Golden Thread Pavilion’ in five days. She will wait for you in a private room on the third floor, the one with a bell hanging by the door.”

After the woman left, Second Senior Brother jumped down from the rafters. Staring at her departing figure, he mused:

“As far as I know, the Xingcong Sect and the Path of Ascension have been at odds since before I even became a disciple. What do you think this girl, Mingluo, is planning?”

“But I don’t think Mingluo would harm me. I think she must have discovered something… something that even she finds hard to accept, or even frightening.”

Before she could fully finish her thought, a hurried set of footsteps sounded outside the door. Then, the Xingcong Sect woman who had just left reappeared. Suyao saw that the mask of perennial calmness on her face had finally cracked, showing a rare hint of embarrassment.

She held up the string of rusty keys, her voice marked by an unusual hesitation. “Um… Lady Zhou, how do I go down the mountain with this thing?”

Zhou Suyao blinked, paused for two seconds, and then burst out laughing, which immediately triggered a sharp spasm of pain in her lower abdomen. She had to hiss and suck in air, speaking in painful, broken gasps. “Cough… You, you just hold, hold the keys, and silently repeat ‘Go Down the Mountain’ three times, and you’ll be fine.”

“However…” she paused, her expression a gruesome mix of suppressed laughter and abdominal pain. “Don’t, under any circumstances, shout ‘Xingcong Sect.’ Third Senior Brother did that once, and it transported him straight into a manure pit.”

The woman looked even more flustered and vanished without a trace with a quick pivot.

A sharp intake of breath came from Second Senior Brother, who was hiding behind the low desk. After confirming the woman wouldn’t suddenly reappear, he gripped the desk, trembling slightly, and stood up, clutching his aching sides. “Ouch, Little Sister, did you see my reaction just now when I hid? Wasn’t that genius?”

“It looked idiotic,” Suyao retorted.

“Hey, how can you say that about your Senior Brother?” Qu Mingu shook his head. Still, he sat back down by her bed and tidied up the empty medicine bowl. After a moment, he said, “Suyao, I support whatever you decide to do, but this whole situation is genuinely too bizarre. I can’t figure out why Mingluo, a Xingcong Sect member, would come here to ally with you… I think everything about this is strangely suspicious.”

“I know,” Suyao nodded. “I don’t completely trust her either. But I just feel…”

She stopped, suddenly remembering something. She lifted her head sharply and asked:

“Is Eldest Senior Brother awake now?”