Yu Di ran as fast as he could. He pumped his legs and his arms as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the wall. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but as long as he was far enough away it would be fine.

  He hit a wall faster than he anticipated. Feeling the rough stone, he knew that at least he didn’t run in a circle back to the metallic wall.

  Yu Di searched the wall for any clue as to where he was. He needed to get out of there fast.

  A small pop sounded behind him.

  The entire space lit up.

  Yu Di turned and focused as hard as he ever had in his life to memorize the layout of the space.

  Darkness swallowed him again.

  Yu Di sat against the stone wall, laughing to himself.

  Good news: there was nothing alive in there with him.

  Bad news: there was a pile of corpses sitting along the different parts of the wall.

  Yu Di counted at least four corpses.

  “Who dares intrude upon my home?” a voice called out. It was a gruff voice, as if whoever just woke up in the morning and needed to clear their throat.

  Yu Di cupped his hands and bowed to the air.

  “I apologize for disturbing your rest, senior. I only chanced upon this space.”

  “You wanted to see if you could uncover some secret or treasure.”

  Yu Di paused for a moment. The gruff voice was right. But wasn’t that every cultivator in the world? For Yu Di in particular, this was his need. It wasn’t something he could casually go without as if this were some sweets on the street he could ignore.

  But how do you tell that to an all powerful disembodied voice?

  Yu Di almost chuckled. If he was at his full power, he wouldn’t be afraid of anything. With his current power? He was a slug, always bowing down to anyone with even a touch of power.

  A slug with a daughter he needed to go back to.

  Yu Di got on his knees and bowed low until his forehead touched the ground. He put his hands atop each other in front of him, forming a polite and yielding gesture.

  “Senior, no, ancient elder, I apologize for intruding upon your space. You are right, I came in here looking for treasures or some secret method to help my cultivation. For that, I deserve death.”

  Yu Di waited for a response that didn’t come.

  “Ancient elder, I beg of you to spare me,” he continued. “If for nothing else, I can already tell that you have not had anyone worthy of whatever treasure you are guarding.”

  “You think yourself worthy?” The gruff voice sounded tired.

  Yu Di thought for a moment. There’s no way that this being, whoever it was, wasn’t here to pass on their knowledge. Otherwise, they would have killed whoever entered except for the original creator.

  “I don’t feel I’m worthy. I know I am.”

  The gruff voice laughed, sounding like claws on metal.

  “The other four said the same thing. They cried like babies for their mother in the end.”

  Yu Di sat up and leaned back against his own little section of the rough wall. He swallowed down the fear that this would be his final resting place like the others. For in that small flash he noticed that there was no exit.

  “Honored ancient elder, it sounds like you are very tired and would like nothing more than to pass on whatever secrets you do have so you can rest,” Yu Di said. “Tell me what I need to do to prove to you that I am worthy and then we can both profit from this encounter.”

  The gruff voice yawned.

  “Do you want my secrets that badly?

  “I won’t lie to you, ancient elder. Ever since I started cultivating, my entire existence is for hitting the next level. I care for nothing else. I will do anything if it means allowing me to break through to the next level.”

  That statement gave Yu Di pause. He felt it reverberate in his very core. Did nothing else truly matter to him anymore? Not even his daughter?

  “Very well,” the gruff voice said. “If you want to claim my treasure, all you have to do is answer a simple riddle: Why are you here in this room?”

  “I’m here to find the secret of this space,” Yu Di said.

  “What secret can there be here?”

  “I don’t know. A number of different things. A secret training manual. A powerful inheritance left behind by some god. A unique artifact. Something, anything related to the art of cultivation.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “How do you know that something like that is here?”

  “Because I have been to many different sects, more powerful than this one, and found so many of those. It would surprise me if there was nothing here in this unique room.”

  “And if I told you there wasn’t anything here?”

  Yu Di sucked his teeth.

  “Then I will go.” He didn’t mean it. He wanted to stick around and find whatever was in here. There had to be something. All his experience so far had told him that hidden pockets of reality like this had to have something. Not only that, but a disembodied voice meant that there was a spirit or soul of some kind in here.

  Something had to be here.

  “Then go,” the gruff voice said.

  “That’s it?” Yu Di asked.

  “That’s it. You may go.”

  There was something itching in his mind, telling him that this wasn’t the end of it. There had to be something here and all he had to do was search for it. The disembodied voice didn’t seem like it could threaten him or at least it hadn’t yet.

  But the corpses.

  They probably died trying to find something here as well. They kept at it until they died here looking for something that didn’t exist. Instead of giving up and cutting their losses, they lost their life instead.

  Yu Di got on all fours, looking for an exit he knew didn’t exist anymore.

  “Oh? You’re really trying to leave?” the gruff voice asked. “You’re not going to stake your life for that chance of getting to the next level?”

  Yu Di stopped when he felt the clothes of the closest corpse. Its tunic was torn in multiple places and it was missing a shoe.

  “Amituofo,” Yu Di said. He bowed his head. “I hope you reincarnated to a happier life.”

  “I doubt it,” the gruff voice said. “He committed atrocities that even King Yama had never seen before. He’s languishing in the deepest parts of hell.”

  “Heh, we cultivators all live a life of slaughter. The deeds I’ve done, murder, stealing, kidnapping, lying, cheating, and almost genocide. I did it all for my cultivation.”

  “To be all powerful. To rule over others. To do what you want to do with whoever and whatever. To be above all others. That is human nature, isn’t it?”

  Yu Di bowed his head toward the corpse before crawling over him, hugging the wall.

  “Not for me.”

  “Then why did you do it?”

  “For the thrill of cultivation.” Yu Di grinned despite himself.

  “So you want power.”

  That wasn’t it. Yu Di didn’t know who this disembodied voice was, but one thing he did know: it had no clue about who he was and it wanted to know. Why was that?

  Maybe it had to do with how it was trapped, guarding this room with nothing but a few corpses for company.

  Yu Di kept crawling away. He knew how to rope this disembodied voice and it was going to be one of the most delicious things in the world. Well, second to breaking through to the next level.

  No wait, third. He almost forgot about little Lin.

  “No, I’m good,” Yu Di said. “I’m going to leave now, ancient Elder. I hope you have an interesting life.”

  The gruff voice spoke quickly, “Wait. Aren’t you interested in the secret? I’m sure it can prove to be very useful to you.”

  Yu Di crawled until he felt an empty space. He didn’t see this with the flash. Maybe the exit was hidden.

  “Stop!” the gruff voice shouted. “I’ll give you a little taste of my secret if you stay a little longer.”

  Yu Di chuckled, not caring if he offended the disembodied voice.

  “I’ll entertain you if what you say is the truth. You already told me that there was no secret here, yet you’re telling me there is? Which is it?”

  Yu Di stuck his hand through the empty space and grabbed the wall on the outside, feeling the cool stone against his palm. He realized that the metal walls within the secret space were warm. He kept his hand on the cool stone in case he needed to pull himself out from any traps prepared by the disembodied voice.

  That was the hope anyway.

  There was no telling what would happen at this point.

  “You were right,” the gruff voice said. “There is a secret here that I have protected for so long. But if I tell you, I will disappear. And I don’t want to die.”

  “Then we have a problem,” Yu Di said. “I can’t trust that you will tell me the secret. And since I can’t trust you, I’m going to seal this space away forever so that no one else can walk into this trap. Good bye honored ancient elder. I hope you enjoy the rest of your peaceful life.”

  “I’ll tell you half of it if you promise to stay for a while.”

  Yu Di took a deep breath. Sometimes even half of a secret was enough. One time, he only had half of a cultivation manual from this sect that worshiped the moon. He still learned enough to reach a new level. It was a shame that the sect would rather burn the other half than allow an outsider to read it.

  These fanatics need to learn to share.

  That gave him a wild idea.

  “That sounds like a generous offer,” Yu Di said. “However, what if I gave you something else in exchange so that you don’t have to die and still tell me the entire secret?”

  “This sounds like a trick,” the gruff voice said.

  Yu Di reached into his tunic and took out his silver chain with the jade pendant on it. The silver chain glowed in the impenetrable darkness.

  “That can’t be,” the gruff voice said. “Who are you?”

  “Who I am is not as important as what I can do for you.” Yu Di carefully lifted the silver chain above his head with his free hand. “If you recognize this, then I don’t have to explain to you what it is. This spatial realm is soulless at the moment. You can be its new resident. And unlike this space, it will last for thousands of years even if I’m no longer here.”

  “So you noticed my strain in this space.”

  “I don’t know how long you’ve been here, but I can already tell the Qi is almost non-existent here. Even if you don’t tell me the secret, it will eventually collapse.” Yu Di pulled himself a little more through the gap to the outside. “I can also tell you that the amount of Qi I have on my body would not be enough for you to last until another bumbling idiot decides to check out this crawlspace.”

  The gruff voice laughed.

  “So you figured out that I was using my visitors as batteries for my space. You are indeed worthy of my secret.”

  This time it was Yu Di’s turn to laugh.

  “I already told you that. Now comes the hard part. Are you willing to trust me or am I going to have to fight you with every item I have left on my body?”

  Yu Di felt the secret space pull him back into it, despite clawing his way out with his other hand. It was subtle at first, but now he felt trapped, half in and half out.

  “Hmmm, I don’t know,” the gruff voice said. “I think I’d rather suck you in and dismantle your trinket and your body. I bet there is a wealth of Qi within everything!”

  The secret space tugged at the rest of his body, pulling him back in.

  Just like that, Yu Di’s worst fear happened again. So many times they could have given him the secret and survived but the idiots holding it chose death instead. He didn’t want to kill anyone. He just wanted them to share.

  What a shame.