Yu Di spent the better part of the first week sweeping diligently around the fortress. There was no lack of dirt and dust everywhere, but there was another reason he spent so much time.

  First, it gave him access to the entire fort to see the entrances and exits everywhere. He made a crude map as he moved from place to place. Sure enough, there were spirit walls made of Qi blocking the exits. Unless one was at the peak of Core Formation, they would need a key to get through. In addition, the wall inflicted a Qi attack on anyone who passed through.

  Second, whatever portion of his curse that was unlocked did little for his personal cultivation. When he cultivated to the limits, he pulled out his jade tablet again to find the most disappointing stats ever:

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 1, Level 1 (Qi condensation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 18 years, 4 months.

  Current Status: Cursed (0.4% lifted)

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, 9th level

  It allowed Yu Di to sweep the floors without getting super tired. More Qi flowed through his body as he used what little he had. He hadn’t felt that good in a long time, but it was not enough.

  Yu Di needed more.

  It took two weeks before he finally found a weakness in the fortress defenses. Apparently, there was one small section on the east side that didn’t have a spirit wall protecting it. To compensate for that, they had a disciple in blue standing guard over it.

  Yu Di had walked over with his broom. He greeted the disciple with a bow of his head.

  “What are you doing here?” the disciple asked.

  “I’m new here,” Yu Di said. “I was told to sweep all the floors of the sect. So I was hoping to sweep inside before Elder Li yells at me for not doing so.”

  The disciple winced when he heard the name.

  “No, you don’t have to sweep in there.”

  “Are you sure?” Yu Di leaned in closer, pretending that he didn’t want to be overheard. “I heard Elder Li can be very vindictive. One time I saw him throw a servant against the wall and he spat out blood.”

  The disciple frowned.

  “Yes, don’t worry about this place. Only Inner disciples go through here for special missions. The last thing they need is for servants like you to go in there.”

  “Oh, so it leads outside of the sect?”

  The disciple nodded.

  “Thank you for letting me know,” Yu Di said. “But if Elder Li were to ask, who should I tell him that told me not to sweep inside? The last thing I want is to be thrown against the wall.”

  The disciple scowled.

  “Get out of here before I throw you against the wall.”

  Yu Di bowed his head low and took two steps back.

  “Of course, Senior. I would never want to get anyone in trouble.”

  Yu Di turned to walk away. He got what he came for. With his enhanced sight, he burned a little bit of his Qi to see past the opening.

  It looked like a small passageway that led down into deeper tunnels. It was a maze of tunnels that ultimately led out of the sect. There were Qi lamps along the walls that led out into the open air.

  Over a cliff.

  Yu Di sighed. He couldn't fly at his level of cultivation, but he would figure it out when he got there. He glanced at his jade tablet:

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 1, Level 1 (Qi condensation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 18 years, 1 month.

  Current Status: Cursed (0.4% lifted)

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, 9th level

  One Qi burst meant three months of his life gone. That meant three months less to spend with Yu Lin.

  Yu Di chuckled as he thought of his daughter. At first, she woke up so excited to help with sweeping the sect. She had run around so fast with that broom of hers that she cleaned up half the fortress on her own. But after a week of waking up early, doing exhaustive work, she looked like death.

  It was Qi exhaustion. Yu Di never taught her to not overuse her Qi because she had always been so energetic. He forgot that even she had limits.

  So last week, when Bai Feng came around, Yu Lin clung to the Inner Sect disciple for dear life. It was as if she found her second mother. Now every day when they woke up, she’d run to her new auntie without a care for her father.

  It’s because Yu Lin knew she’d see him at the end of the day.

  That just meant that there was more sweeping for him. And being a huge fortress, there was no end to the floors that needed to be swept.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  This worked out fine for him, though. Now that he knew that the opening was a way out. Maybe there was a way to use his daughter’s relationship with Bai Feng. All it would require is a little lie and then he would be free with his daughter.

  The next day, Yu Di went to visit Bai Feng. He was told to sweep all the floors, so why not sweep the floors to his newfound friend? He arrived by the afternoon, having swept his way there.

  When he got there, Yu Lin did a cartwheel off the top of the building, taking a strong dive to the ground. She used her Qi to push against it so she didn’t crash.

  “Yes! That’s how you do it.” Bai Feng clapped. She wasn’t the only one there as a few other disciples stood around watching Yu Lin.

  By the time Yu Di reached them, his daughter did crazier stunts. His daughter had climbed to a higher building and did a backward somersault. She got launched up into the air by Bai Feng where Yu Lin was higher than the walls of the fortress at one point and the spirit wall there shimmered for a second as her daughter reached out to touch it. Even the large crystal turned toward her for a moment.

  Yu Di took a moment to smile. He remembered throwing Yu Lin off the roof and how much she cried. She can still hear her screaming for him.

  “Baba, look at me!” Yu Lin flew from one building to the other, being caught by the disciples. Her laughter made it all the cuter as she zoomed from one building to the next.

  One disciple slipped and accidentally dropped her. Yu Lin zoomed at the ground so fast until a large boom sounded. All the disciples ran toward the crater.

  Yu Di’s heart skipped a beat.

  Yu Lin giggled loudly after the dust settled. She got up and shook off the dirt from her tiny pink tunic.

  “Again!” the girl yelled.

  “Yu Lin, come here. I need to talk with you and Senior Bai,” Yu Di said.

  “Yes, baba.” Like a blur, Yu Lin ran up to him. This time, she stopped right before him instead of jumping into his arms.

  That made Yu Di’s heart beat faster than anything else. When they first got here, an embrace like that from his daughter was fine. But now, after she’s actively practiced her cultivation, surrounded by the stronger ambient Qi, she would have torn a hole through his body.

  Having a toddler sized hole was not conducive to living longer, usually.

  “Seniors, I apologize for ruining your fun,” Yu Di said in front of the gathered disciples. He cupped his hand and bowed. “But there are a few things I have to talk with Senior Bai.”

  The other disciples sneered toward Yu Di until Bai Feng stood in front of him.

  “That’s enough fun for today.”

  The disciples nodded and left.

  The trio eyed the toddler-sized crater left behind.

  “I’m not sweeping that,” Yu Di said. He patted as much dirt and debris from Yu Lin as possible.

  Bai Feng led the father-daughter pair into her home.

  Yu Di made sure to take off his shoes, along with his daughter's.

  Bai Feng’s small home always amazed Yu Di when he visited compared to the other inner disciples’ homes.

  The wooden building was only one floor and only about five times as big as the prison cells that Yu Di slept in. It was much cleaner than his, even after the head servant moved him closer to the other servants. Yet, Bai Feng barely had anything other than a mat in the center and a bed in the corner. The only item worthy of note was a small kitchen off to the side. She had a large ice box, powered by spirit stones.

  Bai Feng had told him that the fortress had limited space, but why did the other inner sect disciples’ homes measure twice or three times the size of hers? Some had two or three floors and were located centrally.

  “I didn’t know you were teaching those kids,” Yu Di said.

  Bai Feng poured out three cups of tea and handed one to Yu Di. The other she left on the table for Yu Lin.

  Yu Di nodded his thanks as he took the cup.

  Yu Lin ran off to search through Bai Feng’s closets. Apparently she had a few spatial rings stored in them and Little Lin loved to go through, searching for interesting or fun things.

  “I don’t,” Bai Feng said. “But they like to have fun with Yu Lin so it made it easier to convince them to help her. And if they learned a thing or two from me, that was a bonus. Our sect needs stronger disciples, anyway.”

  “That makes sense,” Yu Di said. “I came to talk with you about something and I’m hoping that you can help us.”

  “What about?”

  “I noticed that there was a section of the fortress that didn’t have a spirit wall up."

  “Do you mean the special exit for inner sect disciples on the east side of the fortress?” Bai Feng drank her own cup of tea.

  “Yes. I want to escape and go back to my village. As long as I can get past the guard, I’m sure I can bring my daughter out of here.”

  “I see. So you weren’t kidding about wanting to leave the sect. I thought after living here for a while you would get used to it and come to like it here.”

  Yu Di put down his cup of tea.

  “While I appreciate certain people here, living here has been tough.”

  “What about the cultivating opportunities? You’ve gained a lot since you’ve joined our sect.”

  Yu Di really wanted to tell Bai Feng how pitiful it was. Not only has his cultivation barely moved, the higher concentration of Qi here was only slightly better than his home village.

  He wanted to scream, and yell that he had reached heights she couldn’t even imagine. He’d tasted such focused and concentrated Qi that would make their large crystal look like a beggar’s coin.

  But he couldn’t.

  The Senior Bai in front of Yu Di was nice, but she was still a cultivator beyond the current him. He was the ant to her heel.

  The heavens were cruel.

  “I thank the sect and Senior Bai for the opportunities,” Yu Di said. “I’m sure nowhere else in the mortal places can compare, but I have my daughter to think about. She’s four and she understands nothing of the world. Yet she’s being tossed like a ball by disciples. I don’t want her to get hurt, or worse, die.”

  “What if I can promise you I can take care of her?” Bai Feng said. “I’ll ensure she doesn’t get hurt.”

  Yu Di hesitated for a second before saying something he’d regret.

  “Look, Senior Bai, let me be frank with you. Before I joined the sect, I was a wealthy man back in my village. I had a large mansion and servants. My daughter would have lived a life of privilege in the village, never needing to work.”

  “Here you’re treated like a servant.” Bai Feng picked up her tea and took a sip while leaning back. She stared past Yu Di toward where his daughter was probably getting into something she shouldn’t. “But what about the opportunity to become an Immortal? You can live a very long life if you succeed.”

  Yu Di’s face warred for a brief second. It had been a really long time since he had to control his behavior in front of others. These last few weeks tested him so many times that he’s taken to avoiding the other disciples and Elders whenever he could. Yet dealing with Bai Feng was a different matter, since his daughter loved to hang out with her.

  Yu Di smiled instead, as sweetly as he could.

  “I thank Senior Bai for the thought, but I adhere to the idea of ‘better to live a short and happy life than a long life of torture.’ There is no happiness for me here.”

  “What about power?” Bai Feng poured herself another cup of tea. “In a mortal village, people would treat any disciple here like a king. You’re close to becoming a disciple. Your daughter already qualifies.”

  Yu Di kept his smile, but something clicked in his head. Bai Feng didn’t want to help him leave the sect. He wasn’t sure why.

  “Baba, look! It’s a sword.” Yu Lin swung a long, thin sword at Yu Di. It was glowing green.

  Yu Di wanted to stop it but knew from the Qi concentration that his daughter was pushing her own Qi into it. He couldn’t.

  Was his daughter about to kill him?