Sweat beaded from Ishin’s brow as he forced the last of the qi from the second lightning pill around his chakra. Peering internally, he watched as his seventh layer thickened to its absolute limit before refusing to grow any further. At the moment of completion, he felt a metaphysical shock wave ripple through his soul and body. His inner beast rumbled in satisfaction at the same time his luminous chakra began to radiate with power. The spiritual sphere of lightning shook, its power at the complete limit of what it could contain.

  “I’m there,” Ishin gasped, opening his eyes for the first time in fourteen hours. His legs had started aching hours before, after the prolonged lotus-seated position, and now they felt numb. He didn’t care, though. The influx of qi from his chakra filled him with energy, easily overshadowing the discomfort.

  “Good,” Rhee replied, smiling back at him. She was seated against a nearby tree, a piece of dried jerky in hand.

  Unlike Ishin, Rhee was relaxed but still clearly on guard. She had stood watch over the past six days as the others cultivated their pills. Both Mei and Long had finished processing their pills after three days and had traded shifts with Rhee as Ishin finished cultivating his two pills. They had been fortunate in not encountering any candidates or Vampire Monkeys. It had been the closest time they’d had to a true break, and Rhee looked better for it.

  Ishin peered up at the canopy. The early light of dawn shone through the ashen leaves, surprising him. He had expected it to be night when he finished, but evidently it had taken him longer to cultivate his seventh layer to its peak than he expected.

  “You’re done!” Mei beamed, moving to kneel beside Ishin. She offered him a waterskin, which he gratefully accepted. “How do you feel?”

  Ishin noticed Rhee frown at Mei’s appearance but said nothing.

  They really need to mend their relationship.

  “I feel great,” he shared with Mei. It was true. Despite the mental and spiritual fatigue and the numbing sensation in his legs, the greater influx of qi through his body made Ishin feel incredible. If this was how he felt at the peak of the Initial Realm, he could only imagine what it would feel like once he reached the Adept Realm.

  “My chakra feels like it’s going to burst,” Ishin admitted. “Almost as though it’s unstable.”

  Mei bobbed her head at his words. “It wants you to progress to the next realm. If you leave it for too long, your qi will become more unwieldy as a result and harder to control.”

  “Huh.” Ishin took a pull from the waterskin. His throat was dry from hours of cultivating, and the water provided great relief. “I would have thought the opposite. I expected greater control as I got stronger.”

  “It’s only the case at the true peak of a realm,” Rhee said, forcing her way into the conversation as she walked over. “My grandfather compared it to filling a bucket to the rim. You have more water, but trying to move the bucket without spilling water is impossible. You’ll need a larger bucket to move it with any control.”

  “An apt metaphor.” Ishin rose to his feet, with Mei mirroring his actions. He quickly found Long seated on a tree branch fifteen feet off the ground. The archer gave him a nod and then resumed his examination of the surrounding forest.

  Always vigilant.

  “Now that I’m done, would either of you like to take a turn as I stand guard?” Ishin looked at Rhee. “You’ve waited the longest, Sister Rhee. Do you want to take your pill and undergo your tribulation?”

  The dark-haired beauty considered his proposal. “I do, but my only concern is if we do our tribulations one at a time that we might be removed from the island individually.” She pursed her lips. “Should we all do our tribulations together so we leave the island at the same time?”

  “That would leave us vulnerable,” Ishin mentioned. He too wanted them all to depart Desolate Island as a group, but he didn’t want to risk a Vampire Monkey or other candidate coming across them as they were distracted with tribulation and killing them. It would be a cruel twist of fate if they died when they were so close to escaping the island.

  “Actually, it won’t,” Mei corrected gently.

  Ishin furrowed his brows. “It won’t?”

  “Tribulations only occur within the inner world of one’s soul,” she explained matter-of-factly. “Even if it feels as though days or weeks pass, only a second will occur in the real world.”

  That’s… very enlightening.

  His mother had covered the basics of progressing between realms and tribulations with him when he was younger, back before he had been deemed spiritually crippled. She explained how the tribulation was triggered by collapsing the inner layers of his chakra and merging them into a new, far more dense outer layer. The release of the qi would result in him being summoned into a test within his soul to see if he was worthy to progress to the next realm. However, she hadn’t explained the temporal disparity or provided any insight as to what form of test the tribulation would manifest as.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I didn’t know the tribulation would be that short,” Rhee admitted, standing beside Ishin. “Is it really only one second?”

  “Just the first one to reach the Adept Realm,” Mei clarified. “The one to reach the Merit Realm takes around a minute in the real world, due to the tribulation being more challenging. The tribulation to reach the Venerable Realm takes about an hour. Most have guardians assigned to protect them during that progression.”

  Ishin just stared at Mei, dumbstruck. He didn’t realize it, but Rhee bore a similar expression.

  “You speak so casually about the progression process to the Venerable Realm,” Rhee spoke at last.

  “How do you know all of this?” Ishin asked. Adept- and Merit-Realm cultivators were rare enough as it was. For Mei to have insight into not only the tribulations of those realms, but also the legendary Venerable Realm, was baffling.

  Mei blushed and looked away, evidently realizing the remarkability of her words. “My clan researches the progression process. We, uh, keep quite extensive records.”

  Her clan.

  This wasn’t the first time she had alluded to the feats of her clan. Between this insight into the later realms of cultivation, her aunt being an elder of the Crimson Abyss Sect, and Mei’s superior cultivation robes, it was clear that the Wen Clan was more significant than he realized.

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the knowledge of one of the Great Noble Clans,” Rhee said sourly.

  Ishin’s expression turned quizzical. “Great Noble Clan?”

  Mei tucked a strand of snow-white hair behind one ear, still avoiding eye contact. “My clan is one of the Five Great Noble Clans of the empire. But, um, please don’t treat me differently. Not after all we’ve been through.”

  Five Great Noble Clans.

  Ishin still didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he was intelligent enough to understand that Mei’s clan was extremely important within the Heron Empire. He recalled the clan structure within Yellow Dome City: Ruling Clan, Noble Clans, Prestigious Clans, Common Clans, and Lesser Clans. The Daihu Tribe didn’t follow what was the seemingly normal class structure of the greater Heron Empire, so his best guess was that a Great Noble Clan was above a city’s Ruling Clan.

  “Your clan is above the ruling clan of a city?”

  “Yes,” Mei answered awkwardly.

  Rhee rolled her eyes. “Her clan rules one of the five provinces of the Heron Empire. Specifically the North Wind Province.” To Mei she said simply, “Brother Ishin grew up in a relatively isolated part of the West Falcon Province. He genuinely doesn’t know about the Wen Clan.”

  “That explains your initial reaction when we first met her,” Long said, descending from the tree. “I’d wondered why you didn’t care about meeting a Wen.”

  Ishin glanced at the approaching archer. “Yes, I’m largely ignorant about the Heron Empire. Is the Wei Clan also some important clan I should be aware of?”

  “No,” Long replied simply. “We’re not remarkable at all.”

  “Honestly, I’m glad you didn’t know about my clan,” Mei said insistently. “I prefer it when people treat me as just Mei instead of a scion of the Wen Clan. Please don’t change anything.”

  “Alright,” Ishin answered easily. If that was what Mei wanted, then he saw no reason to change his behavior—especially when he still didn’t entirely understand everything about her clan.

  Mei looked to Rhee. “You knew too?”

  Rhee shook her head. “Of course. My clan isn’t noble, but we aren’t oblivious. I know the names of most noble clans within the West Falcon Province and the names of all Five Great Noble Clans.” She gestured around at the forest. “I didn’t think that mattered here, but evidently I was wrong.” Her eyes narrowed on Mei’s robes.

  Mei winced at the glare. “I’m sorry.”

  Rhee remained silent.

  “Speaking of the island,” Ishin said, determined to prevent another argument from breaking out between the two women, “we should try to get off of it as soon as we can. You said that if we undergo the tribulation only a second will pass?” he asked Mei.

  The noble woman nodded, evidently grateful to redirect the conversation. “Yes. We should be alright to do this one at the same time.”

  “That’s convenient,” Long muttered. “And I don’t detect any other presences around us.”

  Rhee manifested her last darkness pill from her storage ring. “Sounds like we should do it now, then.” Her tone was more bitter than before, but Ishin was glad that she was focused on cultivating instead of her disdain for Mei.

  “It’s triggered by collapsing the inner layers of our chakra, right?” Ishin asked. He wanted to ensure he properly understood the process before attempting it.

  “Yes,” Rhee assured him. “As long as we overcome our tribulations, a second chakra will form afterwards.”

  Seems straightforward.

  A thought then dawned on Ishin.

  “What happens if you fail to overcome your tribulation?”

  Rhee frowned at his question. “I’m not sure. I never considered that possibility.”

  “You can try again after your qi has recovered,” Mei explained. “According to my clan’s records, cracks will begin to form through your chakra with each failure.” Her expression turned somber. “The risk is failing too many times.”

  “It can destabilize your cultivation,” Long summarized.

  Mei nodded. “Some don’t deem continued attempts worth the risk. They remain forever a half step away from the next realm.”

  “That won’t happen to us,” Ishin declared. He didn’t know what his tribulation would be, but he had no doubt he’d overcome it.

  “No, it won’t,” Rhee agreed, smiling at his words.

  Ishin sat down, resuming his lotus position. He could feel the energy of his chakra trying to burst free from its confines. “Shall we proceed?”

  Grinning, Rhee sat down as well. “Let’s.” She swallowed her alchemic pill and closed her eyes.

  Mei and Long quickly joined the two on the ground as they, like Ishin, closed their eyes, ready to face their tribulations.