Seth flinched at the rush of flames over his shield. Thankfully, there was no smoke, and the air remained breathable. However, the heat radiating through the shield was uncomfortably warm. He counted how many bound spirits he had. At the rate he was going through them, they may last an hour.

  Well,

  He reactivated his qi sight and inspected the room. A new, much more complex pattern had replaced the one he had just broken. It was polarized, so he could attempt to break it again, but he became lightheaded and nauseous at the thought. Trying again would be a last resort.

  The inner ring of pedestals didn't have any ritual parts that would be helpful. He thought about expanding the shield so that it would cover the outer ring, but his meridians already felt like they were going to rupture. Instead, he channeled some qi into the barrier ritual. It stuck to his hand after a moment of experimentation, and he started walking with it. Thankfully, having a moving barrier wasn't much greedier in terms of qi than the stationary version.

  As he walked around the outer ring of pedestals, he recognized some of the pieces. Most were, unfortunately, parts he didn't recognize. For the ones he recognized, he ran qi through them to start the imprinting process in his brain. It took five minutes.

  Wiping the sweat from his eyes, he turned to inspect the ritual inscribed upon the walls. One particular pattern caught his eye, and he ran back to the pedestals to check. Yep, it was one he didn't recognize. The flow of qi made it clear it was vacuuming up the ambient qi. He recognized the fire-generating patterns it connected to, and...

  Ten minutes later, Seth was snapped out of his analysis by his shield beginning to fail. He swapped out bound spirits and started executing the plan he had formed. He laughed and shook his head. In his prior life, he had chewed people out for poor wiring jobs leading to short circuits. Now, he was about to engineer a magical one.

  He spent the next four minutes burning four ritual parts into his mind. If he were right, these would be enough. The qi flowing within him burned, pushing his meridians to their breaking point. He ignored it and prayed for the best. He slowly slotted everything into its proper place, double and triple checking. As the last one slid into position, he threw himself to the center of the room and hit the floor. Pulling the shield as tight as possible, he braced for impact. His skin turned red under the heat of the much closer flames.

  The flames started to flicker and grow at random. Then, purple electricity arced along the walls, crackling filling the air. Seth curled up and protected his head as explosions raced through the room. Several large objects slammed into his shield, draining his qi, but it held firm.

  One last rush of flame crashed against his shield, depleting the rest, before the heat dissipated. He slowly opened his eyes and examined the area. The trial room had aged a thousand years in a minute. Cracks spread along the ceiling, walls, floor, and pedestals. Dust hung thick in the air. Rituals let out a high-pitched whine, trying to activate, only to fail.

  Part of the wall flickered, turning into a door, before remembering it was supposed to be solid. Activating his qi sight, he could see the ritual powering this effect. Unlike the previous two, there weren't any obvious weaknesses he could exploit to skip this one. It was less complicated than the fire ritual, but...

  This was going to take a few hours.

  Seth activated another ritual in front of the door. This time, I've got it for sure. His smile brightened as the magic hummed to life and deflated just as quickly when it fizzled out in a dramatic display of nothing.

  Definitely more than the few hours he had initially predicted. He was constantly fighting his eyes to stay open for a little while longer. A few times, he had almost given in. Each time, he snapped back to alertness with a jolt and a cold sweat.

  He breathed in. Somehow, his mouth felt both dry and sticky at the same time. This was most likely a bad sign, but he ignored it, as there wasn't much he could do about it. Walking among the pedestals, he looked at the symbols that he had long since etched into his memory. The ones he could figure out what role they played, at any rate. He had even started experimenting with the ones he didn't understand. It was probably a bad idea, but he was out of stock of good ones.

  He had even tried overloading the ritual like he did the last one. It gave him a first-rate demonstration of how to defend against such attacks. The closest he had gotten had made the ritual go away for a little while. Along with the door. He almost cried with relief when the ritual came back, and had given up overloading the damn thing.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  An idea he had already dismissed a few times came back with a vengeance. He summoned all nine ritual parts and got them into place. The first time he dismissed it for a very good reason. He couldn't do it. Now, however, was just pure hesitation. He had a pretty good idea of what his ritual would do, but he wasn't sure. He had tested it in the air, and it didn't explode, at the very least. Checking the qi flow, it even seemed like it would do the right thing. Still, he hesitated. He couldn't keep any kind of barrier up and do this at the same time. If things exploded, he'd most likely be dead.

  Taking a calming breath, he went to the flickering wall. Then, he summoned the nine pieces, and pushed qi into them, activating them. The door flickered a bit more before stabilizing into a solid doorway. He checked with his qi sight; nothing seemed out of place. He put his hand on the door, and it swung open.

  Taking a deep breath, he activated his qi sight, and his breath stopped before he crossed the threshold. There was a dense patch of qi on the floor just beyond the door, and he wasn't sure what it was supposed to do. He was sure it triggered something. Not wanting to risk it, he leapt over the patch of qi, landing on his toes an inch beyond it. Breath caught in his throat. He strained his eyes and ears to pick up the smallest detail.

  One second passed, and nothing happened. After five seconds, he let out a shaky breath and surveyed the brown brick hallway. Activating his qi sight, he could see normal ambient qi, but nothing suspicious stood out. He tapped the floor in front of him with a foot, ready to leap back if anything so much as shifted funny. The floor accepted his weight without shifting, and he let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.

  He slowly made his way through the hall, testing for traps, both qi and physical, along the way. The hall looked like an ordinary hall. The first interesting thing happened when he reached a crossroads. He activated his qi sight and saw a field of bright qi filling the intersection. With a gulp and a prayer, he put his finger into it. The hall burst into blue flame, knocking him backward and burning the tip of his finger.

  Shaking the pain off, he remembered how to arrange array pieces to form a shield, and grabbed one of his bound spirits. This time, the shield sprang to life with no problems. He walked into the hallway, and the flame bounced harmlessly off the shield, draining the bound spirit at an alarming rate. The shield failed just as he finished crossing.

  He crept forward until he came face-to-face with a solid wall. He activated his qi sight once more and recognized the ritual blocking his way forward. Calling his own solution back to mind, he opened the door, and stepped through.

  This time, the room he ended up in was the normal stone of the trial maze. He looked around, and there was nothing in the room besides green text on the wall.

  "Well done conquering the third peak. Your reward is waiting in the library."

  As soon as he read the text, he was back at the trial entrance. Nobody was around, and the altar room was empty. He first noticed the twenty remaining flames on their timer. Had he been in that trial for that long? A smile came to his face as he looked at the leaderboard.

  Seth - Third Peak (48)

  Aaron - Third Peak (45)

  Therus - Second Peak (45)

  Xiaobo - First Peak (32)

  Jalon - First Peak (29)

  Matrim -37

  He was ahead, though Aaron was also making progress with the trial. It looks like Therus had stalled...

  Therus - Third Peak (55)

  Seth - Third Peak (48)

  ... and once again, Therus took the lead. He'd have to ask later about the trial he had to overcome in order to do that. If the trial allowed an answer, that is. It had been suspiciously protective of secrets. He was about to leave when he saw a new section of the list.

  Failed

  Xiyuan - Deceased

  Jethar - Deceased

  Malcom - Deceased

  It was surprising nobody died sooner. He tried to remember what the three looked like, only to realize he didn't recognize those names. He made his way to the library to find his prize, shaking his head on the way.

  POV - Frerren

  The tug on his soul let him know that three initiates had been returned via life-saving treasures. Standing up from his desk, he started walking out of his office.

  "Going to fetch some resources. Let me know if anything happens." Without turning to make sure she heard, he strolled out the door.

  He was at the large central compound within minutes. It may have been imposing for some, but for Frerren, it made him miss the hall of ancients. What would these initiates think if they saw a hall bigger than a planet? Chuckling at the thought, he entered the hall and went right through a hidden door. Well, it was at least hidden from those who still had mortal eyes.

  Stepping into the room, he saw three initiates sprawled out on the floor. Asleep, too. Sighing, he went to shake one of the initiates, then froze. His qi was dissipating into the atmosphere. They weren't sleeping.

  Scrambling, Frerren rushed to process the corpses. Their qi was already over 20% dissipated. Any more, and the pills produced would be lackluster, at best. Still, the life-saving treasures had done all they could to preserve the qi within these corpses. That would have to do.

  Thirty seconds later, he had three pills refined from the initiates. Shaking his head, he went to the grandmaster's cultivation chamber. He'd rather risk annoying the grandmaster now than face his wrath later. Wait, we need to stop the initiates from going there. He flew outside, grabbed the first outer disciple he could find, and spun the child to face him.

  "Inform the gate guards that the mountain-piercing ruins are off limits to initiates going forward." He couldn't do anything for the initiates already there, but he could stop more resources from being spoiled.

  Next, he'd have to let the grandmaster know.

  Then, he'd have to set up rotating shifts to ensure any dead initiates returning would be refined promptly to avoid spoilage.

  After that, they'd have to organize an expedition to these ruins.

  Frerren just sighed and shook his head. This was shaping up to be a huge pain in the ass.