For a moment after Jun Li prepared to defend herself, the air was still, and the impossible open skies above offered some serenity to Jun Li's circumstance, despite the paralysis that only slightly faded.

  Hearing the sounds of something large moving around, Jun Li's eyes flitted around the pit-like arena she had found herself within, and she numbly shifted her body to face a nearby cage embedded in the wall of the arena's earthy walls.

  'Calm down… move slowly, don't take any more risks until you heal…' Manipulating the bloody limb she had formed to defend herself, Jun Li braced herself for anything to emerge from the shadow of the cage.

  After a few moments, the sound of wood grinding against stone became audible, and the torso of a puppet in the shape of a tiger emerged into the light. Manipulating her blood with redoubled effort, Jun Li reeled back her new appendage and sent it flying forward, through the wide bars of the cage.

  Without the force of her body behind it, the clawed limb wasn't nearly as strong as it could have been, but even then, the hardened claws it bore were more than enough to splinter wood and embed themselves into the puppet tiger's head.

  The wooden tiger soundlessly thrashed against the mass of blood that suddenly obscured its vision and dug into its head. Outside the cage, Jun Li adhered herself to the ground by hardening the blood that seeped from her wounds, and using her own body as an anchor, pulled on the tiger's head, which, after momentary resistance, was sent flying towards her, crashing through the wooden cage and over Jun Li's body.

  From above the pit, unnoticed by Jun Li, the simulacrum that overlooks the pagoda's trials watched as Jun Li leveraged her unique gifts with desperate intensity. To this thing that bore the shape of a man, it was immediately clear that Jun Li was possessed of some unnatural physique. "All that blood, and she's not lost consciousness? Definitely a unique one…"

  At first, the simulacrum simply assumed she was some beaten and crippled fool thrown into the pagoda to disappear without a trace, an impression only reinforced by her impulsive words, clearly driven by some manner of frustration.

  "Perhaps she might have more promise than I thought…" Idly observing, the simulacrum muttered to himself. In truth, it held no true expectations for Jun Li. Tens of thousands of people had entered and died in this pagoda since he had been created to watch over it. He no longer bore any expectation for his service to ever end.

  "At the very least, this should be interesting…" Looking down, he saw the puppet tiger had been battered against the ground repeatedly by Jun Li's large, tendril arm of blood, splintering further and further each time until its head broke off from the body. "Not bad… that puppet usually manages to finish off the beaten and crippled… I wonder how she'll handle the non-physical tests?"

  Below, Jun Li allowed her blood to liquify once more and felt the tension leave her body momentarily. 'Damn it, it's so hard to use my blood like that… I need to recover…'

  The simulacrum appeared once more next to Jun Li, glowing lightly with golden light. "Well done, let's move onto the next floor, shall we?" The Simulacrum raised an arm, and the fake world vanished, the sky melting away like an oil painting dunked into solvents.

  Within two seconds, the blurring surroundings settled into the simple and austere interior of the pagoda Jun Li had initially found herself in. A grey-tiled floor and ceiling, pale walls with dark support beams, hanging lanterns lighting the surroundings… And a lone stairwell at the end of the room, leading up into the unknown heights of the pagoda.

  "Wait…" Jun Li weakly called out. "I apologize… for acting like an arrogant idiot when I got here…" Her expression was pained as she spoke, not from any physical hurt, but from the indignity of her position. "I let frustration form my words, and… insulted you for no reason. I'm sorry for that."

  Looking down at Jun Li with an expression of curiosity, the simulacrum knew that her words, although forced, were not a lie. She genuinely seemed sorry for her poor manners. "So, let me rest, and recover… before I continue."

  'An ulterior motive for apologizing…? Though it seemed genuine nonetheless…' The simulacrum took a moment, with a hand to his chin. '...Since when have I been in a position to act based on my own likes and dislikes? When my original self created me, this was my purpose, and I was to act as a machine… I shouldn't be changing how I oversee the pagoda based on how an aspirant treats me…'

  Letting out a human-like sigh, the simulacrum nodded his head. "Very well, take as much time as you need. There is no implicit time limit for your attempt to climb the pagoda, beyond that of sustenance and lifespan."

  "I'll not force you to move then… Follow the stairs up when you are ready to continue." Taking one last look at Jun Li's blood-soaked figure, the simulacrum turned around and vanished mid-step, as if he were never there.

  Allowing her tense neck to loosen, Jun Li felt her head press back into the ground as her stress lessened. 'Damn it…' Even then, she was far from at peace. Little Yun was outside, potentially in danger, and there was still no guarantee she would be able to escape this pagoda with her life, even if she managed to completely recover from her injuries.

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  '...I'm not dying in this damn place, I don't care if nobody who walked in has ever come out, I'll just have to become the first…!' Gritting her teeth, Jun Li struggled to coax Qi from her Dantian, focusing intently to concentrate a sputtering, irregular flow into something steadier, something she could use to access her Spatial Ring. 'Even if it's slow… I need to make it through…'

  … … … … … …

  Outside, in a neighboring building, Little Yun peeked out from a broken door, looking out towards the square that lay outside the pagoda.

  There, numerous figures in red were gathered. Most seemed to be puppets, but a number of officers were present as well, along with the bull-like man. Little Yun observed silently as the intelligent individuals there spoke to one another, before they split up and departed, after recovering the Spatial Ring of their fallen comrade, who had died to Hua Shu.

  One remained behind, however. The same bull-like man who had attacked Jun Li. Once his comrades had departed, he looked around and eventually called out. "Hey, little brat!" A moment passed without Little Yun responding. "I know you're still around. Lights are on, you wouldn't leave yet..."

  Before long, the young snake felt with certainty that the man meant no harm to it, not specifically, at least. Crawling out from behind the door of the decrepit building, Little Yun came into sight. "There you are…" The bull-like man let out a sigh of apparent relief.

  "I didn't want to see you just vanish… It's good that you're here." Sitting down slowly, the bull-like man's enormous body caused the air to shift into an energetic, short-lived breeze. "I wanted to make sure… that you didn't fall onto the wrong path."

  "It's not exactly human Cultivation, but I wanted to teach you… The path to becoming more than a Magical Beast." Beckoning Little Yun over, the bull-like man fiddled with his Spatial Ring, pulling out a Medicinal Plant of some kind. "Come on. Whether or not you continue to live in service of your… 'master,' this is the best path for you…"

  With some hesitation, Little Yun approached, slithering forward with its small forelimbs. With an expression of relief and gratitude at being able to help, the bull-like man spoke. "This will take some time... But I'll get you on the path of an Enlightened Beast."

  … … … … … …

  Surrounded by a mess of shredded Medicinal Plants, harvested for their most gentle and restorative elements, Jun Li unsteadily swayed on her feet. The thin wound that ran from her hairline to her jaw had finally closed, and the damage behind it had healed near-fully.

  Mobility had finally returned to her, with only a minor, sensory haze hovering over her limbs, as if her arms were tied loosely to her will by short threads and carried along with an awkward latency. 'Still not good enough for proper alchemy.'

  Jun Li had found an interesting weakness in alchemy as her primary method of recovery and recuperation. Should her fine motor skills be impaired, it becomes impossible to adequately refine Medicinal Plants into proper medicines. "I shouldn't move forward until this fades, but… I have no idea how long this is going to last…"

  As Jun Li contemplated how far her combat ability had been diminished, the simulacrum appeared once more, a few steps away, looking towards her and clearing its throat. Though he likely had no reason to do that beyond drawing attention to himself. "As you seem to be somewhat in distress… I would like to clarify something regarding the trials found on each floor of the pagoda."

  "Due to my… or rather, due to the beliefs of the King of Severing Thunder, the trials present here have been separated into two formats to determine one's worth as a Martial Cultivator. The 'martial' aspect, which you have already been exposed to, and the 'spiritual' aspect, which the next floor will test."

  "The trials alternate in that manner until the eighth and final floor." He paused as he looked to Jun Li, who already seemed to understand. "In other words…" She followed up. "My success in the next trial won't be dependent on my physical condition."

  A moment passed as Jun Li thought about the simulacrum's words. "...Thank you for the courtesy." Taking a deep breath, she stretched her limbs and turned to the thin stairwell at the end of the floor. "Though I can tell you still don't believe I'll make it to the end..."

  "...Not that I blame you." Jun Li scoffed to herself as she walked up the stairs, feeling a sense of vertigo from the sensation of climbing the stairs with her hazily unresponsive limbs.

  After a few dozen more seconds than it would have taken when healthy, Jun Li reached the end of the stairs and emerged onto the second floor of the pagoda. The surroundings here seemed no different from the first floor, save for a lack of a door outside.

  In that room, the simulacrum she had left behind was standing patiently, nodding to Jun Li when she stepped closer. "Forgive the intrusion, but it can't be helped, considering the nature of this trial." With those somewhat disturbing words, the simulacrum raised his hand, and with a snap of his fingers, Jun Li felt a tugging sensation in her head as the room spun around her, dissolving and reforming into a new scene.

  When the nauseating blur of her surroundings settled, Jun Li looked ahead and saw the demonstration room of the Tinglu City Alchemist's Association Branch, where she had been not even half a day ago.

  It seemed identical to the scene she had walked in on previously. The corpse of an aspiring alchemist sat at the end of the room, next to his Pill Furnace and belongings, and a dark haze of alchemical vapor filled the air, although it seemed to have no real, physiological effect on Jun Li here.

  But unlike then, another person was present, looking back at Jun Li as he stood over the corpse at the far end of the room, causing her heart to leap in her chest.

  "Oh…?" The immortal who dubbed himself Junzi raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect to meet again so soon." Glancing towards the simulacrum, who seemed profoundly shocked at the intrusion, Junzi offered a polite smile and a slight bow of the head before turning back to Jun Li.

  "This is indeed auspicious. I may be able to correct your clumsy use of our Blood Arts sooner than I anticipated…"