Chapter 197 — The Four Easy Rings

CHAPTER 197

The Four Easy Rings

Two disciples shouted for room as they staggered around the bend.

Two outer-court disciples came stumbling around the bend with a third man hanging between them. His robe was smoking at the sleeves. His eyes were open, but he wasn't looking at anything.

Shi Feng pressed himself against the wall to let them pass. The wall was warm enough to hurt.

One carrier gasped that their friend had only reached ring two. The fool had insisted he could manage three because he wanted his name higher on the board. One carrier added bitterly that people were never satisfied: the snake always wants to swallow the elephant.

The other carrier glanced at the smoking sleeves and anxiously asked whether he was still alive.

His companion said he was still complaining, so he had to be alive. Neither stopped to examine the burns.

The injured disciple weakly protested. He wasn’t complaining, he croaked; he was just trying to work out why he’d thought ring three was a good idea.

They hurried on toward the light. Shi Feng watched them go, then looked ahead.

Ring one began where black rock gave way to dull red. Hot air filled Shi Feng’s lungs. Beside him, a thin stream of fire ran through a channel no wider than his hand. He kept clear of its edge and moved deeper into the cavern.

Shi Feng walked beside it.

For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, ring one was a warm bath. He felt sweat start under his robe. That was all.

At ring two the channel widened and the walls began to glow. His skin tightened. Qi in his meridians started circulating faster by itself, trying to push the heat out.

Then something odd happened.

The heat didn't stay outside. A thread of it slipped through his skin, sank into his chest and vanished. His body wasn't pushing the fire away. It was swallowing it.

A line of pale text appeared in his mind, flat and calm like every other entry in the Ledger.

[Devoured: cavern fire | Gain: small | Note: warm]

Shi Feng stopped walking.

He thought, Right. The cavern is a meal. That's why Master sent me.

He tested it. He stepped closer to the channel and let the air from the fire wash across his arms. The thread of heat thickened. His qi, which had been thrashing against the temperature, settled into a slow, comfortable rhythm.

“So he wasn't trying to kill me,” Shi Feng said quietly to the empty tunnel. “He was trying to feed me.”

Nobody answered. The rock cracked somewhere ahead.

He kept going.

Ring three was where most people turned back. The heat there pressed down like a hand on the shoulders. The floor shimmered, and his sandals started to smell.

A single outer-court disciple sat against the wall near the jade tally, face red, drinking from a water gourd that was already empty.

“You’re the champion, aren’t you?” Wen Bo wheezed, trying to sit straighter.

“Shi Feng,” Shi Feng said. “You don’t need to get up.”

“I'm Wen Bo. Ring three. Third time.” Wen Bo held up the gourd and shook it sadly. “The board has my name beside this one. If you pass, don't touch mine.”

“I won't,” Shi Feng said.

“Good man.” Wen Bo closed his eyes. “Tell them I was very brave.”

“Were you?” Shi Feng said.

“No,” Wen Bo admitted. “But they don’t have to know that.”

Shi Feng walked past him. The ring-three tally was a small jade tablet set into the wall at chest height. Wen Bo's faint warm qi still clung to it. Shi Feng didn't touch it.

The Ledger ticked as he passed the fire.

[Devoured: cavern fire | Gain: small | Note: warm]

Ring four was a different place.

The tunnel opened into a hall of red stone with a river of slow, orange fire running through the middle. Heat hit his face like a slap. His eyebrows curled. Up ahead, a jade tablet glowed softly beside a stone arch.

Nobody else was there. Nobody had come this far today.

Shi Feng looked at the tablet for a long time.

Touching it would put his name on the board for ring four. That was a respectable result for a newcomer, not enough to start rumours and not so low that the crowd would call him a coward. His master had asked him only to go in and come back alive. He hadn't asked for glory, and a name on the board only brought visitors.

Shi Feng thought, Ring four will satisfy them. Anything higher will bring more questions, and I’ve got enough people watching me already.

He placed his palm on the jade.

It lit. Somewhere far behind him, on the stone board at the cavern mouth, a new name appeared in the fourth column.

Shi Feng took his hand away and looked at the next archway.

The heat there was visible, a wall of shimmering orange. Beyond it, the tunnel dropped.

He had decided at the door how this would go. Four was the number he'd give the world. Everything after four was for himself, and nobody was going to hear about it.

From here on, he would stop touching the tablets.

He stepped through the arch.

[Devoured: cavern fire | Gain: moderate | Note: hot]