“Why is it so hot!?” Yuki pulled on her robes as sweat dripped off her chin. Even with putting a layer of spiritual qi on her body, the humid air was still penetrating through, causing her to sweat from head to toe. It was only in times like this that Yuki was glad she never bore boots, or else she knew her feet would be swamped with sweat as well. 

She had entered deep into the forest after sending out tens of disciples she ran across. Her current flag count was now around twenty flags, all tucked away in her space, although to others, it seemed she was stuffing them in her sleeve. “Hmmm?”

Yuki paused her steps as she looked up at a large tree that had roots growing over a large rock formation. But on closer inspection, Yuki noticed that it was not rocks but bricks made of rocks that had faded carvings embedded into them. “This is a ruin of some kind?” 

Curious about what was inside, Yuki began searching for an entrance. While Yuki was searching, outside the mystic realm watching everything unfold, Elder Nishikawa’s eyes narrowed as she waved the sect master over to her. “Sect Master, have you seen this before?”

“Hm?” The sect master looked at the projection, squinting his eyes for a moment before they suddenly shot open. “Was there ever such a place in this mystic realm?”

“You do not know what this place is?” Elder Nishikawa asked.

 “Not even when I entered when I was an outer sect disciple had anyone come across such a place. This mystic realm has been here since before the sect had formed. It was discovered by our founder, and he was the one who set up the restrictions on it. Whether he had discovered that place is unknown. I want to go in and check what is going on, but none of us can enter. Only those of the fate star realm can enter the mystic realm.” The sect master felt slightly envious of Yuki for being able to find an unknown place but was unable to enter the mystic realm himself. “Your disciple may have just chanced upon a fortuitous encounter.” 

“Let’s hope so….” Elder Nishikawa bit the tip of her finger. If the mystic realm has been in the sect since before the founding, then there is no telling what may lie within the ruins  Yuki has discovered. If she can get in, that is. The flags the sect master sent into the mystic realm are sent in using inscriptions to have them randomly find a place to land. It was all tied into the array formations the sect founder had set up within the mystic realm. 

Back inside the mystic realm, Yuki finally found an odd indentation in the ruins in front of her. She ran her hand across the indentation before pushing just to the right of it, hoping the door would magically open. But instead of a rumbling of a door opening, Yuki stumbled forward and passed right through the stone and found herself in what looked like a hall of some kind.

She looked at the area in front of her with curious eyes. It was dimly lit but lit enough to see that the whole room was massive. Much bigger than one would expect with how small the ruins seemed on the outside. “Is this some kind of space distortion?”

“Close.” A voice entered Yuki’s ears, causing her to spin around. 

But no matter how much she looked around, she did not see anyone there. “Who’s there!?”

“Relax, little one. You can not see me not yet anyway.” The voice replied. Yuki, of course, could not relax when some disembodied female voice was talking to her. “My name is Tsukuyomi. This place can be considered my last gift to the mortal realm.”

“Last gift to the mortal realm?” Yuki did not understand what she meant by that. It was just a large room with nothing in it.

“Do not let your eyes deceive you, little fox.” As Yuki heard these words, the whole room suddenly lit up and no longer looked like an old ruin but a large hall that looked well kept. The white walls had floating flames in small indents that gave the room light. The floor had multiple colored stones embedded into it, forming a large pattern of a massive nine tailed fox. The pillars that held up the ceiling had carvings of foxes and many other demonic beasts. “Little fox, welcome to my trial….”

Outside the sect, Elder Nishikawa was about to destroy the entrance to the mystic realm as she tried to ram into it to enter. The sect master was doing his best to calm her down. “Elder Nishikawa! You can not enter! Even with your strength, you can not enter!”

Elder Nishikawa’s expression was not good. She turned and hatefully glared at the sect master as she asked: “Then tell me, what should I do!? I was cut off from my projection of my disciple!”

The sect master tried his best to keep calm. “She must have entered the ruins. As I said, it is a place that I did not even know about. We can only wait and see if she exits. Did you not say she disappeared while touching the wall? We can only assume she entered the ruins. This could be a good thing for her.” 

Elder Nishikawa clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. If something happened to Yuki, she would have no choice but to break her seals and release her true power, even if it meant being found by those people. “You better hope she returns safely.”

The sect master couldn’t help but sigh. He could only pray the little girl was okay. He did not wish for the sect to turn into a fiery wasteland.