Light bent like a blade and split the world.
Ethan felt the ground tilt beneath him and then steady. He stood on a cliff with clouds roiling below like a sea of cotton. The sky was a hard, bright blue with cranes gliding on slow circles. Luminous waterfalls fell straight out of floating mountains that drifted lazily overhead. Gold pagodas balanced on those mountains as if the heavens had built teacups and forgot to put them away.
Ethan looked down. His robe was white with silver clouds stitched on the sleeves. A jade pendant at his waist read, in very fancy script: Young Master.
Ruth stood beside him in black silk robes that swallowed the light. Her sash held a narrow sword whose hilt looked carved from night. A faint ribbon of shadow coiled at her feet like a tame snake.
"Aimi, it is what I think it is, right?" Ethan scanned the horizon.
"Yes Host! 97.58% probability it is a xianxia setting. I am scanning your memories to find a clue on how to break this illusion."
As if on cue, a shout cracked across the mountain path.
"Help! Do not attack me. I am innocent, I swear."
Kael sprinted into view from a bamboo grove, hair wild, robe half tied, cheeks puffing. In his arms he cradled a peach glowing like a tiny sun. Behind him, a dozen disciples in green robes charged with spears and righteous indignation.
"Thief!" one of them roared, leaping ten feet in a single step. "Return the Divine Immortal Peach of Thousand Autumns."
Kael glanced back in panic. "I thought it was free. The tree did not have a price tag."
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course. Idiot! Why are you eating fake fruit?"
Ruth stepped half a pace forward, eyes flicking over the disciples.
The disciples surrounded them in a neat circle that tried very hard to be menacing. A senior disciple with a jade eyebrow ring pointed a spear in Kael's direction.
"You trespass the Azure Crane Sect garden. By sect law, we take you to the Matriarch for judgment."
Ethan raised both hands. "Everyone, breathe. We do not need to call management for a fruit."
The eyebrow ring senior narrowed his eyes. "You dare disrespect the Matriarch? Bind them."
Threads of green light darted from his palm and wrapped around Ethan's wrists like silk strings. Twin strands shot toward Ruth.
Ruth lifted a finger. Her shadow rose like mist and those threads sank into it and did not come out. She lowered her hand. The threads fell to the ground like tired worms. She said nothing. The disciples pretended they had not seen that.
"Fine," Ethan sighed. "Take us to your manager."
They were marched down a path of white stone. Statues of stern elders lined a courtyard, each one pointing at a plaque that read: Cultivate, or Else.
Inside the great hall, disciples knelt in rows while cranes glided across the high painted ceiling. A dais rose beneath a banner that read Virtue, Power, Peach. On the dais sat the Matriarch.
Temari.
Her hair was styled high with golden pins that looked like tiny dragons. Her robe was snow white with a tide of cranes stitched in gold along the hem. A jade tablet rested in her lap as if she had been born to hold it. A long, long scroll of rules coiled at her side like a snake too bored to strike.
Kael blinked. "Temari?"
Temari lifted her chin and tried to look stern. It almost worked. Her mouth kept trying to smile. "Kael Vale. You dared to steal a sacred peach."
Kael bowed so fast it looked like he had dropped a coin and was trying to hide it. "I was hungry."
Temari's sternness cracked. "Rules are rules," she said, and then ruined it by adding, "Did it taste good?"
Kael hesitated. "It tasted like a peach. But brighter."
The eyebrow ring senior slammed his spear on the floor. "Matriarch, this golden-haired boy and his accomplices must be punished. Our sect laws state offenders must…"
Temari raised a finger to stop him. She looked at Ethan. Her eyes briefly sparkled. "And who are you?"
Ethan bowed like he had seen in a drama once. "A traveler of the clouds, here to apologize for my friend's appetite and to suggest more signage."
Temari coughed into her sleeve to hide a tiny smile. "You speak well."
The long-eyebrow elder spoke. "Matriarch, Sect Law Number Twelve. Outsiders who trespass gardens that hold heavenly fruit must either supply equal treasures or accept three palm strikes."
The long-beard elder nodded. "Three palm strikes. Mild lesson."
Temari's eyes flicked between the elders and Ethan. She looked down at the jade tablet in her lap as if expecting it to whisper a rule that would rescue her friends. The tablet stayed silent. She exhaled, small and soft, and then firmed her voice.
"Prepare the stage."
Disciples scurried. A platform rose with a hum. Runes lit in a ring.
Kael stepped forward. "I will take the strikes."
Ethan grabbed his sleeve. "No you will not."
"It was my mistake," Kael said, voice low.
"It was a peach," Ethan said. "Not a war crime."
Ruth's voice slid between theirs like a knife. "Delay is dangerous. If this is an illusion designed to hold us, it will choose the longest possible path. Choose the shortest."
Ethan looked at her. "Do you have a plan?"
"I have a theory," Ruth said.
The eyebrow ring senior pointed at Kael. "You first, golden-haired offender."
Kael stepped onto the platform. The long-beard elder lifted a palm slowly, so slowly, like a mountain remembering how to move. The runes flared; the hall held its breath. Temari's hand tightened on the jade tablet.
"Aimi, anything?"
"I have scanned 237 xianxia novels you have read, and I have come up with a plan. Speak like you know some ultimate truth and the dao. The random BS go."
Ethan nodded and stepped onto the platform beside Kael and raised his voice.
"The Dao is freedom," Ethan said, loud and clear.
The long-beard elder paused and blinked. The eyebrow ring senior frowned. Temari tilted her head.
"The Dao is choice," Ethan continued, feeling very foolish and very committed. "The Dao does not bow to borrowed rules. The Dao is not a set of stairs you climb because someone painted numbers on them."
Ruth watched him with a quiet look.
"The Dao is the space between two breaths. The Dao is the moment you stop pretending you are trapped."
He lifted his hand like he imagined a sage would. "Therefore, by the principles of things I am making up but feel true right now, this formation and this false court and these rules written by a bored illusion do not bind us, do not bind the Dao."
The air trembled. The drums missed a beat. The runes around the platform flickered as if they were trying to remember who plugged them in.
Ethan took a breath and threw the last stone.
"The Dao is mine because I say so."
Silence snapped like a rope. The platform's glow broke into a thousand tiny lights. The ceiling cranes froze and then turned into paint again. The elders blinked into still statues. The eyebrow ring senior opened his mouth to shout and became a very elegant pillar of mist. The disciples became paper figures that fluttered like leaves.
Temari's jade tablet cracked. She looked at Ethan, eyes wide and bright. "Finally I can get out."
The palace groaned. The cloud floor peeled like skin from milk. The floating mountains tore into ribbons of color. Everything folded in on nothing and vanished with a sigh.
They were back in the Maze of Stars.
All four together. Breathing hard. The cold light of the maze felt almost warm after that sky.
Ethan wiped sweat from his forehead. "I was just saying random things. I cannot believe that worked."
Kael rubbed his palms together into prayer. "I knew it. This must be that old wizard ghost again, messing with my head."
Temari threw her arms around both of them and squeezed. "Do not leave me again." She let go and glanced at Ruth over Ethan's shoulder, veiled suspicion in her eyes.
Ruth's expression did not change. Inside, a small note was made.
Ethan Vale looked like he knew something about the rules of that world. Interesting.
A soft glow pulsed ahead. AIMI's voice slid into Ethan's mind like a familiar hand on his shoulder.
"Host. Exit detected. Forward."
"Finally," Ethan said.
They ran.
The wall unfolded, and the murmurs of the outside world hit them like roars.
Every eye in the arena locked onto them at once.
"The first candidates cleared the trial!"
"So fast?" "As expected of the Dravencourt heir!"
"She must have carried the Vales."
"Look at that handsome golden haired boy with her."
"An alliance between the Dravencourts and the Vales?"
"Perhaps she likes the Vale heir."
"No. It must be the scrawny white robed one.. He looks sly."
Lyra nearly jumped out of her seat cheering for her children. Seraphina also smiled behind her fan.
Ruth stepped out first, composed.
Temari clung to Kael's sleeve.
Ethan covered his eyes from the Sun,"Damn, It feels like a year has passed."
"It has only been fifteen minutes."
Ethan looked at the hourglass, the sand had only filled up to around one fourth of the way. Amazing, the Academy seems like a treasure trove of knowledge to explore.