"Sound reasoning," Lei Ming agreed, his tone regaining its natural confidence. "Though in truth, we have few choices."
Su Luo gestured toward Lin Yu. "Will sister cultivator join us?"
"As brother Lei Ming observed," she replied, rising gracefully without aid, "we have little choice in the matter. But this one thanks you for the courtesy."
A cry of effort yanked their attention to the side, where another figure struggled to emerge from a distant chamber. Su Luo launched himself forward like an arrow from a bow, his body moving with instincts older than memory, leaping over sealed chambers as his footsteps rang against the bronze floor.
The slender figure was sliding back into the darkness, fingers scrambling for purchase on the smooth rim. Su Luo dove as she lost her grip, his body sliding across the bronze as he caught her wrist in an iron grip.
But with no qi to strengthen his body and nothing to brace against, her weight pulled him inexorably toward the chamber. He was about to topple in when strong hands seized his ankles and hauled him back.
Lei Ming's strength proved sufficient to drag them both to safety. Su Luo grunted as his injured arms scraped against the bronze, but he held on. With the larger man's help, he worked his way back into the light and drew the small woman after him.
Her thick hair was in disarray, covering her face like a curtain, and for a moment she simply lay on her side, massaging her wrist as she stared with obvious awe at the pillar of golden radiance.
"Peace, sister," Lin Yu said, crouching beside her and gently touching her shoulder. "I mean, well, it is not peaceful. But you are safe now." She paused, gathering herself. "Hello. I am Lin Yu. We believe we may have failed our tribulation, but uncertainty clouds all."
The small woman pushed herself up to sitting. She possessed a narrow, saturnine face with striking eyebrows above piercing eyes that spoke of keen intelligence. She tore her gaze from the golden pillar to study them with helpless anger.
"Failed our tribulation?"
"It is the theory we follow for now," Lei Ming said, sitting back with a sigh. "Though honestly, this feels unlike any descriptions of the afterlife this one has heard. I am Lei Ming."
Su Luo was too restless to remain seated. He stood and studied the vast bronze plain, watching how the golden light flowed across its surface in patterns that hinted at profound formation work. "Will all these chambers open?"
"If so, it will require considerable time," Lei Ming observed. "There are countless numbers of them."
"Chambers," Lin Yu said with a shudder. "Can we not find a more auspicious name?" "Cocoons of rebirth?" Lei Ming suggested.
"Let us retain 'chambers,'" Lin Yu decided quickly.
Su Luo turned back to the newest arrival. "We had just resolved to investigate that golden radiance when sister cultivator emerged."
The woman nodded, a vertical line appearing between her brows as she drew a shuddering breath. "Very well. This one is called Wei Shan."
"Su Luo," he replied. "It is our fortune to meet."
She frowned at him strangely but took his offered hand and allowed him to help her stand. "This one owes you a debt for preventing my fall."
"In the cultivation world, we aid our fellow daoists," Su Luo replied with a slight smile. "Perhaps one day the favor will be returned."
Wei Shan stared at him with an odd expression, but Lei Ming chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder with a hand like a mountain. "Let us work on developing better hobbies than leaping into rebirth chambers."
The four of them stood together, facing the pillar of light, their fronts painted in hues of gold and amber like disciples bathed in celestial radiance.
"Should we wait to see if others emerge?" Lin Yu asked.
"This one votes for seeking answers immediately," Su Luo declared. "Uncertainty is a poison that weakens the dao heart."
"Agreed," Wei Shan said, her arms folded tightly across her chest. "But... do any of you sense it? The feeling of reaching for something that is not there?"
"Explain," Lin Yu prompted.
Wei Shan's face twisted with frustration. "Like expecting another step at the top of a staircase and finding only air. I keep reaching... within myself, for something. But it is absent."
They studied her with interest.
"This one speaks not from madness," she said defensively. "Only truth."
Lei Ming raised both hands peacefully. "None question your honesty, sister."
"Reaching within..." Su Luo mused. "No, this one has not experienced such sensations."
"Forget it was mentioned," Wei Shan said quickly.
"We are all walking an unfamiliar path," Lin Yu said kindly. "Speak freely of what you experience."
"Let us focus on gaining answers," Su Luo declared, beginning to walk. "And perhaps someone to hold accountable for this trial. This is a poor way to conduct an afterlife."
Su Luo angled their approach to the steps past his own chamber and saw carved at the base the number 37. He paused at the first step, turning to study the bronze plain one final time. He searched for movement, strained his spiritual sense for any cry for aid.
Nothing. The silence was complete, like the void between stars. "Do you sense it?" Lin Yu asked softly.
Lei Ming frowned at her. "Sense what, sister?"
"It is like... a current of spiritual energy passing around us. Yet not precisely so. This one lacks words to explain properly."
Su Luo raised his hand, studying it in the golden glow while trying to perceive what she described. There was no wind, the air was utterly still. Yet he thought he felt something flowing through him or around him, like some subtle current of qi that had gone unnoticed until now. But the moment he focused on it, the sensation vanished like trying to grasp morning mist.
"No," Lei Ming said finally, shaking his head.
Wei Shan stared into the middle distance with the look of one consulting inner wisdom. "This one feels it, perhaps. An invisible breeze of spiritual energy... yet not quite
that either. Connected somehow to what I felt before, when reaching within."