The silence that followed was deafening. It was the kind of silence that crawled into one's ears, sat down comfortably, and began asking invasive questions about life choices.
The ghostly woman stood tall and radiant, one translucent hand extended patiently.
The three of them stared at that hand. It stared back. Time passed.
A spiritual wind whistled somewhere in the distance, perhaps out of secondhand embarrassment.
Hei Shisan's smile froze so hard it threatened to fossilize. Shen Wuyou was still kneeling, but now his tears had dried mid-track, leaving pale streaks on his face like battle scars from a war he had just lost.
Jin Huang, meanwhile, had begun sweating so profusely that one might assume he was attempting a breakthrough in body cultivation via dehydration.
The woman tilted her head.
"The Lunar Plaque?" she repeated.
Internally, the three of them screamed in perfect harmony.
"WE DON"T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS, LADY!"
Hei Shisan's mind raced. "Think. THINK. You've lied to elders, teachers, debt collectors- even your own mother once when she asked why you weren't married yet. This is just another authority figure- albeit a tragic, somewhat divine, grief-powered one.
He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
Shen Wuyou's thoughts were equally frantic. "Maybe if I keep crying, she'll assume I already gave it to her? Yes. Crying solves everything."
He inhaled sharply and prepared to wail again. Before either of them could commit social suicide, Jin Huang moved.
Slowly, deliberately, with the unmistakable confidence of a man who had absolutely no plan but refused to die quietly. He reached under his clothes for the stone key once more, hoping that it could create yet another miracle.
The other two felt their hearts leap into their throats, thinking, "Will that even work?"
Jin Huang's fingers closed around the small, unassuming object, and he pulled it off of him from around his neck.
The stone key hung lamely, as though it was the least valuable thing in the world. It gave off no sign of it being anything other than a poorly sculpted key made of low quality stone. He would even go so far as to say that it had been carved by someone who hated symmetry on a personal level.
He cleared his throat.
"My lady," Jin Huang said solemnly, holding the key up with both hands like an offering to the heavens themselves. "Please forgive our… unconventional plaque."
Hei Shisan nearly fainted. Shen Wuyou bit his tongue so hard he was sure he tasted blood.
The ghostly woman's blank white eyes focused on the trinket. For the first time since her appearance… she blinked.
"That object," she said slowly, "is not a Lunar Plaque."
Jin Huang nodded immediately. "Yes. Correct."
She paused. "Then... why are you presenting it?"
Jin Huang hesitated for exactly half a breath.
"Because," he said, the very image of a man standing on collapsing ground, "it is… a replacement Lunar Plaque."
Something deep within the pagoda shifted. A faint hum echoed through the air, like an ancient mechanism waking up with a bad temper.
Suddenly, the stone key in Jin Huang's hands flared with light. It hovered once again, leaving his hand behind and floating over to the woman who eyed it with interest.
With strong vibrations and pulsing light, the voice returned, only it was back to its normal pitch.
"Cough! Cough! Well I'll be- It's the Lunar Goddess!"
There was a brief pause as realization set in, "Oh shit! The Lunar Goddess!? Someone get the manual- Fuck! Shit!"
After that, there was a clamor as the person on the other end appeared to be rummaging through a number of items, causing quite a ruckus. Eventually, they spoke again.
"Ahem! Alright. Here we go. This should work a treat."
There was a loud beep, and then something remarkable happened.
The golden light around the woman flickered.
Once. Twice. Then her expression glitched.
Hei Shisan's jaw dropped. Shen Wuyou forgot to breathe.
The woman's head jerked to the side at a very unnatural angle.
"Assessing… trial-takers…" she said, her voice stuttering as if being dragged through mud. "Please… present… Lunar… Lu- Lu-"
Her entire body froze, then her arm began to shake. Violently.
"Alright. Thankfully, this is just a bit of remnant will without a complete consciousness. Initiating override!" Said the voice from the key, sounding triumphant.
The ghostly woman's face spasmed between sorrow and emptiness, her golden aura flashing erratically.
"Override?" she whispered. "That command… was refactored…"
Jin Huang stared at the stone key in awe. "What the hell are you?"
Hei Shisan tugged at his sleeve. "Is this supposed to be happening?"
Jin Huang shrugged; the senior student started panicking all over again.
The woman suddenly straightened, her eyes blazing brighter than before.
"ACCESS CONDITIONS: REMOVED."
A thunderous boom echoed through the courtyard, causing the pagoda to shake. Runes ignited across its surface, layer after layer lighting up like lanterns at a festival gone horribly wrong.
"ALL FLOORS: UNLOCKED."
The doors of the pagoda burst open. Not just the lowest level, but every single floor. Spectral stairways and floating platforms revealed themselves in blinding succession. The pressure of countless inheritances surged outward like a tidal wave.
Hei Shisan was blown back onto his rear. Shen Wuyou rolled across the courtyard, clutching his die and screaming something unintelligible about destiny.
Jin Huang stood frozen, watching the stone key floating between him and the ghostly woman, hair blown straight back.
The ghostly woman convulsed once more.
"Congratulations…" she said faintly, her voice now layered with echoes that didn't belong to her. "Trial-takers… you have… achieved… Supreme Clearance."
"I will... await you inside." Her form shattered into motes of golden light that returned to the pagoda, and the courtyard fell silent. The three of them slowly looked at one another.
Hei Shisan swallowed. "So."
Shen Wuyou sat up, eyes wide. "I guess that worked."
Jin Huang stared at the stone key, which had floated back to him before returning to its former state. "I think," he said carefully, "we may have just gotten away with skipping the trial."
They all turned to look at the pagoda.
Every floor- every inheritance- was waiting.
"I've got to get me one of those stone keys," Shen Wuyou said.
Jin Huang's stomach growled again as the scent returned, and he looked up at the top floor. "I've got to get up there."
Shen Wuyou imbued his die with a bit of his energy, and watched as it hovered in his hand, guiding him by rolling in place. Hei Shisan took out his compass and tried to ascertain what level he needed to go on, and decided to start with the top.
So, they all climbed the stairs and made their way up the illusory pathways created for them by the pagoda. Eventually, as they bypassed the various levels, it became clearer to them that they were all, indeed, headed in the same direction.
Jin Huang just hoped that they all didn't end up wanting the same thing. After being bombarded with that scent for so long, he was not going to let anyone else have its origin. He was going to eat it whole.
Finally arriving on the top floor, they entered a room that was dedicated to the ancestors of the Lunar Clan. On either side of them, they saw shrines dedicated to different ancestors, each with a portrait on the wall above the shrine.
When they entered, the woman returned, seeming a bit dazed and out of it.
"Welcome to the top floor, where the last remaining inheritances lie. There are... also the two items that our attackers failed to acquire... from the cargo my clan was tasked with delivering. Whatever your heart tells you to choose, go ahead and do so. You... have earned... it." The woman said, although she seemed somewhat reluctant to mention anything other than the inheritances.
It appeared as though she no longer had the ability to keep anything from them that they weren't supposed to know.
The three shared a final look, then set off in search of whatever it was that they were each there to find.
Shen Wuyou went down, following his die until it stopped at the inheritance of an ancestor.
"The First Lunar God, and my oldest ancestor. It is said that she faced untold risk, and received even greater rewards. Little is known about her cultivation path, but it may just line up with your own and be of great use to you."
Shen Wuyou nodded and explored the shrine, finding three spatial rings. He took them and began inspecting them, his eyes lighting up.
"This is it," Hei Shisan said, arriving at the very last ancestral inheritance. His compass was pointing directly at the shrine in front of him, and he even moved around to see how it would react. He was completely sure.
"This is the shrine dedicated to a benefactor of the Lunar Clan, someone who joined hands with my oldest ancestor and fought to earn a place in the Heavens. Without them, the First Lunar God likely would not have succeeded. It is said that he wielded a weapon that made even gods weep, and instilled fear in the hearts of devils."
Hei Shisan gulped, and found a single spatial ring of the highest quality he had ever seen. He took it up with shaking hands, and held it close as he prepared himself to look inside.
As for Jin Huang, he went over to something that was not an inheritance, but one of the items that had been amongst the precious cargo- the cause of the entire conflict that led to the Lunar Clan's destruction.
"These items are far older than even the First Lunar God. They come from the Heavenly Era before the current one- likely even an era before that. Even I do not fully understand their origins."
Jin Huang inhaled the aroma, and stared at the strongbox in front of him with intoxicated eyes. He opened it, the seal on it coming undone thanks to the Lunar Goddess' permission being granted. As the item's current owner, if she did not permit him to, he could likely never open it.
He would have to kiss the stone key after all this was finished.
Reaching into the strongbox, Jin Huang's hand came into contact with something warm and smooth. Not thinking, he pulled it out and saw some kind of small plant, exuding the smell that had been driving him mad.
The herb resembled a cabbage or layered lettuce, but every 'leaf' was thin as silk and edged with faint luminescence. The outer leaves were a deep, tranquil jade-green, but as they spiraled inward the color shifted. Veins of soft gold ran through each layer, forming natural talisman patterns that seemed to breathe.
The heart of the herb was curled tightly, yet from between the folds you could glimpse an inner glow.
Its scent was warm, savory, and impossibly clean- like broth made from clouds and ancient spring rain. Even just looking at it, Jin Huang felt his hunger answer from somewhere far deeper than his stomach.
Unable to wait, he opened his mouth...
And put the whole thing in.