My hunch didn’t miss. I stepped out of the bedroom like a lantern entering mist, and the instant the space tunnel swallowed me, a message rang like a bell in a hollow canyon—find the exit within two hours and leave, and you’ll arrive at the place you seek.

It didn’t say what happens if we fail, like thunder rumbling beyond the hills—I’m guessing we’d get forcibly tossed out.

The tunnel itself felt like a vein carved through night. Not pitch-black, but so gloomy it breathed cold, with not a single glimmer like starlight on water.

You don’t walk here; you fly, like leaves lifted in a windless sky. Gravity was gone, and the moment I crossed the threshold, my body floated like driftwood on a dark sea. Space was churned and unstable, so my half-baked “flight” was useless—just Sword Aura wrapped around me to hover, like shabby wings sketched in smoke.

Among us, Lixue owns the sky like a hawk rides the thermals. Her battlefield is the clouds, no question.

So right now, I’m in Lixue’s arms, moving slowly, like a snowflake carried on a winter breeze. Yeah… a princess carry. Embarrassment burned like a hot coal in my chest. I’m a guy; I’d rather be the one holding someone, but my swordcraft for flying is a reed before a storm compared to Lixue.

“Uh… sorry, Lixue, this is a hassle,” I said, shame pricking like nettles before I could stop it.

“Is it?” She lowered her gaze like moonlight tipping a lake and smiled. “I think it’s a treat. Holding the Emperor feels genuinely comfortable.”

“Mmm-mmm, I’m so jealous, Lixue,” Lingxiao chimed in, eyes bright like a cat watching snowfall. “I want to hold my dear brother too.”

“Same,” Lingsaki sighed, her voice like wind through bamboo. “But this space is too unstable. For Brother’s safety, it’s better if Lixue holds him.”

Their envious stares followed us like paired stars, never wavering.

“Heads up. More obstacles in a moment,” I said, like a bell warning before the tide turns.

A man should pull his weight; that thought burned steady like a campfire. My senses outstrip theirs a bit, so the job of finding the exit fell to me again, like in the last trial. Only the arms are different—Qianji Sister then, Lixue now. The rhythm’s the same drum.

Obstacles drifted through the tunnel like bad omens—undead, hurricanes, stray magic. On any other day, they’d be gnats in sunlight. Here, in this twisted space, they were scythes in tall grass.

It was hard enough to keep a steady flight like a boat on choppy water. If we got clipped by one of those things, we’d pay in blood and breath.

“Again? They just popped up a few minutes ago,” Lingsaki muttered, irritation snapping like a sparrow’s peck.

Lingxiao was already weaving layered barriers, circles blooming around us like lotus after rain. Seeing that, Lingsaki added her own, her glyphs rising like sparks.

The tunnel was too narrow, like a gorge pinched by rock. Dodging was a fantasy; we either tanked the hits or canceled them with force. After a few tests, we chose to endure like pines in snow. Striking back shook the tunnel and turned chaos into a landslide.

“This is bad,” I said, feeling the pressure build like thunderheads. “A wide-area hurricane—stronger than the last by a lot.”

The sensation honed sharp, like a blade drawn from oil. Ten seconds out. These weren’t just winds; they bit like steel—a high-tier wind spell pushed near the edge of law by the tunnel’s warped blessings.

“We can only punch through. Emperor, hold tight,” Lixue said, voice steady as ice on stone.

Her words fell and winter arrived. Temperature plunged; frost thickened in the air like white moss on bark. Lixue hugged me closer and surged forward, speed leaping like a falcon stooping. My face sank into her chest without warning—soft, warm, and scented like plum in snow.

More than it looks… What am I even thinking? Calm down. Calm like a lake under moon.

“Lixue, Lingxiao, Lingsaki—five seconds ahead on the right, a few undead will appear,” I said, focus narrowing like an arrow nocked. “Please take them out. If they get close in here, it’s trouble.”

“Got it. Ugh, so annoying,” Lingxiao grumbled, splitting her focus like a candle flame in wind. “I can barely juggle this side, and now undead too?”

“This should be the final trial,” Lingsaki said, eyes keen as a fox’s. “It’d be strange if it let us stroll through.”

“It’s been about an hour,” Lixue asked, loosing a few arcs of Sword Aura that sliced the dead like reeds. Her breath tickled my cheek, sweet as spring tea. “Emperor, got a direction yet?”

“Not yet,” I said, frustration like grit in the teeth. “My Sword Intent feels suppressed. Or the space is just too messy. My sensing range is tiny compared to normal.”

I kept searching, but Sword Intent wouldn’t push past a hundred meters, like a bird trapped in a cage.

“Half the time left… then we do this,” I murmured, decision falling like a guillotine.

I unfolded my Sword Domain without a second thought. With it, my Sword Intent might break the cap, like dawn breaking cloud. I didn’t need to fight; the cost would be light. And I could steer blades of Sword Aura casually, clearing some obstacles for Lixue and the sisters, like sweeping snow off a path.

As expected, the moment the Sword Domain bloomed, my “vision” sharpened like frost-etched glass, and my sensing stretched outward like tide under a full moon.

“The exit’s close. Hidden under something, like a rock under weeds,” I said, the map printing itself in my mind. “About three hundred ahead there’s a three-way fork. Take the middle.”

A long breath slid out of me like steam in winter. Good thing I opened the Sword Domain now. There was too much we would’ve missed, and the back half is thick with knives.

“Understood. Dear brother’s Sword Domain looks cool every single time,” Lingsaki said, delight bright as lanterns at a festival.

“Mmh, the pitch-black tunnel turned all golden under Brother’s Sword Domain,” Lingxiao added, eyes gleaming like coins. “It’s beautiful.”

“Don’t relax yet,” I said, heart steady like a drum. “Trials hit hardest near the end.”

Every obstacle had been worse than the last, like waves stacking in a storm. Near the exit, who knows what changes the wind will bring.

“Emperor’s right,” Lixue said, face tightening like ice over a stream. “There—another magic arrow rain incoming. Brace. It’s two or three times the last.”

The air turned brittle again as she spoke. Frost raced outward and formed a spherical shield around us, a crystal globe in the dark.

Where was all this magic coming from in the tunnel? The question gnawed like a rat behind a wall. It didn’t feel natural; it felt like someone in the shadows loosing spells at us, rain timed to the drum of our steps.

…