For the first hour after Yuan Zheng Zi died, no one tried to be impressive.
That, more than anything, proved how close the fight had been.
Team Nemean and Yue Ting remained scattered across the moonlit garden like survivors washed ashore after a storm. The sealed dome had broken, but the garden still felt enclosed by exhaustion. Broken formation lines smoked faintly along the stone paths. The well from which Yuan Zheng Zi's laughter had crawled was silent now, its water black and still. Torn petals drifted across the pond, while the moon above had returned to its proper shape, no longer a crescent weapon watching them through dead eyes.
Dominic sat with his back against a cracked stone lantern, Eyeless Heaven resting across his knees. His arms trembled every few minutes from the recoil of repeated God's Roar Cannons. Janet stayed beside him, one hand on his shoulder and the other holding a half-eaten Sympathy Enoki packet like a nurse losing patience with a very large and very stubborn patient.
"I told you I'm good," Dominic said.
Janet stared at him.
He sighed. "I am alive."
"That is a different sentence."
"Still a good sentence."
"It is the minimum acceptable sentence."
Joanne lay flat on the ground with one arm over her eyes. "Can the minimum acceptable sentence be 'no more bosses today'? Because I vote for that one."
Jake, equally flat several feet away, lifted one finger. "Seconded. I also wish to add an amendment banning all dead sect."
"We passed that already," Joanne said.
"Good. Let pass it a second time just to be sure."
Camille, leaning against Séline, gave a small, exhausted laugh.
Emma did not immediately stand. She sat with her back straight because heiress training apparently survived mana depletion, but her face was pale, and the hand holding the vajra shook every time she adjusted her grip.
Alexei had removed one gauntlet and was slowly flexing his fingers, checking for nerve damage after maintaining his protective aura and shield pressure through formation after formation.
Alex lay on her back and stared at the night sky.
Her whole body hurt, especially her head. Bīng, the copy of Eyeless Heaven, Tara's Wings of Ascension, and the gourd had each demanded not only mana but understanding, and understanding had weight. Her mana pathways felt newly carved and poorly sanded, while her nerves felt as if they had been fried.
The Ballad of Blades still echoed somewhere inside her.
So did the first Emperor's voice.
So did Phong's heartbeat, remembered from the night before she left Fort Erymanthian, steady beneath her ear as though he had decided to remain stubborn even while asleep.
That memory kept her grounded.
Yue Ting sat apart from them beneath a bent bamboo stalk, the half-blue, half-red gourd secured in both hands. She had not put it away again after the fight. Perhaps she did not trust it out of sight, or perhaps qián had told her it was safer held than stored. Her robe was torn in several places, and one sleeve had been reduced to ribbons. Blood marked her temple where a formation fragment had grazed her.
She looked tired enough for the human beneath the Taoist master to show through.
For another hour, they did very little. They shared water, Janet checked wounds, and Emma recovered enough mana to run basic appraisals on their injuries and confirm that no parasite residue remained attached to anyone.
Only when breathing stopped feeling like work did the system prompts finally become the center of attention.
Joanne sat up first.
"All right," she said, her voice rough. "Before another ancient senior citizen climbs out of the plumbing, what did we get?"
Yue Ting checked her status.
Then she went very still.
That was answer enough.
Emma saw her expression and narrowed her eyes. "You leveled."
Yue Ting looked up, and a faint smile touched her mouth.
"Level fifty."
The garden went silent.
Then Team Nemean groaned as one.
Jake dropped back down. "No. Absolutely not. We worked together. We suffered together. We got screamed at by a wing full of eyeballs together. How did she beat Dominic in the race to level 50?"
"She ended phase one," Alex said.
Yue Ting's smile sharpened slightly.
"And assisted in ending phase two."
"With my gourd copy," Alex said.
"With my actual gourd," Yue Ting replied.
Joanne pointed at her. "Do not flirt with technicality after stealing the leaderboard."
"I did not steal anything. I was more efficient."
Dominic chuckled despite himself, then winced because laughing hurt. "She has a point."
The groaning did not fully stop, but it became less offended.
They understood why Yue Ting had received more EXP. She had delivered the killing blow during the first phase with the gourd relic, and in the second phase, her real relic had worked alongside Alex's psychic copy to finish Yuan Zheng Zi for good. The system liked contribution, but it liked decisive action even more.
Emma checked Dominic next.
"Dominic?"
He blinked at his screen, then let out a low whistle.
"49."
That made everyone pause. Three levels, from 46 to 49, was nothing to scoff at.
Respectable was perhaps too small a word, but Dominic's expression made it clear that he was already doing tank mathematics, calculating what those levels meant for survivability, defense scaling, and exactly how many more bad decisions he could stand in front of before Janet threatened him with divorce.
Janet saw his face.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"You thought something stupid."
"I thought something responsible."
"You thought something stupid in a responsible voice."
Joanne checked her own screen.
"Oh. Oh, that is nice."
Emma's eyebrows rose as she read hers. "48."
"Same," Joanne said, then glanced at Alexei with a dangerous smile. "Well, well, well."
Alexei did not rise to the bait.
"I am a few EXP away from 48."
"That is what people at 47 say."
"I am at 47-point-something."
"Ah, yes. The proud and noble level of coping."
Jack checked his status. "47."
Jake raised his hand. "Also 47, though emotionally I am level twelve and requesting adult supervision."
Séline nodded once. "47."
Camille glanced at her own notification. "Same here."
Janet smiled faintly. "Me as well."
That left Alex.
Everyone looked at her.
She opened her status properly for the first time since the fight had ended. Level 45.
It was a huge jump for her, given the weight of Bai Hu's title, but not enough to match the others numerically. Once, that might have irritated some buried part of her competitiveness. Now, she barely noticed the number first.
Because the title had changed.
[Title Evolution: Squire of the White Tigress → Knight of the Aspect of War]
Alex stared.
The words glowed before her with cold white force. A more detailed description followed.
[Experience required to level has increased. Current multiplier: x3.]
Jake leaned over from the ground and squinted. "That sounds illegal."
Alex kept reading.
[Due to title evolution, future level gains shall grant double stat growth.]
Emma's eyes widened.
"That is absurd."
"Good absurd or bad absurd?" Joanne asked.
"Both."
Alex's pulse quickened as the next notification appeared.
[Bai Hu's Storm has evolved.]
[New Branch Skill Acquired: Charge of the Bloodless Knights.]
The skill description entered her mind more clearly than it appeared on the screen.
Wind given the shape of cavalry.
Arbiter Mindblade constructs worn as armor and wielded as weapons.
A brigade of knights formed from storm and psychic edge, charging as a single unit beneath Alex's command. They were neither real summons like those of a Beast Master, nor twisted and tortured souls forced to wear the masks of who they had once been beneath Olen's power. They were constructs shaped by Bai Hu's war aspect and Alex's Mindblade principles, free from the constraints of the storm unlike the tiger Alex had created earlier, and transformed into a cavalry formation of wind, discipline, and violence.
Alex imagined them for one breath.
Empty helms and transparent lances. Horse-shapes made of storms. Knights with no blood to spill and no fear to slow them.
A whole brigade answering her charge.
Her fingers curled slightly.
Dominic's voice softened. "Alex?"
She looked up.
"I'm fine."
That was true.
Mostly.
The title felt heavier. Stronger, no doubt, but there was more to it than power alone. It was heavy in a way that made her think of how many kills she had accumulated to reach this point. Knight of the Aspect of War. No longer a squire, no longer merely favored. She had become something closer to an acknowledged piece on a much larger board.
Joanne whistled. "Triple EXP requirement, though. You really angered the leveling system."
"Double stats per level," Emma said. "In the long term, that is better than catching up quickly."
"Spoken like someone who did not have her grind turned into a mountain," Jake said.
Alex closed the screen.
"I'll climb."
No one doubted her.
Then they found the drop.
It lay where Yuan Zheng Zi's body had finally dissolved, resting among cracked stones and drying black well-water.
A headpiece of Celestial Skeletal.
The bone was pale with a faint silver sheen, shaped like a crown made from the lower jaw of someone's skull. Tiny formation lines covered it in delicate engravings. Around the teeth, arranged like jewels, miniature moon patterns had been carved so finely that they seemed to move whenever viewed indirectly.
No one touched it at first.
Celestial Skeletal had reshaped the world for a second time since the dungeon revealed itself to humanity three years ago.
The Sky Emperor's announcement had turned greed into a global fever. Jack's Yeak left leg bone had proven that the fragments were not empty hype. Yuan Zheng Zi's headpiece lying before them meant this ruin had become more than a survival story.
They appraised it.
Everyone's expression changed three times.
[Celestial Skeletal: Yuan Zheng Zi's Head]
[Equipment Bonus: Intelligence +75]
[Unique Effect: Split Mana Flow — Allows the wielder to maintain and activate two different skills simultaneously.]
No one spoke for a full second.
Then Jake whispered, "That is disgusting."
"+75 Intelligence," Emma said, as though repeating it might make the number less obscene. "And simultaneous dual-skill activation."
Jack looked toward Joanne.
So did Dominic.
So did Alex.
Joanne blinked. "What?"
Emma's gaze sharpened. "It fits you best."
Joanne pointed at herself. "Me?"
"Yes," Alex said.
"But you just got bīng. Shouldn't we make you like super OP so you can carry us to victory by steam rolling everyone?"
"I can already split my focus thanks to my class," Alex admitted. "If we only consider the stats, it would help Emma. It would help Janet and Séline. It would help almost all of us. But on you, it doubles your firing rate."
Understanding spread through the group.
Without the revolver, Joanne could only fire one bullet at a time. Her firing rate was already fast, but it remained one of her class's weaknesses. That was why Hans had prepared the revolver for her. Yet the weapon was merely storage. Once its twenty bullets were used, the mana-tech revolver became little more than an attractive toy.
If a Spell Sniper could maintain two mana flows at once, she could threaten two separate lanes or rain two different status effects down on an enemy's head.
Doubling the team's backline firepower was a welcome addition in everyone's book.
Joanne looked at the headpiece again.
Her usual snark took several seconds to return.
"So what I'm hearing is that I become everyone's problem."
"You are already everyone's problem," Jake said.
"Now professionally."
Dominic nodded. "I agree. Joanne."
Emma gave a brief sigh, the kind that admitted she wanted the item but understood the board better than her own desire. "Joanne."
Jack shrugged. "Best fit."
Séline nodded. Camille and Janet smiled as well.
Alexei, still pretending not to be wounded by being a few EXP short of level 48, said, "Agreed."
Alex picked up the Celestial Skeletal carefully and handed it to Joanne.
Joanne accepted it with both hands.
For once, she did not immediately make a joke.
Yue Ting watched them from beneath the bamboo. Her expression had become strange.
She did not look envious exactly.
She looked concerned.
"Your team is absurdly terrifying," she said.
Joanne looked up. "Because I am now a dual-wielding gun gremlin?"
"No." Yue Ting's eyes moved from face to face. "Because none of you argued properly."
Jake frowned. "We argued."
"You complained. That is not the same." Yue Ting stood slowly, still holding the gourd. "A Celestial Skeletal piece dropped, and your first instinct was not personal gain. You considered optimization for team victory."
"That is normal," Dominic said.
Yue Ting looked at him as though he had said something deeply revealing.
"No," she said. "It is not."
The words lingered.
Team Nemean fell quiet.
In the diver scene, loot broke teams. Relics broke friendships. Celestial Skeletal fragments would break nations if given enough time. Yet for them, the debate had lasted less than a minute because Phong's shadow was present even when he was not.
Usefulness mattered. Survival mattered. The team mattered. Personal greed came later, usually accompanied by jokes.
Joanne equipped the headpiece.
Silver lines flickered across her temples for a second, then faded beneath her hair. Her eyes sharpened.
"Oh," she said.
Jake leaned away. "I dislike that tone."
Joanne slowly smiled. "I can think in stereo."
"Deeply dislike."
Only after that did Yue Ting ask the question Alex had expected.
"The mushrooms you ate between phases," she said. "What were they?"
Every member of Team Nemean became slightly too casual.
Emma answered first, smoothly.
"Found near the Mushroomkhan."
Yue Ting's gaze did not move. "The level one hundred fifty hivemind boss structure?"
"Yes," Emma said. "There were many unusual fungal resources in that area."
It was not a lie. Not entirely. Camp Stymphalian indeed was located near the Mushroomkhan.
Joanne added, "Big mushroom neighborhood. Lots of mushroom stuff. Very thematic."
Jake nodded. "Aggressively fungal."
Yue Ting looked at Alex.
Alex held her gaze.
"They helped us survive," Alex said.
"That much is clear."
Yue Ting did not press further.
But neither did she fully believe the explanation. Qián probably tugged at the shape of their answer, sensing omissions wherever lies were not technically present. Her eyes lingered on the empty Enoki wrapper near Dominic's boot, then on the way Team Nemean naturally closed ranks around the subject.
She was a smart woman.
A dangerous one too.
But not an enemy today.
Yue Ting secured the gourd at her waist.
"I will explore elsewhere."
Dominic stood with effort. "The agreement still stands."
"I know." She glanced at Alex, then at the faint place in the air where bīng had manifested earlier. "You found what you found. I found what I found. I wouldn't go back on a deal I proposed myself."
Joanne muttered, "And stole first place to fifty."
Yue Ting's mouth curved. "Efficiency."
Before leaving, she paused at the edge of the garden.
"I hope Team Nemean will be present in the worldwide diver league next year."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Yue Ting looked back, calm and unreadable once more.
"Because the world should see what kind of monsters are growing outside its expectations."
Then she left.
Her footsteps faded through the moonlit paths of Zhen Wu Pavilion, talismans whispering once as she vanished around a bend.
Team Nemean waited longer than necessary.
Jake whispered, "We are checking if she is gone-gone, right?"
"Yes," Emma said.
"Because Taoist master."
"Yes."
"Because qián."
"Yes."
"Because she absolutely looks like the type to follow us while pretending not to follow us."
"Jake."
"What?"
"You are correct."
They left the garden cautiously, then passed through the temple and the dead halls of the sect.
They moved past crystallized disciples and furnace courtyards with more respect than before. The bodies no longer felt merely tragic. Their stillness was informed by choice. Zhen Wu Pavilion had not simply been slaughtered. It had denied occupation and turned death itself into an act of refusal.
Alex paused once beside the dead banyan and its eyeless guardian beast.
She had no incense left.
So she bowed her head.
Then they climbed out of the impossible interior of the metallic saucer and returned to the black-glass air of Obsidian Canyon.
The journey back to Fort Erymanthian was careful. Painfully careful.
They doubled back twice. Jake scouted false routes. Emma used detection devices and appraisal checks until Joanne told her she looked like she was trying to audit the canyon.
Alex watched for Yue Ting. Dominic watched everything else.
Their caution proved unnecessary.
Yue Ting did not follow.
Perhaps qián had told her not to. Perhaps she had other prizes to hunt. Perhaps, for today, their agreement of honor still meant something.
They returned to Fort Erymanthian without another major battle, walking beneath Giant Cricket bridges and the watchful shapes of defensive plants rooted along the ravine walls.
When the boar-skull gate of the fort finally came into view, Joanne lifted one tired hand.
"Home, sweet terrifying vegetable fortress."
Dominic laughed softly. Alex looked back at the canyon one final time.
Somewhere behind them, Zhen Wu Pavilion slept once more with its crystallized dead, its broken well, its lost True King, and one less parasite wearing a Secret's name.
Then she turned toward the fort. Toward her team. Toward the next war, whenever it came.
This time, when her status settled into the corner of her vision, the words beneath her name felt heavier than before.
Knight of the Aspect of War.
Alex kept walking.