Ai slowly made her way across the bridge. As she did, she could feel the wind intensifying with each step making the bridge sway even more. She gritted her teeth and hugged the railing just in case. But as she got closer to the middle of the bridge, a fuzzy image of her brother began to appear. Ai frowned and did her best to ignore it. She did not want to fall off like the others.

But she did find it weird that it was only a fuzzy image. She could see him pointing at her and trying to say something to her, but she could not make out what he was saying as it came across as kind of static.

It was because of this though that she was able to keep moving forward even as the fuzzy image continued to follow after her. When she got to the gap, she stepped on the rope that should have been used for the planks, held onto the railing, and slowly made her way across.

Ai continued forward one step at a time, and finally, after almost forty minutes, she passed the area the illusion would take effect, causing the fuzzy image of her brother to disappear. It seemed that deep in her heart, she had an issue with Kenji.

Breathing out a sigh of relief as she finally stood on land, Ai looked up to see Yuki and Nana looking at her. A smile formed on her face as she ran over to them. “I made it!”

“Mmm.” Yuki gave a nod which made Ai smile even brighter. Ai wondered if there would ever come a day when Yuki would ever open up to her. She really wanted to be good friends with Yuki.

The disciples continued to cross until the second to last place finally went up. It was Kenji’s turn to finally make his way across the bridge. He gulped a mouth full of saliva as he stared across the bridge towards Yuki, who was off in the distance. But seeing her sitting there with her sword stabbed into the ground next to her reminded him of that little rat girl. He wondered what had happened to her. He had not seen her since she was taken away. “Humph! Bet she got sold off.”

Thinking of this, Kenji's mood got a bit lighter. He couldn’t stand it if the rat girl ever got into this sect. He did not want her dirtying up the waters. His gaze fell on Yuki once more. He couldn't help but wonder why she reminded him of that rat girl just now. “Humph! Let’s just get this over with. If my sister can do it smoothly, so can I…..”

There is a saying that sometimes speaking certain words at a certain time will jinx you for life. Kenji, at this moment and time, was experiencing such a situation. He looked up at the cloudy sky above him as his body floated through the air, slowly descending down into the abyss of the chasm.

Ai, who was sitting next to Yuki only glanced up at Kenji as he was falling. Her fists tightened but loosened again. She was his sister, yet she felt nothing as she watched him slowly fall past the edge of the cliff in front of her. She lowered her eyes and began trying to think of what to write back home to her parents.

Yuki looked at Ai and shook her head. She knew Ai did not realize what was going on with this so called test. If her understanding was right, not a single person had died. The bridge was real. The wind was real. But the massive chasm was not. It was the illusion within the illusion.

“You figured it out?” A voice came from behind her. Yuki looked up to see Elder Nishikawa looking down at her. Yuki gave a faint nod causing Elder Nishikawa to grin. She was liking her new disciple more and more. She was very perceptive. “I now know why you could pass the trial so easily.”

After saying this, Elder Nishikawa jumped over everyone and stood in front of the group. “Only one person left to reach here, so everyone, get ready to enter the sect in the next hour or so. From this day forth, you are now outer sect disciples of the Heavenly Cloud Sect. Your Senior Brother Takeichi and Senior Sister Rin will take you all to your courtyards soon. I must leave to deal with a few things.”

After saying this, she walked over to Yuki and Nana and said: “You two will share a courtyard as you are my disciples. Don’t worry. There are separate sleeping quarters. I wanted to give you both your own courtyards, but the damn old men kept telling me that since I took you both in, I needed to treat you as one entity if I wanted to allow you to stay in the higher section of the outer sect. Rin will bring you there after she sends the others off. She stays in that area as well.”

Ai, who was listening to all of this, pursed her lips. She felt slightly jealous. But she did not wish to be an annoyance either. She wanted to get to know Yuki more and become friends with her. She knew at this moment that Yuki did not see her as an actual friend but more of a person who just appeared next to her.

An hour later, the last disciple fell off the bridge. As he did, the entire area where the bridge began to warp until the chasm that was once there disappeared. All the disciples who fell off were lying on the ground sleeping. It was just as Yuki had predicted. All the disciples, including Nana, who crossed the bridge, were very confused at this time. Only Rin and Takeichi had big smiles on their faces. “I love this reaction!” Rin grinned from ear to ear. It made up for her falling off the bridge when she first entered the sect. She screamed and cried as she fell, calling for help, only to black out before even hitting anything.

“Hahaha! I watched you that day. It was quite funny. They called you Riiiiiiiiiiiin for a while, did they not? I mean, your scream echoed throughout the entire s…. Ugh! Why did you hit me!?” Takeichi held his stomach as he glared at Rin.

“Don’t talk about stupid shit!”