Slash!
A figure cut across the boy's vision before the boar could reach him. Blood sprayed across the earth as the Flame Boar's charge broke apart mid-stride, its massive body collapsing heavily to the ground and skidding to a stop just short of where the disciple stood frozen.
The young disciple stared at the corpse for a long moment, then turned his gaze up toward Mo Xuan, his face flooding with relief. "Thank you, Brother!"
Mo Xuan withdrew his sword calmly as the youth's eyes darted immediately toward the beast's core. "The core—" the boy started.
"Keep it," Mo Xuan said simply, already turning to leave.
The youth froze, clearly not expecting that answer. Mo Xuan glanced back at him. "I helped because you reminded me of something," he said, offering no further explanation.
The youth blinked, confused for a moment — then broke into a wide grin, patting his own chest with obvious pride. "I'm Jin Bao. Precious Wealth — that's what my name means."
Undeterred by Mo Xuan's silence, Jin Bao continued enthusiastically. "My fighting style is all about treasures and style," he declared, before letting out a dramatic sigh. "Unfortunately, most of my good treasures got banned for this examination." He reached into his sleeve regardless and pulled out a small talisman, holding it out. "Still, I've got a few things left. Take this as thanks."
Mo Xuan glanced at the talisman, then shook his head and turned to leave without a word.
"Wait!" Jin Bao scrambled after him. "What's your name, at least?"
Mo Xuan raised an eyebrow slightly. "Mo Xuan."
The moment the name left his mouth, Jin Bao froze in place, his eyes going wide. "Wait..." He studied Mo Xuan again, as though seeing him for the first time. "You're that Mo Xuan?"
Mo Xuan nodded.
Jin Bao's expression shifted almost instantly, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Hah! Seems I've picked the right side this time."
Mo Xuan narrowed his eyes. "What side?"
Jin Bao coughed and glanced away, suddenly very interested in the surrounding trees. "Nothing." He looked back at Mo Xuan a moment later, his grin returning. "Say... how about we team up?"
Mo Xuan said nothing, simply studying him in silence.
Sensing the hesitation, Jin Bao quickly added, "I've got enough defensive talismans to block a mountain, easily." He gestured at the array hanging from his robes for emphasis.
Mo Xuan glanced at the youth, then at the numerous talismans dangling from his clothing, and understood the offer immediately. This person wasn't particularly strong offensively — his earlier fight with the Flame Boar had made that abundantly clear — but those defensive resources... were considerable.
Mo Xuan thought it over for a moment, then nodded. "Fine."
Jin Bao's smile widened even further. "Really?"
Without answering, Mo Xuan simply turned and began walking. Jin Bao hurried to catch up. "Brother Mo!" he called out, delighted.
Mo Xuan didn't respond. Behind them, the corpse of the Flame Boar slowly cooled in the clearing, forgotten. And high above the trial zone, on the crystal screens overlooking the examination grounds, two names that had previously been listed apart suddenly appeared side by side.
Mo Xuan.
Jin Bao.
Neither of them knew it yet, but their chance meeting would prove far more important than either of them realised.
The two of them began moving through the forest together, and their differences became obvious almost immediately. Mo Xuan was direct — his sword dealt with beasts efficiently, every strike calculated to conserve as much Spiritual Energy as possible. Jin Bao was his opposite in nearly every respect. He rarely engaged a beast head-on; instead, he relied on his talismans, throwing one after another with practised ease. A defensive barrier would spring up the instant a beast closed in. Another talisman would slow its movements to a crawl. A third would redirect its charge entirely, sending it stumbling past its intended target. Only then would Mo Xuan step in to finish the job.
Their cooperation grew smoother with each encounter. Mo Xuan handled the offence, cutting down whatever Jin Bao's talismans left vulnerable, while Jin Bao managed the defence, occasionally arranging small restrictive formations to pin a beast in place when the situation called for it. By afternoon, the pouch of collected cores at Jin Bao's waist had grown considerably heavier, and his eyes gleamed every time he glanced down at it.
"Brother Mo," he said at one point, grinning.
"What?" Mo Xuan asked, not looking up.
"We're making a fortune."
Mo Xuan only glanced at him, offering no comment.
By evening, the two had travelled considerably deeper into the forest, their satchels now heavy with beast cores collected throughout the day. They finally stopped beside a large clearing to rest. Jin Bao collapsed backwards against a tree trunk with an exaggerated groan. "I'm exhausted."
Mo Xuan looked at him but said nothing, settling down across from him instead as the sun disappeared below the tree line and darkness slowly folded itself over the forest.
The following days settled into a similar rhythm.
They hunted when necessary, rested when their strength needed replenishing, and avoided unnecessary fights. Mo Xuan remained cautious, never allowing himself to forget that the examination lasted ten days.
Jin Bao, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content to follow wherever Mo Xuan went. Gradually, the two began moving deeper into the trial grounds.
Back at the arena, the examination was becoming a spectacle of its own.
As the days passed, the audience back at the arena remained glued to the crystal screens, watching as the trial unfolded in fragments across dozens of different sections of the forest. Certain disciples began to stand out from the rest, and before long, fan groups had splintered into competing factions, each insisting loudly that their favourite disciple was clearly the strongest of the batch. The elders watched the bickering unfold with quiet amusement, more than a little invested themselves in seeing who would ultimately rise to the top among this year's candidates.
By now, a considerable number of disciples had already been eliminated, their talismans flashing red with growing frequency across the display. Some met their end in genuinely brutal fashion within the trial zone, and the reactions to those deaths varied sharply depending on the disciple's mental fortitude. Those with unusually strong willpower were often startled to find themselves still breathing once the talisman activated, half-convinced they should have died outright given what they'd just experienced. Those with weaker resolve, however, sometimes collapsed entirely, their minds unable to process what had felt, in every visceral sense, like a genuine and merciless death.
What none of the disciples realised was that, despite how real it felt, they hadn't actually died at all.
The fear, however, was real.
So was the helplessness.
So was the knowledge that, for a brief moment, they had believed they were going to die.
The examiner's earlier warning about the trial's danger had been entirely deliberate — a necessary caution meant to prevent any disciple from entering the trial believing themselves invincible. Cultivating that kind of careless mindset in young disciples was, in the eyes of the sect, far too dangerous a habit to allow; it was the sort of arrogance that got people killed for real once they left the safety of an examination and faced true danger in the world beyond.
On the night before the final day of the trial, everything changed in an instant.
ROOOOAAARRR!
A roar tore through the forest with such force that the ground itself trembled beneath it, and the surrounding trees shook violently, shedding leaves in a sudden, panicked cascade.
Jin Bao's face went pale. "What..."
Mo Xuan was already on his feet, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword. The pressure radiating from somewhere in the distance was immense — far beyond anything either of them had encountered throughout the entire examination.
A massive shadow began to emerge slowly between the trees, crimson eyes burning through the darkness like twin embers. A huge tiger stepped into the clearing, its body marked with dark, jagged patterns that seemed to writhe faintly across its fur. Every step it took sent a fresh tremor through the ground beneath its paws.
Mo Xuan's pupils contracted sharply. "Tier Four..."
Jin Bao's face had gone entirely white. "That's impossible."
A Tier Four Spirit Beast.
Mo Xuan's heart sank.
A creature equivalent to a Soul King.
The difference between them was not something that could be overcome through skill or determination. It was an absolute gap in strength.
They were both Soul Masters.
And this creature stood several realms above them.
The tiger lowered its head, and something unmistakably deliberate flickered behind its eyes. This was no mindless beast driven purely by hunger or aggression. This was a true Spirit Beast.
It possessed intelligence. It could think, calculate, and weigh its prey.
The tiger studied them for a long moment, almost lazily, as though the outcome of the encounter had already been decided and it simply hadn't chosen how to proceed.
Then, without warning, it let its killing intent loose, and the pressure crashed over the clearing like a physical wave, thick and heavy enough to press the very air flat against the ground.
Mo Xuan drew his sword slowly.
Jin Bao swallowed hard. "Brother Mo..."
Mo Xuan didn't look at him. "How many more defensive talismans?"
Jin Bao's hand trembled as he dug into his Storage Bag, fingers fumbling slightly before closing around what remained. "Enough to..." He paused, and the pause said more than the words that followed. "...hopefully keep us alive."
The tiger roared, and the sound rolled outward with enough force to shake the entire examination zone, trees bending as though a physical gale had torn through the canopy. Back at the sect arena, on the crystal screen overlooking the trial grounds, the image snapped instantly to the clearing, and every elder watching went rigid with sudden, focused attention.