The spatial passage released Lin Tianren into a mountain region considerably wilder than anything the sect's own grounds had prepared him for. Dense, ancient forest stretched in every direction, spiritual mist clinging low between towering peaks, herbs of varying grades scattered through the undergrowth wherever the canopy allowed enough light through to matter. Dangerous spirit beasts moved somewhere beyond immediate sight, their presence felt rather than seen. No human settlement marked the landscape anywhere his eyes could reach.
The system confirmed the most important detail immediately.
[Spatial Separation Confirmed][Participant Distribution: Randomized][Nearest Registered Participant: 3.7 Kilometers]
He absorbed the reading with something close to relief. The tournament separated all hundred and fifty of us before we had any chance to hunt each other immediately. A deliberate design choice, he suspected, meant to spread the initial chaos across a full month rather than concentrating it into a single opening slaughter.
He studied the Golden Spirit Vessel carefully once the initial disorientation of arrival settled, the system confirming its properties as he examined it.
[Golden Spirit Vessel][Storage Capacity: Large][Spiritual Herb Preservation: Active][Pill Refinement Function: Basic][External Storage Access: Restricted]
The restriction mattered considerably more than the capacity did. Whatever he'd carried into this mountain from outside its boundary, the vessel simply refused to accept — confirming, in practical terms, exactly how absolute the Sect Master's "nothing from outside" rule actually was.
The first genuine problem announced itself within the hour. No food. Thirty days, and nothing prepared waiting for him anywhere in this wilderness.
He found an edible-looking spiritual fruit hanging from a low branch not long after, and reached for it on instinct before the system's warning stopped him mid-motion.
[Warning][Unknown Spiritual Fruit][Consumption Risk: 37.2%]
He withdrew his hand carefully. More than a third chance of genuine harm wasn't a gamble worth taking this early, not with twenty-nine days still stretching ahead of him. He studied the surrounding plants and the small creatures moving between them instead, patient in a way he suspected most competitors this early in the tournament weren't bothering to be.
A low-level spirit beast crossed his path shortly after, and he didn't engage it directly. He watched it instead, tracking its movement through the undergrowth with careful attention rather than treating it as a simple obstacle to clear.
It returned to the same small clearing three separate times within the space of an hour, circling a particular patch of growth each time before moving on again.
If it keeps coming back to exactly that spot, he thought, whatever's growing there probably matters enough to be worth the detour.
He followed rather than intercepted, and the beast's pattern led him directly to a cluster of herbs he wouldn't have found searching randomly across this much unfamiliar terrain.
One herb among the cluster caught his attention immediately, its spiritual signature distinct enough that the system flagged it before he'd finished reaching for it.
[Azure Spirit Grass][Grade: Low Spiritual][Primary Properties: Spiritual Energy Stabilization][Secondary Compatibility: Unknown]
He recognized the name instantly, the same ingredient his spiritual energy pill formula had already flagged weeks ago as carrying partial compatibility with the unknown egg. Finding it here, in a randomly assigned tournament region, felt considerably less like coincidence than he wanted it to.
This isn't just a tournament resource, he thought, carefully harvesting the full cluster rather than the single stem he'd originally reached for.
He didn't consume any of it on the spot. This goes into the vessel, he decided, sealing it away carefully.
The system flagged something else entirely as he finished securing the herb.
[Detection][Foreign Spiritual Fluctuation Detected][Distance: 2.8 Kilometers]
He went still. Not another spirit beast, the reading's specific texture told him immediately.
Already? he thought, faint disbelief threading through the observation.
[Probability of Human Origin: 91.6%]
He didn't move to locate the source directly. He compressed his own presence instead, the same discipline he'd learned suppressing his dragon aura back in the mortal realm now applied to something considerably more mundane but no less important here.
He set a deliberate trap a short while later, scattering a handful of ordinary, unremarkable herbs across an open clearing while keeping the actual Azure Spirit Grass sealed safely within the vessel. He withdrew in a different direction entirely once the bait sat visible, and settled into stillness to watch from a distance.
A shadow crossed into the clearing within the hour, moving carefully, clearly cautious about the open ground. The figure gathered the scattered herbs quickly and efficiently, checking the surrounding treeline twice before committing fully to the collection.
Lin Tianren watched from cover and made no move to intervene.
The first person I meet doesn't need to become my enemy, he thought, weighing the decision carefully. Not yet. What I actually need from him right now is information, not conflict.
The participant finished gathering and moved on alone, checking his surroundings once more before setting off through the forest. Lin Tianren followed at a careful distance, patient rather than aggressive.
A second participant emerged from the treeline not long after, and the first one's posture shifted immediately into something defensive, weight settling low, hands already positioning for a fight that hadn't started yet.
People are already hunting each other, Lin Tianren thought, watching the tension between the two settle into place.
Something in the exchange caught his attention more than the defensive posture alone did, though. The two participants clearly recognized each other — not strangers meeting by chance, but individuals who'd apparently carried some prior history into this randomly assigned wilderness.
So the mountain isn't creating enemies out of nothing, he realized, the thought settling into something considerably more important than a simple tactical observation. It's just removing the rules that used to keep existing rivalries separated. Whatever grudges or alliances people brought in with them, this tournament just gave everyone permission to finally act on them.
He continued moving, tracking a careful path away from the tense standoff behind him, and the forest opened without warning into an enormous ancient medicinal valley — dozens of spiritual herbs scattered across terraced growth that clearly hadn't been touched by ordinary cultivation in generations.
One herb among the dense growth caught his attention immediately, its presence radiating a density considerably beyond anything else in the valley.
[High-Grade Spiritual Herb Detected][Estimated Value: Extremely High]
His eyes fixed on it for a long moment before the system flagged something else entirely.
[Additional Detection][Multiple Human Spiritual Signatures Detected][Participants Nearby: 11]
He allowed himself a faint, unhurried smile.
Eleven, he thought. All converging on a single herb.
He studied the valley a moment longer, the system's warning settling into place beneath his own calculation.
[Warning][Hostile Spiritual Fluctuations Increasing]
The tournament had been running for less than an hour, and already eleven hunters were converging on the exact same prey.
He didn't move toward the herb directly. He settled into cover instead, patient, watching to see exactly how eleven strangers with no prior alliance intended to sort out a single, valuable prize among themselves before he decided whether the resulting chaos was worth stepping into at all.