Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in Cliché Cultivation World

1.87 Back in the element~

"Shit," Ning muttered, pressing a hand against his forehead. "The illusion really messes with your head."

For several breaths, he simply sat there with half-lidded eyes, trying to shake off the disorientation. Only after a few minutes did his breathing finally steady.

Ning opened his eyes and looked around.

He immediately realized he was no longer on the first floor. The chamber resembled an ordinary hall, if one ignored the pale jade pillars, the ancient runes covering the floor, and the dozens of disciples lying motionless across the ground. A few even wore expressions that made it look as though they had just bitten into a particularly sour lemon.

For a moment, Ning simply stared at them.

If he had been a more devious person, this would have been an excellent opportunity to cause some havoc. The power he held at this moment was immeasurable.

Fortunately for everyone present, Ning was a man of discipline.

Unfortunately for everyone present, he had still thought about it.

Then another realization struck him.

He had woken up first.

Which meant he had won this trial.

Ning's lips slowly curled upward.

In his last trial, he got second place, and in this one, he got first. As far as he knew, after finishing the third trial, the rankings and performance would be evaluated, and based on that, they could obtain inheritances.

That meant that with his current record, he had already secured a solid inheritance.

"Probably, some time dilation stuff..." Ning mumbled. The scenes in the illusion felt like passing dreams now that he thought about it.

Was it quite scary to think about how easy it was in this world to trap a mind, disregarding the passage of time? Yes.

But was it potentially useful as well? Hell yeah.

"Probably need to start learning illusions at some point." Ning made plans, then opened his panel. "Still, Know Thyself really came in clutch,"

The familiar panel appeared before his eyes.

[Know Thyself: Provides real-time awareness of one's own state and seems to have some effect in maintaining one’s spirit.]

In terms of raw resistance against illusions, its effect had probably not been overwhelming. The tower's illusion had been far too complete for that. But it had helped him hold onto himself. It had not broken the illusion for him, nor had it handed him a solution, but it had prevented his core identity from being washed away by the false lifetime.

That alone was terrifyingly useful.

After all, the illusion had been born from his own mind. Every scene, every enemy, every absurd event, even the faceless figure itself, had been shaped from his thoughts and fears. In a place like that, forgetting oneself was the true danger.

Ning glanced at the panel again.

Another line had appeared.

[Mind: Clear Heart ++]

Ning blinked.

"Neat."

As his supernatural ability, Ning naturally understood the way to further evolve it. It was within its name, after all. Knowing oneself was not simply seeing numbers on a panel. It was understanding one's body, one's limits, one's flaws, one's desires, one's fears, and finally accepting the person beneath all of it.

As he gradually did this, his panel would continue to become more comprehensive, responding to his situation.

This new entry reflected that.

As for the "++," Ning could roughly understand its meaning. His mental state had already reached the Clear Heart level before this. Compared to most disciples here, he had already confronted an inner demon and resolved it fairly thoroughly. The tower had simply taken the last traces of buried pressure and forced him to face them directly.

And now that those fears had been dragged into the open, they no longer weighed on him like before.

His mind felt light.

Like finishing a brutal exam and realizing the questions were finally out of your hands. Or visiting a hospital, bracing for disaster, only to discover the bill was far lower than expected.

Ning exhaled slowly. "Ah. Freedom."

Just then, a body nearby jerked, and spiritual qi suddenly flared within the chamber.

"Ahhh!"

Ning turned his head.

Of course. Who else could it be but Xiao Fan?

The young man shot upright as though someone had yanked him from a river by the hair. His eyes were wide, and his chest heaved up and down.

Ning raised a hand.

"Hey, you. You are finally awake."

Xiao Fan stared blankly ahead for a moment.

Then he turned toward Ning.

"That was... an illusion?"

Well, that’s rude just brushing off his reference like that but this was a common enough occurrence in this world that Ning had already adapted to it.

So, Ning just replied. "Yeah. Everything you went through was a lie.”

Xiao Fan swallowed.

"I thought I was a fish."

Ning paused. That was certainly one way to start a conversation.

"A fish?"

"A carp," Xiao Fan corrected seriously. "I was swimming upstream, fighting against heavenly waterfalls, demonic currents, ancient hooks, and one extremely arrogant golden dragon who kept telling me my bloodline was too ordinary."

Ning stared at him.

Xiao Fan clenched his fists, his eyes still faintly dazed.

"At the end, I leapt through the Dragon Gate."

Ning's gaze drifted toward Xiao Fan.

His lips twitched.

"Did your spiritual qi just increase?"

Xiao Fan looked down at himself and scratched his head.

"It seems so."

Ning stared at him silently.

Everyone else had gone through illusion tempering. He himself had battled an existential crisis about fate, freedom, and whether his entire second life was merely entertainment for some higher power. His reward had been a hard-earned improvement to his mental state.

Meanwhile, Xiao Fan went I, fish phase and somehow increased his cultivation.

This person was a hack.

A blatant hack.

Ning had thought he understood protagonist privilege after living an entire false lifetime as one, but seeing it from the outside again still hammered home how overpowered this guy was.

"Good for you," Ning said, his voice flat enough.

Xiao Fan shot him a suspicious look. "Why do you sound like you want to throw me into a well?"

"You're imagining things."

"Are you sure?"

Ning stood up, brushed the dust off his robes, and let out a smug, insufferable little chuckle. "Doesn't matter. What matters is that I beat you this time."

Xiao Fan’s entire posture stiffened.

Ning’s grin widened. "I woke up first."

Xiao Fan, ever the hater, naturally didn't accept Ning's superiority. "I won the first trial!"

"True," Ning said magnanimously. "And now we're tied. Perfect balance."

"You're saying that like you're being fair, but your face looks incredibly punchable right now."

"That’s just your Dao Heart projecting its own inadequacies."

"My Dao Heart is perfectly stable!"

"You literally just woke up from being a fish."

"A dragon at the end!"

"In your dreams. You are just Xiao Fan now."

Xiao Fan was speechless.

He had lost not only the battle of clarity but also the battle of words. Ning had a certain talent in making someone's name sound like a slur for some reason.

Ning, satisfied, walked to a quieter corner of the hall and sat down cross-legged.

The golden staircase from the first trial had made his foundation incomparably pure. His already solid base had been tempered until most hidden flaws had been squeezed out, and the second trial had further stabilized his mind.

If he did not use this opportunity to refine his qi control, then he would truly be disrespecting his circumstances.

The grind never stopped.

Soon, other disciples began to wake.

Most awoke with gasps or outright screams. One disciple opened his eyes, looked around, and immediately hugged his sword as though afraid someone would steal it. Another woke up laughing, only to realize nobody else knew what he had experienced, and quickly pretended he had merely been coughing.

We saw that, brother. Ning chuckled. Having faced his worst fears, his mental state felt lighter than ever, and he found himself taking amusement in everything.

The jade runes beneath several disciples dimmed.

Their bodies vanished one after another, gently swallowed by white light.

Ning glanced over.

Those were the ones who had failed to break free of the illusion in time.

Their climb ended here.

Not long after, Zhang Feng jolted awake with a sharp breath. He grabbed his spear, looked left and right, and finally noticed Ning sitting calmly nearby.

"Brother Ning!" Zhang Feng's eyes widened. "You woke up this quickly?"

Ning opened one eye.

"Yeah. My mind has ascended to a higher form."

Xiao Fan, who was still recovering nearby, slowly turned his head.

Zhang Feng stared at him.

Even Wei Zhusang, who had just opened his eyes, paused.

Ning looked at their expressions.

"What?"

"Nothing," Zhang Feng said immediately. "I was just thinking that mental stability is really needed for us young disciples."

The cheek of this guy. Ning glared at Zhang Feng. 

Wei Zhusang rubbed his temples.

"That illusion was vicious."

"What did you see?"

"I created the strongest organization in the world." Wei Zhusang sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, it meant I spent three hundred years doing paperwork."

Everyone fell silent.

Ning cupped his fists solemnly.

"Brother Wei, your suffering was real."

"Too real."

More disciples woke one after another.

Qiu Han sat up with a cold expression, though his pale face made it clear the illusion had not been easy. Lang Rulang opened her eyes silently, her gaze sharper than before, as though she had cut through something within herself. Jin Su woke clutching her head and muttering about wolves.

Then Ning noticed something.

"Eh?" Wei Zhusang looked around. "Where is Su Fan?"

The group fell quiet.

Ning's gaze swept across the hall.

Su Fan was nowhere to be seen.

After a moment, Ning remembered what he knew about him. Su Fan had chosen alchemy despite his family's opposition.

Ning sighed inwardly.

Still, one pattern was obvious.

The younger disciples had generally awakened faster. Their minds were not necessarily stronger, but they carried less accumulated weight.

The older attendants who had followed Lei Dong, however, looked terrible. Several had already vanished. Those who remained were drenched in sweat, their faces pale as paper.

As for Lei Dong himself, he woke with a violent gasp, his eyes bloodshot and his expression twisted between rage and fear. For several breaths, he seemed unable to tell where he was.

Then he noticed that most of the disciples were already awake.

His face became even uglier.

Especially when his eyes met Xiao Fan's.

The young man smiled politely.

Lei Dong's expression darkened immediately.

Before he could say anything, the runes throughout the hall suddenly brightened.

A deep, ancient hum spread through the chamber.

Every disciple who had cleared the second trial looked up.

The jade pillars trembled. Lines of silver light crawled across the floor, connecting beneath each disciple one after another.

Then the ancient voice of the Heavenly Origin Tower descended.

"The second trial has ended."

The words echoed through the hall like a bronze bell ringing beneath the earth.

"Those who failed to awaken have been removed."

Several disciples stiffened.

The voice continued without emotion.

"Those who remain have faced the shadows of their hearts and returned. Whether you gained clarity, fear, regret, or nothing at all, that is your own fortune."

The silver light beneath them intensified.

Ning rose slowly.

Xiao Fan did the same beside him.

Zhang Feng gripped his spear. Wei Zhusang adjusted his sleeves. Lang Rulang rested a hand on her sword. Even Lei Dong forced his expression back into arrogance, though his eyes remained unsettled.

The ancient voice spoke once more.

"The third trial begins."

The hall fell silent.

"Trial of the Wild Battlefield."

And before anyone could process what that meant, they vanished from the second floor. 

...

“Ugh...”

Ning sat flat on the damp ground, rubbing his temples as he fought off a brutal wave of vertigo. Seriously, couldn't the tower give them a three-second countdown or something before mass-teleporting people? He genuinely wanted to lodge a complaint.

Once his head stopped spinning, Ning took stock of his surroundings.

He was in a dense, humid forest. Slowly lowering himself into a crouch, he pressed two fingers into the soil. Fresh tracks cut across the nearby moss. Three deep claw marks, and judging by the sheer deformation of the earth, it belonged to something heavy. A beast, most likely.

Right as he stood up, his left wrist suddenly flared with a warm, pulsing heat.

Ning looked down. A blank medallion had materialized around his wrist, forged from a dark, smooth bronze that looked entirely empty. A faint rune pulsed right at its center, and when Ning focused his gaze on it, a translucent line of golden numerals hovered into the air.

[0]

Ning raised an eyebrow.

Before he could even process the interface, the sky above the jungle trembled violently. The ancient, booming voice of the Heavenly Origin Tower descended from the heavens like rolling thunder.

[THIRD FLOOR.] [TRIAL OF THE VERDANT HUNTING GROUNDS.] [ALL DISCIPLES HAVE BEEN TRANSPORTED TO THE OUTER REGIONS OF THE HUNTING ZONE.] [THE FINAL DESTINATION LIES AT THE CENTRAL SPIRITUAL ZONE.]

The dense mist above the canopy shifted. For a split second, the entire sky turned perfectly transparent, granting Ning a bird's-eye view of the landscape. It was an enormous, enclosed wilderness hemmed in by a massive golden barrier. Dense jungle swallowed the outer edges, fractured by rushing rivers, rocky highlands, and jagged ravines. But far in the distance, dead center on the map, a gargantuan pillar of emerald spiritual light pierced the clouds.

That was the central zone.

Even from the outer perimeter, Ning could feel the ambient spiritual energy warping in that direction. The trees near the core were absurdly massive, and bright points of light flickered within the canopy, likely marking rare beasts or high-grade resources.

The tower’s setup was brutally simple: Everyone starts at the edge. Everyone has to move inward. The best stuff is at the center.

In other words, a massive, inevitable meat grinder.

Ning let out a soft sigh. "So it's that kind of trial."

[EVERY DISCIPLE POSSESSES A HUNTING MEDALLION. THE MEDALLION RECORDS POINTS.] [POINTS MAY BE OBTAINED IN TWO WAYS.]

The bronze surface of his medallion glowed, projecting a miniature phantasm in the air: a disciple striking down a spiritual beast, causing the number above his wrist to tick upward.

[FIRST: DEFEAT OR SUCCESSFULLY MARK SPIRITUAL BEASTS.]

[SPIRITUAL BEASTS ARE DIVIDED INTO TIERS. COMMON BEASTS ARE NUMEROUS BUT LOW IN VALUE. RARE BEASTS ARE WORTH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE AND ARE MOSTLY FOUND NEAR THE CENTRAL SPIRITUAL ZONE.]

The illusory projection shifted, displaying a much larger creature covered in dark green scales and jagged horns. It radiated a heavy, oppressive aura. A group of disciples surrounded it, launching coordinated attacks, but the beast’s tail swept out with a sonic boom, sending two of them crashing through the timber.

[A UNIQUE ALPHA BEAST EXISTS WITHIN THE HUNTING GROUNDS. ITS VALUE IS THREE HUNDRED POINTS.]

Ning’s left eyelid twitched. Three hundred points. Naturally. There was always a boss monster. It was probably a giant, overpowered nightmare with at least one completely unfair ability, destined to be the epicenter of a massive bloodbath.

Ning could already picture it: half the disciples forming shaky alliances, arguing over strategy, betraying each other at the worst possible moment, and then Xiao Fan somehow showing up covered in blood just in time to solo the damn thing.

[SECOND: DISCIPLES MAY SEIZE POINTS FROM OTHER DISCIPLES.]

The holographic image changed yet again. Two disciples appeared. One pressed his medallion against the other's wrist, and the loser's golden points drained completely into the victor’s tracker.

[IF A DISCIPLE IS ELIMINATED, THEIR ACCUMULATED POINTS WILL TRANSFER TO THE OPPONENT WHO DEFEATED THEM.]

[ELIMINATION MAY ONLY OCCUR THROUGH SURRENDER, A FATAL INJURY, OR VOLUNTARY FORFEIT BY CONTACT BETWEEN MEDALLIONS.]

Ning went incredibly still.

You know, after surviving the first and second trials, where he had to deal with profound philosophical dilemmas, test his Dao heart, and undergo spiritual enlightenment, this third trial felt remarkably brutish. Then again, maybe it was his own fault for assuming a cultivation sect wouldn't eventually resort to a classic battle royale.

"I guess this is where Young Master Lei Dong's trust-fund advantage finally kicks in," Ning mumbled to himself.

The tower’s mechanical voice continued without a shred of emotion.

[LEADERBOARD RANKINGS WILL BE DISPLAYED LIVE THROUGH EACH MEDALLION.]

[THE TRIAL WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE TIME LIMIT EXPIRES WHICH IS SIGNIFIES BY THIS SPIRITUAL PILLAR. WHEN IT COMPLETELY VANISHES IT MEANS YOUR TIME IS UP.

TO REACH THE NEXT STAGE YOU HAVE TO TOUCH THIS SPIRITUAL PILLAR AND HAVE AT LEAST FIFTY POINTS TO ADVANCE]

“So, reach the pillar with fifty points before it completely vanishes.” Ning summarized the rules instantly.

[THOSE WHO FAIL TO REACH THE CENTRAL ZONE BEFORE THE END OF THE TRIAL WILL BE ELIMINATED.]

The golden numerals above Ning’s wrist flickered, shifting into a translucent scrolling list. Currently, almost every single name showed a flat zero. Everyone had just landed. But Ning knew exactly how fast those numbers were about to climb.

A normal hunting game clearly wasn't exciting enough for the sect elders or the audience spectating outside. A live leaderboard was the easiest way to turn a survival trial into a spectator sport.

The ancient voice paused for a few heartbeats, giving the disciples a brief moment to process the terror, before dropping the final condition.

[EVERYONE WILL BE ALLOWED A SINGLE WEAPON. BESIDE THAT, COMPANIONS AND EXTERNAL ARTIFACTS ARE FORBIDDEN. CHOOSE WISELY.]

[THE VERDANT HUNTING GROUNDS HAVE OPENED. BEGIN.]

The moment the voice dissolved into the wind, the entire forest erupted into absolute chaos.

Distant, feral roars echoed through the jungle, sending massive flocks of birds scattering out of the canopy. Far to his left, a violent burst of elemental qi flared for a fraction of a second before vanishing. Somewhere to his right, a massive ancient tree crashed down with a thunderous boom. The disciples had already started fighting.

Ning remained perfectly still for a few breaths, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing and adapt to the local spiritual pressure.

"A single weapon, huh..."

Ning ran through his options. He could summon his spear, or he could opt for his bow and arrows. Given his extensive experience and the dense, low-visibility environment of a jungle, the obvious, optimal meta-choice for a stealth build was his archery kit.

"But wait," Ning muttered, staring blankly at his empty hands. "Does a bow and an arrow count as a single weapon, or is the tower gonna scam me and make me throw sticks by hand?"

...

The ironmouse moved in frantic, jerky bursts, its whiskers twitching as its bead-like eyes darted left and right. Sniffing the humid air, it caught a whiff of an intoxicating, sugary fragrance and darted greedily toward a low-lying bush.

Perched on the low branches was a cluster of common wild berries, but they were coated in a thick, shimmering glaze that practically bled a rich, honeyed aroma. The ironmouse didn't hesitate. It began violently gorging itself on the fruit, completely oblivious to its surroundings.

It never heard the wind break.

A pitch-black arrow whistled through the damp air, bridging the gap from the dense treeline in a fraction of a second. The ironmouse didn't even have time to squeak before the iron tip pierced its skull, instantly shattering its fragile body into a cloud of dissolving green motes.

Just to be absolutely safe, Ning didn't step out immediately. He notched and loosed two more arrows into the surrounding brush, ensuring no larger predators had been lurking in the shadows, before finally slipping down from his perch.

"As expected, the sweet-scent strat is completely busted," Ning mumbled, walking over to retrieve his arrows from the dirt.

Since the tower rules strictly forbade entry with pre-made pills or external potions to make hunting easier, Ning had simply decided to exploit the local environment. Back in the outer sect, he had spent months burying his nose in ancient botany texts, memorizing the interactions of thousands of spiritual plants, toxic weeds, and alchemical concoctions. Now, that nerdy dedication was paying off beautifully.

He had spent his first hour gathering the sap of the Ghost-Skin Birch and boiling it down over a small flame until it formed a sticky, neutral paste. Then, he crushed the stalks of Crimson Honey-Vine, a low-grade weed most disciples ignored, and folded them into the mix. The chemical reaction was instantaneous, creating a somewhat potent pheromone paste that broadcast a mouth-watering, sugary scent.

It was not phenomenal, and its efficiency was quite low. But if it worked, it worked.

"Pity I couldn't find any Sorrowful Ghost-Grass around here," Ning sighed, wiping a bit of dirt off his bow. "If I could have mixed that into the bait, the sap would act as a paralytic neurotoxin. The beasts would eat the berries and just drop dead on the spot without me even needing to waste an arrow."

But he wasn't complaining. Ning’s philosophy toward combat had always been lazy but efficient: why run around sweating and chasing targets through a massive jungle when you can just build a cozy sniper nest and make the targets walk directly into your crosshairs?

He checked the dark bronze medallion floating above his left wrist.

[Ning: 28 Points]

[Rank: 16th]

Common beasts like the ironmouse were worth a flat two points each, while the larger, elemental rare beasts netted five. Ning scrolled up to check the very top of the live leaderboard, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

[1. Lei Dong, 126 Points]

Ning’s left eyebrow twitched. "One Twenty Six points already? Yeah, there's definitely some tomfoolery afoot."

Sure, Ning had wasted an hour scouting the terrain, harvesting the Ghost-Skin Birch sap, and meticulously setting up his perimeter, but for someone to rack up nearly a hundred points in the opening hour of a battle royale was mathematically absurd. Even if Lei Dong was a peerless genius, finding that many high-tier beasts in a massive, scattered jungle by pure luck was impossible.

The only logical explanation was that Lei Dong had brought an entire entourage into the tower, and his lackeys were currently rounding up beasts, beating them to half-death, and then serving them on a silver platter for their young master to take the final blow.

"Well, not that it concerns me too much. I would just keep farming to get the points slowly but surely." Ning nodded as he made plans.

...

“I found him,” Liu whispered, his voice instantly swallowed by the damp, whistling wind cutting through the canopy.

He and Chen were crouched low behind a cluster of rotting, moss-slick trees, their pristine sect robes completely ruined by mud and leaf stains. Both men were well into middle age, their hair streaked with gray, but their strength was undeniable, their cultivation firmly rooted at the seventh stage of Qi Condensation.

“He is alone. Now is the perfect time to capture him.”

Liu carefully parted a screen of dripping ferns and pointed into the dim clearing ahead. Ji Ning was sitting entirely exposed beneath a massive, thick-rooted cedar. He was hunched over a pile of wild berries, methodically smearing some kind of pungent paste over them.

“Twenty-eight points... and the brat is only at the sixth stage.” Chen let out a low, mocking scoff, his fingers tightly gripping the hilt of the heavy saber strapped to his back. “When we capture him, not only will our points surge, but we will get that bounty too.” Greed was painted all over Chen's weathered face.

“Don't be a fool,” Liu muttered, though his own lips curled into a sharp, opportunistic smile. “The fact that a sixth-stage brat amassed twenty-eight points this quickly means something. Plus, he took second place in the first trial and dominated the second.”

“That was a flight of stairs, Liu. This is a jungle,” Chen sneered, shifting his weight. “He’s just a rat farming points with cheap traps. Look at him, his weapon is a bow. Only cowards fight from a distance because they're too terrified to face a man face-to-face.”

Liu didn’t argue. He gave the clearing one final sweep with his spiritual sense, found no hidden traps or ambushers, and nodded. “We move fast. Overwhelm him with spiritual pressure, force an immediate surrender, and take the points cleanly. Don’t give him room to think.”

With the decision made, they burst from the brush simultaneously.

Chen led the charge, tearing the dull cloth wrapping off his heavy saber with a harsh ring. His seventh-stage spiritual pressure erupted like a physical shockwave, crushing the forest grass completely flat. Liu blurred into a flawless flanking maneuver from the left, his short spear leveled to cut off the kid’s escape path toward the nearby stream.

But the moment their feet broke cover, Ning bolted. It was as if he had a radar for danger, reacting before they even cleared the bushes.

“Tsk, the brat has sharp instincts,” Chen growled, pumping more qi into his movement technique as his speed doubled.

“He’s running! Cut him off!” Liu shouted. But as they plunged into the thicket after him, a cold knot began to form in Liu's stomach.

“Ji Ning! Surrender now or we break your legs!” Chen bellowed, his voice echoing through the timber.

As the chase deepened, Liu realized something terrifying. The brat wasn't fleeing in a blind panic; he was moving with an eerie, fluid grace. Ning's body dipped under low-hanging vines and slid over massive, mossy roots without losing an ounce of momentum.

He was deliberately using the terrain, placing massive trunk after massive trunk directly between himself and their line of sight. There wasn't a single shred of fear or hesitation in his movements, even after being suddenly jumped by two superior cultivators.

Chen smashed through a rotting branch with his shoulder, his breathing already turning heavy as the jungle air grew thick and humid. “Why the hell is he running inward? This path leads straight to the deep valley!”

Liu’s heart gave a sudden, violent thud. The realization hit him all at once, a fleeing disciple runs toward the open plains, or toward the safety of the outer perimeter where the beasts are weak. Ning was deliberately dragging them into a choking, claustrophobic maze of ancient wood where a long saber and a sweeping spear had no room to swing.

“Stop him now! Gale Force!” Liu roared, thrusting his spear forward. A concentrated beam of emerald qi tore through the foliage, whistling as it aimed straight for Ning’s spine.

Ning didn't even look back. He merely tilted his torso half an inch to the left. The spear qi exploded into the trunk of a massive pine ahead, showering the air with jagged splinters and blinding white sap.

By the time the debris cleared, Ning was gone. He hadn't just dodged the lethal strike; he had used the explosion of bark and sap as visual cover to vanish completely.

Suddenly, a thick, freezing wave of mist rolled out of nowhere, completely disrupting their perception and blanking out their vision.

"Mist?! He's using a spell to disrupt our eyesight!" Liu barked, stopping short as the white soup swallowed his boots.

"Such a cowardly rat!" Chen grumbled, his voice echoing in the whiteout. "Spread your spiritual sense! We'll find the brat eventually!"

"Yes." Liu nodded.

“Ji Ning!” Chen shouted into the fog, his voice betraying the first real tremor of unease. “You can't hide in here forever! Give up the points and we leave you with your limbs intact!”

The only response was a low, guttural growl from the fog.

Before either of them could react, a massive, bone-spined wolf lunged from the whiteout, its jaws snapping inches from Chen's throat. Chen shrieked, reacting on pure survival instinct, and brought his heavy blade down with a sickening crunch, splitting the beast in two. It dissolved into sparkling green light, adding three points to his tracker, but he didn't even have time to breathe before a terrifying, silent whistling cut through the air.

Thwack.

An arrow materialized out of the fog, striking Chen’s raised saber flat on the blade. It didn't pierce, but the moment it impacted, a blinding explosion of blue lightning erupted from the arrowhead.

A deafening, bird-like shriek of localized thunder tore through the clearing. Chen screamed as the electrical discharge traveled straight down the metal hilt, blowing his hands apart and turning his entire right arm completely numb. His qi circulation stuttered, his meridians violently seizing.

“Chen!” Liu spun, thrusting his spear toward the trajectory of the arrow. The piercing wind of his strike shattered three trees in a straight line, but there was nothing there. 

Then came another soft thwack from the opposite direction.

Liu whipped around, but the arrow didn't hit him, it struck the dirt at his feet. The shaft flared with a blue light, and instantly, thick bands of jagged frost raced up his legs, anchoring his boots to the frozen mud.

Liu roared, violently pumping his qi to shatter the ice, but the delay was all the opening the forest needed. Driven mad by the noise and the scent of blood, a bird dropped from the canopy directly onto Liu’s shoulders, its talons tearing into his neck.

“Get off me! Get off!” Liu screamed, wrestling the thrashing beast as sparks flew from his spear shaft.

“Liu, I can't feel my hand! I can't feel my hand!” Chen panicked, his face pale as he backed away, his saber trembling in his left fist. Suddenly, another arrow hissed from the dark, precision-striking a thick vine hanging directly above Chen’s head.

The vine snapped, dropping a massive cluster of ruptured thorn-fruits onto Chen’s shoulders. They burst into a sticky, neon-yellow sap that smelled sickeningly sweet.

“It’s a bait sap,” Liu realized, his eyes widening in pure horror as he finally kicked the dead ape off his chest. His breath was coming in ragged, shallow gasps. His scalp was tingling so hard it felt like it was on fire. “He didn’t run from us. He led us into a meat grinder. Chen, get close to me! Do not split up!”

But Chen was already losing his mind. The phantom roars of approaching monsters pushed him completely over the edge. Catching a glimpse of a shifting shadow in the fog to his left, he let out a terrified, cracking yell and charged blindly into the whiteout.

“I’ll kill you, you rat! Come out and fight me!”

“Chen, wait! Stop!” Liu screamed, reaching out desperately, but his partner’s silhouette was instantly swallowed by the fog.

For three agonizing seconds, the only sound was Chen blindly hacking at branches. Then came a sharp, muffled choking sound. A heavy thud. And then, a horrific, dead silence.

“Chen? Chen, answer me!” Liu’s voice cracked. Cold sweat poured down his spine, his seventh-stage cultivation feeling entirely useless against the realization that he was totally alone in this soup. He lunged forward, desperately tearing through the mist toward the sound of the struggle. When the fog finally parted, his breath hitched.

Chen was pinned in a shallow pit, his legs completely bound by a tangled web of frozen briars, his entire body locked in ice.

Shit. It's a trap.

The realization hit Liu like a physical blow. Without a single thought for his companion, he activated his movement technique, launching himself backward into the trees. He didn't care about honor anymore; this whole hunt had turned into a complete clusterfuck. It made no sense. How could a mere sixth-stage Qi Condensation brat bring two veterans this low?

But Ning had no intention of letting his prime target escape.

From a hidden corner of the canopy, the qi he had suppressed with Turtle Breathing suddenly flared. His hollow, piercing eyes locked onto the fleeing cultivator as he drew his bowstring to its absolute limit.

[Lightning Cry Arrow: Static Shock]

The arrow shrieked through the mist, striking Liu’s escaping form.

Liu let out a pathetic, breathless wail as his spear clattered into the dirt. Before he could even process the pain, a shadow dropped from above. A brutal kick landed squarely on his jaw, and darkness claimed him.

When Liu opened his eyes, he was bound tightly to the trunk of a massive oak, his limbs entirely numb from a layer of creeping frost.

"YOU!" Liu roared, his heart hammering against his ribs in sheer terror.

"Can you shut up? Your partner has already been thrown out of the tower," a voice drifted from the shadows.

Ning stepped into the dim light. With a casual flick of his wrist, a scorching burst of crimson qi shot past Liu's ear, instantly incinerating a massive chunk of the tree bark right next to his head. The heat singed the edge of Liu's hair.

Liu shut his mouth real quick.

"Now," Ning said, his voice entirely flat and devoid of warmth. "Can you tell me why exactly you two were looking for me? Your partner couldn't say much before the tower deemed him defeated, other than mentioning that you were hunting me down."

Liu swallowed hard, trying to steady his trembling voice. He was a mercenary by nature; he knew he had to leverage the information if he wanted to survive the trial. "Why should I tell you? If I'm going to be eliminated anyway, I might as well keep my mouth shut. If you release me, I'll talk. I promise you, this concerns your survival in this hunting ground."

Ning didn't get angry. He just smiled, a small, pleasant curve of the lips that didn't reach his eyes at all.

"You're misunderstanding something, mister. This isn't a negotiation. You two jumped me and tried to capture me. Do you honestly think I’m just going to let you walk away?"

Ning walked closer, stopping just inches from the bound cultivator. He raised his right hand, and a small, crackling fireball materialized over his palm, casting a flickering, ominous glow over his face.

"The tower will only teleport you away if it registers a fatal attack," Ning murmured, staring into Liu's eyes. "Before that happens, a little bit of creative, minor injury is perfectly allowed. Do you really think you can keep your mouth shut?"

Liu gritted his teeth, desperate to maintain his stubborn front. "Go ahead and try. You can't break me before the tower pulls me out."

"Oh, I wasn't going to break your bones," Ning said, his smile widening slightly. "How about I just burn off your hair, your clothes, and your eyebrows? The tower will still teleport you outside to the spectator square, but you'll be entirely naked in front of the elders, the grandmasters, and the entire outer sect. Or, if you're tough enough to handle physical humiliation, we can try a psychological approach."

Ning tilted his head, his tone conversational. "If I remember my beast logs correctly, there is a pack of Drunken Apes nesting about fifty paces to the west. And right now, it happens to be their mating season. What do you think would happen if I smear you in that yellow bait sap and drop you right into their cave?"

Liu's face turned completely white. His eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated horror. "Y-You wouldn't..."

"I would," Ning said softly.

Liu stared at the boy before him. Ning was remarkably good-looking, yet his eyes were completely hollow, lacking even a shred of typical teenage hesitation or mercy. It reminded Liu of how effortlessly this brat had toyed with them in the mist, how he had orchestrated their entire downfall without breaking a sweat.

This kid was a demon.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Liu shrieked, his resolve entirely collapsing.

"See? That was so easy, right?" Ning smiled, instantly extinguishing the fireball. "Plus, you think too badly of me. I'm a reasonable person. I would obviously never let a fellow disciple go through something so horrific."

Liu’s mouth twitched violently. He looked at Ning’s dead, unblinking eyes and knew, with absolute certainty, that the brat wasn't joking. If he hadn't talked, he would currently be on his way to an ape cave.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Liu spilled everything. "T-There is a bounty placed on you and Xiao Fan by Lei Dong. He's offering five thousand spirit stones to whoever captures either of you and brings you to his faction."

Ning blinked. 

"Dafuq?"

...

Thanks for reading~