Back in the arena, the first violent teleportation had not gone unnoticed. The second batch of contestants, waiting their turn, watched the Vision Cube's display with sharp eyes and sharper calculation.
Chi Su, standing amidst her retinue, observed the flickering images. "Aoyan and her team... they've already entered. I was too late to intercept them here." Her expression remained impassive, but her mind churned. "No matter. The forest is large, but not infinite. I will find her. That boy with her, though... he's a variable. Perhaps I can lure him into a separate conflict, isolate her, and then..." Her thoughts were interrupted by a nudge from Chi Yue, who pointed across the milling crowd.
There, she saw them. Two brothers: the younger one, Mang, blindfolded, with a warm, unsettling smile and a chittering monkey on his shoulder; the older, Kun, standing with solemn stillness, a massive, ash-furred ape-beast looming like a sentinel at his back.
"Su," Weize whispered, leaning close. "Should we do what that boy did? Grab Kun and his brother now, at the start?"
Kun's head turned slightly, his flame-colored eyes meeting Su's across the distance. It was a blank, assessing look. Without a word, he shifted his position, putting his group on a different trajectory. Su did the same, moving her people aside. "No," she said quietly, her voice cool. "It's too soon. The hunt has only just begun. Let others weaken them first."
Not far away, Xie Lang and his team processed the same spectacle. "Did you see what Li did?" Xu Jin asked, a grin spreading. "Think we should try it?"
Xie Lang's own smile was predatory. "Of course we should. Right, Qiu?" He glanced at his friend, but Yun Qiu was staring into the middle distance, utterly dazed.
"Hey, Qiu, I'm talking to you," Xie Lang said, waving a hand.
Xu Jin followed Yun Qiu's gaze and smirked. He nudged Xie Lang and pointed. Across the floor, Han Yi walked with her brother Han Lei and their small group. Yun Qiu was watching them, his focus absolute.
"You've got a crush on her, don't you?" Xu Jin teased.
Xie Lang chuckled. Yun Qiu jolted, shoving them away, his cheeks flushing. "W-what?! No! Shut up! I was just... looking at that guy next to her. He looks strong. I was thinking about how we'd deal with him." He stubbornly looked away.
Xu Jin opened his mouth to continue the ribbing, but Zeng Shiyang stepped between them, his tone weary. "Can you three focus? Lady Lanyue ordered us to find Li's group and settle the score. And Lang, didn't you lose to him last time? I'm sure your master expects better. Jin, stop teasing him. And Qiu, you can daydream about Han Yi after the hunt." He physically turned Yun Qiu's head forward. "For now, eyes forward. I don't plan on losing because you three are morons."
"Oh, shut up," Xie Lang shot back, though his eyes were already scanning the crowd with renewed purpose. Yun Qiu, chastised, still stole glances at Han Yi whenever he could. Zeng Shiyang could only sigh in long-suffering resignation.
As the second batch crowded into the teleportation zone, tension thickened into something palpable. Xie Lang's scan caught on a lone figure—a tall young man with black hair that faded into a strange purple haze at the tips. He wore simple battle robes and stood in perfect stillness. "I can't sense his cultivation at all... A concealment technique, and a powerful one." He filed the observation away; a mystery, not an immediate threat.
An instructor began the final preparations, but the lesson of the first batch had been learned too well. Before the countdown could even start, the zone devolved into pre-emptive chaos. Fighters scrambled for position, not to avoid contact, but to seize it. They lunged at strangers, trying to grapple and cling, to turn them into easy prey upon arrival. Established powerhouses like the Chi clan heirs and Xie Lang's group were given a wide berth—no one was foolish enough to grab them.
Seeing no one volunteering to be their baggage, Xie Lang's team took the initiative. As the countdown began, they moved as one, expertly grabbing and subduing two nearby fighters who were too slow to react. Nearby, Han Lei and Han Yi's group was even more efficient, already standing calmly over a pile of ten dazed and bound contestants, ready to be dragged along.
Light erupted, swallowing the chaos, and deposited them all into the green hell of the Abyssal Forest.
This pattern repeated—calculation, last-second ambushes, forced kidnappings—over twenty more batches until the final contestant was gone. The arena floor stood empty, but the Vision Cube above pulsed with frantic life, projecting a mosaic of brutality, betrayal, and survival for the roaring audience.
---
In the Abyssal Forest:
Lin Shu stood atop a small mound of fresh corpses, his bare chest slick with not his own blood. Before him, Aoyan was engaged in a clumsy, faltering duel. Her opponent, a high-stage cultivator with a simple sword, was fueled by pure desperation. Aoyan ducked a slash and countered with a fist wreathed in fire—a peak-tier technique that should have ended the fight—but her movement was telegraphed, her spirit hesitant. The swordsman dodged with ease, his blade darting forward like a silver serpent aimed at her heart.
Aoyan's eyes squeezed shut.
A metallic shing echoed. She opened her eyes to see Lin Shu standing beside her, the sword's tip caught between his thumb and forefinger. The attacker pulled with all his might, his feet scrambling in the dirt. Lin Shu didn't strain; he simply raised his arm, lifting both blade and man into the air, then flung them away like a piece of rubbish.
"This is the third time you've frozen," Lin Shu said, his voice dangerously calm. "You are a peak-stage cultivator. He is a high-stage one. You know peak-tier techniques. He knows none. So why are you losing to him?"
Aoyan looked at the ground, her shoulders slumping. "I... I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm just... tired."
Lin Shu sighed, the sound heavy with frustration. "I am truly starting to despise this girl. How can someone hold so much power yet be so utterly powerless?" Aloud, he said, "It's fine. Just keep yourself together until nightfall. I'll let you rest then. You won't fight for the rest of the day."
The swordsman he had thrown scrambled to his knees, his composure shattered. "Damnit! Damnit! DAMNIT ALL!" He stared at Lin Shu with wide, tear-filled eyes. "Why did I have to run into these people?! I just wanted to test myself, get a decent ranking, maybe attract an agent... but I get these monsters! And that guy!" he pointed a trembling finger at Lin Shu, *he's using me as a training puppet for that girl!"
Lin Shu took a step forward.
The man scuttled backward, his pleas becoming a frantic babble. "I'm just a Copper rank! I'm not worth anything! I don't have anything you can take! Please, I'm begging you, let me go!"
Kai looked away, discomfort plain on his face. Lin Shu's arm rose, a single finger extending. A spike of ivory and steel formed. There was a soft puff of white flame at his fingertip.
A quarter-second later, a gaping hole appeared in the center of the begging man's forehead, just above his terrified, tear-filled eyes. He collapsed forward, silent at last.
"Let's move," Lin Shu said, turning without a glance at the body. "The hunt lasts only five days. I don't intend to waste time. So we're keep moving."
Aoyan stood up, her face pale. Kai gave her an encouraging, if concerned, nod. "Take it easy, Aoyan," he said softly before falling into step beside Lin Shu.
Aoyan took a deep, shuddering breath and followed, her eyes constantly darting, scanning the oppressive greenery not for opportunity, but for the arrival of the shadows that haunted her every step.
Lin Shu ran through the dense undergrowth, his mind a whirlwind of calculation. "Four thousand five hundred and forty points. Is that enough for a good ranking? There's no way to know. The only sure path is to keep moving, to kill everything that moves." His gaze flicked to Kai and Aoyan trailing behind him. Aoyan had a paltry three hundred and twenty points, Kai a more respectable nine hundred and fifty. A cold, practical thought surfaced. "If true chaos breaks out, I could let someone steal their tokens... then take those tokens for myself. Or simply take the points directly in the confusion. They're mostly liabilities in this hunt, but they can still be assets to my score."
His scheming was interrupted by a soft touch on his arm. Aoyan's voice was a tense whisper. "Li, my fox is picking up two groups. One to the north, one to the east. Its reactions are different—the northern group feels... dangerous. The eastern one doesn't. What should we do?"
Lin Shu halted, the forest suddenly feeling too quiet. "Send Kai after the weak group and take the strong one myself? That just gives him free points. Points that should be mine. But if I go after the strong ones, the weak group gets away..." His jaw tightened. "Fine. Let him have them for now. I can always take them from him later."
"Kai," he said, his voice leaving no room for debate. "The group to the east is yours. Aoyan and I will handle the north. Move fast."
Without waiting for a reply, Lin Shu shot forward, Aoyan scrambling to keep up. As he ran, he activated the Owl's Gaze, his vision sharpening, colors deepening, pulling details from the shadows ahead. "First, I need to see what we're dealing with before I drag her into it."
Through a break in the foliage, he saw them. A disciplined formation of cultivators in familiar, flowing blue-grey robes standing over several wounded fighters. "Stormbreak Sect disciples." He came to an abrupt stop, raising a fist to signal Aoyan to halt behind him.
He turned to her, his voice low and urgent. "Aoyan, Yanqi gave you a concealment talisman or technique, didn't he?"
She nodded, her fingers already closing around a jade pendant hidden beneath her robe.
"Use it to hide and don't make a sound until I call for you. Understand?"
She gave another quick nod, her eyes wide. The air around her shimmered faintly, and her form seemed to blur, blending into the dappled light and shadow of the forest until she was virtually invisible.
Satisfied, Lin Shu turned back towards the clearing and stepped out of the treeline, his bare torso and dark pants making him look more like a wild beast than a cultivator.
---
Back in the Arena Pavilion:
Yanqi watched the ever-shifting images on the massive Vision Cube, his expression unreadable. He hadn't seen his disciples in some time, but he could track their progress through the flickering numbers on the leaderboard. Lin Shu's name hovered within the top fifty, a stark contrast to Kai's position in the high two hundreds and Aoyan's languishing in the five hundreds. "He's hoarding every encounter for himself," Yanqi thought, a faint, approving smile touching his lips. "As greedy as ever."
His musings were cut short by a booming voice. "I must say, Elder Liwei, I didn't expect your disciples to be performing quite this well!"
Yanqi looked over. Arena Master Kuang Baotu was addressing an old man in the distinctive robes of the Stormbreak Sect. "Elder Liwei... one of their battle instructors," Yanqi noted silently.
The old man, Liwei, chuckled, preening under the attention. "Haha, I thank the Arena Master for his praise. I've devoted many years to their training, especially Duan Mei. She is most promising."
General Tianhun nodded from his seat. "She is quite formidable. This event is truly a gathering of prodigies."
Kuang Baotu laughed in agreement, but his laughter died abruptly as the image on the Vision Cube shifted. It split, one half showing the confident formation of Elder Liwei's Stormbreak disciples. The other half zoomed in on a lone figure moving purposefully through the forest towards them.
Xie Tianhun leaned forward. "Wait. Isn't that your disciple, Yanqi? He's the one heading straight for Elder Liwei's students."
Lu Zhenhai's brow furrowed. "He's approaching them alone?"
Kuang Baotu stroked his beard, a mix of curiosity and pity in his eyes. "Just when I thought we'd see more of this clever boy. He must not know who they are. I hope they don't injure him too badly—he provided such a thrilling start to the event."
Lanyue couldn't resist a jab, a smirk playing on her lips. "It seems my team won't even have to lift a finger. If he's foolish enough to charge a Stormbreak formation alone, he's finished already. Starting to feel a bit sorry for you, Yanqi."
Yanqi didn't turn his head. He merely kept his eyes on the Cube, and that same, faint, knowing smile returned to his face.
Lanyue's smirk faltered. She saw his calm, the utter lack of concern. "Ah, damnit," she cursed under her breath, her eyes snapping back to the screen.
Kuang Baotu, Lu Zhenhai, and Tianhun, noticing the silent exchange and Yanqi's unshakable composure, fell quiet. A shared understanding passed between them: Yanqi knew something they didn't. All attention locked onto the unfolding scene in the Cube.
---
In the Clearing:
Lin Shu walked into the open, his footsteps deliberate. The Stormbreak disciples turned as one, their discipline evident even in their surprise.
One of the younger disciples snorted. "Is he crazy? A lone high-stage cultivator?"
At the center of the formation, Duan Mei's eyes narrowed. She didn't see madness; she saw a terrifying, calculated confidence. "Get into formation, now!" she barked.
"Miss Mei," another disciple protested, "he's just—"
"He's walking towards a full Stormbreak squad alone," Duan Mei cut him off, her voice icy. "That means he is either insane, or he is strong enough that it doesn't matter. I am not taking chances. And have you all forgotten concealment techniques? His cultivation could be masked. FORMATION! NOW!"
Lin Shu felt a flicker of disappointment. "I was hoping for arrogance, for them to look down on me. Overconfidence is easier to shatter. This one is smart."
As dark ivory plates sheathed in steel flowed over his arms and torso, another disciple gasped in recognition. "Wait! That armor... he's Chi Yanqi's student! The one called Li! Miss Méi is right—he's not crazy, he's dangerous!"
Lin Shu didn't wait for their formation to solidify. He moved, a burst of speed that tore up the turf beneath his feet. He targeted the center—Duan Mei herself.
She was ready. Her sword met his incoming fist not with a slash, but with a solid, perfect guard. The impact wasn't a clang of metal, but a deep, shocking CRUMP that compressed the air. The ground at their feet cracked radially, a web of fissures spreading outwards. Duan Mei's boots slid back an inch, carving grooves in the soil, her arms vibrating from the transfer of raw, monstrous force.
Lin Shu pressed, his muscles corded, the heat within his bones beginning to churn. White, ghostly flames licked from the seams of his gauntlets. He smiled behind his helmet.
With a grunt of effort, he twisted his fist. The stored infernal force in his knuckles released not as a focused detonation, but as a concussive wave.
WHOOM.
The air itself seemed to punch Duan Mei in the chest. She was flung backward, not with a graceful flip, but as if yanked by an invisible giant, skidding across the clearing until she dug her sword into the earth to halt her momentum.
Lin Shu stood his ground, steam rising from his armor. The crucible within his marrow was now fully active, a roaring furnace drawing in ambient qi, refining it, converting the waste heat and violent potential into a stable, growing reservoir of power. "Good. As long as my armor holds, I can cultivate mid-fight. Every breath I take, every second I last, fuels another detonation. I am not spending my strength; I am building it. But I have to end this before the armor fails... or the backlash will cook me from the inside out."
He raised his head, the owl-gold of his eyes fixed on the stunned Stormbreak formation.
Duan Mei barely regained her footing when a searing beam of lightning, crackling with suppressed fury, slammed into her side, throwing her back into the dirt with a smoldering crash.
Lin Shu didn't watch her fall. He was already a blur of dark metal amidst the blue-grey robes. Two disciples lunged at him, their swords blazing with the telltale glow of high-tier techniques. The attacks crashed against his ivory-steel carapace in spectacular bursts of light and sound—a dazzling, useless fireworks display. The force didn't stagger him; his rooted stance and refined body absorbed the shock, and his forward momentum didn't even falter.
His fist, radiating blistering heat, found the first boy's stomach. There was no dramatic wind-up, just a terrible, intimate contact.
"Ivory Detonation."
The concussive blast was contained, directed inward. It didn't throw the boy back so much as it unmade the space he occupied. A shockwave of white flame erupted from within his torso, tearing a cavernous hole through his body before propelling the ruined remains into a nearby tree with such force that the trunk splintered and the corpse… came apart.
The remaining disciples froze for a fatal second.
Lin Shu used it. He seized the closest one, a young man whose face was still contorted in a scream that hadn't left his throat. He gripped the boy's—Mo's—wrist, his fingers like steel manacles.
"Damnit! He's going to kill Mo!" Duan Mei's mind screamed, her vision swimming from the lightning strike. She was back on her feet, her sword held high, but a new, chilling realization dawned. "I can't break his armor without hitting Mo! And who am I kidding… my strongest strike only dented it or gave it an insignificant cut, and he healed it in a heartbeat!"
She saw the terror in Mo's eyes, saw Lin Shu's implacable grip. A sob of pure frustration and grief choked her. "I'm sorry," she whispered, not to Lin Shu, but to her junior.
Her blade flashed—not at the invulnerable armor, but at the trapped limb. It was a brutal cut.
"AHHHHH!" Mo's scream finally ripped through the clearing, raw and piercing.
Lin Shu stumbled back a half-step, holding the severed hand, momentarily nonplussed. "Didn't expect that."
He dropped the twitching hand. White flames coalesced around his leg as he spun, delivering a whip-fast kick towards Duan Mei's head. She ducked at the last possible instant, the kick missing her but obliterating the ground where she had stood, leaving a smoldering crater.
"He's not normal. One if my juniors is dead, Mo will be maimed if i don't reattach his severed limb… We cannot win this. We have no choice but to retreat." With a series of sharp, pre-arranged hand signals, she communicated the only viable order: scatter.
Her juniors, drilled in tactics, broke formation and sprinted in different directions into the thick forest. Duan Mei's heart clenched. "It's the only choice. He can't follow us all. His speed, while terrifying, shouldn't let him catch more than one or two. But one or two of my juniors… will likely die." She herself stayed, launching a flurry of desperate, distracting attacks at Lin Shu to cover their escape.
Lin Shu watched them flee, then looked at the lone woman harrying him. A slow, cold smile spread beneath his helmet. "Fools."
He ignored her ineffectual blows—each one a dent that smoothed over almost instantly—and raised both arms. His hands, index fingers extended, became living ballistae. He targeted two of the fleeing blue-grey blurs.
"No! No! NOOOO!" Duan Mei shrieked, redoubling her attacks. She landed a solid kick to his side that would have shattered stone, only to see him brace against it, unmoved. He shoved her back with a casual, backhanded swing that sent her crashing to the earth once more.
His focus never wavered. "Scorch Piercer."
Two spikes of bone and steel, superheated to a blinding white, vanished from his fingertips with twin, concussive pops of flame.
One spike took a fleeing disciple in the back, punching through his chest plate and out the other side with a spray of blood, throwing him face-first into the dirt where he writhed, screaming. The other found its mark with surgical precision, entering the base of a second disciple's skull and exiting through his forehead in a mist of red and grey. He dropped without a sound.
Lin Shu's golden owl-eyes swiveled, locking onto the last fleeing figure—Mo, clutching his bleeding stump, desperately scrambling away.
"Damnit! He has a ranged technique that can reach this distance! And why is his aim that good?! Is he using an enhancement art?!" Mo's mind raced with panic.
Lin Shu's finger began to glow once more, taking aim at the stumbling boy.
"WAIT!"
The voice was ragged, but defiant. Duan Mei pushed herself up, her robes torn and stained, her face a mask of dirt and blood that couldn't hide her fury… or her defeat.
Lin Shu paused, his finger still pointed. He raised an eyebrow. "A negotiation? Interesting. She knows she can't win. She's buying time, or…"
Mo had stopped running, looking back at his mentor with wide, pained eyes. "I can't leave her," he thought, biting his lip hard enough to draw coppery blood.
Duan Mei straightened, trying to summon the authority of her sect. "You should know we are disciples of the Stormbreak Sect. Slaughtering us will make you an enemy of an entire major sect!"
Lin Shu almost laughed. "Empty threat. Sects shed outer disciples like snakes shed skin. Even if an elder cared, Yanqi can act like my shield. And I've broken no rules of the hunt so if they dare touch me kuang baotu will also have to interfere otherwise he'd show that anyone can just step on him and do whatever they desire with his arena." His voice, when it came, was flat and reasonable. " And why would they do that? You joined this hunt of your own will. And to add to that I am violating no rules. Am I?"
Duān Méi's shoulders slumped a fraction. The bluff had failed. Her hand went to the token at her waist. "If you promise to let Mo and me leave… I'll give you my token. I have…" she calculated quickly, inflating the number, "over 2240 points. I'm sure you want that. If you refuse, I'll destroy it. And if you delay, others will have sensed this fight. They'll be here soon, and you'll have to face more enemies after using such powerful techniques so many times. You must be almost out of qi."
Lin Shu's smile returned. "She's clever. But wrong. I didn't use qi for the Piercers—just a sliver to shape the bone and steel. The power comes from the crucible, from my own stored heat. Still… killing her costs me over two thousand points. A waste." "I guess greed wins this time too, but that makes me wonder when has greed ever lost against me.".
"Alright," he said. "But I want his points too." He pointed at Mo. "And those people you tied up. Who are they?"
Duan Mei gestured to Mo. With a look of profound hatred, the boy untied his token and threw it. Lin Shu caught it. "610 points. Not bad."
"They're just a group we ambushed earlier," Duan Mei said, her voice weary. "I don't know them."
"Did you take their points?"
She nodded.
Without another word, Lin Shu turned and raised his arm. Pop. Pop. Pop-pop-pop. A swift, merciless volley of Scorch Piercers shot across the clearing. Each muffled impact was followed by a final, choked gasp from the bound and helpless fighters. Duan Mei flinched with each shot but said nothing. "What right do I have to object to his butchery when my own survival hangs by a thread?"
"Now," Lin Shu said, turning his golden gaze back to her. "Hand it over."
Duan Mei eyed him, every instinct screaming not to trust this walking calamity. "First, let Mo get farther away. Then I'll go, and I'll leave the token on the ground where you can see it."
Lin Shu considered. "She could try to run with it, or leave a dud. But if she lies about the points, I'll just hunt her down later. It's a big forest, but not that big." "Alright," he agreed. "But if the points in that token are not what you promised, know that we will meet again. And next time, your fate won't be any different then your fellow disciples"
Duan Mei gave a tight, bitter nod. "I did consider giving him an empty one… but no. Antagonizing a monster who can do this is a death sentence for me and any who travel with me. I must simply… accept the loss."
She called Mo over. The boy shuffled past Lin Shu, his eyes burning with tears of pain and impotent rage as he picked his severed part. Lin Shu paid him no more mind than he would a gnat. As the two Stormbreak disciples began to back away, Lin Shu waited, a statue of dark metal and simmering heat.
When they had reached what he judged to be the outer limit of both a safe throw and his ability to track them if they fled, he called out, his voice cutting through the forest silence.
"That's enough."
He needed them close enough that he could still see the token, close enough that the threat of a final, parting Scorch Piercer was still very, very real.