He had a simple plan. About five people in total were going up Dragon Flower’s hill. Tranquil, Musnuf, Tiger and two other disciples he didn’t know the names of.

As soon as he reached the top, he looked to see where the ring should be. It wasn’t there. They had the leopard beast in tow. It looked a little exhausted.

His previous plan was to drive out Dragon with the leopard but Tiger would deal with it before it even made it anywhere near the platform. Her eyes were roaming around but they wandered back to the leopard and Tranquil.

Musnuf took hold of the leopard and whispered a few words in Tranquil’s ears. Tiger took out her dagger, she knew something was up.

Musnuf opened the package of bait and made the leopard sniff it. It almost chomped off his fingers when tried to pull away. He threw the pouch straight into the ward. He let the chains go off the beast.

“You a*shole!” Tiger was seeing red but Tranquil stepped forward and blocked her path.

The beast swallowed the bag of bait whole. It coughed but refused to spit it out. Blood pumped through its body in a frenzy. It started barking, howling and rolling around in a mad rage.

Every instinct in its body screamed for more and that’s when it sniffed more. Just a little more on Dragon Flower.

It roared and took off after Dragon. She tried to run away but she had no recourse against its sense of smell and heightened rage.

Tiger was going toe to toe with Tranquil but she just had more combat awareness. “Why is it chasing her!?” Tiger shouted at him.

Musnuf shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?”

“Tranquil, stop. You don’t need to do this anymore.” Tranquil backed off and Tiger did too. Both of them had no intention of fighting anymore.

Dragon was still running around like a headless chicken. She wasn’t frozen up in fear or shock which was progress but she looked hysterical.

He had one other ace up his pocket. He used to play a game back in the days where a sharp burst of light would blind people. He crafted an illusion for that right in front of Dragon’s eyes and set it off.

She tumbled and tried to get out of the way but she was too slow. The leopard leaped and pounced on her thigh. Perhaps, the area where she’d stored the rings.

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Tiger was about to go mad. Musnuf just waited and sent in another flash. It was just a matter of time before she stumbled out of the platform. The wards were off and everyone dashed to the platform. Everyone except for Tiger who ran straight after her sister. The leopard was a sword slash for her.

It turned out that Musnuf didn’t feel that bad about the leopard. It’d served its purpose.

A new key was on the platform. Twenty green chains extended out trying to grab it. It just ended up knocking the key away on the other side of the platform. It was out of sight for a quick second. The ground was muddy on this platform.

“Tranquil, how about we take them out? Then we can go for it, fair and square.”

She nodded and both of them turned around at the same time. Musnuf took out his staff. Blinded the first disciple with his flash of light and drove his staff straight into throat.

He gagged but Musnuf wasn’t done. He moved in close, drew out his dagger and stabbed him in the abdomen. He pulled to the left. A sharp, warm gush of blood burst out.

He looked to his left and Tranquil was gone. She’d opted to restrain the other disciple. He slashed his lower leg to immobilize him.

He was exhausted. This little burst of exercise had taken everything out of him.

He ran to the back of the platform. Luckily, Tranquil was still searching around for the ring, it was nowhere to be found.

Musnuf started looking too. All of a sudden he turned his head to the side. He waited a beat, so Tranquil caught on too.

The key was on the edge of the platform just about to fall off. Both of them made eye contact for a split second and took off.

Tranquil reached it first. She grabbed it and it disappeared right in her hands. A large chain clamped around her throat and hurled her off the platform with a push from the back. She turned around to find Musnuf smiling. His eyes triumphant.

The ring was an illusion. He’d concealed the original key as soon as it was knocked off the platform. He’d generated the other key as soon as he’d spotted Tranquil too close to the original key.

He walked back over and sat on the platform. He was curious about something. What would happen if a hill had no claimants?

Would it be destroyed? If so, he wanted that to happen. He had no intention of claiming this hill. Not yet.

Tiger was stomping over. Her face, a mask of rage. She reached over and slashed down but right at that second a green chain snapped around her abdomen and arm.

She was being pulled up to the sky. The twenty minutes of the test were over.

He was curious what would happen. A hill started shaking and a wide smile spread across his face. It was Treasure’s hill.

That left two more hills in the running. The hill whose key was in his hand at the moment and an unknown hill.

He was curious about what constituted protecting and if just holding this key for the next fifteen minutes was it. Was it a requirement for you to present on the platform? Was it a requirement that everyone had to know you were in possession of the ring?

This would be a fun little exercise. So, Treasure’s up next. This’ll be fun.