''Well what do we have here?'' One of the men says.

They both turn around to see who it is.

''You?'' Sightly surprised, Jiang sees it's that group of bully in their camp.

''Oh I'm gonna have fun dealing with you both. Come on guys, get rid of him.''

All of them just start waking forward, the tall bully just staying in the back. Jiang scrutinizes the group, realizing most of them are in the 4th Qi Gathering. They have a some advantage but that one person fighting was still in the vicinity.

They didn't know how they would make it out but they had no choice, the path was blocked. Communication wasn't even a possibility since they would hear them.

The first one to come forward was a chubby men, he decides to strike before he would. He sent a slash horizontally, without even looking at the other person he kicked on the right of the fatty. the chubby man managed to bring his sword forward defending himself. The other one didn't manage to block it and got directly hit on his knee, bending it backwards.

The fatty was shocked to see that happen, taking the opportunity, he stabs at the fatty. The fatty barely manages to bring his sword in an arc blocking the stab. what he didn't expect was for Jiang to spin using his sword to land a hit on the other man. He couldn't react in time and was about to be thrown out of the world. Then the person that blocked them comes at the last moment and strikes at the sword.

He almost lost his grip, barely holding on and feeling his hand a bit numb. Without waiting he throws another slash at that person. He evades easily and lunches a strike of his own, landing it on his leg. All the way to the bone.

He grimaced in pain and slashed again, he gets hit again on his back. He falters forward where a knee is waiting for him, striking his head. He tumbles to the ground, slightly stunned. He manages to see the sword coming at him and barely move his head in time to save himself.

He rolls on the ground a couple of time and then he manages to get back up. what awaits him is the same man. Luckily, he knew he was coming and he was prepared. His Qi and been revolved around his leg, ready to strike at any time. Knowing this was his only chance he didn't waste it.

He faked using his sword to slash at him, he evaded directly in the way for his knee to hit. With the Qi in the strike, the man got his breath knocked out. Taking the chance he got, he lunches another strike, the fatty finally catches up and hits Jiang on his shoulder. He managed to alter his trajectory and only hit the clavicle.

Grimacing in pain, the man backs away and makes a run for it.

''Don't think this is over! I will get you!'' He screams furiously while running away.

Something felt weird about that man but he didn't care, the fatty and that bully were still there. He saw Zou in a bad state, he had managed to bring one out but there was still the bully, the fatty and three more. Luckily one wasn't really up to fight with his knee.

He takes that time to deal with the fatty, after about 6 exchanges he manages to land a blow. The fatty lost his grip on his weapon and it was over. Jiang didn't waste that opportunity and used it to deal with him.

Now he went to deal with the three men, getting rid of the one with his knee backwards, he had been sitting on the ground the whole time. He had been trying to fix his knee, to no avail. He went forward and dealt with him easily.

When he turned around, he saw the fight was already over. Confused, he heads to Zou and asks him what happened.

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''I don't know, I was fighting them and then all of a sudden arrows came flying directly at them.''

''It was me.'' says a young man removing his hood.

They both turn around, shocked to see Han Gou there!

''Holy, thank you man! You're a life saver. You're good with the bow, where'd you learn?''

''My old man thought me to hunt when I was young. Then at the camp they gave me more practice.''

''We're lucky you're our friend. It would've been over for us otherwise!'' Jiang says happily.

''Have you seen Sun Hei? We've been looking for both of you, we hoped you were together.''

''No I haven't, he should be okay though. I see you both haven't lost your time cultivating.'' He says, slightly stunned. He was still at the 4th Qi Gathering.

''Well, we already had our ticket, so we took our time to get stronger. They should've had one for you if you don't have one.''

''Yes, thank you. I wasn't as lucky as you guys.''

They started searching around to see if they could find a treasure, unfortunately, there was nothing.

''It must've been with that person. He was extremely fast, I almost lost to him.''

''Good that you didn't, come on, we should go. We don't have all day.'' Zou suddenly says.

They all agree and they start walking away swiftly. after about 30 minutes of walking, they seat on the ground and start recuperating. Since Han was fine, he stood guard for both of them. It took around an hours for both of them to heal enough for movements to not cause sudden injury.

Since it was already close to being the end of the 5th day, finding a treasure out in the wild was almost impossible. They were most likely on someone right now. They then walked for a bit before going to cultivate. Jiang took the first watch, Zou the second and Han the last.

They all went in a meditative state, Jiang and Zou to heal with the stone and Han to cultivate.

At the start of the 6th day, Han managed to get to 5th Qi cultivation. Since Jiang and Zou concentrated on healing, their bodies were more or less okay. The slash on Jiang's leg was still big but you didn't see the bone anymore.

While Zou had a couple of slices across his body. They weren't very deep but there were around 12 of them.

They then walked in a single direction, encountering a couple of groups. They had to fight, luckily those groups were only composed of 3-4 men who were at the 5th-6th realm. They all didn't have any treasures. Not taking any chances, Jiang decided to give his stone to Han, so that he could present it for a treasure. He hoped it would count.

At the end of the day they hadn't found a single treasure. They had to go rest and meditate. Jiang focused on healing again, trying to make his wounds as small as possible while Zou and Han went to cultivate. Zou managed to get to the 6th while Han was one meridian short.

At the start of the 7th day, an announcement was made.

''Hello everyone, at the end of today, everyone not at the center of this world will be considered to have lost. This is your final challenge to qualify, there will be a light in the sky to guide everyone.''

''Why would they not warn us about that before hand? That's weird.''

''Yeah, I agree but we still have to head there.''

Without wasting any time, they all head there slowly, after some time they started seeing some people going there too. Everyone was on guard and no one wanted to attack first. If you had to fight before heading in the middle you would probably get third partied by someone else right after.

No one wanted to take that bet.

It took them almost the whole morning and afternoon to get there. The more they walked, the more teams there were. They were all in groups of 4-5 minimum, their group being different, hostile gazes flashed in the eyes of the others.

''We may have to fight'' whispered Jiang.

At the end of the forest was a big clearing, they could barely see the other side of the clearing, there were trees all around it. In that clearing were people already fighting with beasts and humans alike.

Confused, Jiang and his group stayed a little behind everyone else. They crept forward slowly.

''Why would there be beasts here, in that amount?'' Looking around, they could see around 700 beasts all of rank 5 minimum.

''I don't know but I believe we may not make it if we don't help them.''

They then went forward, most people didn't go up to fight. While walking forward, they realized that bodies were on the floor. They were slightly confused, why would this happen? Once someone was in danger they should've been brought out.

They didn't think more about it, they stayed close to Han while he started his bow. It didn't take long to take the aggro of some beasts. luckily they were all pretty manageable. Once they killed a couple of them, they saw a shocking scene.

One of the beasts threw themselves at the human that couldn't defend again't it and bit his head completely. All of them stood there unmoving. The people that weren't fighting took a step back, scared for their lives.

The heartbeat of Jiang and the other's accelerated slightly and their breathing huried.

''Come on guys, get yourselves together, we got this. Let's help them as much as possible.'' Jiang says, getting his bearings together.

They then went forward towards a group of two that were suffering at the expanse of 4 beasts. They wouldn't be able to hold on for long if this went on. They joined in on the fight and saved their lives.

''Thank you!''

''My pleasure, I know you are scared and tired but we need you to fight. You are in no shape to try and leave, beasts will catch up to you. Fight with us and we'll protect you.''

They both look at each other and one of them agrees while the other, too scared to continue fighting, tries to leave. He managed to get pretty far before a beast emerged from the wood. He asked for help from the nearby teams but they were either too far or didn't want to care.

Sadly, this young man didn't make it. The man thanked his life he didn't try.

''I'm Xia Jingyi, I'm grateful you warned me.''

''I'll be honest, I wasn't sure it was the case, I didn't want to take a chance.''

They then continued to save people, slowly adapting their group, it got bigger and bigger. After saving another one, they were already at 24, including Jiang and his gang.

''Come on everyone, let's keep helping''

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

Then they felt small heartquakes while the sound kept getting closer, after while they saw trees getting thrown down on the ground. Jiang had a bad feeling.

As if to tell Jiang he was right, the crab they stole the stone from was the one to emerge from the forest.