Everyone stared in shock at the monster that came out of the forest. With that beast, came another small horde of beasts. Those were only in the 3rd realm but they still posed a challenge in terms of numbers.

Some of them didn't manage to get out of shock in time, getting hit. Luckily, they weren't alone and people close to them helped them. The new beasts coming in made it a lot harder to defend.

Some persons started taking action, telling people where to watch out and what to attack. They started closing the weak spots, helping where they could. They managed to reduce injuries and reduce deaths.

In all wars though, deaths was common. Even though everyone here tried their best to reduce deaths, it still happened.

The groups that were still hiding all made their choices. Some of them ran away quickly, giving up on their comrades and the ranking. Others decided to risk it all and went to help. The amount of people fighting were around 2000 at the start. It was now reduced to 1750 and still reducing.

Meanwhile, Jiang and his group went forward to deal with the crab. As soon as the crab went out of the forest it went for them. They didn't have a choice but to get out of the formation to protect everyone. Their only goal was to distract it for as long as possible.

The fight was intense, everyone kept on risking their lives. Jiang and company got hit once or twice by the crab. they weren't injured badly, mostly managing to evade the crab.

For some reason, beasts stayed far from the crab, scared to get hit. it allowed them to focus solely on the crab. As if to add more pressure, another giant beast showed up. It looked like a bear but a lot more fat than normal.

Another group went forward, Jiang managed to identify one of them as the one that fled before.

Since Jiang knew how the crab worked, they tried to deal with it. They all worked in unison, Jiang would go forward and try to hit his eyes while Han would shoot arrows and Zou was focused on distracting it.

The crab defended itself well until it suddenly screeched. Jiang, taking the chance, lunched a Qi powered strike directly on his belly. sliding forward for better aim. He managed to pass the defense and it allowed him to effectively weaken it.

It tried to let itself fall on Jiang, he barely managed to roll away. Coming back to deal with it, he soon sees Zou covered in a weird liquid.

''Zou, what did you do? That was perfect.'' He says smiling.

''I don't want to talk about it. Let's just finish this.'' He says gloomily.

Han and Jiang both looked at each other, then decided not to ask further. They already had an idea of what happened. They went forward again and after a while the beast fell down.

Catching their breath, they looked around only to see carnage, there weren't a lot of beasts left. The fight was pretty much over, they only had to deal with stragglers.

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After 5 minutes of cleaning up the remnants, everyone finally could catch their breaths. They looked around to see their friends and everyone else dead on the floor. it was a shock for them to still be alive, they were happy they made it out.

When everyone was catching their breaths, they could see the groups of people that didn't fight. there were around 300 or so that didn't fight. They were looking at them furiously. If they had joined them to fight the beasts, less of them would've died.

''Where have you been! We needed your help!'' one of the fighter with more energy said.

''Yeah you cost us dearly! How do you intend on making it up to us?!''

''You should've been dead not them! This is unfair.''

So everyone kept on screaming at them. Some even went forward to scream at their faces. some of the ones that left looked at the ground, shame on their faces. The others were mad that they were blamed for putting their lives first.

Tension in the air, one of them took out a sword, ready to strike. Before it could go further, everyone got transported out.

Some people got scared while others looked around confused. They then realized that they had made it out alive for real and shed tears of joy.

''You are the ones that made it out till the end! I am happy to announce that this group did really well! Normally, a lot more people leave and refused to fight. Though, I have to say, everyone that refused to help in that fight, you are eliminated.''

''Unless, of course, you have a treasure?'' He questions.

Out of all the ones that didn't fight, there was only one that took out his treasure. Indicating the others didn't manage to find one or didn't dare fight for it. He took the treasure and inscribed the name.

While they started to give their treasures, Jiang managed to find Sun hei. They talked for a bit before they were to hear the announcement.

''Hey Sun! Did you manage to get a treasure?''

''I did, I was hiding for a good while but then I got found by a group and they took my treasure while I fled. I then went on to fight beasts and others together. I participated in that fight, that was brutal.''

''Yeah I know, I was dealing with that crab with Zou and Han, it took us a while.''

''I saw you, I was filling in the gaps and looking around to make sure everyone was safe.''

Before they can speak further, the announcer started talking.

''Let me now announce the people that brought treasures to us, that we accepted.''

As he proceeded with the names, Jiang's and Zou's names appeared. After around another 100 names, Han's name finally appeared. They were relieved to find out they made it!

After the count was done, there were still 41 places left for grabs. Jiang got his hopes up that Sun could make it.

''Since we don't have all of the treasures for a top thousand, we will choose the ones that marked us. There were a lot of good candidates.''

He then started calling a couple of names. They were mostly the ones that had taken charge of everyone to reduce panic. This included Sun hei, he hadn't led a lot of them but he had killed a lot.

''Congratulations to everyone that passed, everyone that managed to find a treasure. You can keep it.''

''I know most of you must be mad but remember you are recruits being made to go to war. There is no choice but to either fight or die.''

''To everyone else that did not pass, head to the reception area, your rank will be decided and your reward will be given.''

''You will all be awarded three days to recuperate. Use them wisely, it starts now. Get back at the same time you did a week ago.''

Jiang then went back to his camp director. When they all went back, the head count was slightly under 400, being 324. They had lost over a 176 persons just for this fight. This was a big loss for the camp.

After the head count, he sighed and brought everyone to their quarters. Everyone had their own rooms, a welcomed change compared to the barracks. Jiang bid farewell to everyone after asking for the stone again. He promised to share it with them so they could heal too.

He then took about half a day to fully recuperate with the stone's aid. They wound's weren't closed completely but they weren't a threat to his mobility or his body.

He shared the gemstone to Zou next who gratefully accepted it. He then went on to cultivate and train. when he wasn't doing either he was sleeping or eating.

When he woke up for the day of the competition, he had finally managed to make it to the 9th Qi cultivation realm. He was only shy of one meridian to make it to the peak. The last one was situated on his left arm, the one he didn't use to wield his sword.

He was ready to fight for the top 10 now. Or so, he believed. They all went to the arena where the small world was. In it's place was now 50 arenas, all solely made for them.

''Welcome back everyone, as you can see, there are going to be 50 matches. They will all be played at the same time to save time. In this round of elimination, you will work on cooperating with someone. They are going to be two versus twos. You may choose who you want to be with, if you are with no one, we will assign you one.''

Jiang went on to have a discussion with Zou, Han and Sun.

''I believe Han and me is a better choice, you and Sun should work together. The imbalances will be less evident.'' He says still pondering if that was correct.

''This makes sense, it will allow you a good chance to win, same as us.''

After everyone made their choices, the ones that weren't assigned a partner were swiftly arranged one.

''Now that everyone has found someone, let me tell you how it works. For today, we will decide top 100. Every team will fight 5 times, the ones with the most wins will enter top 100. If there are too many draws in the top 100, the fastest will be the ones to stay.''