Jin was running at a steady pace through the forest, without facing any hurdles except the obvious need for concentration. He believed he wouldn't have any difficulties reaching the end of the forest.

Min-Su was in a very different situation though. By a twist of fate, he ended up seeing someone through the foliage. And that someone saw him as well. There were more than 150 cultivators in this forest and he just had to stumble upon one. He had quite the bad luck.

He expected that the man would come after him but he did not. Instead, he went on his way forward without giving him more than a glance. Min-Su found it surprising at first but then he realized. There were only 32 bridges. Fighting here would only reduce their chances to get through one.

He was more than glad to have stumbled across this one and not another. If it hadn't been someone trying to win... He might have been forced into a fight and lose precious minutes. If he ended up unable to cross a bridge because he had fought... It would truly be an end filled with despair.

As his thought process reached that far, he began to speed up as well. It was not the time to reserve his spiritual energy. If he didn't reach the 'goal' before the others, he wouldn't be able to reach it at all. So, he sprinted.

...

Min-Su was not the only one who faced difficulties though. A lot of champions did. Some met with another one, some ended up facing the weird and mysterious traps set by those who were planted here to fuck up the game... Out of all this, there was one woman in particular who had it rough.

She was one of the true champions. At 45, she had given up on climbing higher until her Master reached out a hand to her. He promised her that as long as she won this for him, he would forcefully help her cross over the 10th stage, enabling her to forge her way forward on her cultivation.

She was aware of the risks from the start but no pain no gains was the reality of this world. She had decided to participate as a gamble, ready to put her life on the line. That's what she thought at least. She was wrong. Now that she was facing death, she was scared shitless.

As soon as she woke up, she ran through the forest with all her might, using her twin axes to cleave a path while covering herself in a defensive layer of spiritual energy. Everything had gone well for the first fifteen/twenty minutes. And then, something nearly cut her in two.

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It had been a flying knife.

A single knife with a blade no longer than 5cm had nearly cut her in two at the stomach. She had dodged it at the last possible moment thankfully. She stood on guard for a second before being forced to move due to the forest attacking her. She hadn't been able to figure out the attacker. So, she ran forwards while keeping her senses heightened to the maximum. The spiritual energy consumption was higher but she had no choice, her life was at stake.

More and more knives were sent her way as she moved, always with the strength to end her and always coming from blind directions. They were always tough to dodge and identical, proving that someone was targeting her.

After a few more, she deflected one, clearly creating a dent in it.

Then, the next knife that was sent to her turned out to be the same as the previous one. Not just in shape, it really was that one knife. Because she spotted the dent. There was someone who threw the same knife at her again and again from the shadows and she couldn't spot him or do anything about it due to the environment.

But she couldn't understand how he managed to do this. She already needed to focus on paring the attacks from the forest and be on guard from the opponent, how could he attack her so precisely while facing the same conditions? She began to feel fear from then on.

And yet, the knives never stopped coming her way. Always the same knife at that. She exhausted herself dodging them, she exhausted herself strengthening her senses to detect them and she exhausted themselves from the environment. Even mentally, she was having difficulties pushing on.

After another quarter of an hour, she couldn't go on. She screamed and taunted her opponent madly and furiously. But he never showed himself. And fifteen minutes later, she couldn't go on, she ended up being hit, losing a leg. She fell on the ground screaming. She was soaked in sweat, tears, snot and blood. And the forest wasn't going to let her any respite. Vines, grass stalks and roots began to pierce her body randomly.

In a matter of seconds, she died from the many punctured holes in her body. At that moment, someone moved from the surroundings trees, it looked like a shadow. Then, the shadow seemed to melt to reveal a man. Well, it was a male sentient beast, not a human. One from the tiger race. He was humanoid in shape but had the face of a tiger and the fur that went with it covering his entire body. A dark fur with a mix of purple. He came from the Shadow Tiger clan, a branch of the Grand Tiger Clan.

Being a spiritual beast, he had the natural ability to manipulate an element, and his was the shadow element. The Shadow tigers were well-known for being the assassins of the Grand Tiger Clan and there was one of them here participating. He had only one task: to eliminate as many opponents as possible so that the other champions could have a safe way to the winning place. But he also had his own goal: to temper himself.

He gazed at the dead body that was already being dragged under the earth and spat on it. This was seriously a let-down. If all the champions were so weak, he wouldn't have any fun hunting them.

Right, hunting.

He was here to look for preys. And not having been satisfied with this one, he disappeared once again in the forest, in search for the next victim.