He was not the only hunter in this forest though. By now, most of the champions had crossed through half of the forest. At least for those who tried to go across it. Those that should have met others met them and fought. Or they did like Min-Su and ignored it pursuing the highest goal instead. It depended on the champions. Some wished to battle and take down a rival, some preferred to ignore it and rush forward.

Min-Su and Jin had been rather lucky about this since neither of them would end up having a battle at the half-way point. It wasn't case for one of Sophia's champion. They were here solely to support Min-Su and Jin but if they couldn't even go high enough to do so, it would be a shame. And one of them was facing such a situation in which he wasn't sure he could go further with his life.

He ended up stumbling in front of a cultivator who planned to end him. His opponent was strong, as much as he was. He used twin blades while the opponent used some kind of nunchakus. The collisions from their exchange was destroying the living forest as they moved all over the place. It was a savage battle at close quarters.

Every champion obviously had their own tricks but most of them hoped to reserve them for later on during the trial. Unfortunately, this time, both of them had no choice but to take out their trump cards. In the case of Sophia's champion, it was a spiritual treasure called an Aegis. It was a grade 5 treasure composed of nine small shields the size of a hand. They were extremely sturdy and revolved automatically around the owner. As long as he poured spiritual energy in them, they would be working.

It was a powerful defensive item that was a cumulative of both blacksmithing and arrays. It would protect the wearer as long as the wearer had energy.

As for his opponent, it was an attacking treasure of the same grade. It was a dragon made of minerals that was a meter long and flowing freely around the user. Just like for the Aegis, this dragon would be active as long as he was supplied with spiritual energy.

And so, one used the dragon to attack by shooting out spiritual energy that had been refined with the element of earth while the other used the Aegis to defend from this. And they kept attacking physically with their weapons, giving it their all.

The power they displayed was far beyond anything someone at the ninth stage should have been able to do. It was due to efforts and talents while remaining at this lower realm on one part and due to the incredible teachings that they received on the other. Of course, the treasures they used also had an impact that was not negligible.

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They upturned the earth and uprooted the flora as they moved, destroying everything as they tried to end the life of the one in front of them.

The fierce battle went on for minutes and the two cultivators became exhausted quickly. Using grade 5 treasures had a cost on their reserves. Nearly at the same time, they took out a pill and swallowed them. Their reserves which had been nearly depleted were once more filled to the brim and the battle fiercely continued.

Unfortunately, this only prolonged the inevitable. This kind of miracle pill had side effects and could not be taken twice. As such, they ended up both exhausted and unable to continue. They ended up fighting purely with their weapons and techniques, unable to continue using any spiritual energy.

They hurt each other while giving it their all and little by little, their bodies were riddled with injuries. In the end, it was Sophia's champion who won after a tough battle that forced him to give his everything. He even lost an arm in the process...

He took out another pill, one for healing this time, as he kept his guard up. Most of the wounds would heal but there was no way a new arm would grow. His dual-bladed style could no longer be practiced further. It might be very tough for him to do anything more later on. Still, he took out a rival so maybe it could be considered as having done his job.

He sighed.

He still had to move on. He hadn't fought so fiercely to wait for his death here. He picked the Aegis and the dragon from the ground and set them in his spatial ring before moving on. He once again sped up through the forest after having recovered some spiritual energy.

...

Not too far, a sentient spiritual beast had unsealed itself and shapeshifted into his beast form. He had turned into a giant dark brown boar that was at least five meters tall. He was rushing madly through the forest, chasing down something...someone.

A woman in her thirties was cursing madly as she ran in front of the mad wild beast. There were more than 150 champions and she just had to stumble across one of the two perverts from that boar race. As soon as he saw, he began to chase after her after releasing his form.

In this form, he didn't even care about the living forest as he just steamrolled through everything. But she had to deal with it with her puny sword. She cursed at the unfairness of the world for not having been born with powerful natural abilities like those beasts. But she cursed even more at the boar as he kept teasing her as he ran after her: "Come on, beauty~ Let's have some fun~ "

What infuriated her the most was that he wasn't even trying to kill her but to rape her instead... Fucking sentient boars, they were truly the hooligans of the cultivation world!

She was nearly crying as she understood that he would reach her soon and she couldn't do anything about it...or maybe...things weren't as they appeared?