?Location: The Savage Wilds – Sector B (The Crystalline Canyons)
Time: Day 3 – Night (Post-Heist)
?Aris sat in a narrow fissure between two towering crystal cliffs, catching his breath. The adrenaline of the friction-slide escape was fading, replaced by the cold reality of their situation.
?"We have the Heart," Mo said, checking the perimeter. "But we have a problem. The trial rules state the portal opens on Day 7. It is currently the night of Day 3."
?Aris rubbed his temples. "Right. I got ahead of myself. I was thinking of the Dungeon timer, not the Trial timer. The Tomb closes tomorrow, but the dimension stays open."
?He looked at the wooden box in his lap. It wasn't just sitting there; it was pulsating. A faint, rhythmic drumbeat echoed from the crystal, audible to anyone with high spiritual perception.
?"This thing is a beacon," Aris realized, scowling. "It wants to be found. The Beast King's will is trying to attract a 'worthy successor'—aka, anyone strong enough to kill the current owner."
?Mo looked out at the canyon. In the distance, flares of Qi lit up the night sky. Search parties.
?"They are hunting us," Mo stated. "The entire remaining population of the trial. Iron-Mountain, Lady Lin, and every greedy scavenger who heard the news."
?"Good," Aris's eyes narrowed, shifting from the panic of 'Han Xiao' to the cold calculation of the Void Sovereign. "If they want to hunt, let them come. We have four days to kill time... and kill the competition."
?Aris stood up and touched the canyon wall.
?[Law Manipulation: Structural Analysis]
[Material: Resonant Crystal.]
[Property: Amplifies Sound and Vibration.]
?"We aren't running anymore," Aris decided. "We're setting up a Kill Box. By Day 7, I want the number of survivors low enough that we can walk to the portal without waiting in line."
?Time: Day 4 – The Ambush
Location: The Narrow Pass
?Iron-Mountain limped through the canyon, his face a mask of rage. He had healed his injuries from the Tomb with high-grade pills, but his pride was still shattered.
?Behind him marched a temporary alliance of thirty cultivators.
?"Find the Alchemist!" Iron-Mountain roared. "He can't run fast with those short legs! I can hear the heartbeat of the artifact!"
?They entered a narrow choke point in the canyon. The walls rose three hundred feet on either side.
?"Wait," a scout stopped. "Do you hear that?"
?A low, humming sound resonated through the crystal walls. It sounded like... whistling.
?High above them, perched on a ledge, Aris (wearing his black mask) looked down.
?"Mo," Aris whispered. "Drop the beat."
?Mo kicked a massive pile of rocks off the opposite ledge.
?CRASH.
?The rocks didn't hit the cultivators. They hit the walls.
?[Law Manipulation: Acoustic Resonance]
[Target: Echo.]
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
[Amplification: 500%.]
?The sound of the crashing rocks was amplified by the crystal canyon and Aris's law manipulation. It turned from a crash into a Sonic Boom.
?BOOOOOOM!
?The shockwave slammed into the cultivators below. Eardrums burst. Glass armor shattered. Men fell to their knees, clutching their bleeding ears, disoriented and dizzy.
?"Now," Aris ordered.
?Aris and Mo dropped into the canyon, not as warriors, but as shadows.
?They moved through the stunned crowd. Mo used the back of his blade to knock them unconscious. Aris used his Entropy Touch to drain their spatial bags and snap their "Exit Tokens" (forcing an emergency teleportation out of the trial).
?In five minutes, thirty cultivators were eliminated—not dead, but disqualified and looted.
?"Thirty down," Aris said, picking up a heavy sack of Spirit Stones. "Seven thousand to go."
?Time: Day 5 – The Psychology of Fear
?By the fifth day, the rumors had mutated.
?It wasn't "Han Xiao the Thief" anymore. It was " The Ghost of the Canyon."
?Survivors whispered that the Alchemist had died, and a vengeful spirit had taken the artifact. Groups of five or less disappeared without a trace.
?In a cave near the northern river, Aris sat by a smokeless fire, counting loot.
?[Current Wealth: 25,000 High-Grade Stones.]
[Beast Cores Collected: 154.]
?"This is efficient," Aris noted. "But boring. The strong ones—Lady Lin and Feng Yu—are holding back. They're waiting for Day 7 at the portal."
?Mo was sharpening his sword. "Do we engage them?"
?"No," Aris said, tossing a beast core to Nox, who crunched it like a biscuit. "We let the paranoia do the work. I'm going to release a fake signal."
?Aris took a low-grade beast core and infused it with a trace of the Heart's energy. He threw it into the river.
?"Let them chase the current downstream while we head upstream to the extraction point."
?Time: Day 6 – The Eye of the Storm
?The Savage Wilds were quiet. Too quiet.
?Most of the weaklings had quit or been eaten. Only the elites remained.
?Aris and Mo reached the extraction zone—a massive stone platform floating above a lake of magma. The portal frame stood inactive in the center.
?"It opens in 24 hours," Aris said, concealed in the brush 500 meters away.
?Camped around the platform were the three major factions:
?The Earth Sect (Iron-Mountain's remnants). ?The Ice-Phoenix Sect (Lady Lin). ?The Shadow-Blade Guild (Opportunist assassins).
?They weren't fighting. They were watching the forest, waiting for the rabbit to run.
?"A blockade," Mo observed. "We cannot sneak past."
?"We don't need to sneak," Aris smiled grimly. "We have the Beast King's Heart. Do you know what happens when you feed a Divine Beast Heart to a Magma Dragon?"
?Aris pointed at the magma lake below the platform. Bubbles were rising to the surface.
?[Scan: Dormant Magma Dragon]
[Level: 75 (weakened slumber).]
?"We aren't going to fight them, Mo. We're going to wake up the landlord."
?Aris spent the rest of Day 6 crafting. He wasn't making pills this time. He was making Bait.
?Time: Day 7 – The Extraction
?The sun rose over the Savage Wilds. The sky cracked open as the blue vortex of the portal began to spin.
?"The portal is open!" Iron-Mountain shouted, standing by the platform. "Form a wall! Check everyone! No one leaves until we find the Alchemist!"
?Lady Lin hovered above. "He has to come. If he stays when the portal closes, the dimension collapses and kills him."
?"Come out, rat!" Iron-Mountain bellowed.
?From the tree line, a figure emerged.
?It was Han Xiao. He looked terrible—clothes torn, covered in mud, limping.
?"Please!" Aris cried out, holding his empty hands up. "I don't have it! I lost it!"
?"Liar!" Lady Lin screeched. "Kill him!"
?"Wait!" Aris pointed at the magma lake. "I dropped it! It fell in the lava!"
?The cultivators looked over the edge of the platform.
?Floating on the surface of the magma was the wooden box. It was bobbing gently.
?Greed overrode caution.
?"Get it!"
?Iron-Mountain jumped. Lady Lin dove.
?Just as they reached the surface of the lava... the lake exploded.
?A massive serpentine head, covered in obsidian scales and dripping with liquid fire, rose from the depths. It wasn't interested in the box. It was interested in the ants disturbing its bath.
?ROAAAAR!
?The Magma Dragon (Level 75) unleashed a breath of white-hot fire.
?"Dragon! It's a Dragon!"
"Retreat!"
?The platform turned into an inferno. The blockade shattered instantly as the elites fought for their lives against the raid boss Aris had just woken up.
?In the confusion, Aris (who had used Void-Weave to fake the box in the lava) turned to Mo.
?"Walk," Aris said calmly.
?While the Dragon chewed on Iron-Mountain's shield and Lady Lin froze the air to survive the flames, two insignificant figures—a limping alchemist and his servant—walked calmly past the chaos.
?They stepped onto the portal platform.
?Aris looked back one last time at the burning lake and the screaming disciples.
?"Thanks for the distraction," he whispered.
?He stepped into the blue vortex.
?[System Alert: Trial Completed.]
[Time: 7 Days, 0 Hours, 1 Minute.]
[Status: Success.]
Update - Trial Statistics:
?Participants: 10,000.
?Survivors: ~400. ?
Aris's Contribution: Indirectly responsible for ~30% of eliminations via traps, monsters, and "accidents."
