"ROAR!"

  A thunderous, wind-splitting roar erupted through the air, shaking the very foundation of the cavern. Yuan instinctively raised his arms to shield his face as the force of the soundwave sent a violent gust of wind toward him. The sheer volume was deafening, reverberating through his bones.

  Before he could even process what was happening, a sharp, urgent cry echoed in his ears.

  "Run!"

  Without hesitation, Yuan obeyed, his small legs carrying him forward in a desperate sprint.

  As he ran, the Azure Ghost's voice, hurried yet calm, whispered directly into his mind.

  "This is a demo of the lowest rank, a Shadow Horned Bear. It is a lesser sub-species of true shadow demos. While it is slow, its strength is overwhelming. Orike from it, and you'll be torn in two."

  Yuan's breath hitched, his heartbeat hammering against his ribs.

  "Do not worry," the Azure Ghost tinued, "Shadow Horned Bears despise the light. Their only means of movement is through shadows. They leap between them, striking from the darkness itself. Avoid the shade, and you may survive!"

  The words barely registered before a massive boom erupted behind him.

  "BANG!""BANG!""BANG!"

  Heavy, earth-shaking footsteps followed, each impact sending tremors through the ground. The world around Yuan began to shift, the suffog darkness giving way to the dim illumination of a long cave passage. He had no time to take iails,his focus was locked ohing.

  The exit.

  At the far end of the cavern, a rge beam of light shohrough a narrow opening, a stark trast to the abyss around him.

  ′Didn't the Senior say that this beast fears the light?′ Yuan thought, a glimmer of hope igniting within him.

  His eyes widehat was it! If he could just reach the light, the Shadow Horned Bear wouldn't be able to follow!

  With renewed determination, Yuan pushed himself harder, sprinting toward the light.

  But the beast wasn't going to let him escape so easily.

  A deep, guttural growl rumbled behind him, the shadows at the edges of the cavern shifting unnaturally.

  And then

  "SHHHHK!"

  The shadows around him morphed, stretg into jagged spikes before ung toward him at terrifying speed!

  "Child, move in a zigzag pattern! It's attag your shadow!" the Azure Ghost's voice rang in his mind.

  Yuaated, fusion fshing through his thoughts. Attag… my shadow?

  His body tensed as an unnatural chill crawled down his spine. Before he could dwell on it, an ominous sensation flooded his being,danger.

  "MOVE!"

  Without thinking, he shifted his path, darting to the side just as a spear-like shadow struck the ground where he had been moments before.

  "BANG!"

  His pupils shrank. If he had kept running in a straight line… he would be dead.

  Swallowing his fear, Yuan followed the Azure Ghost's instrus, weaviically through the cavern, ever-ging, never predictable.

  The Shadow Horned Bear roared in frustration, its attacks missing their mark over and over. More shadow spikes erupted from the darkness, but Yuan dodged them each time, guided by the calm, precise ands of the Azure Ghost.

  "Ght!"

  Yuan leaped right.

  "Go left!"

  He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding another lethal strike.

  The once dreaded beast, terrifying in its stillness, now howled in urained fury. The calm, methodical hunter had devolved into a wild, raging monster. It shed out wildly, driven mad by its prey's tinued survival.

  The ground trembled as it stopped.

  No more attacks. No more movement.

  Only its deep, rumbling growls echoed in the cavern.

  Yuan slowed slightly, his mind rag. Did it give up?

  Doubt seeped into his thoughts. His gaze flickered toward the light,just a few meters away.

  Almost there…

  And then

  "ROOOOOAAAARRR!"

  A monstrous, bloodcurdling roar erupted behind him, far more terrifying than anything before.

  The very air trembled as the darkness itself shifted.

  A malevolent force rippled through the cavern, the shadows deepening into a grotesque crimsohe bck cave walls pulsed as if alive, the shadows coiling like tendrils of living nightmares.

  The bear had gone mad.

  Maing pure rage and bloodlust, the beast's presence alone distorted reality. The cavern seemed to , the very shadows bending to its will, trating into a single devastating attack.

  Yuan's stomach dropped.

  I o reach the light. NOW!

  He was already mid-step when

  "DODGE!"

  The Azure Ghost's warning came not in words, but as a thunderous and that rattled Yuan's very soul.

  His body moved before his mind could even process the danger.

  SLAASHH!

  A bde of pure, densed shadow and blood-red malice cleaved through the air with terrifying speed.

  It was unlike anything before. This wasn't a mere spike,this was aion.

  Yuan's body barely twisted in time, the deadly arc of darkness slig through the space he had occupied mere milliseds before.

  A sharp, burning paied in his leg.

  Blood sprayed.

  The force of the attack sent him hurling forward, his body crashing onto the cold stone floor. He rolled,owitil finally, his body crossed into the blinding light.

  For a moment, all was silent.

  Then

  "ROOOOOAAAARRRRR!"

  A deafening, soul rending bellow shook the cavern walls.

  The Shadow Horned Bear stopped just at the threshold of light, its form trembling violently as it cwed at the ground in frustration. Its demonic red eyes burned with unfulfilled rage.

  It couldn't step forward.

  It couldn't reach him.

  Yuan gasped for breath, his body shaking untrolbly. His vision blurred from exhaustion and pain, but he forced himself to look down.

  A deep cut ran along his calf, crimson blood dripping onto the cold sto wasn't life threatening… but it would make moving painful.

  Still…

  He was alive.

  As the burning sunlight bathed his body, Yuan exhaled shakily, his heart still hammering in his chest.

  From behind him, the Azure Ghost chuckled.

  "Hehe… Well done, child."

  Yuan turned his head slightly, his expression both exhausted and incredulous.

  "That… was an infant?"

  The ghost's ughter only grew.

  "Oh, yes. That was merely a cub."

  Yuan's breath hitched.

  If this was just an infant…

  Then what kind of monsters awaited him deeper ihis cursed iance?

  Feeling the searing pain in his leg, Yuan colpsed onto the ground. For the first time in his life, he experienced su excruciating and unfamiliar sensation. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to gnce back at the Shadow Horned Bear.

  The monstrous beast stood just five meters away, its hulking form looming in the dim caver… it did not move.

  Instead, it let out a series of deep, guttural growls, its massive chest rising and falling with barely tained fury.

  Yuan's breath hitched as he locked eyes with the beast—two abyssal pools of madness and wrath. A deep, primal fear crept into his bones, his body refusing to move as though bound by the sheer iy of its gaze.

  A calm, amused voice echoed beside him.

  "Hehe… Child, you have survived this deadly enter. gratutions."

  The familiar sound of the Azure Ghost pulled Yuan out of his trance. Blinking rapidly, he tore his gaze away from the Shadow Horned Bear a out a deep, shaky breath of relief.

  "You don't o worry about that demo anymore," the ghost tinued. "It ot step into the light. It will not chase you further."

  Hearing those words, Yuan finally allowed himself to breathe.

  But before he could fully process his relief, the Azure Ghost's voice took on a sharp edge.

  "What are you pnning to do? Sit here and wait until nightfall? Do you want it to hunt you down ohe darkness returns, turning you into its meal?"

  Yuan swallowed hard at the thought.

  Shaking off his lingering fear, he forced himself to move. His injured leg throbbed painfully, but he ig. Reag dowore off a strip of fabri his robe and hastily tied it around the wound. The makeshift bandage wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

  With slow, careful steps, Yuan began walking away from the beast.

  It was only as he distanced himself from the dahat the weight of the past few miruly hit him.

  I dodged its attacks… I outran a demo…

  All of it had happened in the span of mere moments.

  In just five minutes, he had e face to face with death more times than he could t. Had the Azure Ghost not warned him in time… had he been a fra of a sed slower in dodging that st attack…

  A cold chill ran down his spine.

  "So close," Yuan muttered under his breath, his voice barely audible.

  The Azure Ghost, of course, heard him a out a small chuckle.

  "Hehe… Well, whether it was close or not doesn't matter now. You survived. That's all that matters."

  Yuan exhaled, a weak smile tugging at his lips. Yes… he survived.

  As he regained his posure, the ghost's azure fmes flickered back to life, his ethereal form taking shape beside Yuan once more. The Green Royal Key floated in his spectral hand, its glow casting eerie shadows on the cave walls.

  Draped in his flowing blue robes adorned with bd yellow patterns, the Azure Ghost gave off an aura of quiet authority.

  "You don't have to worry about the trial anymore," he tinued. "It has already ehe moment I could take fain, it meant the trial was plete."

  Hearing this, Yua out a relieved sigh.

  "But still… I didn't expect the trial to be this dangerous," the ghost admitted, his gaze flickering toward the Shadow Horned Bear. "I k would be difficult, but I never imagined you would enter such a rare breed…"

  He shook his head before turning back to Yuan.

  "Regardless, we have now reached the end of the third floor. Rest here. I will heal your wound."

  Yuan blinked in surprise.

  "Heal… my wound? Senior, you heal me?"

  The ghost let out an amused chuckle.

  "Hehe… Of course. Your injury isn't serious, child. Even though I am only a spirit now, if I were still in my true form, I wouldn't even die if my heart were pierced."

  Yuan's eyes widened.

  "Survive even with a pierced heart? How is that possible?"

  The Azure Ghost smirked.

  "When your cultivation is high enough, such things bee trivial."

  With that, he raised a single finger wreathed in azure energy and flicked it toward Yuan's wounded leg.

  The energy drifted forward like a dang wisp, sinking into Yuan's wound.

  A wave of soothing warmth spread through his limb, the searing pain dulling instantly before fading altogether. The energy pulsed, w its way into his flesh, knitting the torn skin together as if time itself were reversing.

  Within moments, the pain ceased to exist.

  Yuan stared at his leg in shock, then looked up at the Azure Ghost.

  "Hehe… magical, isn't it?" the ghost said with a smirk, his tone ced with amusement.

  Before Yuan could respond, something shifted in the light-filled chamber they stood in.

  From the far side of the room, a grand staircase emerged, spiraling upward into the unknown.

  Seeing this, Yuan straightened his back, his resolve rekindled.

  "Let's go!"

  But just as he was about to take a step forward, the Azure Ghost stopped him with a firm voice.

  "Don't be reckless. Rest first."

  Yuaated.

  "But"

  "But nothing!" the ghost interrupted. "This rial was extremely challenging even for me. You o recover before fag it."

  His to no room fument.

  Yuan opened his mouth, but no words came out. In the end, he relutly nodded.

  For the first time siepping into this pce…

  Since esg the Ghost Forest…

  Sinduring near-death enters…

  Yuan finally allowed himself to rest.

  He leaned back against the cold stone floor, closing his eyes.

  Within moments, exhaustioook him.

  And for the first time in what felt like forever…

  He slept.