Free Web NovelChapter 56: Strange Trespasser
The eerie, suffocating silence lingered over the Academy Great Forest.
"Go!" Teng Lianhua bellowed, raising his hand high, breaking the silence in an instant.
The single command burst out across the forest. Fifteen figures moved at a time, a blur of motion as the disciples lunged toward their assigned entry points. Beneath the sudden, violent rush of footsteps, a crunch of dead leaves rattled in the air. Lin Yuan, Chen Ming, and Huo Ren went toward the middle-most entrance with calm and steady postures. No gazes were exchanged, or no last-minute strategies whispered. They simply crossed the forest entrance.
The moment they crossed the massive gate of the forest, a deep, ratting shudder reverberated through the ground under their feet.
Rumble!
Chen Ming’s head snapped back instinctively. Behind them, the entrance gate was sluggishly dropping, slicing through the air with agonizing slowness before hitting the ground with a dull thud. The vibration crawled up into their spines.
"The entrance..." Chen Ming muttered, his voice cracking in disdain as he stared at the entrance gate. "It’s sealed."
"There was never a path back," Lin Yuan said. His voice was calm, devoid of surprise and shock as he let out a sighful glance at the barrier before turning his gaze forward. "We only have two paths — Win or lose!"
His cold words boomed heavily in the air. Both Chen Ming and Huo Ren fell silent, they understood the rules and limits of the trial. They have either win or lose in this trial; they chose to win. There was only the suffocating forest ahead and a crystal waiting at the exit.
They began to move, their pace deliberate as they walked deeper under the canopy of tall, sprawling trees. Up above, the branches of the trees were so dense that the afternoon sun was reduced to thin needles of light, struggling and failing to shimmer in the forest grounds. With every dozen steps they took, the environment seemed to swallow the light deliberately.
It was a beautiful, elegant ecosystem. Small, crystal-clear streams wavered silently between jagged rocks in thick moss. Under the tall trees that looked so ancient, ripples of strange grass and flowers bloomed, emanating a faint blue luminescence across the ground.
Crack!
A sharp, twitching sound rattled across the area. Lin Yuan and Chen Ming instantly snapped their heads in alarm. But it was just the sound of a broken dry branch under Huo Ren’s leg.
"Tsk..." Lin Yuan sneered, keeping his eyes focused on the path again. "Watch your steps. You are scaring us more, brat."
"Brat??" Huo Ren’s brow frowned, his jaw clenching in irritation. "I know how to walk, Lin Yuan. I’m not blind. Why the fuck are you talking like you are an old age bastard?"
"Haha," Lin Yuan muttered, his voice calm and devoid of contempt. "You know how to walk, but you’re loud. And I said ’brat’ because you are one! An annoying brat! Hahaha!"
The tension broke instantly as Chen Ming let out a loud, breathless laugh, clapping a hand over his mouth a second too late.
"Hahaha! Huo Ren, man, don’t care about Lin Yuan’s words... He was too rude but he was kind!" Chen Ming smirked, his voice cracking under his breathless laugh.
"Shut up, Chen Ming!" Huo Ren snickered, his face became red as he clicked his tongue, his fists tightening at his sides.
But the petty sneering died in their mounts before it could begin.
Rustle... Howl...
From the dense, thorny path surrounding the way, a calm, crunchy sound rippled through the leaves. The laughter vanished instantly. Lin Yuan’s hand jolted up, fingers straight. Chen Ming and Huo Ren froze instantly, their breaths being desperate, reacting to Lin Yuan’s gesture.
A suffocating silence consumed once more. The only sound was the rhythmic, unnatural shaking of the bushes.
Whoosh!
A shaky, emerald blur launched itself from the bushes, cutting through the shadows with terrifying speed.
"Above!" Lin Yuan roared, crouching sideways.
Boom!
The three disciples dove in separate directions, their reflexes saving them by a fraction of a second. The creature slammed into the place which they had occupied a second prior, the impact bursting up a cloud of dust and pulverized moss.
As the dust settled, the monstrosity appeared back. It was an enormous, grotesque mantis, standing nearly a meter tall on spindly, sturdy legs. Its forearms were massive, swirled like twin, spiky sickles, gleaming with a glassy shine. A pair of pulpy, reddish eyes darted slowly, locking onto the three disciples with a chilling, despairing intelligence. The creature wavered its transparent, patterned wings, shaking them to emanate a high-pitched screech that rattled the teeth and shook their hair strands.
Screeeeee!
"A Rank Two... Emerald Sickle Mantis." Chen Ming’s eyes widened, his voice filled with disbelief. "But it was far taller and stronger than I have seen before!"
"Mutated?" Lin Yuan murmured, a cunning smirk escaped from his lips. "Cunning master... Hahaha! I can defeat even a Rank 4 beast now!"
The beast twisted one of its blade-like forearms against a rock. The impact dragged some shiny sparks against the stone. Its body moved, lowering into a crouch — the posture to jolt forward to slice the opponent.
"I’ll take it down!" Huo Ren’s hands ignited with a faint flicker of white essence, his eyes locking onto the target. "Rank 2 is a piece of cake for me!"
"Don’t," Lin Yuan interrupted, his voice cutting through Huo Ren’s loud voice.
"What do you mean don’t? It’s right there!" Huo Ren glanced at him, his irritation rising again. "If we don’t kill it; it will kill us!"
"Do you think our master will deploy only one Rank 2 or Rank 2 mutated beast for us?" Lin Yuan didn’t look at him. He simply raised a finger, pointing toward the dark shadow of the trees. "Do you think he will give such an easy task?"
"These filthy bugs think they can hide from me..." Lin Yuan counted, pointing his finger in three directions. Confusion flickered across Chen Ming and Huo Ren’s faces, but it lasted for only a second.
Hush! Whoosh! Rahh!
Three distinct bushes moved in unison from different places pointed by Lin Yuan. The faint smirk vanished from Chen Ming’s face, replaced by a cold feeling in his gut. "...It’s not a single hunter."
"Yeahh.." Lin Yuan nodded grimly, straightening four fingers up. "There are four."
Before the realization could fully process, a few shadows lunged forward.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three Emerald Sickle Mantises erupted from the brush, their movements an obscure faint green. In a flash, the escape paths were sealed. The four beasts formed a perfect, suffocating quadrant around the disciples, each one blocking a viable route of escape.
"Since when do Sickle Mantises pack-hunt? They’re supposed to be solitary..." Chen Ming swallowed hard, his voice hoarse and raspy.
"They don’t hunt in groups. And look at them, they aren’t attacking..." Lin Yuan’s eyes darted through the beasts, analyzing the meaning of their stance.
"Then what the hell are they doing?" Huo Ren growled, his beast essence sputtering with his rising anxiety.
Instead of lunging to strike, the four mantises began a slow advance forward. Step by step, they clicked their legs, their sickle-arms raised defensively. They were deliberately forcing the disciples off the path, driving them deeper toward something else.
Lin Yuan’s mind raced, his eyes narrowing into slits. "They’re not trying to kill us. We’re not their prey. We’re being directed somewhere else."
"Where?" Huo Ren asked, his voice filled with genuine panic.
Lin Yuan didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Suddenly, a profound stillness lingered over the forest. The change was so abrupt it felt structural. The birds went quiet and calm. Even the hum of insects and the gentle rustle of the dry leaves died out, leaving a trail of eerie silence. The only sound remaining was the crunching footsteps of the four mantises, forcing them forward.
Step! Step! Step!
A fearful dread crawled up Lin Yuan’s spine, a warning instinct that he was walking into a slaughterhouse. His gaze locked onto the ground just a few yards ahead. The ground was shaking.
"Retreat! Move now!" Lin Yuan yelled, his eyes widening in pure shock and anxiety.
The warning tore from his mouth, echoing through the trees.
BOOOOOOM!!
The forest floor burst out in a powerful explosion of black dirt, shattered stones, and shredded roots. The force blew backward, a shockwave that nearly knocked the disciples off their feet. The four Emerald Sickle Mantises leapt backward with frantic, desperate speed like they were fleeing from something.
Lin Yuan shielded his eyes, looking up into the smoky debris. Towering in front of them, stood a monolithic nightmare. The beast was easily four meters tall, its sheer mass casting a shadow that swallowed them whole. It was a gargantuan wild boar, but its flesh was surrounded in thick, jagged plates of stone-like armor that looked like iron walls. Escaping from its massive jaw were two curved, ivory tusks, stretching out like lethal crescents, dripping with a thick, viscous saliva.
The creature’s eyes flared open, filled with pure malice. The pressure radiating from its massive body crashed over the disciples, heavy and suffocating.
"Fourr...!! Rank Four!!?" Chen Ming frowned, sprawling back in tense. "Why the fuck there is a Rank four beast here!!"
Chen Ming is so enthusiastic in reading books and learning about beasts; that is the reason he recognises many of the beasts in a single glance.
Huo Ren took a step back.
"The mantises... they weren’t hunting us... they were driving us into boar’s territory." Huo Ren sneered, his voice cracking under pressure.
"They weren’t herding us," Lin Yuan slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He corrected, his voice a low, dangerous whisper. "They were offering us up as a sacrifice."
"Something has gone wrong... The academy doesn’t know about the Rank 4 beasts... Somehow this might have trespassed inside!" Lin Yuan warned, taking a defensive stance.
The massive boar lowered its head, its crescent tusks scraping against the rocky terrain, sending a spray of sparks into the dark. It stomped its muscular legs, the ground groaning under its weight.
Then, it opened its jaws and unleashed a thunderous, earth-shattering roar that tore through the canopy, a rumble so powerful it rattled the trees of the Academy Great Forest.
ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!
Far outside the entrance of the forest, standing still, Elder Teng Lianhua closed his eyes, listening to the muffled echo of a monstrous roar reverberating through the tree line. A confused expression lingered on his face.
"A Rank 2 beast roar is too high-pitched..." He murmured, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe it was hungry..."
Teng Lianhua wholly misunderstood the situation — that a Rank 4 beast trespassed the forest.
Within the forest, Lin Yuan never took his eyes off the boar before him. His heart hammered against his ribs with a sudden clarity. For the first time since stepping past the entrance, he finally understood the weight of the trespassing.
"This..." Lin Yuan whispered, his beast essence flickering out slowly, "...isn’t a competition. It’s survival. I will gouge out the eyes of whoever sent this boar beast here! The academy will see my evil side!"
