Chapter 7: Predator and Prey
The bay doors of the heavy transport carrier hissed open, revealing a drop of ten thousand feet.
Below, Purgatory Island sprawled like a green wound in the ocean. It was a massive, artificial biome constructed by the Global Alliance for one purpose: to break aspiring heroes. The terrain was a nightmare mix of toxic swamps, razor-sharp mountain ranges, and ruins infested with bio-engineered monsters ranging from D-Rank to A-Rank.
The wind roared into the cargo hold, whipping at the clothes of the five hundred candidates standing on the edge.
"Rules are simple!" The Instructor shouted over the gale. "You have a Point Watch. Kill monsters to get points. Defeat other students to steal half their points. Survive for 48 hours. The top 100 pass. The top 10 get into the Elite Class!"
"Oh, and one more thing," the Instructor grinned, a cruel expression. "Casualties are allowed up to 5%. Try not to die, but if you do... well, that's just natural selection."
"GO! GO! GO!"
Students began to jump.
Some cast Wind Walk to glide. Others summoned flying mounts. The rich kids activated expensive gravity-dampening boots.
Jiang Chen walked to the edge. He looked down at the jungle canopy rushing by.
"Do we have parachutes?" Feng Xi asked, shouting to be heard over the wind. She was clutching her white summer hat so it wouldn't fly away.
"Parachutes are for people who obey physics," Jiang Chen said. He looked at Mo You. "Can you handle the landing?"
Mo You rolled her eyes. "I am a dragon. Gravity is a suggestion, not a law."
"Good."
Jiang Chen stepped off the ledge.
He didn't glide. He plummeted.
He fell like a stone, the wind tearing at his face. The rush of adrenaline was intoxicating. For eighteen years, a fall like this would have stopped his heart before he hit the ground. Now, he felt the Grandmist energy circulating in his veins, hardening his skin, reinforcing his bones to the density of steel.
[Grandmist Perception: Active]
The jungle rushed up to meet him.
"Master, aim for the trees!" Feng Xi squealed, diving next to him in a nosedive, laughing maniacally.
"No," Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes. "Aim for the prey."
Fifty meters from the ground.
Twenty meters.
"Void Step."
Jiang Chen kicked the empty air. Space compressed beneath his feet, creating a solid platform for a fraction of a second. He killed his momentum instantly, turning a fatal crash into a controlled combat drop.
BOOM.
He landed in a clearing, his boots cracking the bedrock. Dust and leaves exploded outward in a shockwave.
Mo You landed silently behind him, hovering an inch off the ground as if the dirt was unworthy of her shoes. Feng Xi landed with a superhero pose, creating a small crater of scorched earth.
"We have arrived!" Feng Xi cheered. "Where are the snacks?"
Jiang Chen stood up, dusting off his shoulders. He glanced at his wrist. The Point Watch flickered to life.
[Candidate: Jiang Chen]
[Points: 0]
[Rank: 500/500]
"Last place," Jiang Chen muttered. "How poetic."
Rustle.
The bushes around the clearing shook.
"Well, look what we have here," a mocking voice sneered from the tree line. "The trash landed right in our lap."
Five students stepped out. They weren't randoms. They wore matching armbands with a stylized 'L'—the insignia of the Luo Clan's vassal families.
The leader, a burly boy wielding a massive war hammer, grinned. "Luo Tian offered a bounty. One million credits for breaking your arm. Five million for breaking your leg. And ten million... for 'accidental' mana deviation."
The five students circled Jiang Chen. They were all solid C-Rankers. In the outside world, they were elites.
"Five against one," the Hammer Boy laughed. "Don't worry, Glass Prince. We'll be quick."
Jiang Chen looked at them. He didn't draw his sword. He didn't even look concerned. He looked... disappointed.
"Mo You, Feng Xi," Jiang Chen said calmly.
"Shall we incinerate them, Master?" Feng Xi asked, a small flame dancing on her fingertip.
"No," Jiang Chen checked his watch. "Stand back. Do not interfere."
"What?" Mo You raised an eyebrow. "You intend to fight five armed cultivators with three days of training?"
"I need to calibrate my strength," Jiang Chen said. He took a step forward. "And these trash mobs are perfect target dummies."
The Hammer Boy's face turned red. "Trash mobs?! Get him!"
He charged.
The war hammer whistled through the air, aiming for Jiang Chen's ribs. It was a clumsy strike, full of openings, relying purely on brute force.
Jiang Chen didn't move.
'Grandmist Perception.'
Time seemed to freeze. He saw the shift in the boy's weight. He saw the mana gathering in the hammer's head. He saw the path of the swing.
It was so... slow.
Jiang Chen took a half-step to the left.
WHOOSH.
The hammer missed him by an inch.
Before the boy could recover, Jiang Chen moved. He didn't use a technique. He just used the raw, explosive power of his new body. He stepped inside the boy's guard and drove a fist into his solar plexus.
CRACK.
It wasn't the sound of bones breaking. It was the sound of the air being displaced by the speed of the punch.
The Hammer Boy's eyes bulged. He folded like a lawn chair. He was lifted off his feet and launched backward, crashing into a tree with enough force to snap the trunk.
One punch. One knockout.
The other four students froze. They stared at their leader, who was now unconscious and twitching in the dirt.
"What..." one of them stammered. "He... he's supposed to be a cripple!"
"Next," Jiang Chen said.
"Get him! All at once!"
The remaining four attacked. A fireball, a wind blade, and two sword strikes converged on Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen's hand blurred to his waist.
SHING.
Nightfall was drawn.
The black blade didn't reflect light. It seemed to eat it.
"Void Step."
Jiang Chen vanished.
To the students, it looked like he teleported. One moment he was in front of the fireball, the next he was behind the caster.
He didn't kill them. This was an exam.
He reversed his grip on the sword and slammed the pommel into the base of the mage's skull. Thud. Mage down.
He spun low, sweeping the legs of the swordsman, then kicked him in the chest while he was mid-air. Crack. Swordsman down.
The last two tried to run.
"Mo You," Jiang Chen said casually. "Trip them."
Mo You didn't move, but the shadows on the ground suddenly became solid. The two running students caught their feet on their own shadows and face-planted into the dirt.
Jiang Chen walked over to them. He knelt down and tapped his watch against theirs.
BEEP.
BEEP.
[System: Points Transferred.]
[Current Points: 50]
Jiang Chen stood up amidst the groaning bodies. He hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Boring," Mo You critiqued from the sidelines. "Your form was sloppy on the second strike. You wasted 0.3 seconds hesitating."
"I'm working on it," Jiang Chen sheathed Nightfall.
"Master! Master!" Feng Xi ran over to the unconscious Hammer Boy and started poking him. "Can I loot him? He has a shiny necklace!"
"Take the points, leave the jewelry. We aren't bandits," Jiang Chen sighed. "Technically."
The Broadcast Room (Global Alliance HQ)
Huge screens covered the walls, showing feeds from thousands of drones buzzing over Purgatory Island.
Seated at the long table were the recruiters from the top Universities, Generals from the Federation, and the Patriarchs of the major clans.
"Luo Tian is doing well," a General noted. "He's already cleared a nest of D-Rank Spiders. 500 Points. First place."
"Bai Ling is efficient too," another nodded. "Her ice magic is freezing the swamp solid."
"Wait," a recruiter from the Imperial Academy leaned forward. "Switch Feed 4 to the main screen."
The screen flickered.
It showed a high-angle view of a clearing. Five students lay unconscious. In the center stood a young man in a black tactical suit, casually wiping dust off his blade.
"Is that... Jiang Chen?"
The room went silent.
Sitting in the corner, Jiang Wu (The God of War) sat with his arms crossed. He watched the screen impassively, but inside, he was stunned.
'That movement... that wasn't a technique I taught him. That was spatial manipulation. And that physical strength... simply punching a C-Rank Reinforcement type through a tree?'
"It seems the reports of his disability were... exaggerated," the Luo Clan representative hissed, his face sour. "He attacked unsuspecting students. Ambush tactics. Cowardly."
"It's a survival exam, Elder Luo," Jiang Wu's voice rumbled like distant thunder. "The prey walked into the predator's mouth. Don't blame the tiger for biting."
On the screen, Jiang Chen looked up. He looked directly into the drone camera.
His eyes were cold. He raised two fingers and swiped them across his throat.
It wasn't a threat to the students. It was a message to the people watching in this room.
'I'm coming for the top.'
Back on the Island
"We need to move," Jiang Chen said, turning away from the drone. "The smell of blood will attract beasts."
"And the smell of Points will attract idiots," Mo You added.
They moved deeper into the jungle. The deeper they went, the darker it got. The trees here were twisted, their bark oozing black sap.
[Grandmist Perception] warned him of danger every few steps. Poisonous vines. Camouflaged vipers. Pit traps.
Jiang Chen navigated them effortlessly.
"Master," Feng Xi whispered. "I smell something... tasty."
She stopped, pointing toward a jagged canyon to their right. "Big energy. Warm. Spicy!"
Jiang Chen checked his map. "That's the 'Crimson Ravine'. It's marked as a danger zone. High density of Fire-type monsters."
"Fire!" Feng Xi drooled. "Can we go? Please? I need to recharge! Using that healing spell on Captain Lei made me hungry!"
Jiang Chen thought for a moment. Fire monsters meant Fire Cores. Fire Cores meant Feng Xi got stronger. And stronger summons meant he could dominate the exam.
"Fine. We hunt."
They entered the ravine. The temperature skyrocketed. The rocks were hot to the touch.
Suddenly, the ground shook.
ROAR!
A creature burst from the magma flow at the bottom of the ravine. It was a Flame Salamander. But this wasn't a normal one. It was mutated, covered in obsidian spikes, and it was huge—easily twenty meters long.
[Warning: B-Rank Elite Monster Detected.]
[Flame Salamander King]
[Points Value: 1,000]
"A B-Rank Elite," Jiang Chen tightened his grip on his sword. "This will be tough."
"Mine!" Feng Xi shouted.
Before Jiang Chen could issue a command, the "Healer" took off.
She didn't run. She floated. Her white dress transformed, glowing feathers appearing on her shoulders.
The Salamander roared and unleashed a torrent of magma breath at her.
"Yummy!" Feng Xi opened her mouth.
She didn't dodge. She inhaled.
The stream of magma—hot enough to melt a tank—was sucked into her mouth like spaghetti. She swallowed it, burped a cloud of smoke, and wiped her lips.
"A bit salty," she critiqued. "But good texture!"
The Salamander froze. Its tiny reptilian brain couldn't process what just happened. Where is my fire? Why did the small shiny thing eat my fire?
"My turn!" Feng Xi giggled.
She raised her hand. A miniature sun formed in her palm.
"Solar Lance."
She threw it.
The beam of light moved faster than sound. It punched through the Salamander's skull, traveled through its entire body, and exited out of its tail, cauterizing the wound instantly.
The massive beast collapsed. Dead. One shot.
[System: 1,000 Points Awarded.]
[Current Rank: 55/500]
Jiang Chen stared at the corpse.
"Note to self," Jiang Chen muttered. "Never make her angry."
"That was sloppy," Mo You commented, leaning against a rock. "You wasted energy. You could have just snapped its neck."
"But it's flashy!" Feng Xi landed, looking proud. She ran over to the corpse and started digging for the Monster Core. "Master! Look! A B-Rank Core! Can I eat it? Can I? Can I?"
"Eat half," Jiang Chen said. "Save the other half. We can sell it."
"You are cheap," Feng Xi pouted, but she happily crunched into the fiery crystal.
Jiang Chen looked at his watch. His rank had skyrocketed. But he wasn't done.
"Luo Tian," Jiang Chen looked at the leaderboard.
1. Luo Tian - 1,500 Points.
"He's still ahead," Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed. "He must be mass-farming mobs with his team."
"Do we kill him?" Mo You asked, sharpening her shadow dagger.
"No," Jiang Chen smiled dangerously. "We do something worse. We steal his prey."
He opened the map.
"Luo Tian is a Storm Lancer. He needs open ground to fight effectively. That means he's heading for the 'Thunder Plains' in the north."
Jiang Chen turned to his two goddesses.
"Ladies, how fast can we travel?"
Mo You smirked. She grabbed Jiang Chen's shoulder. Feng Xi grabbed the other.
"Hold your breath, Sovereign," Mo You whispered.
Shadows wrapped around them.
"Abyssal Walk."
They vanished into the darkness, leaving only the cooling corpse of the Salamander behind.
The Thunder Plains
Luo Tian stood atop a hill, his spear crackling with lightning. Below him, his team of twenty students was slaughtering a pack of Thunder Wolves.
"Keep pushing!" Luo Tian shouted. "I want 2,000 points before sunset! No one takes the Number 1 spot from me!"
"Young Master Luo!" A scout ran up. "Bad news!"
"What? Did the Berserker Ye Kuang catch up?"
"No... it's the leaderboard. Look at Rank 5."
Luo Tian checked his watch.
5. Jiang Chen - 1,050 Points.
"What?!" Luo Tian's face twisted. "Impossible! He's a C-Rank cripple! How did he get 1,000 points in an hour? Did he find a glitch?"
"We... we don't know. But the drone feeds show he just one-shot a B-Rank Elite."
Luo Tian gritted his teeth. "He must be using illegal artifacts. That sword of his... it must be S-Rank."
"What do we do?"
Luo Tian looked at the dark storm clouds gathering above.
"Change of plans," Luo Tian sneered. "Forget the wolves. We hunt the cripple. Send the signal to the Bai and Ye clans. Tell them we found the target."
He raised his spear.
"Let's see if his artifacts can save him from an army."
Little did he know, he wasn't the one hunting. He was just gathering the sheep for the slaughter.