Chương 102: Edge of the Proving Grounds

The carriage creaked and jolted over uneven ground as we traversed slowly through the dense woodland. Every bump sent fresh waves of pain through my body. My pale skin was covered in half-healed cuts and bruises that pulled tight with every movement. The dark-green tea trees pressed in closer around us. Their glossy leaves rustled softly overhead like whispered warnings. The air carried a heavy, earthy bitterness mixed with the metallic tang of old blood that still clung to our clothes.

Thick roots snaked across the narrow path, forcing the wheels to twist dangerously. Low-hanging branches scraped against the carriage sides, leaving fresh scratches that sounded too much like claws. The sky above remained a sullen grey. Heavy clouds promised rain that never quite fell, leaving the ground damp and treacherous, with mud sucking at our boots as those of us on foot trudged alongside. Emotion weighed heavily on every survivor. Grief sat like a stone in my chest, making each breath feel labored.

I kept thinking of Mo's final stand, of Lianfeng's scream as the monster took him, and of the thirty others we lost to the Thornapes. Their faces haunted the edges of my broken vision. Only my willpower to pull the others out of this trouble moved me forward. I acted as though I were perhaps less hurt by all the accumulated deaths, but that was far from the truth.

Inside, I was constantly beating myself up for my own weakness, cursing myself for being too weak in Animo, for having no real control over my Soul Vestuto, and for possessing no true authority. Still, I understood that right now, I was the absolute last pillar for the others. I knew that if I openly displayed my active qualms to the outside world, it would be completely over for all of us. And that grief sat like a stone in my chest. It made each breath feel more labored.

I kept thinking of Mo's final stand, of Lianfeng's scream as the monster took him, and of the thirty others we lost to the Thornapes. Their faces haunted the edges of my vision. I gripped the side of the carriage tighter, trying to channel the sorrow into quiet proper determination. We had come too far to fall apart now. Yet the silence between us felt heavier than any battle. Occasional soft sobs broke it.. Encounters came frequently.

Small groups of bandits and rogue warriors ambushed us from the underbrush, not because they were simple thieves, but because this place seemed to breed violence. We jumped them out of pure necessity. Survival left no room for mercy. One skirmish blurred into another as blades clashed against tired arms.

Flames from my weaker and weaker Elsa di Fuoco lit the dim forest in short, desperate bursts, while Xhife's wind-enhanced strikes knocked foes off balance and Xihua's incense smoke created brief sanctuaries where we could regroup in. Each fight drained us further, yet we pressed on eastward, hoping the direction would lead us toward an exit from this nightmare biome. The worst came on the third day when we were ambushed by a group of twenty-two bandits. They were the strongest we had yet encountered.

They were not a single crew, but a temporary alliance of many different groups, bound together by the scent of wounded prey and the sight of a moving carriage. They stepped out of the tea trees in a loose ring and closed it tightly around us. Hardened men and women with scarred faces and eyes that held no light blocked a narrow pass between two steep hills. Their leader, a burly man with a jagged scar across his throat, laughed coarsely as he signaled the charge.

"Fresh meat for the Grounds!" he bellowed in a deep tone, his voice echoing off the trees.

"I told you boys this place always gives you opportunities when you least expect it! Heehee!" The problem was that over the time we tried to get out of the region and through all the battles we came through, now only seven of us were in any condition to fight at the front with some Animo available in the tank. The rest guarded the carriage because we could not show too much weakness, even if anyone could somewhat tell these survivors could barely hold themselves or their weapons straight.

The weakest survivors were completely out of the question for battle. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Xhife on the forefront and a few others on the side positions. My heart pounded with exhaustion and rising anger, but also with excitement, as my heart pulsated strongly with it despite my weakness. Without that surge of energy, I would also be on the sides and not at the front lines.

"We have already lost too much these days, I can't stand your ugly stenches no more!" I growled with annoyance. Flames roared along my blade as I met the first attacker. Steel rang against steel, and the impact jarred my shoulders. I twisted and slashed low, catching him across the legs, and he fell screaming. But more came, their numbers pressing us hard. Xhife spun like a weakened demon, his staff bruise ribs and feet in rapid succession.

"Not one step closer!" he snarled through clenched teeth as he huffed and puffed for air himself. Sweat and blood mixed on his baby face. The battle stretched long and brutal. Swords whistled past my ears, and one grazed my arm, sending hot pain lancing through me. I retaliated with a subconscious Ignis Ardente, unleashing a short aura burst that burned two bandits badly. Their screams joined the chaos.

The ground turned muddy with blood and churned earth, and leaves fell like green rain as branches snapped overhead. We fought with everything left in us. Survival fueled every strike, and memories of fallen comrades pushed us far beyond our tired muscles. One by one, the bandits fell until only their leader remained, who had been eating a fruit while relaxing and laughing over our performance.

He staggered back to the edge of a steep drop, forced there by the others attacking him after the massive numbers of his crew got killed, putting him in a severe bind himself. It was a sheer, tree-lined cliff where roots clung desperately to crumbling soil. The man was turning completely mad over the sudden state of events. Blood poured from multiple wounds, yet he laughed wildly, his eyes gleaming with an insane fury.

"You think this ends me?" he shouted, his voice cracking.

"The Grounds demand blood with each day more coming, and then out!" He lunged forward one last time, his sword raised high for a powerful attack that would secure his maddening win, intending to massacre the whole area in sheer wind force as his wind Vestuto gathered. Our leader Zhuofing, who was still weakened in his current state but refused to stay idle while seeing all of us being not enough to stop this madman even when forcing weapons inside his body, stepped in to foil the plan.

He moved forward, fully knowing that the bandit leader would survive the current damage and we would all perish if left unchecked. His partial Vestuto from his weakened state flared around his arm in a brief, explosive surge of earth power. He punched the madman square in the chest with a 30 % charge. The impact sent the leader flying backward, and he slammed into the tree at the cliff edge. Roots cracked under the immense force.

Blood bubbled from his lips as he slid down the trunk, and leaves drifted down around him like a funeral shroud. The action gave us a desperate moment of rest as his attack was successfully foiled. We all let our weapons rest for a brief second, though I still slowly approached the fallen man with my blade ready, refusing to be naive. Emotion choked my voice.

"Why are you fighting us? Where are we? Tell me… before you go." The fallen warrior coughed, and blood flecked his lips. His eyes, once wild, now dimmed with the approach of death as he struggled for breath." Grounds …" The word came out faint and broken. We could not discern much more from him, yet it was enough to make the truth clear. The entire biome here was beating with combat everywhere. We were right in the middle of it, standing directly on the edge and constantly being forced to fight for our lives.

But his dying word gave us a spark of hope. We were still on the edge of this Grounds area and not yet lost in its deepest horrors. We decided then. Rather than go deeper and die like unknown beggars on the road, we would go depper east and find an exit from there. The group murmured agreement, their voices tired but resolute.

"East it is," Zhuofing said weakly from the carriage.

"We have come too far to die forgotten." We moved again slowly, hiding ourselves whenever we saw big movements ahead. The forest grew thicker in places, with vines hanging like curtains and ancient trees standing with trunks wide enough to hide entire groups. Birds fell silent as we passed, as if sensing the tension. Xhife and I scouted ahead. Our steps were light and careful over the mossy ground.

Qixian and Xihua stayed behind with the others, fighting off attackers whenever it was needed and making sure the main group could advance safely. They rotated duties with the stronger survivors, sharing the heavy burden so that no one broke completely under the strain. On the next scouting day, after two full days of tense travel, we met the biggest monster here in presence. We were really unlucky recently, and I felt it deep in my heart that we would not come out alive from this one if he chose to kill us.

This was a amber hued man standing one point eighty-eight meters tall, with a wide body, big arms, small legs, and thin, wild grey hair falling to his ears. He was thirty-three years old. His presence was incredibly powerful with every single step he took, pressing down on the air like an invisible storm of pure might. We had planned to use ourselves as bait, just as we had a day prior with smaller threats to give the others a chance for survival, coping with the hope that we would also make it out unscathed.

For me, that hope was nothing but a lie to myself, though I did not know about Xhife; perhaps he really believed we would find an exit. Xhife was already in the tree, hanging effortlessly like a monkey. One of his hands gripped deep into the bark, anchoring his massive frame. This terrifying adversary was completely ready, his left arm poised to swing a massive double axe made out of iron and coal right into the center of any fool trying to challenge him. Then he saw me.

Moving with teleport-like speed, he suddenly stood right before me as he swung his weapon, the speed of the air so powerful that it created a staggering G-force. But the moment he saw me and realized I was a Suren, he laughed and stopped his attack mid-swing. It was a deep, rumbling sound that shook trees and the very ground from the area. He took out a liquor bottle from his back.

Then, pulling me toward him with his other hand, he forced the bottle into my mouth, making me gargle it down before drinking the rest for himself. We both went down to the ground as he celebrated, the sight of seeing a Suren here of all places making him laugh to delirious levels, as if he simply could not believe his own eyes. Xhife slipped back quietly, understanding it was better to seek all the help he could find.

Witnessing the man's base swing, which did not even warrant a Vestuto activation to create such terrifying power, made Xhife realize it would take all of us to try to overcome him, so he silently disappeared into the trees. The man and I talked and talked after that. His voice carried a rough amusement mixed with genuine curiosity.

"This is the first time I see a Suren in the Proving Grounds?!" He leaned one shoulder against a thick tree trunk, his massive frame making the ancient wood creak under his weight.

"And why are you here, boy? Looking like you crawled out of hell itself." I explained carefully, mixing a lie with the truth to buy us some time.

"I was brought here unwillingly through my master. Our agency took a job that led us into the rift. It did cost many lives. Good people died for it. We are just trying to get out and recuperate our spirits." He laughed again, this time even louder. One eye squinted high in disbelief as he took another massive swig from his next bottle.

"You think you can fool me? Talking about a Master, pah! You have to be from the Star Sect! The only ones that allow Suren in! That has to be it!" I denied it hard, shaking my head with real frustration and fear.

"I am not a sect member. I don't even know where I am right now. Could you help and tell us? We have many wounded. Women and men who have lost everything. Please help us out." He looked ready to strike again, his double axe twitching slightly in his powerful grip upon seeing so many coming out from the trees in such numbers. Then our full force arrived, now down to only sixty-five survivors. They emerged slowly from the heavy trees, completely weakened and bloodied, yet still fiercely determined.

He saw us all in full view. He shrugged at first, but then his expression shifted entirely as a quiet understanding dawned in his hard eyes. He could see the undeniable merit in my words. He lowered the axe slowly.

"This is the Proving Grounds," he explained. His voice was gruff but steady.

"Where all powerful warriors from the eastern and western Zhongguodao meet to fight. This was the place where Wujiren-Dao was birthed, in a small village that no longer exists. People fight here because four hundred years ago there was a rumor. A martial arts scroll or book hiding somewhere in these lands, anything from a man like him. Be it a small booklet or a full martial scroll, it would make your Animo and standing jump tremendously. That is the reason for so many years people come and fight.

But sometimes, if you come with a group, greed does it. You can't even trust your closest ally, here in this brutal place." He showed us a fresh but healed scar along his side.

"It was one year ago. My trusted partner betrayed me here. I had to kill him. Now I am here to find the book myself after failure." His eyes darkened with old pain.

"You guys clearly won't have that information. Whoever gave you this job wanted you all to perish. Not too many know of this place because of its potential of hidden power growth. It can hide powerful individuals like me, who are still specks in this area. The deeper you go, the more horrendous, crazy fucks and maniacs you would find running around." He paused, looking over our ragged group again. Something like reluctant respect crossed his face.

"I will help you get out. Luckily it is only seven hundred kilometers till a city where this craziness would not follow." Relief washed over me so strongly my knees nearly buckled. Tears of relief at my eyes slowly appeared, not from sorrow this time, but from the first real hope in days. The man clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, nearly knocking me over.

"Name's Gorran. Stick close. And try not to die before we reach the edge." We moved out together. The conversation continued in fragments as we traveled. Gorran shared more stories of the Grounds, speaking of battles that lasted weeks and alliances formed and shattered in the same hour. I listened closely, sharing pieces of our own journey in return. I told him about the Flayskin Thornapes, our losses on these grounds, and hid the part about the pearls that started it all.

Emotion thickened my voice at times, but he simply nodded without judgment, his own scars speaking louder than words. Xhife walked closer to me during one stretch of the path.

"You really think he will lead us true?" he asked quietly, his baby face still marked by exhaustion.

"We have no choice but to trust for now," I replied.

"But we stay ready for anything." I glanced back at the carriage, looking at the survivors who had endured so much. Grief still lingered, heavy and constant, yet hope flickered alongside it now, a small flame in the darkness. The forest slowly changed as we headed east. Trees thinned in places, revealing distant hills bathed in weak sunlight. The air felt marginally lighter, becoming less oppressive. Gorran led with confident strides, his double axe resting across his broad shoulders.

We followed, less than sixty-five battered souls clinging to the promise of an exit. Seven hundred kilometers sounded endless, but it was a path, a clear direction, and something to fight for beyond mere survival. The Proving Grounds still watched us, its violence never far away. Yet, for the first time since leaving the Rift Cave, I allowed myself to believe we might truly escape its grasp.