The half-hour allotted for rest and recovery ended, and the noisy discussions in the plaza atop Moonwatch Mountain subsided. Every gaze once again focused on the enormous bluestone arena at its center.
The second trial of the preliminary round was about to begin-a far crueler test that could truly reveal the gulf between geniuses.
Unlike the Arrow Rain Trial, which offered a chance of scraping through on movement techniques, reflexes, or endurance, this round of actual combat against exotic beasts would truly sift the martial artists by cultivation, fighting strength, temperament, and battle experience.
The atmosphere across the mountaintop quietly grew tense and murderous. Even the breeze brushing over the arena's bluestone patterns seemed to carry a chilling intent to fight.
Just then, deep within Moonwatch Mountain, low, hoarse roars brimming with ferocity drifted from the direction of the sealed mountain path on the Back Mountain.
Beast roars pierced the forest's barrier, echoing out from the Back Mountain in waves. Savage and frenzied, laden with wild, murderous menace, they made the air tremble faintly. An overpowering aura of the untamed wilderness seemed to ride within them as they reached the ears of everyone in the mountaintop plaza.
Everyone's heart tightened at the sound, and they turned toward the depths of the forest behind them.
Yang Jing, who had been recovering with his eyes closed, slowly opened them as well. His gaze remained calm as he looked toward the Back Mountain, where the roars originated.
No ordinary forest predator could have made such ferocious cries. They had to belong to the mid-tier patterned beasts Commandant Tan had mentioned-the opponents every advancing martial artist would face in this trial.
With that thought, Yang Jing understood something that had puzzled him earlier.
Today, only the broad main road at the front had been