Beneath the Cliff

The updrafts beneath the cliff carried scorching waves of heat as they roared upward. From time to time, mist was swept high between the rock walls, like layers of billowing white smoke, faintly shimmering with rainbow halos beneath the sunlight.

The trial entered its fifth hour.

The stone slabs at the platform's edge had been repeatedly trampled until they seemed smoother than before. Candidates were scattered across different areas. Some had simply given up trying, sitting in corners to drink water and catch their breath; others were still studying the rhythm of the airflow, staring blankly at the densely packed vents below the cliff.

At the western end of the platform, in a seemingly dangerous corner of the broken cliff, several faint silver-white threads swayed gently in the hot wind.

No one noticed what they were.

Except Ryan.

He crouched at the edge with his hands resting on his knees, his gaze quietly fixed on the threads between the cracks in the rocks.

They were not plants, nor were they grass vines drifting in the wind—they were spider silk left behind by Spider Hawks when building their nests. Exceptionally tough and only as thick as chopsticks, some of them lay so close to the rock that they covered entire stretches of cliff face. These threads not only held the Spider Hawks' eggs in place but also served as cushioning passages for them.

"The silk's tension is stable, but the humidity is high. It'll be easy to slip after stepping on it. If I want to use it for support, I need to secure an anchor point beforehand and mark the rebound angle."

So he quietly untied a spare strip of cloth from his backpack, tightly fastened one end to a strand of silk near the platform, and secured the other end in a natural hole in the cliff wall. Then, with a small stone, he lightly drew a symbol on the ground: an arrow with three short lines.

The whole thing took less than two minutes and alerted no one.

He stood up and lightly dusted off his pants, as if nothing had happened.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the southern end of the platform.

"Wah—! Help—!"

It was a familiar voice.

Ryan looked up and saw that unmistakable figure.

Leorio.

The tall, loud medical student with a temper was halfway down the cliff face, roughly six meters from the platform. One hand tightly protected a freshly collected egg, while the other gripped a loose rock. The cliff beneath his feet had cracked after he stepped on it several times and could give way at any moment.

"Just hold on... damn it—"

He tried to turn himself around and climb back, but his right foot slipped, sending both him and the egg plunging sideways.

At that moment, the secured strand of spider silk suddenly went taut.

The silk cinched around the left side of his waist, violently yanking him to a stop as he dangled and swayed in midair beside the cliff face.

Leorio froze for two seconds before realizing he was still alive. He grabbed the silk, carefully tucked the egg into his shirt pocket first, then struggled upward, gasping as he climbed back to the edge of the rock platform.

He sat against a rock and noticed a tiny symbol on the ground—an arrow pointing toward the cliff, with three fine marks beside it, clearly carved into the weathered stone.

He said nothing. He merely took the egg from his shirt pocket and held it carefully against his chest again.

He did not know what had happened, but he knew someone had saved him when he was about to fall. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Ryan, the nearest person around, hesitated for a moment, then hurried off to submit his task and register it.

Meanwhile, Ryan had already slowly risen to his feet, dusted his hands, and turned his gaze back toward the cliff below.

The next updraft was already brewing at the bottom of the valley.

Less than thirty minutes remained before the trial ended.

On the platform, some people began pacing back and forth anxiously. Others stared blankly at a nest below the cliff face, seemingly debating whether to make one last desperate attempt.

"Thirty minutes left. If I don't try, I'm out," someone muttered softly, clutching their hair with both hands.

At last, a candidate carrying a small backpack set out. He chose a more distant section of cliff, placing his feet in cracks in the rock and pressing both hands to the wall as he slowly slid down. Soon, he reached a massive strand of spider silk stretched between the two sides. It was thicker than the others and appeared to be the main line Spider Hawks used to reinforce their primary nest. Mucus and feather debris still clung to its surface.

He nervously swallowed, carefully hooked his right hand around the silk, then firmly fastened his homemade "hook" above it. Once everything was ready, he took a deep breath and slowly leaned his body forward, preparing to use the momentum to swing toward the egg nest.

However, halfway through the swing, he suddenly felt something watching him. His heart tightened, and he immediately realized what it was.

"Chirp—!!" With a piercing cry, a black shadow shot out from the other side of the cliff like lightning. It was a Spider Hawk, its gray-feathered wings spread wide as it carved a graceful semicircle through the air.

The Spider Hawk's appearance left him utterly stunned. Its eyes were sharp and vicious, and it clutched a piece of broken rock in its talons. Clearly, it had been circling high above for a long time, waiting for this very moment.

"Ah—!" Faced with the sudden attack, the candidate screamed in terror. He watched helplessly as the Spider Hawk dove at him like a ferocious fighter jet, so fast that he had no time to react.

He tried to turn and dodge, but the Spider Hawk was simply too fast for him to keep up. The next moment, its talons, like a deadly scythe, precisely seized his left arm. With a ripping sound, his protective gear was torn apart, and blood sprayed out like a fountain.

The searing pain made him release the rope in his hand. Like a kite with its string cut, his body fell straight into the white mist filling the deep valley and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

He was not the first person to be attacked, but he was very likely the last. After all, everyone else present had already given up. With time running out, those who did not dare descend had long since backed away.

The Spider Hawk circled once in the air, its sharp gaze sweeping over the surroundings. Only after confirming there were no other targets did it slowly glide back to the nest on the distant cliff wall. Once there, it resumed crouching over the eggs like a dutiful guardian, as if nothing had happened.

Leorio narrowed his eyes and stared hard at the retreating silhouette of the hawk. A thin layer of cold sweat formed on his forehead. "...That really isn't an ordinary bird. Good thing I didn't run into it when I took the egg," he muttered, his voice carrying a mixture of complexity and relief.

Not far across from him, Ryan sat quietly on the edge of the platform, his body leaning slightly forward as though observing something. Though he did not look up, his mind replayed the faint sound the hawk's wings made as they cut through the air. He even wanted to catch the abnormal tremor produced by the wind pressure tearing through the air in the instant before it struck.

Every detail flashed rapidly through Ryan's mind: the Spider Hawk taking off from its hiding place, locking onto its target, diving down, and striking with its talons, as though he had experienced it himself. Then he gave a self-mocking smile. Why am I thinking about this?

He had already successfully turned in two eggs. There was no need to face a Spider Hawk, nor was there any need to risk descending again. Besides, he had incidentally helped Leorio, one of the main group. That was enough for him.

In this trial, every extra move would draw the attention of more candidates and create more potential enemies. What he wanted was "a smooth pass," not "being watched as a competitor in the later exams."

In the distance, the examiner stood at the edge of the high platform, holding a terminal as he reviewed each candidate's progress records. His gaze swept across the platform, and he remained silent.

The wind continued to blow. The Spider Hawk still lay motionless over its nest. The heat surging from the valley floor stirred restlessly, as though ready to unleash another round of trials at any moment.