Tree Demons

"Elder, I'm about to break through to seventh rank. I'm already at the peak of eighth rank!" A man dressed as a wealthy merchant, carrying an abacus, hastily caught hold of the old beggar. "Take me with you, and I'll give you a hundred taels of fine silver!"

"Sorry!"

The old beggar shook off the wealthy merchant's grasp, his expression resolute.

Meanwhile, thanks to the Daoist's muttering, Ye Qianfan had more or less figured things out. "What's the point of begging him? From the very beginning, he was using us to test what dangers lurked in this Fog Forest!"

"Now that he's found out what the dangers are, we've naturally become dead weight. Of course he's going to shed his tail to save his skin!"

"And to put it bluntly, we've all been competing against one another from start to finish. He'd love to have one fewer rival. Why would he help you?"

"You!"

With his intentions exposed, the old beggar's aged face turned livid.

Instead, a monk accompanying the old beggar suddenly spoke up. "Amitabha, blessings, blessings! Benefactor, what you said is wrong!"

"Oh? How is it wrong?" Ye Qianfan countered.

"Whether you're allowed to live, who can pass, and who cannot—those aren't decisions we make," the monk said. "The Demon-Quelling Office makes them. Have you benefactors still not realized that?"

"The Demon-Quelling Office clearly placed Tree Demons in this Fog Forest because it doesn't want anyone below seventh rank entering the second stage. If you obediently retreat to Fog City, you might still escape with your lives!"

"Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what?"

Ye Qianfan gave a cold laugh. He had originally thought this monk might speak more pleasantly than the old beggar.

He hadn't expected the monk to be even more hurtful. From beginning to end, his attitude was that they had only themselves to blame for entering this assessment without the ability to back it up, and deserved to die if they did.

It was thoroughly unpleasant!

"Otherwise, there's no need to sacrifice your lives for nothing." The monk pressed his palms together and continued, "This humble monk has said all he can. Benefactors, look after yourselves. Amitabha, blessings, blessings."

"There isn't much time left. All the better if you can keep up!"

The old beggar apparently had no desire to waste any more time on the others. After calling out, he simply jumped onto the monk's back.

The monk's speed was practically cheating. Even carrying someone on his back, he could leap several meters into the air, land directly on a tree trunk, and then bound rapidly forward.

The others at seventh rank or above ignored Ye Qianfan and his companions too, simply following the monk and hurrying away!

Some relied on their lightness skills, while others used a special art that shrank the ground into a single footstep. One of them even stuck yellow talisman papers onto his feet. The Daoist said those were called divine travel talismans!

Only someone at seventh rank could draw them!

Once those people had left, only a dozen or so remained, every face frightened and uneasy.

They were like the old, weak, sick, and crippled who had been abandoned. The assessment hadn't even begun, yet they had already been eliminated!

"What do we do now?"

"Go back or keep going?"

"I can't accept going back just like this. I spent three whole years preparing for this Demon-Quelling Office examination!"

"Then let's keep going and take a gamble. Maybe we can win ourselves a future!"

Everyone debated noisily.

Shen Lang, however, shook his head. "I advise you to go back. If this threshold really was set by the Demon-Quelling Office, you probably need to be at least seventh rank to qualify for the second round!"

"Even if you do get lucky and pass the first round, what confidence do you have that, in the second and third rounds..."

"You'll survive against those people at seventh rank or above?"

"Well..."

The expressions on everyone's faces immediately grew even graver.

But they were already more than halfway there. Who could possibly accept being told to turn back now?

"Even if we go back now, you can't guarantee those Tree Demons won't attack us. If we run into Tree Demons along the way, we'll still be dead!" the man dressed as a wealthy merchant said. "Rather than retreat in disgrace, I'd rather die a glorious death and have done with it! It's just a shame about my vast fortune. I haven't even finished spending it!"

"He's right! Rather than slink back and be laughed at, I'd sooner die right here in this forest!"

"Well said! Die with your cock pointing to the heavens, or live for ten thousand years!"

For all their rousing words, Ye Qianfan didn't hold out any hope for them.

If Ye Qianfan hadn't lacked a Divination Compass and been unable to find his bearings, he would have dearly loved to turn around and leave right then!

After all, Tree Demons didn't eat paper figures.

"Does anyone have a Divination Compass, or some way to find directions?"

Ye Qianfan asked.

The wealthy merchant raised the solid-gold abacus in his hand. "I don't have a Divination Compass, but this Ten Thousand Taels of Gold can calculate directions!"

"Brother Ye, are you planning to keep going?" Shen Lang wore an expression that said he had known it all along. "I knew I hadn't misjudged you. Brother Ye, you didn't go with that lot not because your rank was too low, but because you couldn't stand them, right?"

"What about you?"

Rather than answer Shen Lang's question, Ye Qianfan asked one of his own.

The Daoist had told Ye Qianfan that Shen Lang was actually already at the peak of seventh rank, yet he hadn't left with the old beggar and the others either. That was very strange.

"I can't stand them either!"

As he spoke, Shen Lang moved closer to Ye Qianfan. "Then let's set off too! Two incense sticks' worth of time have passed already, haven't they? If we delay any longer, I'm afraid we'll exceed the time limit even if we reach the finish."