Cleared!

"Ten, nine, eight..."

The blood-red countdown on the wall pounded at everyone's hearts like a drumbeat heralding death.

The gap in the stone doorway grew wider and wider, already large enough for someone to squeeze through sideways. Fresh air carrying the scent of grass and trees rushed inside.

That was the scent of freedom!

"Quick! Leorio, Kurapika, Gon, you go first!"

Killua stood at the front and shouted.

The muscles in his arms bulged as he braced himself against the stone door, which was slowly sliding shut again.

Although the Nen had dissipated when the stone door opened, there was still something strange about it. It seemed to have a weighted mechanism that would slam it shut the moment the force pushing against it weakened.

"Right!"

Before Leorio and the others could react, a rotund figure slipped through the gap beneath Killua's arm as smoothly as a greased rat.

It was Tonpa.

"I'm out! I'm out! Hahaha!"

Tonpa's wild laughter rang out beyond the door, filled with the joy of surviving disaster. Without even looking back, the old opportunist scrambled toward the sunlight.

"That bastard!" Leorio cursed.

"Quit talking and move!" Killua growled. The crushing pressure from the stone door made his bones creak faintly.

Leorio, Kurapika, and Gon dared not delay another moment. They exchanged a glance, then lined up without a word and scrambled through the narrow gap one after another.

"Seven... six..."

The countdown's beeping grew increasingly urgent, like the approaching footsteps of death.

"Killua, your turn!" Lin Yan called from behind him.

Now, only the two of them remained inside.

"You go first! You're the one who found the way!" Killua shouted without looking back. The pressure from the door kept mounting, and his arms began to tremble.

"No arguments! You're faster than me. I'll go last!"

Lin Yan barked the words, driving the true qi in his dantian into a frenzy. A fresh surge of strength poured out of his body and into the stone door.

Killua felt the pressure ease. Knowing this was no time to argue, he gritted his teeth and darted through the gap like a nimble black cat, leaving only an afterimage behind.

"Five... four..."

Now, Lin Yan was the only one left inside.

"Lin Yan! Hurry!" Gon's anxious cry came from outside.

Lin Yan drew a deep breath and pushed hard with both arms, forcing the stone door open another few centimeters to buy himself one last bit of room.

"Three..."

Now!

He kicked off the floor and hurled himself forward, tucking into a perfectly executed roll as he dove toward the gap that offered his only chance of survival!

"Two..."

The instant his body passed through the doorway, he felt the edge of the stone door scrape painfully across his back through his clothes.

"One..."

Boom!

The stone door slammed shut behind him with a deafening crash that shook the ground.

Time seemed to stop at that moment.

Outside, Leorio, Kurapika, Gon, and Killua-even Tonpa, hiding farther away-stared at the sealed stone door, their hearts all but ceasing to beat.

A second later, the dust cleared.

Lin Yan was kneeling on one knee on the ground before them.

He was covered in dust, breathing a little hard, and sweat dripped down his cheeks, but he was completely unharmed.

He had made it out.

In the very last second, he had escaped.

At the other end of the platform, the timer's display finally froze at "00:00:00."

"Hah... hah... we're alive..."

Leorio dropped onto his backside, gasping like a fish out of water. Then he suddenly burst into hysterical laughter. "Haha... hahaha! We... we did it!"

Gon and Killua rushed to Lin Yan's side at once.

"Lin Yan, are you okay?" Gon asked with concern.

"I'm fine." Lin Yan shook his head, braced his hands on his knees, and stood up with a faint smile.

Killua looked at him, his eyes filled with conflicting emotions. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he merely turned his head away with an air of indifference and snorted. "You're lucky you're alive, idiot."

"Unbelievable..."

A voice tinged with astonishment came from nearby.

Only then did they notice Lippo, the Trick Tower examiner, standing a short distance away.

His trademark smile had vanished, replaced by undisguised shock.

"You... actually all passed in the very last second."

He looked at Lin Yan and the other four as though they were monsters. "Since I designed this double trap, you're the first and only team to make it out after triggering the fifty-hour penalty."

Hearing that, Leorio immediately regained his swagger. He planted his hands on his hips and shouted at Lippo, "Of course we did! Just look at who we are! How could a little trick like that stop us?"

Lippo ignored his bluster and instead fixed a searching gaze on Lin Yan amid the group.

He could tell that the heart of this team was neither the one who looked strongest, nor the most energetic, nor the one with the greatest killing intent.

It was the boy who had remained remarkably calm from beginning to end, as though everything were under his control.

He was the one who had led this team back from the brink of despair and created this miracle.

"Congratulations." Lippo put away his astonishment and resumed his professional smile. "You have all passed the Third Phase. Please follow me. The Airship is already waiting for you."

As they walked toward the landing pad, Lin Yan quietly sensed the changes within his body.

That desperate race against death had been nothing less than an intense cultivation session for him.

"So this is 'tempering the mind through external tribulation'..."

He could clearly feel that the rice-grain-sized dantian embryo in his lower dantian was spinning more smoothly and freely after enduring extreme pressure and intense mental focus.

The dantian embryo, which had previously done nothing but passively repair his body and supply energy, now seemed more closely connected to his mind.

He even felt that, with a single thought, he could send true qi to any corner of his body in an instant.

That tremendous leap in his control over his own power left him deeply moved.

"Just as I thought, you can't cultivate the Great Way by shutting yourself away. True cultivation means tempering yourself in the mortal world and finding insight between life and death."

He clenched his fists, feeling the gentle yet powerful energy within him, and a gleam flashed in his eyes.

The Hunter Exam was still far from over.

And he had only just taken his first truly solid step along his unprecedented "Golden Core Great Way."