Unaware that failing to place first would earn him a ruthless reckoning from the "Little Radiant Chick" in his arms, Yun Qing was still carefully concealing his tracks as he made his way through the blood-soaked forest.
The slaughter was far more brutal than he had expected. Cultivators' corpses lay strewn along his path. Some had been blasted to pieces by Magic Treasures, others had died with their hearts pierced and eyes wide open. Worse still, some had been drained of all spiritual energy, the List Marks on their foreheads dimmed, clearly plundered of everything while still alive.
The stench of blood hung thick and unyielding among the trees, while greed and murderous intent surged in the shadows.
Finding a crevice in the rocks screened by vines, Yun Qing slipped inside sideways. He lifted the fluffy Little Radiant Chick from his shoulder into his palm and sat down cross-legged.
The little fellow seemed to have accepted his fate, calmly allowing Yun Qing to hold him. Occasionally, he groomed the Down Feathers on his chest with his tiny beak, his bearing somehow possessing a touch of regal disdain for all beneath the heavens.
Yun Qing absentmindedly stroked his warm little body, his mind racing. First, he needed to work out how exactly this "game" was meant to be played.
"Little Golden Fur, the rules said that every three days, whoever has the least merit loses the protection of fortune." His fingertips brushed over the chick's soft down, successfully mussing the feathers Yun Huang had just groomed. "But the problem is, there's no live leaderboard."
He kept talking to the Little Radiant Chick, thinking aloud.
"Everyone's stuck in a 'blind box.' You don't know how far you are from last place, or how much 'experience' you'll get for killing the person in