Rainor switched one of the big screens. “Sir Robert, I think it has something to do with him.” The view shifted to WINI.
Robert frowned. “What is going on there? Why are the beasts just standing still instead of attacking? Is he doing some kind of mental attack on them? That shouldn’t be possible for a beginner?level awakener.”
Ramyas watched closely. “Even I don’t understand what I’m seeing. The moment that boy WINI walks near the beasts, they just… freeze. There isn’t even a flicker in their eyes. And then—he moves his hand downward and, in that instant, all the beasts around him lose their heads. It looks like some invisible skill. What kind of cheat ability is that?”
“That’s not a cheat,” Robert said slowly. “That feels like a very powerful technique he created from his understanding of his soul.”
Kaigal crossed his arms. “Doesn’t that mean he’s the first one in history to actually understand and use this unique soul properly?”
Evan shook her head slightly. “Don’t jump to conclusions yet. A skill that strong at his level might have a heavy cost.”
Robert nodded. “Agreed. Let’s not make any false judgments yet.” But I have to get him, he added silently. If he really understands his own soul, and if he reaches even the entry level of Ascension, he’ll be a tremendous asset in the future.
Inside the Trial Grounds, WINI walked calmly through the outer forest, eyes half?lidded.
“The moment I attacked Oscherin using the Void Eye…” he murmured, “I understood one of the most lethal attacks I can use with it.”
His left eye twitched, faint purple light deep within.
“Pulling the target’s mind into a void space for a short time,” he thought. “How long I can hold them there depends on their mental strength. While their mind is trapped, their body can’t move.”
He glanced around.
Invisible to normal sight, he could see faint nodes hanging in the space around him—points where Void responded easily. By marking beasts with his Void Eye, those nodes linked to them.
“With these nodes,” WINI continued in his mind, “I can use Thread Slash as Multi?Thread Slash. Mark the targets with Void Eye, connect them, then cut all at once. It’s really a very powerful skill…”
He exhaled softly.
“Now that I’ve tested it enough, it’s time to clear the outer zone like I planned.”
He stepped toward the next pack of beasts.
They raised their heads—then their eyes went dull, their bodies stiff.
WINI’s left hand moved slightly, as if pulling invisible strings downward.
Several heads fell at once.
Beasts count
In the monitoring hall, Kaigal turned to Rainor. “What are the total beasts numbers inside the Trial Grounds again?”
Rainor brought up the configuration panel. “For this Trial, the arrangement was:
Outer zone:
- 1200 low?tier
- 800 mid?tier
- 450 high?tier common beasts (1–3 points each)
Inner zone:
- 400 low?tier spirit beasts
- 200 low? to mid?tier aberrant beasts (3–5 points each)
Central zone:
- 100 high?tier aberrant beasts
- 1 low?tier Voidspawn beast (5–10 points each).”
Robert nodded. “Then the remaining beasts right now should be…
Outer zone: twenty?six.
Inner zone: two hundred twelve spirit beasts plus one hundred thirty aberrant beasts.
Central zone: unchanged.”
Rainor squinted at the live counters and shook his head. “Correction, Sir Robert. Outer zone remaining beasts have just dropped to zero. Inner zone has only two hundred seventy beasts left total, including spirits and aberrants.”
Robert laughed. “Hahaha. Looks like we really did get some good seedlings this year.”
One of the teachers in the back pointed at the ranking board. “Look, rankings are shifting. A few positions changed—except for rank one and two.”
Current ranking:
1st: Oscherin Terrion — 977 points
2nd: Aashna Icenfield — 933
3rd: Aarna Asval — 715
4th: Carg Capster — 710
5th: Gonad Valtoris — 618
6th: Grandellion Cellewars — 604
7th: Miron Tuberlin — 590
…
310th: Winay Hecksopian — 398
“What?” several instructors blurted. “WINI is already at three hundred tenth?”
Outside the Trial Grounds, students stared at the ranking board as numbers jumped.
Student 34: “Hey, look—the rankings are changing like crazy. Even the last positions are moving.”
Student 35: “How is that possible? He was second?last just five minutes ago. Now he’s already at three hundred tenth—no, it moved again. Two hundred ninetieth!”
Pebble clenched his teeth. “He must be cheating. How else can his rank go up by more than six hundred in five minutes? It has to be cheating. There’s no other explanation.”
Student 322: “Yeah… he’s probably cheating.”
More and more students, unable to accept the sudden jump, whispered the same thing.
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Then a wave of pressure swept across the area.
The supervising teacher released her skill—Sonic Silence—and all sound in a wide radius simply cut off. Mouths still moved, but no voices came out.
Only then did she speak, her voice clear and magnified.
“Everyone calm down,” the teacher said. “There is no cheating. I just received confirmation from the monitoring hall.”
The students calmed—not because they understood, but because they physically couldn’t keep arguing under that skill. None of them had expected their quiet?looking teacher to have such a ridiculously strong area?control ability.
Oscherin watched the board, eyes narrowed.
If that guy Winay keeps this pace, he’ll definitely surpass my score. She folded her arms. Good thing there are no low?tier beasts left in the outer zone. He’ll have to enter the inner zone now. Only thirty minutes left…
She frowned.
The real problem isn’t him. It’s those other three—Aashna, Aarna, and that Gonad. Their points are rising like crazy. How are they hunting this fast in the inner zone? Are they burning their innate skills? If so, they’ll come out early.
She shook her head.
No use worrying. I’m already out.
Inside the Trial, Carg leaned against a scorched rock, rune patterns fading slowly from the air.
“These aberrant beasts are getting harder to kill with instant inscriptions,” he muttered. “And I’m out of spirit energy…”
He looked at his wristband.
“I’ve already reached the peak of my current realm and pushed my Rune Soul in real combat. That’s enough.”
He crushed his wristband and let the teleport light envelop him, exiting the Trial with fifth rank locked.
Elsewhere, Miron watched his own points stall. “Carg’s score stopped moving. Looks like he got eliminated.”
He grinned. “If I keep hunting, everyone might end up eliminated. Hahaha, let’s cont—”
Three aberrant beasts—Oxjackals with twisted horns—burst from the side and charged him at once.
Miron’s smile vanished.
Without hesitation, he crushed his wristband. Light flared, and he disappeared before the first claw reached him.
Back in the monitoring hall, names shuffled.
What surprised everyone was a sudden appearance in seventh place—a name that had stayed low and quiet until now.
Laxsi Stalwart.
She had surged upward after facing aberrant beasts—only to be knocked out almost immediately after confronting two Jagubulls.
WINI moved deeper into the inner zone, scanning his surroundings.
“I’m only seeing spirit beasts,” he murmured. “Where did the aberrant beasts go?”
At that moment, a Jagubull—bull?like body with jagged spectral horns—lunged from his left.
“Dodge first,” WINI muttered, twisting out of its path. “Then use the same method.”
He activated his Void Eye.
This time, the Jagubull’s mind snapped back more quickly. Its mental strength far outclassed common beasts. The Void grip lasted barely two seconds.
But two seconds was enough.
During that short stillness, WINI’s invisible threads wrapped around marked nodes and fell.
The beast’s head separated cleanly from its neck.
“Even aberrants can’t resist for long,” he noted. “As long as I’m fast.”
The same pattern repeated with an Oxjackal pack. Their minds broke free faster than common beasts, but not before his Multi?Thread Slash finished its work.
He continued forward, each kill clean and efficient.
Ramyas stared at the screen, unable to look away.
“How is he cutting the beasts’ heads off that cleanly every single time?” she asked. “Even on aberrant beasts, there’s not a single mistake. This doesn’t surprise me anymore—he’s using the same method on them too. Did he awaken some new technique after that meditation?”
“That might be possible,” Robert said. “During beginner stages, cultivators have the highest chance of awakening new skills just from deep understanding of their soul.”
Kaigal laughed. “This is really good. Look—his ranking climbed again. He’s tenth now, with five hundred seventy points. And we still have twenty?five minutes left.”
Evan watched quietly, thoughts turning. Is he manipulating space itself to execute those perfect cuts? he wondered.
The board updated:
Total students: 900
Remaining students inside the Trial Grounds: 8
Total remaining beasts:
Outer zone: 0
Inner zone: 75
Central zone: 95 high?tier aberrant beasts, 1 Voidspawn
Outside, more whispers rose as students saw the scores.
“The first place might change…”
Oscherin exhaled softly. “Looks like I’m not destined to get that soul?based artifact from the Council after all…”
Inside the Trial Grounds:
Aashna checked her wristband. “Let me see the rankings… I’m still five points away from first. All the beasts in the central zone are worth five points each.” Her eyes cooled. “Then I’ll finish some of those and take first place first.”
As she stepped forward, five high?tier aberrant beasts—Boarhoundraks—charged at her, their massive bodies twisted with corruption.
“If we hadn’t been briefed about these things beforehand,” Aashna thought, “most people would have been scared to death and crushed their wristbands on sight.”
She drew in more energy.
Glacial Veil condensed, its output surging. The surrounding temperature plummeted. The Boarhoundraks slowed by half.
“Second innate skill,” she whispered. “Ice Spikes.”
Dozens of razor?sharp icicles shot out, piercing the beasts’ softer joints and eye sockets. Three died on the spot. Two managed to twist, avoiding fatal hits.
I missed because of over?consumption, she realized, breathing heavier.
“Again. Ice Spikes.”
The remaining two Boarhoundraks fell.
“Uff… I’m really tired,” Aashna muttered. “Spirit energy is almost gone. If any more beasts come, I’ll have to crush my wristband.”
Meanwhile, WINI was cutting through beasts like tofu, his points climbing rapidly.
The board shifted again:
1st: Aashna Icenfield — 997
2nd: Oscherin Terrion — 977
3rd: Aarna Asval — 915
4th: Winay Hecksopian — 850
5th: Gonad Valtoris — 760
6th: Carg Capster — 710
7th: Grandellion Cellewars — 655
8th: Laxsi Stalwart — 650
9th: Miron Tuberlin — 590
Now, only five students remained inside the Trial.
Far away, Grandellion stomped through the inner zone, sword resting on his shoulder.
“Why are there no beasts?” he complained. “Are they scared of my might? Uhhahaha.”
He had been walking like that for almost thirty minutes and had only killed five beasts—not for lack of courage, but because he simply wasn’t finding any.
“Fine,” he decided at last. “No strong beasts here. Let’s move toward the center. But… which way is the center?”
He frowned, thinking hard.
“The last beast I killed came from the front,” he concluded proudly. “That means the strong beasts are coming from the central zone. So—front is the center. Hahaha! I’m such a genius. Let’s go.”
He marched onward.
WINI checked the time on his wristband.
“Can’t delay anymore,” he muttered. “Only fifteen minutes left.”
He looked toward the central region.
“Should I just go for the final boss? The low?tier Voidspawn beast…” He nodded to himself. “Yes. I’ll head to the center. There should be more beasts there too. With Void Eye’s mental pull and Multi?Thread Slash together, eliminating them should be possible.”
He drew a deep breath.
“I guess it’s also time to activate one more ability of the Void Eye—Void Zone.”
As his left eye flared again, a subtle field spread around him.
Void Zone.
A ten?meter domain that detected everything within range through spatial fluctuations, automatically active as long as the Void Eye was open.
Within that field, he sensed movement.
“Six Boarhoundraks… and eleven Oxjackals,” WINI murmured. “Coming from the center direction.”
He smiled faintly. “Then that direction should be where the boss is.”
He stepped forward.
Within the domain, he marked the incoming beasts, pulled their minds briefly into Void, and unleashed Multi?Thread Slash.
All seventeen beasts fell in clean, near?simultaneous strikes.
His ranking jumped again, climbing to third.
Aarna checked her band. “How is he rising that fast? I should head toward the center too.”
Aashna and Gonad also shifted direction toward the central zone, while one person still wandered the inner zone, struggling to find a single beast.
Grandellion looked around, confused. “Still no strong beasts. Fine. Definitely the front is center. I’ll just keep walking forward…”
Everyone left inside the Trial began to converge toward the central zone.
Only five remained.
At the heart of the Trial Grounds, one low?tier Voidspawn beast waited—a final boss, and the last, decisive points that would decide who stood at the top when time ran out.