Elsewhere on the screen, fragments of other battles flickered past — Qin Hao and Feng Yan locked in their own desperate struggle against a beast of considerable strength, two hooded figures moving in practised tandem through a different stretch of forest. Of the disciples who had entered the trial in full strength just days before, only a scattered handful still remained standing. Yet one thing remained constant...
All of them faced a Tier Four Spirit Beast of a different species.
On Mo Xuan and Jin Bao's side of the screen, the Demon Tiger took another step forward.
Boom.
The ground trembled beneath its paw, the impact travelling up through the soil and into the soles of their feet. Mo Xuan's eyes narrowed. The beast's aura was suffocating — it was pressing against every instinct.
Jin Bao's face had gone the colour of ash. "Brother Mo..."
"I know," Mo Xuan said, his grip tightening around the hilt until his knuckles whitened.
There was no version of this fight where ordinary means carried them through. Even combining everything the two of them had — his sword, Jin Bao's talismans, every trick either of them had learned in years of training — the gap in cultivation was simply too vast to close through effort alone. And yet the fight had already begun the moment that roar tore through the trees, and the beast standing before them clearly had no intention of granting either of them the mercy of retreat.
The Demon Tiger opened its jaws, and its killing intent surged outward in a fresh, crushing wave. The forest around them seemed to hold its breath — no wind, no rustle of leaves, only that suffocating stillness.
Jin Bao moved first, yanking talismans from his bag with frantic urgency and hurling one forward.
Hum!
A golden barrier bloomed into existence around them, its surface rippling like disturbed water. He threw a second. Then a third. Within seconds, several overlapping layers of defensive formation encased the two of them in a dome of shimmering light, each layer humming with its own distinct frequency of protective energy.
Jin Bao gritted his teeth, sweat already beading along his brow despite the cool night air.
Then the Demon Tiger vanished.
Mo Xuan's pupils contracted to pinpricks. "Behind!"
BOOM!
The tiger's claws slammed into the barrier from the rear with a force that seemed to bend the very air around the impact point. The entire formation shuddered violently, cracks of light spidering across its golden surface like frost creeping over glass.
Jin Bao's face went white. "First layer broken!"
He didn't even manage to finish the sentence before the second barrier gave way.
BOOM!
The impact rippled through the clearing, throwing loose leaves and dirt into the air in a shockwave that flattened the grass around them.
Mo Xuan moved the instant the barrier failed, his sword sweeping upward in a single, desperate arc to meet the incoming claws.
Clang!
Steel met claw in a shower of sparks, and the sheer force of the collision sent him hurtling backwards through the air. He twisted his body mid-flight, years of instinct taking over where conscious thought couldn't keep pace, and landed hard on one knee, skidding several feet before he managed to stop himself. His arm trembled violently from the impact, the vibration travelling all the way up into his shoulder, and his Spiritual Energy surged through his meridians in an attempt to steady the damage.
"What strength..." he breathed, staring at the tiger with something between disbelief and grim recognition.
The beast hadn't even bothered using a technique. That single exchange had been nothing more than brute, unrefined power — and it had nearly shattered his arm regardless.
The Demon Tiger roared again, the sound rattling through Mo Xuan's chest like a second heartbeat.
His expression hardened into something colder, more focused. "Jin Bao."
"What?"
"Keep defending."
Jin Bao stared at him, disbelief flashing across his face. "What are you going to do?"
Mo Xuan's gaze never left the tiger. "Fight."
The Demon Tiger charged, and Mo Xuan moved in the same instant, his body blurring into a streak of motion as he activated the Cloudwalk Script, every muscle compressing and releasing in perfect, practised rhythm. The tiger's claws tore through the space he'd occupied a heartbeat earlier, gouging deep furrows into the earth where he'd stood. Mo Xuan reappeared beside its flank, his sword already swinging in a tight, lethal arc — but the blade passed clean through nothing but afterimage, the tiger's true position already gone.
His eyes narrowed sharply. Too fast. Far too fast for something this size.
Before he could recover his footing to follow up, the tiger spun on its hind legs with terrifying speed, and its massive tail swept low across the clearing like a scythe cutting through wheat. Mo Xuan barely managed to raise his sword in time to intercept it.
BOOM!
The impact sent him flying through the air, his body cartwheeling helplessly until Jin Bao's frantic defensive talisman caught him mid-flight and softened the collision just enough to keep his spine intact. Even so, he crashed hard into a tree trunk, bark splintering under the impact, and pain exploded across his back in a white-hot wave. His ribs throbbed with every breath, each inhale dragging like broken glass through his chest.
He forced himself upright anyway, refusing to let his legs stay folded beneath him.
The tiger had already turned its attention back toward him, sparing only the briefest, almost dismissive glance toward Jin Bao — as though it had already decided which of the two posed the real threat, and which was simply an obstacle to be swatted aside later. It resumed its charge without hesitation.
Mo Xuan's breathing grew heavier, each exhale ragged and uneven. There has to be a weakness. Something. Anything. He forced his eyes to track the beast's every motion despite the pain screaming through his ribs, cataloguing the way its shoulders coiled before each lunge, the way its claws extended a fraction early whenever it prepared to strike from an angle.
Its movements were undeniably powerful — controlled, efficient, terrifyingly precise for something so large. But it was the killing intent radiating off it that frightened him more than the raw strength ever could. Every time the beast attacked, that suffocating pressure sank claws of its own directly into his mind, and he felt his thoughts drag half a beat slower than they should, felt his body straining instinctively backwards even as his will fought to hold ground. His instincts screamed at him to run, to abandon the fight entirely and simply survive, logic be damned.
Mo Xuan clenched his teeth hard enough to ache. The Demon Tiger's innate skill — a killing intent that didn't merely intimidate, but actively imbued fear into its target's spirit, numbing the senses and dulling reaction speed with every wave it unleashed. It wasn't just a beast fighting with claws and fangs. It was fighting his mind as much as his body, and that made it doubly dangerous.
The battle raged on, brutal and unrelenting. Jin Bao hurled talisman after talisman in increasingly desperate succession, each one flaring to life the instant it left his fingers.
Golden Bell Shield!
Jade Wall Script!
Flowing Light Array!
Void Reflection Seal!
One defensive formation bloomed after another, each more elaborate than the last, layers of shimmering light and ancient script weaving themselves into barriers meant to turn aside blades and claws alike. The Demon Tiger tore through each one almost as quickly as it appeared, claws and raw force reducing intricate formations to scattering motes of light within seconds of their creation.
Jin Bao's face grew paler with every shattered barrier, sweat now streaming freely down his temples. "Brother Mo!"
"Another one!" he shouted, voice cracking with strain as he fumbled for the next talisman in his rapidly thinning supply.
Mo Xuan didn't answer. His attention had narrowed entirely onto the tiger, every sense straining to find the flaw he knew had to exist somewhere in that overwhelming display of power.
Something was wrong. He just couldn't yet see what.
Mo Xuan stood with his sword still raised, the Demon Tiger looming inches from him, its head tilted slightly as it studied him with an attentiveness no ordinary beast could manage. For a brief moment, neither of them moved, the standoff stretching taut across the clearing like a held breath.
Then, across the rest of the examination realm, the tension broke wide open. The forest was anything but silent — kilometres away, in every direction, the surviving disciples were colliding with the true danger the trial zone had been hiding since the very first day. The Tier Four Spirit Beasts had woken, and unlike the lower-tier creatures the disciples had grown accustomed to hunting, these were not opponents that cultivation and numbers alone could overwhelm. Each one carried its own instincts, its own intelligence, its own particular way of killing.
Several kilometres from Mo Xuan's clearing, Qin Hao stood in a valley gouged with shattered trees, blood staining the corner of his mouth, a female disciple positioned beside him. Across from them, a massive golden-scaled bear rose nearly four meters into the air, every muscle beneath its thick hide looking as though it had been carved from solid stone, a faint golden glow pulsing steadily across its body. A Tier Four Earthshaking Bear — a creature whose greatest weapon wasn't speed or cunning, but raw, overwhelming physical force.
The beast raised one enormous paw and brought it down without warning.
BOOM!
The ground beneath it collapsed inward, and the shockwave threw Qin Hao sideways while sending his companion flying clear across the valley. He rolled hard across the broken earth before jamming his spear into the ground to arrest his momentum, his eyes sharp and calculating despite the impact still ringing through his bones.