However, the Gu world never grants anyone time to quietly sharpen their resolve.
Within mere days, the fervor and clamor from the arena tournament cooled rapidly during the rest period, like clouds scattered by cold wind.
What replaced it was an even more oppressive, even more murderous atmosphere of war preparation hanging over the entire Black Blood Stockade.
"Wuuuu—!"
A desolate, heavy ox-horn bugle pierced the tranquility of Black Wind Ridge. The assembly call for the wilderness survival examination had officially sounded.
On the martial arts plaza, eight carefully selected five-person squads stood arranged like eight blades about to be unsheathed before the hunting grounds' gate.
The air carried faint scents of sulfur and medicinal salves. Every person's eyes held a ruthless glint, ready to fight to the death at any moment.
Lin Mu carried a heavy marching pack, standing quietly at the very rear of his formation, perfectly playing the role of "support utility."
His gaze swept across the backs of the four people ahead as he made his final assessment of this "perfect squad."
Captain: Lin Feng (main attacker/commander).
Having shed his signature white immortal-like robes, Lin Feng now wore fitted, streamlined dark hunting attire. Even his always-immaculate long hair was tightly bound with black cloth.
The humiliation from that battle seemed to have completely transformed him.
The false warmth in his eyes had vanished entirely, replaced by undisguised viciousness and a viper-like coldness that made one's heart tremble.
On the right side stood the medical core: Lin Wan'er.
She still wore her cyan combat attire. But Lin Mu keenly noticed that the glances exchanged between her and Lin Feng now carried unconcealed intimacy—she would even unconsciously lean closer whenever Lin Feng issued orders.
"Clearly, Lin Feng has put considerable effort into her privately." Lin Mu couldn't help but gossip internally.
On the left stood the main tank: Lin Zhong.
This was a newly recruited inner disciple skilled in defense. He was taciturn by nature, but his frame was massive as a black bear.
His muscles displayed a rocky grayish-brown hue—obviously a Gu Master specializing in Earth Path body hardening. He was an indispensable meat shield against large demonic beasts, perfectly filling the vacancy left by Ah Zhong's death.
At the formation's edge stood the off-tank and berserker: Lin Wuxie.
Though wearing the most inconspicuous worn leather armor, after this period of rest and Lin Mu's secret "feeding" of pills, this humanoid beast had grown stronger still.
Standing there, he resembled a volcano suppressing its eruption.
On the surface, he appeared like an emotionless stone, mechanically following Lin Feng's commands.
But only Lin Mu, standing behind him, knew that Lin Wuxie's peripheral vision remained locked onto him like the most loyal mad dog, waiting only for that signal only he could understand.
Adding Lin Mu himself as the "scout/roamer," this squad's configuration was maxed out—an unstoppable luxury war chariot at the Rank 1 level.
Yet when Lin Mu surveyed the other squads across the plaza, his gaze suddenly froze.
Wolves surrounded them on all sides.
He spotted Medicine Hall's big sister Lin Xue's squad.
Among a group wearing Medicine Hall attire—support specialists and poison masters—stood a familiar, slightly plump figure draped in defensive Gu worms: the "hardest turtle shell" Lin Ze, who had been severely injured and eliminated by Lin Yan in the Top 32!
"Brilliant calculation!"
Lin Mu silently praised.
Though Lin Xue's instant-kill assassination was dazzling, it had too little margin for error and left her own defenses fragile. Now she had recruited Lin Ze as a "fallen candidate," directly using his Golden Bell Gu to shore up her fatal weakness.
This squad, centered on Lin Xue's ghostly assassinations and poisons, supplemented by other Medicine Hall disciples' group healing, with Lin Ze the "iron turtle" holding the front line—this "extreme kiting, counter-attack" formation was the pinnacle of nauseating tactics, virtually flawless.
She was clearly determined to claim the Elder's direct disciple position and championship.
Meanwhile, the Punishment Hall's squad was so glaring it hurt to look at.
After several days of expensive recuperation, Lin Yan had miraculously suppressed his terrifying fire poison and piercing wounds. His condition had returned to peak form.
His squad had no fancy configurations—no pure healers, no dedicated scouts.
Every single member was a Punishment Hall elite enforcer, dripping with killing intent, covered in blade scars, forged in mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
This squad might lack comprehensive composition and would collapse in a war of attrition. But they were absolutely the most efficient killing machine, the most fearlessly suicidal meat grinder—a pack of mad dogs no squad wanted to encounter in the wild.
The three seed teams had each maximized their trump cards. The tension was already explosive.
"Silence!"
At that moment, two influential elders from the External Affairs Hall and Internal Affairs Hall ascended the high platform together.
The entire venue instantly fell silent, leaving only the sound of wind snapping through battle flags.
The elders wasted no words, directly announcing this trial's extremely harsh and calculating rules.
"This wilderness survival examination has a time limit of three days and three nights!"
"The scoring mechanism has been completely updated."
"All Rank 1 and above demonic beasts within the trial zone have been pre-implanted with Intent Gu larvae by the clan. Once a beast is killed, points will be automatically calculated and transmitted in real-time to the giant 'Mother Gu light screen' in the plaza's center!"
The elder's finger pointed sharply toward the plaza's center, where a golden light screen several zhang tall was slowly rising. On it, eight squad names were listed prominently, all followed by a glaring "zero."
"This means all squads' point progress will be completely transparent—to the outside world and to each other!"
A low murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd below.
Lin Mu's eyebrow twitched slightly.
This move was vicious.
Real-time scoring not only intensely stimulated competitive psychology between squads but also implicitly encouraged plundering. Whoever scored highest became a walking treasury, liable to face joint elimination by other squads at any moment in that lawless wilderness.
"There's more!"
The elder's gaze swept across those ambitious young faces as he openly revealed the trial's core secret, dangling bait maddening enough to drive anyone insane:
"In the deepest reaches of the trial zone lurks a true Rank 2 Beast King—the Blood Jade Python!"
A Rank 2 Beast King?!
Many people's breathing instantly quickened.
"But don't despair. This Beast King has already been personally struck by the Patriarch—its horn shattered, its reverse scale torn out."
"Now gravely wounded, it retains only one-third of its peak combat strength, placing it somewhere between Rank 1 Peak and Rank 2 Middle Stage."
The elder's voice carried a fervent seduction. "Killing it will not only yield any rare Gu worms it may carry but also grant massive points capable of instantly reversing any ranking and securing the championship!"
Boom!
Hearing "critically wounded Rank 2" and "instant reversal," every squad below breathed heavily, eyes blazing with extreme greed.
Fortune favors the bold—who wouldn't want to soar to the heavens in one leap?
But Lin Mu, standing in the corner, was already calculating rapidly, instantly seeing through the sinister open scheme behind Patriarch Lin Cang's arrangement.
"What a brilliant 'drive the tiger to devour the wolf' stratagem."
Lin Mu watched his excited peers and sneered internally.
"Even at one-third strength while critically wounded, a Rank 2 Beast King is still Rank 2."
"Its formidable body and vitality absolutely cannot be taken down by any single Rank 1 squad alone. Even if they barely won, it would be a pyrrhic victory with catastrophic casualties."
"Lin Cang is forcing the squads to cooperate."
"But the kill credit only goes to one. Who gets those massive points?"
"This tests how these captains scheme against each other while cooperating, how they backstab allies the moment the Beast King dies to seize the prize... This isn't some survival trial at all—it's a naked crucible testing human nature and leadership!"
Cruel, yet perfectly aligned with the Gu world's underlying logic of survival of the fittest.
"The hour has come! Open the gates!"
At the elder's command, the heavy bugle sounded once more.
"Rumble—"
The trial zone's massive ironwood gate, covered in thorns and standing several zhang tall, groaned open under the mechanical winches.
A cold wind mixed with the stench of earth and beast musk surged out from the unknown darkness beyond.
The moment they stepped through, the outside sunlight was completely blocked by towering ancient trees and artificially released dense miasma.
The terrain here had been deliberately reshaped by clan leadership using Earth Path Gu worms—layered ridges and crisscrossing ravines compressed the originally open visibility to less than ten zhang.
From within this blind zone came faint beast howls and the roars of Rank 1 Beast Kings, as if welcoming these fresh arrivals of blood and flesh.
"Clang!"
Without any hesitation, Lin Feng drew the golden-glinting longsword at his waist and took the lead into the mist.
Behind him, Lin Wan'er, Lin Zhong, Lin Wuxie, and Lin Mu instantly formed the tightest combat formation.
"Advance!"
With Lin Feng's cold, low command—
The survival battle royale had officially begun.