Returning to Kargath Academy
The group of six headed to the edge of the forest, now that they had completed their 3 days. If they could protect the monster cores until they reached the outside, then they would be able to finish the assignment perfectly. And since the academy would not take the cores, they would be able to use it for themselves.
Traveling on the road, Jian Chen and the rest were very cautious. This was the crucial moment, since they could be ambushed at any given time. Jian Chen and Tie Ta were still full of life but Changyang Hu and the others were not in the best shape. If they were to be attacked by another strong person, then a fierce battle wouldn't be avoidable, which was what Jian Chen was trying to avoid.
Jian Chen walked down the road with Tie Ta behind him while the rest followed in a straight line as they reached to the part of the forest where the white enchantments of the forest rippled outwards of itself. With the end of the 3rd day, the enchantment had suddenly transformed to help the students who were lost to find their way here.
Jian Chen's soul was lashing out around him as he checked his surroundings. The 3rd region was not as quiet as the 2nd region. Not only did they have to protect themselves from magical beasts, but they also had to protect themselves from other students. Other students were waiting around for the perfect moment to strike. So because of that, the closer one got to the entrance, the more dangerous it became. After all, the enchantment was showing a hole in itself to help lead students out, so many of them were trying to leave the forest and made themselves an open target for those other students waiting to ambush them.
A few hours passed, Jian Chen and Tie Ta were getting closer and closer to the 3rd region's exit. The whole journey had been fairly peaceful, although at regular intervals, they'd encounter a magical beast carcass. Sometimes, there would even be 2-3 magical beast corpses lying in the same location.
A few hours of rushing later, Jian Chen's group of people finally arrived outside of the 3rd region's exit. They smoothly passed through and entered the 2nd region. At this moment, everyone could not help but sigh in relief. They all understood that their monster cores were secured, because after leaving the 3rd region, no matter whether or not others had gathered the required 2 monster cores, their task was complete. There was nobody here that would dare to steal their monster cores.
"Haha, I hadn't imagined that the journey would be so peaceful. This was really against my expectations." Changyang Hu happily smiled, his tone also carrying a hint of excitement.
Aoba also happily said, "That's right, and here I'd thought that we'd fall victim to some surprise attacks. I didn't think that the path would've been so calm. It really goes against all expectations."
Darian reached his hand out to touch his Space Belt and smiled, "I guess the people stealing monster cores in the 3rd region had suffered from injuries, and didn't have the energy to keep stealing from others on the road. In addition, most of the people probably have the same mindset as us, only stressing self-defense. As long as we safely leave the third region, we'll be satisfied. None of us are interested in the idea of stealing monster cores anymore."
"Yea, that's right. What you said makes sense." Tie Ta nodded in agreement.
Jian Chen shook his head and said, "The situation is not necessarily as you think it is. Actually, throughout the whole journey, there were still some people lying in wait along the way in hidden places ready to ambush us, you guys just didn't notice them. Those people who were hiding in the darkness perhaps noticed that we have a large number of people, or they didn't have the ability to discern our strength, so they couldn't determine if they could destroy us. That's why they didn't make any movements towards us. Otherwise, there's no way we could've safely left the 3rd region."
Hearing this, the people's expressions all changed.
Changyang Hu let out a long breath and said, "It's a good thing fourth brother made sure we put on perfect acts of being completely undamaged. Otherwise, if the people knew that the four of us were injured, then I'm afraid we wouldn't have been so fortunate." Hearing this, Aoba and the others nodded in agreement, and looked at Jian Chen with gazes filled with respect.
"Alright, we should hurry up and leave. After we return back to the academy, you guys need to properly tend to your wounds."
The group of 6 continued to walk towards the 1st region. As they got closer to the exit, the nearby academy gradually entered their lines of vision. Although there were definitely many people that had been unable to endure the task and gave up on it in the middle, at least 1000 people had entered the forest together. Even if more than half had given up, there were still at least a few hundreds of people remaining. However, the mere hundreds of people spread out in the enormous forest rarely met each other, so it was rare to come across others that had decided to remain in the forest.
Jian Chen's gaze swept across the people around him that were similarly heading out of the 1st region towards the academy. He saw that most of the males sported naked torsos, and were covered with wounds. However, without any exception, all the people were in sorry states; their naked torsos were covered with dirt, and their faces could not be discerned with all the filth covering them.
Only some of the females still wore the academy uniforms. However, every single one of the uniforms had become beyond dirty, and there were tears all over the clothing. Even a beggar's clothing was better than theirs. In addition, they used wide leaves to cover the parts that their clothes didn't, making them look like extremely sorry figures.
Amongst all the people, there were also a few people who had serious leg injuries, rendering them unable to walk. They were being supported by their companions the whole way, and approached the outside of the forest, one step after another.
Perhaps it was because there were so so many people present here, but there were absolutely no magical beasts in the vicinity. It was even safer than before.
Soon after, Jian Chen's group followed the direction the enchantment in the sky pointed to in order to exit the 1st region, and they finally exited the forest. Outside stood the vice headmaster, Chang Bai En, wearing a white changpao, his back straight. Behind him stood a few teachers with indifferent expressions. Further behind them was a large group of nearly 1000 Kargath Academy students. They were split into two groups: the group on the right had many more times people than the other group. Amongst them, some people were wearing academy uniforms that were dirty, but had very few tears. On the whole, they seemed to be in excellent and undamaged conditions.
The other group of people seemed to be in a more difficult situation. Their uniforms were all tattered, and sported quite a few bloodstains as well. Underneath the multiple rips on their clothes, it could clearly be seen that they sported many scars on their bodies.
The people in the left group only had around 200 people. All of them were in sorry states; majority of the people there were wearing clothes made of bark or beast skins, and there were quite a few people that had naked torsos. However, all the people that walked out of the forest were organized by a teacher to join the group on the left.
Afterwards, Jian Chen's group sat on the grass quietly in wait. By this point, he had already understood that all the people in the left group were those that had stayed in the forest for the entire 3 days, and had just left the forest today. On the other hand, the people in the right group were all those that had escaped before the three days were up. According to the academy's regulations, no matter whether or not they had reached the requirement of obtaining 2 monster cores, they still had failed their tasks.
As he swept his gaze in a circle, Jian Chen discovered that many people in the group he was in had melancholic expressions. There were others that looked at certain people with looks of deep hatred, looking like they would spit out flames from their eyes.
At that moment, Jian Chen sensed something. He turned around to look behind him, and saw two people with dirty faces and wearing clothing made of beast skins supporting a student in similar attire. The two were currently glaring at Jian Chen with poisonous hatred, as if burning him into a crisp with their gazes alone….a strong killing intent.
After Jian Chen closely examined the people, his mouth formed a hint of a sneer. He already recognized that the person was actually Luo Jian. Although Jian Chen knew that after what happened the previous night, he had definitely wronged Luo Jian, Jian Chen didn't pay much mind to it. In terms of strength, he wasn't below Luo Jian at all. Once he was able to condense a Saint Weapon and become a Saint, Luo Jian would no longer pose any threat to him. In terms of family backgrounds, although Jian Chen wasn't completely sure of Changyang clan's strength, they were in no means weak in any sort of aspect. Luo Jian was the son of the leader of a major powerful clan in Forbidden City, but in Jian Chen's opinion, there was no way they Luo clan would bother harassing him over such a trivial matter. After all, Luo Jian had only been injured by Jian Chen because of the training event that the academy had sent them on. In addition, the situation at that time had been because Luo Jian had first attacked his older brother's group.
Afterwards, once all the people had walked out of the forest, Jian Chen's group had already increased to 300-400 people.
At this moment, the vice headmaster Chang Bai En walked up to the front of the crowd. He looked around at the group of figures that had obviously suffered through difficult situations. He smiled, and loudly said, "Very good. As expected, none of you have disappointed me. I hadn't imagined that this event to hunt magical beasts and stay in the forest for 3 days would have more people remaining this time time compared to all the previous times this event has been held. Now, I want everyone to maintain their current formations, and begin walking back towards the academy."
Afterwards, the entire two groups maintained their exact formations and quickly advanced towards the academy. In the middle of the journey, when they encountered a small river, everyone stopped to wash their faces clean, and then continued onwards. Very soon, the group of students began to approach the academy, and in the distance, they noticed that a tall platform had been erected in the center of the sports field.
The group of people stopped in front of the platform, and the vice headmaster Chang Bai En, as well as a few teachers, walked up to it. The vice headmaster sat in the chairperson's place with a straightforward and imposing manner, and calmly said, "The hunting magical beast competition occurring once every three years has now officially ended. According to the academy's regulations, after the task has been completed, we will now hand out awards. I would like to now invite all the people who had stayed in the forest for the entire 3 days and have gathered 2 monster cores to simultaneously step forwards."
As soon as the vice headmaster finished speaking, a hundred or so people immediately walked out of the crowd.
"I will now first count the Class 1 Monster Cores. Students who have hunted Class 1 Magical Beasts, please come up to the platform for the number of monster cores in your possession to be counted." The vice headmaster continued.
Following this, all the students that had killed Class 1 Magical Beasts, including Jian Chen and Tie Ta, all walked up to the platform. There stood a teacher specifically assigned to count and record the number of monster cores that the students had earned.