The Forest

Lin Caihong had to lead her team of seven through the woods to traverse its dangers and reach the camp site by evening.

"Yu Xunuo and myself will be the vanguard. Zhou Qianfan, Chen Shanyuan and Huang Xiaobo will guard the rear. Wu Liling and Meng Tian will be at the center of our formation. Everyone... remember to stay alert." Lin Caihong took out a red saber from her storage ring and moved forward.

"Yes, Team leader." Everyone said in unison.

Meng Tian was carrying a small duffel bag on his back. He did not need a storage ring and its associated attention. This duffel bag was a cover in most ways for him to use his consciousness space.

Yu Xunuo was carrying two swords on either side of her hips looking like a warrior princess. Wu Liling had a spear in her hands. Zhou Qianfan took out a Sword, while Chen Shanyuan used a Hammer and walked alongside Huang Xiaobo who was holding a Saber. To his surprise, everyone on his team had a storage ring with them.

All of them were combat ready and slowly walked deeper into the forest. Lin Caihong occasionally looked back to see if everyone was alright and able to keep up with Yu Xunuo and herself. Although the team was the best in their school, this kind of a trial is quite stressful.

As they were moving towards the east, Lin Caihong was quite skillful in maneuvering through the woods and would often stop to check if there are any beasts nearby. However, even after about an hour there wasn't a single beast that blocked their path. She was growing suspicious of the circumstances but had no idea what was going on.

A three metre adult boar with a horn growing from the center of its head was casually walking through its home turf when an oppressive spiritual sense attacked its mind. It shrieked and immediately tried its best to run far away from this unknown threat.

About ten minutes later when Meng Tian's team came upon this area, Lin Caihong observed the footprints on the ground. She was certain that there was a wild boar nearby and ordered the team to stay vigilant. However there was no sign of it later on.

"This journey is quite peaceful. There are some people nearby following us from a distance, probably to help us? Anyway, if our team does not face a single danger, the whole point of this exercise would be lost. As a senior cultivator, I should help them temper themselves. Yes, that's right. Alright... Let's see. Hmm, this should be enough for the first trial."

The team had no idea that their entire journey was completely under the control of their sixteen year old junior brother. They were moving quite fast as there were basically no obstacles. However, under the guidance of his spiritual sense, the boar from before blocked their way.

Meng Tian had never seen these mutated animals which did not look that much different from the normal ones. However, he could feel the qi in his surroundings automatically flow through the boar's body strengthening it a little at a time.

"So these beasts are constantly being washed by the qi in the surroundings and gradually evolve by themselves. There seems to be no need for a cultivation technique unlike us humans. Fascinating..."

The boar saw the seven students walking in its path and immediately started galloping fiercely towards them. Meng Tian looked like any other normal student and was standing quite casually at the center of the group. Lin Caihong and Yu Xunuo immediately drew their weapons and took defensive positions. Everyone else maintained their positions ready to deal with any other threats that could spring upon them.

When the boar came closer to them, Lin Caihong used her spear to deflect the horn strike and instantly understood the strength of the boar.

"Xunuo, this boar is mostly at the first level of a martial apprentice. Both of us should be enough to take it down."

It was at the level of a beginner martial apprentice and Lin Caihong and Yu Xunuo could handle it by themselves... or so she thought. The boar rushed to tackle Lin Caihong when Yu Xunuo moved to slash her twin swords into the hide.

Shriek!!

The boar roared in pain and one could clearly see the twin tusks protruding from its mouth on either side, that could terrify any normal human. However, the wound was not deep enough as the boar rushed towards Yu Xunuo to attack her.

Lin Caihong was not sitting idle as she used her intermediate level movement technique and pierced her spear into the side of its stomach below the middle of its body. Yu Xunuo then slid past the boar to make a horizontal cut on its legs. As the boar was struggling to maintain its balance, Lin Caihong fiercely kicked on its wounded stomach and it fell down.

Yu Xunuo was waiting for this moment as she cut the underbelly of the boar multiple times per second. After a mildly tense battle, the boar was finally dead. Meng Tian was impressed by the teamwork of the two ladies which proved their battle abilities. Even though he had killed many cultivators before, he himself had never actually used his weapon skills alone to fight an enemy.

Meng Tian wanted to battle too and immediately used his masked spiritual sense to scan a large around him to see what beasts were available for him to practice his skills on. As it turned out, there were many beasts near their vicinity as he manipulated their minds to make their way towards his group.

He was assigned along with the second years to dismember the dead boar, as a part of his training by Lin Caihong. Once they were done and about to move, another three mutated beasts of the same level were seen rushing towards their group.

"Everybody brace yourselves. Xunuo and I will take care of one in the middle. Liling and Zhou Qianfan will take care of the one of the right. Chen Shanyuan, Huang Xiaobo and Meng Tian... stall the third beast till we finish up with the others."

Lin Caihong was fast with her orders and immediately arranged for specific tasks. Meng Tian was also fired up to fight his first beast. However, Chen Shanyuan and Huang Xiaobo were completely capable of blocking the third beast for sometime even if they could not kill it.

So, Meng Tian led another beast towards their group during the tense battle. He decided to use his beginner level skills of movement and boxing to fight the beast. As the beast neared the group, Meng Tian by himself went straight towards it. The boar tried to bite of his head but he smoothly dodged it and punched the side of its body.

The force he used was at the level of one who had just broken through to become a martial apprentice. The boar was also at the first level of body forging but the innate qualities of its body rendered most of the power useless.

Nonetheless, Meng Tian did not stop attacking the boar with his punches. He was all smiles as he punched the boar multiple times. It was unable to land even a single hit on him. The others were worried that he would be hurt very badly and sped up their own battles. Yu Xunuo even used her Eye of Charm to distract and kill the boars much faster.

However, by the time Lin Caihong and the others got rid of the three beasts, a little distance away from them, Meng Tian was leisurely cutting up the boar to carry it with him.

Yu Xunuo who was very worried about her mysterious junior was the first to run towards his side, followed by Lin Caihong, Wu Liling and the others. But the entire group was completely stunned by the sudden turn of events. They only saw the battered head of the dead boar as the other parts of the body were completely clean without any injuries. Meng Tian attacked only the head of the boar and managed to kill it.

Wu Liling was the first to react to this scenario... "What the fuck!"