Chapter 197: First Day

The process for the two or three hundred thousand people was incredibly lengthy. By the time Miss Vilyric officially entered the Great Forest, it was already afternoon.

After walking alone along the forest path for a while, and once the noise from the base faded away, the Priestess sat down on a large stone by the roadside and began to unpack a small bag issued by the officials, containing some necessary supplies, studying each item.

There wasn’t much in it. The food consisted of only two cans of bamboo-sealed drinking water, a stack of dry biscuits, and a few pieces of cured meat. For an adult, especially a martial artist, this probably wouldn’t last more than a day.

Besides that, the bag contained a simplistic compass, a few flint stones, and a fairly sharp, but clearly not intended for battle, small dagger designed for cutting various materials.

That was all the supplies she had; even if Miss Vilyric had no expertise in outdoor survival, she could tell that it was indeed quite meager, lacking even the slightest bit of medical supplies.

Finally, she took out the two most important items from the depths of the bag.

One was a square jade tablet with a simple carving of the Eastern Sacred Beast, Bai Ze, and the other was a more refined, semi-transparent small bottle that resembled glass.

Holding them up to the bright sunlight, the black-haired girl curiously shook the bottle, causing the approximately one-third filled silvery liquid inside to slosh slightly, reflecting dazzling star-like glimmers in the light.

This was a tech I had never seen before; it felt somewhat out of place in this world. Could it have also come from the Mystic Isle?

Miss Vilyric wasn’t quite sure what it was, but according to the instructions given by the Eastern Yuan Guard that distributed this item, if she poured the liquid on herself, a large array set up in the Eastern Yuan Guard camp would immediately detect it and teleport her out of the forest.

In other words, this should be a special item for contestants to save their lives in critical moments. Although the Eastern Sacred Sect claimed to monitor the situation in the forest using the array, they couldn’t possibly cover such a vast area, so it was up to the contestants to look after their own lives.

As for the remaining jade tablet, it was undoubtedly a proof of qualification for the contestants and also a form of currency known as “Jingyu.” If lost entirely, even if one reached the gathering point alive five days later, they would still be deemed eliminated.

Moreover, perhaps to further stimulate competition among the contestants, the Eastern Sacred Sect established a rule to tally the amount of Jingyu each qualified participant possessed at the end of the competition, and based on that, to rank them. The top one hundred would skip all subsequent processes and directly enter the final national championship.

In other words, it was a free pass—a qualification for a competitive free pass.

Regardless of whether it was for preserving energy or simply to reduce trouble, the benefits were undeniable; even Miss Vilyric felt somewhat tempted when she heard about it.

She packed all her supplies back into her bag, pretending to carry it behind her, then attempted to toss a few Jingyu into her “backpack,” confirming that the so-called large array outside indeed couldn’t detect them. Satisfied, she set off again.

The environment in the wild forest was complex and ever-changing, especially in this less developed primitive forest, where it was commonplace for things like snakes to suddenly fall from trees.

“… Normal my ass.”

After casually disposing of the snake corpse she smashed with a staff, Miss Vilyric noticed something.

The attacks from fierce beasts and venomous insects here were noticeably stronger than those outside, and it didn’t seem to be an exception but rather a relatively common phenomenon—one could describe it as “exceedingly hostile.”

It felt like they were influenced by some kind of power.

However, the forest itself shouldn’t be a problem. If anything, it was probably just the deep mountains filled with a bit of Yin energy.

And Yin energy breeds evil demons; those formless little evil demons drift like invisible phantoms in the air. Perhaps this excessive accumulation of entities tainted by “destruction” in the forest was affecting the spirits of non-intelligent life forms, making them more aggressive.

If this continues, it might result in the true emergence of solid entities—genuine demons evolving from wild animals—possibly even ones that already exist.

The Eastern Sacred Sect’s choice to hold the preliminary selection in this forest was likely intended to use these strong contestants to clear out some undesirable elements lurking deeper in the woods.

Miss Vilyric had her reasons for thinking this.

“Hmm…”

The girl crouched down to examine the body of a man sprawled on the ground, blood pooling beneath him. After a quick inspection, she quickly reached a conclusion.

He hadn’t fought back. He had simply been killed. It was that simple.

Moreover, the one who killed him couldn’t possibly be another contestant; it had to be something in this forest.

After all, this man still had his Jingyu on him. If another contestant had done this, there would be no reason to leave them behind.

On the other hand, it was clear he had died from a large weapon, like claw marks opened in his abdomen, blood flowing continuously out. It resembled the handiwork of a wild beast more than a human or demon.

Glancing at the glass-like transparent small bottle that had fallen beside his body, despite not having been broken yet, the black-haired girl shook her head in resignation.

Death was coming faster than expected; it seemed many had underestimated this so-called wilderness survival challenge. And this was just the beginning.

With a mindset of taking what was free, Miss Vilyric took the Jingyu from his body and sprinkled the silvery liquid from the small bottle onto the corpse. It was soon enveloped in a fuzzy silver light and vanished into the forest.

“Well… about three seconds? That feels a bit too long in a life-or-death situation.”

After testing the effectiveness of the silvery liquid, the black-haired girl continued, feeling she now had an inexplicably doubled amount of Jingyu.

No matter what was in this forest, the first thing to do was find a water source.

Anyone with even a basic knowledge of survival knows that for creatures to live longer, water is absolutely essential. The drinking water included in her basic supplies would only last a day at most, so she needed to find fresh water before it ran out.

Of course, as a member of the divine race, Miss Vilyric didn’t need water to maintain her vital signs, but going too long without water would feel strange, and in addition to drinking, she needed it for cleaning and various other aspects. It was always better to be prepared.

Water sources in the wild generally come in a few forms: streams, small lakes, or waterfalls. Although the environmental complexity of this forest was particularly intricate, it wouldn’t stray too far from these types. The problem was that she had no map or any tools, making it quite difficult to find water relying solely on random wandering.

Using sp to scan could expedite things, but that felt a bit too much like cheating and could lead to unnecessary commotion. After all, this was just a competition.

As time passed, the sky gradually darkened. Miss Vilyric had walked quite a distance but still hadn’t found a suitable water source, which left her feeling somewhat embarrassed.

Fortunately, she did make a discovery.

“A supply point? It seems this is the place for exchanging various supplies…”

Standing before a unique sight she stumbled upon while wandering, Miss Vilyric looked around and examined the empty array and accompanying facilities, curiosity piqued about how this system operated.

The array, marked by a massive stone tablet inscribed with “Supply Point,” had a radius of about five meters and was circular. The interior was densely packed with many smaller square stones, each engraved with different common words from the Ancient Spirit Realm, such as “Dry Biscuit — 1 Jingyu,” “Jerky — 2 Jingyu,” “Sleeping Bag — 1 Jingyu,” “Tent — 5 Jingyu,” and so on.

The types of supplies matched the catalog in the previous rules handbook, and the prices were completely identical, ranging from the basic 1 Jingyu to hundreds. Almost everything needed for wilderness survival was listed here.

It was undeniably set up by the officials.

But… the problem was that the array was just a pile of stones. How exactly could she exchange them for supplies?

   

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