Tianlan continued to observe various sections of the third trial. The actions of those Mangy Mutts had given him much to think about. The way they had acted suggested that there was rhyme and reason to the environment shifts. And they were simple enough for spirit beasts to get used to.

If he could make use of that information, he would be able to come and go as he pleased within the area, making use of environment shifts to travel large distances in small amounts of time. There was all sorts of potential.

And the same went for the faults in the formations. Aside from the everfall loop, he had seen several other strange occurrences that seemed unintentional. But the spirit beasts were making use of them in interesting ways, suggesting that they were at least stable.

One example of that was the Snow Wolf and the Volcano.

***

“Didn’t they say it would be hard to find each other?”

“Yeah. I think I heard that.”

“Either we’re lucky to have reformed our trio, or this place isn’t as big as we thought.”

Three friends, Xun Lee, Jen Ose and Shin Lan were walking and talking. They had found each other soon after leaving the safe zone through a series of serendipitous environment shifts and had been having their go of the place since.

Working as a trio made everything far less dangerous and difficult than it would have been otherwise.

That was the case for both their encounters with spirit beasts and other participants.

On more than one occasion, they had run into unsavoury individuals who looked to be out for blood. But with three transcendent realm opponents, only the most foolish of ruffians would attempt to start a conflict.

Most of them just went their own way upon seeing them.

As for becoming the aggressors themselves, the three boys weren't in the business of counting chickens before they hatch.

There was a story in their hometown about an arrogant young master who kicked a homeless man only to have his entire clan massacred.

Though it was likely just a story parents told to their children so they would behave, the trio preferred to err on the side of caution. After all, the smart learn from their mistakes, but the wise learn from the mistakes of others.

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Jen Ose complained.

“Why?”

“It’s so hot in here, dude. This volcanic region ain’t doin’ me any favours with my wind roots.”

“Sucks to be you,” said Xun Lee. “My fire roots are loving this.”

“What is this? Some sort of humble-brag?” Said Shin Lan. “Just because both of you have single-element roots, doesn’t make you better than me, you know?”

“Nobody said anything about you, Lan. Stop acting like a woman.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re acting all sensitive, dude. ‘Wah, I’m insecure about my dual-element roots. I feel inferior to my two friends who are more handsome and more talented than me. Wah.’ Suck it up.”

“So you do think you’re better than me! Don’t think I won’t teach you a lesson, Lee. You wanna go right now?”

“So you admit that you’re not as handsome then.”

“Huh? Wait, I never…”

The two laughed while Jen Ose spotted something off in the distance.

“Hey, you guys. Quiet.”

He stretched his arm out to stop his friends then hid behind a rock.

“Crap!” He shook his hand in the air. “Note to self, don’t touch the rocks.”

“What’s this about, Ose?”

“Look over there,” he said as he pointed to a white figure among the dark red landscape. “I think that’s a snow wolf.”

“A snow wolf? No way.”

Xun Lee and Shin Lan looked over the rock and saw what Jen Ose was talking about. It was a large dog-like creature what was laying on the ground a distance away. Its size and its characteristic white fur gave it away as one of the strongest spirit beasts that could be found in the third trial, the Snow Wolf.

“What’s a snow wolf doing here?” Xun Lee said with excitement. “This is the worst possible environment for it in all of the third trial.”

“It must have gotten shifted,” said Shin Lan. “Dude. These things can reach all the way to the ninth layer of the transcendent realm! That’s 900 points!”

“Hey!” Jen Ose slapped Shin Lan who had raised his volume. “Keep it down. We don’t want to scare it off.”

“Right. My bad. But seriously though. How are we going to split this? I call dibs, of course.”

“There’s no calling dibs with 900 points on the line. Besides, we can decide that after we kill it.”

“Man… I don’t know,” said Xun Lee. “Even if it’s weakened by the rich fire qi, ninth layer is no joke. Maybe we should skip out on this one.”

“Who’s acting like a woman now, Lee?”

“Come again?”

“‘Wah. I’m ascayuwd of big bad Mr Wolf.’ Come on, Lee. What? Should we go home and paint our nails instead?”

“You know, I think you guys are gonna fail really hard in your love lives,” Jen Ose commented. “Now, are we gonna go after it or not? Let’s do a majority vote. I say we at least go in for a closer look. What about you?”

Xun Lee shook his head. “This whole thing seems off to me, man. Think about it. Why is the snow wolf lying down like that? Shouldn’t it be trying to get out of here?”

“That’s why I say we get a closer look. We can always turn away if it looks too dangerous.”

“I say we kill the thing.” Said Shin Lan. “Who knows what kind of prize 900 points will give us? There can’t be too many others who can get that many.”

“There are two for and one against, so let’s at least check it out.”

Jen Ose looked to Xun Lee, who shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, I’ll come. But let me make this clear right off the bat. If things go wrong, I’m leaving you guys for dead.”

***

“It looks like that thing’s already dead, Yo. It ain’t moving at all.”

“Nah. It’s still breathing. But it’s shallow.”

“I’m telling you, man. This ain’t right. Hasn't your mother ever told you to let sleeping dogs lie?”

“Quit your bellyachin’, Lee. I’m goin’ in to finish it off. Back me up.”

Shin Lan stayed in his crouching position as he slowly made his way over to the wolf, sword in hand.

Jen Ose followed behind him and Xun Lee reluctantly did the same.

“You’re gonna die. You know that, right? You got anythin’ you want me to tell your folks?”

“The heck, dude?”

“Weird choice, but hey. Let’s go with it.”

The three snuck in closer until Shin Lan broke away from the group and closed in on the wolf.

When he was close enough to hear its breaths, he turned to his friends to make sure they had his back. Seeing that they were there and focused, he waved his hand, signalling that he was about to go in for the kill.

He pointed his sword at the wolf’s neck and dashed in to chop its head clean off.

The only thing was, once he was in the air, he couldn’t move his arms. In fact, he couldn’t move anything except his diaphragm and his qi. And even then, his breathing was extremely shallow.

As he fell to the ground, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, he understood what had happened. This area caused paralysis. Maybe through a certain gas or some other factor.

Ordinarily, this would have been a terrifying situation, but knowing that his friends were right behind him and had seen the whole thing, he was confident that they would figure it out.

All they had to do was to push him out of the area with a stick or something of the sort. As long as they didn’t enter themselves, it would be fine. For the time being, he would just have to lay there, helpless.

“I really wanna say I told you so right now. Is it a bad time?”

***

“Do you have a spear, Lee?”

“Nah. I only use my sword.”

“Same.”

“Okay. You lie down and crawl on the floor with your hands. See if you can grab Lan. I’ll pull you out if you stop moving.”

“Ah… but the ground though. It’s a bit hot for me, what with my wind element and all. Why don’t we switch? Your fire element loves this stuff, right?”

“Yeah, not happening. For all we know, Lan’s about to die a slow death.”

“…”

Jen Ose turned to Xun Lee who chose to remain silent.

“Dilemma.”

“It is, isn’t it?” “Why don’t you try using your wind techniques to push him out?”

“You think that’ll work?”

“It’s worth a try.”

Jen Ose shrugged his shoulders and dropped into a horse stance. He extended his left arm with his palm perpendicular to the ground and held his right fist by his waist.

“Gale Force Fi-”

“Why are you calling out the name?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Fair enough.”

“Gale Force Fist!”

Jen Ose punched out, bringing a fierce wind with him. But it dissipated before it could reach Shin Lan. He frowned and walked closer before extending his hand.

There was some kind of barrier in place around the wolf and Shin Lan.

Jen Ose and Xun Lee probed the barrier for vulnerabilities, but it was complete on all sides and was too strong for them to break.

“I mean… We could always wait until the next environment shift, right?”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“As soon as it shifts, we kill the wolf. We have to get it done in one strike, otherwise-”

“Otherwise, I leave you guys for dead.”

“…”

***

Tianlan watched as the environment shifted.

To be more accurate, he watched as the humans and spirit beasts in the volcanic region were swapped out for humans and spirit beasts from another region.

This was something he had discovered after observing the trial. It wasn't the environments themselves that were moving, but the people who were being transported around periodically.

What was interesting about this particular instance was that, unlike most other environments, the volcanic region seemed to transport people to two separate environments. One was an underground cave, and the other was a snowy mountain peak.

Xun Lee and Jen Ose found themselves attacking the ground, while Shin Lan found himself staring into the cold grey eyes of one of the most powerful spirit beasts in the entire trial.

Tianlan looked back to the volcanic region and was surprised to see another white wolf laying on the ground, paralysed.

Back on the snowy mountain peak, seated in a patch of bloody snow, the first wolf opened a bag of holding and consumed the beast cores therein.

‘These spirit beasts really know what they’re doing.’

***

“It looks like a handsome new worker will soon be joining the sect.”

“Mm. I wonder which senior sister will snap him up.”

The first elder, the one who had selected Tianlan and the others from Spring Leaf City was seated with his head in his hands.

He sighed as he heard the conversations some of the female disciples were having.

“Who knew the best crop Spring Leaf City has had in years would end up like this.”

There were 18 out of 27 who had just up and abandoned the third trial. The other nine weren’t exactly putting on a stellar performance either.

“And I thought I could get some bonuses this year.”

The second elder was seated right next to him.

“I know the feel, brother.” He also sighed. “Is this Shao Tianlan really just going to become a worker? Even though it’s already too late for him to achieve much, there’s still half a day left. He should be able to at least pass.”

The first elder raised a glass.

“Here’s to immeasurable disappointment.”

“And ruined days.”

““Ganbei.””

***

Of the two-day duration of the third trial, Tianlan spent an entire day and a half observing the movements of the spirit beasts, the shifting patterns of the environments and the strange phenomena that were littered around the place.

Using the information he had gathered, he drew a complete map of the system. For each environment, it detailed where it shifted to, which dangers and oddities were present there, and when a shift would occur. And, for the spirit beasts which didn’t roam around, he detailed which kind would be present in an environment at any given time.

Having completed his preparation, he jumped down to the 17 Fang Clan members who had been making use of the rich qi to further their cultivations.

He explained to them what he had been doing and had them study his map before having them split into pairs.

After that, he went up to one of the elders and asked a question that others didn’t seem to care about.

“How many points are needed to pass?”

When the first and second elders heard this, their ears perked up. They turned to see Tianlan walk away after hearing the answer then looked at each other with sparkling eyes.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Discovery bonus?”

The two elders held each other’s shoulders and clinked glasses. As the ones who discovered Tianlan, if he later performed well in the sect, bonuses would be coming their way.

Tianlan walked back to the members of the Fang Clan and repeated the advice he had given them earlier.

“One you enter the trial, find your bearings and immediately head to the meeting spot. If you have any opportunities on the way, decide for yourself how to proceed. But the most important thing is to find your partner.”

The Fang Clan members all listened closely to Tianlan’s words and nodded their heads as he spoke.

“Remember, everyone. There’s no need to be greedy. Just get enough points to pass.”

It seemed as if every word he spoke was law to these people. He couldn’t help smiling.

“Alright.”

He swept his gaze over his allies and raised his voice.

“Fang Clan.”

““Sir!””

“We walk!”