They looked just as startled to find him. “How did you even stay there?” Tiger leaned sideways to look at the crevice he’d jammed himself into. His mind started racing with questions but he needed to focus. Did they suspect him? Did they already find the red bandana man? Were they still wandering around looking for him?

However, he was guessing they knew. Both of them were smart and he hadn’t forgotten Tiger’s declaration to be number one.

Tiger smiled, “I don’t want to fight you.”

“Why would you want to fight me?”

“Hand over the ring, sister. We don’t have to do this.” Tiger took out her dagger.

There it is. Playing dumb wasn’t going to help. “Ok, ok but let’s not fight. We can use a different way.”

Tiger paused. Musnuf licked his lips, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. He needed his tongue. “Let’s have a friendly competition. The winner gets the ruby ring.”

Tiger clicked her tongue. “Ok, but we don’t have much time. What kind of competition?”

He felt something and looked down to find an arm rummaging around in his robe. He smacked it away and turned to find Dragon. How did she sneak behind me? I didn’t even notice her.

Dragon had a sheepish smile on her face and avoided his gaze. Tiger started laughing. “I haven’t seen her this embarrassed in ages.”

Musnuf gave her a death stare and she stopped laughing. There was still a mischievous grin on her face, “You can’t fault us for trying.”

Musnuf just shook his head, I need to be careful. “No, I can’t. How many rings do you have at this time?”

“20 Bronze, 10 Silver and 2 Gold.” She raised her arm and pulled back her sleeve. They jangled with rings.

“I have 10 Bronze, 8 Silver and 4 Gold. Along with a single Ruby Ring.” He swiped his brow. Not many people would be in the next test. Between them they’d monopolized 54 rings. He guessed no more than ten to fifteen disciples would pass onto the next stage. He couldn’t place his finger on it but something felt a little off. Too many disciples are going to fail. From what that giant elder had said, I don’t think even she expected such a result. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to give us that impression.

Tiger waved her hand to get his attention. “Where did you disappear to?”

“I was just thinking…Anyways, we don’t have much time left. The competition is simple: Whoever gets more rings until the end of the exam gets the ruby ring. Of course, we won’t count the rings we already have.”

Tiger chewed her lower lip, thinking. “Don’t you think this is a bit too advantageous for you?”

“How so?”

“You get to wander off. What if you waste time and then just enter the safe zone? What’s stopping you?”

Musnuf had a stupefied look on his face. This was the crux of the matter. He couldn’t be the one to suggest it, they had to do it.

“I’ll go with him. To keep an eye on him.” His heart leaped with joy and he wanted to smile but he restrained himself. Instead, he scowled.

They parted ways and Tiger rolled up her sleeves. He felt a little bad for tricking them like this but he had to win, losing wasn’t an option for him.

He decided to put in some real effort. He got one disciple to hand over all of his rings. He was exhausted and he’d just recovered his essence. He did leave him with a single bronze ring. Dragon raised her brow at it but he just shrugged.

Most people weren’t just willing to hand them over. He had to fight with another disciple but he only used up a quarter of his essence and none of his illusions in front of Dragon. Coating a bronze ring in an illusion would’ve been a great option except it wasn’t feasible. The second they touched it the illusion would disappear. He’d tricked the bear by leveraging its fear of fire.

He was walking down a sloping hill. “I think we should go back, the exam’s about to be over.”

He nodded, “What do you reckon? Do I have enough?” He jangled the rings on his left hand. There were 4 Silver, 3 Bronze and a single Gold.

“Tiger’s going to beat you.” He snickered a little bit at that. Chances were, she would.

“I want to ask you a question.”

“Hmm?” She tilted her head, her hair cascading down. He was distracted by the sight for a few seconds. He pulled his gaze away.

“Why were you so scared of those apes in the forest? Tiger was ok, she even excelled but you were scared stiff but rooting through my pocket, you were completely fine with it.” She reminded him of an off-balance canvas.

There was a moment of silence. He could feel that the question had caused a change in her mood. “I just don’t want to hurt anything.” Saying those words had drained her.

He sighed, “I’m sorry for this but…I have to win.” She realized something was wrong but before she could react he’d taken off.

Chains burst out of the ground and restrained her. She pulled through them in a matter of seconds but he was gone. Just like that.

She rooted around, looking for him but he was just nowhere to be found. She grabbed her forehead and stamped her foot into the ground.

It was just a waiting game for him. She had to leave because it was approaching midnight. He’d laid down on the ground and created an illusion over him. It looked like a hump of dirt.

He was close to the bottom and ran straight for the safe zone. He barely made it in time and a series of bells started chiming. He’d won.

He turned and Tiger was giving him a death stare. He gave her a sheepish smile, like he’d been caught stealing. She just turned away.