Musnuf looked up at the sky and frowned. A giant black streak of light spread through the sky, bisecting it in half. It’d appeared in silence but something like that couldn’t be left unnoticed. It was in sharp contrast to the light blue sky and the aurora of lights perpendicular to it.

So, he’s awake. It signalled the awakening of the Black Jade Sect Hegemon. That guy was out of his league. He was out of the MC’s league. An ancient monster borne of blood and jade.

He rubbed his forehead. Why did I make him? It also set off some excitement in his mind. There was no concrete proof that the characters he’d created existed. He was operating from the assumption that they did but it was possible for that to not be true. This was indicating they were out there.

By the time, the two disciples made it up the mountain the wards were down. He had to hold out for at least ten minutes. The bandana disciple had a similar situation in mind with him as a Hill-Holder. Except this time, Musnuf was nowhere to be found and the platform was gone.

“I saw him up here.” He pointed at the pit left behind because of his flame ball.

“We need that platform or how are we supposed to claim it?” The other disciple had her hair up in a ponytail. She’d tied it up with a red bandana as well.

The bandana disciple smiled, “Let’s just raze everything to the ground. Something’s bound to pop up!” He formed large flaming whips but before he could throw them out. Musnuf dispelled the illusion on the platform.

Both of them exchanged a glance and made their way to the platform. That’s when Musnuf popped out from under them. He stabbed the bandana disciple in his thigh. His next step was to form green chains, grab the second disciple’s legs and hurl her off the mountain.

The sequence of steps was so quick that the bandana disciple didn’t even have a chance to react.

Musnuf had used up his element of surprise and the bandana disciple backed away. His back blazed with flames. “You’re going to regret this!”

“No, I’m not.” He laughed. It was good to be the aggressor. Except, the disciple he’d hurled off the hill climbed back up on the platform. He wanted to facepalm. I should’ve taken care of him right away.

He took off running. His element of surprise was gone but he didn’t have to fight them head-on. The longer he dragged this on, the better.

The bandana disciple smiled. “That’s why I brought her!” She sat down on the ground cross-legged. Musnuf’s heart fell into a pit. This wasn’t good.

The ground burst up into green flames. He had nowhere to go. This was getting out of hand.

Then he just stopped. “Stop, stop! That’s it.” He grabbed the key out of his pouch and threw it to the bandana disciple.

They were confused but Musnuf had no intention of staying. He started descending the mountain. “Why did you just give it to us?” The ponytail disciple shouted at him but he didn’t reply.

They needed to defend the key for another fifteen minutes before they could claim the mountain. Until then, they wouldn’t be informed of the fact that their mountain was next.

Elder Rain hadn’t informed them of this piece of information. There had to be other tid-bits of important information he’d left out.

He heard steps behind him and it was the ponytail disciple. She shrugged. “Only one person can claim a hill and I can’t stay up there.”

Musnuf was expecting them to fight but they were quite cooperative. “Why did you just give it up like that? Also…I’m sorry.” They’d ambushed him as well. “We just wanted to win.”

An unreasonable anger blew out of his chest, up his throat and out of his mouth. “Then why the fuck are you talking to me!? You think we’re going to be best friends after that. Get out of here!” His voice hit her like a truck. She wasn’t expecting that.

She backed off and Musnuf descended the mountain in peace. It would’ve been nice to make a companion but he was too bitter about that ambush.

He reached the foot of the mountain in time and looked up. It started shaking. He knew what was about to happen next. It flattened like a pancake. He could see a green streak in the sky. That bandana disciple might’ve been saved.

That left five mountains behind. That last mountain had been part-luck. He had to get a mountain again.

Using the illusion might work but chances were it wouldn’t work. The more time he wasted, the worse off he was going to be.

I need to focus on the disciples… That sparked an idea in his mind and he tore off from the group. Ponytail bandana’s eyes were trained on him but he didn’t notice.

…

..

.

Clever poured some water for himself but didn’t touch it. He was in a despondent mood. His sister was right, as annoying as she could be she was right about this.

They’d shown commendable teamwork for the first ten minutes of the test and it was in service of stealing from a fellow disciple. The fact that he hadn’t ruled out such a thing was a testament to his testing abilities.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He knew who it was. “You tried your best, none of us knew…” It would be such a mess. He found himself thinking. “It would be so unpredictable.”

Flower furrowed her brow. “What is it?”

“One of them’s going off somewhere.”

“What?” He did a quick sweep and spotted her.

“Oh…she’s interesting.”

“She’s reckless.” Flower started floating away on her cloud.

He shook his head, she was too kindhearted for her own good.