Solanky then put away his armor and went back to disguising himself as a royal forsaken but with a different corpse, as he was too cautious to use the previous body. Although he had made a breakthrough, he still felt like it wasn't enough compared to the powerful beings in the courtroom; the newly found strength was not something eye-catching. He stood from his sitting position and thanked the golden armored figure. The golden armored figure nodded and waved his hand, and a portal to the competition's training space appeared before Solanky. But before Solanky could step through, the golden armored figure said, "From now on, be careful with your every move. Not every being in that courtroom wishes you success, but they will like tear you apart into pieces and find out the reason why two powerful beings above the generals bet on you. And the venerable one and I are forbidden to rescue you if such a scenario arises in the future."
Solanky cupped his hands and bid farewell to the golden armored figure and stepped through the portal before him. Returning to the competition, Solanky realized that only a hundred years had passed by; he tapped his wristband to check if his teammates Elisa and Chief were still alive in the competition. After confirming the status of his teammates, Solanky flew up into the skies to have a bird's-eye view of his surroundings. Up in the sky, he noticed that the area he appeared in was 60 km due north of the battleground where he met the golden armored figure, and beneath him was dense forest with overgrown vegetation with a crimson blood river running through it. He could hear the wails and cries of people and beasts alike.
He checked his wristband once more to read about the mission for the forest beneath him. Mission: "Escort the travelers in the forest to the nearest shrine; if you are able to accompany them safely to the shrine, you will automatically progress to the next level, and your team will earn some military points. Make sure to reduce the mortality rate of these travelers; there are ten travelers in total. Every loss amounts to a 10% loss of the total points. Beware of the beasts and bandits. Always make sure you protect the young ones in the group, as their death would result in a failed mission. Remember, you cannot keep them in an independent space or world."
Solanky took out the sword he refined back in the base and grasped it in one hand, with the other holding his shield. He then dived down to the forest. Within the forest a group of ten source gods were traveling through the dense, and they seemed to be running from something, and it was an early-stage serpentine entity-level being. Although these people were source gods, their speed far exceeded that of regular source gods, comparable to an entity-level being. Solanky witnessing this was shocked because he didn't know that it was possible for a source god to be comparable to an entity-level being in terms of speed; it was an anomaly he couldn't explain.
Solanky also noticed that although there were source gods, they lacked the abilities of a regular source god. Solanky understood now that in order for them to have such speed, other abilities were sacrificed just for the unimaginable speed. Solanky then slashed down at the serpent chasing them, and it was instantly sliced into two. The travelers seeing this stopped and turned to thank Solanky.
Solanky then asked if they were also heading to the nearest temple as he was. The leader of the travelers nodded and suggested they tag along with him. Solanky agreed and looked at the travelers; he then spotted a timid, shy girl hiding behind one of the travelers. Solanky walked slowly towards her and asked if she was hungry; the girl nodded affirmatively. He tossed out what seemed to be a candy bar, but this was no ordinary candy bar, as it was refined by him; the little one looked so happy. Seeing the little girl happy, Solanky remembered Jasmine in the god realm, who he had saved from the streets. He then went ahead and carried her on his head and asked if she was the youngest in their group. A woman wearing a woolen jacket walked forward and opened her jacket to reveal a toddler strapped to her chest. Solanky, seeing this now, understood that this mission wasn't going to be as easy as he thought it would be.
He then formed seals with his hands, and an invisible protective barrier appeared on the body surface of the toddler and the little girl. They walked through the forest with beasts or bandits attempting to attack them. This was because Solanky deliberately unleashed his aura at the peak of the entity level at 300,000 times, which deterred most of the beasts and bandits who were only at the late-stage entity level or lower. Solanky had also deployed countless little blades, which surrounded them and killed any being who attempted to enter a five thousand meter radius from them.
The travelers were happy because they had had a smooth journey for days without encountering any beasts or bandits. A few kilometers away from them, a giant ape-like being sleeping on the branch of a huge tree opened its massive eye. It then began to swing through the canopy of the forest at a rapid speed, approaching Solanky and the travelers. It was drawn by the scent of the candy in the hands of the little girl, who was playfully swinging it in the air. "Not good!" Solanky sensed that the giant ape had entered the 5 thousand meter radius with brute force. He then looked at the candy in the little girl's hand and realized that the kid was playfully waving it and attracting unnecessary attention from the powerful peak entity giant ape. Solanky didn't know whether to cry or not.
He took out his shield and placed it firmly into the ground, and he asked the travelers to get behind the shield, and he gave the little girl to the leader. As they went behind the shield, the shield expanded to completely engulf them with it like a tortoise shell. The giant ape leapt and landed before Solanky with a crashing sound, which sent shockwaves through the forest. Solanky, looking at the giant ape, noticed that this was no ordinary giant ape, as the ape before him was a king giant ape who had two fiery red horns, and its power was comparable to his at 300,000 times. The king giant ape looked at Solanky and roared as it charged towards him with a fist thrown forward.
Solanky placed his sword behind and charged towards the king ape with a fist also thrown out. The giant ape was shocked seeing this, but it became more agitated as it thought it was trying its physical strength; its fiery horns began to burn with orange flames.