The Small World of Ancient Trials was no longer a testing ground. It had become a sealed coffin.
The Sky Mirror Broadcast, which had been projecting the majestic and exciting scenes of the disciples exploring the jungle, had cut to black. The last image burned into the retinas of the spectators was the blood-red robe of a Demon Commander and his chilling smile.
Outside, in the Grand Hall of the Heavenly Sword Sect, the atmosphere shifted from festive celebration to apocalyptic panic in the span of a single heartbeat.
"Break it open! NOW!" Sect Leader Jian roared, his veins bulging on his forehead.
He didn't wait for his elders. He drew his personal weapon, the [Heavenly Severing Sword]. His Spirit Severing Level 9 cultivation erupted like a volcano. A massive blue sword beam, concentrated enough to slice a mountain in half, slammed into the Teleportation Portal.
BOOM!
The sound was deafening. The entire mountain shook. Dust and stone chips rained down from the ceiling of the hall. But when the dust settled, the portal remained unharmed. Instead of the swirling blue vortex of a functioning gateway, the archway was now filled with a thick, coagulated wall of red energy. It looked like a scab over a wound.
Sect Leader Jian's attack had been absorbed completely. The red barrier pulsed once, then flared.
Zzzzt.
A bolt of red lightning shot back out from the barrier, reflecting the attack. "Watch out!" The Beast Mountain Lord shouted, tackling the Violet Mist Matriarch to the ground. The reflected lightning blew a hole through the roof of the hall, vaporizing a stone pillar instantly.
Silence. Dead, terrified silence filled the room. The Sect Leaders stared at the red barrier. It mocked them.
"It's useless," Grand Elder Feng (Mystic Cloud Sect) stepped forward, his face the color of ash. He reached out a trembling hand, hovering it inches from the red light. "I have read about this in the ancient texts... This is the [Nine-Lock Void Seal]."
"Void Seal?" The Violet Mist Matriarch screamed, scrambling to her feet. "That is a Forbidden Technique of the Blood Soul Sect! It requires a Void Treading expert to cast! How can there be a Void Treading expert inside?!"
"That man on the screen..." Feng whispered. "That was Xie Molin. One of the Twelve Commanders of the Demon Emperor. He must have suppressed his cultivation to enter, then used a Void Artifact to lock the door from the inside."
"Why?!" Sect Leader Jian grabbed Feng by the collar. "Why go to such lengths?! Why trap a bunch of juniors?"
"To harvest," Feng said grimly. "They don't just want to kill our disciples. They want to turn this Small World into a blood sacrifice ritual. And with this seal... we cannot enter."
"Can we break it?" The Beast Mountain Lord asked, clutching his axe.
"Yes," Feng nodded. "But without a Void Treading Ancestor present... it will take us seven days of continuous bombardment to drain its energy."
"Seven days..." The hall fell into a deeper despair. Inside a sealed world, trapped with a Demon Commander and elite assassins. In seven days, there wouldn't be survivors. There wouldn't even be bodies.
Inside the Small World: The Demon's Command
Deep in a limestone cave, hidden from the prying eyes of the jungle, the air was cold and smelled of iron. This was the temporary base of the Blood Soul Sect.
Xie Molin (The Demon Commander) sat on a makeshift throne made of piled skulls—skulls he had harvested from local beasts in the last hour. He was a handsome man, with pale skin and lips that were naturally red. He played with a strand of his long black hair, looking utterly bored. He was currently suppressing his cultivation to Spirit Severing Peak to avoid collapsing the fragile dimension, but the pressure radiating from him was enough to make the air heavy.
"Report," Xie Molin said lazily.
From the shadows of a stalactite, a figure emerged. He seemed to peel himself off the darkness like a sticker. Ying (The Assassin - Nascent Soul Level 6). "Commander. The lockdown is complete. The Elders outside are panic-bombarding the door. They won't get in."
"Good," Xie Molin yawned. "And the 'Guests'?"
"They are scattered," Ying reported. "The Heavenly Sword Sect is regrouping in the North. The Violet Mist Pavilion is hiding in the dense fog to the East. The Beast Mountain disciples are trying to hunt in the West. And the... Mystic Cloud Sect..."
Ying hesitated. "The Mystic Cloud Sect is erratic. I cannot track their main group. But their elites—the three who fought the Star-Iron Tribe—are moving toward the river."
"Ignore the Mystic Cloud Sect for now," Xie Molin waved his hand dismissively. "They are annoyances. Our goal is the Heart of the World."
"But Commander," another voice rumbled from the cave entrance. A man covered in furs stepped in. He was surrounded by a cloud of flies. Two massive hyenas, their bodies rippling with corrupted Qi, circled his legs. Beast Lord Chi (Demon Infiltrator #2 - Spirit Severing Level 2).
"Hunting them one by one is inefficient," Chi grinned, revealing yellow, filed teeth. "The jungle is too big. If they hide, it will take days to find them all. Why not flush the toilet?"
Xie Molin looked at Chi. "You want to start the Protocol?"
"The Crimson Moon Protocol," Chi nodded eagerly. "I have cultivated a new strain of the Blood-Madness Parasite. If I introduce it to the water source... the entire ecosystem will do our work for us. The beasts will go mad. They will hunt every living human scent. The disciples will be forced to run, and they will all run to the only defensible location on the map."
"The Twin Peaks Valley," Ying finished the thought. "A natural choke point."
"Exactly," Chi laughed. "We force them into one killing jar. Then... we slaughter them all at once."
Xie Molin smiled. It was a cruel, beautiful smile. "Approved. Chi, make the river run red."
The Source of the River
Beast Lord Chi flew to the Headwaters of the River of Lament. This was the highest point in the Small World, a massive waterfall that cascaded down from a cliff, feeding every stream, pond, and lake in the dimension.
Chi stood at the edge of the precipice. The wind whipped his furs. He pulled out a vial made of black crystal. It pulsed, as if it had a heartbeat. Inside swirled a living, pulsating red sludge.
"Drink up, my little ones," Chi whispered affectionately.
He uncorked the vial and poured it into the pristine, crystal-clear water.
HISSS.
The reaction was immediate and violent. The moment the red sludge touched the water, it didn't dilute. It multiplied. It spread like a virus, turning the water from blue to a murky, rusty red. The corruption raced downstream, carried by the current at terrifying speed.
Below the waterfall, a pack of Iron-Hide Boars was drinking peacefully. They were sturdy, Golden Core level beasts with skin as hard as steel. They lapped up the red water.
Five seconds later, the largest boar stopped drinking. It twitched. A low, gurgling sound came from its throat. Suddenly, its eyes rolled back, turning pure white. Then, blood vessels burst, filling the whites with red spiderwebs.
CRACK. Its muscles swelled rapidly, tearing its own skin. Its tusks elongated, dripping with acidic saliva.
ROAR! The boar didn't sound like an animal anymore. It sounded like a demon. It turned to the smaller boar next to it and bit down. CRUNCH. It tore the throat out of its own pack member. The smell of blood triggered the others. In seconds, the peaceful riverbank turned into a massacre. The surviving boars, now fully infected, lifted their heads and sniffed the air. They didn't smell food. They smelled Human Qi. They sprinted into the jungle, a wave of madness following in their wake.
The Divine Dragon Trio
Five miles downstream. The Trio (Ye Kai, Su Ling, Wei Wu) was resting in a clearing after their skirmish with the Star-Iron Tribe. Jiang Chen was still nowhere to be seen (likely counting money somewhere near the entrance or setting up his next scam).
Su Ling was kneeling by a stream to refill her water canteen. She stopped. Her hand froze inches from the water.
Her Nano-Sensor Drone, hovering above her shoulder, suddenly flashed a frantic red strobe light. [WARNING: HIGH TOXICITY DETECTED.] [CONTAMINANT: NEURO-STIMULANT CLASS A (DEMONIC ORIGIN).] [LETHALITY: 100%.]
"Don't drink!" Su Ling shouted, slapping a water skin out of Ye Kai's hand just as he was about to take a swig.
"Hey!" Ye Kai grumbled, watching the water skin splash onto the ground. "I'm thirsty! I just fought 50 savages!"
"Look," Su Ling pointed at the stream.
Ye Kai and Wei Wu looked. The water was changing color. Ribbons of red were swirling in the current. A fish floated to the surface, belly up. "It's dead," Ye Kai shrugged. "So?"
Suddenly, the "dead" fish twitched. It launched itself out of the water, jaws snapping wildly. It landed on the mud and began to flop toward Ye Kai's boot, biting the leather with insane ferocity.
"Zombie fish?" Ye Kai blinked. He stomped on it. SPLAT. Even crushed flat, the fish's tail continued to thrash.
"Parasites," Su Ling stood up, adjusting her glasses. Her face was grim. "This isn't just poison. It's a biological weapon. A berserker agent. It turns anything that ingests it into a killing machine that feels no pain."
CRACK. SNAP. ROAR.
From the jungle around them, the ambient sounds of nature shifted. The chirping of insects stopped. The wind seemed to hold its breath. Then, low, guttural growls began to echo. Not from one direction. From every direction.
"Wei Wu," Su Ling recalled her drones into a tight defensive circle. "What do you hear?"
Wei Wu's ear twitched. He turned his head toward the deep jungle to the East. "Heartbeats," Wei Wu whispered. "Thousands of them. They are beating very fast. Irregular. Like drums of war. And... they are coming closer."
"It's a Beast Tide," Su Ling realized. "Someone poisoned the water source to flush the entire map. They are driving everyone to the center."
The Signal
Suddenly, a massive red flare exploded in the sky to the East. Then a blue one to the North. Then a yellow one to the West.
"Alliance Distress Signals," Ye Kai noted. "Violet Mist, Heavenly Sword, Beast Mountain. Everyone is popping flares. They are under attack."
"It's a massacre out there," Su Ling calculated. "We can't stay here. The beasts will converge on our location in ten minutes."
"We need to regroup with Master," Ye Kai cracked his knuckles. "Where is he?"
"Master's signal is..." Su Ling checked her radar. She frowned deeply. "He is stationary. He is at the Twin Peaks Valley."
"Why is he just sitting there?" Ye Kai asked. "Is he trapped?"
"Knowing Master," Su Ling sighed, a look of realization crossing her face. "He isn't trapped. He is probably opening a franchise."
Twin Peaks Valley (The Choke Point)
In a narrow canyon that served as the only defensible position in the entire region, Jiang Chen was indeed busy. He wasn't fighting beasts. He was arguing with the System.
"System, what do you mean a 'Neon Sign' costs 50,000 Spirit Stones? That's robbery! I want a discount!"
[System: It is a High-Grade Spirit Sign. It glows in the dark and attracts customers. Take it or leave it.]
"Fine, buy it," Jiang Chen grumbled.
He waved his hand. [Sect Construction Mode: Active.]
Massive stone walls rose from the ground, sealing off the entrance to the valley. [Earth Wall Array x10] deployed. Inside the valley, Jiang Chen placed a series of comfortable tents, a large hotpot station, and a Medical Bay.
He walked to the front of his newly constructed fortress. He watched the red sky darken. He felt the ground trembling as millions of infected beasts began their rampage across the map. He could hear the distant screams of disciples fleeing for their lives.
Jiang Chen smiled. He hammered a massive wooden stake into the ground. Above it, the neon sign flickered to life, buzzing with a warm, inviting blue light that cut through the bloody gloom.
[THE SAFE ZONE HOTEL] [No Beasts Allowed.]
Below it, he pinned a price list:
Entry Fee: 1 Million Spirit Stones (or equivalent assets).
Clean Water: 50,000 Stones.
Protection: Negotiable.
Medical Treatment: Your Soul. (Just kidding, 500k).
Jiang Chen dusted off his hands and sat down on a lounge chair behind the gate. He poured himself a cup of tea (brought from home, strictly unpoisoned).
"Supply and Demand," Jiang Chen whispered to the empty air. "First, you create the problem... or in this case, you let the Demons create the problem. Then, you wait."
He looked at the horizon, where the first terrified figures of the fleeing disciples were appearing over the ridge.
"Run, little sheep," Jiang Chen grinned. "The wolves are behind you. And the butcher is waiting at the gate."