Everyone couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. Twelve people just gone like that?
What kind of monstrous fish were those?
Some were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground, nearly wetting themselves. This was simply too terrifying.
Although they had mentally prepared themselves to face death beforehand, when truly confronted with it, they couldn't avoid feeling fear.
Originally, with such a large group advancing mightily, pushing through any soul beasts they encountered, they had thought this training was nothing much. However, reality quickly struck them hard, thoroughly chilling their hearts.
Those familiar faces, who had just been running alongside them, were now devoured, not even leaving a complete corpse.
At this moment, Jiang Chen finally understood what Hu Liena had meant by always staying vigilant.
Previously, with over a hundred people clearing the way, easily slaying any soul beasts they met, they had relaxed their guard in this river, and as a result, paid the price with their lives.
Perhaps this was the purpose of the instructors' training: to make people maintain vigilance at all times. It was just that using lives as the cost was truly too high for these boys and girls, around ten years old.
"These fish aren't highly cultivated; they're just some ten-year soul beasts. But there are too many of them," Zhao Youyue suddenly said from within the crowd.
As soon as she spoke, everyone seemed to find a pillar of support. "Miss Youyue, do you have any way to cross the river?"
Zhao Youyue's temperament was cold and aloof, like a fairy high above. Revered as one of the Five Kings, at this critical moment, everyone felt she should contribute something.
However, her expression remained utterly indifferent, and her gaze toward the crowd even carried a hint of pity. "How to cross the river is something you should figure out yourselves. What does it have to do with me?"
Someone immediately felt indignant: "Don't you need to cross as well?"
Zhao Youyue ignored them and said to a young man beside her, "Let's go."
The young man grinned, "Miss Youyue, then I'll have to offend."
With that, two black wings suddenly extended from his back with a whoosh, each spanning two meters when fully spread.
He grabbed Zhao Youyue's hand, flapped his wings a few times, and quickly flew up, heading toward the opposite bank.
Everyone was stunned. There was actually a flight-type soul master in Zhao Youyue's team. This was too unfair. How could anyone compete?
"Lin Feng, later, could you maybe let us..."
Lin Feng's cold gaze swept over, forcing everyone to shut their mouths tightly.
"Hehe, we'll be going ahead then. We won't be polite about the top five spots." From the crowd, several people laughed, and wings of different shapes appeared on their bodies, indicating they were also soul masters with flight martial souls.
Before everyone could react, these people shot into the sky and rapidly flew toward the opposite side.
"Damn it, I'm your teammate! You're just abandoning me like this?" Someone roared angrily.
Such voices rang out one after another in the crowd. Those flight soul masters had previously teamed up with others, yet now they abandoned their teammates and flew off alone.
This competition was truly too unfair. When encountering dangerous spots, they could just fly over. Who could be faster than these people with flight martial souls?
Just as many were regretting and resenting, streaks of light suddenly appeared, shooting toward the flying soul masters in the sky.
Followed by several screams, those who hadn't flown halfway lost control of their bodies and plummeted into the river.
The monstrous fish appeared again, surrounding them and churning, with patches of bloody waves rising, making everyone tremble with fear.
"Gong Yin, you..."
Everyone turned to look at a young man with a cold and sinister aura. Some wanted to stand up for justice but were glared at by the boy called Gong Yin's icy gaze, and no one dared speak further.
Jiang Chen also looked over curiously. This young man was one of the Five Kings, holding a black giant bow, with two yellow century soul rings circling him. Those arrows just now had been shot by him.
"What a sinister and ruthless young man," Jiang Chen thought to himself, secretly becoming wary.
Killing several people without even changing expression, how many must he have killed to reach this point?
Now, aside from Zhao Youyue's team still having one flight soul master, there were no other flight soul masters left.
Seemingly wary of Zhao Youyue and Lin Feng's strength, Gong Yin did not target the flight soul master in Zhao Youyue's team.
"This is good too. Gong Yin shooting down those people at least makes the competition fairer," some discussed, with a hint of joy in their words.
Soon, the flight soul master who had taken Zhao Youyue across flew back and carried another teammate over.
"Everyone, we should think of a way too," someone said.
"What way is there? Unless we go upstream or downstream to see if there's a place to cross."
As the crowd discussed, a rumbling sound came from the forest behind, and a towering giant tree fell.
Then, people saw several young men waving from inside.
"Come help quickly! Set this tree across the river as a bridge." Many eyes lit up, and they hurriedly ran over to assist.
The tree wasn't very thick, but its length reached an astonishing fifty-plus meters, and it was extremely hard.
With everyone's efforts, the large tree was placed over the river. To their delight, it didn't provoke an attack from the monstrous fish.
However, the trunk was less than a meter from the water surface, making many hesitate. They had just witnessed the monstrous fish leaping out. Who wanted to be the first to cross this single-plank bridge?
"I'll do it." A young man stepped forward, holding a gleaming broadsword. He was the one who had organized chopping down the tree earlier.
He was also one of the Five Kings, named Wan Tianqi, with the martial soul Swift Blade, possessing formidable strength.
Under everyone's expectant gazes, he stepped onto the single-plank bridge, unleashing his full speed and rushing toward the opposite bank.
The monstrous fish leaped again, but the young man's speed was extremely fast, causing those jumping fish to miss entirely.
In a few breaths, Wan Tianqi reached the opposite bank, waiting there for his teammates.
"It works." Everyone's eyes brightened. As long as one's speed was fast enough, they could completely avoid those monstrous fish.
Suddenly, a large group surged forward, all wanting to cross first.
In a short time, several more people made it across. Of course, some unlucky ones with insufficient speed insisted on trying and ended up dying in the fish's mouths.
Under several impacts from the fish swarm, the tree was on the verge of breaking and clearly couldn't hold much longer.
"We'll go cut a few more trees." Someone shouted. Felling trees wouldn't take much time.
As for those slower soul masters, they could only shake their heads helplessly and obediently search upstream or downstream for crossing points.
Zhao Youyue's team and Wan Tianqi's team had already crossed the river completely and disappeared on the opposite bank, continuing forward.
The tree lying across the water had been gnawed severely by the fish in places, leaving only arm-thick sections that could break at any moment.
Jiang Chen's eyes, however, lit up. Others might not be able to cross, but he could.
With his speed and weight, he was certain he could make it without issue.