Chapter 30 (2/2): Survival Training · Day Two

Before long, a white tent appeared in a forest clearing.

The emblem of the Holy Council was on the tent, but it had been covered over with vines and branches.

Qiu Meng noticed Mili and Luo Sha sitting beside the tent.

Mili’s expression was grim, her robe edges stained with blood, her whole appearance a mess—completely lacking that annoying demeanor from before.

Luo Sha sat quietly, her right eye covered by an eyepatch, her arm hanging limp at her side.

Mili looked up and saw Seraphiel. Her tone immediately turned impatient.

“You’re finally here. Time to head back.”

Seraphiel looked at the two of them, and for the first time, a hint of concern appeared on his face.

“You two… what happened?”

“Nothing. Just some blasphemous abomination dragged us into a strange dimension. If I hadn’t been better than it, we’d all be dead.”

Mili frowned as she stared at her own hand, opening and closing it repeatedly, observing and adapting to the dull sense of dissonance that now occupied her body.

“My body’s reaction speed is slower too. That thing shaved off part of my power.”

Luo Sha looked up, then removed her eyepatch.

She looked at Qiu Meng and found no line at all.

{Why does she have no death line…!}

She thought about it. In theory, every living thing this eye saw had some path leading to death—no matter how thin or long, it always existed.

But on Qiu Meng, it was as if destiny had simply skipped over her. There was only nothingness.

Luo Sha didn’t say it out loud. She quietly put the eyepatch back on.

Mili, meanwhile, took out the blood-stained book of revelation from her chest and glanced at the newly appeared text from the corner of her eye.

On the page, a strange structure had formed.

████:
Death → Reincarnation Cycle → Celestial Wing Tribe deity allocation → New life form

████:
Death → Life███line█manager███ → ██████ → ████████████

↑
(████ cannot ██)

Mili froze.

“The reincarnation cycle… that should be where souls go after death.”

She stared at the route below.

“What’s that below? Can’t see it. Don’t understand it at all.”

She closed the book, her expression growing even darker.

“Hurry… we need to get going now.”

Seraphiel asked:

“So, how shall we handle Miss Cadera and Miss Qiu Meng?”

Luo Sha kept her eyes closed, her voice calm.

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid Miss Mili and I don’t have the capacity to handle them at the moment.”

Qiu Meng spoke up immediately:

“There’s no need to ‘handle’ us. Cadera is my teammate. Where she goes, I go. Thank you for the kind offer.”

She paused, looking at Cadera.

“But we still have a teammate we haven’t found.”

Cadera nodded.

“Yes. Alisia is missing.”

She looked at Mili.

“I need your help. Can you?”

Mili barely hesitated.

“I’m afraid not. The current situation is beyond what we can control.”

Luo Sha simply gave a slight nod in agreement.

Mili immediately pulled out a pocket watch and checked the time.

“If we’re just going to dawdle here, then I’ll take my leave first. Returning to report this disastrous situation is more important than searching for a needle in a haystack with you in these woods.”

Qiu Meng was silent for a few seconds.

“Understood.”

She took a deep breath.

“You have your mission, and we have our teammate to find. Thanks for this time, Mili, Luo Sha.”

With that, she turned to Cadera, placed a hand on her shoulder, and pressed down firmly.

“Cadera, we’ll find her ourselves. You said you needed help, so I’m your helper. Once we’ve rested, we set out.”

Cadera was startled for a moment, then gave a gentle nod.

“Let’s go.”

Just then, two magical butterflies flew in from the forest.

Their wings were translucent, with pale blue runes flowing along the edges. When they landed before Qiu Meng and Cadera, their wings spread open and transformed into a scroll.

The scroll read:

All examinees currently in the trial area are to proceed immediately to the waterfall location and gather Clear Spring Fruits.
Submitting 10 fruits will complete the task.
Note: 35 fruits total. First come, first served.

At the bottom right was Lu Xien’s signature.

That damn scholar’s signature.

Qiu Meng stared at the scroll.

“That unreliable teacher Lu Xien is up to something again…”

Mili glanced at the scroll and made a face of disgust.

She thought that scholar was probably not a normal person.

Luo Sha, out of politeness, didn’t voice an opinion.

But deep down, she also believed that this Lord Lu Xien likely didn’t belong in the category of “proper teachers.”

“Clear Spring Fruits… 10 of them.”

Qiu Meng looked down at the task requirement, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

“Sending out a gathering quest at a time like this—either the academy thinks we’re not dying fast enough, or there’s a reason we absolutely have to go to that waterfall.”

Mili had no interest in listening to more student trial talk.

Before leaving with Luo Sha and Seraphiel, she only tossed out one line:

“You two be careful. Don’t die too quickly.”

Then, the white figures vanished into the forest.

Qiu Meng and Cadera stayed where they were.

The wind returned to their ears.

Without the Inquisition people around, the woodland suddenly felt vast and cold.

Qiu Meng looked down and unrolled the scroll, checking the edges and the back for map markings.

Cadera asked:

“What’s your plan? Do the task first, or look for Alisia first?”

Qiu Meng didn’t answer immediately.

She stared at the text on the scroll, sorting through her thoughts rapidly.

Alisia is missing.
That monster doesn’t seem to have been killed.
And now the academy has issued a new quest…

But that waterfall is a water source. Demon beasts are bound to be near water, and other examinees will be drawn there too.

Only 35 fruits, but they require submitting 10. That means at least a few teams will end up fighting over them.

Going there is dangerous.
Not going is also dangerous.

“I don’t want to miss the chance to find Alisia because of a quest.”

Qiu Meng said quietly.

“But we can’t completely ignore the quest either. Lu Xien wouldn’t drop a target point near us without a reason.”

Cadera looked at her.

“You’re the leader. I’ve always worked in medical support.”

“You decide.”

Qiu Meng closed her eyes.

“Priority is finding Alisia.”

She opened them again.

“The Clear Spring Fruit quest—if it’s on the way, we’ll do it along the way. The waterfall is a public target point, so there’ll be plenty of examinees and demon beasts converging there. If we run into people trying to grab fruits, we avoid them. No prolonged fights.”

Cadera asked:

“But how do we find Alisia? She doesn’t even have a mana fluctuation anymore.”

“Having no mana fluctuation is itself a clue.”

Qiu Meng rolled up the scroll.

“In a forest like this, a living person can’t just disappear without a trace. Unless some spell erased her tracks, or she was teleported away.”

“But doesn’t that make it even more like finding a needle in a haystack?”

“Mili and the others said that monster can’t be killed.”

Qiu Meng looked toward the direction where the pillar of light had once fallen.

“It was chasing me. But when Alisia disappeared, we didn’t run into it directly. If that light is connected to the monster, the source should still be over there.”

Her gaze grew more determined.

“We double back and start from where the light landed. Check the ground for scorch marks, for fragments of her greatsword, for anything that doesn’t belong in this forest.”

“If we find nothing by nightfall, we head to the waterfall and set up camp nearby.”

Cadera was silent for a moment.

“Miss Qiu Meng, do you really not need to rest?”

Her voice was soft.

“And besides, there’s no guarantee we’ll find Miss Alisia.”

Qiu Meng stopped.

She looked down at her own hands, covered in blood and grime.

The truth was, she wanted to charge out right now, searching in every possible direction for Alisia.

But Cadera was right. In this condition, if they kept pushing on and ran into enemies again, the two of them probably wouldn’t even get a chance to fight back.

Qiu Meng slowly let out a breath.

“You’re right.”

She sat down right on the ground, laying her sword across her knees as she prepared to study the scroll.

Cadera was startled, then shouted:

“Could you at least find a rock to sit on!”

Qiu Meng looked down at herself sitting directly on the muddy ground, then scratched her cheek sheepishly.

“Ah… forgot. Too tired. I saw ground and just wanted to sit.”

She couldn’t be bothered to get up and find a rock. She just spread the scroll over her knees and patted the ground beside her.

Cadera crouched down with a helpless expression.

The two looked at the scroll together.

Soon, Qiu Meng discovered extremely faint directional markings hidden on the back of the scroll. The task location was marked near the big lake.

She blinked.

“Wait, Cadera, look at this.”

She handed the scroll over.

“The waterfall is right near our old campsite at the lake. From here, it’s only about 150 meters away!”

Cadera frowned slightly.

“So if we go back to the lake, we can confirm the task point along the way.”

“Yeah.”

Qiu Meng stood up and used her compass to confirm the direction.

The bearing was clear.

But then she looked down and checked her and Cadera’s injuries again.

The conclusion was also clear.

Adventuring now wasn’t possible.

They’d nearly been done in by ordinary students just moments ago, let alone the demon beasts and fruit-grabbing examinees likely gathered around the waterfall.

Qiu Meng was silent for a few seconds, then put away her compass.

“Plan change.”

“Huh?”

“We’re not traveling.”

She stood and walked over to the tent the Inquisition had left behind, starting to rummage through the supplies.

Cadera was shocked.

“Miss Qiu Meng… what if they come back for their things? Is it really okay to just use them?”

“If they come back, I’ll apologize.”

Qiu Meng pulled out several healing potions, compressed rations, and two rolls of clean bandages from the pack.

“But if we die, we won’t have the chance to apologize.”

She handed one of the healing potions to Cadera.

Cadera looked at the potion.

A few seconds later, she took it.

“You’ve become quite decisive.”

“It’s not decisiveness.”

Qiu Meng sat back down on the ground, opened a compressed ration, and took a small bite.

{What is this…! So hard!!!}

She made a face as she swallowed.

“It’s that there’s no other choice.”

Cadera let out a soft laugh.

“Isn’t that what being decisive is?”

Qiu Meng didn’t answer.

She looked toward the depths of the forest.

{That Lu Xien is leading all the examinees toward the waterfall again…}

“Ugh, academy life…”

Then she buried her face into her cloak, her voice muffled.

“I want to drop out.”

“It’s only the second day, you know.”

“Shut up.”

After a brief silence, both of them laughed a little.

Before closing her eyes, Qiu Meng confirmed the route one last time.

{First, back to the lake… then follow this line to the waterfall to find the Clear Spring Fruits}

{But if I search for traces of Alisia’s disappearance along this route at the same time, it’ll probably take until nightfall… I need to be quick.}

She stared at Cadera and said:

“Cadera, stay here and rest. Your condition is too poor to follow me—you’d be in danger. This tent belongs to the Inquisition, so no one will dare touch you for a while.”

“If you go alone, something will happen to you.”

Cadera stared at her, her gaze heavy.

Qiu Meng didn’t answer. She’d planned to stuff rations and potions from the pack inside, but found the small bag already full. She only managed to fit two potions in.

“I’m just scouting. Confirming the waterfall’s location and how dangerous it is.” She wrapped Alisia’s cloak tighter around herself. “Once I confirm there’s no danger, I’ll come right back… get some sleep here for now. You didn’t sleep at all last night.”

Before the words even faded, she had already turned and walked out.

Cadera watched that retreating figure. She was about to speak when she noticed something wrong.

In the direction Qiu Meng was heading, a massive surge of dark magic energy was churning.

“Qiu Meng… don’t go that way——”

Before she could finish, some kind of magic abruptly enveloped Cadera’s entire body.

She didn’t even have time to struggle before she sank into a deep unconsciousness.