Treasure Hunting

The twenty-six disciples who were eligible for the intermediary contest needed to wait for three days before it started. The three-
day wait was intentional so that they'd have more than enough time to rest.
The intermediary contest was more comprehensive. It tested for the disciples' ability to perform well under pressure and in
danger. And for this purpose, the location for the test was agreed to be the Burial Forest. It was known as a naturally perilous
place. Those who passed the intermediary contest would qualify for the runoff.
The Burial Forest was a place full of martial beasts. A long time ago, the region where the Welkin Sect was located was in
constant threat from martial beasts. The ancestors of the Welkin Sect spent an enormous amount of effort to eliminate the threat
and chase off the remaining martial beasts to the Burial Forest. Disciples were then assigned to guard the entrance of the Burial
Forest to prevent martial beasts from escaping and hurting residents nearby.
Although the Burial Forest was known as a dangerous place, most of the powerful martial beasts were killed by the ancestors.
The remaining martial beasts were not too powerful anymore. Any disciple at the premium stage of Mortal Level was able to
survive in the forest.
In case anything unexpected happened during the test, a few stewards were assigned to monitor the progress of the test to
ensure the safety of the disciples.
Even though they were assured of their safety, all the disciples except for Zachary were terror-stricken while they stood at the
entrance to the dark Burial Forest.
"Take care when you enter! Once you are faced with danger, remember to call for help, but this will mean you fail the test as
well." After Gray explained this to the disciples, he asked the disciple behind him to give the participants the signal fireworks,
which could be used to call for help.
And then, the twenty-six disciples all went into the Burial Forest.
The eight disciples who survived inside the forest longer than the rest would be eligible for the runoff. The eighteen disciples who
surrendered to the dangers of the forest would be eliminated.
The other twenty-five disciples all went towards different directions, leaving Zachary alone standing at the same spot.
Zachary pondered for a while before he decided on a direction to go.

The survival skill was the most important skill for a disciple to be selected. What mattered was not how powerful one was as a
warrior, but how one was able to survive the harshest environment.
Even though the Burial Forest was not too deadly, it was still hard for the disciples even at the Earth Level to survive for a couple
of days. The longer they stayed, the more pressured they'd be.
Compared to the eligibility to enter the Celestial College, one's own life was more important.
As to how perilous the Burial Forest exactly was, Zachary soon had first-hand knowledge of it.
"A martial beast at the Earth Level?" It was less than two hours after he entered the Burial Forest and he already encountered a
Red-eyed Wolf. Judging from its aura, Zachary concluded that it was at the first grade of Earth Level.
Given Zachary's current martial power, it was a bad idea to fight the martial beast. As such, he used Shadow Pace and fled.
But the Red-eyed Wolf was not planning to easily let its meal escape so it chased after Zachary.
The human and the beast raced inside the forest. At length, the Red-eyed Wolf gave up chasing Zachary when it realized that he
was too fast for it.
Zachary felt relieved when he was sure that the wolf stopped chasing after him.
'I have to find a safe place, ' he thought. And without warning, he suddenly felt his chest warming up.
'This can't be! The Treasure-hunting Compass is detecting something!' Zachary felt very excited. He took out the compass and
the projected radar showed him a location.
"I hope that there's no danger this time," Zachary muttered as he ran towards the place specified by the compass.
He was careful not to encounter any martial beast so it took him longer than usual to reach the place specified by the compass.
When he finally reached the location, he was greeted by a gigantic tree that seemed to reach all the way to the sky. He
estimated that it was likely to be centuries old. The tree's canopy covered a very large area.
Zachary looked up at the branches and studied them. He then saw a huge nest on one of the branches that looked like a nest of
a martial beast. The compass seemed to be pointing at the nest's location.
'What kind of treasure could be there? It better not be like the marriage contract I got last time!' Zachary hesitated for a moment
and then climbed the tree until he reached the location of the nest.

The nest had a powerful stinky smell. Zachary saw something that looked like a pile of cow dung inside the nest. This was where
the smell came from.
"Fuck it! I'm going to faint!" Zachary cursed. Just when he felt that he couldn't bear the stink anymore, he saw the gleam of a
reddish, egg-shaped item buried in the pile of excrement.
Zachary's eyes lit up. He held his breath and jumped into the nest. Then, as fast as he could, he reached into the pile of
excrement, grabbed the egg, kept it inside his robe and jumped out of the nest. As he was about to climb down the tree, he
noticed a group of birds not far from him that suddenly flew as fast as they could in different seemingly random directions as if
they were running away from something. A moment later a huge bird flew up from the forest and dashed towards the nest.
The giant bird had the body of a roc and the head of a hawk. Its reddish feathers looked like flames burning on its body. Its wings
were large enough to cover a large portion of the sky, and it darkened the area underneath the wings as it passed. It flew
towards Zachary at an incredible speed. Its eyes locked on him like he was its prey.
The first instinct that he had was to run as fast as possible from the huge bird.
Zachary wasted no time; he jumped down from the huge tree and then fled into the dense forest. As he ran, he turned back his
head from time to time to observe the bird. The distance between them became shorter each time he glanced back.
Although Zachary's speed wasn't actually slow, the bird's speed was simply too fast for him to evade. And soon the bird was
about to catch up with him.
The moment that the bird's beak was about to bite into Zachary's back, a big hole in the ground suddenly appeared, giving him a
chance to escape. Without giving it a second thought, he jumped into the hole.
The hole in the ground wasn't deep. Zachary was on the bottom of the hole in an instant. He balanced himself and then raised
his head.
A giant bird figure flew across the sky and then it disappeared.
"So lucky..." Zachary sighed in relief. He thought that it was now safe enough to look around the hole. It was completely dark
inside the hole, except for area where he stood. Light that came from the sky above lit the area where he stood.