
Listening to Katra's cry, nearly 1000 waiting disciples rushed towards the Soul Forest. Their faces were all filled with passion and hope, everyone was definitely trying their best in order to get the best ranking in the monthly match this time around.
Vann who was on the other hand heard Tude talk with 4 colleagues, it seems that he and all his colleagues could pass the initial test without problems.
Based on what Vann heard from their conversation, it seemed like they were planning to give Vann another lesson in the Soul Forest.
Tude blames Vann, based on his opinion, he would not have been punished if not for Vann.
Therefore, Tude felt himself needing to take revenge on Vann and teach the new kid a lesson so as not to act arrogant again in the future.
The problem was that they could not kill Vann now, there were 2 organizers who most likely continued to observe them.
At least until the 2nd day where most of the people must have gone far into the forest, they could hide themselves from the 2 organizers and then attack Vann.
As long as they did not kill Vann then they would not be punished, at most they only gave Vann a lesson to scare him. If necessary, they would make Vann leave the Wood Sword Academy due to being too scared, then that would be enough.
The committee would definitely not blame them, after all the disciples would also have to fight each other in order to snatch their opponent's tokens.
A smile quietly appeared on Vann's face, telling Lifure that he went hunting because Vann planned to hunt down all of Tude's friends first.
While defeating the Tude, Vann planned to fight him in the arena while being watched by many people from Talper Province to make Tude feel enormous shame due to his defeat of the new child.
But now that Vann doesn't seem to bother hunting them anymore, in the end Tude and her comrades will come alone trying to fight Vann.
Since he did not need to act quickly to hunt down Tude's comrades, Vann walked slowly towards the Soul Forest.
When all the disciples had already rushed towards the Soul Forest, Katra stared towards the forest while sighing "I hope something bad doesn't happen this year, the children went full of passion and hope to the Soul Forest, they hoped to become victors. But after from the Soul Forest, I don't know how many of them have returned".
Lavein, who had always been hostile towards Katra, this time did not look for any more trouble but shook his head "There is nothing we can do about the matter, in the end the rules of this match determined 4 leaders of great powers, our task is only to run the match as they specify. I don't know, what exactly the head of the academy is thinking about sending children to the extremely risky Soul Forest".
Katra nodded then did not speak anymore, as the teacher who taught long ago in the Wood Sword Academy, he perfectly understood the reason the forest in front of them was named the Soul Forest.
...----------------...
Vann walked into the forest to find the area around him covered by white smoke, causing Vann to be unable to walk quickly in the forest because white smoke interferes with his vision. When Vann moves too fast, there is a high chance that he hits a tree or something else.
Walking further and further in the forest, suddenly a sword flew towards him.
Vann could certainly feel the sword being thrown towards him, so Vann tried to take out the low rank 2 sword he was carrying.
But while trying to retrieve his sword, Vann finds the sword he was supposed to carry disappears.
Due to the loss of the sword, Vann had no chance of dodging again and was stabbed right in the shoulder, he was directly embedded in the tree beside him by the thrown sword.
But before feeling happy for too long, Vann found Tude with 4 colleagues emerging from behind white smoke while walking up to him with a cold smile.
Vann was surprised, weren't they planning to attack Vann while away in the forest? Moreover, how could they find Vann amidst the white smoke that was interfering with vision?
Before Vann understood, Tude drew his sword and stabbed at Vann with a vengeful "Die! Everyone who dares to go against me, must be prepared to pay the price!".
Vann tried to use his battle energy to fight, but Vann soon found the battle energy was completely non-existent, now Vann was not much different from a normal person without cultivation strength.
In front of the sword slash of the 9th level Qi Gathering belonging to Tude, a normal person was not her opponent.
When Vann thinks he will die without knowing the reason why his power is lost and how Tude and his partner can find out Vann's whereabouts amidst the white smoke, a voice awakens Vann "Kyu!".
Vann opened his eyes again and found he was in the middle of the forest, there was absolutely no white smoke disturbing the vision around as well as Tude who tried to kill him.
As Vann is confused as to what happened, he finds Kyuro jumping around on his shoulders.
Vann held Kyuro's head, then suddenly he realized there were countless disciples lying around him.
Vann tried to approach the 1st disciple while saying "What happened-".
When Vann felt the disciple was no longer breathing, Vann knew that he was dead.
Vann tried to use his energy to sense the state of the other disciples, but the result was the same.
Around Vann, there were probably 20 disciples who died whereas the other disciples were unknown to his existence, however the forest was vast.
Given everything that happened and the smoke forest, Vann broke out in cold sweat as he thought of a possibility.
Everything that happened just now was an illusion, therefore this place was referred to as the Soul Forest. Anyone who came to the Soul Forest would have their souls trapped in the illusion, if they did not wake up in time then those who were killed in the illusion would also be killed for real.
Vann was really surprised and lucky to escape the deadly illusion trap, fortunately Kyuro's voice came in time to help him.
Seeing Kyuro jumping around on his shoulder, Vann held Kyuro's head again gently "Thank you, Kyuro!".
"Kyu" said Kyuro continuously jumping up.
Next Vann walked much more carefully in this forest, Vann's strength had now indeed reached Qi Gathering level 7 so that he could fight against most of the other disciples without any problems.
But Vann only realized that his opponent in the monthly match this time might not only be the disciples, but the Soul Forest itself and all the monsters that exist.