Those Lost in the Mountains

"Yuanshi Tianzun... Yuanshi Tianzun..." The voice drifted in on the wind, accompanied by the rustle of foliage—ethereal and deeply unsettling. In this dim, dense forest where sunlight could barely penetrate, suddenly hearing someone call out his name was genuinely chilling. *How long have I even been walking, and I've already run into danger? I can't answer.* Zhang Yuanqing hadn't expected to encounter the hazards mentioned on the noticeboard so quickly. Keeping up a steady forward pace, he didn't stop, acting as though he hadn't heard the calls behind him. Out of curiosity, however, he commanded Blood Rose to turn her head and look back. The sight behind him was eerie. Ancient, towering trees swayed frantically in the wind, creaking and groaning like flailing giants with bared fangs and brandished claws. The calls drifted out from among the layered leaves, yet though the voice was distinct, not a soul was to be seen. Zhang Yuanqing made Blood Rose turn her head back and kept walking forward. *Rustle, rustle...* Treading on soil blanketed in rotting leaves, he walked like this for several minutes until the calls behind him finally ceased. *It seems as long as I don't respond, there won't be any danger. As things stand, the precautions on the noticeboard are reliable. If that's the case, will the real crisis begin after reaching the central zone?* Zhang Yuanqing pondered as he walked. Based on the initial allocation of three points per person, clearing the trial's challenges accounted for a heavy share of points in this killing trial. If so, this trial was bound to be far from simple. It was guaranteed to be fraught with peril. Yet trials with survival as their main quest all shared the same annoying quirk: they never offered many hints, requiring Spirit Realm walkers to explore on their own. [Ding! "Ninefold Heavens of Dragon Riding" has died (Bewitching Demon). The leaderboard has been reset. Please check accordingly.] [Ding! "White Elephant God" has died (Wood Demon). The leaderboard has been reset. Please check accordingly.] [Ding! "Pile Driver" has died (Fire Master). The leaderboard has been reset. Please check accordingly.] "People are dying already?" Zhang Yuanqing hurriedly opened the leaderboard and saw that the total headcount had dropped to 180. His rank remained unchanged at 73rd, meaning the three deceased walkers had all been ranked below him. Notably, first place had shifted from Zhao Chenghuang to I Alone Am Supreme, sitting at 9 points. In second place was Zhao Chenghuang with 6 points. Everyone else's points remained unchanged. *Of the three walkers who died, exactly one belonged to an evil profession. If all three were killed by I Alone Am Supreme, that accounts precisely for the nine points. And if that assumption holds, Zhao Chenghuang's point increase must have come from the trial itself.* *From what I can see right now, there are no sources of points around me. No rush, the trial has only just begun. Rankings in the early stage are meaningless...* Zhang Yuanqing turned his thoughts to this person called "I Alone Am Supreme." Killing orthodox and evil walkers alike—this guy clearly leaned toward chaos. As he ventured deeper, the likelihood of encountering other Spirit Realm walkers would rise dramatically, and among them, the chance of running into an official colleague was roughly one in five. Considering that the Dark Night Rose had planted moles within the official factions... Zhang Yuanqing decided to conceal his identity first. He retrieved an item he rarely used—the Disguise Ring. Slipping it on, he raised a hand to cover his face, gently kneading it. His fairly handsome features twisted like an illusion before settling into a thoroughly mediocre face. Wang Tai! To conceal oneself properly, being either too handsome or too ugly wouldn't do. One had to admit that someone as utterly ordinary as Wang Tai, whose appearance seemed to grant natural invisibility when tossed into a crowd, was practically perfect. He had just finished disguising himself when his ears twitched, picking up the heavy crunch of footsteps snapping dry twigs not far to his left. He immediately turned his head to look. The newcomer was a middle-aged man in black mountaineering gear, carrying a hiking backpack. He leaned on a wooden staff, trudging forward with his head down. *Not a Spirit Realm walker—an NPC from the trial.* Zhang Yuanqing instantly recalled the warning against making eye contact with anyone and promptly shifted his gaze away. At the same time, he probed aloud, "Hello, uncle. I'm a tourist from outside the mountains, and I'm lost." "A tourist from outside the mountains?" The middle-aged man hurried over. "You came from outside? How do you get out of the mountains? Tell me quickly, tell me..." Casting his gaze downward at a forty-five-degree angle, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't see the man's expression, but judging from his tone, the middle-aged man sounded intensely excited and agitated upon hearing he came from outside. "I'm sorry, I lost my way. I'm looking for a way out too," Zhang Yuanqing replied. Hearing this, the light in the middle-aged man's eyes instantly died out, giving way to disappointment and dejection. He said gloomily, "I've been trapped in these mountains for six days. All my companions have been scattered. I don't know how much longer I can hold on. If we can't find a way out, the entire city will be trapped and starve to death in these deep mountains." Hearing this, Zhang Yuanqing knew the plot had arrived. "Uncle, what do you mean by that? There's a city in the mountains?" he asked. The middle-aged man nodded, then let out a sigh. "It's not that there's a city in the mountains. It's that these mountains shouldn't exist at all." Keeping his eyes angled downward, Zhang Yuanqing said, "I'm from out of town, so I don't quite understand. Could you explain it to me?" The middle-aged man seemed exhausted from walking. Leaning against a tree, he sighed. "About two months ago, a stretch of mountains suddenly appeared outside the city where I lived. These mountains encircled the city like an iron barrel. We couldn't find a way out, and our communication equipment stopped working. "Everyone held out in the city for two months. Food and drinking water gradually ran dry, and public order began to collapse—looting, murder, preying on the weak... "Seeing that no rescue team would ever reach the city, the survivors organized four teams to head out in four different directions in order to survive, hoping to find a path out and seek help from the outside world. "My team was tasked with exploring south. All of us had plenty of wilderness survival experience; ordinary wild mountains could never trap us. But who could have guessed that on our very first night in the forest, something went wrong..." *South? My current position is south of the Lost City.* Having confirmed his orientation, Zhang Yuanqing asked, "What happened?" A look of terror crept onto the middle-aged man's face, as if horrific memories had been dredged up. "That night, one of our teammates disappeared. "According to the person who shared a tent with him, the missing teammate claimed he heard someone calling his name that night—the voice of his mother, who had been dead for years. "Yet his tentmate didn't hear a thing. After trekking all day, everyone was exhausted, so the tentmate paid it no mind and fell fast asleep. The next morning, we discovered the man was gone." *A mother dead for years calling his name... Does this trial have supernatural elements? Or perhaps it was a hallucination. The missing man definitely answered the voice before vanishing.* Thinking this, Zhang Yuanqing asked, "Did you look for him?" The middle-aged man nodded. "The next morning, our team leader gathered everyone to search for a long time, but we couldn't find him. We had a mission to carry out, and our food and water were limited, so we had no choice but to abandon him and move on. "We checked our bearings and kept heading south. By dusk, we found a spot to pitch camp. The captain had everyone gather branches to start a fire. While I was picking up sticks, I suddenly heard a scream. I rushed over with the others and found one of our teammates collapsed beneath an ancient tree, trembling from head to toe and pointing at the trunk, scared half out of his wits." At this point, the middle-aged man grew even more terrified, his face blanching several shades paler—though Zhang Yuanqing couldn't see any of it. He continued, "That tree had a human face growing on it—it was our companion who went missing the night before." *A companion's face grew into a tree? That's even spookier than a ghost story. So the real danger in the forest lies in the trees?* Zhang Yuanqing suddenly thought of something and asked, "Uncle, before I entered the mountains, I saw a noticeboard set up outside. Did your people put that up?" The middle-aged man was taken aback. "What noticeboard?" Zhang Yuanqing's heart sank.