Clearing the Second Trial; A Deeply Terrifying Discovery

*Rustle...* The twisted branches of the human-faced trees swayed. The little black cat trailed far behind the procession. A broad pathway had been churned out of the bone-paved road, with the mangled corpses of ferocious bone beasts visible along the verges from time to time. Perhaps native to this dense forest, every carcass radiated an eerie, unhinged aura capable of shaking one's sanity, deeply unsettling to behold. Apart from those, concentric circular sacrificial bone mounds, massive bone arches embedded with ram skulls, and arrays of upright spines planted in the ground appeared everywhere... Suspended from every rigidly upright spine was a skull flickering with blue spiritual fire. There were also pale colossal trees made of stacked bones snapped cleanly at the trunk, gargantuan skulls the size of hillocks tumbled across the earth, and murals pieced together from bone shards ripped to shreds. Within this mysterious Skeletal Forest, countless bizarre spectacles like these lay strewn as far as the eye could see. Though he possessed no true understanding of them, a rudimentary observation alone was enough for Bai Zhou to know that none of these beings were something he could handle! Extremely hazardous! If any single one could still move, it would be far more dangerous than the E-rank Black Box, *Self-Portrait of Louis XVI*! Yet now, all of them had lost every shred of vitality, crushed and pulverized beneath the passing skeletal army. Tailing the vast, surging host from afar, evil was repelled on all sides, allowing Bai Zhou to cross the greater half of the Skeletal Forest with ease... Where the forest ended at its outlet, a high slope came into view. Advancing several hundred more meters, the vista suddenly opened wide. Dust whirled across the yellow earth, where a magnificent, bone-white fortress loomed amidst the hazy, windblown sand. A statue of a giant eagle perched atop the ramparts, and a stone sculpture of a two-faced human head was set into the city gates. This strangely shaped, majestic stronghold backed against precipitous mountain ranges—formidable to defend and arduous to assault. Bordering the Skeletal Forest, it stood driven like a wedge directly into the forest's sole exit. It was as though the fortress had been erected for the sole purpose of guarding against whatever might emerge from the Skeletal Forest. A faint buzzing hum echoed from within the great stronghold, as if some ritual were actively maintained. Even across such a vast distance, Bai Zhou could hear the bustling clamor drifting from the city... Were they holding some sort of celebration? "Homeland..." Gazing at the stark silhouettes of those bone-white walls from afar, the skeletal host instantly stirred with unrest. The crimson skeleton clenched its phalanges so tightly that its hand creaked. "We have returned!" This had once been the domain where the ancestors of the Bone Tribe lived for generations. Yet now, not a trace remained of their tribe's ancient freedom; only a towering citadel stood in its place. Those pale city walls were clearly forged from the bones of their kin, condemning them never to find release across eternity! "I came, I saw..." Raising the pickaxe in its grasp, the sharp, pointed tip gleamed beneath the crimson moon. It declared: "We conquered!" With that single command issued! The entire army turned solemn, falling into battle formation. *Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!* War drums fashioned from their own ribs pounded heavily as the soldiers marched forth with heads held high, morale soaring. Vast clouds of dust billowed upward, the tremendous commotion drawing the immediate attention of the gate sentries. A piercing beam of golden light surged skyward from the ramparts. "Who dares trespass upon our borders!" That dazzling golden radiance held not the slightest trace of sacred warmth. Instead, it carried a cold, sharp, metallic edge—an overbearing, aggressive pressure that prickled the backs of all who watched from afar, as if a blade were pressed against their throats. When the golden glow hovered stationary before the ramparts, a wave of crushing pressure crashed down like a tsunami. The instant the dust scattered, the true form of a figure resembling a divine being was unveiled. Clad in ornate golden armor, the divine warrior stood in the sky—a titan approaching three meters in height. A visor veiled his features entirely, while the bare muscles of his arms and thighs were cut with the sharp, chiseled definition of diamonds. His war skirt was simple in design, yet possessed a distinctive, striking aesthetic. Emblazoned upon his chest was a standardized insignia: a crossed blade and sword standing before a shield, identical to the emblem of an Adventurer. Hiding near the forest outlet, Bai Zhou drew a sharp breath, his heart racing in trepidation. What an astonishingly powerful golden-armored warrior— An Extraordinary capable of levitation, just like the crimson skeleton... unfathomably deep. Was he this city's guardian? "Defiled undead, you dare breach our borders?" Golden pupils swept across the grotesque skeletons below, his gaze as cold and detached as a deity looking down on mortal dust. As if executing a fixed program, he proclaimed in a rigid, icy voice: "Disrupting a paramount festival, violating imperial soil—" "The penalty: extermination of your nation, extinction of your kind, and eternal enslavement!" Dispensing with further words, the golden-armored warrior drew the shortsword at his waist with decisive force. Golden light flared in all directions, as though a blazing sun had descended from the heavens. Facing the warrior's unabashed condescension, the golden flames in the crimson skeleton's eye sockets erupted violently. Throwing its head back with a long howl, it rocketed off the ground with a raspy roar, giving vent to long-festering humiliation and fury at this very moment. "Rome—!" Amidst the roar, that colossal skeletal frame shot like a scarlet meteor, fearlessly hurtling toward the golden deity midair! They bellowed, they clashed, gold and red violently intertwining. Against the crimson skeleton's frantic onslaught, the golden-armored warrior quickly fell into a disadvantage. "Though scarcely a tenth of my spirituality remains, how could you ever be my match?!" The mark on the crimson skeleton's brow blazed. Empowered by the Mark of the God of War, the fiercer a God-Chosen's battle intent burned, the greater their power grew—even multiplying to an unbelievable degree! "Even without the descent of a god, I alone can suppress all!" The pickaxe spun like a blur. Like someone striking a ball, the crimson skeleton savagely batted away the golden-armored warrior, who had looked so imposing and invincible just moments before. "Warning! Malicious defilement detected as formidable! Requesting defensive siege artillery support!" A voice transmitted from beneath the visor as the tumbling golden-armored warrior called out for aid. In the next instant, a response rang from atop the city gate. "Understood!" Another golden-armored warrior, slightly smaller in stature, stood upon the ramparts behind a massive siege crossbow. Loaded into the chamber was a crossbow bolt colored entirely blood-red. "Not good!" an elder among the skeletons cried out in alarm, shouting a warning to the crimson skeleton. "It's their Evil-Dispelling Arrow, forged expressly to purge evil and eradicate corruption!" Even without their reminder, the crimson skeleton already treated this as a lethal threat. *Bang!* The warrior atop the wall struck the siege crossbow heavily. Cogs whirred, and a streak of blood-red lightning burst from the ramparts, whistling shrilly as it shot toward the crimson skeleton. An invisible domain clamped down upon the crimson skeleton. Locked on by the arrow's tip, its entire frame seized up, rendering it virtually unable to move. Hard on its heels, hurtling alongside that blood-red lightning, was the golden-armored warrior lunging in for the kill once more. "Die!" Victory already assured, the warrior charged with murderous momentum. It seemed as though everything was decided. However... "Heh." The crimson skeleton merely chuckled. Truly worthy of a chieftain. Facing an Evil-Dispelling Arrow designed specifically to counter its kind, caught in a death trap, the crimson skeleton showed no panic. It simply lifted its head toward the heavens and roared. With absolute confidence, it boomed— "Gods, aid me!" *Hum!* The mark between its brows ignited, and a crash of golden thunderbolt split the skies, knocking the blood-red Evil-Dispelling Arrow off course. *Rumble!* The deflected Evil-Dispelling Arrow ricocheted backward, plunging directly into the chest of the charging golden-armored warrior. At that moment, the crimson skeleton swung its pickaxe, carving an exaggerated crescent arc through the air. *Boom!* The golden-armored warrior was smashed backward through the sky, his three-meter frame cleanly sheared in two. Massive bursts of blood mist erupted like red rain showering down, the upper and lower halves separating by a great distance. The lower torso crashed onto the front of the battlefield, while the upper half tumbled near the forest outlet. "The gatekeeper is dead!" Spinning the pickaxe in its hand like a top, the crimson skeleton took command, pointing its weapon toward the walls: "—Charge!" Cries shook the earth like a rising tide. The army of the dead began their siege. Meanwhile, on the other side. "...?" Within the Skeletal Forest, Bai Zhou stared at the upper half of the warrior's corpse, sinking into deep thought. Having seen the severed half tumble deep into the trees, Bai Zhou had tracked it down, his heart thumping wildly. The gold-plated upper torso lay with its visor concealing any expression, blood pooling around the waist to turn the surrounding ground into a crimson pond. Even in death, a tiger does not lose its posture. Even though he was already dead, this golden-armored warrior was shrouded in a peculiar domain that pressed down on Bai Zhou's chest with suffocating weight as he observed. The warrior's flesh appeared both like muscle and some exotic material; the blood spilled upon the ground soon congealed into small, half-solid, half-liquid crystals. "This guy... was merely a gatekeeper?" Meaning a lowly soldier guarding the gate? Bai Zhou blinked, torn between disbelief and a sudden dawn of realization. No wonder that even during his prime—when he was far stronger than now—the crimson skeleton had been hunted as a fugitive, not daring to return until he secured the power of a deity. If a mere gatekeeper was formidable enough to trade blows with the crimson skeleton in its current state... Rome was far more staggering than Bai Zhou had imagined! Just what kind of civilization had this been, and how at its zenith must it have stood, to employ an Extraordinary capable of flight simply to watch a city gate?! Only a few thousand years had passed—why was modern Blue Star utterly incomparable to the Rome of back then? Where had all these mighty Extraordinaries gone? What on earth had happened in the interim? "..." Bai Zhou had originally thought that harvesting a Roman soldier's head for the assessment would be simple enough. Yet now? "Thank you, divine grace!" The black cat rose onto its hind legs in a surprisingly proper imitation of a human, clasping its paws reverently a couple of times. Next, Bai Zhou turned his gaze toward the warrior's chest. The blood-red Evil-Dispelling Arrow remained embedded there. Mounted atop the wall upon a siege crossbow, presumed to be one of Rome's paramount defensive engines, it had put the mighty crimson skeleton on high alert before ending up turning back to skewer this golden-armored warrior to death... Yet why didn't it look like a crossbow bolt at all, but rather... a tree branch? There wasn't even a trace of processing or craftsmanship on it! *No way, right?* Bai Zhou examined the bolt closely, even spotting bark and knots upon its surface. No matter how he looked at it, this slightly crooked "arrow" was undeniably a branch. And an extremely familiar one at that! *The one planted by the Scarlet Queen...?* Suspicion and wonder churned in Bai Zhou's mind; the more he looked, the more it matched. That crimson tree of wonder was difficult to cultivate, its origins unknown, its utility a mystery. Yet compared to the thick branches of the massive scarlet tree in the temple, this branch used as an Evil-Dispelling Arrow was far paler in color and much more slender. And this very thing was what had put the crimson skeleton on edge, forged expressly to purge evil and eradicate corruption? Bai Zhou's heart pounded violently, his pulse drumming like thunder in his ears. After a few cautious attempts, he successfully pulled the bloodstained Evil-Dispelling Arrow free and stowed it away. Drawing his purple-gold saber once more, Bai Zhou severed the golden-armored warrior's head. No matter how one viewed it... This was an exceptional "Roman soldier." The requirement for the second assessment trial had been secured! Bai Zhou blinked, gently licking his dry lips. "Trial two, successfully speedrun!" Feeling the heat radiating from the Mark of the God of War on his wrist, Bai Zhou was certain he hadn't made a mistake. *Rumble!* Just as he was mulling this over, a tremendous crash shattered the horizon. Turning toward the sound, Bai Zhou looked up... The city gates that the army of the dead had been besieging finally collapsed with a deafening crash. The crimson skeleton took the lead, impatiently soaring inside. Under the gaze of the two-faced stone head above, the undead streamed through the archway in single file, marching as if in triumph. The battlefield outside the walls was left in ruins, quickly falling quiet. The fiercer battle had migrated into the city. Looking at the deserted ramparts, Bai Zhou grew pensive and glanced down at his wristwatch. 35:49! "...There's still a bit of time left." Taking a deep breath, Bai Zhou shifted back into a black cat. Slipping through the swirling yellow dust, he scaled the ravaged Roman walls. He already possessed the baseline requirement to clear the assessment. However, the requirements had stated clearly that the higher the quality of the Roman soldier, the more generous his reward would be. A mere gatekeeper guarding the entrance was unlikely to hold high status in a city. With a mind to try his luck, he wanted to see if he could scavenge something even better during the final eleven minutes. Provided, of course, that he stayed concealed and safe! Fortunately, the battle was raging fiercely. As the undead legion pushed deeper into the citadel, they left no survivors in their wake, which meant no lingering threats to endanger Bai Zhou. Along the way, he encountered many more corpses of golden-armored warriors. All wore the exact same standardized armor as the first one, confirming that the gatekeeper's rank had indeed been unremarkable. However, these warriors varied in height; some approached three meters, while others were just over two. The taller they were, the more suffocating their aura, and the more extensively armor covered their bodies. Regrettably, Bai Zhou couldn't find any noticeably taller than the gatekeeper for the time being—at most, they were comparable. After considerable searching, he finally found a corpse standing slightly over three meters. Carefully, Bai Zhou lifted the visor to inspect the face. It defied his expectations— Hidden beneath the visor was neither a fanged fiend nor a rotting corpse. Pale skin, chiseled features like a sculpted statue, a face almost without blemish... Was this a Roman? And yet... A bizarre sense of incongruity tugged at Bai Zhou's mind. *Isn't something off here?* As if struck by a realization, Bai Zhou froze. Frowning, he extended a tentative claw and poked the golden-armored warrior's cheek. Supple. The skin was still warm. Moving his gaze lower, Bai Zhou looked at the fresh flesh and the bright crimson blood pooling on the ground. "..." The closer he looked, the more horrifying it became. It felt as though a frigid gust had blown from the depths of the Skeletal Forest, making every hair on his body stand on end. This wasn't right! Something was definitely wrong! Scalding blood, supple skin, and flesh showing no trace of rot. This was— "A living human?!" Where would a living human come from? How could this be a living person? Bai Zhou's gaze turned blank, goosebumps erupting across his arms as his heart skipped a beat. He wasn't even sure if it was an illusion, but the spot on his chest where the golden pass for Zhuluoji rested began burning hot, like a searing branding iron held against him. At this moment. All the preconceived notions Bai Zhou had formed about the Deep Ruin Realm collapsed completely. It was as though the world he had just grown accustomed to had flipped over, turning once again into something entirely unrecognizable. His worldview shattered, his thoughts spiraling into chaos. The terror of the unknown rose like a surging tide, drowning a tightly frowning Bai Zhou in suffocating dread. ...Where was this place? The Deep Ruin Realm! The confluence of the end! The domain where the dead wandered! How could there possibly be... Living humans like himself?!