THE DESERT OF THE SCHEMES
The sun above the Forbidden Zone wasn't just hot—it was alive. A crimson eye that refused to blink, glaring down at every soul in the desert like a god seeking judgment. The sand beneath Yuji's boots burned, shifting with every step like coals trying to pull him under. Heat shimmered across the dunes, warping the horizon, making it hard to tell what was real and what was just the hallucination of a mind beginning to unravel.
Yuji Kazehaya walked slowly, cloak fluttering behind him, his ADM Ring faintly pulsing with the rhythm of his breath. He had ten EB left. Enough for five days. But time wasn't the only thing hunting him now. He had seen it in the host's eyes. The Grand Treasure Hunt was no competition.
It was a slaughterhouse.
He climbed a narrow ridge of red rock and crouched low as the wind kicked sand into his face. From the peak, his gaze swept across a bowl-shaped valley. What he saw froze him.
Below, ten cultivators were battling a beast. Not just any beast—a hulking, striped monster nearly three meters tall, with glowing red eyes and flame patterns pulsing along its fur. It was a tiger, but not natural. The air around it rippled with heat.
> "That's no normal animal," Yuji whispered. "That's... at least two hundred thousand years old."
The longer a beast lived in the Flame World, the stronger its soul and body became. This one—a Flame Tiger—had fire coiling off its fangs like steam from magma. Each step it took left behind burning footprints. It was battling fiercely, but the cultivators were coordinated.
Three of them struck with flame-enhanced spears. Two others channeled Flame Energy into their feet, dashing across the sand like shadows. One launched chains of earth from the ground, trying to trap the beast's legs.
> "First Realm," Yuji noted. "Level 3. Maybe even early Level 4. They're strong... but not clever."
He narrowed his eyes.
> "My Wind Element can boost speed by five percent. That's it. One ability. Dark Element? Still unstable. Can't risk it."
He crouched lower, a grin forming.
> "But if I can't fight them... maybe I can feed them to something else."
Yuji made a series of finger signs—precise, subtle. His ADM Ring shimmered. A faint pulse of Wind Energy moved like a breeze. And then— the Flame Tiger roared, its eyes flaring. Suddenly, it blurred forward, its movements faster. Five percent boost to speed wasn't much—but for a creature that already moved like lightning, it was enough to tilt the scales.
The beast charged.
It slammed into one cultivator, biting through his shoulder in a spray of blood. Another turned to run—too slow. The tiger spun and slashed with claws that left burning streaks in the air. Screams echoed across the valley.
Yuji crouched lower, heart thumping.
> "That's four down," he whispered.
His eyes shifted to a pile of supplies near the dead cultivators—bags, scrolls, food packs, maybe even FE. He waited.
But not long.
One of the surviving cultivators, a tall boy with silver tattoos on his jaw, paused mid-step. His gaze rose to the ridge. Locked eyes with Yuji.
> "HEY! He's helping the beast!"
Three cultivators broke formation, charging uphill toward him, Flame Energy erupting from their arms. Yuji backed away, calculating.
> "Didn't want to do this..." he muttered. "But fine."
He turned and ran. Down the slope, weaving through sparse trees and shattered boulders. Behind him, flame projectiles exploded into stone. One cultivator launched a stream of boiling water that sizzled as it hit sand.
Yuji spotted a twisted black tree ahead—gnarled, ancient, with roots that dug deep into the sand. He dove behind it.
> "They'll strike the tree," he whispered. "And when they do..."
The lead attacker arrived first—a girl with braided hair and white flame marks across her hands. She yelled and fired a massive blast of water-flame at the tree.
The roots exploded.
Then came the real explosion.
The ground beneath the tree cracked. A shockwave ripped through the sand. And from the dust—a screech. High-pitched. Furious. Ancient.
Wings.
Black and gray, massive, extending over fifteen meters. A beast rose from beneath the broken roots—a falcon, its feathers razor-sharp, its eyes glowing with sun-like fury.
> "No..." one of the cultivators whispered. "A Sleeping Falcon... we disturbed its rest...!"
Sleeping Falcons were peaceful beasts. But once awakened, they became hurricanes.
The bird screeched again and dove forward.
It tore through the air like a blade of wind. One cultivator raised a shield of flame—the falcon shattered it like glass and sent him tumbling, screaming into the rocks. Another ran. Too slow. Talons caught his back. Blood sprayed.
Yuji didn't wait. He bolted.
Behind him, two ancient beasts now raged across the battlefield. The Flame Tiger, still burning. The Falcon, awakened.
Screams faded behind him.
He leapt across a crack in the ground, rolled behind a rock outcrop, and finally stopped. Breathing hard. Sweat drenched his back. But his hands were steady.
He looked down the ridge. The battlefield was a firestorm of chaos.
> "And just like that..." he murmured, smiling faintly, "I survived without lifting a blade."
He adjusted his cloak and moved silently down the ridge, toward the corpses and abandoned supplies the beasts would soon leave behind.
Because in this world, survival wasn't about power.
It was about knowing when to vanish. And when to let monsters do your work for you.
---
Ice vs Lightning
The green forest was anything but peaceful.
Aika Miyawaki exhaled, mist spilling from her lips like smoke from a cracked glacier. Her breath was calm, but her eyes—cold and sharp—remained locked on the two cultivators standing ahead of her. Their presence distorted the air, lightning crackling along their arms, veins lit with electric rage.
> "Level 5… first realm," Aika muttered. "Just my luck."
The forest around her was unusually quiet, the kind of silence that only arrives before death. Towering emerald trees stood frozen in time, their leaves trembling in tension rather than breeze. But the silence ended as one of the men lunged forward—crackling with lightning.
> "Die, little ice girl!" one shouted, his foot crashing into the moss-covered ground, launching himself toward her with a snarl.
> "You're standing in my domain," Aika whispered.
She raised her ADM Ring and pressed her fingers together—three quick taps over the gem.
> EB: 10/10. Enough.
A cold pulse shot from her core as her Ice Element surged outward in an elegant spiral. The ground beneath her frosted instantly. Grass turned to shards. Roots curled into pale sculptures of frost. The attacker's boots slipped the moment he reached the icy field.
Too late.
> "Glacier Step."
Aika vanished in a blur, moving like a ghost across the slick surface. She reappeared behind him mid-slide and sliced upward with her icy blade. A sharp arc of frost followed the motion, cutting across the man's back with a hiss.
He cried out, spun—and just as he lifted his palm to release a lightning burst, Aika raised her leg and slammed her heel into his chest, sending him flying into a frozen tree trunk with a sickening crack.
> One down… temporarily.
The second cultivator, slightly taller and with violet hair, grinned darkly.
> "Not bad. But let's see how you handle both of us."
He wasn't bluffing. The man Aika struck was already recovering, body shaking as he forced himself up. Blood trailed from his lips, but the lightning wrapped tighter around his limbs.
> "Let's make her scream."
They moved together now—coordinated, fast. One circled left, the other right.
> "Twin Thunder Style!" the violet-haired one roared.
Lightning surged from their feet and exploded outward, sending waves of electric force across the ground. The ice began to crack. Trees shattered from the pressure. Aika leaped upward, barely dodging the brunt of the blast—but a bolt grazed her thigh mid-air, searing through her cloak and burning flesh.
She hit the ground with a wince and rolled behind a large boulder.
> "Tch… They're syncing their attacks. I can't hold them back for long."
From behind the boulder, Aika opened her small capsule pouch—inside were two blue medicine vials. She popped one open and drank half. The cooling liquid rushed through her, dulling the burn in her leg.
> "Can't use too much. Only one left."
She heard crackling from above.
One of the cultivators had leapt onto the rocks—he raised his arm high.
> "Sky Spear!"
A bolt of condensed lightning in the shape of a spear formed in his palm. He threw it down with full force, aiming to destroy her cover in one strike.
> "Damn—" Aika rolled out just in time as the boulder exploded into fragments. Electricity danced across the rubble as her boots skidded across the ice.
But she wasn't done.
> "Let me show you…" she whispered, activating her ADM Ring again. "Why I don't need full cultivation to kill."
> EB: 10/10.
She slammed her palm into the ground.
> "Frozen Pulse: Mirror Roots."
Ice erupted from her hand, sliding under the earth like serpents. Beneath the enemies, the ground trembled—then froze in a circular burst.
Vines of sharpened frost exploded upward, wrapping around their ankles, legs, and thighs. They shouted in surprise, too late to move. The ice locked them in place like the jaws of a beast.
Aika dashed forward.
She summoned her blade once more, frost coating the metal so thick it shimmered like glass. She leapt into the air—twisting.
> "Shard Blooming Slash!"
She slashed downward in an arc that split the air. Her blade shattered as it struck, launching hundreds of razor-sharp ice shards in all directions, like a bomb of frozen death. Both cultivators screamed as the shards pierced armor, skin, and flame shields.
They fell.
One hit the ground unconscious, blood pooling around him. The other twitched in agony, crawling away—his legs shredded by the shards.
Aika landed silently, drawing a new short blade from her hip. Her eyes were emotionless.
> "Don't follow me," she said.
The crawling man reached for his pouch—likely a medicine bottle.
Aika flicked her wrist. A thin ice needle shot into his shoulder, paralyzing him.
> "I said... don't."
She turned away, blood soaking through her torn sleeve and dripping down her arm.
> EB: 10/10.
> One blue medicine left. One blade gone. 10 days remaining
She stepped back into the forest, moving carefully. Each breath misted in the air. The silence returned—but now, it felt colder. The forest seemed to bow with respect to her passing.
Somewhere, she knew Yuji and Ryen were also fighting for survival.
But for now, she could only focus on herself.
The Grand Treasure Hunt had no mercy for hesitation.
Only the ruthless survived.
---
The Strategist in the Snow
The forest was made of mirrors.
Each tree stood tall and thin, coated in layers of white frost that shimmered like glass under the pale light. Snowflakes drifted without sound, falling as if time itself had slowed to a crawl. Beneath that stillness walked Ryen Sylvan, quiet as a shadow, his breath misting in steady rhythm.
He stopped beneath a crystal-coated branch and looked up.
> "An ice forest," he muttered. "Not a bad place to die."
His ADM Ring glowed faintly on his right hand. One star. Efficient. Silent. He tapped its crystal surface once, and a soft blue screen flickered before his eyes:
> EB: 10/10 — Active Time Remaining: 5 days.
He exhaled and deactivated it.
> "Five days of power… but this trial runs ten. Without more EB, we'll all run dry. That idiot better not waste it showing off."
He wasn't talking about Aika.
He was talking about Yuji.
Though he'd never say it aloud, a small part of him respected the kid's will—but that same part worried. Wind was a support element, not built for solo survival. Not in a place like this.
> "Each one of us is isolated," Ryen said quietly as he knelt near a frozen stream. "The moment our energy runs out, we'll be surrounded by beasts, other cultivators, or worse. If we don't secure resources before Day Five… one of us might die."
He scooped a handful of snow and let it melt slowly in his palm.
> "But I won't die here. Not in a fake war staged for entertainment."
He rose, eyes sweeping the horizon. Snow rolled in gentle waves across the land, like a sea of white. No movement. No tracks.
Yet.
Then, the air shifted.
A gust passed behind him—unnatural and fast. Ryen's body moved before thought. He spun on his heel and leapt backward, narrowly dodging a clawed strike that shredded a tree trunk where he had just stood.
The creature emerged from behind the white trees—a Snowfang Beast. Nearly three meters tall, covered in thick frost fur, with fangs of crystallized bone and pale blue eyes glowing with hunger.
Ryen landed and stared calmly.
> "Oi oi…" he muttered. "I'm really not in the mood."
The beast let out a hissed growl, snow curling around its breath like fog. It began to circle.
Ryen rolled his neck.
> "Using my ring now would waste energy," he said to himself. "Fighting this thing head-on? Not worth it."
He reached into his pouch and tossed a small pouch of frost herbs to the ground. The smell instantly spread—sharp, bitter.
The Snowfang Beast stopped. Sniffed.
Then—turned and fled into the trees.
> "Thought so," Ryen whispered. "Smart animals hate that scent."
He stood straight, brushing snow off his shoulder.
> "Not every problem needs a flashy solution."
---
Far above, hidden within a blanket of swirling dark clouds, two figures watched silently.
Silas Reign, wings of black mist folded behind him, hovered still in the air like a god watching his game pieces move.
Mina floated beside him, her expression unreadable, hands folded in front of her. Her soft blue wings barely beat in the wind.
> "That one…" Silas said. "He's different."
> "You mean Ryen?" Mina asked softly.
Silas gave a slight nod. "He's calm. Methodical. Strategic. No wasted motion. I like him."
His masked eyes glowed faintly with dark light.
> "Keep an eye on him. If the boy fails… this one might be worth something."
Mina bowed slightly in the air.
> "Understood, Master. I'll report everything."
Silas turned back toward the horizon—toward the endless expanse of snow, flame, jungle, and death.
> "Let them fight. Let them burn. Only the broken ones rise."
He vanished into the clouds like a memory.
And below—Ryen walked on, unaware of the gods judging him from above.
---
END OF CHAPTER 17