The Bone Trial began before the sun rose.
Yuan Zhi stood among thirty other disciples, each with vacant eyes, shallow breaths, and trembling limbs. Some clutched minor weapons — chipped blades, cracked staves. Others had nothing at all, just clenched fists and the desperation not to die.
They stood on broken ground, enclosed by jagged cliffs. Faint mist clung to the stone, and the scent of blood from previous trials still lingered in the air.
Black Rain Sect had no time for mercy.
An elder in grey robes sat atop a raised platform, half his face hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask. His voice, when it came, sounded bored — as if he were watching pigs line up for slaughter.
"You are outer disciples. Which means nothing."
He gestured, and the floor split open with a rumble.
Dozens of rusted cages rose from below — each housing something different, something monstrous.
Snarling, chittering beasts snapped at their bars. Some were skeletal wolves with split jaws. Others had twisted limbs, blood-slick fur, or jagged claws that sparked against metal.
A few disciples turned and ran. They didn't make it five steps before they were impaled by guard spears — pinned like insects and dragged away.
Yuan Zhi didn't move.
Fear is fuel.
Let it burn cleanly. Don't let it boil.
"Each of you will enter a cage," the elder said, still bored. "Alone. If you live, you pass."A boy near the front shouted, "We haven't been taught techniques—!"
The elder waved a finger.
A needle of silver qi shot from his fingertip and pierced the boy's throat. He died gargling his own disbelief.
The elder sighed. "The trial begins."
They were called one by one.
A girl with nervous eyes was thrown into a cage with a horned hound. She managed to stab it once before it tore her throat out.A tall boy tried to flee his cage. The beast inside snapped his spine mid-leap.
Each death was met with silence. No applause. No mourning.
Just indifference.
Yuan Zhi watched carefully. He mapped every movement — where the guards stood, how the cages were sealed, how the beasts moved. Patterns mattered. Observation was survival.
He wasn't the strongest. But he could be the most prepared.
When it was almost over, the elder pointed at him.
"You."
Yuan Zhi stepped forward.
"No record," the elder muttered, narrowing his eyes. "No name on the slate. No clan tag. A stray dog."
Yuan Zhi didn't blink. "A dog with sharp teeth."
The elder raised a brow, mildly amused. He gestured toward the last cage — larger than the rest.Inside prowled a beast the size of a horse, with three glowing eyes and a body covered in jagged fur like sharpened wire. Its claws clicked against stone. Its tusks dripped saliva thick as syrup.
Razor Fang. An elite beast.
The elder smirked. "You get that one. Impress me."The cage door opened with a groan.
Yuan Zhi entered.And everything else vanished.
Inside, the air was wet and metallic. The walls were stained with old blood, the scent heavy and dizzying.
The beast roared — a sound that shook his ribs.It pounced. Fast. Too fast for his current body.
But Yuan Zhi dropped flat, letting it soar over him. The impact cracked the far wall. Dust rained down.
There.
A jagged shard of bone, long as his forearm, half-buried in dirt.He grabbed it just as the Razor Fang turned.The beast lunged again — this time low, aiming for the legs.
Yuan Zhi didn't dodge.He stepped into it.
He planted one foot on the beast's front leg and used its momentum to spring upward — driving the bone shard into its third eye with both hands.
The beast howled and thrashed. Blood sprayed. The shard snapped off at the hilt.Yuan Zhi was thrown like a ragdoll, slammed into the wall, his ribs creaking under the force. Pain roared through his body.
But he didn't stop.
The beast turned again, blinded, enraged.
Yuan Zhi charged.
He dove beneath its legs, slashing at tendons, grabbing another bone shard, climbing its back—
Cut deeper. Tear the throat. Fast.
He stabbed again and again into its neck. Not clean strikes — but savage, desperate gouges.
Blood soaked him. The beast bucked, tried to slam him against the bars. But its balance was broken. Its vision ruined. Its legs trembling.
He found its open wound and dug his fingers into it, pulling until flesh tore like old cloth.
Finally… it collapsed.Breathing ragged.
Dead.
Yuan Zhi stood atop the corpse.
He didn't raise his arms. He didn't roar in victory.
He simply wiped his hands on the beast's fur… and walked out.
Silence.Even the guards looked stunned.
The elder blinked slowly. Then nodded.
"You pass."
He tossed a jade token toward him.
"Outer disciple. Black Rain Sect. Try not to die next week."
Yuan Zhi caught the token. It pulsed in his hand, warm and alive.He turned to leave. His legs shook. His ribs throbbed. His fingers were numb.But inside his chest, buried deep — a flicker of something new burned.
Not power. Not yet.
But hunger.
He had tasted death.
And he had made it bleed.
Outside the trial grounds, another elder in darker robes watched through a crystal orb.
"A stray who killed a Razor Fang bare-handed," he murmured. "Hmm…"
He tapped the orb once.
"Send someone to keep an eye on him. And… delay his technique assignment."