The Legend of the Devil
Ch. 53 - Three Days Against the Sun
As usual in the morning, 426 participants gathered in a large field where five men stood on the stage, looking up at them, their appearance is quite strange - wearing all-enclosed clothes and black mask-like face coverings with air holes on both sides, the hard faces and discipline made the participants nervous indirectly.
One person standing in the middle finally spoke up after three minutes of silence with no welcome or pleasantries as before.
"All right! For the last round and which will be your decisive as a middle-level swordsman you will pass a round called Three Days Against the Sun!" he exclaimed so loudly, looking at the area of participants who seemed to wonder at the intent of the name he mentioned just now.
His mouth let out a voice, "Three Days Against the Sun is a test of survival with the highest level of difficulty in this test! Don't underestimate it if you don't want to fail and you better be prepared to be one of the 200 people who escaped among the 426 of you!"
Suddenly the statement presents a frenzy among participants who feel they do not accept that only 200 participants are passed, that means only half of them and the chance of survival is only fifty percent.
Xue Zhan remembered Emperor Li's words and again the woman's words were true, the Intermediate Swordsman Exam was not an easy test, it required not only ability but also luck to be able to qualify in it.
"There are no special rules in this round of exams! There are no points or divisions of the group, you must survive three days in any way without the supplies of the committee. We'll give you randomly spread reels, some can and some don't. The scroll will be proof you passed. You will be placed in a wasted village, so you can be sure you are free to fight at will. Whoever does not hold the scroll in his hand is declared dead! That's it, the opening is over."
"Me-they're serious?!" One participant seemed unprepared, not only him but also another participant who seemed to be protesting soon. But the man insisted that the purpose of the test was to mentally train them for the actual battleground, so that they would not stutter when faced with the same situation.
For a while Xue Zhan turned his head towards Jiazhen Yan, his friend muttered, "I have to win this." His hand was holding the necklace.
Xue Zhan smiled, it turned out that Jiazhen Yan also had a meaningful person in her life and fought for that person even though the person was gone.
He also wanted to fight as hard as Jiazhen Yan, his eyes returning towards the stage and listening to what was delivered until when the four males on the left right of the speaker man crouched down activated a gigantic seal.
A circular veil shut the participants up in the sky as greenish smoke spread rapidly, causing them to cough.
The light from the spell activated then in the blink of an eye four hundred more participants fainted in its place.
"Imagine you are now on a life or death mission and carrying an important letter from the Empire. No word dead! You have to keep walking even if your legs are broken and both hands are maimed, mission is mission. Give everything you have to that!"
Xue Zhan was unable to hear anymore, the effect of the smoke was extremely strong and made him fall down without knowing what happened next.
*
The chirping of birds, the sound of rushing streams and the sound of leaves in the trees being blown by the gentle breeze. The sunlight fell on his forehead and started to heat up when Xue Zhan finally woke up, the sun was already right above his head.
He woke up in a strange place that was very, very quiet and very gripping, his eyes tried to see the power of humans but none of them were tracked. Makes it spooky, thinking completely banished in an abandoned town and alone there with no one to save it.
He checked around and did not find the scroll as the committee said, this is critical, so far Xue Zhan had not found a single human and it was possible that in the surroundings there were so many demons and ferocious beasts.
That man is dead. But how can his eyelids still twitch and his finger bones whose flesh has been partially eaten by maggots can catch it quite strong. The woman's mouth had been torn to her forehead, she sounded like the sound of a wooden crackle, making Xue Zhan's eyes grow even bigger.
In the blink of an eye the mouth wanted to eat Xue Zhan's leg, the young man kicked and fell down to face the corpse. The apparition is becoming clearer.
The woman was stupefied, her body had been cut to the stomach until her intestines and internal organs came out, she crawled up to reach Xue Zhan who was still so shocked by what she saw.
"A-actually what happened to you...?" His breathing was choked, pity and also fear. The woman did not answer, unlike a human who was able to speak, only moved to follow her own instincts. The hand again grabbed Xue Zhan, he did not get rid of him at all.
"Can I help you, madam?"
He even asked her to speak, even though it seemed free. The thin, dried body full of blood and almost rotting it was getting closer and closer, Xue Zhan was holding onto the corpse's shoulders.
"You're tormented? Whatever happens to you, you definitely don't want to experience this ..." He seemed to regret saying, "I'm sorry, maybe this is the only way I can save you."
Xue Zhan took out a dagger from his pocket, the woman's hand held his arm and moved weakly about to bite him. Before that happened Xue Zhan slit the woman's throat, until she completely stopped moving and placed it on the grassy ground.
"What really happened to this town?"
*
Two people in masked Exam organising committee clothes stood on a high branch, their presence was very small indicating that they were not Intermediate Swordsmen anymore, one level higher on it. He was watching Xue Zhan's movements.
"The body that forgot to be removed. Is that all right? He might have been bitten" the person beside him cautiously said.
They listened to what Xue Zhan was doing for a moment, "Murid Kang Jian, huh? He's very promising. The red eyes ... I'm sure he can see us if we go forward just a minute."
The two were silent for a moment to see the number 666 participant was not running away from there so they immediately got rid of the corpse. He did the job they were supposed to do; kill the corpse.
"Di-he beheaded him in the head? Does he know how to kill her? This matter was the Empire's secret and it was impossible for him to know. Even top-level warriors like us don't all know about this issue-"
His friend was still analyzing while smiling meaningfully, "True my guess. He has very sharp eyes. Leave the body to him. We go back and immediately make a report rather than attendance must be caught by other participants. Especially the kid." His eyes looked at Xue Zhan from a distance and unexpectedly at the same time Xue Zhan raised his face and turned his head towards them.
Just looking at the fallen leaves, Xue Zhan furrowed his brows.
"It looks like I saw something? Maybe it's just my feeling." He closed his eyes and buried them properly.