C22 Awakening Valley

With Jie'ao's call, the massive boulder at the entrance to Awakening Valley was gradually rolled aside. What followed was a cacophony of roars from various wild beasts. These creatures had been raised by the tribe specifically for the Awakening Trial, and to ensure they were at their most ferocious, they had been deprived of food for several days prior to the trial. Consequently, these famished beasts were in a state of heightened aggression, with some even turning on each other in their hunger.

Upon hearing the roars, the previously weeping child burst into tears once more and bolted towards the entrance. His fear of punishment was greater than his desire to stay. From atop the hill, Jieyang cast a disdainful glance at the child's father and commanded with fury, "Get that coward out of Awakening Valley this instant!"

Behind him, Jie'ao nodded in agreement and gestured with his stone spear to a high-ranking warrior in the valley. The warrior, with a resigned shake of his head, swiftly appeared behind the child. Without a word, he scooped up the wailing child and leaped up to the hilltop. The child's father snatched his son from the warrior's arms and delivered a sharp slap. "Being defeated by the beasts would have been an honor, but you were too frightened to even face them. You're nothing but a coward," he scolded.

The tribe had no respect for those who lacked courage. Moreover, they had a rule: anyone who lost their courage to awaken would be forever barred from that sacred place. This meant the child would never have another opportunity to awaken.

Meanwhile, the other children had steeled themselves for the encounter with the wild beasts, instinctively forming two factions. One group rallied around Yuan Ge, with Jiesen, Jiekui, and Jiemeng as members. The other had already dispersed into the forest from various directions, each child eager to be the first to awaken. Yuan Ge, too, harbored this ambition, but he remained composed and strategic. Rushing in recklessly didn't guarantee awakening; in fact, it could very well mean being the first to be carried out defeated.

Yuan Ge's ability to analyze the battlefield was unparalleled among the children. They were all consumed with the ambition to be the first, oblivious to the fact that the monsters were just as eager, charging into the forest alongside them. A single child struggling against one wild beast was challenging enough, let alone facing a whole pack.

Eventually, it was Jiekui who couldn't contain himself any longer. "Ge, when do we go in?" he asked.

Yuan Ge remained silent, standing still as a statue, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the forest's depths. In that moment, he resembled a venomous snake poised to strike, his presence so intense that Jiekui involuntarily swallowed hard. Turning to Jiesen, he inquired, "Sen, what's your take?"

Jiesen appeared far more composed. As he knelt on the ground, attending to the stone spears on his back, he replied, "If you're eager to become prey for the beasts, be my guest. Just don't pull us into your haste."

Choking on dust, Jiekui had no choice but to stand by anxiously. The situation unfolded exactly as Yuan Ge had anticipated; shortly after the children had dashed into the woods, two emerged, bloodied and battered. Meanwhile, several others were encircled by monsters, with high-level warriors nearby, poised to intervene. The outcome was clear: these children would soon be carried out as well.

From atop the hill, Jieyang covertly observed Yuan Ge and his group, giving a subtle nod of approval. In the tribe, hunting was a team effort; going it alone only led to needless harm and no gains. The high-level warriors, including Jieyang, regarded Yuan Ge and the others with a peculiar interest. It seemed to them that Yuan Ge hadn't come for the Awakening Ceremony at all, but rather for the hunt itself.

Several hunting team leaders had already earmarked Yuan Ge and his companions as potential recruits. The tribe was exceedingly careful in selecting its hunters, for they faced more than mere wild beasts. Sometimes, their adversaries were monsters, Dire Beasts, or even spirit animals. A spirit animal, for instance, possessed the might of a third-level high warrior. Facing such a creature was not a task for one or two warriors; at times, an entire hunting team might struggle against it. In these moments, the collective strength of the warriors was what truly mattered.

Today's Awakening Ceremony was especially critical, as the leaders of the hunting teams were selecting new members. The losses sustained over the past year had severely weakened the teams. Without fresh recruits, this year's hunts would undoubtedly suffer.

Yuan Ge and his peers had made a strong impression. If they managed to awaken successfully, joining a reputable hunting team was almost a foregone conclusion.

Yet, not everyone shared this sentiment. Jie'ao, for one, found Yuan Ge's behavior reprehensible. The Awakening Ceremony was a test of bravery. To Jie'ao, lingering outside after the ceremony had begun was akin to treating it as child's play, engaging only when it suited them.

Suddenly, a beast's roar echoed from the woods, drawing everyone's attention. A blue wolf lay defeated, pierced by a stone spear, its struggles ceasing as it bowed its head. This marked the first beast felled in the ceremony. Could it signify the awakening of the first warrior?

But reality was as grim as the fate of the blue wolf. The child who had faced it lay in a pool of blood. The seasoned warrior who had slain the wolf approached the fallen youth and hoisted him up by his animal hide clothing. To Yuan Ge, it was as if he were lifting a chicken, not a person. This 'chicken' had not become the first to awaken but the first to fail officially. Unofficially, there was the child who had wet himself in fear, who was now relieved not to be the first ejected from Awakening Valley.

"Idiot," Yuan Ge muttered under his breath, his gaze returning to the forest. He had anticipated this outcome. Excluding his group of four, all twenty-nine children had charged into the woods simultaneously, a surge of life force bound to draw the attention of the beasts. After all, the forest was the domain of the wild, where beasts could detect every scent within a kilometer.