Seong woke up in a forest, confused. Last night he had fallen asleep on his desk forgetting that the next day would be the examination. He instinctively reached for his sword, finding nothing there. He tried to gather his qi but nothing happened. Feeling around his body, he discovered needles stabbed into his back.
This is probably what's limiting my qi.
A static fogs his brain, and then a second later, the patriarch starts talking.
Hmm, so this is the first examination.
After Jin was done speaking, he leaned on his leg and slowly got up. Looking around him, he decided the first course of action to pass this trial, was to just survive. Instead of looting the temples where everyone was fighting each other for loot, he would, with his bare hands, get everything he would need to survive.
Seong, for the entire day, slowly tried to look for food, careful to not alert any other people. But by dusk, he had found no edible berries and could not catch a single animal. Without even water, he sat next to a tree, barely able to keep his eyes open to be careful of anyone trying to kill him in his sleep.
...
In the morning, he slowly opened his eyes. He was parched and hungry, clinging onto a sliver of life.
Ha, so now I'm gonna die. I can't even get revenge on my brother in the end.
But then a young boy he recognized, very well at that, walked up to him.
"If you're gonna kill me just do it already."
Seong looked up at the boy, his eyes barely being able to make out his face.
Baek? He's definitely gonna kill me now that he has the chance.
"Well, I could kill you right now, but I'll give you a better deal. If I give you food and water, you have to be my follower not only for the entire examination, but you're entire life."
Haha, this guy really thinks I'm gonna be his follower for his entire life. As if. I'm going to find a way to kill him in this trial one way or another.
Seong agrees to his deal and heads to the temple with Baek.
They stop by a bush analyzing their surroundings.
"Seong, I sense about fifteen people in the temple, they're probably an entire group since one person is guarding both entrances. There are three people at the top of the temple watching overhead so try not to get spotted," Baek whispered.
Sense? No way he's able to have that level of perception.
"You could... sense all that? How?"
"Don't ask any questions just follow."
As proud as ever I see.
Seong wondered how he was going to take the man in the front out. But before he started speaking, Baek had pulled out his dagger ready to throw it.
No way he has that level of accuracy. This guy's really going to get us all killed.
Baek throws the knife, striking the man square on the neck.
Okay, looks like if I want to kill him, I'm going to need to be a little patient.
They entered the temple, Seong going into one of the large houses close by. He slowly makes his way through the room opening every drawer and closet to see if he could find anything that wasn't looted. Heading to one of the corners of the room, he spots a staircase leading downward. He slowly starts to head down the staircase, the air feeling colder than the room above.
Abruptly, he stops as a knife leans right against his neck.
"You have five seconds to convince me not to kill you."
"Ryu?"
"Wait, Seong?"
The blade drops and Seong turns around. They leaned in for an embrace, they were the closest among the five brothers.
"Ryu, I'm sorry I didn't realize, we accidentally killed one of your men without knowing it was your party," Seong said as he stepped away nervously.
Ryu sighs, "It's fine, we weren't that close anyway. But if you killed one of my men, you have someone with you."
"Yeah," Seong paused. "It's Baek."
A silence hung in the air.
Ryu slowly approached Seong and grabbed him by the scruff lifting him up.
"So you're teaming up with him now," Ryu said with contempt.
"No no not at all!," Seong blurted. "I'm just trying to find a way to kill him as quickly as possible. He's gotten much stronger. He's also seemed to lose his memories."
"Lose his memories?"
"Yeah, he doesn't seem to remember that he used to hate me for some reason."
Ryu was doubtful but that meant that there were three possibilities. Either Seong was betraying him by teaming up with Baek, someone also somehow reincarnated into Baek or Baek really did lose his memories. But since Ryu was close to Seong, he decided to somewhat trust him.
Ryu beckoned his hand towards Seong leading him to a brick wall at the end of the room. Ryu pressed the loose bricks from each row into the wall, starting from the topmost to the bottommost brick.
"Alright, stand inside."
Seong walks inside the corridor, the wall sliding back into place right after.
"Hey!" Seong exclaims, banging his hand on the other side.
"Baek is going to come here eagerly looking for you. Lead him into the labyrinth, and someway, somehow kill him. If you do, and somehow escape you'll have something special waiting for you when you come back."
...
Seong ran to the dim light at the end of the tunnel, confident that this was the last time he would ever see Baek. Climbing up the stairs, he busted out the door, in a hurry to get back to the temple. He took one last look at what he exited from before he left.
A tree?
He tried to push in the door to see if he could somehow get back inside the labyrinth, but it wouldn't budge. Seong turned around trying to find anything that would remind him of where he was. In the corner of his eye, he spots a lake.
That must be the lake that Baek got the water from.
Seong then turned away from the lake, knowing the temple was opposite the lake's direction. It was the dead of night, so he had to be quick with it.
Running as quickly as he could, a small feline creature with thorns jutting out of its fur, abruptly appeared in front of him causing him to immediately halt.
How did it just appear? Is it that fast?
Seong ran past the creature in a hurry. Seong heard a strange creaking noise coming from the beast behind him. A giant furball-like creature suddenly appeared in front of him, the creature had drastically grown to a size of a boulder. Seong had no way of defending against this monster so he desperately ran, hoping he'd somehow stumble across the temple.
--------------------------
Ryu was in charge of keeping watch that night when he spotted some commotion in the distance.
"Eun, you see that right," Ryu said pointing his finger in the direction he was looking at.
Eun turns her head and nods.
"Go and scout out the area, and report back to me."
Eun, a nimble and quiet girl, leaps from the roof, and hops from tree to tree.
The way she hides her presence is insane, even top martial artists might not be able to sense her.
A moment later, Eun arrives from the steps behind Ryu.
"It's Seong. He's escaped."
"Tell everyone to get ready, we're going to save my brother."