Feeling the ground she glided over becoming less rough, gravel giving way to loose dirt and plant matter, Jun Li prepared herself to enter the forest, surely the fastest route to the base of the mountain, perilous though it may prove to be.

  On the approach, Jun Li cycled between her Reverse Qinggong breathing to increase her speed and short rounds of Qi Circulation to recover from the strain.

  Jun Li shot into the forest and was now forced to slide through the uneven detritus collected under the forest canopy over the years, near unable to perceive the roots and stones that could slow or halt her movement.

  Now focusing carefully on the ground beneath her feet, Jun Li realized that the floor of the forest was much more even and flat than that of the slope the Trial started on.

  This lack of a slope now meant that her reverse Qinggong was of dubious benefit at best, and at worst, could potentially even reduce her speed.

  As she was now, all she could do was try to conserve the speed she already had by avoiding as many unnecessary movements as possible.

  Jun Li had focused so strongly on the path in front of her that she failed to notice she had become alone. She could see no other disciples ahead of or behind her, all having either fallen behind or strayed from Jun Li’s path to take their own.

  When Jun Li saw this, she felt concerned that she might have gone astray, but quickly gathered herself, knowing she could do nothing but press on.

  As she passed through the forest, Jun Li began to hear more and more activity around her. At first, she thought it was other disciples, just out of sight and racing through the forest alongside her, but as the forest seemed to grow darker, she began to hear these noises for what they were.

  Past branches and bushes, the Magical Beasts of the forest began to stir, agitated by the human intrusion.

  Ahead of Jun Li, a thin, panther-like beast stepped out from behind a tree, for an instant, Jun Li and the creature saw each other, but Jun LI had flown past before either could process what they had seen.

  Feeling how close she had been to a beast, the likes of which she felt would have been unable to escape on foot, Jun Li felt the blood drain from her face, and directed her focus to her movement, freshly motivated to race through the forest without pause.

  With eyes to the forest floor, Jun Li gently swayed around uplifted stones and lightly hopped over swollen roots, keeping her pace as swift as possible.

  The moment Jun Li felt she had hit a stride, however, a wiry, reptilian Magical Beast lunged out from the brush, causing her to jolt away on impulse.

  As Jun Li tried to correct her movement, she failed to realize where she was headed until it was too late, ahead of her was a massive, bull-like beast, slowly walking through the forest ahead of her.

  It was faced away, looking off to an unknown path, and Jun Li was too close to the beast and moving too fast to avoid running into its flank with only the mild movements she could make.

  With fear compounded upon fear, Jun Li’s mind didn’t find the possibility of sliding under the beast, and instead could only think of jumping directly over, an insurmountable course in comparison.

  Desperate to avoid a collision, Jun Li pressed her feet down onto her Movement Technique in an attempt to leap over the beast.

  The moment she brought her weight down, Jun Li heard a resounding burst of noise and found herself drifting through the air, closer to the forest’s canopy than its floor, looking down to the beast she had narrowly avoided, lazily glancing at her previous location.

  Looking herself over, Jun Li found her Movement Technique had disappeared, or rather, it had been destroyed.

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  Crushed under the weight of Jun Li’s attempt to jump, the Technique had ruptured, the force contained within bursting out with explosive force and sending her skyward.

  Coming back to reality, Jun Li reactivated her Technique and began standard Qinggong breathing, reducing her weight to avoid a hard landing.

  The force of her Technique’s destruction was reflected clearly by the height Jun Li now had to fall; it was far, far beyond anything she could have mustered with mere physical strength.

  Landing onto the ground with more force than she would have liked, Jun Li took great care to confirm and reconfirm her bearing and that she was indeed moving in the right direction.

  And move she did, at a speed equal to, or perhaps greater than, what she had entered the forest with, the power of her Technique’s destruction translating into momentum.

  Realizing the gravity of what had happened, Jun Li smiled, believing she had found a tool she could use to gain an edge over her peers, so long as she could use it with skill.

  Most of all, Jun Li believed that this newly discovered property of her Technique would be eminently useful right now, during the race.

  In hopes of gaining an advantage, Jun Li began to experiment immediately, slowly pressing her foot down onto her Technique, the front of her foot first, followed by the middle, forcing the bulk of the technique’s mass to her heel, hoping to produce an effect similar to before, but with a force more horizontal than vertical.

  Pressing her heel down, the Technique did not rupture as she had braced for it to. ‘Hmm? Am I not using enough force?’

  Repeating her movements, Jun Li brought her foot down on the Technique again, and again, with each repetition the movement becoming faster and more precise.

  Changing her approach, Jun Li dipped into her reverse Qinggong breathing to increase the weight placed on her Technique.

  Pressing her foot down into her Technique once more, Jun Li found herself looking up at gravel and dirt before landing neck-first on the forest floor.

  With her heart racing, Jun Li quickly stood off the ground, barely able to feel the pain in her neck, back, and leg.

  She had succeeded in rupturing her technique, the force of which had inverted her physical orientation in a fraction of a second.

  Jun Li, who had now stopped dead in a forest full of Magical Beasts, felt her heart drop. Activating her Technique once more, Jun Li stepped off a root, starting on her course once again, albeit at a dreadfully slow pace.

  Realizing she would be unable to outpace another cultivator like this, let alone a Magical Beast, Jun Li knew she would have no option but to make her new Technique work.

  Hearing movement around her, Jun Li quickly prepared to utilize her new Technique, with some adjustments.

  Jun Li used her foot to shape the force of her Technique behind her heel, as she did before, but this time she reinforced her back, spine, neck, and as many parts of her legs as she could while maintaining the Glass Cloud Art, a feat of multitasking that considerably slowed the execution of the technique.

  Hearing the movements around her becoming closer and faster, Jun Li braced herself, began her reverse Qinggong, and pressed her right heel down into the distended Technique beneath.

  The force of the wind against her face forced Jun Li to close her eyes for a moment. After a moment, Jun Li looked down, finding the forest floor, a body’s length below her, speeding past at an incomparable pace.

  Having succeeded for once with her Technique, Jun Li’s concentration was not broken, allowing her to keep her Movement Technique going with her other foot, having only ruptured one of them.

  As she fell back to the ground, balancing on one foot with the assistance of her Qinggong, she reformed the Movement Technique on her other foot, and continued on her path, now stable at her newly superior speed.

  Watching the forest speed past around her, Jun Li beamed, overjoyed to have made such a stride in her Movement Technique during the Trial.

  Thinking of her new Technique, Jun Li decided to call it ‘Cloudburst’ as a reference to the cloudy nature of the original Movement Technique. Ahead, Jun Li saw a light through the foliage ahead, a reprieve from the dark forest at last.

  ‘Someone’s there…?’ In the light, Jun Li could make out a silhouette, clearly that of a disciple, standing still on the border of the forest. ‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll fly past them!’

  As Jun Li turned her gaze from the disciple, she prepared to use her Cloudburst Technique again, reinforcing her body, shaping her Movement Technique, breathing in accordance with her reverse Qinggong, and pressing down hard.

  Darting past the figure at the edge of the forest, Jun Li took in her new surroundings and felt a lance of shock run through her.

  Just as the forest canopy above had disappeared, so did the ground beneath her feet, as she sailed uncontrollably off a cliff at the edge of the Forest of Magical Beasts, imperceptible from the overlook on which the Trial began.

  From The Abyss, the hunter shall return. And with him, the Seven Colossi's awakening.

  A life of the hunt, of training, of secrets, was all Roland ever knew. Yet, when the time finally came to begin his journey into the wider world, disaster struck.

  Roland barely survived and gained a Cursed Class.

  But he got trapped in The Abyss—a deadly treasure trove of an ever-expanding world dungeon. To escape, he either had to kill hordes of weak prey. Or kill an Echo, a feat no unascended had ever survived.

  And Echo. Now that's a worthwhile hunt.

  ? LitRPG | Dungeon Delving | Monster Hunting ?