Unconcealable Despair

This wasn't cowardice.

It was pure pragmatism.

The monstrous centipede before them radiated a murderous aura far beyond Yun Huang's ability to handle.

Even if she used every trump card at her disposal, her chances of victory remained slim.

With an unfathomably powerful "Black Knight" standing nearby, there was no need for her to throw her life away.

Liu Yuan reacted a beat slower than Yun Huang.

She hastily retreated several steps, her gaze lifting toward the gargantuan centipede.

Thick, foul-smelling drool dripped from its mandibles, sizzling as it struck the ashen ground, corroding pockmarked pits into the surface.

A flicker of fear crossed Liu Yuan's face, and she instinctively stumbled back even further.

Perhaps she lacked a clear understanding of the sheer disparity in strength between them.

Or maybe it was simply the centipede's grotesque appearance—pushing the limits of human tolerance.

Like how even non-believers in ghosts might still jump in terror at a horror game's jump scares, despite knowing it's just pixels on a screen.

The giant centipede seemed to relish the fear emanating from its two "prey."

Its countless legs tensed abruptly, propelling its massive body forward like a black blur, kicking up swirling ash as it charged—

A terrifying onslaught!

At the same moment, the Black Knight moved.

His ancient greatsword, previously tilted toward the ground, was slowly raised.

At its tip, a pinpoint of light condensed, compressed—

Then, time itself seemed to stutter for an instant.

The centipede's ferocious charge was met head-on by a beam of hyper-concentrated energy, freezing its massive body mid-air.

Its countless legs twitched reflexively, but the motion was futile.

Fine cracks, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, spiderwebbed across the centipede's entire head in a split second.

Then, without warning—

Boom! The centipede's head exploded.

Putrid, dark-green fluids and shattered carapace sprayed violently in all directions—except forward, where the Black Knight stood.

The headless carcass, carried by momentum, skidded another dozen meters before crashing heavily to the ground.

The impact shook the earth, kicking up clouds of choking dust.

A few legs spasmed weakly before falling still.

The entire sequence happened too fast to process.

From the centipede's appearance to its obliteration—barely two seconds.

The Black Knight didn’t utter a word.

His greatsword unleashed another precise beam, carving the ash-covered path further ahead.

Back to his "ash-clearing duty."

This centipede wasn’t an isolated encounter.

If one listened closely, the distant roars of battle were unending—

Either other brutal fights raging across the area, or the deafening groans of this crumbling dimension, known as the "Source Realm," collapsing further.

At least within the ash corridor forcibly cleared by the Black Knight, Yun Huang and Liu Yuan could catch their breath.

Yet the air grew thicker with the acrid stench of sulfur and burning, impossible to ignore even when holding one's breath.

Above them, the ominous twilight sky darkened another shade.

"Up ahead… is that light?" Yun Huang’s uncertain voice broke the silence.

Liu Yuan followed her gaze toward the path’s end, where the Black Knight’s energy beam had pierced the ash.

Amid the swirling gray haze, a faint glimmer pulsed weakly—

A flickering beacon in the dead stillness.

"That’s a signal flare!" Yun Huang’s spirits lifted. "There must be an official shelter there!"

The two pressed onward another two hundred meters.

A dim, flickering energy barrier came into view—a dome-like shield barely covering a small patch of ground.

Shadowy figures moved beneath it.

They quickened their pace.

As they neared, the shelter’s dire state became clear.

The translucent barrier, likely conjured by some energy-based tech, was on its last legs.

Its glow was feeble, its surface rippling violently under immense strain—seconds from shattering.

Inside, people lay strewn about.

Most wore uniforms of the examination officials; a handful were battered candidates like themselves.

The candidates’ faces were etched with despair.

The officials, meanwhile, were wounded—some receiving hasty first aid, others propped against makeshift barricades, weapons trained on the outside.

When the Black Knight’s ash-clearing slash passed dangerously close to the shelter, the officials snapped to high alert.

"INCOMING—!!"

A shrill scream erupted from the shelter.

Instantly, every official—even the wounded—sprang into action.

No warnings. No questions.

A barrage of multicolored energy beams and physical projectiles tore through the air, screaming toward Yun Huang and Liu Yuan!

Yun Huang barely had time to dodge—

But the Black Knight, still facing away, moved first.

Without turning, he drove his greatsword into the ground.

Hummm.

A translucent shockwave rippled outward.

Every attack—energy or physical—dissolved on contact, vanishing as if swallowed by the void.

No explosions. No resistance.

Just effortless annihilation.

Yun Huang’s breath caught in her throat.

Inside the shelter, the officials froze.

Their expressions shifted from vigilance to stunned disbelief.

"H-how…?" someone stammered.

That volley, though hastily assembled, could’ve downed an eighth-tier Source Realm beast. Yet it hadn’t even scratched the Black Knight’s defense.

An eerie silence settled over both sides.

Only distant thunder and the whisper of falling ash remained.

Yun Huang glanced at the Black Knight, then at the petrified officials. With a quiet sigh, she stepped forward.

"We’re examinees from the martial exam! Not enemies!"

"We followed the signal flare."

At the word "examinees," the officials stirred, though their wariness didn’t fully fade.

"Examinees?" The team leader frowned deeply. "At this hour... how could you still be coming from outside?"

One of his team members couldn't help interjecting, "Logically, any examinees who could make it here should have arrived long ago. The ones left behind... are probably..."

He didn’t finish the sentence, but the implication was clear.

And it made sense.

There was more than one shelter, and choosing the nearest one shouldn’t have taken much time.

But Yun Huang had been entangled by a seventh-tier Origin Realm creature, fighting desperately for a long while.

As for Liu Yuan, she simply lacked wilderness experience and had a terrible sense of direction...

The leader’s gaze swept over the Black Knight, Liu Yuan, and Yun Huang.

He could see the disheveled state of Yun Huang, clearly someone who had endured a fierce battle.

But that pitch-black, terrifyingly imposing "armored figure" didn’t seem like a card an examinee could possess.

It looked more like a high-tier Origin Realm creature.

Earlier, he had only vaguely glimpsed a towering dark silhouette before ordering the attack.

"Brother Sun... that Black Knight really does belong to an examinee. I heard a colleague mention it in passing."

Due to network issues between the Origin Realm and the outside world, most of them had been busy setting up the exam grounds inside and hadn’t watched the arena tests.

The leader fell silent for a moment before finally relaxing his guarded expression.

He waved a hand, signaling his team to lower their weapons.

"Apologies, you two. The situation was urgent, and we had to..."

He gave a bitter smile, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "Things are dire right now. The slightest movement could cost us our lives. With visibility this poor, we can’t confirm anything outside, so we have to treat every unknown approach as a potential threat."

"By all logic, at this point, any examinees who haven’t reached a shelter have almost no chance of survival. And the way you appeared... was far too dramatic."

Yun Huang listened quietly without responding.

She understood their reaction.

A sudden, massive disturbance in the ash-filled haze with such low visibility—

If they waited until something got close before deciding whether to act, the risk would be far too great if it turned out to be an Origin Realm creature.

"Come inside first," the leader said, tapping the air a few times to open a passage into the shelter. "It’s too dangerous out here. This place is crude, but at least it can temporarily shield you from the ash’s corrosion."

Liu Yuan nodded and glanced at Yun Huang.

Yun Huang gave a slight nod in return.

The Black Knight suppressed its energy fluctuations, sheathed its massive sword, and followed silently behind the two.