Obsidian Skull

William stepped away from the corpse, frowning. This was the first time he had seen a corpse, and while it was the body of an enemy, it didn't make it any better.

After taking several minutes to calm himself down, William gingerly stepped towards the corpse. He wanted to know why this man had attacked him. After searching his body, all he found was a purple token with a skull on it, a few silver coins, and the two daggers the man had attacked him with.

Putting the two daggers and the money away, William inspected the token.

"Is this the token of some evil terrorist group?"

"Rustle!"

"Another one!?"

William turned and pointed his swords in that direction.

"Who's there?"

"I come in peace." Two hands were raised into the air, and someone stepped out of the undergrowth. William gave a sigh of relief when he noticed the golden badge on the man's chest, which had the shape of a wing.

"Why are you here, senior?" While William didn't know this man's strength, the people who could oversee the exam would at least be in the spirit condensation realm. Since they had a higher cultivation, it was best to show some respect, even if William was stronger than them in combat.

The man looked at the corpse on the floor.

"Just checking out what happened here. I heard a loud noise that sounded like someone yelling, so I came over. Anyway, what happened?"

William shrugged.

"This dude jumped me, trying to kill me, so I captured him to try and figure out his motive. But he committed suicide before I could do anything, so this happened."

The man inspected the corpse, and visibly flinched when he noticed the purple skull embroidered on the clothing.

"Did you find anything from his body?" he asked.

"Two daggers, some coins, and a weird token," answered William.

"Can you show me that token?"

William tossed the token to him.

The man took one look at it and took a deep sigh.

"What is it?"

The man gave the token back to him, and started to explain.

"This is the token of an evil organization called obsidian skull. Their members often cause trouble around these parts, killing, robbing, and stealing from travelers. They also attack busy places, attempting to kill as many people as they can. The thing about these evil cultivators is that they can absorb the cultivation of others, using it to increase their own. This is the reason for their frequent attacks on other cultivators."

The man sighed again.

"About a week ago, we also received word that they would try to pull something here from a anonymous source. Therefore, Commander Lynwood was sent here to make sure nothing went wrong. Just an hour ago, our spies reported a group of people entering the exam ground without the tokens you were given. We have no idea what they're trying to pull, but shortly afterwards, many examinees started to shatter their tokens, so most of the people watching them had to leave. No long after that, the whole group disappeared, and we have no idea where they went. Now, they've started to go after the contestants, but even with our best efforts, we can't find the place where they're hiding."

William frowned.

"Shouldn't you end the exam, then?"

"This is our best opportunity to catch members of obsidian skull. With how many cultivators are here, it won't be long before we find their hiding place, and we'll also be able to keep casualties at a minimum. Anyway, I'll need to go now. I can't waste too much time here."

The man jumped back into the forest, disappearing within moments, leaving William alone to think over what he just heard.

"I better hurry up."

The longer he stayed here, the riskier it would be. While not getting into a good school would be a shame, it was nowhere near was important was staying alive. William thought of the others from the village, hoping they would make it out safely.

Quickly running in the direction of the exit, he cut down any beats he found along the way and extracted their beast cores. After thirty minutes, he looked inside his spacial ring to check what he had.

"About eighty beast cores now. I should probably get twenty more before going to the end."

William flew up on his swords, looking down to see if he could find any beast.

"There's one!"

William saw a large, armadillo like beast on the ground. It had large, sharp claws and the shell on its back was shining like metal.

"This one looks pretty strong."

"It's called a Steel Armadillo, and it's in the spirit condensation realm," said the voice of the system.

"What stage?"

"Sixth stage."

'Shouldn't be too hard, then. Plus, its core is going to be worth way more than the spirit foundation ones I've found so far.'

Flying closer to the beast, he jumped down, and two sword appeared in his hands. Then, more than thirty swords appeared in the air behind him. The Steel Armadillo looked up, noticing him. As if excited by the prospect of food, the armadillo charged at him, swinging its claws at his head.

Planning to test its strength, William blocked the attack with his swords.

"Clang!"

Its claws collided with his swords, creating loud sounds like the sound of clashing metal. William found himself taking a few steps back, and the Steel Armadillo attacked again.

'It's not that strong.'

William dodged its attack this time, and circled around to its back.

"Falling leaves!"

Four attacks landed on its hard shell, leaving deep grooves and drawing some blood.

The armadillo was slow to turn around, and by the time it did, William had already prepared his next attack.

"Torrent of leaves!"

Hundred of light attacks landed on the Steel Armadillo's face, scaring it and causing a lot of pain. Screaming, the armadillo turned back around, and started to run.

Surprised, William quickly ran after it.

"Hey, come back!"

While the armadillo had a slow turning speed, it moved very quickly as even at his fastest running speed, William could catch up to it at all.

"You're not getting away from me!"

William jumped on a greatsword and flew after the beast. William followed it closely, watching it barrel into tree and crash into the undergrowth. Suddenly, the beast seemed to run into a invisible barrier, and it disappeared.

"Eh? Where did it go?"

William walked to the place where it disappeared. If he squinted his eyes, he could faintly see a thin membrane surround the place where it disappeared.

"A barrier that makes the things inside invisible?"

William pushed his hand inside the barrier and realized he couldn't see it.

"Is this where those obsidian skull members are hiding? This is a really good hiding place. I'm not surprised no one found them."

William looked inside the barrier. While this was not what the inside looked like, it was what it was originally like, so the basic geography shouldn't change. If he didn't want to be discovered the moment he went into the barrier, he would have to find a place to hide. Noticing a boulder just barely inside the barrier, William quickly went into the barrier, hiding himself behind the boulder.

Peeking over the top of the rock, William looked around. There were a total of five people in the barrier, who were all fighting the armadillo from earlier. It was still desperately trying to escape, but the five people had surrounded it, preventing that. With every attack, a bone deep wound would appeared on the armadillo, and it fell within seconds.

Cold sweat covered his head, and William retracted his head back behind the rock. Thankfully, he hadn't rashly barged into the barrier, so he didn't end up like that armadillo. Speaking of the armadillo, he felt quite bad for it. It had just escaped from him, only to run into even stronger opponents.

Suddenly, he heard the five people start to converse in low voices.

"Is this enough? We didn't bring enough sacrifices, but this should be much better that some spirit foundation realm brats, right?"

"It should be. Number two, go inform the others to stop hunting."

"I know."

"We should start creating the formation now. Number three?"

"Already on it."

William noticed one of the people sticking multiple poles into the ground at several locations. They were doing it very carefully, as if afraid to place a single one in the wrong place. However, even after taking a closer look at those poles, there didn't seem to be anything special about them.

"Those are formation rods. They are made of materials that make it easy to transfer energy."

William flinched when the system suddenly spoke. He almost thought someone had snuck up behind him.

"How do you know that?" He whispered quietly.

"I sell some of these in the shop, you know. And don't ask any more. I know what they are and what they're made of, but I don't know how to use them."

"That's not helpful at all then."

William glanced at the poles and wondered what would happen if he pulled one out of the ground. Would the formation fail completely? Or would it just partially activate?

Scooting backwards, William started to leave the barrier. Now that he thought of it, this barrier was probably another kind of formation. Anyway, what he needed to do was get out of here and hopefully warn someone.

Suddenly, the system spoke again.

"A new quest has been issued! Please check the quest panel for more information."

"...great."

William checked his quests and took a look at the new one.

______________________________

[Stop Obsidian Skull]

[Desc: The evil organization known as "Obsidian Skull" has infiltrated the entrance exam, purposefully revealing their actions to lure in a powerful cultivator. They plan to kill them, using them to increase their own cultivation. Stop their vile plans and prevent the nascent soul realm cultivator, "Terrence Lynwood", from dying.]

[Reward: ?]

[Penalty for Failure: Instantaneous Death]

______________________________

"...You want me, a spirit foundation realm cultivator, to save a nascent soul realm cultivator!?!"

"Yes. Do not worry, it is very possible."

"Then tell me how to do it."

"No."

"Ugh.... fine, whatever. I'll die either way. So, when's Terrence getting here?"

"Any second now."

William turned back to the obsidian skull members to see what they were doing. The poles had all been placed in the ground, and four people surrounded it while one of them went into the middle of the formation. The corpse of the armadillo was placed next to him.

Suddenly, the four people on the outside started o inject their spiritual energy into the poles, allowing it to circulate in a specific path. The formation took in all this energy, and William also noticed the corpse of the armadillo starting to wither. The formation then channeled the energy into the man standing in the middle, and William could see his body starting to expand, and a red mist started to come from his body.

A large pillar of dark red spiritual energy rose into the air, shattering the formation surrounding the area. Almost immediately, William heard a loud whoosh, and the nascent soul realm cultivator (Who he assumed to be Terrence) from earlier was in the air above where they were.

"So this is where you rats were hiding. Now that you've revealed yourselves, you should be ready for the consequences. Prepare to die!"

The man in the center of the formation sneered, looking up.

"The one dying will be you. With the support of the Demonic Sacrifice Formation, my power has already surpassed you!"

"We'll see about that."

"Come!"

Terrence flew straight at the obsidian skull member, and a spear suddenly appeared in his hand, aimed for the man's heart. The other four people were still channeling spiritual energy into the formation, which was the source of their newfound strength.

"Pathetic!"

The obsidian skull member withdrew a saber from his waist, deflecting the spear. Then, he viciously slashed towards Terrence's back. Hastily, Terrence withdrew his speak and blocked the attack.

"Clang!"

Terrence was forced to take several steps back from the force of the attack, while in contrast, the obsidian skull member hadn't moved an inch.

"You're strong, I'll admit that," said Terrence.

The other man sneered.

"You think this is strong? I haven't even used my full power."

Suddenly, the obsidian skull member disappeared. By the time, he reappeared, he was already behind Terrence,

"Clang!"

Both of their figure's blurred, and William suddenly saw someone fly out at a high speed.

"Crash!"

They crashed into a tree, cracking it in half and continuing to roll on the ground, stopping only after rolling several meters. Shocked, William looked to see who it was, and saw Terrence lying on the ground, not moving.

'I'm... supposed to save him in this situation?'