"Ten slots remaining," Lin Mei whispered, her voice tight with sudden tension.

Wei Lin's expression grew serious as he extended his spiritual sense outward, probing the boundaries of the realm. "I can sense the exit," he said after a moment. "It's... quite far from here. Maybe two hundred li to the northeast."

"Two hundred li?" I frowned, calculating travel time. "That's at least two hours of hard travel, assuming we don't encounter any more obstacles."

"And we will encounter obstacles," Wei Lin said grimly. "The closer we get to an exit, the more likely we are to run into other teams making their final push."

Lin Mei glanced between us. "So, what's the plan?"

"We move fast, and we eliminate anyone who gets in our way," I said simply. "With only ten slots left, there's no room for mercy or second chances."

We set off immediately, moving through the forest of bone-white trees at the fastest pace Lin Mei could maintain. The landscape here was even more unnatural than the desert had been – the trees grew in perfectly straight lines, their branches forming patterns that hurt to look at directly. Strange fruits hung from some of the branches, glowing with soft phosphorescent light that cast eerie shadows on the forest floor.

"Don't touch anything," I warned as we passed a cluster of particularly bright fruits. "Death essence tends to corrupt whatever it infuses. Those could be anything from explosive traps to soul-draining parasites."

***

An hour passed as we navigated the twisted forest. True to our prediction, we were attacked twice during that time – once by a pack of skeletal wolves that emerged from behind the trees, and once by something that looked like a giant spider made of crystallized shadow.

Both times, Wei Lin handled the threats with casual efficiency that was almost frightening to witness.

The wolves were eliminated with a combination of lightning strikes and death essence absorption that left nothing behind but scattered bone fragments. The shadow spider lasted slightly longer, managing to entangle him in webs of pure darkness before he simply absorbed the entire construct into his Black Market stall.

Watching him fight, I had to admit something I hadn't expected when we'd first formed this team: it felt strange not being the strongest member anymore.

For months, I'd grown accustomed to being the one everyone looked to when serious threats appeared. My higher cultivation and unusual techniques had made me the team's primary combatant and strategic anchor.

The competitive cultivator who had driven myself to reach the ninth stage while most of my peers were still at the sixth or seventh, felt restless. Wei Lin had leapfrogged past me in terms of raw power, and while I was genuinely happy for my friend's success, it also motivated me to push harder toward my own breakthrough to the Elemental Realm.

"The World Tree Sutra doesn't follow conventional advancement patterns," I reminded myself silently. "When I do break through, it'll be something entirely different from what other cultivators experience."

The thought was both exciting and intimidating.

The World Tree method had already proven capable of things that shouldn't be possible at the Qi Condensation stage. What would happen when I finally advanced to the next major realm? Would I still be bound by the same limitations as other cultivators, or would my inner world's connection to multiple realities open up entirely new possibilities?

But there was another feeling mixed in with that competitive drive – relief.

For the first time since…forever, I wasn't carrying the entire burden of keeping my teammates alive. Wei Lin's breakthrough meant that even if I was injured or exhausted, our team still had someone capable of handling Peak Qi Condensation Realm threats. The constant pressure I'd been feeling, that nagging awareness that any mistake could result in our elimination, had finally eased.

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It was an unexpectedly liberating feeling.

We pushed deeper through the twisted forest, the bone-white trees gradually giving way to something that looked almost normal, if you ignored the way the bark seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly rhythm.

The oppressive weight of death essence that had saturated the air since our arrival was noticeably lighter here, though it still made my skin crawl with every breath.

"The death qi is definitely weaker," Wei Lin noted, pausing to extend his spiritual sense. "We're getting closer to the boundary."

We emerged from the treeline into a small clearing where the sickly twilight actually seemed a few shades brighter. The grass here was still that unnatural gray-green color, but it wasn't completely dead. Some of it even swayed in what might have been an actual breeze rather than the spiritual currents that moved everything else in this realm.

"This is better," Lin Mei said, stretching her shoulders as we took a moment to orient ourselves. "I can actually breathe without feeling like I'm swallowing poison."

Wei Lin pointed northeast, where a gap between distant hills suggested our path forward. "The disturbance is still in that direction, maybe fifteen li now."

It was then that Lin Mei looked up at the crimson number hanging in the perpetual dusk above us.

"The first stage of the tournament is almost over," she observed quietly. "Look at the sky."

The number had dropped to 7 while we'd been traveling. Seven teams left, and we still had what felt like miles to go before reaching the exit.

"We need to move faster," Wei Lin said, his mind clearly calculating odds and probabilities. "At this rate, the remaining slots could be filled before we arrive."

We increased our pace, pushing through the underbrush with less regard for stealth. Speed was becoming more important than caution, though we all kept our senses extended for potential threats.

It was after another ten minutes of travel when we spotted him - a seventh stage Qi Condensation cultivator.

The young man emerged from a grove of trees about fifty yards ahead of us, and his demeanor immediately caught our attention. He was practically radiating excitement, a broad grin splitting his face as he moved with the purposeful stride of someone who knew exactly where he was going.

"That look," Lin Mei whispered. "He's found it, hasn't he? The exit."

Wei Lin's eyes narrowed as he studied the cultivator's behavior. "His movement pattern suggests he's heading toward the same disturbance I've been sensing. If he reaches it first..."

I felt my stomach clench as I followed his reasoning.

Seven slots remaining.

If this cultivator reached the exit first... well, we had no idea what would happen then.

Would the exit close after his team used it?

Would it remain open but become guarded by whatever entities controlled this realm?

The sect had been frustratingly vague about the exit's mechanics, and with so few slots left, we couldn't afford to take risks based on assumptions.

The three of us exchanged glances, and I could see the same calculation reflected in their expressions. This wasn't personal. This wasn't about grudges or honor or ancient rivalries. This was pure mathematics.

We needed to eliminate him.

The cultivator noticed us at almost the same moment we spotted him. His eyes widened as he took in our group: three cultivators, two of them with higher cultivation than himself, all moving with clear purpose toward his location.

Without hesitation, he turned and ran.

"Not happening," I muttered, extending my spiritual sense toward the fleeing cultivator.

There!

A cluster of glowing mushrooms growing at the base of a bone-white tree, directly in his path. My spiritual sense touched them briefly, leaving microscopic qi traces that would serve as anchor points.

I activated Verduring Step, my body dissolving into green light that flowed instantly through space to the tagged fungi. I rematerialized directly in the fleeing cultivator's path, my palm already charged with qi for a Phantom Strike.

The young man's face went pale as he realized his escape route was blocked. He began to form some kind of defensive technique, earth qi gathering around his hands, but we both knew it was too late.

It was then that my spiritual sense screamed a warning.

Something was behind me. Something moving with incredible speed and precision, accompanied by the unmistakable feeling of sword qi so sharp it seemed to cut through space itself.

I activated Verduring Step without thinking, dissolving into green light just as a blade of pure energy slashed through the space I'd occupied a heartbeat before.

The sword strike carved a perfectly straight line through three massive trees, cutting them as cleanly as if they were made of paper. The trunks toppled with thunderous crashes, their severed surfaces so smooth they looked polished.

I rematerialized twenty feet away, my heart racing as I turned to face whoever had just tried to decapitate me.

Two figures stepped out from behind the fallen trees, their ninth-stage spiritual pressure washing over the area like a tide.

The first was a familiar pale-faced young man with sword qi covering his form like a cloak. The second figure moved with the grace of a master swordsman, and I caught the glint of what appeared to be a blade strapped to his back.

My eyes narrowed as recognition set in.

"Wu Kangming," I murmured, then shifted my gaze to his companion. "And you… you must be Luo Yichen."