A man with purple hair opened his eyes widely in terror.
'No!' he thought.
And then, the unstoppable flood of water rushed past his destroyed Mana Shield, distorting his body and compressing him into a cube.
Shang extended his arm and pocketed the Space Ring and the Focus without thinking much of it.
This had been the third Early Ancestral Mage he had killed in the trial in the last seven years.
Yes, it had already been seven years since Shang had entered the Deep Crevices.
And he had made quite a killing.
In total, he had killed one Mid Ancestral Mage with Sepsis on the first day, three Early Ancestral Mages, and five Initial Ancestral Mages.
From 36 Ancestral Mages that had come with Shang to the Deep Crevices, he had killed nine of them, which was 25% of the total.
Shang estimated that he had probably earned enough money to pay for the thing he wanted, but having more money was never wrong.
By getting more money now, Shang could avoid going outside and earning money in the future.
Shang thoughtlessly pocketed all the belongings and went back to the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.
He still hadn't found a trial.
For the past seven years, Shang had continually searched for a trial, but sure enough, the trials weren't easy to find.
Shang guessed that he had probably passed by several trials without noticing them.
Sadly, amongst the belongings of his victims, he also couldn't find any written accounts of trials, but that was to be expected.
After all, people only carried extensive documentation and their diaries with them in movies and novels. In real life, people didn't carry their entire life story with them in their pockets.
So, Shang continued searching for a trial.
Two more years passed.
In these two years, Shang only managed to kill one Initial Ancestral Mage.
The number of other Mages had become low.
Well, the number of Mages Shang could defeat had become low.
There were still a lot of Peak Ancestral Mages, and Shang saw them pass by rather frequently.
They didn't really care about Shang's presence since his level was far too low to threaten or interest them.
Funnily enough, some of them even asked Shang if he had seen any other Ancestral Mages, and Shang earned a couple of Mana Crystals by giving them information.
It seemed like the Wilderness Hunt would end without Shang being able to find a trial.
But then, Shang actually noticed something fishy that wasn't fish.
The temperatures in one place were slightly fluctuating.
The fluctuation was very subtle, but since a major part of Shang's power was temperature, he managed to notice it.
Shang walked over and inspected the temperature and its movements.
He watched for several minutes, and eventually, he managed to make sense of it.
A second later, Shang summoned some protected Ice and Fire Mana and shot them at specific spots on the ground.
WHOOOM!
A yellow barrier came out of the ground, expanding and encompassing Shang.
All the water was pushed away from Shang, and a door appeared on the ground.
For the first time in a long while, Shang was not surrounded by water or earth anymore, but he also didn't care a lot about that.
Shang's mind moved the door and opened it, revealing a staircase leading into the ground.
Shang walked down the staircase, closing the door behind him.
After Shang closed the door, the barrier and the door vanished again, making everything seem normal.
Meanwhile, Shang continued walking down the staircase until he reached another door.
He opened it and entered a rather small entrance hall behind it.
The entrance hall looked rather simple. It was made of some darker stone, and there were a couple of torches hanging on the wall.
Naturally, no Cloud needed torches. Shang guessed that this was just for decoration and atmosphere.
The only interesting thing in the entrance hall was a stone stele in the middle.
"Ice and Fire Trial," Shang read.
"Rarity: Two of five."
"Difficulty: Two of five."
"Levels: Three."
"Realm: Automatically adjusted."
"Participants: One."
"Reward: Two of five."
'Makes sense,' Shang thought. 'It's one of the more common and easier trials. I assume the really difficult and rewarding trials are extremely difficult to find and might even require several Mages to work together. After all, this trial also mentions participants, which probably means that there are group trials.'
'I remember hearing that the biggest prize anyone can get in the Wilderness Hunt is to become a temporary student to one of the Mage Kings for a century.'
'In terms of value, that would probably equate to 100 Grade Eight Mana Crystals since that would be what a Mage King could produce in a century, but I guess that reward is only available in the most difficult trial.'
Shang turned to the door leading into the next room.
'This definitely isn't that trial, but there should still be some good rewards. Ancestral Mages already get five Grade Seven Mana Crystals every century from the Lightning Manor, and I don't think that there is any reward that's worth less.'
Shang nodded and walked over to the door.
'Most of these trials are probably made for Mages. I hope I can get through them.'
Shang opened the door and walked into the hallway behind it.
After some walking, Shang entered a big hall.
When the door behind him closed, a barrier appeared over it, stopping Shang from turning back.
These trials were supposed to be dangerous, and entering them was something that had to be considered.
Shang didn't exactly mind the barrier and focused on what was in front of him.
There was a two-meter-high and wide glass furnace in front of him with a floating purple crystal in the middle.
Shang could also see that the other door was held closed by another barrier.
A moment later, shimmering writing appeared in the air above the furnace.
And then, Shang knew what he had to do.
