There were eight people in the Ross family's group in total.
They traveled extremely slowly.
Their weak overall strength made walking through this Forbidden Zone feel like walking a tightrope.
Every step was taken with utmost caution.
They did not dare make the slightest sound.
The number of demons in the Withered Wood Wasteland was generally far greater than in normal wildernesses.
However, the Withered Wood Wasteland was immense.
No matter how many demons there were, they still seemed somewhat sparse across such a vast wasteland.
Yet that did not mean it was safe.
For the Ross family, who had only two Transcendents while the rest were High Ranks, every step was a gamble.
A gamble on whether any demon would notice the flaws in their clumsy concealment magic.
A gamble on whether their route would happen to avoid the demons out for a stroll.
However, their lucky streak shattered on the second day of their trek.
The second day.
They were advancing along a dried-up riverbed.
Towering rock walls flanked both sides of the riverbed, and the wind howled as it poured in from above.
O'Brien walked at the very front, his forehead drenched in sweat.
His concealment magic had been maintained for an entire morning, draining over half of his mana.
He was just about to signal the group to stop and swap shifts when the ground trembled.
Loose stones rustled down from the rock walls.
Everyone froze in place simultaneously.
Then, they saw it.
A colossal shadow slowly moved across the air above the riverbed.
It was a Legendary demon.
Its size was so immense that it practically blocked out half the sky.
Its dark gray scales glinted with a metallic cold light under the sun.
Each of its claws was longer than a person.
Its tail dragged behind it, plowing a deep trench into the ground.
It passed over the riverbed less than two hundred meters away from them.
Some in the group held their breath, while others closed their eyes.
Kyle bit his lip so hard that blood dripped from it, though he didn't even notice.
Josephine squatted on the ground, hugging her head with both hands, trembling all over.
The youngest boy had tears falling silently from his eyes, dampening the collar of his academy uniform.
The Legendary demon's slit pupils swept over the riverbed.
It paused for a moment.
Those blood-red eyes seemed to linger a split second longer toward where they were hiding.
Then...
It shifted its gaze away.
It continued forward, slowly disappearing behind the ridge at the end of the riverbed.
The tremors ceased, and stones stopped falling.
Dead silence returned to the riverbed.
Only after a long while did Kyle release his bitten lip.
His back was soaked in cold sweat, his mage robe clinging to his skin with an icy chill.
He let out a long breath and collapsed onto the ground as if his bones had been removed.
"It's gone... It's gone..."
He gave a short laugh, trembling with the relief of surviving a near-death encounter.
O'Brien stood in place, his brow deeply furrowed.
He stared in the direction where the Legendary demon had disappeared, his lips moving silently without uttering a word.
A Legendary demon's perception should not be this poor.
The thought flashed through his mind, but he quickly pushed it down.
Meanwhile, the girl silently lowered her head.
Her black eyes stared at the tip of her staff, looking at no one.
Yet out of the corner of her eye, she inadvertently glanced upward.
Glancing up at that empty sky where nothing could be seen.
For the Ross family, this encounter felt like an omen.
An omen that they were beginning to penetrate deep into the Withered Wood Wasteland.
The situations they faced from here on would only grow increasingly dangerous.
They would encounter even more terrifying Legendary demons.
Perhaps even Epics, which were like mobile natural disasters capable of obliterating an entire city-state in a single blow.
The atmosphere in the group became heavy and bleak.
Even the usually quick-tempered Kyle fell silent.
He no longer complained, nor did he grab others by the collar to yell.
He simply walked with his head down, gripping his staff so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
During breaks, he sat alone on the outermost rock.
He gnawed on dry rations, chewing mechanically bite after bite.
As if he might never get to eat again.
The others were much the same.
Yet over their trek for the next three days, nothing happened.
It was not that they encountered no dangers.
They saw a Legendary sand worm slither past across the ground.
They saw packs of Transcendent-tier carrion wolves sprint along their flank.
Their howls echoed right beside their ears.
They saw a Legendary withered branch demon standing guard at the valley entrance.
Its massive size was enough to cover the entire valley.
The gray toxic mist it spewed corroded all plant life within several kilometers into scorched blackness.
Yet somehow, they were never discovered.
Those demons walked right past them.
They soared overhead.
They stopped less than a few hundred meters away, only to turn and leave.
It was as if they were completely invisible to them.
Once could be an accident...
But escaping notice so many times...
That could only mean it was due to their own ability.
Color finally returned to the young noble descendants' faces.
They began to converse and laugh.
Some patted O'Brien on the shoulder, praising his concealment magic.
This was an outsider whom they had always looked down upon in the family, yet now they had to rely on him.
His standing in their minds continued to rise higher and higher.
O'Brien gave a faint smile and did not respond.
However, his pace quickened compared to before. When he urged the group to pick up speed, his voice carried a trace of terror that even he had failed to notice.
Meanwhile, the girl's expression grew stranger and stranger.
She walked at the very rear of the group, hardly speaking along the way.
Only her hand holding the staff tightened continuously.
Her knuckles turned white, her nails digging almost into the flesh of her palm.
On the night of the fourth day, O'Brien changed their plan on the fly.
He made the group pick up their speed and cut their daily rest time in half.
No one objected; everyone gritted their teeth and kept up.
The sixth day.
They entered a mountainous area.
Rugged gray rocks rose from the ground, forming narrow canyons and steep slopes.
The path here was far more difficult than on the wasteland.
The rocks were loose; any step could lead to a slip.
Mana was consumed at a faster rate, forcing O'Brien to swap shifts with the girl frequently.
Both of their faces began to grow pale.
Everyone's mage robes were worn through by the sharp rocks.
The soles of everyone's boots were nearly worn thin.
The youngest boy's ankle was swollen, causing him to limp as he walked.
Yet he did not dare stop or fall behind.
Josephine's face was covered in dust and dried sweat stains.
Leaning on her staff, limping with every step, she finally couldn't help speaking up.
Her voice was hoarse, carrying a hint of tears.
"How much longer do we have to walk?"
O'Brien stopped and pulled out the Transmission Stone from his robe.
When he had pulled that stone out on the first day, it had been a murky grayish-white.
Now, it had become almost completely translucent, with a faint golden light swirling inside.
He stared at the stone for a long time.
Then he raised his head, looking toward the boundless expanse of gray rocks ahead.
"Soon."
"The honored Tower Master guided our direction."
O'Brien looked at the nearly transparent Transmission Stone in his hand.
"When the Transmission Stone sounds, it means we have arrived at the hunting circle."
"When that time comes..."
He did not elaborate further.
Yet the eyes of the young nobles around him had already turned feverish.
Josephine chimed in with excitement.
"Then we can go back!"
Her voice harbored anticipation she couldn't hide.
Kyle sneered, however, and added:
"It's not just that."
He licked his dry, cracked lips.
"As long as we capture one, the family will value us."
"We'll be treated just like those damned bastards."
His words were like a spark igniting a pile of dry firewood.
The lifeless group suddenly sprang back to vitality.
A flush rose on the faces of the young noble descendants—not from fatigue, but from greed.
"One, as long as we catch just one."
A tall, thin youth nearby repeated, his fingers mindlessly rubbing the patterns on his staff.
"I'll be able to move back into the inner ring dorms. I'm sick and tired of those trashy beds in the outer ring."
"Look at how pathetic your ambitions are."
Another short, stocky noble youth scoffed before changing the subject.
"I'm waiting to use contribution points to exchange for the second volume of 《Advanced Elemental Analysis》. That thing goes for an astronomical price on the black market."
Listening to their conversation, Kyle's fist gradually tightened.
"If I had known that filthy creature was worth so much..."
He squeezed the words out through gritted teeth.
"Back at the academy, I should have caught it early."
Someone beside him agreed:
"Isn't that right? Back then, the expulsion agreement actually saved their lives."
"If we had known, we would have moved beforehand, and we wouldn't have had to come all the way out here."
Their words were filled with regret and annoyance.
It was as though they were talking not about living beings, but about a batch of unstocked goods or a missed investment.
The black-haired girl did not say a word from beginning to end.
She quietly watched them talk.
She watched as they gesticulated wildly while calculating contribution points, listening to them spray spittle as they discussed their so-called "goods."
There was no emotion whatsoever in her black eyes.
It was like watching a pack of beasts surrounding a half-dead carcass, discussing how to carve it up.
The brief break came to an end.
The group resumed their march, advancing slowly along the rugged gray rocks toward the depths of the hunting circle.
The remainder of the journey remained silent and oppressive.
O'Brien still walked at the front, the sweat on his forehead growing denser.
The frequency at which he and the girl swapped shifts shifted from once every half-day to once every two hours.
Yet without anyone knowing when it started...
The duration for which the girl maintained her concealment magic began to shorten bit by bit.
O'Brien noticed this change.
He stopped in his tracks and turned around.
He originally intended to ask about it.
However, seeing the sweat on the girl's pale face and her somewhat labored breathing, he had no choice but to let it drop.
"Hang in there a little longer, we're almost there."
He spoke softly before turning back around to lead the team at the front.
After he turned away...
The girl silently checked the breathlessness she had intentionally faked.
She tightened her grip on her staff, her eyes subconsciously glancing up at the sky.
That empty, featureless sky where nothing existed.
Afterward, she withdrew her gaze and quietly followed the group deeper into the mountainous terrain.
Even a tedious, long march eventually reaches its end.
They crossed a dry stream bed and passed through a narrow fissure in the rocks.
The view ahead suddenly opened up.
A broad valley stretched out beneath the grayish-white sky.
Withered yellow bushes and jagged boulders were scattered throughout.
At first glance, it appeared no different from any other part of the Withered Wood Wasteland.
O'Brien stopped and looked up.
The girl also stopped and looked up.
Their eyes turned simultaneously toward that sky.
There was an extremely faint, almost imperceptible surge of magic in the air.
It felt as though an extremely thin, transparent veil hung high in the heavens.
It was virtually invisible to the naked eye, but when the wind blew through...
Ripples of subtle motion would form at the edge of that sky, like water gently touched by a pebble.
That was a magic veil.
It was so expansive that it covered almost the entire mountain region.
O'Brien knew that they were about to reach the hunting circle.
He picked up his pace, taking the lead at the front of the group.
His boots crunched rapidly against the gravel.
The other young noble descendants didn't understand why, but they quickened their steps to keep up.
They pushed through a patch of dead bushes and climbed a low hill.
At the top of the hill, O'Brien finally stopped.
The Transmission Stone held tightly in his hand began to emit a noisy staticky hiss.
It sounded like wind blowing through rock crevices—intermittent, mixed with faint electrical hums.
Everyone noticed it.
They stopped almost simultaneously, their eyes unisonly falling upon that stone.
O'Brien hurriedly raised the Transmission Stone to his lips, his fingers trembling slightly.
"We are the Ross family! We have arrived at the designated location!"
His voice cracked slightly from excitement.
Everyone waited for the other party's response.
The young nobles held their breath; Josephine clutched her sleeves tight, and even Kyle subconsciously stepped forward half a pace.
A long moment passed.
There was only staticky noise from the Transmission Stone.
Just when they began to think something was wrong with the Transmission Stone, a man's voice came through.
The voice was quite young, carrying a tinge of laziness and an undisguised trace of confusion.
"Ross? Ross family?"
A pause followed.
"...Among the families participating in the hunt, is there a Ross?"
O'Brien's expression stiffened for a moment.
He hurriedly leaned close to the Transmission Stone, rattling off his family background, permit number, and sponsor's name at breakneck speed.
The other end of the Transmission Stone fell silent for a short while before the young man's voice sounded once more.
His tone carried a tinge of weirdness and undisguised annoyance.
"To think you actually didn't die on the road."
O'Brien did not respond to that statement, merely clutching the Transmission Stone tightly.
"May I ask if we should activate the magic pillars according to plan and link into the perception nodes?"
The other side went silent again for a brief moment.
Then came a lazy reply.
"Go ahead and activate it, you lucky low-tier family."
As those words fell, the glow on the Transmission Stone dimmed slightly.
The communication cut off.
O'Brien stood holding the faded stone for a moment.
Then he turned around and tucked the stone back into his robes.
"Begin assembly."
Components of the magic pillars were retrieved from their respective backpacks.
They were silver-white metal rods, each as thick as an arm, their surfaces covered in dense runes.
The rods were divided into several sections that needed to be assembled joint by joint.
O'Brien squatted down, running his fingers over the runes on the rod body as he began assembly.
The girl also squatted down beside him, connecting the silver-white metal rods section by section.
Her movements were steady, each latch clicking into place cleanly and efficiently.
The other young noble descendants gathered around, wanting to help but unable to get their hands in.
Soon, five magic pillars were fully assembled.
They were driven into five positions on the ground, forming a neat pentagram.
O'Brien stepped into the center, pressed both hands against the tallest pillar, and channeled his mana inside.
The silver-white runes lit up one after another.
An extremely thin beam of light shot out from the top of the pillar, piercing straight into the sky.
Then, the thin veil in the sky began to move.
Starting from the point where the light beam touched, a wave of visible ripples expanded outward in all directions.
Spreading farther and wider, extending all the way to the end of the horizon.
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