Upon hearing the students’ and Master Qin’s explanations, Yun Ruoyan, Zhuo Yifeng, and even Li Mo were all extremely shocked—none of them had expected that there would be a portal here leading to the alternate dimension.

“Qin Feng, what exactly happened during the three years in which you are here?” Li Mo glanced at the gathered students. “I remember that there were 33 of you who participated in the initial expedition, but now there are only 16 students left! Are the rest all dead?”

Qin Feng sighed, then began to recount everything that had passed in the last three years. When the 33 members of the expedition teleported to this realm through a teleportation array that had been set up with the help of the all-seeing mirror, they had encountered a beast horde almost immediately.

The beast horde consisted of a few types of high-ranking beasts. Although none of the expedition team were weaklings, they were entirely unprepared for such a situation, and they quickly became separated during the initial commotion.

“I brought seven students with me as we went off in search of the missing students. After three days, we only managed to find eleven of them. The others all seemed to have vanished in the initial beast onslaught, and we don’t know their whereabouts to this day,” Qin Feng continued glumly. 

“I remember clearly that there were a few blood-sucking lions amidst that beast horde, and I saw one of them swallow up my senior sister with my own eyes! Most of my missing senior brothers and sisters were likely eaten by them,” a lean but muscular youth exclaimed. Yun Ruoyan noted that others called him Tian.

“I hadn’t expected that our expedition would encounter such danger the moment we got here, and given how many students had gone missing, we lost all intention of hunting these beasts. Instead, we planned to return to Kongming Academy right after finding the missing students,” Qin Feng continued. “But, five days later, when we returned to the site of the teleportation array as planned, we found that it had vanished entirely, and we had lost all connection with the academy.”

Bewildered, confused, and frustrated, Qin Feng and the students tried all sorts of methods to get in contact with Kongming Academy, but none of them were successful. In the end, they had lost all hope of ever returning to the Chenyuan continent again.

Forced to explore their surroundings to fend for themselves, they soon discovered that this seeming utopia was a breeding ground for all sorts of dangers. Beast hordes would roam the forests at indeterminate intervals, sudden gales of wind would catch them unawares, and, most frighteningly, they discovered other humans in the Beast Spirit Valley.

“Initially, we were very happy to see them. We thought they were also from the Chenyuan continent, and that they would bring us home. However, a-after realizing our circumstances, they immediately re, revealed their cruel nature!” a young woman, Hai Yan, added, still seeming traumatized by the experience.

“Of our three instructors, the two male ones were killed on the spot, and they abducted the lone female one. Allegedly, they were bringing her to some place called ‘Peak Darkness’ to sell her off,” Tian continued.

The students collectively took a deep breath, as if reliving their worst nightmare.

“How did all of you manage to escape?” Yun Ruoyan finally asked.

Qin Feng chuckled bitterly. “We didn’t. These people were so cruel and malicious that they thought killing us all would be too boring, so they designed a game to play with us. Every time they showed up, one of us would have to participate in this game, and the loser would be killed. All seven of my students were killed in this game of theirs, and I was the only one who made it out.”

“What sort of game?” Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng asked simultaneously. Yun Ruoyan’s fists were clenched so hard that they were red, and Zhuo Yifeng gripped his bow so hard his knuckles were turning white.

Qin Feng explained that those from the alternate dimension called this the ‘groundhog game’. They thought themselves grander than those from the Chenyuan continent, so they referred to Qin Feng and his students as ‘groundhogs’. 

The groundhog game required a designated territory. One of Qin Feng’s group would enter this territory to serve as prey, and those from the alternate dimension would hunt them over the course of three days. Within these three days, if the prey were able to successfully evade capture and not be eaten by magical beasts, then they would win.

“I was the first to participate in this game,” Qin Feng said. “I almost died, and I barely escaped with my life, but my students weren’t as lucky.”

When Qin Feng brought up this game, the remaining students’ faces all turned pale. The last of the seven instructors had died in the previous game, and the remaining games would involve the students themselves.

“If the instructors weren’t able to win, then we’re surely dead meat…” one student moaned.

“Not necessarily,” Tian comforted everyone. “I remember that the last game occurred three months ago. Those demons might already have forgotten about us! As long as we can make it back to the Chenyuan continent, we’ll be saved!”

“We do have a chance of returning now…”

“I-I don’t have to take part in that damned game, do i? We won’t have to die?”

Tian’s words pulled everyone out of their stupor.

“The Beast Spirit Valley’s still a dangerous place to be,” Qin Feng muttered, a worried expression still on his face. “Those cultivators warned us against entering the valley, and they even set up a barrier around it. If we enter, they’ll find out immediately. Isn’t there an alternative? Must we head to that valley?” Qin Feng asked Li Mo.

Li Mo knew that Qin Feng wasn’t a cowardly man, so those men truly had to be quite frightening for Qin Feng to have such reservations. However, it was exactly this that had sparked Li Mo’s interest in checking out the matter for himself.

Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng felt the same way. They knew that coming to this realm might require that they face considerable danger, and the Beast Spirit Valley was their only way out. Upon entering the realm, they had lost communication with the first elder, so they would have to make it to the valley to have the teleportation array be readied from the other side.

“We’ll be entering the alternate dimension in half a year,” Li Mo explained to Qin Feng. “This will be a good opportunity to learn about what those cultivators are like.”

Li Mo had learned quite a few things about this alternate dimension from the first elder, the most important being that the average advancement of cultivation was extremely high. Even an unassuming civilian on the street might be an eighth-rank blademaster.

Apparently, this alternate dimension also had no semblance of law and order, and right and wrong was decided by the power of one’s fists. There were no kingdoms or countries, and all the resources were hogged by a few dominant powers.

Qin Feng and the students’ descriptions of these outworlders matched his opinion of them quite closely: they were cruel, cold-blooded, and utterly inhumane.

“It’s dark now, so let’s rest for the night. Tomorrow morning, we’ll head straight for the Beast Spirit Valley,” Li Mo instructed.

“I’ll bring you over there tomorrow,” Qin Feng replied.

After a quick meal, they all went to sleep. Tired from the day’s events and buoyed with no small amount of hope, the students began to dream almost as soon as they lay down, but Yun Ruoyan found that she couldn’t lie still. Beside her was Hai Yan, who was also repeatedly tossing and turning.

“Hai Yan?” she called out.

Hai Yan turned around to look at Yun Ruoyan. “What’s the matter, Sister Ruoyan?”

Hai Yan was even younger than Yun Ruoyan, only a girl of fourteen.

“How did you enter the beastmaster institute at such a young age? I’d have expected students of the three institutions to be older and to have a more advanced cultivation overall,” Yun Ruoyan asked curiously.

Based on her current experience, the students who were able to advance through the five colleges into the three institutions were all talented in cultivation and at least adept in their respective fields. However, none of the sixteen students present had a higher cultivation than she did.

“Beastmasters are distinct from pillmasters, forgemasters, and blademasters,” Hai Yan explained. Talented beastmasters were obvious from a young age, and they would have to begin their training commensurately early. The students remaining had entered the beastmaster institute almost immediately after joining Kongming Academy.

Hai Yan’s father was an instructor of the beastmaster institution, so she had essentially grown up in it.

“We used to have a few amazing senior brothers and sisters, but they all died in that cruel game. My father died in the game three months ago, and the next one to die might be me.” Hai Yan’s voice grew smaller and smaller as she spoke, and she began to tremble so hard she curled up into a little ball.

“Don’t worry,” Yun Ruoyan consoled her. “We’ll bring all of you back to Kongming Academy! I promise.”

Hai Yan turned to Yun Ruoyan, her eyes glimmering with hope and tears. She nodded her head firmly.

“Hai Yan, may I ask you another question?”

“What is it?”

“There’s a lake not far away from here with a wooden cottage right by its side. Was that something that you students constructed?”

“No,” Hai Yan replied. “That house had already been deserted by the time we entered the realm. Based on its interior, Master Qin hypothesized that a couple used to live there, but that they had left for some reason.”

“Oh, is that so?” Yun Ruoyan’s brows furrowed in thought. She had found that cottage familiar the moment she looked at it, as though she had surely seen it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember where. In the end, however, she couldn’t dredge up her memories. She looked at the entrance of the cave, where Li Mo and Qin Feng were keeping watch, turned over, and finally succumbed to sleep.

The next day, Qin Feng instructed the remaining students to remain in the cave as he brought Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan, and Zhuo Yifeng toward the Beast Spirit Valley. They had intended on flying there on their swords when Qin Feng stopped them, telling them that swordflight would summon the strange, howling gales that they had already encountered once before. 

Instead, they would have to walk. Given their advanced cultivation, they were all able to proceed at a relatively rapid pace, and it took them only a day before they arrived at that supposedly frightening but outwardly idyllic valley...