A collective shudder passed through the disciples.

Hands tightened on weapons, charms were activated, and the defensive arrays pulsed brighter. Some muttered prayers, others clenched their teeth in grim anticipation. This wasn't like the smaller skirmishes they'd faced. This would be another tide, as fierce as the one that had greeted them when they first entered the inner ring.

Han Yu inhaled deeply, steadying his breathing. On the surface, he looked like any other disciple steeling himself for battle. Inside, however, his mind sharpened like a blade.

This was his chance.

When the beasts came crashing through the forest, he wouldn't just be fighting for survival... he would carve his place into eternity.

ROARRRRRR

The first roar split the night like thunder.

It came from deep in the mist, reverberating through the trees until the ground itself seemed to tremble. Then another followed, and another. Howls, screeches, guttural bellows. The forest awoke in a frenzy of voices, and the stillness shattered.

"Positions!" one of the elders barked.

The defensive array flared, layers of glowing runes spreading outward like ripples across water. Disciples scrambled to their stations, weapons drawn, talismans activated. The air grew thick with qi as hundreds of cultivators prepared to meet the charge.

Then the tide struck.

Beasts of all shapes and sizes surged out of the darkness, their eyes glowing with primal fury. Wolves with scales thicker than iron plates, boars with tusks that gleamed like sabers, birds with wings that cut the air into blades... the tide was relentless.

The first wave crashed against the barrier, sending sparks flying as the protective wards groaned under the impact.

"Hold steady!" another elder shouted, channeling qi into the array to reinforce it.

Disciples counterattacked from behind the barrier, arrows of flame, bolts of ice, and blades of wind lashing into the horde.

For once, the sect wasn't caught unprepared.

Lines held, and formations tightened. Death still prowled, but it prowled at the edges rather than in the heart of the camp.

Han Yu, however, was already in motion.

When the wards flexed and the tide pressed in, he spotted his chance. A serpent beast, long as two men and fast as a whip, slithered past the barrier's edge where the wards were thinnest. Its scales glistened with venom, its tongue flicking as it darted toward him.

'Perfect.'

He clashed with it, his halberd flashing in tight arcs as he "fought" the serpent. To onlookers, it was a frantic duel against a quick and deadly foe, the kind of fight that might naturally drag someone away from formation.

He let the serpent press him back, step by step, until the barrier's glow dimmed behind him.

No one noticed.

The chaos of battle masked everything. Disciples darting in and out, beasts swarming from every direction, arrays flaring as elders shifted their focus. A single Qi Refining Realm cultivator straying in the storm was no anomaly.

Once beyond the perimeter, Han Yu dropped the act.

His Soul Needle struck, a streak of shimmering qi piercing the serpent's head. The beast spasmed, frozen for an instant. Han Yu moved without hesitation, sweeping his halberd in a clean arc that severed its head from its body. Blood sprayed across the roots of a tree, steam rising in the cold night air.

He exhaled slowly.

"Too easy…" he murmured, wiping the blade as he turned.

His real task awaited.

Han Yu ran, cutting through the forest with sharp, purposeful strides. The roars of beasts and the shouts of disciples echoed faintly behind him, but he didn't slow. Every second was precious, he had only a narrow window before someone might come searching.

Twenty minutes later, he reached the hollow tree. Having already passed by there twice, he knew the route well, and this time due to the beast tide drawing away all the beasts, he didn't need to worry about ambushes.

It was rather ironic that the dangerous beast tide was what guaranteed his safety now.

The Tree loomed before him like an ancient sentinel, its vast trunk sunken into the soil, roots twisting downward like the gnarled fingers of a corpse. Without hesitation, he punched through the rotted base near the roots. Wood splintered under his strike, and a dark opening yawned beneath him.

Slipping inside, Han Yu dropped into the hollow's cavernous belly. Just as he'd guessed, the space was larger underground, the tree's buried trunk forming a natural chamber. The scent of damp earth filled his nose.

"This will do."

He knelt, unpacking the materials he had carried for so long, the foundation for his Undying Life Charm. Carefully, deliberately, he began carving the obscure rune into the wall of the hollow, each stroke of qi precise. He had practiced for this nearly a hundred times before, just so that he would not make a mistake when the time actually came.

The rune pulsed faintly as it anchored itself to the tree and the earth beneath.

Once finished, Han Yu placed the bag of revival materials within, nestling it against the roots. He then placed an isolating talisman on top of it, to further protect and reduce the chances of someone detecting it.

For a moment he hesitated, then withdrew the vial of Liquid Flame he had obtained in the Slumbering Caldera Caverns.

"It's safer here than anywhere else," he whispered, setting it beside the bag.

'I can always retrieve it when we're on the way back anyways.' Han Yu thought to himself.

The chamber hummed faintly with hidden power, and Han Yu allowed himself a fleeting smile. His insurance was in place. Even if death came for him in this cursed forest, he would rise again.

But the battle raged on outside.

Wiping his hands clean, he slipped back out through the hole, sealing it with loose soil and broken bark before placing a large rock against it. He had to return quickly... close enough to the camp that his excuse of straying in combat would remain plausible.

Han Yu vanished into the night, the distant glow of defensive arrays guiding him back toward the storm of battle.