WBICDPH Chapter 8 Part 1

Chapter 8: A Windfall Beyond Imagination

The wind gradually picked up, carrying with it a sudden, biting chill.

Dead grass, fallen leaves, and the sand and dust on the ground all began to tremble faintly together. Lin Jin stared at the rhythm of the dust swirling at his feet, an inexplicable sense of unease rising in his chest.

The fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy grew increasingly chaotic. Gripping the coarse hemp rope in his hands, Lin Jin felt panic creeping in.

Just as he was about to pack up and head back, he suddenly sensed a shift in the air currents around him. Danger. He instinctively ducked—and in the next instant, a sharp bird cry pierced the air from behind him. The gust from its beating wings slammed into him, kicking up clouds of dust and leaves that made him cough violently.

It took a while before Lin Jin could wave the dust away and catch his breath. Only then did he finally look at the prey he had been squatting there for.

One look—and it felt like a bolt of lightning struck him straight on the head. He froze, utterly petrified.

It was a gigantic bird—at least three meters tall.

Lin Jin sized it up and realized, with absolute certainty, that he wasn’t even as tall as one of its legs.

At that moment, the bird had lowered its body, straining to shove its massive head into a trap barely bigger than a washbasin.

…Sir. Are you really that desperate for a couple of sunflower seeds?

Heart pounding, Lin Jin kept his eyes on the bird while inching backward toward the cave.

What a joke. He had been trying to catch a sparrow and instead summoned the bird equivalent of an ancestral deity. This thing could swallow children whole. Anyone who didn’t run now was an idiot.

With that thought, Lin Jin quietly got to his feet and tried to flee—but before he could take a single step, something snagged his foot. He pitched forward uncontrollably.

At the same time, a dull thud sounded behind him.

Lin Jin swallowed hard and slowly turned his head. The thing that had tripped him was the hemp rope from his trap. The force had knocked loose the supporting branch, and the wooden basin lost its balance—landing perfectly upside down over the bird’s head.

Uh… well this is awkward.

“SKREE—!”

The bird shrieked in fury, its vision blocked. It flailed its wings wildly, trying to shake off the weight on its head.

With its wings fully spread—nearly ten meters wide—the force of its movements whipped up a violent gale. Lin Jin raised an arm to shield his eyes, planning to run once the wind died down—

But in the next moment, he faintly sensed a flash of spiritual light. The ear-piercing shriek cut off abruptly. The gale vanished.

Lin Jin cautiously opened his eyes.

The enormous bird was gone.

Gone without a trace.

Only the wooden basin remained, still sitting neatly upside down on the ground.

“…?”

Did it… run away?

Lin Jin looked left and right. There wasn’t a single bird in the sky. Could it teleport? Swap places? Some kind of spatial trick?

Impressive skill. Truly worthy of the cultivation world. Truly worthy of a demon beast.

Mentally applauding, Lin Jin leisurely stood up and walked over to retrieve his basin.

Although his first hunting attempt had failed, failure was the mother of success. As long as—

“Huh?”

As he picked up the basin, Lin Jin noticed something new inside: a smooth, round gray bead.

It looked clearer than an ordinary stone, but too cloudy to be jade.

Probably worthless.

Thinking that, Lin Jin rubbed the bead on his clothes, about to hold it up to the light—when he suddenly noticed a patch of black dots appearing along the horizon.

He froze.

Squinting to see more clearly, he hesitated for a few breaths. In that short time, the black dots rapidly expanded. The ground began to shake, dust filled the air, and waves of chaotic spiritual energy surged toward him.

That was—

Lin Jin’s heart dropped as he made out the lead figure: a massive tiger. Behind it came countless demon beasts of all sizes.

A beast tide.

Charging straight at him.

What the hell?!

No one told me this was part of the trial!!

Running into a giant bird was one thing—you could pretend it didn’t see you. But a beast tide? Even lying flat would get you trampled to death.

Lin Jin didn’t think twice. He shoved the bead into his pocket, grabbed his wooden basin, and sprinted for the cave.

As the beast tide closed in, the ground shook more violently, and his footing became unsteady.

At one moment, he sensed something wrong beneath his feet. Before his brain could catch up, his body reacted—he leapt sharply upward, clearing the danger zone.

Almost simultaneously, the ground he’d just stepped on split apart. A massive wooden spike burst upward. Had he been any slower, he’d have been skewered clean through.

His heart pounded in terror—and then pain exploded in his calf.

Looking down, he saw that although he’d avoided a fatal hit, the spike had sliced his leg. Blood dripped steadily onto the ground.

The blood made the wooden spikes tremble excitedly—and triggered a chorus of howls from the approaching beasts.

Those howls alerted Xiao Lanqi inside the cave.

Earlier, Xiao Lanqi had watched Lin Jin head out carrying a trash-tier, third-rank demon-trapping basin. He’d assumed the idiot was making a token effort to salvage his pitiful trial.

This was the most spiritually barren area of the trial realm. Demon beasts rarely wandered within a hundred miles. Xiao Lanqi hadn’t thought Lin Jin could cause any trouble and hadn’t paid him further attention.