They stood and stared at the high wall spreading out on both sides. There was absolute silence; there was no one else there but them. May thought it was probably past midnight.

  “We should be able to climb that tree,” he said, pointing to a tree a few dozen meters away. “I'll take care of attaching the rope, at least that's something I can do.”

  May looked at him and nodded. Despite his flaws, he was still reliable. She knew that he must be incredibly uncomfortable because of the cold, but he still decided to take the initiative and help. It made a good impression on her.

  The boy trembled with fear at the thought of what might await them if May hadn't defeated the woman. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his hands around the rope May had handed him. He had long since lost hope that they would survive, but seeing her fight had given him a glimmer of hope.

  He wanted to be of some use, at least. His whole body ached, but he didn't want to be abandoned, and subconsciously he sensed that it was a real possibility. So he decided to help.

  May, on the other hand, watched his movements. She was now in a state of extraordinary mental awareness. She was amazed at his physical prowess. He climbed the tree with great ease, which was not surprising, considering that fear had endowed him with supernatural strength.

  He managed to attach the rope to the wall somehow. May approached with relief.

  “Now we'll finally be safe.” he said with a sigh.

  “On the contrary, the real fight for survival is just beginning.” she said, spreading her arms wide. “Don't forget that you were worried about how we were going to get through the forest.”

  The academy was surrounded by a dense forest that covered the entire mountain. May approached the line and touched it. The wall was slippery and cold. Her outfit was also unsuitable for climbing; she was in her usual daytime clothes and had not changed for the long journey.

  The boy turned pale, having forgotten about it in all the commotion. Subconsciously, however, he thought that since they had come this far, they would survive.

  May was a little less optimistic. Thanks to her current unusual state, she understood better than ever how dangerous the wild beasts were. They were probably much more dangerous than even other human beings.

  If a griffin like the one from my exams attacked us, I don't know if I would be able to win, even with my current cognitive abilities.

  However, she had to focus on getting over the wall for the moment. She stepped onto the rope first. She didn't have much trouble with it. May instructed the boy to start climbing only when she was at the top, as she didn't want the rope to break.

  She slowly made her way up, the wind was absent, and the treetops proudly rose upward. Thousands of stars shone in the clear sky, unpolluted by light. May reached the top, from where she could see the distant lights of the Academy. She fell into a quiet contemplation about the fate of the other students.

  As she pondered, Zhifang eventually joined her at the top.

  “Amazing...” he said quietly. He hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure it's a good idea to leave them alone?”

  “Yes. You don't think you're strong enough to save them, do you? It's unrealistic.”

  “I know... But...”

  “I understand what you mean, you don't have to say anything.” She said, and then there was a short pause.

  May quickly shook off her melancholy. There was no time for that now. She thought for a moment about her sister, who was also at the Academy. Of course, she was in a completely different location. She had already participated in the Inner Court tournament, which she did not pass.

  The academy for older students was on the other side of the mountain. May hoped that at least there weren't any parasites there. She didn't exactly have a great deal of affection for her new sister, whom she barely knew. Still, she hoped that she would somehow survive.

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  However, I am not currently in a position to worry about the welfare of others. My own well-being is now my priority.

  She pulled the ropes up and secured them so that they could climb down to the other side. The other side of the wall did not look so good, with a huge precipice surrounding them on almost all sides and the snow was extremely thick.

  Just getting to that place on horseback took over an hour on smooth roads. She didn't even want to imagine how long it would take them to cover that distance on foot.

  They began to climb down. Once they were at the bottom, May cut the rope, not wanting to leave any traces behind. The corpses nearby were enough evidence of their escape.

  “Which way do we go?” asked the boy, looking around.

  Good question.

  “Let's go this way,” she said, pointing to the left, along the precipice. “The snow seems to be much shallower there. The trees are denser, so they block the snow.”

  Zhifang just nodded and said nothing. May walked first, and he followed her. They both felt a growing fear as they traversed the terrain along the wall. They felt relieved when they could finally move away from the Academy.

  However, the road was not easy, it was steep, and their shoes sank into the snowdrifts. They were off the main route, in the territory of the beasts. Although they were avoiding the vicinity of the Academy, the further they went, the greater the chance of encountering a beast.

  The journey had left an extraordinary physical toll on their bodies, and to make matters worse, May began to feel the side effects of the pills she had taken. Her mind seemed extremely slow and sluggish.

  I want to take another pill... It's a good thing I can't afford it, or I'd end up addicted. It has an amazing effect, improving my cognitive abilities, but now I feel like shit when the effects wear off.

  May felt terrible and wanted to vomit. However, she held back because she didn't want to lose water and food, as they had no supplies with them. Although she knew she would feel better after vomiting, she had to suppress it.

  About three hours passed, their pace was not fast for various reasons. The snow, fatigue, and constantly maintaining Qi Suppression meant that they only covered about ten kilometers, and that was only because it was downhill.

  As they descended, they came across something that resembled a cave.

  “Maybe we should stop here and rest? I could start a fire, my father taught me how to do it while hunting,” asked Deng Zhifang.

  May wasn't sure. She knew it would be ideal if they could keep going, but she also knew that might not be possible.

  “Caves are dangerous, we need to make sure there's nothing dangerous inside first,” she said, realizing that the cave could be home to some kind of wild beast.

  “I'll check it out,” he said and entered uncertainly.

  After a few minutes, he came out and seemed quite calm and even happy.

  “I scanned the first chamber with Qi Sensing and found nothing. The cave does have a few passages leading to other chambers, but they are so small that nothing large could pass through them, the largest is less than a meter wide,” he said.

  May nodded. Although that didn't mean it was safe, at least they had a place to rest.

  “Where are we going to get firewood?” May asked, wondering how he was going to light a fire in the middle of winter.

  The boy paled at the question, and May slapped her hand to her face. She couldn't believe he could have forgotten that.

  “It might be difficult... I'm sorry, I didn't think it through...” he said, embarrassed.

  May sighed and thought that she would have to do everything herself again.

  “I'll go look around inside,” she said.

  The cave was quite small, but it did have a few branches. At the very end was a frozen lake. However, there was still water under the layer of ice, where something could be living. May decided it was better to avoid the lake.

  When Zhifang wasn't looking, she decided to buy some fuel from the system.

  For just a small amount of money, she was able to buy a fairly large amount of dry beech wood.

  “Zhifang, I found some wood,” she said, pointing to a pile of wood.

  “What? But how? When I was here before, it wasn't here...”

  “You must have missed it. Someone else must have stayed here before us and brought it here.” She said, pretending to be stupid. Zhifang frowned.

  “That's not a good sign. It means that someone knows about this cave and may come back here.” He said with concern in his voice.

  “But there's nothing else here but wood, and it's dry, so whoever it was must have been gone for a long time.”

  “We're only staying here for one night,” she replied, knowing that his fears were groundless. “Go on, start the fire. But do it at the entrance so that no one can see the smoke or light.”

  “Won't we suffocate from the smoke?” asked the boy.

  “We'll block it with a stone divider to direct the smoke away, but we'll still be able to feel the heat.”

  The boy started trying to light a fire, but it was much harder than he expected. He was frustrated, but finally he succeeded.