“Ten, nine, eight…” 

A rapid loss of blood caused Song Qingxiao’s consciousness to blur. She remembered her mother, and many long-forgotten scenes flashed through her mind one by one. The eerie countdown continued, “Six, five…” 

“Four…” 

“Three…” 

Her fingers moved slightly, and her thoughts were about to scatter. Her body lost sensation, and the sound of the rain disappeared. Only the pounding of her heart, mixed with the countdown, reached her ears, “Two…” 

She didn’t want to die. She had just graduated and had finally found a job that allowed her to make a living, only to work for one day. She had narrowly survived trouble on her first day, and she didn’t want to silently die in this alley. 

Tomorrow, after the rain stopped, perhaps someone would pass by, but they might not even spare a second glance at her lifeless body! 

Was she entering a trial of the gods? With all her strength, she moved her lips. Rainwater mixed with blood flowed down her chin, but her desire to survive overcame her fear of death. “Yes…” 

Just as this thought crossed her mind, the next moment, her fingers touched something other than the cold and damp stone path. It was a smooth surface, and she was no longer in the dark alley that had led to her demise. There seemed to be others around her, and she heard heavy breathing! 

“Welcome to the trial space of the gods!” 

Song Qingxiao gasped for a breath, sitting up abruptly and opening her eyes! 

Several people were sitting or standing beside her, all of them looking at her with shock. There was no raging storm, no dark alley, and the haunting song she had heard before was gone. She didn’t have time to examine her surroundings closely and instinctively reached to touch her neck. 

Moments before losing consciousness, she had been stabbed in the throat with a knife, and she still remembered the sensation of the blade entering her body. 

Song Qingxiao’s face turned pale, and as her hand touched her throat, she found it smooth and unharmed, with no wound. She breathed freely. 

The scene of her being killed just now seemed like a nightmare. She raised her arm, her left hand still stained with drying blood, confirming that what had happened earlier was not a figment of her imagination. 

“Where is this? What’s going on?” She muttered to herself, trembling uncontrollably. The people around her looked at her with fear in their eyes. 

Everything that had happened was beyond Song Qingxiao’s original understanding, but she suspected it had something to do with the voice she had heard in her mind. 

Song Qingxiao tried to remain calm, using her hands to support herself as she got up. Perhaps the recent life-threatening experience had made her instinctively cautious in this unfamiliar environment. 

She noticed that something was peculiar about this place. It was surrounded by gray mist, leaving only a space of about thirty square meters. Besides that, there was no decoration of any kind. 

There were seven or eight people around her, all keeping their distance from one another. They were strangers to each other, and there were both men and women of varying ages. 

A young woman in a red dress, wearing high heels and hugging herself, pushed her hair aside and couldn’t hold back any longer. “Who are you all? How did you end up here?” 

The group exchanged glances, but no one spoke immediately to the stranger. 

The woman’s gaze swept over each person in the clearing before finally settling on Song Qingxiao, the latest arrival in this space. Her appearance was the most disconcerting, dressed in soaked clothes stained with dark brown blood. Her hair was disheveled, her face as pale as a ghost, her lips devoid of color. She looked destitute and nauseating, as if she had just experienced something terrible. 

It was evident that Song Qingxiao was not from a privileged background, and when the woman’s gaze landed on her, it was similar to how the others looked at her – a mixture of nervousness and disdain. 

“Newcomer, who are you? What’s your name, and how did you get here?” 

The woman stared at Song Qingxiao and fired off several questions in a row. As soon as she spoke, everyone’s attention was on Song Qingxiao, waiting for her response. 

In fact, Song Qingxiao hadn’t fully understood her current situation yet. When the woman asked her questions, she didn’t answer truthfully. The events of tonight had put her on high alert, and the unfamiliar surroundings and people made her nerves tense. 

Following the lead of others, she found a space a bit away from them, curled up her body. Someone was already growing impatient and asked sharply, “Didn’t you hear?” 

The person speaking was a burly man wearing a tight vest, exposing large tattoos on his arms. He looked fierce and menacing. In this space, it seemed everyone was most alert to him and instinctively kept their distance. 

Song Qingxiao was still taking deep breaths. The feeling of being stabbed by the knife earlier had left her with severe trauma. The sensation of not being able to breathe accompanied her like a shadow. Although the wound on her neck had miraculously disappeared by now, she was still deeply affected. When she breathed, she raised her chin and extended her neck, producing a loud sound. 

“I’m Song Qingxiao. I don’t know how I got here, and I find it strange,” she replied, without mentioning the mysterious voice that had appeared in her mind or the words “trial of the gods.” The others seemed to accept her explanation. 

The woman who had initially asked the questions only examined the bloodstains on Song Qingxiao’s clothes. Evidently, she was curious about what had happened to her before entering this place. 

This reaction indicated that everyone in this space had suddenly arrived here. They might have all received some kind of notification or prompt to enter the “trial of the gods” for reasons they didn’t understand. Based on their clothing and appearance, it was clear that they had been doing different things in different places and at different times before coming here. 

Song Qingxiao hadn’t figured out why she had entered this trial or what its purpose was. She was introverted and not one to seek attention. After answering the woman’s questions, she remained silent, listening to the others while discreetly observing the people in the space. 

She counted nine people in total, including herself. Besides the woman who had asked the questions and the fierce burly man, there was also a chubby man in his forties. Next to him was a mild-mannered man wearing glasses. On the other side, there were two young boys and girls with youthful faces. In the eastern corner sat a slightly plump woman in professional attire, and a young male doctor wearing a white robe stood about two meters away from her, his arms crossed and his brow furrowed. 

“It seems like everyone ended up here by accident,” the middle-aged man with glasses said, glancing around and pushing up his frames. “Although we don’t understand why we’re here, now that we’re here, we should try to figure out where we are and what’s going on. I suggest that in a place like this, we sit in a circle, introduce ourselves to each other, and get to know each other a bit.” 

As soon as he finished speaking, the fierce burly man sneered, “Who do you think you are? Why should we listen to you?”