After the eighth trial, the group moves on to the ninth, where they will have to kill a soul beast in order to gain a reward. The captain asks if the four of them will end up together in the same location, and the teacher replies that they are all his grand disciples. They discuss whether they should take the test at the higher level, or at the lower level. The teacher says that they could encounter thousands of years worth of soul beasts in the forest, but that it would be too easy for them to go wrong, since they are not strong enough to absorb a thousand-year ring. Two hours later, the captain hears a roaring sound, and he goes to investigate. He finds that the roar was not nearly as terrifying as the one he heard before, and that his wind birds had also been blown away by the sound. He decides to go investigate, even though the situation is very dangerous.