“Ding… Welcome to the World of Fate. In the World of Fate you will possess a new life and a new fate. A man’s life offers only one chance to choose at its beginning, and once you have chosen to begin there is no possibility of turning back. So please choose the road of fate you want with care. Now, please give yourself a nickname to accompany you for life. As your game region is Huaxia, only Huaxia characters may be used, no fewer than one and no more than ten.”

After a long stillness, out of that silent world came a level voice, unhurried… and what the voice said was one word: “King.”

“Ding… Your nickname ‘King’ has been set successfully…”

The World of Fate had been open for more than half a month, and the novice villages were still seething with people — parties recruiting, hawkers calling, men swearing at each other… all of it running together into one great din. The sheer scale of Huaxia’s population meant the novice villages would go on being noisy places for a very long time to come.

A figure with a cold, desolate air about him appeared at a novice village’s respawn point, in the simplest novice clothing, of no great height — and with his arrival an inexplicable chill came off him, and the players nearest him shivered without meaning to, moved instinctively away, and then looked around in alarm for the source of that strange, dangerous feeling.

He opened the Level Ranking, and as he looked at the several names at the top of it, an expression finally appeared on his cold, hard face… a contemptuous sneer.

Here was a man who dared to name himself King.

Big-Beak Bird: Level 20. HP 920. A species of bird with a very large beak. Because the beak is too large and it eats too much, its body has grown too fat and it has lost the ability to fly, so it can only wander and run about on the ground like an ostrich. It is said to have a degree of control over the wind element.

Talent: Wind magic resistance 20%.

Skills: Big-Beak Peck, Wind Blade.

Weakness: None.

This was the territory of the level 20 Big-Beak Birds, and the strange creatures did their name no disservice: the proportion of the body taken up by that long, pointed beak beat a duck’s outright and was a fair match for a hippopotamus’s.

Before he had met Xiaobei, Ye Tianxie would have galloped straight past without paying them the slightest attention. Now, though…

“Xiaobei, go!”

Ye Tianxie fixed on a target and rode straight at it, and Xiaobei, receiving the order, let out an excited mrow and sprang down off the horse’s back — whip — and tore ahead of him at the Big-Beak Bird…

“Meow meow meow meow… meow!”

With that plainly delighted cry, Xiaobei sprang before it had even reached the Big-Beak Bird, landing right in front of the thing, and its two cat’s paws lashed out — whip whip whip whip — so fast that even Ye Tianxie could see nothing but a blur of paws…

-254, -255, -227, -250!

Four red damage figures floated up entirely on top of one another, and the Big-Beak Bird, which had only just begun its attack, had its health bar emptied and toppled over stiff.

“Ding… Your pet ‘Xiaobei’ has risen to level 1. HP +100, Physical Attack +30, Defense +10, Accuracy +10, Evasion +1.”

A level 0 pet against a level 20 monster… and it was a one-shot!

That single moment laid out Xiaobei’s outrageous attack power in full. Ye Tianxie could not help thinking that if he had had a broken little cat like this at his side back when he was level 0… might he have hit level 10 in a day and left every player in the world with their jaws on the floor?

Having disposed of one Big-Beak Bird, Xiaobei clapped its paws together, went whip again, and shot in a straight line to the next one; and before that bird could get its Wind Blade off, the four-hit chain that dazzled the eye came down on it in a clattering rush…

-283, -284, -281, -280!

Another one-shot!

Xiaobei did not stop. It went whip whip at the next one, and used its Meow-Meow Fist to smash bird after bird to the ground at a speed that beggared belief, until in the space of a blink the ground in front of Ye Tianxie was carpeted with corpses.

Ye Tianxie had certainly not given any order to clear every Big-Beak Bird out of the area, but Xiaobei plainly had a rather serious violent streak, and was going about brutalizing these poor monsters — which could not so much as put up a guard against it — entirely on its own initiative.

Whip whip whip whip… four gusts of fist-wind, and another Big-Beak Bird went down under Xiaobei’s cat’s paws. And at that moment, behind it, a Big-Beak Bird visibly one size larger than the ordinary ones came charging in.

Elite Big-Beak Bird: Level 20 1-star Elite. HP 1,900. The Big-Beak Bird among Big-Beak Birds. Its beak is not only larger than an ordinary Big-Beak Bird’s, its overall strength far exceeds theirs as well; but because its body is so very heavy, it cannot fly, and even moving costs it a comparatively great deal of effort.

Feeling the wind at its back, Xiaobei turned, sprang, spun its body in midair, and drove a cat’s foot hard into the Elite Big-Beak Bird…

The Elite Big-Beak Bird stood fully as tall as a normal human being, and its body was several degrees more bloated than an ostrich’s; Xiaobei’s own height came to less than half a grown man’s… and that one kick produced a thud of extraordinary volume. The Big-Beak Bird’s fat body went off like a football kicked with everything a man had, tumbling through the air for close to ten meters before it hit and rolled, going over and over on the ground with a trundle, trundle… and when the body finally came to rest, a ring of small golden stars started revolving above its head.

Ye Tianxie: “……”

“Meow!” Xiaobei went tearing over and was on it in a blink; two quick Meow-Meow Fists, eight overlapping damage figures floating up in a clatter, and the Elite Big-Beak Bird’s health bar dropped straight to complete blankness…

“Ding… Your pet ‘Xiaobei’ has risen to level 3. HP +100, Physical Attack +30, Defense +10, Accuracy +10, Evasion +1.”

A level 20 1-star Elite, and in Xiaobei’s hands it had not managed to get a single attack out before it was knocked flat in the space of a blink. Xiaobei licked its paw and turned its eyes toward the rest of the prey…

“Xiaobei, come back.”

Hearing Ye Tianxie’s call, Xiaobei obediently came running back after all — though before it turned, its eyes went visibly to the distant Big-Beak Birds several times over, with a distinct air of reluctance.

Xiaobei’s skills were powerful, but every one of its attacks had to be paid for in its own life-force, and by the time it got back to Ye Tianxie its health had dropped close to the halfway mark. Yaoyao raised its head and looked at Xiaobei, white light flared across Yaoyao, and a Mystic Spirit Cure came down and refilled everything Xiaobei had lost.

“Meow…” Xiaobei sprang up onto the horse’s back, flicked its tail, and gave Yaoyao a smile.

Xiaobei’s skills not only cost health, they cost it as a proportion of its own health, which would limit what it could do to a certain degree. But with a Mystic Spirit Snow Fox on hand whose support ability was as formidable as Yaoyao’s, that limit could be treated as not existing at all. Put the two of them together and they looked rather like a pair made for each other.

Xiaobei’s strength was beyond any question by now, and if its level were even with Ye Tianxie’s, its attack capability would unquestionably beat his — which left Ye Tianxie unsure whether to be excited or knotted up about it… Setting Xiaobei’s origins aside entirely, having a pet at his side stronger than he was would, given his temperament, sit awkwardly with him.

He took Xiaobei with him and rode straight south along the route his map indicated. He had run into this strange little cat at the very start of the road, and he found himself looking forward rather more now to what would happen further along it.

On the very first day Ye Tianxie set out for the City of Heaven’s Sun, the far-famed July Chamber of Commerce finally stirred… The July Chamber’s fame had nothing to do with its size. On the contrary, in all those earlier game worlds it had never once grown large; and in fact, thinking it over carefully, one would find that the founding of this Chamber had rather more of the character of a diversion about it. Its fame came from its mistress.

Liu Qiyue, whose beauty was famous across the whole Huaxia continent!

Three days from now, the July Chamber of Commerce would formally open for business, and that opening would take the form of an auction. And what shocked people was this — the site of the auction, which was to say the seat of the July Chamber itself, was North Street, in the very center of the City of Stars… a position nobody could believe, or easily accept.

Ever since the Currency Exchange opened, the great Chambers of Commerce and even Chamber alliances had begun preparing to establish themselves at the first possible moment. Whoever could set up a fully equipped Chamber fastest would take the initiative, and at the very least would have his name firmly fixed in players’ memories. And the first problem to solve in founding a Chamber was position — either you paid a sky-high price to buy a piece of land in the City of Stars and then commissioned an architect to build your Chamber, or you rented existing land and buildings from the City of Stars. The former cost a great deal and took a long time; the latter gave you less freedom, and unless you were prepared to spend heavily you could forget about renting anywhere decent.

For the power alliances, developing Chambers of Commerce and industries of every kind was indispensable to developing the power itself, because they would be its main source of funding. The moment the July Chamber’s news went out, the masters of every other Chamber still in preparation were left staring — fast. Far, far too fast.

The Currency Exchange had only been open a very short time. How on earth had she gotten that position, and could she really have everything she needed fitted out in so short a span?

As for what would actually be auctioned that day, no word of it went out at all.

And the July Chamber’s activity immediately set off a chain reaction, because everyone understands that a step ahead is a step ahead all the way. Less than an hour after the July Chamber’s news had spread, another announcement was traveling faster still — also three days from now, the first Chamber of Commerce of Wings That Shroud the Sky — the Shroud-the-Sky No. 1 Chamber — would formally hold its first auction. And it made a point of letting slip that two pieces of Silver-grade equipment would go under the hammer.

(End of Chapter 213)