When Yue Yang passed through Demon Valley’s transfer gate and arrived at the seventh gate — Human Valley — he discovered that this place was completely unlike the previous six gates in every way.
The entrance was an ancient structure soaring so high into the clouds that its top was invisible. Ascending steps paved with jade, he was greeted by a magnificent, resplendent great hall. The hall was entirely empty inside — hollow and vast. Yue Yang searched forward for ten thousand meters before finally finding, in the rear hall, an enormous divine statue. The statue stood roughly three hundred meters tall, its body appearing to be made of pure gold, its base decorated with various rare and priceless gems. Unlike other divine statues that radiated either authority or compassion, this one looked far more like a money-grubbing merchant — its squinting smile-crinkled eyes and half-open grinning mouth seemed perpetually on the verge of saying something like “may you prosper and grow rich.”
If the Demon Valley guide hadn’t mentioned it beforehand, Yue Yang wouldn’t have believed this was what the legendary God of Wealth looked like.
What kind of deity was this?
This was clearly just a miser who worshipped money above all else, a born penny-pincher through and through.
From the old man who guided newcomers in Demon Valley, Yue Yang had learned that the seventh gate’s trials were primarily a test of “human nature,” and that the first trial before entering the valley was passing the divine-sense examination conducted by this God of Wealth. Anyone who couldn’t endure even the God of Wealth’s examination had no business entering the seventh gate for its trials in the first place.
“Hmph! You took long enough!” Blue Demon suddenly stepped out from behind the God of Wealth statue, visibly dissatisfied with Yue Yang’s tardiness.
“And what good did arriving early do? Look at us — beggars, the lot of us.” Behind Blue Demon stood Hauge, and right now Hauge looked nothing like the wild, demon-haired madman he usually was. He looked like a man who’d lost everything life had to offer, face written over with dejection, wearing the tortured expression of someone who’d endured something deeply unpleasant in a very sensitive location.
“You think he’s going to end up like you, you idiot? You don’t even have the nerve to enter Human Valley — there’s absolutely no reason for you to stay here, just leave already!” To Yue Yang’s considerable surprise, it wasn’t the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord waiting for him, but Ren Tiange, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, Ghost King Phantom, and the others. The one currently berating Hauge with unconcealed fury was Ren Tiange, looking like a man watching iron fail to become steel.
“What’s going on?” Yue Yang was genuinely confused.
“Take a look at the reincarnation conditions for entering the valley and you’ll understand.” Hauge looked like a man who’d been constipated for ten days, one strand of noodle away from doing something drastic.
“Reincarnation conditions?” Yue Yang startled at that. The old man at the gate hadn’t said anything about reincarnation. What was this? Had the old man been deliberately withholding important information out of revenge? No — but then Vivienne had never mentioned reincarnation conditions either.
Did challengers entering Human Valley have to reincarnate?
He looked toward Ren Tiange. Ren Tiange tilted his head back and looked studiously at the ceiling, pretending not to notice Yue Yang’s questioning gaze.
Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, and the others all wore knowing smirks — the particular expression of people who felt that if the sky was falling it could serve as a blanket, and if disaster came they’d at least have company. Yue Yang didn’t need to look too closely to know these people were up to nothing good. The reason they’d stayed was precisely to watch whether he would end up in the same boat as them, or perhaps worse.
Malicious lot.
Yue Yang looked at Blue Demon next — this one was no better, clearly of Sky Tower origin but acting like a hostile stranger.
In the end, it was the Silver-Eyed Great Sage whose personal cultivation of character showed itself most clearly.
He held no grudge over anything that had happened in Demon Valley.
He waited for Yue Yang to approach the God of Wealth statue, then stepped forward and gave him a thorough, entirely unguarded introduction to the conditions for entering Human Valley.
After hearing it all.
Yue Yang finally had some idea of what he was dealing with.
It turned out that once inside Human Valley, no force could be used anywhere except designated combat arenas — regardless of what level of strength a challenger had reached, the ancient law of the valley reduced everyone to an “ordinary person,” with no capacity for combat whatsoever. The only exceptions were the designated combat arenas, where permission from the ancient law allowed it, or special trial spaces where specific mission targets needed to be defeated by force and partial strength was permitted.
In short: once inside Human Valley, forget about solving problems through violence.
In Human Valley, only wisdom could be used to resolve problems.
And wisdom, in this place, was directly equivalent to money.
Money solved everything.
That was the operating principle of Human Valley.
The training tasks within Human Valley included completing designated missions, but the most important goal was earning a hundred thousand Heaven Crystals. These special crystals, unique to Human Valley and found nowhere else in the world, were the valley’s exclusive circulating currency, and every challenger within went half-mad for them.
Without Heaven Crystals — without money — you couldn’t survive a single day in Human Valley. This was why all challengers feared the seventh gate more than they feared anything else.
“But that doesn’t really have anything to do with entering the valley itself, does it?” Yue Yang had actually heard about the gate-clearing conditions earlier, and knew a fair amount of intelligence about Human Valley — Vivienne had hinted at things, saying she wouldn’t spoil how to clear it since she wanted him to have fun figuring it out himself, but she’d happily shared some of the more interesting details.
“What do you mean it has nothing to do with it?” Hauge stared at Yue Yang, and this enormous powerhouse of a man suddenly started weeping. “Nothing to do with it? No connections, no backing — even someone with Supreme tier five strength like me gets to be a beggar! Only a beggar!”
“A beggar?” Yue Yang broke into a cold sweat.
“Yes! I’m not even asking for much — I just want to enter as a commoner with proper residency status, but since I have no backing and no connections, all I qualify for is a vagrant like a stray dog. Can you tell me whether I should go in there? If I do, I’m just a fool looking for suffering!” Hauge beat his chest in anguish. “To think, I, Hauge, dominate an entire territory in the Heavenly Realm, hold real standing even in the Upper Heavenly Realm — and if I enter Human Valley, I’d have to be a beggar. How would I ever face anyone again?”
“You don’t even have the nerve to enter Human Valley, and you’re talking about face?” Blue Demon gave a cold laugh.
“The great Lord Hauge, famous throughout the Upper Heavenly Realm — funny, I genuinely hadn’t heard your name before.” Flayer King Blood Shave indicated that the Upper Heavenly Realm wasn’t a place where just any random person could call themselves famous, and hoped Hauge would stop advertising himself before he gave others secondhand embarrassment.
“…… Hmph!” Hauge erupted with fury, but since the ones mocking him were Blue Demon and Flayer King Blood Shave — both of whom could fold him in half — all he could do was swallow his anger through gritted teeth.
The Silver-Eyed Great Sage gestured for Yue Yang to come forward.
The moment Yue Yang pressed his hand against the base of the God of Wealth statue, the divine sense that had apparently been standing guard here for untold years made contact with his mind.
This divine sense was deeply unusual.
It didn’t feel like an ordinary divine sense — it felt more like a fixed set of law-based standards.
Or perhaps more precisely, a law-based evaluation system set up specifically as the gateway into Human Valley.
The divine sense first asked whether Yue Yang intended to enter Human Valley, and upon receiving a positive answer, launched its first question — which turned out to be asking whether Yue Yang had any previous acquaintances in Human Valley, any friends, any connections. Yue Yang answered no. The God of Wealth’s second question asked whether Yue Yang had any treasures or valuables, offering examples of “Sacred Codex, divine artifact, sacred object, divine blood” and so on — all of it acceptable as collateral in exchange for the Heaven Crystals needed for living expenses. The divine sense indicated it could offer interest-bearing loans or outright pawning using items like Sacred Codexes and divine artifacts as collateral, with the former yielding only a third of the latter’s value.
When Yue Yang experimentally asked what the collateral value of a single divine artifact was, the answer came back: one thousand Heaven Crystals.
This answer gave him a severe cold sweat.
How many divine artifacts did a challenger typically have? One divine artifact for a thousand Heaven Crystals — at rates like that, even someone with mountains of treasure couldn’t accumulate ten thousand, let alone a hundred thousand.
“If I don’t have divine artifacts to pawn, is that an option?” Nobody was going to squeeze Yue Yang’s divine artifacts out of him so easily. The God of Wealth’s divine sense found no traction with that approach.
The divine sense carried no emotional fluctuation — it was simply running through its standard procedure, and it would never force a challenger’s hand.
It moved to its third question, asking Yue Yang whether he had any inheritance of property waiting within Human Valley.
And if so, whether he held any token of proof.
Yue Yang, half-afraid the God of Wealth’s divine sense might swallow whatever token he produced whole, shook his head and said no.
Three questions concluded. The divine sense indicated the inquiry was complete, and invited Yue Yang to proceed to the self-selection menu for his Human Valley reincarnation options. Once he’d made all his selections, he could enter Human Valley.
The first choice appeared before him immediately.
Reincarnate’s name: randomly assigned during reincarnation, free; self-designated name, one hundred Heaven Crystals.
Second reincarnation choice, reincarnate’s gender: randomly assigned, free; specified to match reincarnator’s own gender, one hundred Heaven Crystals.
Reincarnate’s race: randomly assigned, free; dwarf, gnome, shortling, beast-kin, monster and similar races, ten Heaven Crystals; elf, flower spirit, angel, demon and similar, fifty; human, one hundred.
Reincarnate’s status: beggar, free; commoner, ten Heaven Crystals; comfortable middle class, fifty; warrior, one hundred; noble, five hundred; prince or princess, one thousand…
Reincarnate’s life prospects: life’s loser, free; drifting through life without purpose, ten Heaven Crystals; supporting character in someone else’s story, one hundred; life’s winner, five hundred; main character of your own story, one thousand…
Reincarnate’s charisma and reputation: everyone looks at you like you’re an idiot, free; short, broke, and unremarkable is basically your identity, ten Heaven Crystals; no matter how hard you try you’ll always be someone’s sad backup option, one hundred; occasionally asked to dance at parties, three hundred; notable figure within your own social circle, five hundred; screaming fans who’d do anything for you, a genuine superstar, one thousand…
Reincarnate’s life skills: choking to death on a biscuit is a genuine risk for you, free; managed to put out the fire while making instant noodles, eventually, ten Heaven Crystals; only occasionally hits their own thumb while hammering a nail, fifty; watering plants, pulling weeds, making noodles, frying eggs — fully capable, one hundred; actually possesses a genuine craft or trade skill, five hundred; not quite a master but has enough sycophants calling you one that it amounts to the same thing, one thousand…
Reincarnate’s special abilities: complete inability to perform, free; three seconds is genuinely your ceiling, ten Heaven Crystals; a full minute… holding strong for half an hour, five hundred; seven times in a night and still going, one thousand…
More reincarnation options…
Still more…
By the time Yue Yang finished reading through it all, his eyes were swimming. He couldn’t help letting out an involuntary shout: “What in the absolute hell — even a father would be destroyed by this setup!”
(End of Chapter)