Trial Grounds, seventh gate: Human Valley.

Yue Yang floated up from the reincarnation pool to find Ren Tiange and the others waiting not far ahead. This Human Valley reincarnation hadn’t turned him into an infant or shrunk him down to some underage form — everything was unchanged, still the same body. It was only after rising from the reincarnation pool that the ancient law of Human Valley came into effect.

No combat. All force was completely useless here.

Grimoires, divine artifacts, war beasts — none of it could be used. At the same time, every person’s personal status would be strictly governed by the standards laid out on their fate card.

For instance, if someone’s reincarnated status was “broke loser, life’s ultimate failure,” then no matter how wealthy they were in the outside world — billionaire or not — it made no difference here. Without Heaven Crystals, they’d simply starve to death. Similarly, if someone’s card had assigned them a complete romantic incapacity or a three-second ceiling, it didn’t matter how physically formidable they were in real life — inside Human Valley, none of it would function. Because this was precisely what Human Valley’s ancient law governed: it was no longer about war beasts, no longer a test of combat power. It was a test of how to live as a human being — how to reach the standard of a successful person in the shortest time possible.

Nobody understood why the ancient law had constructed this particular kind of trial.

But everyone agreed it was genuinely valuable.

And critically important.

Take war beasts, for instance — successfully taking human form was one of the most important realms of development. Perhaps within Human Valley, challengers of every race were meant to truly understand the essence of what it meant to be human, and the wisdom that came with it.

“Our paths will differ from yours, but I hope at the Life Assessment Ceremony three months from now, we can still be allies.” Ren Tiange understood that his own starting point couldn’t compare to Yue Yang’s — the man had inherited a castle, two townships, and several thousand slaves before even entering the valley. Whether through friends, teachers, or family connections, any one of them would have been enough to secure a comfortable life in Human Valley. The teacher and mother connections in particular were the sort that made other people want to bang their heads against a wall in self-pity. The fortunate thing was that this person who was even luckier than the God of Fortune’s rumored illegitimate offspring was actually on his side.

“Of course — we agreed before entering.” Yue Yang had no reason to push away the goodwill Ren Tiange, Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, and Flayer King Blood Shave were extending.

More friends was always better than more enemies.

Besides, Ren Tiange and his group were genuinely formidable — even if their standing in Human Valley amounted to a handful of ordinary commoners with no real connections, out in the broader Heavenly Realm they were figures of renown who dominated entire territories, with likely no small status even in the Upper Heavenly Realm. If they’d been arrogant and contemptuous, Yue Yang wouldn’t have needed to be polite. But they were extending an olive branch, offering friendship and alliance — there was no reason to refuse. Wasn’t learning to cultivate good relationships exactly what Human Valley was supposed to teach?

The Silver-Eyed Great Sage smiled. “Our group starts from roughly similar positions — Hauge’s is slightly worse than the rest of ours. If we look out for each other, form a mercenary company, take on work to cover living expenses while gradually stabilizing ourselves, it should be manageable. The one who’ll have a somewhat chaotic start is you — inheriting a castle from the beginning, having to manage everything yourself, you’ll probably find it a bit overwhelming at first.”

Yue Yang hadn’t exactly wanted things to unfold this way either, but there was nothing to be done about it — the moment he’d made the inquiry, the inheritance had processed automatically.

No refusing it even if he’d wanted to.

“Young master, I still want to follow you. A castle lord with no decent bodyguard — doesn’t that seem rather undignified?” Hauge was still trying to attach himself to Yue Yang’s leg and get himself taken in, but Flayer King Blood Shave kicked him aside.

Hauge’s earlier shameless leg-clinging had left Yue Yang with no way to extract himself, eventually forcing him to “magnanimously” lend Hauge several top-grade Spirit Cultivation Pills as pledge.

Just barely scraping together five hundred crystals.

Narrowly — by a hair — escaping the despair of a life as a gender-ambiguous, romantically void, three-second, beggar-class loser.

He couldn’t play the rich-handsome-connected lead, but at least commoner was achievable, meaning he wouldn’t enter Human Valley immediately as a broke and romantically hopeless vagrant. Hauge’s gratitude toward Yue Yang was completely genuine and from the heart. If Yue Yang had been the type, Hauge might not have hesitated much even at more extreme displays of loyalty. Unfortunately Yue Yang had no interest in anything of that sort — and Hauge’s thunder-inducing leg-grabbing routine had made everyone else deeply uncomfortable too. Not just Yue Yang — even Ren Tiange and the others had found it too much to watch, deciding to perform a public service by dragging Hauge away and rescuing Yue Yang from the situation.

“Let’s go together — since we’re all in here now, let’s get our bearings first. No need to rush anything else.” Yue Yang didn’t particularly want to shatter Vivienne’s half-year completion record — not because he couldn’t try, but because there was no reason to rush, and besides, if he left Human Valley without any rewards it would be a waste of the whole experience.

By now Yue Yang had come to understand that starting from Desire Valley in the fourth gate, each of these places — Desire Valley, Beast Valley, Demon Valley, Human Valley — carried marks left behind by ancient deities.

The pattern was: reach a sufficient standard during the trial, and a reward followed.

If you missed it, that was simply a permanent loss. Desire Valley had given him Pandora, Calamity God-Force, and chaos energy; Beast Valley had raised Future the Death Reaper Mantis girl; Demon Valley had produced the entirely new Ika. Here in Human Valley, Yue Yang estimated the ancient law’s reward would be even larger, though he didn’t know what form it would take. Whatever it was, he absolutely could not miss it. It was also possible that the standard for ultimately obtaining the Divine Codex at the end was tied to performance evaluations across each gate. So in Human Valley, it wasn’t just about meeting the standard — it was about surpassing the standard, achieving something unprecedented.

At the very minimum, he needed to completely outperform Ji Wuri across the board.

“We asked around — our movement is currently limited to the impoverished and commoner districts. The residential and commercial districts both require mercenary registration and a certain level of reputation points before entry is permitted. Your situation is different — your status is noble, and you have a baron’s title inherited with it. You can enter any district freely. We’ll have to split up for now and meet again at the Life Assessment Ceremony.” The Silver-Eyed Great Sage explained that they couldn’t move together for the time being, due to the differences in their statuses.

“Fair enough.” Yue Yang figured traveling with Ren Tiange and the others would make for too large and visible a group anyway, which wasn’t ideal for tracking down and outmaneuvering Ji Wuri.

“Watch out for that one.” Ren Tiange was naturally referring to the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord.

The Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord had entered early — he might have already secured a foothold.

The fortunate thing was that he didn’t know how much Yue Yang had inherited, or that he had a castle.

Ren Tiange, Ghost King Phantom, Flayer King Blood Shave, and the others departed together. Beyond them, waiting at the edge of the reincarnation pool to receive Yue Yang were three young women in white. Their strength was at the divine soldier level, their faces wearing expressions of serene calm, standing on the pool’s surface in absolute stillness, waiting. Only after Yue Yang said his farewells to Ren Tiange’s group did they glide forward, their voices as clear and beautiful as the first notes of celestial music: “Newly reincarnated warrior — please present your fate card.”

Yue Yang produced the fate card the God of Wealth had issued and found that its contents had shifted somewhat: a young nobleman of distinguished and honorable lineage, handsome and commanding in bearing, with a charm that captivates those of the opposite gender, possessed of refined upbringing and scholarly learning, counted among the most blessed of his peers. Within his family, whether relatives, teachers, or friends, all have achieved tremendous success — and now this newly reincarnated young noble steps into the light of his predecessors’ legacy. Can he shine even brighter than those who came before, and achieve accomplishments that surpass his forebears?

Below this status description sat an identity marker: Baron (owner of a personal castle and domain).

And finally, a wealth figure: twelve thousand five hundred Heaven Crystals.

Yue Yang had more than enough crystals to upgrade to a better status if he wanted — something like a prince, or a superstar with legions of fanatical admirers ready to do anything for him.

But he didn’t particularly want that.

Upgrades were an option, but there was no point pushing things to a level that would make everyone’s skin crawl.

Besides, status could be improved through effort inside Human Valley — earn more Heaven Crystals, rack up greater honors, and both status and all associated capabilities would naturally rise. As long as the starting point wasn’t some tragic configuration like gender-ambiguous vagrant or three-second loser, there was no point burning a fortune on unnecessary early investments. Things like “seduction techniques for masquerade balls and social galas” — which had made Hauge drool shamelessly while he counted his insufficient crystals — Yue Yang didn’t even glance at.

He had plenty of girls in his Grimoire World he hadn’t gotten around to yet. No time for flirting with strangers at parties.

And frankly, the quality was lacking.

If he was going to spend effort on that front, Yue Yang thought he’d rather shamelessly go try his luck with Her Majesty — now that would be genuinely thrilling.

“Please proceed this way.” One of the white-clad guiding women pinned a noble’s insignia to Yue Yang’s chest, then with great ceremony recorded his name and title in careful gold script within the silver Grimoire she carried.

“You are now a member of the nobility. Please be mindful of conduct and decorum at all times, and refrain from the coarse behaviors associated with commoners or mercenaries — repeated violations will result in the noble’s insignia deducting honor points after several warnings. As a noble with genuine domain and authority, you hold many rights, including conscription and participation in state governance, among others. Please familiarize yourself with the details as soon as you return to your castle domain — doing so will earn you a higher evaluation at the formal Life Assessment Ceremony three months from now.” One of the white-clad women offered Yue Yang this gentle reminder about his current status.

“I hope we’ll have reason to meet often.” Another white-clad woman smiled in farewell as Yue Yang prepared to step into the transfer gate.

Her meaning was that when a reincarnator placed in the top ten at one of the Life Assessment Ceremonies, they would see these women again — the ones who came to present awards.

Within Human Valley, that was the highest form of blessing.

Almost no one saw them regularly, because competition was simply too fierce. Even with ten spots available at each assessment, tens of thousands of reincarnators competing against one another made claiming a top-ten position genuinely difficult.

Yue Yang very much wanted to reach out and pinch one of those adorable round cheeks — but he kept that firmly in the realm of fantasy. Harassing a guiding divine soldier would result in honor deductions at minimum, and potentially the forfeiture of noble status or direct punishment from the ancient law, up to and including instant death. Yue Yang had no desire to offend anyone who might be responsible for scoring him or recording his trial achievements. He suspected no one who’d entered Human Valley had that kind of nerve.

Anyone with the nerve to try had probably already been eliminated long ago.

“One more thing — even for nobility, annual academic assessment scores are mandatory.” The final white-clad divine soldier gave Yue Yang this reminder, and the transmigrator’s vision briefly went dark. What in the hell — after transmigrating he still had to attend class, sit exams, and get graded? What a miserable existence.

“If all eighteen examination categories are topped, ten major missions completed, all honor medals collected, and both honor points and wealth exceed one hundred thousand each, you become eligible to enter the Ancient Divine Hall. Supposedly, the lowest reward available within the Ancient Divine Hall is a divine artifact.” Perhaps noticing Yue Yang’s morale at something of a low ebb, the round-cheeked white-clad woman added this quietly.

“Could you repeat that?” Yue Yang’s inner cosmos erupted with energy. His morale returned a hundredfold.

Divine artifacts as rewards.

Who cared about exams? Worst case, he’d just cheat.

(End of Chapter)