“Are you two also here to kill the newborn beast?” Yue Yang closed the golden box once more.

The lead Sky-rank warrior, seated atop the Raging Fire Griffin, only smiled and said nothing.

The Sky-rank warrior riding the unicorn horse silently swore to himself that no matter what — even if the leader ordered it — he would absolutely never lift a hand to shatter that cursed golden box, and even if there really were a newborn beast inside, he would not take that kind of risk. Just moments ago, he had watched with his own eyes as his companion, White Deer, committed a mistake he could never undo — a “one wrong step, an eternity of regret” kind of mistake!

He looked at his companion the way one looks at a dead man.

In the sky, the power of law was gathering.

This was the omen of punishment that came to a challenger after failure… If his memory served, White Deer’s war beast, the Giant-Horned Deer, had already died twice. If it died once more, then White Deer himself would be transformed into a magical beast!

“Chief, save me!” White Deer cried out in blind panic, begging the lead Sky-rank warrior for help.

“You’re already beyond saving.” The leader on the Raging Fire Griffin coldly, mercilessly wheeled his mount away, and just before soaring into the sky, he turned back and tossed one last remark to Yue Yang: “I like interesting newcomers. And now — this is only just the beginning. I look forward to a more brilliant performance from you. Oh, right — I forgot to mention: before you, more than a dozen of your fellow challengers came to Beast Valley. Three of them have actually already left; the rest are up ahead, searching for a way through. Maybe they’d be glad to see you. Would you like me to carry word to them for you?”

“Is that so? Then thank you for your kindness. But I think it’d be better if I went myself — give them a nice surprise.” Yue Yang understood perfectly what this fellow was fishing for: probing his words, trying to learn whether he knew the challengers up ahead.

“Although they’re not very friendly toward me — deeply wary, refusing to make new friends — please do tell them: I’m a man of real sincerity, and quite friendly too. At the very least, I’m the friendliest of the three residential faction leaders in Beast Valley. Hahaha!” This self-proclaimed friendly leader rode his Raging Fire Griffin straight up into the sky, utterly ignoring White Deer’s cries for help.

“Longma, for the sake of our friendship, help me…” White Deer turned to plead with the Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse.

“I’m very sorry. There’s nothing I can do.” The Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse retreated a hundred meters back.

White Deer, who only moments ago had been so unbearably arrogant, now trembled all over with fear.

At some point a black mist had begun to spread across his body. Because of the law’s protection, the black mist could do no harm to White Deer himself, but the Sky-rank Giant-Horned Deer beneath him began to wail in agony. Wrapped round and round by the black mist, its body swelled madly like an inflating balloon, its bulging belly rounder than an enraged ball-capybara’s, its eyes and tongue forced outward from its body.

White Deer sensed disaster and, no longer sparing a thought for his war beast, leapt in terror with a sharp whoosh up into midair.

Bang!

In that same second.

The Sky-rank war beast that White Deer had raised through such painstaking effort — the Giant-Horned Deer — burst to pieces, its whole body blown apart, blood and flesh flying everywhere. From the moment the curse took hold to the swelling and the final explosion, it was less than ten seconds.

What terrified White Deer even more was that the power of law quietly gathering in the sky now reacted at once.

His own body was no longer protected.

The law’s punishment arrived right on schedule, leaving him no room whatsoever to dodge or flee.

A bolt of heavenly thunder crashed down upon White Deer’s crown, scorching him black in an instant and hurling him to the ground.

“Save me!” White Deer reached out toward his companion one last time — but he could clearly see his own hand, in the black glow, slowly turning into a deer’s hoof.

“No, no, my god, this is horrifying!” The Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse, terrified again, spurred his mount and fled several hundred meters off, dreading that he too might be tainted by that transforming black light. Once a challenger’s war beast died three times, the challenger lost the law’s protection, and under the law’s influence would transform directly into the very war beast he had raised.

There before Yue Yang was White Deer, so arrogant only moments before.

His whole body writhed and twisted upon the ground.

His mouth let out mournful cries even as his body slowly transformed… great antlers sprouted from his head, his hands and feet turned into four hooves, and his head and torso swiftly took on the shape of his former mount. Except that his mind still retained its original memories, White Deer now was no different at all from his former mount — his strength included, identical in every way to the mount he had raised.

Had he still possessed his original strength, the leader naturally would not have turned a blind eye to him.

But White Deer, having failed, had been reduced to a magical beast — a mount.

That the leader no longer regarded him as a human being was, in truth, entirely normal; in Beast Valley, such things were an everyday sight!

“Protect me. If you’ll protect me through my period of weakness, I’ll split my wealth from before with you — I’ll give you half.” White Deer struggled in agony. Before the cruel reality, he had no choice but to accept the facts.

“I want your ‘Deer-Taker Treasure Blade.'” Longma, the Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse, no longer stood on ceremony either, and demanded the treasure outright.

“This — this — fine!” White Deer, now the Giant-Horned Deer, swallowed his humiliation and agreed.

Who could have expected it.

Things took a turn.

The moment White Deer conjured the Deer-Taker Treasure Blade out of his storage ring and tossed it to Longma, the Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse, that fellow caught it and immediately retreated. White Deer chased two despairing steps and at once realized that, still in his period of weakness, he could not possibly keep up with Longma. In that instant his heart filled with utter despair, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. He wanted to weep but had no tears. He, once so lofty and high above others, had merely smashed a single golden box — and now he had been reduced to a discarded pawn, not only heartlessly abandoned by the leader, but even bitten in turn by Longma, who normally feared him, seizing the chance to take advantage.

This — how was he supposed to bear this?

A shadow fell across White Deer’s eyes.

He looked up and found that it was his classmate Yue Yang, cradling the golden box, gazing down at him.

“You — you mean to kill me?” White Deer started in alarm, then quickly caught himself: his opponent possessed only a newborn beast, which had no ability to kill him at all. A thought flashed through his mind — if he could seize the newborn beast’s energy, he could swiftly recover from his period of weakness. Though he could never turn back into human form, as a magical beast he would still possess formidable strength.

Live on — he had to keep on living.

How could he manage to go on living well?

Maybe…

White Deer’s eyes rolled, and a scheme came to him at once. He scrambled up and made a show of bowing his head obediently before Yue Yang: “As long as you don’t kill me, I’m willing to be your mount!”

Yue Yang was thinking it over. It seemed to him that having a Giant-Horned Deer magical beast for a mount might not be a bad thing at all.

Terrified he would open his mouth and refuse, White Deer heaped on the flattery, declaring that his classmate Yue Yang was the finest master in all the world, that to be ridden by him would be the fortune of three lifetimes, and that to make up for his earlier offense he was willing to serve as a mount for the rest of his life. In short, every fawning, sickening word he could think of came pouring out. And as White Deer spoke, he stole glances at that golden box.

Yue Yang gently opened the golden box, letting the Thumbelina-sized Death Reaper Mantis pop out for a breath of air: “How about we get ourselves a mount? He’s a bit disgusting-looking, sure, but for use in Beast Valley it hardly matters. That way we won’t have to trouble ourselves finding a mount — and you’ll have a helper for the early going, too.”

The Death Reaper Mantis nodded in agreement: “Mm-hm.”

In the very instant she nodded.

White Deer, seizing his chance, erupted with a burst of energy across his whole body.

Though he had only just been transformed into a magical beast by the law’s punishment and had not yet fully adapted to his body, skewering a single newborn beast to death with his great antlers was nothing at all.

His antlers struck with the force of a charging herd of mammoths — a conical shockwave that pulverized not only the Death Reaper Mantis but even the fake golden box that held her, grinding it all to powder…

Yue Yang stared, somewhat stunned, at the scene before him: a trench more than eight hundred meters long had opened up.

On both sides of the trench, the forest was snapped and toppled, spilling over into the channels along its edges.

The whole land lay in utter ruin.

This — this was the might of the single blow White Deer had unleashed in his sneak attack.

“Hahahaha, I tell you, kid, you really are a newcomer — utterly ignorant of Beast Valley! Naïve as you are, let me teach you a lesson: never trust an enemy, and never let down your guard. In Beast Valley, no one can be trusted. Did you actually think I, White Deer, would be a mount that bows its head to your command? Bah! I am the King of the Grasslands, a mighty one who rules over his own domain — how could I ever be your beast of burden, you newcomer? You really are too naïve!” White Deer roared with laughter: “And here’s another truth, free of charge: in Beast Valley, when a war beast kills its opponent, it gains a boost from the other’s energy. If you don’t kill your opponent, you’ll never grow stronger! I do hope you, naïve little fool, get to live a few more days. What a pity that the second kill, the third kill, and the final kill won’t fall into my hands. Go on, take your time hunting for the war beast you’ll randomly reincarnate as. This is Beast Valley, not heaven — hahaha!”

“I think he’s made himself clear enough — no need for me to repeat it, right?” Yue Yang pulled out another golden box, and the moment he opened it, the Death Reaper Mantis inside poked her head out.

“Mm!” The Death Reaper Mantis nodded very obediently.

White Deer’s laughter cut off as though sheared clean through by a blade. Dumbly he stared at the golden box in Yue Yang’s hand.

His mind went numb and wooden.

Utterly unable to think.

Hiding far off in a little wood several kilometers away, Longma, the Sky-rank warrior on the unicorn horse, was holding his breath and stealing a look — and when he saw this scene, he broke out in a cold sweat of terror.

Just how many golden boxes did this kid have on him? How did he keep swapping them out? No — none of that mattered… What mattered was that he himself hadn’t made a move. Thank heavens he hadn’t launched a sneak attack, hadn’t coveted the energy from defeating a newborn beast — otherwise, he’d have been finished.

“Ah — you, you were tricking me? You knew all along I’d launch a sneak attack, so you deliberately baited me into the trap, didn’t you?” White Deer was starting to understand now.

“You’re really clever!” Yue Yang stuck out his thumb, praising his opponent lavishly.

“You, you — I, I — I’ll fight you to the death!” White Deer fully woke to the truth: this kid had deliberately opened the golden box, luring him into the trap. As long as he died, that fragile newborn beast would score its very first victory and could gain the growth from his energy!

White Deer did not know when he would die, but he knew his days were numbered.

The shadow of death crept over his heart.

His eyes blazing crimson, White Deer charged at Yue Yang, his great antlers thrusting once more at the Death Reaper Mantis — even in death, he would drag one down with him as a companion in the grave!

The Death Reaper Mantis sprang out of the golden box, her tiny body meeting White Deer as he charged at full force, and the pair of mantis scythes on her back flew out at him from far away. The mantis spun like the wind and lightly bumped against White Deer’s body. Such a feeble strike did no harm whatsoever to White Deer, now a magical beast with Sky-rank strength — yet the law of Beast Valley deemed the two of them to be locked in combat.

And if one side died, the other’s energy would become the victor’s spoils!

White Deer charged in, just about to skewer the Death Reaper Mantis to death with his antlers.

Then suddenly he stopped.

His whole body contracted in agony, curling into a ball.

Just like the Giant-Horned Deer before him, his belly bloated, all the energy in his body gathering of its own accord into his abdomen, no longer under White Deer’s will to control.

“Let me tell you a truth: if the Calamity god-force fails to successfully curse its target, it does not vanish — it merely lies dormant, waiting for an opportunity. It can even lie in wait for a lifetime, until the chance comes to curse its target. Please do not underestimate a god-force; it is in fact the power of law commanded by its master’s will, differing only in kind and therefore in might. Do not imagine a god-force will simply disappear. And finally, a word of advice to you, and to all those who eye me with such hostility: doing something stupid once is enough — don’t be a fool over and over and over again!” Yue Yang turned and walked away.

The moment he turned, White Deer’s body exploded with a thunderous boom.

Blood and flesh splattered across the whole of heaven and earth.

An enormous head burst open from within, and a white magic crystal was flung up into the sky amid the gore. The Death Reaper Mantis caught it with a soft whoosh in her little hands, spread her wings and lightly wove through the spattering blood, then drifted airily back down into the golden box.

Newborn though she was, under Yue Yang’s stratagem she had successfully claimed the first kill.

Whether or not she had killed him with her own hands did not matter at all. What mattered most was that she had gained the recognition of the law of Beast Valley.

“Terrifying!” Far away, the Sky-rank warrior hidden in the little wood atop his unicorn horse wiped the cold sweat from his brow with a trembling hand.

He had seen plenty of newcomers.

But one as terrifying as this kid — that he truly had never seen before!

The mighty and arrogant White Deer had been played to death by this kid, toyed with in the palm of his hand right up until the moment he died.

This kid was simply a monster! Forget it — best not to provoke someone like this. Let the kid go work his ruin on those fellows guarding the passes up ahead.

Those fellows standing guard further on — when they ran into this monstrous kid, how would it turn out for them? Most likely this plague-like streak of bad luck would spread all the way through the valley. And if that were truly the case — then perhaps having such a monstrous newcomer show up was actually a good thing for himself!

(End of Chapter 853)