In the moment Ye Tianxie took in the whole shape of this mysterious Holy Mark Beast, the world went into a spin in front of his eyes… He stared at it for several seconds, dragged himself back to his senses, and asked the empty air ahead of him, “This is your Phantom Beast race’s Holy Mark Beast? You’re sure nothing has gone wrong somewhere? Maybe… the Dark Nether Ghost King swapped it out at some point?”

“This… it truly is the Holy Mark Beast, without the least doubt. Earlier, it was I who guided it to pour every scrap of the power it had stored into you, so that you would have enough to keep up Phantom God Transformation for three whole minutes… Only, it is worthy of being my race’s beast of legend after all. Truly… out of the ordinary.”

The old man’s words sounded like satisfaction, but nothing could cover the thread of awkwardness in his voice.

Because the Holy Mark Beast’s shape really was a little too distinctive.

And being too distinctive would have been nothing in itself. The Holy Mark Beast was the Phantom Beast race’s one and only, and for it to be completely unlike any other creature ought to have been perfectly normal. But…

The fur on it was snow-white. Its body was barely half a meter tall, shorter even than Xiaobei… but for width it beat her by a long way, wide in a way that can only be called fat, and fat so evenly that it was round from head to foot. The direct result of all that fat was that its limbs, extremely short and small to begin with, looked shorter and smaller still — on his first look at it, Ye Tianxie flatly could not see that it had hands or feet at all.

The fat had also squeezed its two eyes down to a pair of thin slits. Its ears, on the other hand, were exceptionally long and pointed, and grew straight up toward the sky.

Ye Tianxie was absolutely certain this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on this legendary Holy Mark Beast. And by what the old man said, this ought to be the Holy Mark Beast’s first day in this world too. But… at that first glance, something jabbed hard at his nerves.

Far too familiar… no, “familiar” was not the half of it. It was familiar beyond anything.

And not only to him. From an eighty-year-old man down to a three-year-old child, anyone who saw it could have named it on the spot.

Wasn’t this Mashimaro!!

The bloated body, the stubby limbs and tail, the long pointed ears, the eyes squeezed to two slits, the sleazy expression… it was fucking identical!!

If he absolutely had to point out the one place they differed… it was that on its head, in front and between the two ears, grew a white pointed horn a little shorter than the ears, tilted forward and upward, and needle-sharp. Around the horn, faint white light came and went at the edge of visibility.

Mashimaro…

The Holy Mark Beast was actually Mashimaro… was this some kind of joke!

Mashimaro… no, the Holy Mark Beast moved. It lifted its head and glanced around, spotted Ye Tianxie at once, in its excitement raised one of those feet that could not have been shorter, and took the first step it had ever taken in this world… and then those two stubby feet simply could not keep the body balanced. The one step done, it went down flat on the ground with a thump.

“Ka… ka…”

The Holy Mark Beast, sprawled on the ground, let out a distinctly strange sound, something like a wronged little cry. It got itself up again with a great deal of effort, and this time it made real progress: it walked two steps before it went flat again with another thump.

“Ka… ka…” On all fours, sprawled there, it did not get up for a good long while.

Ye Tianxie: “……”

The world is wide, and there is truly nothing strange it does not hold. This Holy Mark Beast, painted so mysterious and so overwhelmingly strong, had a shape that left Ye Tianxie thoroughly fried, outside and in.

????: ????

One sweep of the Eye of the Evil Dragon, and what came back left Ye Tianxie at a loss. Turned on the Holy Mark Beast, it had not only failed to get the creature’s information — it had failed to turn up so much as its name. This had never once happened since the day he came by the Eye.

“The Holy Mark has an attraction the Holy Mark Beast cannot resist. Only show it your Holy Mark and it will want to follow you of its own accord, and it can exist attached to the Mark itself. And inside the Mark, its ability will grow faster than anywhere else.”

The old man’s voice was getting weaker and weaker, so faint it was almost impossible to make out.

Ye Tianxie walked over to Mashimaro… to the Holy Mark Beast, and put out his left hand toward it. As he came close, the color of the Holy Mark on the back of his hand grew visibly brighter. The Holy Mark Beast, sprawled there on the ground, opened those slit eyes at that, and out of them came a light of enormous excitement as it stared hard at the four-pointed radiant array that seemed to be turning. In a moment, a flash of white light came and went across its body… and just then a loud System prompt sounded at Ye Tianxie’s ear.

“Ding… Because you carry the Holy Mark, the Holy Mark Beast wishes you to become its master and to follow at your side from now on. Do you accept?”

“Accept.” However hard its shape hit, it was still the Holy Mark Beast, with all that endless mystery about it. There was no questioning its strength. There was no reason on earth for him to refuse.

Having got its answer, the Holy Mark Beast plainly grew more excited still. It looked up at Ye Tianxie once, its body blurred, and the next second it had turned into a shaft of white light and shot into the Holy Mark on his left hand.

For a moment Ye Tianxie stared blankly at his own left hand. He had not misread it — the light the Holy Mark Beast had turned into really had gone into his hand, and not into his pet space. And just then another prompt sounded at his ear.

“Ding… The ‘Holy Mark Beast’s’ ability has an unbelievable range of variation. You may have it become your pet, or you may have it become your mount. If you choose to make the Holy Mark Beast your pet, its ability will trend along the pet path; if you choose to make the Holy Mark Beast your mount, its ability will trend along the mount path. Please choose for yourself… If no choice is made, the default is pet.”

Pet? Mount?

Mount?

……

Thinking of that half-meter shape, short and fat with a touch of the sleazy about it, Ye Tianxie could not get it anywhere near the word “mount.” And then, imagining himself riding a Mashimaro out in front of a crowd… one second of that and he nearly fell apart.

“Choose to make it your mount. Believe me, you will certainly not regret this choice.”

The Phantom Beast race’s old man could evidently make out the System prompts that only he should have been able to hear, clear as anything. Just as Ye Tianxie was about to call out the word “pet,” the old man spoke and cut him off, and gave him a suggestion he had not expected.

Ye Tianxie paused and did not answer at once… And then it suddenly struck him: if the Holy Mark Beast truly had no ability to be a mount, why would the System have gone out of its way to state that it could be one? Could there be some special secret about the Holy Mark Beast on top of everything else?

In the world of Fate, and in the many virtual game worlds he had been through in person, the mounts a player could get were basically horses of one kind or another. A very few players with dumb luck could get deer, wild boar, even tigers — out of the ordinary, and extremely precious. And before this he had never thought much of whether a mount was strong or not, because to him it was nothing but a means of getting about that saved him running time. Before a fight he would put the mount away at once… because it would affect his agility.

The old man’s voice played back in his mind over and over, and at last, after a short silence, he said, “Mount.”

He believed that since the Holy Mark Beast now belonged to him, this last clan chief of the Phantom Beast race would never offer him a suggestion that would do him harm. The man was the race’s chief after all; he understood the Holy Mark Beast better, and knew more about what it could do.

“Ding… The Holy Mark Beast has successfully become your mount.”

“Ding… ‘Holy Mark Beast’ is a title for your mount, and not its true name. Please give your mount a new name.”

A new name?

Ye Tianxie thought about it seriously for a while, remembered that strange cry of its that was nothing at all like a rabbit’s, and said, hesitating, “Let’s call it… Kaka.”

“Ding… Your mount ‘Kaka’ has been named successfully.”

Ye Tianxie called up Kaka’s attribute panel then and there and, full of expectation, looked at what this Holy Mark Beast with its mysterious and powerful origins actually had…

Kaka. Level 1 decorative mount. Level: 0. Master: Xietian. Because the master carries the Holy Mark, will never turn on him. The Holy Mark Beast, guarded by the Phantom Beast race generation after generation, has had its power drop to an extremely feeble degree through a massive loss of ability. Its strength is entirely gone, but what it has not lost is its endless capacity for transformation. Cannot currently be ridden.

Attributes: Health: 30. Magic: 30. Attack: 3. Magic attack power: 3. Defense: 3. Accuracy: 1. Evasion: 1. Movement speed: 40. Attack speed: 50.

Talent: None.

Skill — Holy Mark Devour: A talent skill unique to the Holy Mark Beast. Can devour the body of a creature that is dying or already dead, taking in its power to make itself grow, and can hold all of that creature’s abilities and transform into its shape at will. No restrictions on use at all.

At first sight of Kaka’s skills, Ye Tianxie’s eyes glazed over… Weak! Far too weak! Weak to the point of falling apart. For overall attributes… never mind measuring it against Xiaobei, it was far below even Yaoyao. Because this Holy Mark Beast, on which he had pinned such enormous hopes… turned out to be nothing but a level-one decorative pet with no attack ability at all!

Looking at those attributes, each more pitiful than the last, Ye Tianxie was left without a word in him… Properties like these simply could not beat the novice village’s level-one small monster, the “Angry Chick,” let alone go and fight its own kind, the level-three Fierce Rabbit. And the note at the end of the description — “cannot currently be ridden” — set his teeth thoroughly on edge.

Properties too weak to be any weaker… and a mount that did not have even the most basic ability to be ridden.

From Kaka’s attribute description, Ye Tianxie could guess that it was Kaka’s power, all of it, that had been poured into him earlier and had kept him in Phantom God Transformation for three whole minutes. As strong as the Holy Sword War God was, the power needed to hold one like that for three minutes was beyond question enormous. Because of the Holy Mark, the Holy Mark Beast, under the guidance of the Phantom Beast old man’s will, had plainly poured every bit of its own power into Ye Tianxie.

But… this really was too weak.

And then he saw clearly the one skill Kaka held, and Ye Tianxie’s hand shook, his pupils shrank, and he almost did not dare believe his own eyes.

Can devour the body of a creature that is dying or already dead, taking in its power to make itself grow, and can hold all of that creature’s abilities and transform into its shape at will — in this world, there was actually a talent power as terrible as that!

(End of Chapter 252)