You want to see it, so I'll let you see it.

The moment the light dissipated, bone-chilling winds carrying crushed ice blew right into their faces.

The skin on their cheeks first felt a sharp pain, then quickly went numb from the freezing cold.

Immediately following that, earth-shattering beastly roars drowned out everything else.

The sound waves pierced through flesh and blood, making their very bones tremble.

Chen Guan and the other two stood in a massive frozen basin.

Beneath their feet was deep blue solid ice, and above their heads was a leaden gray sky.

In the dim surroundings, scarlet beast eyes lit up one after another.

In the blink of an eye, they formed a sweeping wildfire of ghost lights, numbering in the hundreds and thousands.

An overwhelming, earth-shattering pressure crashed down upon them.

The air was so heavy it felt like water could be squeezed from it. Every breath tugged at their lungs, causing unbearable stinging pain.

"That old bastard, he's playing for real!"

Hong Yuan cursed angrily. If she had known, she never would have agreed to those damn conditions and come to this wretched place.

Cursing was useless right now. She smashed her giant axe into the ground, causing the solid ice to shatter and crack with a spiderweb pattern. With a blur of motion, Hong Yuan transformed into a streak of crimson fire, crashing into the nearest pack of icefield direwolves.

"Roar!"

The giant wolves roared, the sound waves nearly tearing their eardrums apart.

Hong Yuan's axe blade sliced through the air, bringing with it a sharp whistle.

With a squelch, a single swing of her axe cleaved a giant wolf's head and spine in half.

Hot, foul-smelling beast blood mixed with brain matter sprayed out.

Before the scalding liquid could even hit the ground, three or four even more ferocious demonic beasts immediately lunged at her from the flanks.

Fangs and sharp claws instantly overwhelmed her.

Yin Chen's face was ashen. He didn't have Hong Yuan's freakish constitution.

With a flick of his fingertips, tangible blades of wind let out sharp hissing shrieks, flawlessly piercing into the most vulnerable joints and eye sockets of the demonic beasts. The wind blades tore through flesh and blood, sending up a mist of blood.

However, this bit of damage falling into the beast horde failed to stir up even a single ripple.

The demonic beasts were fearless of death, surging forward wave after wave.

Soon, he and Hong Yuan were completely separated.

The two of them instantly fell into a bitter struggle, divided and surrounded by an endless tide of beasts.

Wind blades howled from Yin Chen's fingertips, shattering the fangs of an ice bear.

He spun around, narrowly dodging the pounce of a hunting leopard.

On the icefield, the beast tide was boundless.

Completely separated from Hong Yuan, he was deeply besieged.

Hong Yuan roared furiously, sweeping her giant axe horizontally and sending three icefield direwolves flying.

The muscles in her arms trembled uncontrollably, her breaths scorching and rapid.

Her stamina was running out.

Sweat mixed with bloodstains congealed into a thin layer of ice dregs on her body.

"Come on! Come at me!"

Her eyes were completely bloodshot as she vented her emotions at a horde of beasts that couldn't understand human speech.

But more demonic beasts continued to surge forward.

Fangs and claws wove into a constantly tightening net of death.

Yin Chen's face was gloomy. How could he not know Hong Yuan's predicament? Dislike her as he might, leaving her to die was something he couldn't do. Unfortunately, he was pinned down by a group of psychic-type frost demonic beasts and couldn't break away.

"Damn it."

He cursed under his breath.

He knew very well that in this Beast Emperor's lair, there were plenty of demonic beasts whose ranks were far above theirs.

Although he didn't know Instructor Jing's purpose, looking at it now, they were truly being screwed over to the death.

Chen Guan stood in place. He looked at Hong Yuan, who was submerged by the beast tide, and then at Yin Chen, who was being ganged up on.

He felt Instructor Jing's good intentions crystal clear.

Since that was the case...

Chen Guan gently placed the coffin from his back onto the ground.

The coffin made a muffled thud as it contacted the solid ice.

He didn't look at Hong Yuan or Yin Chen, nor did he look at the surrounding demonic beasts.

A pitch-black scythe appeared out of thin air, its blade gleaming with a cold, eerie light. He gripped the scythe tightly, his body arching slightly.

You want to see my strength, then I'll let you see it.

An icefield giant wolf pounced at him, its body massive and fangs razor-sharp.

This time, Chen Guan did not dodge. The scythe swung out, and the giant wolf's body froze in mid-air before splitting in half.

Then came the second, the third. Chen Guan's figure had disappeared, his form dragging out an afterimage as he shuttled through the beast tide.

The scythe danced. With every swing, it took away the lives of a swath of demonic beasts. Countless soulless monster cores fell to the ground, losing their rightful luster.

The demonic beasts didn't even have time to let out wails before their bodies instantly lost all vitality.

Hong Yuan's eyes widened as she looked at Chen Guan.

The Chen Guan who had always been protected by her, whom she had treated as a lucky charm.

She watched that figure, the disbelief in her heart making her almost unable to hold onto her giant axe.

That was the Grim Reaper himself, stepping out from hell.

The beast tide was torn apart right before her eyes.

The icefield direwolves that had been relentlessly pursuing her were now falling in droves.

They couldn't even get close to Chen Guan. The former hunters had been thoroughly reduced to prey.

"This..."

She opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound.

Her understanding of reality was washed away into fragments.

Cold sweat seeped from Yin Chen's forehead.

He watched Chen Guan weaving through the beast tide.

That wasn't a battle.

That was a massacre.

He had guessed that Chen Guan was hiding his strength, but had always thought his true power was at most comparable to the others from Huaqing.

After all, as far as he knew, An Changqing was the strongest of this batch in Huaqing. No matter how strong Chen Guan was, it shouldn't be possible for him to be stronger than An Changqing.

But the scene before him had long exceeded the scope of his comprehension.

Who exactly was he?

Monstrous waves surged within Yin Chen's heart.

The person before him had been pretending even in Huaqing. This person's strength was absolutely above that of An Changqing, Long Ao, and the rest.

The beast tide was sharply decreasing at a visible rate. In the frozen basin, the clamor of beast roars vanished.

All that remained was the whistling of the scythe slicing through the air and the subtle sounds of demonic beasts' bodies breaking apart.

A few minutes later.

When the last icefield giant wolf fell beneath Chen Guan's scythe, the entire basin returned to silence.

The ground was a complete mess.

The icefield was almost dyed the color of blood, and the entire area reeked of an awful metallic stench.

Splattered flesh and blood, severed limbs and broken arms—this horrifying scene was simply more cult-like than an evil cult. An ordinary person would probably vomit for three days and three nights after seeing it.

Chen Guan retracted his scythe.

The pitch-black scythe traced an arc in the air and vanished into thin air.

It left no trace, only a faint aura of death lingering in the air.

He bent down and hoisted the coffin back onto his back.

His movements were smooth and natural, the slaughter having left not a single mark on him.

His expression was calm, without a single ripple in those eyes.

He looked at the dumbstruck Hong Yuan and Yin Chen, his tone indifferent.

"Clean up. Let's not waste time."

Hong Yuan and Yin Chen stood frozen in place.

Her knuckles tightened, gripping the axe handle so hard it creaked.

She exchanged glances with Yin Chen, both reading the same emotion in each other's eyes.

Horror, and an instinctive fear of absolute power.

They watched Chen Guan step forward with the coffin on his back.

His back remained as calm as ever, seemingly no different from before.

But at this moment, it exuded an oppressive presence that made it impossible to look at him directly.

Hong Yuan swallowed hard.

She felt she might need to redefine the term lucky charm.

Where did this god of death come from?

Thinking back to the things she had said earlier, she couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Yin Chen's gaze was fixed tightly on Chen Guan's back.

He recalled the fear of that psychic-type human-faced bat in the Myriad Demon Tower.

That hadn't been an illusion.

Inside Yin Chen's chest, his heartbeat skipped a beat, then began to pound wildly like a war drum.

A single thought surfaced uncontrollably in his mind.

Just who on earth was this guy?