Beast King

Chen Guan said no more and put away his phone. The Beast King's strength was indeed impressive, but so was his. Among the freshmen, his power was on a completely crushing level.

Glancing at his panel, he saw he had quite a lot of popularity points. Even if he couldn't win, he didn't need to worry about running into any trouble; he could just directly add points to his stats.

Besides, Yin Chen and Hong Yuan were no slouches either.

Chen Guan's action of turning around served as the signal to move out. Yin Chen and Hong Yuan were quite convinced of Chen Guan's strength. Seeing him speak with such confidence, they naturally had no reason to back down.

The three figures sprinted close to the ground, plowing three splashing lines of snow across the tundra. Although Chen Guan was not known for his agility, neither were the other two.

Translated into panel stats, Hong Yuan's strengths lay in strength and vitality, while Yin Chen excelled in intelligence and spirit.

The deeper they ventured into the heartland, the heavier the demonic aura in the air became, and signs of other demonic beasts' activities began to appear around them.

After all, they were quite far from their spawn point, and the demonic beasts that had originally been hunted to extinction were beginning to respawn.

Behind a cluster of jagged rocks, a patch of eerie green lights silently flickered on.

It was a pack of Ice Direwolves.

Every single one of them possessed Tier 3 strength.

"Let's make this quick," Yin Chen said, a gentle breeze already swirling at his fingertips.

Hong Yuan's battle intent flared. She lowered her stance and aimed the edge of her giant axe at the wolf pack.

Chen Guan, however, looked thoughtful. He took out the Black Tortoise Token, having always felt that this thing shouldn't just be a mere decoration.

The wolf pack, which had already crouched low and prepared to pounce, completely halted their assault.

Uneasy low growls rolled from deep within their throats.

In their eerie green eyes, their original ferocity was replaced by a terror stemming from the depths of their bloodlines.

The alpha wolf leading the pack even tucked its tail between its legs.

It bared its teeth in Chen Guan's direction, yet its body trembled slightly, not daring to take a single step forward.

[??? Conqueror's Haki?]

[Learned something new. So this thing can also be used as monster repellent.]

[Brother Guan: Don't make a move, you're slowing down my journey.]

Chen Guan ignored the commotion of the wolf pack. Having verified his hypothesis, he put the token away.

He checked the map to confirm their direction, then led the two of them straight through the gap in the encirclement.

Throughout the entire process, the dozens of ferocious Ice Direwolves could only watch helplessly as they left.

Not a single one dared to step forward and stop them.

Yin Chen and Hong Yuan followed behind Chen Guan, exchanging a glance.

They both saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

They had thought they could stretch their muscles a bit, but who knew the situation would be resolved so easily. What was that pitch-black token just now?

Suddenly, they coincidentally thought of Instructor Jing's words.

Could it be... the mole is right beside me?!

Chen Guan was completely oblivious to their wild imaginations. With the Black Tortoise Token clearing the way, the rest of the journey was free of obstacles.

Finally, after a period of continuous sprinting, Chen Guan's footsteps came to a halt. Ahead, a massive, bottomless rift stretched across the earth.

Like a hideous scar on the ground, biting astral winds surged up from the bottom of the valley, sweeping up a sky full of ice shards.

At the bottom of the rift was a lair built from the piled-up bones of countless giant beasts. The stark white skeletons emitted a chilling aura in the gloom.

An overwhelmingly dense pressure permeated from the center of the lair.

Just standing at the edge of the rift, the heavy aura pressed down so hard it made one's bones creak.

Hong Yuan's breathing uncontrollably grew heavier.

The wind elemental spiritual energy inside Yin Chen's body automatically circulated at high speed, barely allowing him to withstand the suffocating feeling.

In the center of the lair, a gigantic tiger lay crouched, its body filling up almost half of the nest.

Its entire fur flowed with a molten gold luster.

Even in its deep slumber, every breath it took caused the surrounding space to tremble slightly.

The Golden Beast Emperor.

Upon seeing that the opponent was a tiger, Chen Guan's breath subconsciously hitched. Dead memories began to flash through his mind like a revolving lantern, and an unchanging white smiling face surfaced in his thoughts.

Fortunately, this wasn't a white tiger.

Creatures like white tigers were the most cunning.

"Get ready."

Shaking off the pointless memories, Chen Guan's breath condensed into white mist in the cold wind as he uttered just those two words.

The first person to make a move was Hong Yuan.

She leapt down from the edge of the rift.

Her body plummeted straight down with the force of a thunderbolt, her giant axe swinging a full moon in the air.

"Hah! Eat your grandaunt's axe!"

With a fierce shout, the ferocious phantom of a turtle and snake behind her roared at the sky.

Earthy yellow energy instantly enveloped her entire body, forming a thick and heavy tortoiseshell greatshield.

Boom!

Like a meteor, she crashed onto the edge of the Beast Emperor's lair, causing the entire mountain of bones to violently quake.

The Golden Beast Emperor opened its eyes.

They were a pair of molten gold beastly pupils, which displayed a highly human-like fury at being disturbed.

These damned humans were here to disrupt its sweet dreams again. If a tiger doesn't show its might, do you take me for a sick cat?

At this very moment, not to be outdone, Yin Chen's figure faded from his spot. The wind became his incarnation.

Over a hundred condensed cyan wind blades materialized out of thin air.

They amassed in the air and slashed directly toward the Golden Beast Emperor's body.

Back in the academy, Yin Chen and Hong Yuan had always been rivals. They had fought over the number one spot since they were young. Even though they could only submit to someone else now, he still had to fight for the number two position.

Yin Chen put all his strength into this strike, the whistling sounds merging into a continuous howl.

The net woven of wind blades mercilessly slashed against the Beast Emperor's fur, leaving behind only a series of clashing sounds. It failed to carve even a single mark, only managing to shave off two strands of hair.

Absolute defense!

Yin Chen's offensive came to an abrupt halt, a chill rising from the bottom of his heart.

Meanwhile, the Golden Beast Emperor, provoked by Hong Yuan and Yin Chen, was thoroughly enraged.

It opened its blood-soaked maw and let out a roar that shook the entire ice field in Hong Yuan's direction.

"Roar!"

A visible golden sonic wave, wrapped in the majesty of a king, burst forth.

Before that golden torrent, the tortoiseshell greatshield held on for only a fleeting moment before whimpering and shattering inch by inch, dissolving into motes of light.

Hong Yuan didn't even have time to let out a muffled groan before she was thrown high into the air by that unmatched, tremendous force.

She was knocked right back to where she started. In the air, Yin Chen was also forced back by the wind pressure, tumbling clumsily several times in midair before he could steady himself.

Yin Chen's expression looked awful. This demonic beast was absurdly strong.

No wonder it had lived perfectly fine after all these years without becoming one of the merits for past generations of students.

The strength of this Beast Emperor far exceeded the standard that freshmen could handle. Giving him another year of training might make it a fair fight.

Just as Yin Chen was shaking his head and sighing at the disparity in strength, a figure carrying a coffin on his back plummeted from the other side of the rift without a shred of hesitation.

It was Chen Guan.

He abandoned all possibilities of buffering his fall, letting his body accelerate downward. In the dimness of the deep valley, a massive black scythe glinted with a cold light.

The blade's gleam pierced through the wind and snow, aiming straight for the Golden Beast Emperor's widened, furious left eye.

At the same time, he aligned his completely defenseless chest right against the Beast Emperor's already raised giant claw—a claw capable of tearing through solid steel.