In the backyard of the Jores family, nobles and dignitaries from the imperial capital all craned their necks, staring at the illusion projected in the sky. It looked like a screen, yet it was not flat. It was rather like the 3D films Ye Chui had seen in his previous life, and naked-eye 3D at that. A faint restlessness spread among the many onlookers. For now, the illusion screen showed only the figure of Boslili.
Something had gone wrong with the teleportation. Unlike Boslili, Ye Chui had not been sent to the appointed duel location. The Beast Garden, a place for raising magical beasts, was not small in area and was filled with danger everywhere. This quietly made many people worry for Ye Chui’s safety, or… secretly rejoice.
“You’d better find a way quickly to let us see what is happening to Ye Chui in the Beast Garden!” Prince Geller glared with bulging eyes, furiously staring at the Jores clan leader. A teleportation problem? This was definitely a deliberate “accident” arranged by the clan leader!
“Prince Geller, you are asking the impossible. Lord Beast God would never allow us to view whatever we want inside the Beast Garden. The images we can see are fixed. There is no way to track Ye Chui’s position.” The Jores clan leader hurriedly explained, his eyes unusually bright. “You know this characteristic of the Beast Garden, don’t you, Prince Geller?”
Indeed, from outside one could detect some scenes within the Beast Garden, but those scenes were fixed. The chosen locations were areas visible to outsiders. Ever since the Jores family had gained the Beast Garden a thousand years ago, it had hosted hundreds of duels. Apart from battles inside not affecting the outside world, the other reason was that the Beast God’s illusions allowed outsiders to watch what happened within.
Unfortunately, the view was fixed.
“Then summon Ye Chui back out and send him to the correct location!” Prince Geller pressed aggressively. He knew Ye Chui was strong, but the magical beasts in the garden were ferocious and terrifying in number. Even the mightiest person would be helpless against a horrific beast swarm. Even if Ye Chui had many abilities that could instantly annihilate large numbers of beasts, mana reserves would always be a huge problem.
“I’m sorry, Prince Geller, that is impossible. The coordinates for teleporting into the Beast Garden are fixed, but occasionally deviations occur. I have no idea where the other side of the portal leads, so I cannot bring him back unless he finds Boslili himself.” The Jores clan leader sounded sincere, yet a trace of cunning slipped into his voice.
This part was true. However, the true master of the Beast Garden was the Beast God. If he sincerely begged Lord Beast God to act, of course Ye Chui could be smoothly retrieved. But how could that happen? He had promised many rare delicacies in exchange for the Beast God’s agreement to teleport Ye Chui straight into the territory of the most fearsome Bone-Winged Beasts, letting Ye Chui face their wrath.
Prince Geller’s expression was grave and furious, yet he was powerless. He could only look worriedly at the screen in the sky, hoping Ye Chui would remain safe.
On the screen, Boslili, who had been teleported alone to the duel site, seemed to have realised the plot against Ye Chui. Yet her expression was perfectly calm. She began leisurely examining the unique flowers, plants, low-tier magical beasts and animals of the Beast Garden world.
Time passed little by little.
The group from the Whatever Goes Magic Guild could not help growing anxious, perhaps because they were too worried. They took out simple tables and chairs from Green’s [storage space] and started enjoying some food. Among it was a strange snack made from maize, fluffy like cotton, topped with milk and candied fruit. They popped it into their mouths piece by piece; it looked extremely sweet and delicious…
Poor companions of Ye Chui, having to relieve their anxiety by eating!!!
Surrounded by his followers, Krian stared at Boslili on the sky screen. Seeing no sign of Ye Chui for a long time, his heart soared. Sent into a terrifying beast swarm, even the great mages of the Magic Guild could not claim they would escape unharmed. Ye Chui might have some tricks, but so what? He was finished!
At this thought, Krian, who was usually flamboyant and narcissistic, suddenly could not resist leaving his followers and walking straight up to Ye Chui’s group.
Everyone looked at him curiously, wondering what he intended.
“Your guild leader is probably already dead under a horrific beast swarm. Apart from him, what ability does your Magic Guild have? Once Ye Chui’s death is confirmed, watch how I finish off every single one of you. You’re all done for!” He spoke these vicious words, his gaze especially poisonous towards Green. This fellow actually saw himself as a fated rival? How overconfident.
Hearing Krian, Debbie forcefully swallowed the popcorn in her mouth, stood up unhappily to say something. But at that moment, with a soft pop, a round object suddenly rolled to Krian’s feet. It was a… ball?
Krian looked at the ball, then saw an adorable little girl of about three or four years old hurrying over on short legs. The child was exquisitely pretty, wearing a cute dress. Though it was hot weather, for some reason she also wore a beautiful hat. Many people had noticed this little girl ever since the Whatever Goes Magic Guild appeared.
She was the daughter of Ye Chui and Debbie. Although this identity felt strange to many, when connected to the always unconventional Whatever Goes Magic Guild, it no longer seemed so unbelievable…
Baby had been mingling among the guild crowd. From the moment they appeared she had been hugging that ball as though it were her favourite toy, looking cute and mischievous. Just now she had accidentally dropped it, and it happened to roll right in front of Krian. Baby hurried to pick it up.
Krian found the girl genuinely adorable. A teasing impulse rose in him, so he lifted his foot and kicked the ball aside, wanting to make the child chase it.
However…
“Ouch! You actually kicked me!” The ball suddenly spoke.
Of course it was not really a ball. It was Selti’s head, recently treated as a toy by Baby. But the image of a cute little girl hugging a severed head as a toy was far too beautiful and horrifying, so Ye Chui had used light magic to cast an illusion over Selti’s head, making it appear as a ball to outsiders.
Hearing that slightly strange cry, Krian was momentarily stunned and startled. Could this ball be some kind of magical construct, the sort of toy that could make sounds? While he wondered, Baby’s angry little face suddenly appeared in his vision.
Baby looked up at Krian furiously, hands on hips, eyes wide open. Her cross little face somehow looked even cuter. Krian immediately chuckled and reached out to pinch Baby’s cheek: “Little one, you… AAAAAAHHHH—”
From the ground beneath Krian’s feet, a strange vine plant suddenly sprouted. The vine wrapped around his leg and hoisted him high into the air.
Krian hurriedly summoned his grimoire and cast lightning magic, trying to break free of the vine, but he could not. A few days earlier he had used a forbidden magic array to forcibly raise his realm, only to be defeated by Ye Chui. His realm had fallen back and he had suffered serious backlash. Now his power was at a low point, less than seventy percent of his peak. Everything happened too suddenly, and he was directly grabbed by the ankle and dangled upside down.
Next moment, bang, bang, bang. The vine, seemingly alive, swung Krian by the leg left and right, smashing him repeatedly into the ground with loud crashes.
Because it was so sudden, the followers tasked with protecting Krian did not even react.
Some swordsmen standing around felt their iron armour and swords tremble restlessly. They were responding to Krian’s magnetic magic, yet because Krian’s current state was so poor, he could not fully summon them to fight.
“Stop! What do you think you’re doing!?” shouted the black-clothed man who had previously been gravely injured by Ye Chui.
The Black Prime Minister also rushed over: “You are lawless, daring to attack Krian!”
Some people instinctively looked at the little girl.
They noticed that Krian had provoked the child first, and only then was he taught a lesson. Could that terrifying vine have come from the girl? Was this… elven magic?
While they looked at Baby, Debbie suddenly stepped in front of her. The little girl waved her arms in an exaggerated manner, crying “Ha! Ha!” in an overly dramatic voice, as though she were the one who had summoned the terrifying vine. Baby’s identity was far too special: the reincarnation of the Elven Queen, currently the only living elf. Ye Chui and Debbie had always done their best to conceal Baby’s true identity. Just now Baby had angrily summoned the vine to attack Krian, which might have exposed her, so Debbie quickly stepped forward to cover for her daughter.
The vine soon released Krian and shrank back into the ground, leaving only a small mound of earth. Debbie let out a breath, wiped non-existent sweat from her forehead, put her hands on her hips and said to Krian, who lay sprawled on the ground, “That was my summoned Vine of Elven Spirit, Fantasy Heroic Spirit. Pretty impressive, huh?”
Baby hugged the ball again, tilting her body slightly, raising her head to look curiously at her silly mummy…
Everyone else was also looking at Debbie…
Well, although Debbie’s quick-witted cover seemed a little forced, the vine that had bound Krian did indeed appear to have been summoned by her. It couldn’t possibly have been done by that little girl, could it? She was so small; it was impossible for her to have awakened a grimoire. The only ones who could use this kind of elven magic were the legendary elves, long extinct.
The Black Prime Minister hurriedly helped the battered Krian to his feet, glaring furiously at Debbie. This was the son of the Prime Minister! Even if you didn’t respect his status, could you at least respect your own future?
In all his long life he had never seen anyone casually attack the Prime Minister’s son like this!
Just as the Black Prime Minister was about to say something in anger, a commotion at the scene interrupted him.
Someone exclaimed, “Something’s happening in the Beast Garden!”
Everyone immediately looked at the sky screen.
On the screen, Boslili had been crouching in front of a plant bearing gorgeous crimson flowers. Hearing a sound, she stood up and looked in a certain direction.
Sounds from the Beast Garden could be transmitted outside. Earlier, after Boslili had been sent in alone, she had not spoken, and she seemed unbothered by the Jores clan leader’s petty trick of sending Ye Chui to the wrong place, so many people had assumed sounds would not carry. Until this moment.
A strange continuous rumbling came from the screen.
The crowd stared in stunned amazement.
They saw panicked magical beasts fleeing from one direction: three Iron Dragons, two Black Rats, five Hornet Beasts… then more and more. Their figures appeared on the screen, looking utterly terrified, constantly glancing behind them as though something dreadful was pursuing them.
Then streaks of white light flashed past. Those figures were torn into bloody fragments. Some in the crowd below even instinctively felt blood rain splashing onto them.
Two beasts lunged at Boslili. She casually froze them into ice blocks with frost magic. Surprise also showed on her face as she looked in that direction.
Most of the driven beasts were low-tier third- or fourth-rank magical beasts, but one fifth-rank beast was among them, yet it too became mere bloody scraps on the ground.
Finally, a human figure appeared on the screen.
It was Ye Chui. His current appearance was indescribably bizarre. The air around him was filled with wormhole-like portals, from which protruded tube-shaped objects that occasionally fired white beams of white light, striking nearby beasts. Only the Third Prince, Fifth Prince and a few others knew those were magical constructs created by Ye Chui’s magic, weapons that converted mana into attacks. With these weapons, a mere hundred warriors of Green Bay Tribe had once suppressed thousands from the Blood Rest Tribe!
They simply had not expected Ye Chui could now deploy all these weapons at once, surrounding his body.
Was this spatial magic? Controlling dozens, even hundreds of magical weapons in this way!
Everyone beneath the screen was dumbfounded by Ye Chui’s extraordinarily creative fighting style.
The Black Prime Minister completely forgot the scolding he had been about to give Debbie. His eyes opened wide as he muttered, “This… what is this?”
“The King’s Arsenal,” Debbie declared proudly. Over the past few days Ye Chui had of course demonstrated their unique combat method, so she naturally knew the strange name he had given it. She continued, “Of course, there are some reserve names too, like Advancing Human Fortress, Self-Propelled Artillery That Blows Up Everything In Its Path, and so on.”
The Black Prime Minister stared at Debbie in stunned silence.
The dishevelled Krian also looked at Debbie in astonishment.
Debbie smiled sweetly at Krian. She remembered what she had wanted to say to him earlier, so she said, “How could a mere beast swarm possibly kill Ye Chui? You have no idea what kind of adventures we’ve been through before. To us, a swarm like that is just a delivery of free food!”
