Evan Chu exhaled a long breath of stale air, feeling power surging through his entire body—a comfort he couldn’t quite describe. He immediately stood up and looked around, only to see Goldwing staring at him in shock.
"Boss, are you alright?" Goldwing asked immediately.
"I'm fine now. Have your injuries healed?" Evan had wanted to scold this guy for showing up here, but remembering Goldwing was probably just worried about him, he held back.
"About eighty percent recovered. But Boss, you’re seriously incredible—you managed to sit here for eight whole days without eating or drinking! I honestly thought you’d kicked the bucket!"
"Eight days? You’re saying my breakthrough this time took eight days?" Evan was shocked—he hadn’t expected it to take so long, and it caught him completely off guard.
"That’s right, eight days. I only got here yesterday," Goldwing replied.
Evan smiled. "Old Gold, thanks for sticking it out. Let’s go—we need to find Jenny and the others!"
Goldwing shifted back into his true vulture form. Evan climbed onto his back, and they soared off toward the direction Jenny Sima and her squad had fled…
Meanwhile, Jenny Sima and her team were deep in a forest, desperately fighting off monster beasts. The time limit was almost up, but their stash of magic crystals was still far from enough, making everyone anxious.
Zack Zhao’s injuries had mostly healed by now. As the strongest member of the squad, he was killing beasts faster and in greater numbers than anyone else. Only one person seemed distracted—more than once, she’d nearly gotten hurt by a monster beast.
"Jenny Sima, could you please stop looking so gloomy? These monster beasts are vicious—if you’re not careful, you could get seriously hurt or even killed at any moment." Zack Zhao said, slashing down the beast that had just attacked her.
"I—I just can’t stop worrying about Evan. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. How am I supposed to calm down?" Jenny Sima said, her voice catching.
Ever since Evan had made her leave, Jenny Sima hadn’t stopped worrying about him for a single moment. Everyone knew how terrifying the Skyfiend Tiger was. Even though Evan had insisted he’d be fine, so many days had passed with no sign of him—odds were, he hadn’t survived.
"He’ll be alright! You need to watch out for yourself. The monsters in this forest aren’t all that high-ranked, but they’re still dangerous. If Evan comes looking for you and finds you badly hurt, he’ll be devastated." Zack Zhao tried to comfort her.
Zack was still quietly grateful for the way Evan had saved them that day. He just couldn’t understand why Evan had gone back—the Skyfiend Tiger was supposed to be unbeatable. No matter how strong Evan was, he couldn’t possibly be a match for it.
Zack had heard of Evan’s reputation—he’d even managed to defeat Quinn Wu, which meant his strength was nothing to scoff at. But this time, it looked like Evan was never coming back. Otherwise, Zack would’ve liked to get to know him better.
"Thank you, Zack. I understand now!" Jenny Sima said, tears turning into a smile.
Just then, a student came running up to Zack Zhao. "Zack, there’s a really tough monster up ahead. A bunch of us tried to gang up on it, but none of our attacks could hurt it at all. Do you want to check it out?"
"Is that so? Alright, show me!" Zack replied, secretly shocked. Most monsters here were third-rank, with fourth-rank ones being rare. For several people to fail to kill one, it had to be at least fifth-rank.
Zack immediately followed the student, and Jenny Sima decided she should go too—maybe she could help somehow. So she hurried after them.
It was only about half a mile away, but in Beastfall Forest, danger lurked everywhere—whether it was monster beasts or squads from the Sea Dragon Academy Honors Class.
If they ran into monster beasts, they’d kill them on the spot. But if the enemy squad was too big, everyone would just avoid them—no need to get into a pointless fight.
"Zack, that’s the monster beast! It looks kind of like a fox, but no matter how we attack, it’s like we can’t even get close to it—totally weird." The student pointed at the beast a few dozen meters ahead.
Zack Zhao looked over and saw that it really was a fox-shaped monster beast. But its fur was pure purple, even its eyes were purple—it was definitely strange.
"You guys couldn’t hurt it, but did it hurt any of you?" Zack asked right away. If this purple fox couldn’t injure people, maybe its defense was just crazy high, but its attack power was weak.
"A couple people got hurt, but it was just minor—or maybe it doesn’t even count as injuries!"
Jenny Sima was confused. "So were you hurt or not?" she couldn’t help but ask.
"When they tried to attack that fox, they suddenly felt a stabbing pain—like getting struck by lightning. It hurt like hell, but after a while it was fine, and there weren’t any marks or wounds." the student explained.
Zack Zhao eyed the nearby purple fox and thought it wasn’t simple—maybe it was just naturally gentle and didn’t want to fight humans.
"Jenny, what do you think—should we kill this beast or let it go?" Zack Zhao asked her.
"That fox’s fur is so beautiful—it’d be a shame to kill it. Let’s hunt other monster beasts to finish our mission. Besides, it hasn’t really hurt any of our teammates!" Jenny Sima said.
"Little sister, you’ve got a kind heart. I’ll let you all go today—but don’t come back to this part of the forest, or you’ll regret it." Suddenly, Jenny Sima heard a strange woman’s voice in her ear.
Jenny nearly jumped out of her skin. "Who—who’s talking to me?" she blurted, a sense of dread rising. Was she about to run into another talking monster beast?
Thinking fast, she looked at the purple fox not far away and asked, "Was that you talking to me?"
"That’s right—it was me. Surprised?" The purple fox spoke out loud this time, and both Zack Zhao and the other student heard it clearly.
A talking monster beast—everyone knew what that meant. Zack immediately readied himself for battle. If the purple fox charged, he’d do whatever it took to get Jenny Sima out of there first.
Jenny Sima trembled a little. First the terrifying Skyfiend Tiger, now a talking purple fox—she didn’t know if her team was just lucky, or having the worst day ever.
Any monster beast that could talk had to be at least sixth-rank. Zack’s wounds had only just healed—he couldn’t possibly win, and despair crept into his heart.
"Hey, kid, drop your weapon. If I really wanted to kill you, it’d be no trouble at all. But don’t worry—I won’t hurt you. As long as you agree to one condition." the purple fox said.
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Zack Zhao asked, "What do you want us to agree to?"
"I want you to promise me this: have the boy who killed the Skyfiend Tiger take me out of Beastfall Forest…"
[Author’s Note: Thanks to all the readers who tipped, recommended, and voted for the book! Your support is my motivation. If you have any votes left, please use them!]