Humans Can't, at Least They Shouldn't...

That was right. The two influential ghosts before him were both accomplices in this gamble.

Both sides provided people and a venue, each fanning the flames and encouraging bets. The ancient snake put in the work, and together they took part in this beast-fighting match with shady dealings behind it.

What frustrated Lin Xian, however, was that after working himself to the bone all this time, he not only had to return every last coin to the wealthy gentry, but only got a measly thirty percent of what they had scraped from the poor ghosts.

"Satisfied? Of course we're satisfied!"

"When you handle things, we can rest easy. Let's work together more often."

The two old hands happily gathered up their shares, stuffed them into the little treasury inside the Spear Cage, and put away the items that carried special significance and needed to be returned as favors.

The underworld where souls dwelled should have been a silent, gloomy prison.

Once they entered it, time would wear them down as they endured loneliness and slowly lost their memories and emotions.

But ever since this little fellow arrived, the disturbances he kept stirring up had added plenty of entertainment to life in the dreary underworld.

Samael, that snake, had especially suggested that Ereshkigal, the Underworld Goddess, open the Spear Cage barrier at a fixed time every day to give the dead spirits some time to catch their breath.

For most human dead spirits who had been cooped up for so long, this was simply a supreme blessing.

They could not truly roam about and run wild, but it was still better than sitting alone in the Spear Cage and waiting to fade away.

Besides, once a crack was torn in certain rules, they could gradually be changed.

"By the way, there's something I need to clarify. How are you capable of transforming into Lion-like Urum? Does it have anything to do with this beast tide?"

After the spoils were divided, Centurion Tarell's expression turned solemn as he asked seriously. The eyes formed from his soul fire narrowed.

He had once defended the ruined city of Babylon against a beast tide and ultimately died in battle. His hatred for those beasts ran as deep as the sea.

"Mm, probably because I ate the Immortal Herb and my body mutated while shedding its skin. Lady Ereshkigal knows about that too."

"As for the beast tide, I'd like to know where they came from myself."

Lin Xian flicked his tongue and sighed softly, looking somewhat troubled.

"Haha! That's good, that's good!"

"The Eleven Demon Beasts are Mesopotamia's most primitive monster templates. As you advance, it makes sense for your bloodlines to purify and your forms to draw closer to those things."

"Besides, those things are all bloodthirsty, berserk brutes. They're nowhere near as cunning as a bad thing like you."

The old general reached a hand out of the Spear Cage and gave Lin Xian's head a heavy pat, laughing heartily.

Could you not praise me like that? I want to be a good snake. The accomplice grumbled inwardly as he went along with it.

Once the pleasantries were over, Lin Xian was about to remove the binding barrier when two bundles were suddenly tossed out of the Spear Cage behind him, landing on the ground with a thud.

Seeing the glint of gold and the corners of several clay tablets poking out from inside, Lin Xian was a little baffled.

"What's this?"

"A little gift for you. You'll need it out there."

The martyr from the ruins of Babylon and Umm, the brawny old blacksmith from Eresh City who excelled at smelting, exchanged smiles.

This generous? As the ancient snake muttered to himself and prepared to tease them, his vertical pupils suddenly contracted.

"What do you mean, out there?"

"Nothing..."

The two old hands in the Spear Cage looked up toward the dome and avoided answering, their expressions somewhat subtle.

Including this time, they had already worked with this little fellow three times.

It was common knowledge that dead spirits brought their burial gold and silver into the underworld to bribe the guards.

Those Garuda Spirits truly liked treasures tainted with the aura of the living.

Newly arrived souls could use this trick to lure away Garuda Spirits and improve their chances of survival.

But they had never heard of snakes liking to collect such things.

And whenever the spoils were divided, this little fellow always liked choosing clay tablets that did not seem particularly valuable but had the locations of inheritances carved onto them.

Most of the wealth humans could no longer use after death was left behind on the surface.

How could such a wicked thing, with a belly full of venom, possibly let himself suffer a loss?

The two shrewd old hands had clearly already seen through some of it.

That was precisely why the snake would definitely accept the things in those bundles—and had to accept them.

Sure enough, after Lin Xian caught sight of the lines on two clay tablets, the tension in his face eased.

He forced out a friendly smile, gave his partners a reserved nod, then twisted his waist and swayed toward the deep mountains.

When he reached a quiet valley, Lin Xian hid the loot away in a cave.

Then red-black blood mist spread around the ancient snake, and his body restructured itself into the form of Lion-like Urum.

Lin Xian looked at his imposing reflection on the stone wall and nodded in satisfaction.

He had been in the underworld for nearly half a year, and he had basically finished absorbing the Beast's Authority of Self-Modification.

The spiritual base portraits of the Eleven Demon Beasts that Tiamat had projected into his mind through the anchor line had also gradually been deciphered and replicated by Lin Xian.

His advancement from Bronze to Silver had allowed him to master this kind of self-restructuring into Lion-like Urum.

Still, since he had never seen the real original, this imitation always felt as though it lacked something.

If he got the chance to kill the corresponding monsters from the beast tide and absorb and devour them, Lin Xian believed he could perfectly display their essence.

Aside from that, the gifts those two old foxes had given him were not easy to accept.

One wanted him to deliver a letter, while the other wanted him to find someone.

Sigh, even after dying, they still have so many things they can't let go of.

But looking at it positively, carving such requests onto clay tablets was another way of dragging him aboard their ship.

Everyone needed leverage over each other to play happily, didn't they?

So ancient people were merely limited by their knowledge. Most of them had no problem with their intelligence. Anyone who truly treated them as fools was the arrogant idiot!

Especially those two. They were practically old foxes who had become demons with age!

For all he knew, dragging him into their scheme to set up a gambling ring and fleece these poor ghostly suckers of their burial money had been laying the groundwork for this very purpose.

Well, things like gold were no longer of much use to the dead spirits living in the Spear Cage anyway.

Money only had an effect when it circulated. It would not bloom just because it was piled up in the underworld, right?

I secured you your activity time, and even put on a beast-fighting event. Can't this pile of scrap metal you threw in just count as entertainment expenses?

Lin Xian convinced himself without a shred of guilt. Whenever he thought of the gold and silver he had looted into the cave, his eyes shone.

Still, he would only pull this a few more times. It was better not to be so conspicuous in the future.

Thinking of those two old foxes who had tacitly joined forces to trick him, the lion-like beast twitched his lips and looked up at the faint red glow among the mountains.

At the moment, his own mistress was still digging tunnels beneath Uruk.

Going by her usual habits, Ereshkigal would probably summon him to attend her bed in another three or four hours.

So while he had time, he should pay a visit to his other teacher first.

Lin Xian sighed, gathered his thoughts, and broke through the death mist as he sprinted toward the valley ahead.

The lion-like beast, with reddish-brown fur and a golden mane, leaped and raced like lightning through the gray death mist, like a blazing flame.

As the path grew rougher and the death mist thicker, his glossy hide, which could deflect arrows, gradually dulled and withered. His flesh sizzled as several rotting patches of varying sizes began to appear.

But the snarling lion-like beast endured the pain and charged forward even faster.

At the same time, a purple-green plant phantom resembling a Camel Thorn emerged from his body with a hum. Using its immortality, it began to dispel the Death Qi and repair his wounds.

At last, after sprinting at full speed for half an hour in that agonizingly itchy, euphoric state, Lin Xian broke through the boundary of the death mist and leaped into the valley.

The first thing Lion-like Urum did upon landing was roll onto his side, spread his belly, and frantically wriggle and scratch against the stone wall like a giant housecat infested with fleas.

At the same time, long emerald hair draped down, and two fair, delicate hands followed the grain of Lion-like Urum's fur, scratching with evident interest and easing the itch that had seeped into his flesh.

However, as they scratched, those hands gradually traveled downward toward an indescribable part of Lion-like Urum's body.

Every hair on Lin Xian's body stood on end. His limbs sprang like loaded springs, launching him far away.

The startled big cat pressed himself into a corner by the stone wall, staring warily at the somewhat regretful figure ahead as complaints flooded his mind.

Humans can't, at least they shouldn't...

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