The triple-eyed demon beast died in an instant! The Demon Artifact's power was blinding! A heaven-defying demonic law!

The forty-nine scattered stars formed a magnificent starfield.

Just as the dazzling starlight array shattered, the ice-element demonic law at its center took shape.

"Frost Demon's Ice Prison!"

The young man finished chanting the spell.

A massive, pillar-like spike of ice erupted from the starfield, then shot through the air at the triple-eyed demon beast!

The beast's instincts warned it of danger.

Its three beastly eyes blazed with blood-red light!

The two attacks seemed evenly matched!

But what Jiang Yu hadn't expected was that the beast's beam only managed to block the first ice spike.

It tried to dodge, but the ice spikes were even faster!

As the first spike pierced through its massive belly, the second followed, stabbing through its back.

The triple-eyed demon beast let out a pained roar!

It wasn't willing to die!

If it had fully mastered the power of its body, it wouldn't have been so easily defeated.

But Jiang Yu had been waiting for it to enter its weakened state.

The demon beast's life force was formidable, and even when grievously wounded, it still struggled to survive.

It stretched out its sharp claws, viciously tearing at the ice spikes impaling its body.

But the ice-element demonic law, combined with a high-grade Demon Artifact, wasn't something it could break free from!

"Fireball Burst!"

Jiang Yu stared at the triple-eyed demon beast's head. In his hand, a fireball the size of a basketball appeared.

He flicked his wrist, and the fireball hurtled toward the beast with a roar.

By now, the triple-eyed demon beast could barely move.

Its eyes widened as it watched its own death approach.

Against a low-rank demon beast, Jiang Yu had needed less than ten seconds to finish it off.

The entire fight had been a complete rout. To outsiders, it might as well have been effortless.

After all, in this world, demons were formidable enemies.

Ordinarily, four or five cooperating mages of the same rank could just barely defeat a demon beast.

But genius defied common sense!

Even so, Jiang Yu still had to admit that the triple-eyed demon beast had been no weakling.

He was looking forward to seeing the prompt that would appear.

[First kill of a low-rank demon beast. Reward: a blind box (special).]

"Special? What does that mean?"

Jiang Yu understood the blind box, but the word "special" added at the end puzzled him.

He paused to think it over, then suddenly realized.

"So 'special' means there's a hundred percent chance of getting something useful."

But Jiang Yu didn't rush to open the blind box. Instead, he looked around at his surroundings.

No wonder ordinary people couldn't withstand a single strike from a triple-eyed demon beast.

That was why Jiang Yu, with his True Sight, greatly enhanced strength, and status as an ice-element mage, could withstand its attacks so easily.

Still, feeling the steady breathing of the people around him put him at ease.

She'd only passed out temporarily...

And at that moment, in another part of the city.

A golden streak of light suddenly shot through the darkness, accompanied by a tearing whistle.

A man in a black mage's robe appeared in the air.

Jiang Yu recognized him.

He was one of the senior officials seated on the dais during the previous year's assessment—the president of the Bocheng Mage Association, Lou Zuochuan!

Lou Zuochuan warily sensed the demonic energy in the air.

A demon had appeared nearby, and there might even be a high-rank one!

He had to find and kill it at once. Otherwise, the victims might not just be a few ordinary people.

But after sensing the area for a long while, he couldn't detect any trace of a demon. Instead, he caught a faint smell of burnt flesh.

"You're Jiang Yu, the top scorer in this year's assessment?"

Lou Zuochuan looked at the young man before him with some uncertainty.

"That's me."

Jiang Yu answered modestly.

Lou Zuochuan immediately asked, "Have you heard anything suspicious nearby? Or seen a demon?"

"If there's still danger, find your classmate and get out of here quickly."

Lou Zuochuan glanced at the unconscious girl beside him. He only hoped that this was just some young couple out having fun...

Seeing the doubt in Lou Zuochuan's eyes, Jiang Yu explained, "I killed the demon. It's over there."

As he spoke, he pointed in a direction.

"You killed it?!"

Lou Zuochuan immediately looked that way, using his mage's staff to illuminate the area. As expected, he found a charred corpse.

He'd wondered why he hadn't sensed any demonic energy. It had already been killed!

But—

"Triple-eyed demon beast?!"

Lou Zuochuan couldn't help but exclaim.

Even a high-rank demon in its prime wouldn't have been easy for him to deal with. And yet this young man had killed a triple-eyed demon beast all by himself!

A cold shiver ran down Lou Zuochuan's spine.

He stared at the young man whose face looked remarkably ordinary, his expression complicated.

"You're incredible. If you ever need anything, come find me."

"I've got the triple-eyed demon beast's corpse. You can take credit for killing a high-rank demon."

"Once you get into the Mage Academy... no, you might even protect all of Bocheng. When you take the mage college entrance exam, you can..."

Lou Zuochuan let out a long sigh.

As president of the Mage Association, he knew that the Black Vatican tried to assassinate gifted young mages from the Empire every year.

And Jiang Yu had no backing. It would be all too easy for him to be targeted.

"Sure."

Jiang Yu knew that having the backing of the Void was a good thing. He didn't say anything more.

"I've got some matters to handle, so I'll take my leave. And if there's anything you need, just let me know."

Lou Zuochuan smiled, then pulled out a clear, jade-like pill bottle.

"This Demon Artifact is called the Sacred Mountain Medicine Bottle. Take it as my gift."

But Jiang Yu accepted it.

Demon Artifacts were rare treasures, and even low-grade ones were worth hundreds of thousands.

"Thank you. I'll remember this favor."

Lou Zuochuan handed him the Demon Artifact, then vanished in a flash.

Watching the man's retreating silhouette, Jiang Yu couldn't help feeling a little moved.

The triple-eyed demon beast had been taken care of, and he'd even gotten a Demon Artifact out of it.

He also owed Tang Yue, his mentor at the Zhiyuan Academy, a favor.

If not for the Starfield Aspect, he wouldn't have been able to obtain this blind box.

So there really were people who cared.

"Alright, young man. You've spent enough time playing with that little girlfriend of yours."

A wave of drowsiness swept over Jiang Yu. In the blink of an eye, the dazed young man was pulled back to his senses.

Jiang Min woke up behind him. She cleared her throat and hurriedly asked Jiang Yu what had happened to the demon.

Jiang Yu explained that Lou Zuochuan had killed it...

Then the two of them went their separate ways.

Jiang Yu sat on his bed. After washing up and changing clothes, he eagerly took out the blind box.

[Talent: S-rank, Hundredfold Demonic Energy]

As he read the words at the top, Jiang Yu was overjoyed. His luck hadn't been bad after all!

He eagerly activated the talent.

[Hundredfold Demonic Energy: Starfield, Star Map, Galaxy, Star Sea... The area expands a hundredfold, and the amount of demonic energy increases accordingly.]

Jiang Yu looked into his mental world.

Seeing was believing!

The icy-blue starfield had expanded to an astonishing size. The forty-nine stars inside now looked as small as dust.

"Such an incredible talent!"

Everyone knew that one of the biggest reasons mages were weaker than demons was that they couldn't sustain their strength.

Take Jiang Yu, for example. Without this talent, at most he could cast the ice-element demonic law five or six times before running out of demonic energy.

And his demonic energy wouldn't recover until his rank increased.

Higher-ranked demonic laws required an enormous amount of demonic energy—far more than those of a lower rank.

Now, with this talent, he had enough demonic energy to cast the ice-element demonic law five or six hundred times!

On top of that, his rate of casting "Demon's Ice Heart" had increased.

Together, these two effects made Jiang Yu a mage who never ran out of energy!

"This talent is incredible!"

Jiang Yu couldn't help exclaiming again.

But after a while, he realized that while the amount of demonic energy stored in his mental world had increased, its rate of recovery hadn't.

He also still had to endure ten times the usual burden on his spirit when draining his demonic energy, which meant he'd have to train even harder from now on.

Fortunately, the breakthrough in his rank hadn't been affected at all.

Other than having to work hard, this talent only brought positive changes...