Meat-toothed Beasts

For a long while, Yuan Chen stared grimly at the two available careers. Only in the end did his face settle into the despair of someone accepting reality.

The power of demons was a one-way road, and Yuan Chen understood that better than anyone. Once he was certain he couldn't escape it, he thought briefly before finally choosing Pain Ascetic as his demonic class.

The reason Yuan Chen chose Pain Ascetic was simple: Pain Ascetics had to inflict pain on themselves to draw out the greatest possible power. That power came from self-restraint, silence, and self-mortification.

By contrast, the Prince of Joy gained power through indulgence: doing whatever he wanted, hurting anyone he wanted to hurt, and unleashing the greed and selfishness within him without regard for morality or the law.

Yuan Chen felt he could control the former to some degree. But indulgence... that would be far too difficult to rein in.

The moment he chose Pain Ascetic, Yuan Chen clearly felt a surging will trying to burst out of his body. The rampaging energy filled him with an unprecedented sense of exhilaration and frenzy.

Almost instinctively, the veins on Yuan Chen's forehead bulged. Eyes wide with rage, he suddenly clenched a nearby rock. The heavy stone shattered in his grip, and the fragments pierced his palm under the force of his grasp.

Pain flared, and a glimmer of clarity flashed in Yuan Chen's eyes. He fought against the exhilaration welling inside him, gritting his teeth as he resisted the will rising in his mind.

This was Oshirresh's will—

A way of handing over a part of herself to Yuan Chen and creating a "Lesser Demon."

Other Nascent Demons would never so casually give some part of their concept to another demon. Doing so meant giving away a portion of their power.

They would only do it if they were certain that the will-bearer of that power was valuable enough to offer them sufficient sacrifices.

But Oshirresh was different...

She had been sealed away for far too long. Nearly all the Lesser Demons had left her. Now she needed to call back the demons who had abandoned her and reap their wills and concepts.

That wasn't difficult. Even after thousands of years in confinement, reclaiming what belonged to her would take Oshirresh no more than a thought... as long as she could find it.

If all she wanted was for him to help Oshirresh recruit others, that would be one thing. But mastering this concept required him to hand his entire soul over to Oshirresh.

Yuan Chen didn't want his soul to become a sacrifice for power!

Sensing his resistance, Oshirresh didn't seem surprised. In fact, she took back her power of her own accord.

At the same time, Nila's laughter rang out in Yuan Chen's mind, tinged with a sick sort of delight.

"You're rejecting me? That's all right, that's all right... This power will remain inside you. When you want to use it, just open it up. But what will you offer as your sacrifice?"

Nila's voice rang with boundless laughter:

"Can you find a sacrifice more valuable than your soul? I can't wait to see..."

With that, Nila's voice—or rather, Oshirresh's—vanished from Yuan Chen's mind. The power that had inexplicably arisen within his consciousness subsided as well...

Once he was sure Oshirresh wasn't continuing to devour his body, Yuan Chen immediately opened his status panel.

The battle had left him injured and exhausted. He paid no attention to the damage to his equipment and looked straight at his class.

Aside from Dancer and Elemental Mage, his previous "Demon Agent lv1" had disappeared. In its place was the gray text "Pain Ascetic (can activate)."

Seeing this, Yuan Chen let out a breath of relief. But soon, a grave look returned to his eyes.

The good news was that he wasn't Xiao Ka Li Mi anymore.

The bad news was—

He was Sang Biao.

Oshirresh hadn't withdrawn of her own generosity. Every demon was born from an emotion, a concept.

That made every demon an expert at manipulating people. As a Nascent Demon, Oshirresh understood human nature so well that, in the language of short-video trends, she was "a lecturer on human nature; three sentences, and a man spends 180,000 yuan on me."

Now that she had escaped her seal, Oshirresh had evidently noticed the changes in the Thread of Fate...

Even Yuan Chen could tell that Runeterra was entering a turbulent age, where heroes and dragons would contend. How much more would a Nascent Demon, one who had accompanied the very first spark of consciousness in Runeterra?

She was sure I would use her power, connect with her of my own accord, and offer up my soul.

Realizing this sent a chill down Yuan Chen's spine... But after a long silence, he merely let out a quiet breath and closed his eyes to rest.

He couldn't fight back. He didn't even have the right to say no. Wasting his strength worrying here wouldn't help, so he might as well rest properly and plan his next move...

After all, cutting ties with Oshirresh in such a short time had never been possible. If it were that easy, he would be underestimating her far too much.

Those Nascent Demons were all far too damn nascent!

Maybe because he was exhausted, Yuan Chen slept soundly. He didn't wake until midday the next day.

He opened his eyes and climbed off the pile of straw, stretching his back. He had slept from the previous day until noon, and his curled-up spine cracked as he stretched. The sound was oddly pleasing, and his body felt much more relaxed afterward.

He checked that the traps he had set around the cave hadn't been disturbed, then nodded in satisfaction...

Though he was exhausted, Yuan Chen had still set up plenty of little traps in case Nedeli's wild side got the better of her and she sent her "family" to kill him.

There was a thin mist that covered the area, weapon fragments strung together with Threads, a Flying Dagger trap set with Elemental Magic, and Milio, a human-shaped alarm system.

But from the looks of it, although Nedeli hadn't had much contact with human civilization, her wild instincts hadn't turned her into a beast. On the contrary, those instincts seemed to bring out the best in her...

"You're awake?" Milio came in from the side. Seeing that Yuan Chen was up, his eyes lit with excitement. "I picked some fruit! Those big cats gave me some meat, too. I'll bring it to you once I've roasted it!"

"Mm..." Yuan Chen took a fruit from Milio and bit into it. He didn't know what it was called, but it was juicy and faintly sweet. It cleared the fog from his sleepy mind.

"How's that woman?"

"The woman? You mean the big-cat sister?"

At Yuan Chen's question, Milio nodded.

"She's awake. She said you could go see her once you were up, Master. I wanted to bring her something to eat, too, but there's a big cat guarding the room... Its teeth are so long! Its claws are sharp, too. I didn't dare go near."

Yuan Chen nodded at Milio's words.

After eating two fruits and finding that his hunger had eased somewhat, Yuan Chen got up and headed for Nedeli's room.

A cougar was crouched by the entrance. At the sound of someone approaching, it sprang to alertness, but quickly relaxed again when it saw Yuan Chen.

It lay on the ground, its long tail swishing back and forth. Though it had relaxed, Yuan Chen could still sense a trace of wariness. If he made even the slightest wrong move, the creature would immediately spring at him—

Though the Dancer Blades would slice through its throat like a hot knife through butter before it could get close.

Paying it little mind, Yuan Chen went straight into Nedeli's room...

Calling it a bedroom was a bit of a stretch. It was still the same room as before. Compared with the other cougars' dens, Nedeli's was merely tidier, with signs that a human lived there. There were also a few Bone Spears, sharpened and ready, in the corner.

Nedeli was awake, but even as she lay on the bed of dried grass, she was still in poor shape... Her spirits had been high earlier because Oshirresh's excitement-inducing factor had stimulated her. But after so much time, its effects had long since worn off.

She had lost blood and nutrients, and her whole body was covered in injuries...

Yuan Chen had applied ointment all over her before going to sleep. Otherwise, her skin would still be covered in scars, and some of her wounds might have festered or become infected. Forget sitting up as she was now—she might not even have been able to breathe.

"Hmph. Looks like you got some good rest."

Seeing Yuan Chen's condition, Nedeli gave an unhappy snort. "Unlike me. I can't even sit up without help!"

"Cut it out. I'm not here to trade barbs with you."

Yuan Chen was helpless in the face of Nedeli's reaction—

His condition really was pretty good. Though Oshirresh had withdrawn her gaze, the process of bestowing her power had already healed most of his body.

But the psychological pressure Oshirresh had brought with her hadn't eased in the slightest...

For that reason, Yuan Chen didn't feel like exchanging pleasantries. He got straight to the point. "What's with the beasts rampaging around here? Did they attack you, too?"

"Mm."

Seeing that Yuan Chen had come to discuss business, Nedeli reined herself in and said, "It was those people from the Meat-toothed Beast Tribe."

"Meat-toothed Beasts?"

Yuan Chen was taken aback. He hesitated before asking, "Why would the Meat-toothed Beast Tribe be here? Don't they live in Shurima? Don't think I haven't seen them. Their natural manes are completely unsuited to a tropical rainforest."

The Meat-toothed Beast Tribe was actually a people known as Meat-toothed Beasts. They were also Vastaya, and in terms of bloodline they were distant kin of Nedeli's from ancient times, both descended from Vastaya Shuray and humans.

But when the Vastaya Shuray left the material world and their entire people entered the spirit realm, their descendants, who shared a common ancestor, scattered across the world, developing different cultures and customs.

The best-known hero of the Meat-toothed Beast people was Rengar, the Pridestalker.

Thinking of this, Yuan Chen's gaze turned thoughtful—

Although Rengar had been born on the outskirts of Shurima, he had actually grown up in Ixialia's rainforests. This could be confirmed in the League of Legends universe, where his region of origin was listed as Ixialia.

Yeah, that champion's style fit Ixialia's traditions perfectly: once he got a little ahead, he could kill you before you knew what happened.

His claim to fame was a 21-kill rampage against a female streamer on the Korean server in 2015, leaving her in tears. Ever since, all sorts of one-trick players had kept pulling stunts, picking one victim to hunt down every match.

His strength lay in his explosive burst damage. With enough of a lead, he could even dive straight into the fountain, unleash a burst to kill his target, then Flash out of turret range. Smurfs might not favor him, but he'd always been a favorite of players who liked to stomp weaker opponents.

Who could resist a champion who could dive under a turret, kill someone in 0.1 seconds, and stroll away?

But Rengar was Rengar, and the Meat-toothed Beast Tribe was the Meat-toothed Beast Tribe. Rengar had long since severed ties with his tribe for one reason or another, becoming a hunter in his own right.

He didn't just travel to Ixialia. To find worthy prey, he'd even ventured to Freljord, Bilgewater, and all sorts of other dangerous, extreme environments more than once.

There was no need to describe Rengar's appearance. He was covered in a dense mane, looking like a white lion standing upright. Most other Meat-toothed Beasts looked similar, differing mainly in build and fur color.

In those circumstances, all it would take was a short while in the rainforest's hot, humid climate for their manes to get soaked and matted. Having wet hair was miserable enough. Imagine having your whole body covered in soggy fur.

"They came looking for prey worthy of them."

Nedeli glanced at Yuan Chen and snorted. "One of the Meat-toothed Beasts attacked me, but I defeated him. After I interrogated him, I found out that their chieftain had died, leaving the position vacant."

"If you really know anything about the Meat-toothed Beasts, then you should know that their tribe respects strength above all.

To win the position of chieftain, they've been hunting far and wide. Their goal is to return to the tribe on the final day with the head of the biggest, fiercest beast they can find, and use it to claim the title."

Yuan Chen fell silent.

If the Meat-toothed Beasts had come here looking for worthy prey, Yuan Chen could understand that much. Isolated from the outside world, Ixialia's primeval jungle was full of all kinds of giant beasts.

The problem was, there were so many kinds of giant beasts. What would they choose?

As he thought about it, Yuan Chen remembered what Audan had told him on the way to the village—that Lupe had once fought the overlord of this place.

Those bastards...

They weren't trying to hunt an Elemental Drake, were they?!