Stardew Valley

Inside the Scar-faced Man's Battle Suit were thirty-six Golden Whiskers.

This meant that a total of six adult Golden-Bearded Mastiffs had had their Golden Whiskers taken by the Scar-faced Man. Golden Whiskers were extremely important. Aside from being excellent materials, they were also vital tools for establishing status within the group and seeking mates among Golden-Bearded Mastiffs.

"The two of us have enough, and we also have this." Guen stuffed the Golden Whiskers into his clothes, then took out three slender, transparent crystal tubes filled with purple liquid. "These are Life Potions. Give them to the unicorn."

Chen cast Guen a grateful glance before feeding the Life Potions to the unicorn.

The wounds on the unicorn's chest and abdomen visibly began to heal. At most, half an hour would be enough for the wounds to close.

The Life Potions, reputedly capable of saving anyone who had not died on the spot, truly displayed extraordinary abilities.

"What do we do now?" Chen asked.

Guen thought for a moment. "The two of us already have enough Golden Whiskers. The key is that we still haven't seen Uncle Jack and the others. We'll wait another half a day tomorrow. Someone may have noticed us already, and once we're surrounded and attacked, things will become dangerous. We can only wait another half a day."

Chen agreed as well.

After waiting until the unicorn's injuries had improved, Guen and Chen withdrew far away and carefully concealed their tracks.

The night's madness did not subside just because all the Golden-Bearded Mastiffs had died. Instead, it slowly hid within every nerve of the survivors.

Relatively few warriors died directly beneath the claws of the Golden-Bearded Mastiffs. More warriors died in the subsequent fighting and slaughter.

Some fought for Golden Whiskers, while even more fought for wealth.

When the next day came, Guen, who had cautiously searched for information, still had not found Uncle Jack's group.

This result left Guen and Chen staring at each other. Could it be that of the people who had set out back then, only the two of them had made it here alive?

Guen and Chen even waited another half a day, but when the sun set, they still found nothing.

As the remaining people began organizing a sweep of the other Golden-Bearded Mastiff groups, Guen and Chen rode the unicorn, which had recovered most of its strength, away from the gathering point and headed toward their destination, Stardew Valley.

Nine days later, at the edge of Stardew Valley, a unicorn and a Mountain-Walking Ape cautiously appeared at the edge of the valley.

They were Guen and Chen. Their bodies were covered in many more scars than before, and their eyes were sharp and filled with indifference.

Along the way, they had encountered all kinds of Ferocious Beasts that had caused them great trouble. The most dangerous incident had occurred when they traveled with three warriors from Leiquan City. Partway through, those warriors tried to scheme for the Golden Whiskers on Guen and Chen, so they lured them into the territory of a Red-Tailed Scorpion.

The Red-Tailed Scorpion was only Tier 7, but its reputation was even greater than that of the Golden-Bearded Mastiff. A group of Red-Tailed Scorpions could easily poison a Tier 9 Ferocious Beast to death.

They had only escaped by the skin of their teeth because the unicorn could fly. After killing the three warriors from Leiquan City, they had obtained another twenty-three Golden Whiskers from their bodies.

Any warrior capable of reaching Stardew Valley had more or fewer Golden Whiskers on them.

Those who did not have enough Golden Whiskers were intercepted and killed along the way.

Schemes, calculations, ambushes, deception...

The route was also filled with all kinds of high-tier Magic Beasts. Under such immense stimulation, even Chen had advanced from Tier 6 to Tier 7.

They also had as many as thirty-six extra Golden Whiskers, which was actually more than they had obtained from fighting through the Golden-Bearded Mastiff pack.

The latter half of the route was clearly one-third shorter than the journey from Double Moon Town to the Golden-Bearded Mastiff gathering point, yet it had taken almost as long. It was even more dangerous.

During one battle, although Guen had not killed his enemy, he had seized the enemy's mount—a Tier 5 Mountain-Walking Ape.

Looking at Stardew Valley not far away, Guen and Chen hesitated.

On this final stretch, could someone be preparing to ambush them while their vigilance was relaxed?

Guen and Chen were indeed being overly suspicious.

"Is that you two? Come over." A familiar voice rang out.

"General?!" Guen and Chen were both surprised and delighted. "What are you doing here?"

The General of Double Moon Town smiled at the two of them. "If I hadn't appeared here, you would probably have remained suspicious of everything along this final stretch. Come over."

Guen and Chen hesitated briefly before walking over.

Although their expressions relaxed, their muscles remained tense. Clearly, they had not completely lowered their guard.

These two guys.

Several other generals stood beside the General of Double Moon Town. Seeing this, they all laughed helplessly, though they did not blame them too much. Most people participating in the trial for the first time acted this way.

"Congratulations. You are the seventy-first and seventy-second people from Double Moon Town to arrive here." The general did not mind, and only said this when Guen and Chen came closer.

"That many?" Guen and Chen were both startled.

"That many?" The general shook his head repeatedly. "About half of them gave up directly, and another portion failed to gather enough Golden Whiskers. Only two people truly entered the Inner Valley! If you have any extra Golden Whiskers later, you might as well help them out. Go on. Remember, fighting and killing are forbidden inside. If you're discovered, a Super Tier expert will execute you on the spot."

After saying this, the general ignored them.

In his view, since this was Guen and Chen's first time participating, it was already impressive if they could stay alive. As for gathering enough Golden Whiskers and having extras as well?

That was unlikely.

He had merely been carrying out his routine duties.

Guen and Chen entered the valley curiously, only to see groups of people standing separately. Many of them were injured, and they glared at the others with hatred.

As soon as Guen and Chen entered the valley, people immediately approached them.

"Brother, do you have any extra Golden Whiskers? I'll pay five thousand gold coins for one."

"I'll pay five thousand five hundred. If you can give me five, I'll pay an extra ten thousand gold coins."

However, faced with Guen and Chen's unapproachable expressions, most people merely called out cautiously without coming too close. Guen and Chen ignored them, instead pushing straight through the crowd in search of the people from Double Moon Town.

"Tch, you don't have any Golden Whiskers, so why are you acting so high and mighty? Let's go."

"Sigh, I'm only short one. Kind sir, please, give me one. I'll do anything you ask."

But Guen and Chen remained unmoved. They finally found the people from Double Moon Town, and unexpectedly saw Uncle Jack and Setti among them.

Uncle Jack was gravely injured. Judging by his appearance, he had taken a Life Potion. His life had been saved, but his injuries were too severe, and he could not recover for the time being.

Setti, meanwhile, had fallen directly into a coma.

"Uncle, why are you here?" Guen excitedly squeezed over, merely exchanging a greeting with the others.

When Uncle Jack saw that it was Guen, he smiled happily as well. "You're still alive. That's wonderful. I'm sorry. We dragged you into this."

"Uncle, what exactly happened back then?" Chen pressed.

Uncle Jack sighed. "At this point, I won't hide it anymore. Setti and I have a grudge against a certain prince. The previous two times, he interfered with us and caused us to fail the trial. This time, he actually attacked us directly. Setti and I harmed you. I'm sorry. After Setti and I lured away the Vajra Ape, we were pursued the entire time and could only flee all the way here. Everyone else died. It's all our fault. We got you involved."

Uncle Jack swallowed hard. "We simply failed this trial, so we can't become senior members of those organizations. I'm afraid we'll have trouble in the future."

Guen and Chen exchanged a glance.

They were not very familiar with Setti.

But Uncle Jack had looked after them extensively since they were young. He was both their teacher and their friend.

Guen asked, "Uncle, did you come here after forfeiting?"

Uncle Jack shook his head. "No. We wanted to forfeit and leave the trial area directly, but our pursuers were too close and gave us no chance. We fled all the way here."

"If that's the case, let's go, Uncle. We're heading to the Inner Valley." Guen helped Uncle Jack up.

"Go to the Inner Valley? You two..." Uncle Jack suddenly felt an unreal sensation well up inside him.

Chen smiled brightly. "That's all thanks to Guen. You'll know when we get there."

After saying this, Chen carried Setti on his back and followed Guen as they pushed through the crowd toward the Inner Valley.