A change in mindset

Just as Black Panther was reveling in his prize, green light rippled over the headless corpse before him. It swept through the blood spilled on the ground as well.

Then the green light gathered, and Kronos, who had just died in the panther's jaws, appeared alive before him again. With his head intact, of course.

The life-saving miracle skill-Time Reload-displayed its power for the first time.

He owed this to Black Panther carelessly making a noise, and such a loud one at that. Had he been a little more careful, or made only a faint sound, Kronos would never have reacted in time in the state he had been in.

In that case, by the time Kronos noticed, his head might already have been in Black Panther's mouth, and there would have been no saving him.

However incredible Time Reload was, it did not activate on its own. Kronos had to trigger it, and if he died before he could react, it could not save his life.

If that had happened, Kronos might have suffered the most pathetic death of any transmigrator in history who possessed a cheat and knew the plot. He would have been a disgrace to transmigrators everywhere.

Kronos's inexplicable resurrection stunned Black Panther. Taking advantage of his daze, Kronos drew the Lucky One Cane tucked horizontally through his belt at the small of his back and smashed it hard into Black Panther's head.

This black panther was clearly no ordinary wild animal. Kronos's blow, powerful enough to shatter stone, merely made him howl in pain and draw some blood.

If a noise like that still failed to wake Gner, all the people who thought highly of him must have been blind.

Gner sprang out of the tent with a dagger still in his hand and saw Kronos facing off against a black panther, cane in hand.

"Gner, can you use a cane? This is a Beyonder item. It hits harder." Gner was far better at close combat than Kronos, so Kronos planned to give him the cane and provide support from a distance.

"I've never trained with one, but I can use it as a club," Gner replied, his eyes fixed on Black Panther.

With two of them present now, Kronos no longer needed to stand motionless in a standoff with Black Panther. He slowly shifted his feet, edging toward Gner.

As he moved, he took the Elf Charm out of his pocket. He had no intention of using it, of course. He could already tell that this black panther had strength roughly equivalent to Sequence 7. Using the charm would have been a waste; he only brought it out as a deterrent.

Intimidated by the charm, Black Panther did not attack even while the two exchanged weapons.

This black panther was already quite intelligent, and cunning too. He understood the situation perfectly well.

He certainly could not win a fight, but fleeing would not be easy either. The moment he turned around, he would give his opponents their best chance to attack, so he could not choose that lightly.

He had to wait until both opponents believed victory was assured. That would be his best chance to escape.

Once Gner had a firm grip on the cane, Kronos slowly backed away and said, "The cane's abilities don't really suit you, so just use it as a heavy weapon. I'll create openings for you with spells. Let's kill this thing."

Gner said nothing, merely nodding slowly.

After retreating two steps, Kronos flung out a handful of materials. A mass of silver lightning formed out of thin air and struck Black Panther.

The lightning was not particularly powerful, and Kronos had not expected it to defeat Black Panther outright. He only wanted to stun him for a moment.

Then Kronos and Gner struck simultaneously. While Black Panther was dazed, Gner lunged forward and decisively closed the distance.

Kronos cast his second spell as well. Crimson flames rose from Black Panther's body and kept burning.

At the low and middle sequences, supernatural creatures were slightly stronger in combat than Beyonders of the same sequence. Their physical advantages were undeniable.

But fighting Gner while enduring the flames clearly left Black Panther outmatched. Neither his claws, teeth, nor tail landed a single blow on Gner. Instead, he took several brutal strikes from the cane.

Kronos was not merely watching from the sidelines, either. Every so often, he struck Black Panther with lightning, and each bolt was followed by several blows from the cane.

The two worked seamlessly together and soon battered Black Panther until he could no longer fight back.

Just then, thunderous rumbling rose from deep within Black Panther's chest, and he suddenly let out a mighty roar.

Startled, Gner hurriedly retreated. He knew this behavior meant the panther was enraged and might be about to unleash a powerful attack.

Unfortunately, Gner had guessed wrong. That would indeed have been true of an ordinary ferocious beast, but this black panther had clearly overcome his animal instincts. He was putting on an act.

Seeing Gner retreat, Kronos immediately cast Wind Wall to defend them. As the two guarded themselves cautiously, a cunning gleam flashed in Black Panther's eyes. Then he turned and ran.

This maneuver genuinely stunned Kronos and Gner, but Black Panther had misjudged one thing: the speed of these two humans.

Neither Kronos nor Gner belonged to a pathway that specialized in speed, but Kronos was filthy rich. He had Beyonder items on him.

A pair of dark wings appeared behind Kronos. With a single beat, he took flight.

However fast Black Panther was, he could not outpace a Vampire in flight. In less than ten seconds, Kronos was above his head. He scattered a handful of thorns, which rapidly grew and wrapped tightly around Black Panther, leaving him unable to move an inch.

A little later, Gner arrived as well. Neither man showed any mercy toward the immobilized black panther, and before long, he stopped breathing entirely.

They dragged Black Panther back near the tent. Only then did they have time to examine him closely.

"An Evil-Patterned Black Panther? No wonder he was so cunning!" Kronos recognized what the black panther was. All those years of studying mysticism had not been for nothing.

"What's that? Why would he be cunning?" Gner asked from beside him.

Evil-Patterned Black Panthers had been mentioned in the original novel. Their entire supply of spinal fluid was required as a main ingredient for the Magician potion. Yet from Kronos's observations, the powers of darkness were more pronounced in this panther.

Based on that, Kronos could make a reasonably reliable deduction: this panther was a descendant of a Demon Wolf and thus possessed characteristics of both Darkness and the Fool. That explained his relatively high intelligence.

"He's probably descended from a Demon Wolf. Maybe he inherited its cunning." Kronos could hardly explain his entire line of reasoning to Gner, so he gave him a simplified version.

"What's a Demon Wolf?" Gner was not merely a novice in mysticism; he was utterly ignorant of it. He did not even know a creature that appeared in myths.

There was no point getting worked up over it. Kronos rolled his eyes at him and said nothing more.

Gner did not care either. What he did not know, he did not know. He was not interested in finding out anyway.

"We'd better move somewhere else. Who knows whether there are more of his kind in these mountains?" This was Gner's area of expertise, so he spoke with confidence.

Kronos trusted Gner's judgment, but still asked, "This thing is worth a lot of money. People will buy the spinal fluid, brain, hide, bones, even the meat. What do you think we should do with it?"

Gner considered it. "Luckily, there aren't many open wounds, so the smell of blood is faint. I'll take him to the water nearby and rinse him off, then we can drag him along. This isn't a suitable place to butcher him, either."

"All right, go ahead. I'll pack up the tent and everything here."

With their tasks clearly divided, the two got to work.

In less than an hour, Gner led Kronos to a reasonably suitable spot. This time, however, they did not pitch the tent. There were only two hours left until dawn, after all.

After building a fire, Gner crawled into his sleeping bag and settled down beside it to sleep.

Kronos stared into the fire again, lost in thought. But this was not a case of forgetting a lesson the moment the pain had passed. He had found another way to keep watch for him.

Kronos had erected a fairly extensive Wall of Spirituality. He would notice immediately if anything touched it. Pathways with high spirituality could always find a way.

Now, Kronos was undergoing a change in mindset.

He had read plenty of novels about transmigrators before. Their exploits, slaughtering their way through every opposition, had influenced him.

He knew perfectly well how dangerous the world of Lord of the Mysteries was. He had even been attacked by an Outer Deity once already. Yet the appearance of his cheat had kept him from exercising the vigilance he should have.

He was now much like Emperor Huang Tao in his earliest days, treating life as a game. But Huang Tao had known nothing back then. He had believed there was still a chance to return home, had not known how terrifying this world was, and had not even regarded it as a real world.

How could Kronos be the same?

He had always told himself to be cautious and prudent. But on closer reflection, the threats Kronos had guarded against were the True Creator, the orthodox gods, and the Outer Deities. Yet he was only a Sequence 7.

Today's incident was quite something: an "outstanding" transmigrator who knew the entire plot, possessed the Time Stone, and had always regarded Kings of Angel, true gods, and Outer Deities as his hypothetical enemies had his head crushed in the jaws of a Sequence 7 Evil-Patterned Black Panther.

If even a panther could ambush him, could he really expect those hypothetical enemies to be less intelligent than that panther?

For Kronos, this change in mindset was nothing less than an inner transformation.

Caution was certainly a virtue worth praising in the world of Lord of the Mysteries-not only when facing powerful enemies, but even when dealing with an ordinary person passing by.