Chapter Ninety-Five: Wolf Child, Young Master Dian

At first glance, the stone walls seemed to be blocking everyone’s way, but after Mu You dodged past several of them, he vaguely sensed that something was off.

The walls appeared with remarkable regularity, and they did not seem to be trying very hard to hinder anyone; rather, they looked more like they were meant to catch the falling crowd.

Another stone wall rose before them. Just as Mu You was wondering whether he should descend, Jing Fei was the first to leap down. He rolled in the air and landed on the wall, then bent forward and placed his hand against it, carefully probing its surface.

Mu You could clearly see Jing Fei shudder hard the instant he made contact, as though the wall were cold enough to pierce bone.

After only a moment of sensing it, Jing Fei opened his eyes and said gravely, “These stone walls are passages guiding death-row prisoners below Class A into the trial grounds. You’d better speed up. Beyond the end of this route, the terrain is no longer earth-aligned, so I can’t sense it any further. We’re the last group.”

Hearing that, Mu You no longer hesitated. He immediately set the others down, then carried Jing Fei and An Ruxiang onward into the depths once more.

The moment the others touched down, they too shivered violently. The stone wall was as though it had just been taken from an ice cellar, cold to the marrow; the chill drilled through the soles of their shoes and burrowed relentlessly into their bones.

Before leaving, Mu You still looked back at the others. He saw Xuan Yao in the crowd looking back at him as well. Mu You silently withdrew his gaze, then suddenly accelerated and vanished into the darkness beneath the earth.

Xuan Yao was a good girl, brave enough to love and hate without reserve. For someone like him, so hopelessly obtuse and with life and death still uncertain, he truly did not want to burden her too deeply.

Watching Xuan Yao’s forlorn back, Hu Lei sighed. He patted his daughter on the shoulder. He understood Mu You’s meaning, but he wanted the woman to be happy more than anything. Yet in this Death Row Paradise, his own strength was little more than a joke, leaving him with no real power to sway anything...

The three of them descended all the way downward. The farther they went, the more violently the darkness surged. In the end, it became so pitch-black that one could not see a hand held before one’s face. Even the crimson-gold radiance of Phoenix Feather was gradually devoured by the darkness. At the same time, the surrounding temperature kept dropping, until even the breath from everyone’s nose and mouth turned white.

Crimson gold, blue-white, and earth-yellow auras flickered and pulsed from within Mu You, An Ruxiang, and Jing Fei, resisting the unbearably frigid cold. No one knew how long they had been falling, but at last, within the faintest depths of that boundless darkness, tiny points of blue-cold light began to appear.

Those lights had first been sparse and scattered, but by the end they gathered into halos, dazzlingly beautiful.

At first they thought it was artificial lighting. Later, they discovered that the cold radiance was actually emanating from naturally formed mica stone. It truly made one marvel that even in the deepest underground depths, such magnificent and wondrous scenery could exist.

The three of them finally landed. This was a subterranean expanse composed entirely of ice-blue mica, cold as frost and hard as rock. Even a full-force punch could not shake it in the slightest.

With that, Mu You gained a further understanding of this so-called “exchange project.” Setting aside its difficulty, the ice attribute alone already restrained a third of his strength. And the sturdiness of the terrace above, compared with this, was practically child’s play.

“Heh. Down in the earth, everyone else is being careful and cautious, and you still dare act so recklessly. You truly don’t know the meaning of death.”

A sneering voice came from above. Nine streaks of white light fell from the sky, and Longshe slowly descended in imperial splendor.

Immediately after, the sound of surging water swelled. Vast amounts of moisture, mixed with raindrops, slammed head-on toward them, sweeping forward in a show of force as if to challenge the three teams already present.

“Hmph.” Mu You let out a cold laugh. Before the moisture could even come near, Phoenix Feather flicked lightly, and a wave of heat directly vaporized it all.

So the boss of Building G was arrogant too.

After the water-laden surge brought down the boss of Building D, Quan Xi revealed himself. Looking at Mu You, he smiled gently, showing not the slightest trace of anger.

Mu You returned the smile, even warmer and more easygoing.

As the saying goes, one does not hit a dog that is smiling. Besides, the other side was a dog with formidable strength that only bit when necessary.

Once all four groups had arrived, the faint light within the four huge surrounding mica walls began to flow like liquid, streaming one after another into the connected mica strata beside them. The mica that lost its radiance fell back into darkness and collapsed with a thunderous crash, revealing a man-made tunnel.

The others looked at the nearest opening, then at the ones beside them. Seeing that each was nothing but a pitch-black passage, the twelve of them exchanged a glance and, in the same instant, all assumed their strongest combat stances, locking tightly onto one another. None moved first.

Seizing the initiative was crucial. Heaven knew which of these would be the gate of certain death.

“You don’t need to fight over it. The themes are all the same; they’re just divided into four regions. In the end, you will meet.”

The sound of a guitar being played drifted out from one of the tunnels, oddly familiar. Soon, a long-haired man with a scruffy appearance, thick body hair, and a face so ugly it seemed almost inhuman emerged slowly from the darkness, wearing a necklace made of young girls’ toes.

Judge: Fu Nian.

“Hmph, what a bunch of unladylike people.” Another small and delicate voice came from the side, filled with deep dissatisfaction at Mu You and the others’ vulgar behavior, and she criticized them in a soft, teasing tone.

“Not just unladylike—there’s no sense of aesthetics at all, okay~~~~”

Judge Nuo Nuo appeared, carrying a long snake-bone saber. Seeing You Ba had also arrived, she flashed a sweet smile at the “muscle brute” opposite them.

Three were here... one more to go.

Mu You’s hand slowly clenched. He and An Ruxiang retreated several steps with Jing Fei, because from the tunnel behind the third group, no one had yet emerged.

Heavy, steady footsteps came from within, neither fast nor slow. The force behind them was distinctly unusual—calm, yet brimming with explosive power, like a starving beast waiting at any moment to tear into its prey.

The fourth to arrive was Judge Dian Shao.

With his appearance, the other three inexplicably chose to block him out, not even exchanging glances with him. Dian Shao, for his part, did not care in the least. The moment he appeared, he fixed Mu You’s group in a deathlike lock, as though everything else here had nothing to do with him.

Mu You felt a chill under that stare. Dian Shao’s exposed skin was covered in scars left by countless battles and slaughter. Around his neck hung a wolf-fang pendant that carried a restrained edge of sharpness. Most unforgettable of all were the three beast claw marks across his forehead, each one nearly cutting through half his face. Even now that the wounds had healed, the scars still curled outward in ragged flesh. The middle claw mark went straight through Dian Shao’s right eye, and from that eye came a terrifying, dim, icy gleam.

That was by no means a human eye.

It held not the faintest trace of human emotion—lonely, and utterly dead.

It was clearly... the eye of some beast, transplanted later.

“Code name: Lady.”

“Code name: MEN.”

“Code name: Maiden Slayer.”

After the three judges and the prison tamer introduced themselves, they all turned to look at Dian Shao, who still had not spoken.

“Code name: Wolf Child.”

An ice-cold, bloodthirsty voice devoid of any human emotion came from Dian Shao’s mouth. His pronunciation was not entirely accurate, as though he had only recently learned how to speak.

Seeing this display, the other three groups hurriedly moved toward the instructors nearest to them, while at the same time casting Mu You’s team looks of pity.