Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Unexpected Results

For this ability awakening trial, Kaelen only instructed each person in the selected group to step into the center of the array; he himself only assisted by striking a surge of Magical Energy to activate it, then stood aside to observe.

The group selected this time had five people, including Christian who had just arrived at the tribe. This surprised Kaelen a little. He could not help but pay attention to this Black Wolf beastman who was always as silent as a shadow.

Christian noticed Kaelen’s probing gaze, feeling a bit tense in his heart. His former tribe had collapsed in the blizzard: some died of illness, others perished from starvation, while others became prey for magic beasts... Those who knew his identity as the young Chief were all gone; Colton and Aaron were the last tribesmen of the tribe, they would not betray him.

Therefore, he did not know the meaning of this scrutinizing look. Could his secret have been exposed?

Kaelen’s line of sight was blocked. He looked over and saw Sane staring at him with a dark face, knowing that looking at another beastman for too long had made this snake jealous again. He found it amusing and grabbed Sane’s arm, tracing signs. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Sane’s pupils quivered slightly, and then he called Christian aside privately.

"Were you once a warrior beastman?"

Christian’s body trembled, his two fists clenching tightly. Had he finally been found out? Should he speak up or not? If he told them, would they kick him out of the tribe?

Sane said: "You have joined Crimson and know many of the tribe’s secrets. You understand what I mean, right?"

Christian’s pupils contracted into vertical slits. That was right, they would definitely kill him.

"I harbor no ill intentions. It is true that I was once a warrior beastman, but... Please believe me, I sincerely want to become a person of Crimson."

"We do not need tribesmen with secrets, Christian. For the safety of the tribe, either you speak up, or I will send you to the Beast God."

Christian closed his eyes and opened them again. After a long moment of resolve, he finally spoke:

"We, the three of us, are slaves who escaped from the Intermediate City..."

Christian recounted his experiences with a bitter tone, also explaining the reason why he had been crippled from a warrior beastman into an ordinary beastman.

While wandering to escape the blizzard, their tribe was captured by a patrol squad from the Intermediate City and reduced to slaves.

"My Daddy was the Chief, and I was the young Chief. Because the seal given to us by the Temple was buried in the blizzard, we became wandering beastmen. Before being captured, our tribe had over a hundred people; after being captured..." A teardrop slid down Christian’s chin. "Only the three of us were left."

"Aaron and I were branded with slave marks and thrown into the gladiator camp. Colton... he was thrown into the military brothel..."

As Christian spoke, he took off the animal skin shirt he was wearing and turned his back to reveal an ugly brand on his back.

"Colton was raped until he got pregnant, and then beaten until he miscarried. If we had not escaped, Colton would have died. I know that my hiding my identity as a slave will cause the tribe trouble if harboring escaped slaves is discovered, but we have no way back anymore."

Sane did not expect the experiences of these three people to be so arduous. He waved his hand at the two guard beastmen, saying: "You wait here for now, my mate and I need to discuss this first."

The two guard beastmen stood on either side of Christian; Sane immediately pulled Kaelen to a corner to discuss. Time passed very slowly; Christian felt as if a whole decade had gone by. Just when he felt completely desperate, Sane brought Kaelen over.

Sane said: "Show him your slave mark."

Christian turned his back and took off his shirt once more. Kaelen narrowed his eyes to observe this mark that somewhat resembled the mouth of a lily flower, along with the faint Magical Energy fluctuation on it, and smirked. He had thought it would be like the prisoner marking seals in the Magic City from his previous life; it turned out to be just a petty trick, not requiring him to take action at all.

Kaelen nodded at Sane.

Sane turned to speak to the two guard beastmen: "You two bring those other two here as well, let’s solve this all at once."

Kaelen blinked as he looked at Sane. *Do you know that your phrase ’solve this all at once’ sounds very terrifying? Christian’s face has gone completely pale.*

Christian had indeed misunderstood Sane’s meaning, trembling as he said: "Chief, we swear we will not reveal the tribe’s secrets, please do not kill us..."

Sane frowned: "When did I say I was going to kill you?"

Christian was dumbfounded. Kaelen burst out laughing, patted Sane’s arm, and then gestured to Christian himself: [He means to erase the marks on your bodies.]

At this moment, a small shout came from the trial area; Kaelen hurriedly ran over there. Sane quickly ran after him: "Do not run, walk slowly." Then he turned back to call Christian: "What are you still standing there for, hurry over here."

Christian finally snapped back to reality, walking back to his original standing position.

The first person to step into the array was a striped Tiger clan Sub-Beast. He had been inside for about half an hour when the array began to fluctuate. The spiritual aura within the array turned bright red, and a moment later, a fire blazed up. The Sub-Beast inside the array jumped up and down: "Ah ah ah! Fire! Fire! My hair, save me!"

This area had absolutely no water; everyone could only use the water skins at their hips to put out the fire for the Sub-Beast. By the time the fire was extinguished, the Sub-Beast’s hair had been burned patchily, and his face was pitch black.

Everyone lowered their heads, trying to suppress their laughter. Kaelen buried his face in Sane’s chest, waving his hand.

"Ahem! Alright, next person. Oleck, you step in." Sane cleared his throat and said.

Oleck took a deep breath, gathering all his courage to enter. Half an hour passed, and nothing happened at all. Oleck scratched his head in confusion. Did this mean it was unsuccessful?

After receiving the order from Sane, he walked out dejectedly, making way for a Wild Buffalo clan beastman. The Buffalo clan beastman stayed inside for half an hour with no phenomena occurring, but when he stepped out, the ground beneath his feet was trampled down into a pit.

"Oh, Beast Energy has been awakened. Congratulations on becoming a warrior beastman. Next person."

The Wild Buffalo beastman smiled foolishly and walked out, making room for another person to enter. This person was a Black Snake clan beastman; after he had been in the array for a while, a strange phenomenon occurred just like with the first Sub-Beast, and he awakened a Water-element ability.

Only Christian remained. Aaron and Colton had also been brought over, both their faces showing tension. They glanced at Christian together, and only upon receiving his reassuring nod did they relax their minds.

"Alright, since Oleck did not awaken, head back to the tribe first. Morrow, take the remaining three to the military camp; take the one who awakened Beast Energy to Zale’s place, and take the two who awakened Divine Energy to Theron’s place."

The guard beastman Morrow received the order and took those four away. Only Christian’s trio remained at the trial site.

Kaelen gestured for Christian to step into the array himself. Unlike the source of Magical Energy introduced into the array for the other four, for Christian, he used double the amount of Magical Energy, aiming to borrow the spiritual aura within the array to erase the Magical Energy fluctuation in the slave mark.

Half an hour after Christian entered the array, strange phenomena also began to appear, but the completion process took twice as long as the other three. Inside the array, Christian’s face contorted, looking like physical agony yet also like mental torment.

Christian felt as if he had returned to the dark past when he was first captured, watching his Daddy and tribesmen die one after another in front of him, watching young Sub-Beasts being raped and young beastmen having wooden stakes driven through their shoulders. He also saw Colton, covered in blood, crawling on the snow, his eyes looking towards the free expanse.

Suffering, fear, and hatred swept Christian into an endless vortex. Kill! Kill them all!

"Ah ah ah!"

A furious roar echoed out. Rolling black clouds appeared in the previously clear sky, tornadoes howled, and the sound of thunder shook the heavens.

"Quickly fall back!"

Sane shouted loudly, hurriedly picking up Kaelen and running far away. Kaelen clung to the hem of Sane’s shirt; even though the wind blew so hard he could not open his eyes, he was extremely excited in his heart.

It was here again, the heavenly tribulation of a beastman awakening a non-elemental ability!

He wondered what ability Christian would awaken; could it be the Lightning element like Theron?

Pillars of lightning crashed down with a rumble; after nine pillars of lightning passed, a rainbow appeared in the sky once more. Bathed in light, Christian stepped out of the array; behind his back, a pair of pitch-black wings were spread wide. Christian looked curiously at the new objects that had sprouted from his back, trying to flap them twice. As soon as the wings vibrated, a blade of wind flew out, slicing through nearby objects like tree trunks and rock outcroppings.

The objects were severed clean through, crashing down with a rumble.

Christian’s body went stiff, not daring to move an inch anymore.

"A mutated Wind-element Divine Energy? Try using your mind to see if you can retract the wings." Sane received Kaelen’s signal and relayed it to Christian: "Close your eyes and think of your desire in your head."

Christian followed suit, closing his eyes and chanting in his mind: [I want to retract the wings, retract the wings... Retract!]

The massive wings that were spread wide shrank back with a swish, then disappeared without a trace. Colton and Aaron ran over excitedly, circling once to examine Christian’s body. Colton suddenly spoke up:

"Brother, your slave mark has disappeared."

Their eyes lit up, looking at Sane and Kaelen with reverence. Kaelen waved his hand somewhat embarrassedly: [Let us continue.]

Aaron walked in as an ordinary beastman, but came out as a beastman who had awakened Divine Energy with a cloning ability - he could temporarily create a clone exactly like himself.

Colton stepped in, and after coming out, he had awakened an Ice-element ability, with a temporary freezing radius of fifty meters.

Excellent, the last three survivors of a small tribe had all awakened non-elemental abilities. Sane’s feelings at this moment were nothing but complicated.

The three of them looked at each other, then stepped forward and knelt in front of Kaelen and Sane, placing their hands over their left chests, saying:

"Chief, Divine Emissary, we swear upon our souls before the Beast God, from now on we are your loyal subordinates, willing to dedicate our lives to you both; if we break this oath, our souls shall be imprisoned in the Hell of Exile, never to be reincarnated."

Kaelen hurriedly reached out his hands, supporting Colton to help him stand up:

[I am also someone who awakened Divine Energy just like you all, do not call me Divine Emissary. I cannot bear such a responsibility.]

"You can just call him by his name, or call him the little Priest. Keeping this title of Divine Emissary in your hearts is enough." Sane said, holding a hint of petty pride in his words, remaining completely unfazed even when Kaelen glared at him. Christian’s group actually took this to heart. In their hearts, Kaelen was the Divine Emissary, even if he did not admit it.

Kaelen did not know the thoughts in their hearts, and even if he did, he could not do anything about it. People valued faith; once faith was established, it was very hard to shake.

He closed his eyes, using his ability to examine Colton’s body. After a while, Kaelen opened his eyes, carrying a trace of regret in his gaze. Because his body had suffered too much damage, Colton would probably never be able to become a Papa in the future.

"Divine... little Priest, there is no need to feel pity for me, I have known about this for a long time. I have resolved not to find a mate in this lifetime, so whether I have children or not is unimportant."

Kaelen looked at Colton with a complicated gaze, then suddenly said: [Do you want to adopt a child? The tribe has a few orphans, you can adopt one.]

Colton was stunned, then became overjoyed: "Really? Then... then can I adopt Ezekiel as my child? I really like him."

Ezekiel was precisely the Silver Fox cub who had been orphaned right after birth among the group of thirteen newcomers. Of course, Kaelen did not object.

Aaron suddenly turned to him and said: "You like silver foxes? Then what do you think of me? Can you consider choosing me as your mate?" After that, he was frozen into an ice statue.

The matter was considered to have reached a satisfactory conclusion here; Sane waved his hand to tell the guard beastman to take the three of them to Theron’s place, while he personally escorted Kaelen back.

"This success rate is quite high. Aside from Oleck who did not awaken, all seven people have become warriors. This array of yours is truly miraculous."

Kaelen smiled: [My array being powerful is only one part, the rest depends on everyone’s own capabilities. You must know that no matter how wonderful the array is, if the person entering it is weak, the risk of death is also very high.]

"Mhm, let us wait a few more days to select another group with outstanding results for awakening."

The two had just returned to the new valley when a beastman ran over in a panic, reporting:

"Chief, Chief, Oleck, Oleck buried himself in the ground!"