"A single Spirit Beast is like a walking treasure. Every single part of it is worth a gold or two."

It was indeed Qai.

With the thrust of his Guandao, a gust of powerful force blew from his weapon straight to the mouth of the Bison.

And what astonished those who recognized him was that the supposed fireball was instantly thwarted from being formed and that the Spirit Beast was forced to take a meter step backward.

Qai himself flew back from the collision but his Silver rank physique was able to take on the huge blow. Those who watched were surprised when they saw Qai completely unscathed.

“Big sis Song, lock its movement with your arrows. Mak, lead everyone to surround it and don’t let it escape, ” Qai suddenly ordered.

When the squad heard him, the members immediately complied with his instructions. Apparently, they had all gotten used to that tricky formation.

The Bison, on the other hand, saw the sudden change of formation and it roared thunderously. It suddenly stomped its front hooves then charged towards Qai.

When it made its move, Song hastily unleashed 3 successive arrows which landed on the beast’s thighs. It growled in pain and was somehow slowed down by the assault.

Qai then took that opportunity to charge himself. He jumped as he neared and quickly made his attack.

‘Nightfall!’

Baam. Baam.

‘Dance of Death!’

Wabooom.

The two consecutive skills stunned the Bison, and it ended up limping as it landed on the ground with its forehead ripped open.

The soldiers and hunters around stopped for a moment ang swept a glance at Qai.

‘Strong!’

In their hearts, they knew no one else could engage with that Bison head on.

But when Qai saw it was still alive, he retreated a few steps. He was, in truth, astonished at its toughness.

He looked into its eye.

For the first time, he saw a Spirit Beast of the legends. And this Bison will definitely be imprinted in his mind for the rest of his life.

It was cornered but it did feel any fear. In fact, it was Qai who felt a sense of danger. After all, a dying camel is still bigger than a horse.

But in this battle he was not alone.

“Everyone, attack!” He screamed.

Without any second thoughts, all other 13 members of the reserve squad simultaneously attacked.

‘Spear Thrust!’

Baam.

’Double Slash!’

Baam. Baam.

Qai for his part, leapt forward and simply made a hacking gesture with his Guandao. He screamed hard as slashed downwards with the might of Silver rank Knight at its peak.

Boooom!

The Bison howled badly before it dropped dead.

When this happened, the rest of the beasts appeared to have lost its command and quickly fled in different directions.

The elders, who saw everything, were elated. They knew that they just survived a great catastrophe—and what was even more worthy of celebration was that the village suffered minimal casualty. Around a dozen died from the hunters side and the rest were injured in different manners.

The soldiers from the walls were of course in a much safer position so nobody died. As for the reserve squad, Mak was the most heavily injured but as for the rest, they were all fine.

And when the smoke cleared, tons of bodies of dead beasts scattered across the field but shouts of joy echoed in the air.

As for the body of the Spirit Beast, Qai immediately butchered it and tossed a leg to one of the members of the squad then exclaimed to cook it later for meal.

Qai asked the rest of the group to help him cut the beast into several pieces but he wanted its skin and horns for his father to see if they’re of any use.

The elders twitched when they saw the group dismantling the beast as of if they were mad butchers. Little did they know that the group had been doing the same for years.

They wanted the remains of the Bison for themselves but could not say anything against them.

However, when the group came to the part when they had to cut through its center area, a small crystal-like stone was found.

Upon discovery, the squad member handed it to Qai, who on other hand first gave it a hard look. When he couldn’t figure out what it was, he tucked it inside his pocket. He just decided that maybe Master Han or any elder would know of it and ask them sometime later.

While the squad was cleaning the remains of the Bison, the hunters woke up from daze at their victory and also started picking up the bodies of the dead beasts.

When the elders saw this, they immediately instructed the soldiers to do the same and bring them inside the walls.

Meanwhile, some miles away from the nameless village, a man standing on a branch of a huge tree watched everything unfolded. In fact, he was already there right from the very beginning.

“Interesting,” he muttered before he disappeared.

The man wore a robe with a pouch tucked in his belt. He appeared to be old and had a cold demeanor.

Seemingly, he could see everything from such a distance. But who could say, somebody actually witnessed the battle between the villagers and beasts. No trace from where he watched was left. It was like no one was there at all.

Back in the village, however, the elders started to take account of their spoils.

Everyone who participated, as well as the families of those who died, received a wild beast body each as a reward.

The rest of beasts were sent to the treasury.

The fields were destroyed. Many were nursing their injuries.

Master Han and Nabi had their hands full in taking care of all the injured.

Unlike the members of the reserve squad who were technically ’knights, ’ the hunters and soldiers had no body refinement technique so their physical endurance and regeneration were slower by a lot—the difference was like night and day.

As for the Spirit Beast remains, most of it had already been taken by the reserve squad. The treasury only received a leg. But then again, no one could question the squad’s contribution so one dared to complain.

During the victory celebration, the members of the reserve squad were happily roasting slabs of the Bison’s meat. They were practically in a good mood—in anticipation, of course, of finally having a taste of a Spirit Beast meat.

“Alright, tonight’s a feast. So let’s celebrate to our hearts content!” A member of the squad cheered.

When everyone had bite though, a miraculous thing happened.

All those who had been enduring a bottleneck from the peak of their ranks simultaneously had a breakthrough—with energy bursting forth from their bodies. As for the rest, they still felt an improvement by a lot.

Even Qai who had been seeking a catalyst to become a Gold rank Knight made a breakthrough.

‘Gold rank!’

Gold rank was, more or less, the summit of physical training. That was because the levels beyond that required a different kind of training—a comprehension of the weapon technique through mastery of the skills, or more exactly, the development of Intent.

Back in his previous life, his eldest brother, the first born son of Count Augusto became a Gold rank Knight at the age of 18; for that, he was treated as a genius by many and the treasure of the Thorns family.

But Qai in this life was already a Gold rank Knight at just 9 years of age.

Truly unprecedented!

But that did not make Qai put on some air. He knew much work was to be done.

In the empire, there were no foes like the Spirit Beasts. Then, there were those existences called immortals.

So he cannot just sit back and be satisfied in his achievements. He was somewhat convinced that in the grand scheme things in this new life, Gold rank Knights may just amount to nothing.

Qai could only sigh.

Meanwhile, the surrounding fell silent for a second before a louder cheers reverberated in the air as many among them brokethrough.

Qai became overjoyed at the success of his peers on top of the battle they won.

“Well, I guess this calls for a double celebration,” he mused.