**Chapter EIGHT**
A loud boom resounded, shaking the nearby trees and making it seem as if the forest as a whole trembled from an unknown force. A large veil of dust rushed into the air. When the dust finally parted, it revealed the ones responsible for the disturbance. Standing on one side was a large, dark grizzly bear with claws as sharp as swords and as thick as tree trunks. The beast towered around five feet, its body and presence strong and daunting. Its fra was marked by several claw strikes, with blood trickling down the monster’s great, massive body. That did not do anything to weaken its dangerous aura, though. If anything, it seed that the pain only increased the primal aura the beast was giving off.
The one that had caused it so much trouble stood at only four feet tall. It was smaller and shorter in terms of height and size, but the air the other beast gave off was by no ans any smaller. This second beast was a cheetah with sharp fangs that glinted dangerously under the rays of the sunlight. It had smaller wounds on its body due to the fact that the cheetah was far faster than the bear and had been able to deliver far more damage in return. The two beasts growled at each other, the look in their eyes practically screaming their thoughts. Both were hell-bent on tearing each other apart. They started to inch closer and closer to one another with madness burning in their eyes, ready to pounce at any mont.
While the two beasts prepared to enter their next battle, likely their eighth round, the one who had instigated all of this was atop one of the tallest trees in the area eating so pea-sized fruit. Li Yu, or more correctly Rayden, sat atop the tallest tree branch. His expression was calm and neutral as he put another piece of fruit, which was far sweeter than any usual berry from Earth, into his mouth. He was calm, watching the show unfold and enjoying the scene with his made-up popcorn. Anyone seeing him right now would find it hard to believe that this fragile, handso young man was the one who had tricked two beasts far more powerful than himself. He had outsmarted them and then forced the two creatures to face and weaken each other.
The two beasts were both roughly at the middle of level one, aning that the battle would be a tough one. Based on how the show had been playing out so far, Li Yu was right, yet he was certain of one thing. One of the beasts would surely win and kill the other, but by that ti the winner would be in a very terrible situation. This would allow Li Yu to just sweep in and end the victor. Minimum effort for maximum reward.
Over the past few days, Li Yu had discovered many oddities with his system. It was as if it were another living, quirky human. Although it mostly spoke in a monotone voice, the emotions behind it were perfect and more than quirky.
"Hey System, are you sure you aren’t going to accept defeat already?" Li Yu asked with a smile.
He and his system had beco best buddies over these past days. Well, maybe buddy wouldn’t be the right way to say it since the two argued and fought a lot, but still, since the system was the only one Li Yu had co to know well apart from the primal beasts, he had no choice but to bear with his insane, unhelpful system. He and the system had made a bet on which among the two beasts would triumph at the end of their battle. Li Yu had chosen the cheetah and the system selected the grizzly bear. The system had been extrely arrogant at the beginning when the grizzly beast seed to be winning, but now that the beast seed just a few strikes away from falling, Li Yu was trying to tease it.
The reply the system gave, however, was not what he was expecting. It gave a snarky, arrogant reply oozing with confidence. Li Yu shook his head. It seed that the system would never be able to accept defeat until the ending was clear. Li Yu yawned slightly as if bored of the fight and threw another berry into his mouth. Well, they would see who would win the bet, him or the arrogant system.
The two powerful beasts continued to fight, dealing each other grueso wounds. Each attacked with deep frenzy and madness nestled in their eyes as they reaped each other’s flesh and fur. After a while, the two beasts disengaged once more, both panting and covered in blood. Especially the large bear, as one of its hands could not be used anymore. It was almost dangling on the ground. The other still seed to be in a good position. Well, not really that good, but Rayden knew he had won the bet.
The thought made him smile slightly. He seed to have outsmarted his annoying system.
[Host, I don’t know why you are being so smug. You haven’t won the bet yet, after all.]
The system seed annoyed by Li Yu’s current expression, which only made Li Yu’s grin widen even more.
"You have lost, admit it," Li Yu said in his head.
[Wrong,] the system said. [The battle hasn’t ended yet.]
"Well, since you wouldn’t admit it, then let’s watch until the end."
The two beasts stared at each other with madness burning in their eyes and then both of them launched forward. The cheetah leaped up with its fangs gleaming, ready to tear into the second hand of the bear. Just when it seed that this was exactly what would happen, sothing changed. The bear’s stance shifted. It rotated and used its powerful, thick legs to deliver a strong, powerful kick to the neck of the cheetah that was already in the air. The cheetah was totally unable to react mid-air and got slamd hard. Blood spurted out as the cheetah crashed hard into a large tree at the side.
Before the beast could get back to its feet, the bear was upon it. It used its legs to trap the cheetah’s hands and legs. The cheetah struggled weakly underneath the bear’s strong, suppressive force. Blood spilled from its mouth as its fangs had shattered during the last impact. Before the beast could think about how to redeem the situation, it was already too late. The bear’s sharp claws pierced right through its throat into the beast’s skull. The cheetah jolted once and then went limp permanently. It was dead.
Li Yu had lost.
"I... lost," Li Yu thought, his mouth wide open in shock.
Up until the last mont, the cheetah really had dealt the most damage and was likely the one to win. Yet, at that brief final mont, the battle changed and the bear won.
"Damn it!" Li Yu cursed with a frown.
It was not because he cared about the cheetah, but simply because he lost the bet, and the bet was going to sting. As if to catalyze his thoughts, the system’s voice chid in his head.
[Host has now lost the bet. Prepare to pay the price.]
"Hey System, I’m out of this bet. I’m no longer betting," Li Yu said shalessly after seeing that he had lost.
The system seed to smirk at his words before another ding echoed.
[Host has lost 2000 essence point to the system. Betting cost.]
Li Yu’s gaze sank. "Damn system," he cursed. That was practically almost all the hard work he had been doing these past few days, and yet it was all gone just like that in a blink. "Fuck you, system. You knew this would happen. You tricked . You are really evil."
The system stayed silent, practically dancing in Li Yu’s misery. A loud roar snapped Li Yu back from his self-inflicted suffering as the bear roared to signal its final victory.
"I’m going to rip that beast apart!" Li Yu cursed as he jumped down, landing several ters away from the creature.
The bear, which was on high alert, turned to face the human it had not even been able to sense before. Its gaze seed a bit weary as it looked at Li Yu, who had a devilish look plastered on his face.
"You damn beast made lose everything."
The beast only shifted into an offensive posture, ready to pounce. The hostility from Li Yu was radiating in waves.
"That is better. Fight, fight, and struggle to save yourself, because I’m going to make your death far more painful than anything you have ever faced."
The bear shivered, fear creeping into its bones. It could understand the human’s words through his hostility, so it knew that this human, despite being in a weaker cultivation realm, was going to try everything in his power to kill it. The worse news was that it was greatly weakened now and injured. If it fought this human now, its chances of dying were extrely high. The bear roared as it forgot all reasoning after seeing Li Yu’s creepy grin. This human was too arrogant; it would end him.
Li Yu smiled. "Yeah, co at . Co and die."
Li Yu unsheathed the rusty blade at his side and t the charging beast in the middle. From the very first few strikes that the two exchanged, the one with the upper hand was clear to see. Li Yu looked at the beast, which had suffered more damage from him, with a neutral expression.
"You are kinda weak, really," Li Yu said, annoyed. "Why the hell did that cheetah lose to you?"
Of course, Li Yu was being shaless now. Truly shaless. After all, the current bear was at its final straw. It was a shell of what it used to be and Li Yu was here pissing it off more.
"Co on, die already," Li Yu said with a calm face as he rushed forward.
The bear charged, and when they were about to clash, Li Yu’s body seed to fade as he jumped and kicked at the beast’s damaged hand. The injury sent a spiral of agony through its body, making it shiver and unable to react to Li Yu’s next attack. He hit it right through the face and the beast crashed downward. The rusty blade landed in Li Yu’s grasp and he pierced the beast’s eyes with it. The bear roared and attacked with its second hand, but Li Yu just parried the hand away before he delivered several rounds of punches. He did not hold anything back until a cracking sound could be heard as the beast’s hand went slumped. Its hand had broken apart under Li Yu’s barrage of punches.
But Rayden was not done. He punched at the unfortunate hand over and over again until it shattered into dust. The beast groaned in pain as it opened its mouth to bite at Li Yu’s head, yet Li Yu just shut its mouth, slamd its head hard onto the ground with such force that the earth shattered, and then continued to punch at the beast’s head. Over and over again he muttered coldly, "You caused this! You caused this!"
Sincerely, Li Yu was just taking his anger out on the poor beast, but it should bla its luck for being the only one with a physical body for Li Yu to take all of his frustration out on. After thrashing and shattering the beast’s skull into a bloody pulp, Rayden cald down as he sighed. Shit, even killing the beast gruesoly like this did not relieve him of the pain of losing a fortune.
[Ding! Level one stage 5 beast has been killed. 5 essence points have been received.]
Li Yu’s face twitched. Compared to the 2000 essence stones he lost to the system, this was like a drop in the sea. He would have to kill exactly 400 of these bears just to get back to where he was, the loss felt massive. One has to note that Li Yu was only able to deal with the bear easily mostly due to its injured state. Although he was confident in being able to kill the beast in its healthy state, it was bound to be troubleso at least. The beast, after all, was in the fifth stage of body refinent while Li Yu was only in the third.
"Now this damn beast has made lose weeks of hard work. Fuck you!" Li Yu growled as he punched the bear’s headless corpse more.
Then the system chid in. [Host seems to be going through ntal violence. What has irritated the host so much? Also, if you could please refrain from bullying the dead. Bullying the weak is considered bad behavior. The dead are a notch above that, so please stop defaming .]
Li Yu’s face twitched. Sincerely, he was simply punching the bear now because he could not punch the one he wanted to punch the most, the damn system. Isn’t that cursed system the cause of his suffering? After a while of cursing, punching, and irritation, Li Yu cald down and decided to move on. He had lost today, but he would make up for it. He had just learned another painful lesson, which is to never gamble with the system.
Before he left, he carved out the two beast cores. They were shiny white cores filled with essence. He took the body of the cheetah with him as he left the area, leaving the mutilated corpse of the bear behind. Soon, Li Yu reached where he had called ho and resided for the past few weeks since he transmigrated. It was a mid-sized cave that was perfectly camouflaged with thick vines growing all around it. He entered, took off his tattered black cloth, and then he threw the cheetah corpse to the side. That would be dinner for later. For now, he needed to feed for lunch.
As Li Yu reached one section of the cave, a pile of large leaves was covering sothing. He lifted them up, and then one could see what was there. In that place were several beast cores. So were lesser in clarity in comparison to the ones in his hand, others were the sa, aning they were from beasts of the sa realm and battle prowess. Two in particular were a bit clearer than the two cores in Li Yu’s hand. They were clearly from beasts stronger than the bear and the cheetah, ones that even Li Yu suffered minor injuries from when he engaged them. But at the end of the day, he killed them, similar to any other beast he had co across so far.
Looking at the pile of cores, Li Yu grinned.
"Finally, ti to feast," he muttered with a smile.
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