On the observation tower overlooking Mingzhu City, Zhang Ping and Liu Sishan stood side by side, their eyes fixed on the three Skyborn Foxes walking along the street below.

"Sisi, are we just here to watch the Skyborn Foxes kill people?" Zhang Ping asked, frowning as he glanced at Liu Sishan.

Liu Sishan’s gaze remained fixed on the Skyborn Foxes. "Keep watching," she replied flatly.

The three Skyborn Foxes thought they were walking down a normal street, but they had unknowingly veered into the arena square.

Zhang Ping finally noticed Jin Bo and the other Slaughter Unit members tailing the Skyborn Foxes. It dawned on him who they were.

Thanks to Wind Whisperer, Zhang Ping knew the names and abilities of most Slaughter Unit members, even though he had never met them in person. Only when they displayed their abilities could he match their names to their faces.

"Are you planning to take out those three Skyborn Foxes?" Zhang Ping speculated.

Liu Sishan shook her head. "No, this is just a test. The real target is the Lunara Prince you mentioned earlier. We need all the intelligence we can get on it."

"You want to lure it out. But will it take the bait?" Zhang Ping glanced toward the distant Lord's Manor.

Currently, the Skyborn Foxes were holed up in the Lord's Manor, awaiting the Mutated Beasts’ invasion. Their strategy was clear: plunge Mingzhu City into chaos, force the strongest human fighters to reveal themselves, and then eliminate them in one fell swoop. They weren’t hunting beasts—they were after poultry.

"It doesn’t matter," Liu Sishan said coldly. "If it doesn’t come, it doesn’t come."

If it stayed put, the three Skyborn Foxes would surely die.

If it showed up, there was no guarantee it could save them either.

The activation of the Illusory Sky Veil served multiple purposes. One of its key objectives was to trap the Skyborn Foxes. As long as they dared to step outside, they would be hunted down without mercy. While this tactic wouldn’t work against the Lunara King once it awoke, it was highly effective for now.

The battle was about to begin.

Golden lightning patterns spread across Jin Bo's body, his hair standing upright as it gleamed with a dazzling radiance.

"Whoa, Super Saiyan!" Zhang Ping thought, astonished by the sight.

It was his first time witnessing Jin Bo in action. Despite knowing a lot about him through Wind Whisperer, seeing it live was an entirely different experience.

Jin Bo’s ability, Golden Blood, granted his blood a myriad of uses, transformation being one of them. His blood was also rich in life force, capable of rapidly healing wounds, neutralizing most toxins, and even reversing aging if there was enough of it.

He was virtually invulnerable. The only way to kill him was to face an enemy with a higher rank.

Jin Bo made his move!

His muscles swelled as golden lightning patterns crackled along his body. With a single stride, he launched his fist at the target with full force.

Lunara I reacted the fastest. As Jin Bo closed in, it turned abruptly, but it saw nothing—the Illusory Sky Veil blocked its vision.

However, as Jin Bo’s fist breached the Veil, Lunara I instinctively raised its hands to block. The punch sent it flying dozens of meters, crashing into the concrete of the arena and leaving a deep crater on impact.

As Jin Bo initiated his assault, two other Slaughter Unit combatants joined the fray.

Lunara II and Lunara III fared worse than Lunara I.

They were attacked by Ding Chen and Lu Han, respectively.

Ding Chen’s ability, Light Blade, was a pure offensive skill. His eyes emitted cold, blue light that lacked any heat but possessed terrifying cutting power.

Lu Han, on the other hand, wielded Psionic Energy Manipulation. His body generated Psionic Energy, which he could control with his will. When imbued in weapons, it significantly enhanced their properties, even allowing him to remotely control flying swords.

Both were high-attack, low-defense Awakeners.

Lunara II lost an arm and one of its eyes. The arm was severed by a beam from Ding Chen’s right eye, while the left eye was blinded by his other beam. If it hadn’t turned its head at the last moment, its brain would have been pierced.

Lunara III suffered a deep gash across its chest from Lu Han, collapsing to the ground, barely clinging to life.

Roar!

Enraged by the scene, Lunara I let out a furious roar.

Covered by the Illusory Sky Veil, Jin Bo and the others appeared to Lunara I as three towering White Apes.

Had its opponents been human, Lunara I might have tried using words to disrupt them. But against what appeared to be fellow Mutated Beasts, only strength mattered.

"Make it quick."

Jin Bo didn’t speak but gestured to his teammates, then charged at Lunara I.

As they clashed, both sides aimed punches at each other's heads. Standing at 3.5 meters with arms nearly 2 meters long, Lunara I clearly had the advantage.

The problem was that what it saw was an illusion.

In its vision, Jin Bo appeared as a 3-meter-tall White Ape, so it aimed its attack at head level. The real Jin Bo wasn’t nearly that tall, causing the punch to miss entirely.

Seizing the opening, Jin Bo landed an uppercut to its jaw. Teeth shattered as Lunara I was sent airborne.

The fight was now a foregone conclusion.

One mistake led to another.

Jin Bo unleashed a flurry of punches, venting all his pent-up rage onto Lunara I. Its arms were broken, its organs pulverized, and its entire body battered beyond recognition.

"It’s coming. Retreat!"

A team member monitoring the perimeter called out.

On the arena grounds, Jin Bo took one last look at the unconscious Lunara I. Without hesitation, he raised his foot and crushed its head. Then, without a backward glance, he turned and walked away.

The Slaughter Unit members, shrouded by the Sky Veil, vanished from the square in an instant.

"That was incredible!" Zhang Ping exclaimed, staring at the devastated arena.

The entire plaza looked as though it had been bombarded by artillery for hours. The mangled corpses of the three Skyborn Foxes painted a grim picture. Jin Bo and his team had deliberately left the bodies behind.

"We overestimated the strength of the Skyborn Foxes," Liu Sishan said calmly.

They had anticipated a challenging battle for Jin Bo and the others, assuming the combatants were of similar power levels. Instead, the Skyborn Foxes were annihilated in seconds.

"No, it’s just that they chose not to tear off the human skins on their foreheads," Zhang Ping replied. "Once they do that, they won’t be so easy to handle."

Through the Wind Whisperer’s insights, Zhang Ping knew that the human skins adhered to the foreheads of the Skyborn Foxes were crucial to their abilities.

As long as the human skin remained, they retained their humanoid forms, which diminished their combat prowess. If they tore it away, unleashing their full abilities, the battle would shift to a nightmarish level of illusion-based combat.

After all, the Skyborn Foxes were psychic Mutated Beasts; close-quarters combat wasn’t their forte.

As Zhang Ping spoke, Lunara Prince suddenly descended from the sky, landing in the middle of the arena.

Lunara Prince had detected the combat vibrations the moment Jin Bo attacked Lunara I but hadn’t pinpointed the battlefield’s exact location.

Although it had flown high above the city, the arena remained cloaked, hidden from view.

It wasn’t until Lunara II and III were slain and the scent of blood filled the air that Lunara Prince finally locked onto the location. By then, it was already too late.

Standing amidst the three corpses, Lunara Prince exuded a terrifying aura.

From the distant watchtower, Zhang Ping prepared to use his Identification Skill but was suddenly overwhelmed by an ominous premonition. He could almost see a flash of a grim scene—if he activated the skill, the next moment, his head would be crushed by a tail strike.

"I can’t use the Identification Skill!" Zhang Ping muttered through clenched teeth, sweat beading on his forehead.

“What’s wrong?” Liu Sishan asked, turning toward him.

"My ability would alert it. Unless someone holds it off, I’ll die the moment I use it," Zhang Ping explained, trembling.

Liu Sishan frowned slightly. They were over a kilometer away from Lunara Prince, and even here, they weren’t safe?

Meanwhile, Lunara Prince’s aura continued to intensify. Suddenly, a hand gripped its ankle. It knelt down and saw Lunara III still breathing, blood pouring from its chest.

"Don’t speak. I’ll heal you," Lunara Prince murmured, reaching to tear the human skin from its forehead.

But Lunara III stopped the movement.

With the Lunara King still in slumber, tearing off the human skin would expose Lunara Prince completely. Without the King’s amplified power, it would be defenseless against the humans’ counterattacks, no matter how strong it was.

“White Ape... attacked... us... the White Ape clan...” Lunara III rasped, struggling to get the words out.

As soon as it finished, its eyes dimmed, and its breathing ceased.

The White Ape clan?

Lunara Prince’s thoughts reeled. It had assumed the attackers were humans, but now, White Apes?

Could it trust Lunara III’s dying words? The fact that Lunara III had held on just to deliver this message made false information unlikely.

Skyborn Foxes, being psychic beasts, had extraordinary resistance to illusions and hypnosis. Lunara Prince doubted any enemy could manipulate Lunara III’s mind.

But if the White Ape clan had infiltrated Mingzhu City, this raised troubling questions.

As Lunara Prince pondered, Zhang Ping and Liu Sishan descended from the watchtower and began heading toward the city outskirts.

“Sisi, where are we going?” Zhang Ping quickened his pace to catch up.

“We have a week, at most, before the Sky Veil dissipates,” Liu Sishan replied. “We need to figure out Lunara Prince’s power. I don’t know how strong you need to be to use your ability against it, but your current level is obviously too low.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Zhang Ping asked, puzzled.

“The fastest way for an Awakener to level up is through combat,” Liu Sishan said matter-of-factly. “For the next five days, I’ll put you through intensive battle training. On the sixth day, we’ll return and find an opportunity to test Lunara Prince’s power. Hopefully, you’ll have grown strong enough by then.”

“Do I have a choice?” Zhang Ping asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Liu Sishan said, her tone flat. “But if the Skyborn Foxes target you again, I won’t save you next time.”

"Fine, I’ll go."

Zhang Ping had no other choice. While he resisted, it wasn’t a firm refusal.

Suddenly, he thought of his responsibilities at Iron Soul and his classes at Beastlord Punch Gym.

“What about my job at Iron Soul and my training at the gym?” he asked.

“I’ve already arranged for Wang Jieming to cover for you,” Liu Sishan replied.

In truth, Zhang Ping didn’t mind methods that could boost his strength. He just didn’t want to hand over control of his training to Liu Sishan. Her arrangements might not align with his unique circumstances.

Still, given the situation, he had no choice but to follow her out of the city.