The Queen’s Test, Bai Cangshu’s Rank

Gift Games were one of the most fundamental and important activities in the Little Garden World.

In this special world that encompassed the powers of nearly every mythological system, the types of power were far too diverse, so special rules had been established within the Little Garden World.

Nearly all supernatural powers were collectively called [Gifts]. Gifts represented the powers and miracles bestowed by inherently superior beings such as Gods, God Demons, Immortals and Buddhas, and Star Spirits.

The strength of a Gift depended on two things. One was the strength of its source. For example, even with the same ability, an ability derived from the bloodline of some minor demon and one derived from the bloodline of an Immortal or Buddha were fundamentally incomparable in strength and potential.

The other was the weight of history. For example, the reason [Excalibur] was so powerful was that it carried so much history: the King of Britannia, victories over foreign enemies, and more.

A Gift Game was a large-scale game that used [Gifts] as stakes.

It had to be hosted by a group or powerful individual possessing Host Authority, with clear rules established before participants could enter.

Once someone entered a Gift Game, they had to abide by its rules.

After victory, they could receive all manner of rewards, including Gifts, according to the contract.

The [Gifts] of this world encompassed all sorts of things, practically everything imaginable.

However, they could generally be divided into five categories.

Bloodlines, such as the bloodlines of God Demons;

Items and weapons, which also possessed all kinds of peculiar abilities;

Abilities and authorities, as their names implied, could directly grant all manner of skills and powers;

These three categories were basically similar to the enhancements Reincarnators received after obtaining resources in various worlds;

The remaining two categories were far more advanced. One was [Systems], a type of Gift that contained an entire complete power system, even some exceptionally special authority.

For instance, the [Divinity] possessed by Gods. Once someone joined a particular group of Gods, they would automatically gain a complete set of abilities and authority systems corresponding to that group;

For instance, the Demon King’s [Host Authority], which could forcibly drag others into unfair Gift Games;

The final type of Gift was the most advanced of all, called [Spiritual Status]. Spiritual Status represented the rank of one’s very existence. It was the most fundamental rank, transcending the body, mind, and soul.

The gap between Spiritual Statuses could become a decisive difference.

Bai Cangshu wore a faint smile, his hands hanging naturally at his sides as he instantly recalled all the information in his mind.

In a sense, the various rules of the [Infinite Dimensional Space] were quite similar to those of the Little Garden World.

Even the most mysterious and fundamental power system—[Stairs]—carried traces of [Systems] and [Spiritual Status].

"Hey, young man over there, are you also an outsider dragged into this forest?"

At that moment, someone spoke from beneath a large tree beside the road, roughly wide enough for two people to wrap their arms around. His voice was somewhat aged, but still vigorous.

Bai Cangshu looked in the speaker’s direction. It was an old man wearing a bamboo hat and hemp clothing. Seeing Bai Cangshu look over, the old man even waved at him.

Bai Cangshu looked at the forest behind the old man. Mantra’s perception was completely swallowed up. There was some powerful energy field within those woods; the moment electromagnetic force entered, it vanished without a trace.

More than that, the forest interfered with sound and scent as well. Those ancient trees constantly emitted a fragrant aroma, one so pleasant that it unconsciously opened one’s lungs and made breathing incomparably smooth. One would never realize that all other scents had already been completely concealed and erased beneath that fragrance.

Bai Cangshu did not particularly prefer or dislike scents, sounds, or images. To him, all of them were simply information.

Therefore, he had noticed these changes the instant he entered the forest.

Moreover, the old man’s appearance had been extremely abrupt. Bai Cangshu had not sensed the other’s existence until he spoke.

For a Grand Martial Arts Master whose essence had already surpassed the realm of Mind Like Still Water, this was highly unreasonable.

Smiling, Bai Cangshu walked over. The instant he stepped past the giant tree, the atmosphere abruptly changed. The sunny, peaceful scene from moments ago seemed like an illusion as sinister winds continuously poured in from both sides.

"Get back, young man!"

The old man’s expression changed, and he hurriedly called out.

After Bai Cangshu stepped back from the tree, the forest returned to normal. Yet Bai Cangshu had already memorized what he had seen on the tree’s reverse side.

The tree that looked lush and verdant from the front was already decayed and withered on the back, its rotten surface twisted like a monster’s face.

And most of the old man’s back had already been bitten by the giant tree.

"Young man, this forest is strange, but as long as you remember to stay on the main road and keep moving forward, you’ll be able to get out!"

"Remember, no matter what you see, you must not enter this forest. Keep moving forward!"

Bai Cangshu merely glanced at the old man before turning and continuing onward.

As if still worried, the old man kept shouting after him, repeatedly warning Bai Cangshu never to step into the forest.

With his back to the old man, Bai Cangshu lowered his eyelids, and the corner of his mouth curled upward. He had already gained some understanding of this Gift Game.

He was in no hurry, simply walking along the three- to four-meter-wide road. The woods on either side were arranged with remarkable neatness. After crossing a small hill, he spotted a girl-like figure on the road below.

She sat atop a section of deadwood beside the road. The log was over a meter in diameter, and her legs dangled in the air as she gently swung them.

She heard Bai Cangshu’s footsteps as well, turned her head, and asked curiously,

"Eh, are you also an outsider participating in the game?"

"How strange. Why haven’t you entered the forest yet? If you stay on this road, the monsters will eat you up~"

The girl’s orange twin-tails swayed continuously with her movements as she spoke.

Her eyes were innocent and her tone sincere. She stared wide-eyed as though Bai Cangshu walking along the road was something utterly astonishing.

At those words, the curve of Bai Cangshu’s smile widened.

With a tap of his toes, the air was instantly torn apart.

Pfft~

The sound of the air splitting was incredibly soft. Even the wind it stirred merely brushed the girl’s twin-tails.

Bai Cangshu crouched before the girl and said,

"But an old fellow just told me I absolutely must not enter this forest. Little girl, which one of you is lying?"

As if she had heard something terrifying, the girl shuffled backward twice and stammered,

"Th-that… that’s a monster. It… it didn’t eat you?!"

Bai Cangshu tilted his head and examined the girl closely. Then he suddenly raised a hand and stabbed a finger into the center of her brow.

Crackle~

An electric current instantly flooded into her brain, and the magnetic field began to rotate as her hair started changing color.

Cao Qi stood in the middle of a huge plaza with his arms crossed. Quite a few Jack-o’-lanterns floated through the air, each carrying something like a crystal ball beneath it.

Focusing on them, he saw different scenes displayed within the crystal balls.

Every scene contained one of the figures previously swallowed by the giant Pumpkin Man.

Sen Xia had appeared within an ancient tower, where a swordsman stood on every floor. Sen Xia was currently climbing upward from the lowest level.

Reinhardt, meanwhile, had appeared on an enormous inverted floating island, where Mecha units roamed about.

Cao Qi knew that this Gift Game had most likely been designed by that Queen to "anchor" the baseline capability values of this group of outsiders.

Perhaps even in that Queen’s eyes, their group was rather unusual.

Reincarnators, belonging to the faction of a certain Observer, had used her items to gather bloodlines possessing the traits of the three strongest species before crossing worlds to come here.

Cao Qi knew full well that aside from himself, who truly possessed the traits of a Star Spirit by using the characteristics of [Star Child] to stand above the world,

the other two were different. Reinhardt’s Ancient God Race bloodline was of extremely low purity, while Mercenary Tao’s dragon-species bloodline had been entirely fabricated by him.

He had merely used the Observer’s information clinging to those few vials of bloodline to give it the slightest possibility of being forged into a [Dragon Species].

Then came the unreasonable authority of [Miracles], the room for concepts to take effect.

So long as a possibility existed, miracles could turn it into reality.

That was how this authority manifested itself.

But in truth, every miracle that descended inevitably came with a corresponding price.

Miracles did not occur for no reason. Each time he used one, he naturally enjoyed its results directly. Yet if bringing that miracle about was exceptionally difficult, the corresponding causality would be exceptionally harsh.

And now, the price for using this fabricated strongest-species bloodline to open that gate was beginning to reveal itself.

The miracle that made it possible for a fabricated bloodline to be acknowledged and thus open the gate to Little Garden was most likely caused by the Halloween Queen, a high-ranking existence with extraordinary three-digit strength, becoming curious about this group of outsiders who longed to enter Little Garden.

Thus, she acknowledged that fabricated bloodline, the gate naturally opened, and the miracle for their group naturally descended.

But at the same time, an existence like the Halloween Queen had naturally taken an interest in them as well.

That was how this Gift Game came into being.

That Queen would most likely not directly kill their group through the Gift Game, but the trials and dangers within it would certainly escalate layer by layer.

Only then could she swiftly anchor the various abilities and traits possessed by every Reincarnator.

Boom!

An enormous mushroom cloud appeared within one of the crystal balls. Cao Qi immediately recognized the identity behind such a spectacular sight.

As the explosion faded, a massive ravine over a hundred meters wide and nearly a thousand meters long had been carved through the forest.

Before the enormous ravine, the girl’s clothes had been shredded, exposing the twisted deadwood body beneath. That body had long since fused with the log below her.

Crackle~

Electric light flickered through the air. The eruption of [Abyssal Breath] combined with [World-Shaking Thunder Roar] was already enough to kill most Reincarnators at their current stage.

Yet this seemingly inconspicuous monster girl had merely suffered damaged clothing and numerous blackened marks across her surface. Her body remained intact.

"Tsk, as expected of the Little Garden World. Even some random monster has this level of strength?"

The girl’s orange hair had already been burned away, turning into two twisted dead branches.

"Didn’t I tell you to enter the forest?!"

The girl’s voice became twisted and terrifying, while her body rapidly expanded. Roots emerged from both sides of the road, and in an instant, she transformed into a bizarre treant over four or five meters tall.

That log transformed into the shape of a gigantic hammer and smashed toward Bai Cangshu in an instant.

Bang!

Bai Cangshu, clad in Kirin Armor, raised one hand. The viscous air shattered like waves beneath the giant hammer and his arm.

A sonic boom cloud exploded directly outward, and the terrifying crash, accompanied by a shockwave, spread in every direction.

Crack—Boom!

The ground beneath the treant instantly fractured in a web-like pattern before exploding outright. Countless roots and fragments of stone shot toward Bai Cangshu together.

Bai Cangshu remained where he was. The treant’s strike just now was equal to his strength after activating Kirin Armor. In other words, this seemingly commonplace monster possessed destructive power exceeding 400 points with a single strike.

At this stage, most top-tier strength-oriented Reincarnators would have been sent flying by that blow.

"Ha~"

Bai Cangshu let out a strange laugh, growing increasingly excited. His state of mind transformed in an instant, and he took a single step directly through the treant’s roots and the flying sand and stones.

The treant girl’s warhammer swung again, but it was equally useless. Maintaining the Zero Realm of [Musō Tensei], Bai Cangshu passed through the attack as though he did not exist and appeared beside the treant girl.

One hand pressed against the treant girl’s face.

The next moment, his muscles instantly swelled.

Golden qi erupted from all around his body.

Boom!

Empowered by qi, terrifying brute force and driving momentum exploded at once. The roots beneath the girl’s feet had just been pulled free in large numbers to attack, leaving her unable to grip the ground at all.

She was lifted off the ground in an instant.

This is bad!

Bai Cangshu caught the treant girl’s panic, but he paid it no mind. He directly transformed into a streak of golden light and flew backward toward the way he had come.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four Shockwaves exploded through the air in rapid succession. Bai Cangshu accelerated four times in midair and returned to the path he had come from within a single breath. Before the old man could speak, he felt the air congeal, followed by immense force and a treant crashing down upon him.

Whine~

Bai Cangshu had already formed a hypothesis. This Gift Game contained many dimensions of testing; even this space was adjusting itself specifically in response to his abilities.

The terrifying aura he had felt the moment he entered the forest was not false. Likewise, the girl treant’s strength and resilience were not false either.

The words of both monsters concealed methods of avoidance—or rather, strategies aimed at them.

When the girl treant had been uprooted by him, the electric current he had previously implanted in her skull allowed Bai Cangshu to instantly read that panic.

She most likely possessed the trait that her strength would weaken once she left the main road.

By the same logic, the old man who warned him not to enter the forest possessed the opposite trait: he could only unleash his terrifying strength within the forest.

Anyone truly participating in this game had to notice these two traits before devising targeted countermeasures.

Furthermore, the enemies in this Gift Game were all very close to him in his normal state.

This was a test, not a trial.

Bai Cangshu looked at the two monsters he had smashed together below, then raised his head toward the sky.

He was also curious. In the Little Garden World, in the eyes of that extraordinary Queen, just what level of strength did he possess?

"Ah~ ha!"

Surging qi roiled within his body. Accompanied by the roar of the Anti-Life Demonic Dragon, the Eightfold Kaio-ken erupted violently the next moment.

Golden qi and red blood mist burst from his body together, yet his body was now incredibly stable as the furnace of the Demonic Dragon Heart operated soundlessly.

The golden patterns of the Primordial Human Body also flickered across his skin.

Whine!

Qi so dazzling it was impossible to look directly at gathered at Bai Cangshu’s fingertips. The destructive fluctuations spread outward in rings the moment it finished condensing.

The two monsters below changed expression at the same time.

Boom!

The Super Dodon Ray shot forth, followed by a devastating explosion that swept in every direction.