Chapter 295: Beast Master [2]

Grand Abyssal Beast Exchange...

Master Silas stood completely frozen in place, his greasy face turning a comical shade of stark white as Tony’s chilling words echoed off the dark iron walls.

The four dark-armored guards holding the reinforced cage instinctively tightened their grips on their spears, their breathing turning ragged as they felt a sudden, terrifying drop in the room’s temperature.

Lady Selena Faith stepped forward, her violet eyes flashing with a sudden, razor-sharp mercantile wrath.

As the premier heiress of the Golden Phoenix Merchant Guild, she didn’t need Tony to explain further; the moment Tony mentioned a hidden soul wound and a forbidden illusion array, her own high-grade spiritual perception locked onto the strange, unnatural flickering of the griffin’s spatial runes.

"You dare to lay a fraudulent illusion over a terminal beast inside my jurisdiction, Silas?" Selena spoke, her refined voice dropping into a low, majestic melody that carried the absolute, terrifying authority of a trillion-dollar trading empire. Her fingers lightly gripped her communication crystal, her posture radiating an absolute, unyielding coldness.

"If the Golden Phoenix Guild verifies a hidden defect in this ancient lineage, your entire iron pavilion will be stripped of its merchant license, your assets will be frozen permanently, and your head will be delivered straight to the Imperial enforcement halls before the sun sets today!"

"M-My Lady! Young Master! Please lower your catastrophic anger!" Master Silas shrieked in sheer, unadulterated terror, dropping directly onto his knees and kowtowing frantically against the hard stone floor until his forehead bled. His previous arrogant greed completely evaporated into dust, replaced by a desperate, frantic panic as he realized he had just tried to swindle the single most dangerous duo in the city.

"I was completely deceived by the rogue mercenaries who brought the beast! I swear upon my ancestral lineage that I did not know about the slow decay of its spatial core! Please, have mercy on my humble business! I will do anything to compensate for this grave mistake!"

Tony Clark merely let out a low, amused chuckle, his signature lazy posture perfectly returning to his frame as he casually leaned his shoulder against a dark iron pillar. He didn’t care about the vendor’s pathetic lies or his theatrical kowtowing.

His Truth Eye remained completely fixed on the beautiful, crimson-feathered monster resting inside the cage. Despite the terminal decay eating away at its internal pathways, the Griffin’s locked consciousness was still violently thrashing against the heavy core-suppressing iron collar, its ancient, proud spirit entirely refusing to submit to death.

Right at that exact millisecond, a familiar, cold, and mechanical notification suddenly flashed across his vision as his newly reawakened system spirit processed the unique biological anomaly before him.

[Ding! The Fated Villain System has fully scanned the target: Crimson Shadow Griffin.]

[System Analysis: The target possesses a 94% pure Primordial Spatial Void bloodline trace. The internal soul wound can be perfectly purged and reconstructed utilizing an upper-realm catalyst. Host can convert this fraud into an absolute, legendary asset.]

[Displaying System Shop Option: "Celestial Core Restoration Paste" (Low-Tier Higher Realm Grade). Cost: 1,500 Fate Points. Current Fate Points Pool: 2,240.]

A slow, ruthlessly brilliant grin curled the corners of Tony’s lips as the system’s automated solutions perfectly aligned with his calculating ambitions. He had just hoarded two thousand Fate Points from his previous tournament quest, and spending fifteen hundred points to permanently cure an absolute, ancient-lineage beast that was worth a fortune was an exceptionally logical bargain.

He could buy a broken, dying god for a single penny and turn it into his most lethal, hidden trump card.

Tony took a slow step forward, his tall frame casting a massive, intimidating shadow over the kneeling Master Silas, his deep baritone voice carrying a chilling, razor-sharp edge that completely crushed the vendor’s remaining composure.

"Get up from the dirt, old thief, and let us change the parameters of this match," Tony sneered coldly, his tone dripping with absolute, unyielding defiance.

"Since your merchandise is nothing more than a broken, dying piece of garbage that will spontaneously combust within a month, it is no longer worth three hundred thousand high-grade crystals.

I will take this terminal Crimson Shadow Griffin off your hands right now, alongside its black iron cage and the key to its core seal, for exactly fifty thousand low-grade Aura crystals. Consider it a personal fee to keep my partner Selena from flattening your entire pavilion into absolute rubble."

Master Silas raised his head, his eyes widening to the size of saucers in absolute, stunned disbelief. Selling a legendary ancient beast for a mere fifty thousand low-grade crystals was an absolute, crushing loss that would make his heart bleed, but compared to the terrifying mathematical probability of being executed by the Golden Phoenix Guild, it was a miracle of a lifeline.

"I accept! I accept your absolute terms, Young Master Tony!" Silas cried out frantically, kowtowing one final time before scrambling to his feet. He snatched a heavy, runic silver key from his spatial pouch and handed it over with trembling fingers. "Here is the primary key to the core-suppressing iron collar! The beast belongs entirely to you now! Please, Lady Selena, tell your guild line to spare my life!"

Selena Faith looked at Tony, her beautiful features completely tight with intense confusion and frantic worry. She stepped closer to his flank, her voice dropping into a low, conspiratorial whisper.

"Tony, are you completely out of your mind? Fifty thousand low-grade crystals are nothing to us, but that griffin’s spatial core is in a state of terminal decay! Even if you take it back to the Cloud-Mist Pavilion, it will die in a few weeks, and a dead companion beast will cause a severe, violent spiritual backlash that will permanently damage your own 7th Class Elder Disciple foundation! Do not risk your future over a piece of broken glass!"

Tony casually accepted the runic silver key, a wide, villainous smirk plastered on his face as he looked into her anxious violet eyes, his tone full of his signature, shameless nonchalance. "Have a little faith in your primary investment, my beautiful painting partner," Tony murmured smoothly, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a predatory intensity.

"A regular failure sees a broken corpse, but a true villain knows exactly how to breathe life into a monster just so he can unleash a total catastrophe upon his enemies. Order your dark-armored guards to transport this cage straight to my pavilion’s private training yard immediately. I have some serious midnight medical work to perform."

Selena stared at his unbending, confident figure, the total, unshakable certainty in his dark eyes completely washing away her logical skepticism once again, replacing it instead with a sudden, dizzying wave of fanatical awe and absolute curiosity. She nodded her head silently, waving her long sleeve to command her elite merchant guards to secure the transport.

Later that night, the cold midnight darkness completely enveloped the highest peaks of the academy, and a thick mountain mist rolled into the private training yard of the Cloud-Mist Pavilion. The massive black iron cage sat right in the center of the granite platform, its runic arrays humming faintly under the starlight.

Inside, the Crimson Shadow Griffin lay motionless, its blood-red feathers losing their luster as the slow decay of its spatial core reached a critical, agonizing threshold.

Tony Clark stood alone before the iron bars, his dark hunting cloak snapping softly in the freezing wind. He did not waste a single microsecond. With a brief mental command, he accessed his fully synchronized interface. ’System! Consume the fifteen hundred Fate Points immediately and purchase the Celestial Core Restoration Paste! Deploy it directly into the target’s spiritual sea!’

[Ding! Consuming 1500 Fate Points. Purchasing "Celestial Core Restoration Paste"... Success! Remaining Fate Points: 740.]

[Ding! Deploying upper-realm catalyst... Integrating with the target’s Primordial Spatial Void bloodline traces... Reanimation protocol fully active.]

A brilliant, blinding pulse of emerald-green celestial light and pure higher-realm laws suddenly erupted from Tony’s open palm, instantly bypassing the black iron bars and sinking straight into the center of the griffin’s forehead. An instantaneous, reality-shattering transformation violently exploded inside the creature’s physical frame.

The thick layers of dark, toxic decay wrapping around its internal pathways were completely ground into absolute dust within a fraction of a millisecond, replaced by an infinite, roaring ocean of pure spatial void energy that caused the ambient air in the training yard to hum violently.

Tony stepped forward, inserted the runic silver key into the thick iron collar, and violently turned it, completely shattering the core-suppressing array on the spot.

BANG!

The heavy iron collar violently snapped into pieces, and the Crimson Shadow Griffin’s massive eyes violently snapped open, glowing with a terrifying, deep-purple galaxy light that completely mirrored Tony’s own Truth Eye.

The legendary ancient beast let out a deafening, thunderous roar that vibrated through the very foundation of the inner campus, its massive crimson wings violently expanding to their full, thirty-foot span as a colossal vortex of pure spatial shadow force tore across the courtyard, completely shattering the nearby stone walls into microscopic sand.

The griffin stepped out of the black iron cage with majestic, fluid grace, its untamable, murderous temper completely vanishing the moment its new, perfectly reconstructed consciousness locked onto Tony’s dark eyes. It dropped its massive, eagle-like head onto the stone floor, its giant crimson wings folding tightly against its flank in a gesture of absolute, total, and permanent biological submission to its savior.

The spiritual synchronization array beautifully hummed inside Tony’s sea of consciousness, and he could feel his own Elder Disciple magus energy pathways violently accelerating to double their baseline speed as the beast officially became his secondary soul.

"A truly magnificent masterpiece," Tony laughed softly, a slow, ruthlessly brilliant grin curling the corners of his lips as he reached out his hardened hand to gently caress the sleek, blood-red feathers of his new companion.

He knew that with this ancient spatial monster completely bound to his side, his system fully awake, and a mountain of printed wealth in his pocket, the grand chessboard of the entire academy was officially his to command, and the final curtain call for Julie Faith and the remaining noble clans was about to become an absolute, bloody nightmare.

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