"No, no! Have mercy, Your Highness Xin! I don’t want to go—ahhh!"
The prisoner trembled as he backed away, utterly unwilling. This was clearly a death sentence.
Xin naturally had no intention of seeking his opinion. He directly ordered the guards to throw the man before the brown bear.
As the iron gate holding the bear swung open, the impatient beast charged out of its cage like a starving tiger pouncing on its prey. The first in its path was the prisoner delivered right to its jaws.
The brown bear was massive; the ground shook with each thundering step as it ran.
Scrambling to his feet, the prisoner desperately fled toward the outer edges of the hunting ground.
"Help! Let me out!" he screamed, pleading for mercy, but no one could save him.
The tall walls blocked his escape, pushing him step by step toward the abyss of death.
"What’s there to fear? Be brave. Kill it, and I will pardon you." Xin was clearly dissatisfied with the first prey’s reaction. Such cowardice was a true disappointment.
Was he joking? Fighting that thing head-on would be suicide!
Faced with such a colossal beast, the young prisoner couldn’t muster even a shred of resistance.
Seeing the bear closing in, the prisoner, with nowhere left to run, turned and dashed back toward the center of the hunting ground.
The bear would not tolerate its prey escaping so easily. With a furious roar, it quickened its pursuit.
The bear’s broad paws struck the ground, each step leaving a deep crater and kicking up clouds of dust.
The earth thundered under the bear’s charge, like a death knell for the prisoner.
Having been imprisoned for years, the prisoner, weakened by chronic hunger and malnutrition, soon exhausted his strength. His pace slowed, and the bear caught up to him in just a few powerful strides.
The prisoner felt a heavy shadow fall over him. His breath hitched as he trembled and looked up.
In his line of sight were the bear’s eyes, gleaming with bloodlust, and its sharp, long fangs.
"Ah—!!"
The scream was cut short.
The bear’s paw swept through the air with a fierce gust, effortlessly snapping the prisoner’s neck.
The prisoner crumpled to his knees, lifeless in moments.
Blood spread from his body, staining the hunting ground’s soil, soon absorbed by the earth, leaving only a dark crimson stain.
The bear licked its bloodied claws, then let out a few growls toward Xin, as if seeking praise.
Xin nodded in satisfaction and directed a guard to toss the bear a piece of meat. The bear immediately pounced, devouring it entirely.
Witnessing the bear’s familiarity with Xin, Shang Yuanjian suddenly understood.
The bear wasn’t inherently interested in humans; Xin had specifically trained it to kill. It stopped once the person was dead.
So the so-called test was merely an excuse. Xin simply wanted to watch them struggle desperately under the beast’s jaws, hence this spectacle of man versus beast.
Shang Yuanjian turned his gaze to Xin, the instigator, his eyes icy cold.
That such a cruel and brutal person could be a prince of the nation—his actions, to some extent, reflected the attitude of those in power toward the common people.
At that moment, Shang Yuanjian’s impression of this world turned utterly sour.
The first prisoner hadn’t lasted even a quarter of an hour against the bear. Clearly unsatisfied, Xin signaled his men to clear the mangled corpse from the hunting ground and bring in the next prisoner.
The second prisoner was a fierce-looking middle-aged man. He was burly, with a menacing glare and a long scar running from between his eyebrows down to his chin, giving him an aura of intense ferocity.
Seemingly affected by the previous prisoner's gruesome fate, Scarface knew he had no way out—only by defeating the brown bear could he survive.
He clenched his fists, eyes fixed intently on the brown bear, and chose to take the initiative: "You beast, die!"
The brown bear had just finished eating meat and was leisurely licking its paws while sitting on the ground. Suddenly struck by Scarface's punch, though it caused no real harm, the bear was clearly provoked.
The brown bear sprang to its feet in an instant, swinging its massive paw to eliminate the human who had disturbed its rest.
Scarface had anticipated the bear's move and quickly ducked to avoid the attack. Seizing the moment as the bear retracted its paw, he circled behind it and wrapped a chain—obtained from who knows where—around the bear's neck.
As the chain tightened abruptly, the brown bear immediately struggled to breathe.
"Die!"
Scarface snarled viciously, tightening his grip on the chain.
This chain had originally been part of the cage that held them. After the cage door was opened, it was discarded on the ground and forgotten.
Fortunately, he had been clever enough to secretly hide it on his person when he was brought up, and now it had come in handy.
Though the brown bear was immensely strong, it was rather clumsy. It tried to claw at the chain, but its forelimbs were too short, and after several attempts, it failed.
Noticing the bear's efforts, Scarface felt a surge of pride. What did it matter if the beast was strong? All that brute force, and yet it was still at his mercy.
The thought of strangling the bear, not only surviving but also earning Xin's favor, perhaps even soaring to great heights from then on, made Scarface laugh inwardly.
The chain tightened further, and the bear's suffocation intensified.
In pain and fury, the brown bear struggled desperately, thrashing its body wildly.
Unfortunately, Scarface had underestimated the bear's strength. Under the pressure of survival, the bear erupted with extraordinary power.
The bear's violent struggles overwhelmed Scarface, who was dragged around uncontrollably by the chain.
A sense of foreboding washed over him.
In the next moment, the brown bear twisted its body violently, executing a back throw. Scarface was flung into the air, dragged by the chain from behind the bear to land right in front of it.
The immense momentum slammed Scarface hard onto the ground, leaving him dazed and feeling as though every bone in his body was about to shatter.
Scarface tried to stand, but his hands gripping the chain involuntarily loosened.
Realizing something was wrong, he tried to tighten the chain again, but it was too late.
With a fierce tug, the bear yanked the chain entirely from his grasp, sending it clattering to the ground with a sharp metallic ring.
Freed from its restraints, the brown bear was like a beast unleashed, its combat power greatly enhanced. Its round eyes glared at the instigator, vowing to tear him apart.
Scarface broke out in a cold sweat. He wanted to pick up the chain and repeat his trick, but the newly freed bear would never give him that chance.
With a single roll, the brown bear pinned the still-prone Scarface beneath it, bared its sharp teeth, and mercilessly clamped down on his neck.
"No—!!"
Scarface roared in defiance. He had been so close to success—how could this happen?
He didn't want to die.
No one could answer him. As his carotid artery was severed, warm blood gushed out instantly.
Another person had died at the hands of the brown bear, and this time it was the formidable Scarface. The watching prisoners felt their hearts sink into despair.
On the hunting grounds, the scar-faced man displayed a level of martial prowess that ordinary people could hardly achieve. It could be said he was the most likely among them to defeat the brown bear. Yet now, even he had met such a tragic end. The prisoners couldn’t help but imagine their own fates.
“I won’t take part in this so-called trial anymore! I want to return to the imperial prison!”
Immediately, one prisoner’s spirit broke, shouting that he wanted to go back.
“Your Highness, have mercy! The beast is so ferocious—it’s just sending us to our deaths!”
…
Pleas for mercy rose one after another. The prisoners knelt one by one, begging Xin to spare them.
“The game has only just begun. How can it end so soon?” Xin glanced at them coldly, then ordered the guards to bring up the next one.
Having witnessed the deaths of the first two, the third prisoner had no courage left to face the brown bear. He was so terrified he could barely stand, and was easily bitten through the neck by the bear.
Several more met the same fate.
The prisoners thrown onto the hunting grounds were like fish on a chopping block—utterly defenseless, they became victims of the brown bear one after another.
Shang Yuanjian watched once more as blood-stained corpses were carried off the hunting grounds by the guards. This was already the sixteenth death.
In this single day since her transmigration, she had witnessed too much death, to the point of growing somewhat numb.
The nobles watching from the periphery of the hunting grounds looked excited. They watched the struggle between man and bear with keen interest, and cheers continuously rose from the viewing stands, creating a bizarre sense of absurdity.
They did not see the prisoners on the hunting grounds as human beings, nor did they care about their lives or deaths. They only cared whether these ants could provide them with entertainment, even if that entertainment was filled with endless bloodshed and violence.
At this moment, the tall walls divided the inside and outside of the hunting grounds into two separate worlds.
Shang Yuanjian took a deep look at the viewing stands, her gaze settling on the most conspicuous figure—Xin. She took a deep breath, as if having made a certain resolution.
“I must get out of here.”
She said.