The Karma Rod planted in the ground suddenly shuddered.
Thud.
A muffled toll rang out—not from the outside world, but directly against Li Hao's soul.
The satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that had just welled up in him as the Creator vanished in an instant beneath that blow.
The smile on Li Hao's face froze.
This feeling... was wrong.
It was cold and lifeless, filled with struggle and despair.
It stood in sharp opposition to the vibrant, joyful vitality that filled all of Paradise.
It was as if a chunk of ice that had never melted in ten thousand years had fallen into a pot of boiling oil.
Completely out of place.
His gaze whipped toward the depths of the valley.
There lay an unexplored area, a corner shrouded in thick fog.
That ominous sensation was coming from there.
An absurd thought rose in his mind.
Had his brand-new home, fresh from renovation and not even warmed yet, already become haunted?
Or had something that didn't belong here—a... welcome guest who wasn't welcome—been hiding here from the very beginning?
"Dad, what's wrong?"
Xiao Wu stopped playing with the Velvet Fire Rabbits. She had keenly sensed the change in Li Hao's mood and hurried over, worry written across her face.
Medusa silently appeared at Li Hao's side. She, too, looked toward the thick fog, her brows faintly knitted.
"It's nothing."
Li Hao drew back the Karma Rod, but the cold sensation still traveled along its shaft, thread by thread.
He patted Xiao Wu's head.
"Stay here and help soothe the new little ones. They've just arrived at their new home, and they're still a little scared."
"Medusa and I will go take a look over there."
Xiao Wu was worried, but she obediently nodded.
"All right, Dad. You and Sister Medusa be careful."
Li Hao gave a quiet acknowledgment and turned toward the fog.
Medusa followed close behind without a word, her Soul Power already circulating discreetly around her.
The closer they came to that area, the stranger the surroundings became.
It was as if an invisible barrier blocked the sunlight, and the light quickly dimmed.
The thriving plants had grown twisted and lush here. Massive vines wound around ancient trees, casting broad shadows.
The fresh fragrance of leaves and grass in the air faded.
In its place was a faint Nether aura, tinged with decay and slaughter.
This aura clashed violently with the peaceful atmosphere of all Paradise.
Li Hao stopped.
A clear drag mark stretched across the ground before him, continuing deep into the forest.
He crouched and rubbed a pinch of soil between his fingers.
These weren't the marks left behind by a Soul Beast hunting its prey.
It was more like... something had been forcibly dragged here.
"Master."
Medusa walked up to a sturdy old tree and ran her fingers over several claw marks that cut deep into its trunk.
The gouges were deep, their edges sharp, and they carried a fierce force.
"They were left by Soul Beasts, and... there was more than one."
Li Hao rose and followed the drag marks onward.
Soon, he spotted a few stray black hairs on the leaves of a bush.
They were black as ink, yet glimmered strangely. They felt cold to the touch.
A trace of faint Soul Power still lingered on them.
Li Hao handed the hairs to Medusa.
She took them and needed only a glance to make her judgment.
"A Soul Beast with Nether attributes."
She closed her eyes, spreading her immense spiritual power to carefully sense everything around them.
A moment later, she opened her eyes again, her expression grave.
"Master, there's a powerful Nether aura here, and it's not just one."
"There's also... lingering Soul Power from a human Soul Master."
A human Soul Master?
Li Hao's heart sank.
He could accept fighting among Soul Beasts as part of the natural order.
But if human Soul Masters had gotten involved—and in his brand-new home, which he had only just anchored...
That changed everything.
This was no longer a simple neighborhood dispute. It was blatant trespassing.
As a socially anxious homeowner, the last thing he wanted was this sort of trouble.
The tip of the Karma Rod trembled softly, pointing toward a section of cliff concealed behind enormous vines.
Li Hao pushed aside the hanging vines.
The entrance to a deep, dark cave appeared before them.
Several vines at the mouth of the cave had been freshly cut by a sharp weapon.
A few drops of dark red blood, not yet fully dried, stained the rocks nearby.
A heavy stench of blood mingled with the cold Nether aura drifting from deep within the cave.
Clearly, this was where it had all begun.
Li Hao didn't rush in.
Standing at the entrance, he slowly closed his eyes and gathered his spiritual power—far greater than that of anyone at his level—into a single thread, carefully probing into the cave.
Darkness and dampness.
Deep in the cave, his senses detected two distinct Nether auras entangled together.
One was so weak it was like a candle guttering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
Yet at its core, that aura carried an unmistakable nobility and pride.
The other was filled with savagery, greed, and malice. Like an enormous spiderweb, it wrapped tightly around the noble aura, constantly eroding and suppressing it.
A hunt.
The predator had driven its prey to its final desperate refuge.
Li Hao's thoughts stirred.
He tried activating the newly upgraded [Summon of Paradise].
A pure, peaceful ripple, brimming with the allure of life, spread out silently from him, seeping into the deep cave.
Hum!
At almost the same moment, the faint yet noble aura deep in the cave surged violently!
It was the wild joy of seeing a glimmer of hope in despair! The instinctive yearning of a drowning person who had caught hold of a lifeline!
It had been drawn in! It wanted to answer the call!
But the moment it stirred,
the malicious aura instantly grew even more violent and crushed it down hard!
The flame of hope that had just sparked was mercilessly stamped out.
The aura inside the cave fell silent once more.
No.
It was a silence more despairing than before.
Li Hao opened his eyes.
The situation was clear.
A Soul Beast had been hunted and fled into this valley, only to be cornered inside the cave.
The pursuers were likely the human Soul Master he had sensed earlier and another Nether Soul Beast.
Now, the prey had been driven into a dead end, with no way to escape.
A flicker of anxiety rose uncontrollably in his heart.
He didn't know what was inside, but the nobility of that soul was unmistakable.
Such a pure and noble soul was exactly what Paradise craved most.
He couldn't just watch it wither away in his own home.
Just as Li Hao was weighing what would be the easiest way to intervene,
a low, muffled growl, repressed to its limit, suddenly came from the very depths of the cave.
There was no anger or unwillingness in the growl.
Only grim resolve and sorrow.
Then—
A chaotic, violent surge of Nether Soul Power erupted from inside the cave!
A stench of blood, several times stronger than before, struck them head-on!
Medusa's expression changed abruptly.
"Master, it's that noble aura!"
She cried out.
"It... seems to be ending its own life!"
Before you continue