Undercurrents in the Depths of the Valley

The Karma Rod stuck in the ground gave a sudden, jarring jolt.

Thud.

A dull resonance rang out, not from the outside world, but striking directly at Li Hao's soul.

The sense of satisfaction and accomplishment he had just felt as a creator vanished in an instant, shattered by that single strike.

The smile on Li Hao's face froze.

This feeling... it was wrong.

It was cold, deathly silent, and filled with struggle and despair.

It stood in sharp, piercing contrast to the vibrant, joyful aura of life that permeated the entire Paradise.

It was as if a block of eternal ice had been dropped into a pot of boiling oil.

Utterly out of place.

His gaze snapped toward the depths of the valley.

That was an area he had yet to explore, a corner shrouded in thick mist.

That ominous sensation was emanating from there.

An absurd thought welled up in his mind.

Had his newly renovated home been haunted before he could even hold a housewarming?

Or was it that from the very beginning, a... guest who didn't belong here had been hiding in the shadows?

"Daddy, what's wrong?"

Xiao Wu stopped playing with the Velvet Fire Rabbit, keenly sensing the shift in Li Hao's mood, and ran over with concern.

Medusa also appeared silently at Li Hao's side; she looked toward the thick mist as well, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

"It's nothing."

Li Hao retracted the Karma Rod, yet that cold sensation continued to seep through the shaft in thin, lingering wisps.

He patted Xiao Wu on the head.

"You stay here and help me soothe these new little ones; they're still a bit scared after arriving at their new home."

"Medusa and I will go take a look over there."

Though worried, Xiao Wu nodded obediently.

"Alright, Daddy, you and Sister Medusa be careful."

Li Hao grunted in acknowledgment and turned to walk toward the thick mist.

Medusa followed closely behind without a word, her soul power already beginning to circulate subtly throughout her body.

The closer they got to that area, the more eerie the surrounding environment became.

The sunlight seemed blocked by an invisible barrier, and the light dimmed rapidly.

The vegetation, which had been thriving elsewhere, became twisted and overgrown here, with massive vines strangling ancient trees and casting long, deep shadows.

The fresh scent of grass and trees in the air had been diluted.

In its place was a faint, lingering aura of the netherworld, mixed with the stench of decay and slaughter.

This aura clashed violently with the peaceful atmosphere of the rest of Paradise.

Li Hao stopped in his tracks.

Before him, a clear drag mark appeared on the ground, extending deep into the dense forest.

He crouched down and pinched a bit of soil.

This was not a trail left by a soul beast hunting prey.

It looked more like... something had been forcibly dragged in here.

"Master."

Medusa walked over to a thick, ancient tree and ran her finger over several claw marks that were deep enough to expose the wood.

The claw marks were extremely deep, their edges sharp and imbued with a fierce, piercing energy.

"They were left by a soul beast, and... there was more than one."

Li Hao stood up and followed the drag marks further ahead.

Soon, he discovered a few strands of black hair left on the leaves of a shrub.

The hair was as black as ink, yet it possessed a strange luster and felt icy to the touch.

A faint ripple of soul power still lingered upon it.

Li Hao handed the hair to Medusa.

Medusa took it, glanced at it once, and made her judgment.

"It is a soul beast with nether attributes."

She closed her eyes, her vast mental power spreading out to carefully perceive everything in the surroundings.

A moment later, she reopened her eyes, her expression grave to the extreme.

"Master, there is a very powerful Nether aura here, and it is not just one."

"There is also... the residual soul power of a human Soul Master."

A human Soul Master?

Li Hao's heart sank.

He could treat conflicts between soul beasts as the laws of nature.

But if a human Soul Master was involved, and it was in the new home he had just anchored...

The nature of the situation changed entirely.

This was no longer a simple neighborhood dispute, but a blatant case of illegal trespassing.

As a socially anxious homeowner, this was exactly the kind of troublesome matter he hated most.

The tip of the Karma Rod trembled slightly, pointing toward a cliff wall ahead obscured by massive 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 bore fresh marks of being severed by a sharp weapon.

On the rock nearby, a few drops of dark red blood, not yet fully dried, remained.

A thick, bloody stench, mixed with that cold, eerie Nether aura, wafted out from the depths of the cave.

Clearly, this was the source of everything.

Li Hao did not rashly enter.

He stood at the entrance, slowly closed his eyes, and condensed his mental power—which far exceeded that of his peers—into a single beam, carefully probing into the cave.

Dark and damp.

In his perception, two distinct Nether auras were entangled deep within the cave.

One of them was weak to the extreme, like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

Yet, the core of this aura exuded an undeniable nobility and pride.

The other aura, however, was filled with tyranny, greed, and malice; it was like a giant spider web, tightly wrapping around that noble aura, constantly eroding and suppressing it.

It was a hunt.

The predator had driven the prey into a final dead end.

Li Hao's thoughts stirred.

He attempted to activate the newly upgraded Summon of Paradise.

A pure, peaceful ripple, filled with the allure of life, spread silently from him as the center, seeping into the deep cave.

Hum!

Almost at the same time, that weak yet noble aura deep in the cave fluctuated violently!

It was the ecstasy of seeing a glimmer of light in despair! It was the instinctive craving of a drowning person grasping at a straw!

It was attracted! It wanted to respond to this summons!

However, the moment it stirred, the malicious aura instantly turned even more violent, ruthlessly suppressing it!

The flame of hope that had just been ignited was mercilessly stomped out.

The aura inside the cave returned to a deathly silence.

No.

It was a silence even more desperate than before.

Li Hao opened his eyes.

The situation was clear.

A soul beast had been hunted, fled into this valley, and was then cornered in this cave.

The pursuers were likely the human Soul Master he had sensed earlier, along with another Nether soul beast.

Now, the prey was backed into a corner, unable to escape.

A trace of anxiety surged uncontrollably from the bottom of his heart.

Although he didn't know what was inside, that sense of nobility in its soul could not be faked.

Such a pure and noble soul was exactly what the Paradise craved most.

He could not just watch it wither away in his own home.

Just as Li Hao was weighing what the most effortless way to intervene would be.

From the deepest reaches of the cavern, a low, stifled roar suddenly erupted.

Within that roar, there was no anger, nor any trace of unwillingness.

There was only a sense of absolute resolve and sorrow.

Immediately following.

A chaotic and violent surge of Nether Soul Power exploded from within the cave!

The scent of blood, now several times more pungent, rushed toward them!

Medusa's expression shifted abruptly.

"Master, it is that noble aura!"

She gasped in a low voice.

"It... seems to be ending its own life!"