Star Luo City.
Deep within the imperial palace, the atmosphere was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.
"Useless!"
A furious roar shook the pillars of the entire palace until they hummed.
A white jade wine cup carved with intricate patterns was hurled onto the polished marble floor, shattering into pieces.
Dai Mubai's handsome face was twisted with incandescent rage.
His chest heaved violently, and flames of fury burned in his sinister eyes.
Zhu Zhuqing had disappeared.
His fiancée had vanished without a trace on the eve of her final trial.
This was no simple case of running away from a marriage.
It was the most blatant trampling of the Star Luo Royal Family's dignity!
"Your Highness, please calm down."
A soft yet sorrowful voice rang out.
Zhu Zhuyun knelt nearby. Tears streaked her lovely face, and her body trembled slightly as if she were still shaken to the core.
"I... I had no idea this would happen."
"Zhu Zhuqing only said she wanted to go to the Star Dou Forest to obtain a stronger Soul Ring and prepare for the final trial."
"I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen..."
She recounted the events in fits and starts.
"We encountered a terrifying Soul Beast. I... I escaped only after fighting with all my might, but Zhu Zhuqing... she... she stayed behind to cover my retreat..."
At that, she broke down sobbing, as though grief had utterly overwhelmed her.
Dai Mubai's rage did not abate in the slightest.
He stared hard at Zhu Zhuyun. The oppressive presence of a man in power made her tremble even more violently.
He didn't care whether Zhu Zhuqing was dead or alive.
What mattered to him was his own face, and the majesty of the royal family!
"The Star Dou Forest?"
He ground the words out through clenched teeth.
"Yes!" Zhu Zhuyun replied firmly.
Dai Mubai spun around and strode toward the exit.
"Summon the entire Royal Soul Master Corps! I want to see her alive or dead!"
"Turn the whole Star Dou Forest upside down if you have to—find her!"
His orders echoed through the empty palace, carrying a madness and obsession that brooked no refusal.
Behind him, Zhu Zhuyun slowly raised her head and watched him disappear.
On her tear-streaked face, a trace of cold satisfaction flashed by, unnoticed by everyone.
Soul Beast Paradise.
The golden pillar of light that had split the sky never struck the valley directly.
Several kilometers above the ground, it abruptly halted, then turned into a shower of light that scattered and vanished.
As if it had all been an illusion.
But Medusa did not let her guard down.
She stood beside Li Hao, her emerald snake eyes fixed on the place where the beam had disappeared. Her Soul Power remained concealed, ready to strike.
"Master," she said suddenly.
"A powerful Soul Master is heading this way at great speed."
"Very domineering, and... familiar."
Familiar?
Li Hao hadn't even had time to ask more when Zhu Zhuqing, standing beside him, suddenly stirred.
The girl's body, still as an ice sculpture until then, stiffened almost imperceptibly for an instant.
For the first time, something other than dependence and focus appeared in her cold golden slit pupils.
Disgust.
A deep-seated loathing and repulsion, rising from her very soul, that she couldn't hide.
And buried beneath that revulsion was a trace of fear from the past, one she hadn't even realized she still felt.
Without thinking, she edged half a step closer to Li Hao.
That tiny movement spoke louder than a thousand words.
She was seeking protection.
Li Hao's heart gave a jolt.
A golden pillar of light.
A domineering presence.
Zhu Zhuqing's unusual reaction.
A name surfaced from the depths of his memory.
Dai Mubai!
Zhu Zhuqing's fiancé in the original story!
Had he really tracked them down so quickly?
A wave of irritation surged through him.
His socially anxious radar blared an earsplitting alarm in his mind.
Trouble.
Enormous trouble had come knocking!
Was it really so hard for him, a landlord who only wanted to live quietly and do nothing, to get his wish?
"Paradise, activate the highest level of concealment."
Li Hao issued the command without hesitation.
[Command received.]
[Ecological Concealment System activated. Spatial folds and aura concealment in progress...]
Hum!
An invisible ripple gently swept over the entire valley.
From the outside, the cliffs, forests, and streams blurred and blended completely into their surroundings, giving no hint that anything was amiss.
Only after doing all this did Li Hao feel the irritation ease a little.
As long as they couldn't find this place, they'd probably... leave on their own, right?
The outskirts of the Star Dou Forest.
Dai Mubai and a squad of elite Soul Masters had been searching for three whole days.
They had found nothing.
Aside from a few signs of a struggle and faint traces of Hell Spirit Cat Soul Power, they had found no other clues.
Zhu Zhuqing seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.
"Your Highness, the Zhu Family has arrived as well. They've sent out a search party," one of his men reported quietly.
Dai Mubai's face was so dark it looked ready to drip.
The situation was spiraling out of control.
The Star Luo Royal Family and the Zhu Family had both gotten involved. If he, the crown prince, couldn't even find his own fiancée, he would become an even greater laughingstock.
Zhu Zhuyun's story circled through his mind.
Could a Soul Beast really be so powerful that an agility-type Soul Ancestor wouldn't even have a chance to escape?
Just as he was growing restless, he seemed to step on something.
He moved his foot aside.
A palm-sized scale, deep green with a strange purplish-gold sheen along its edges, lay quietly among the dead leaves.
Dai Mubai bent down and picked it up.
The scale was cold to the touch, yet it contained an ancient, immense aura.
This wasn't from a Hell Spirit Cat!
The power of this aura far exceeded his own!
Dai Mubai's breath caught.
Zhu Zhuyun had been lying!
Or rather, she had concealed the most important part!
There had definitely been a third party at the scene—and perhaps someone even more powerful!
He gripped the scale tightly and closed his eyes as White Tiger Soul Power surged through him.
He pushed an imperial secret art for tracking bloodlines to its limits.
Hum!
In his perception, everything around him dissolved into nothingness.
Only a few faint auras remained, pointing the way.
One belonged to Zhu Zhuqing, its familiar Nether aura.
But here, it had grown so faint it seemed ready to disappear at any moment.
However.
Right where that aura ended,
another, completely different yet kindred aura suddenly rose!
It was countless times stronger and purer than Zhu Zhuqing's original bloodline!
Noble, cold, and filled with the cutting force of death.
But there could be no mistake about the bloodline imprint at its core!
It was Zhu Zhuqing!
She wasn't dead!
She was still alive!
And... it seemed she had undergone some unknown transformation!
Dai Mubai's eyes snapped open, joy and confusion mingling in his sinister gaze.
He looked in the direction of that newly awakened, powerful aura, toward the depths of the Star Dou Forest.
The aura was faint, concealed deliberately by something.
But the resonance between their royal bloodlines was like an invisible thread, pointing firmly to the same spot.
A seemingly ordinary valley nestled among the mountains.
A powerful sense of foreboding seized his heart without warning.
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