Dai Mubai's White Tiger Soul Power burned wildly within him.
The imperial secret art had been driven to its absolute limit!
The invisible thread guiding him toward Zhu Zhuqing's bloodline was intermittently disrupted by a strange force, but it had not been severed completely.
It pointed relentlessly toward the seemingly ordinary valley ahead.
This was the place!
Dai Mubai's eyes were bloodshot.
Ignoring his subordinates' attempts to stop him, he turned into a bolt of white lightning and charged forward!
The closer he got, the stronger his foreboding became.
The moment he stepped into the valley, the scene before him suddenly changed!
The once-blurred mountain walls and forest came into sharp focus.
An overwhelming aura of life washed over him. Even his Soul Power, somewhat depleted from activating the secret art, was invigorated.
What a blessed land!
But Dai Mubai had no mind to admire it now.
His gaze was fixed on the figures in the center of the valley.
An unfamiliar young man.
A stunning woman radiating terrifying pressure, her strength impossible to fathom.
A little girl as delicate as a carved doll, who looked utterly harmless.
And...
Dai Mubai's mind exploded!
The girl in black leather, with a figure so breathtaking it set his blood racing and a face of icy, peerless beauty—who else could she be but Zhu Zhuqing?
She was alive!
Before the overwhelming joy could even rise in him, it was replaced by deeper shock and disbelief.
What was he seeing?
Zhu Zhuqing stood quietly behind the unfamiliar young man, obedient in her posture, even with a hint of... dependence?
More baffling still was Zhu Zhuqing's current state.
Pure, concentrated Nether Soul Power swirled around her. Her beautiful eyes, which should have belonged to a human, were now a pair of cold, emotionless golden vertical pupils!
There was no hiding those traits of a Soul Beast!
She was a Soul Beast!
In human form!
Dai Mubai's worldview shook violently.
It nearly shattered on the spot!
"Zhuqing!"
Unable to contain the tumult raging within him any longer, he let out an enraged roar and charged forward.
"What happened to you?!"
"Why are you with a man—and why have you become a Soul Beast?!"
His questions echoed through the valley, laden with pain and fury he could hardly believe himself.
This was even harder to accept than Zhu Zhuqing's death!
The Star Luo Royal Family's crown princess, the Zhu Family's legitimate daughter—turned into a Soul Beast?
And getting involved with some unknown man?
How absurd!
How humiliating!
The valley's harmonious atmosphere was torn to shreds by his roar.
Xiao Wu jumped in fright and instinctively hid behind Li Hao.
Medusa's brows knitted slightly. A hint of murderous displeasure flashed in her emerald eyes.
Li Hao's social-anxiety radar had gone off at full blast, and irritation surged over him like a tide.
Of course it had to be this.
This trouble had come looking for him after all.
At the center of the storm, Zhu Zhuqing finally reacted.
She slowly turned around and gave Dai Mubai a cold glance with her golden vertical pupils.
There was no joy at being reunited.
No relief at being found.
Not even the slightest trace of emotion.
Only unadulterated indifference and undisguised disgust.
She said nothing, simply shifting a small step to the side and pressing closer against Li Hao.
That gesture said more than a thousand words.
Like an invisible hammer, it slammed into Dai Mubai's heart.
It was a silent barrier, a line drawn clear as day, severing the two of them and shutting them away in separate worlds.
"You... what do you mean by that?"
Dai Mubai's voice trembled. He couldn't accept the bone-deep coldness.
Zhu Zhuqing finally spoke.
Her voice was no longer cool yet stubborn, as it had once been.
Now it was utterly frigid, devoid of all feeling.
She raised a slender finger and pointed at Li Hao beside her.
"What does the engagement have to do with me?"
Every word was clear as bone.
"I have only one master."
Boom!
Dai Mubai felt as if he'd been struck by lightning. He froze in place.
Master?
She had called that man... her master?
The imperial engagement he'd once been so proud of, the invisible shackles he had always placed on her, the so-called dignity he'd been forced to maintain under his family's pressure...
In that instant, those two words smashed it all to pieces!
Countless thoughts raced through his mind.
Had she been captured?
Was her mind being controlled?
Or...
No!
He saw what lay in the depths of Zhu Zhuqing's golden vertical pupils.
It wasn't forced submission or the confusion of someone under a spell.
It was willing surrender! Absolute loyalty, the kind that rested one's entire purpose for existing in another person!
Why?!
How?!
Who was that man? What had he done to Zhuqing?!
Overwhelming humiliation and fury devoured Dai Mubai's reason.
"You're asking for death!"
He roared as his White Tiger Martial Soul possessed him. Two yellow Soul Rings and one purple Soul Ring blazed to life, and razor-sharp Geng Metal Qi tore through the air as he lunged at Li Hao!
Just then.
Medusa's figure glided forward like a ghost, stepping between Li Hao and Zhu Zhuqing.
She did nothing, merely lifting her head in silence.
Her emerald serpent eyes instantly turned unfathomably deep.
A terrifying pressure burst forth—the primordial, primeval aura of a ruler at the top of the food chain!
Dai Mubai's charge abruptly faltered.
He felt as if he weren't facing a woman, but an ancient Ferocious Beast capable of swallowing the heavens and devouring the earth!
His soul quaked; his bloodline wailed.
A suffocating pressure clamped around his throat, leaving him unable to advance another inch.
And in that moment of imminent confrontation—
A clear, angry child's voice rang out.
"Big tiger, you're not allowed to bully Daddy's new family!"
Xiao Wu poked her head out from behind Li Hao, cheeks puffed as she glared furiously at Dai Mubai.
"Daddy"?
"New family"?
Those words were two more sharp blades, stabbing into Dai Mubai's heart.
He stumbled back, utterly dazed, staring at the absurd scene before him in disbelief.
He saw Zhu Zhuqing.
When that man gently stroked the top of her head, her cold golden vertical pupils showed a hint of blissful contentment, like a cat enjoying a caress.
It was a gentleness he'd never seen from her.
And a dependence he could never hope to receive.
Then there was the cold, decisive look she gave him, as if she were staring at a corpse...
The stark contrast shattered Dai Mubai's mental defenses completely!
Humiliation, fury, resentment, jealousy...
Every negative emotion reached its peak in that instant.
"Arghhh—!"
He let out a beastlike roar of anguish and despair, his voice filled with endless pain and brokenness.
He couldn't stay here for another second.
Dai Mubai spun around and poured all his strength into fleeing the valley that had shattered his worldview. He ran in a panic, utterly humiliated, without looking back.
He felt as if something of his had been left behind here forever.
Then that person had trampled it to pieces.
Before you continue