The Crown Prince's Shame, Paradise's Victory

Outside the valley.

Dai Mubai's figure was like a kite with a broken string, stumbling and reeling.

In the end, he collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted.

The jagged gravel tore through his luxurious robes and sliced into the skin of his palms, drawing crimson blood.

Yet, he felt not a shred of pain.

His world had collapsed.

"Master... he is the only one."

Every word of that sentence from Zhu Zhuqing turned into the most vicious curse, echoing repeatedly in his mind.

Over and over again.

It ground his remaining pride and dignity into dust.

His shattered heart hurt a thousand, ten thousand times more than the wounds on his body.

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness, what happened to you!"

Anxious shouts came from afar as members of the Royal Soul Master Corps finally caught up.

The lead soul master caught sight of a familiar figure slowly rising from the withered leaves not far away.

"Miss Zhu Zhuyun?"

Zhu Zhuyun looked equally disheveled, her beautiful face filled with panic.

She hurried to Dai Mubai's side, her voice laced with tears.

"Your Highness! Did... did you see Zhuqing? How... how is she?"

Dai Mubai slowly raised his head.

His heterochromatic eyes were bloodshot, all light extinguished, leaving only a deathly, ashen gray.

He looked at Zhu Zhuyun, his lips moving for a long time before he managed a dry, hoarse syllable.

"She..."

"She has become a soul beast."

The next second, he added another sentence.

"She... no longer recognizes me."

Zhu Zhuyun's body trembled violently. She reached out as if to support Dai Mubai, but he shoved her away.

"Impossible! How could this be!"

She shrieked, her performance vivid and lifelike.

"How could Zhuqing... Your Highness, did you see wrong?"

"See wrong?"

Dai Mubai let out a miserable laugh, a sound uglier than weeping.

"I saw it with my own eyes! She said it with her own mouth!"

He seemed to have gone mad, grabbing Zhu Zhuyun by the shoulders and shaking her violently.

"She became someone else's pet! She called that wild man Master! Do you hear me! Master!"

Zhu Zhuyun's body swayed back and forth with his shaking, her long, hanging hair obscuring her face.

No one saw it.

Beneath that shadow, the corners of her mouth were curling upward in uncontrollable madness.

Ecstasy!

An indescribable ecstasy, like the most potent poison, instantly flooded every limb and bone of her body!

It was done!

Her scheme had succeeded completely!

Zhu Zhuqing, the sister who had always loomed over her and stolen all her glory, was finished!

Utterly and completely finished!

Turned into a soul beast?

And acknowledged another man as her master?

This brought more shame to Dai Mubai and the entire Star Luo Royal Family than if she had simply killed her!

From this day forward, no one would ever be able to compete with her for the position of Crown Princess!

Inside the valley.

As the roar of Dai Mubai, filled with unwillingness and pain, faded into the distance, the oppressive sensation that had been so irritating finally dissipated.

The world was quiet once more.

Li Hao let out a sigh of relief; his social anxiety alarm had finally been deactivated.

He could feel that Zhu Zhuqing's body, which had been tense beside him, relaxed imperceptibly at this moment.

She slowly raised her head, her cold, golden vertical pupils gazing at him in silence.

Gone was the previous reliance and focus; in their place, a more complex emotion flowed within those eyes.

It was gratitude.

It was a gratitude that welled up from the depths of her soul, born from being rescued and sheltered.

Li Hao had severed the shackles of the betrothal for her.

Those shackles had bound her tightly since birth, suffocating her, forcing her to grow stronger while offering no hope of escape.

Now, they were broken.

She was free.

This realization caused the iceberg that had been frozen in the depths of Zhu Zhuqing's heart for over a decade to quietly melt at one corner.

She looked at Li Hao.

This was the man who had given her a new life, a name, and freedom.

Her master.

From this moment on, everything she was existed only for him.

This realization made her reliance even purer, and yet, far heavier.

Li Hao read all of this within her emotional fluctuations.

The sense of responsibility he felt as a keeper of Soul Beast Girl somehow deepened even further.

He had originally intended to be a lazy landlord, taking in a few pitiful little ones while lying his way to godhood.

But now, it seemed that his every action was invisibly altering the original trajectory of this world.

These lives, once toyed with by fate, were now walking down entirely different paths because of his appearance.

This feeling... it didn't seem so bad, did it?

"Yay! The big tiger ran away!"

Xiao Wu's cheers shattered the brief tranquility.

She hopped over to Zhu Zhuqing's side and, without a hint of reserve, took hold of her cold little hand.

"Sister Zhuqing, let me take you to see our home!"

"The Illusion Dream Tree Demon is amazing, and the fruit it bears is delicious!"

Zhu Zhuqing's body stiffened for a moment, but she did not pull away.

She allowed Xiao Wu's warm hand to lead her, though her gaze remained fixed on Li Hao, carrying a hint of inquiry.

Li Hao nodded at her with a smile.

Thus, Zhu Zhuqing stopped resisting and obediently followed behind Xiao Wu, letting the enthusiastic little rabbit chatter away as she introduced her to this brand-new world.

Medusa followed silently behind the two, her emerald snake eyes scanning the surroundings, dutifully playing the role of a guardian.

The daily life of Paradise returned to peace once more.

Zhu Zhuqing followed Xiao Wu, walking past babbling brooks and through fragrant flower beds, finally arriving beneath the massive Illusion Dream Tree Demon.

An unprecedented sense of peace and comfort enveloped her.

Every wisp of air here was filled with the pure aura of life.

This was a feeling she had never experienced in the cold, oppressive Zhu Family, nor in the treacherous Star Luo City.

Here, she did not need to be on guard, did not need to wear a mask, and did not need to constantly watch for blades hidden in the shadows.

She could... be a cat again.

The moment this thought surfaced, Zhu Zhuqing's figure was shrouded in black mist, transforming once more into that lithe and elegant Hell Spirit Cat.

She leaped lightly onto a thick branch and curled up in a comfortable spot.

Her golden vertical pupils narrowed in contentment, enjoying the dappled light filtering through the gaps in the leaves.

She had completely integrated into this place.

Li Hao watched this scene, his heart stirred.

He recalled the system's prompt: Zhu Zhuqing's bloodline was that of the Hell Spirit Cat royal family.

This was an extremely pure power, leaning toward the laws of darkness and death-cutting.

Yet, the entire Paradise was currently overflowing with a rich aura of life.

Perhaps... he could create a more suitable environment for her, and for other Soul Beast Girl of the same type who might appear in the future.

Once this idea took root, it could no longer be suppressed.

Li Hao walked to a shaded corner of the valley, reached out, and pressed his hand against the cold rock face.

He mobilized the soul power within his body while simultaneously communicating with the core laws of Paradise.

The Bond Sharing ability was activated, and a surge of pure Nether Power poured from his palm, slowly seeping into the stone and soil.

Hum!

The laws of the entire Paradise responded to his will.

The light in this area began to dim.

The life elements in the air were transformed into a colder, more silent energy.

On the ground, several stalks of Nether Grass emitting a faint fluorescent glow quietly broke through the soil and swayed gently.

A small, exclusive Nether ecological zone had been created just like that.

The ecology of Paradise was becoming richer and more complete due to the addition of these new members.

At that very moment.

In the distant Nuoding Academy.

Inside the dormitory, Tang San, who was sitting cross-legged in cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes.

Just a moment ago, the Mysterious Heaven Skill within his body had inexplicably throbbed.

He felt in the dark that in the direction of the Star Dou Forest, there seemed to be an extremely domineering and familiar golden light that had crossed paths with another cold and sharp Nether aura before finally falling into silence.

Was it an illusion?

Tang San frowned, a trace of doubt rising in his heart.

He always felt that this world seemed to be undergoing some kind of violent, unknown change in a place he did not know.

At the summit of the valley.

Li Hao stood with his hands behind his back, overlooking the vibrant Paradise below, which now held a corner of darkness.

Xiao Wu was chasing butterflies in the flower beds, the black cat that Zhu Zhuqing had transformed into was dozing in the shade of a tree, and Medusa was leaning against a tree trunk with her eyes closed, resting.

It was a scene of peace.

A more grandiose idea gradually became clear in his mind.

Merely saving dying soul beasts was not enough.

What he wanted to do went far beyond that.

He wanted to consciously plan, construct, and build a true, undisturbed-by-humans... Soul Beast Kingdom right here.

An ideal utopia that belonged entirely to them.

Just then, a crisp, childish voice filled with surprise drifted up from below.

"Daddy! Come look! Sister Zhu Zhuqing has grown a third tail!"