"When you lunged at me just now, your blood was surging, and your eyes were full of lecherous intent. Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"
His thoughts laid bare, Dai Mubai's old face flushed red. The last shred of hope in his heart vanished.
He could only grit his teeth and try to intimidate her by invoking his background.
"I... I'm a prince of the Star Luo Empire on Douluo Continent!"
"My father is the Star Luo Emperor. He commands a million troops!"
"If you dare kill me, the Star Luo Empire won't let you off once I make it back!"
Dai Mubai shouted with bluster, trying to work up some courage.
But when the woman in white heard his threat, she didn't look afraid at all. Instead, she gave him the sort of look one might give an idiot.
"What Douluo Continent? What Star Luo Empire? I've never heard of them."
The woman shook her head, her tone carrying the pride of a cultivator.
"Here on Vermilion Bird Planet, even the emperors of mortal dynasties have to bow respectfully when they see a disciple of my Luohe Sect."
"You're nothing but a crude martial artist who hasn't even cultivated spiritual energy, and you dare threaten me with mortal armies?"
At this, the woman seemed to lose patience.
She stepped forward and looked Dai Mubai over, taking in his exaggerated muscles and white tiger fur.
"Your strength is low-grade, but you've got a decent build. Your blood vitality is also far greater than that of ordinary mortals."
The woman tapped her chin lightly with a slender, pale finger, as if pondering something.
"My cave abode happens to be short a laborer to pull a millstone."
"The ordinary spirit beasts are too stupid to understand instructions."
"Since you can speak, you'll be perfect for grinding medicinal herbs."
Everyone watching the broadcast on Douluo Continent was dumbfounded.
The top genius of Shrek Academy, a prince of the Star Luo Empire, had actually been treated like an animal meant to pull a millstone!
That was almost worse than being killed.
Dai Mubai trembled with rage, humiliation bloodshotting his sinister eyes.
"You dare!"
Dai Mubai roared, struggling with all his might.
"I'd rather die than be your beast!"
"That's not up to you."
The woman in white snorted and couldn't be bothered to say another word.
She raised her right hand and swiftly traced a few shapes in the air with her slender fingers.
A strange rune, glowing faintly green, quickly took shape at her fingertips.
"Go."
The woman flicked her finger. The green rune turned into a streak of light and shot straight into Dai Mubai's brow.
"Ah!"
The instant the rune entered his body, Dai Mubai let out a scream that sounded nothing like a human voice.
The pain was a hundred times worse than when he'd absorbed his third Soul Ring by force!
His massive body convulsed violently in midair, sweat pouring off him like rain and splashing into the pool below.
The veins on his forehead bulged one after another, as if they might burst at any moment.
The woman in white clasped her hands behind her back and watched Dai Mubai writhe in agony.
"This is a seal my Luohe Sect uses to control spirit beasts."
"With a mere thought, I can make your soul experience the pain of being burned alive."
"If you obey and pull the medicine mill for me for ten years, I might be merciful and spare your life."
"But if you so much as think of resisting, I'll make you wish you were dead."
Her voice was quiet, yet each word was like a death-curse, carved deep into Dai Mubai's mind.
It took a full half an incense stick's time for the pain that had burrowed into his soul to gradually fade.
Dai Mubai gasped for breath, his eyes unfocused and dull.
He didn't even have the strength to kill himself now. Like a wild dog that had been broken, he drooped his head, despair filling his eyes.
Seeing this, the woman in white nodded with satisfaction.
She waved her hand, and the water chains wrapped around Dai Mubai vanished in an instant, turning into a pool of water that fell back into the pond.
With nothing left to support him, Dai Mubai's heavy body crashed into the mud, splashing water and dirt everywhere.
He tried to move a finger and found that the seal had completely locked away his Soul Power.
As things stood, apart from his physical strength, he was weaker than an ordinary Level Ten Soul Scholar.
"Get up. Come with me."
The woman in white turned around without even looking at him again and headed straight for the depths of the valley.
Dai Mubai gritted his teeth and dragged his aching body up out of the mud.
He looked at the woman's graceful back, then felt the seal at his brow, ready to flare up at any moment.
In the end, he could only lower his head in humiliation and follow after her, limping along like a servant.
The image on the Sky Screen froze on Dai Mubai's wretched, battered back.
Everyone on Douluo Continent felt as though a boulder had been pressed against their chest.
In that world, a single blow could kill.
Those so-called cultivators could not only kill them with ease but also strip them of their freedom through cruel means, enslaving them like beasts.
"S-so this is the Renegade Immortal World?"
Oscar plopped down on the ground, his face deathly pale as he murmured to himself.
"What am I supposed to do if I'm picked next time?"
"I'm just a food-type Soul Master. I don't even have the strength to run away."
An unprecedented sense of dread spread rapidly across Douluo Continent.
It wasn't just the commoners and low-ranked Soul Masters. Even the lofty Titled Douluos felt a chill in their hearts.
They had thought that with their powerful Martial Souls and Soul Skills, even if they encountered danger in the Renegade Immortal World, they could at least run if they couldn't win.
But now they had seen even soul-binding seals, a method impossible to guard against. Their confidence began to crumble.
Inside the Pope Palace of Spirit Hall.
Bibi Dong slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Send orders to every Spirit Hall branch."
"From today on, everyone must take this Renegade Immortal World seriously. Until we understand what we're dealing with, anyone who gets chosen has only one priority: come back alive!"
Deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, Sky Azure Bull Python Da Ming and Titan Giant Ape Er Ming watched the image on the Sky Screen and fell into a long silence.
"Big brother."
Er Ming's rumbling voice broke the quiet.
"Would that woman's spell for controlling Dai Mubai work on us Soul Beasts?"
A trace of gravity passed through Da Ming's enormous lantern-like eyes.
"I don't know."
Da Ming slowly shook his head. "But my instincts tell me the rules of that world suppress all living beings absolutely."
"If we get chosen..."
Da Ming trailed off, but Er Ming had already understood what he meant.
Dai Mubai dragged his heavy feet behind the woman in white.
The mountain path was rough and uneven, and thorny weeds grew thick along its edges.
The boots he'd had custom-made from fine leather were already torn open by the rocks.
His bare soles scraped against sharp stones, leaving streaks of blood. Every step left a bloody footprint on the ground.
But he didn't dare stop.
If his pace slowed even a little, the green rune at his brow would bring a needle-sharp pain, constantly reminding him of his lowly status as a slave.
After about an incense stick's worth of walking, the mist around them gradually cleared.
The woman in white stopped.
Before Dai Mubai stood a huge cave carved into the mountainside.
Several glowing white stones were embedded in the ceiling, brightly illuminating its spacious interior.
A rich fragrance of medicinal herbs wafted out of the entrance.
Dai Mubai took a breath and felt his exhausted mind perk up a little.
But the seal had long since locked away his Soul Power, so he couldn't absorb any of the pure energy in the air.
"Go in." The woman in white didn't even turn her head as she tossed out the two words in a flat tone.
Dai Mubai ground his back teeth together, lowered his head in humiliation, and stooped to enter the cave.
The instant he stepped inside, the sight before him left him stunned.
At the very center of the cave stood a massive millstone made of bluestone, as tall as a two-story building.
Its surface was incredibly rough, covered in dense array patterns, and it radiated a weighty presence that made it hard to breathe.
Beside the thick wooden handle lay the skeleton of a gigantic beast.
Judging by its size and the thickness of its bones, the beast must have been at least as enormous as a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in life.
But now, fine cracks covered its bones. It was obvious that the giant beast had worked itself to death beneath that handle.
"Clean up those bones on the ground and throw them off the cliff behind the mountain."
"Then go push the mill."
The woman in white sat down on a stone bed nearby, took a yellowed old book from her sleeve, and began reading it on her own.
Dai Mubai stood frozen, looking at the massive handle, then at the pitiful white bones on the ground. His eyes immediately reddened.
He was a prince of the Star Luo Empire, for heaven's sake!
Back in the palace, more than a dozen servants waited on him, from meals to clothes. At Shrek Academy, everyone called him Boss Dai.
And now he was expected to do work that even a lowly beast couldn't endure?
"I..." Dai Mubai parted his cracked lips, trying to protest.
He'd rather fight someone and die in battle than live like an animal.
But the woman in white merely raised her eyelids and glanced at him.
The green rune at Dai Mubai's brow suddenly blazed with piercing light.
A pain that felt as if it were tearing his soul apart erupted deep in his mind.
"Ah!!!"
Dai Mubai's knees buckled, and his massive body crashed straight onto the hard stone floor.
He clutched his head with both hands and rolled across the ground, howling like a beast.
His forehead slammed into the stone floor, gouging bloody craters. Blood ran down his face and pooled across the ground, but he couldn't feel the pain in his body.
The torment of his soul burning in the depths of his being had already surpassed the limits of what a human could endure.
"Push the mill, or die right now. You choose." The woman's voice held no warmth, as though she were looking at an ant she could crush underfoot.
The pain continued for more than a dozen breaths before slowly easing.
Dai Mubai's clothes were soaked with cold sweat. He lay in the pool of blood like a lump of mud.
He gasped for breath, his once-wild, sinister eyes now empty and dull.
His last thought of resistance vanished completely beneath this inhuman torment.
In the face of survival, dignity was worthless.
He struggled to prop himself up with both hands. His legs shook as he made his way toward the mill, one step at a time.
He pressed his broad shoulder against the rough wooden handle, braced his feet against the stone floor, clenched his teeth, and pushed with every last bit of physical strength he had.
Accompanied by a dull, grating scrape,
the massive millstone, weighing hundreds of pounds, finally began to turn.
Sweat dripped from his singed golden hair into his eyes, stinging painfully and blurring his vision.
But he didn't dare stop.
Like a beast stripped of its soul, he could only circle the millstone again and again in the dim cave.
The sound of the mill turning became the only rhythm left in his life.
Just as Dai Mubai pushed the mill through its first grueling circle,
the enormous light screen in the sky suddenly blurred.
Then the screen showing Dai Mubai turned ashen and went completely dark.
[Explorer Dai Mubai of Shrek Academy, Heaven Dou Empire, was branded with a slave seal by a disciple of the Luohe Sect and reduced to a laborer pulling a mill. He has lost his freedom for life. Exploration failed.]
All three screens turned dark.
Immediately afterward, several lines of blood-red text slowly appeared in the center of the Sky Screen.
[The second batch of explorers has been wiped out!]
[Renegade Immortal World data collection progress: 0.2 percent.]
[Selection of the third batch of explorers will begin in three days.]
[All living beings on Douluo Continent, prepare yourselves!]
As they watched the glaring crimson words on the Sky Screen, all of Douluo Continent sank into an oppression unlike anything they had ever known.
On the dirt training field of Shrek Academy.
The sky had gradually darkened, and a few scattered lights had appeared in the distant village.
But not a single person had left the training ground.
They stood in the cool night breeze, staring blankly at the lines of red text hanging in midair.
Ma Hongjun let out a long sigh and dropped onto the weed-covered ground.
"The whole team's been wiped out... Boss Dai got stuck in there, too." The Fatty grabbed a handful of dirt and hurled it to the ground, his eyes reddening.
"That woman was too ruthless. Boss Dai's been pampered since he was a kid. If he had to push a stone mill like that, he'd be worked to death in a few months."
Oscar leaned against a nearby tree.
The leering smile he usually wore was gone from his face, which now looked worse than if he were crying.
"Three days... In just three days, they'll be picking people again."
Oscar rubbed his stiff hands. "Waiting around to be picked and sent off to die... This feels like shit."
Tang San said nothing.
He walked alone to a stone table at the edge of the training ground and sat down.
He brushed a hand over Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges and took out a pile of gleaming metal parts.
They were the mechanical Hidden Weapon he had always been proud of: the Godly Zhuge Crossbow.
Holding a small wrench, Tang San lowered his head and silently dismantled the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, scattering iron plates and springs across the ground.
Xiao Wu came over with red-rimmed eyes and gently rested a hand on Tang San's shoulder.
"Brother, don't put so much pressure on yourself." Xiao Wu's voice was soft, full of tender concern that tugged at the heart.
Tang San looked at the pieces scattered across the stone table and gave a self-mocking laugh.
"Xiao Wu, I used to think that as long as I made my Hidden Weapons intricate enough and powerful enough, I could catch my opponents off guard and challenge those above my rank."
"Given enough time and materials, I could even take on a Titled Douluo."
Tang San reached out and touched a sharp arrowhead.
"But today, that gray-robed young man from the Renegade Immortal World casually waved out a thin-looking veil of light and blocked my Silent Sleeve Arrow without the slightest effort."
"Boss Dai had level thirty-seven Soul Power and a top-grade Beast Martial Soul, yet he couldn't withstand even one move from that woman."
As he spoke, Tang San's fists slowly clenched.
"Compared to that so-called Renegade Immortal World, my Hidden Weapons and my teacher's theories seem utterly powerless."
At the words "my teacher,"
Yu Xiaogang, who had been sitting on the steps in the corner of the training ground, shuddered violently.
He clasped his head in both hands and buried his face deep between his knees.
The theoretical master, who usually loved lecturing and analyzing battles with his hands clasped behind his back, now didn't dare say a word.
He was afraid to look up, afraid to see the doubt in his students' eyes.
His mind was a complete mess. He tried to piece together a new theory to explain everything about the Renegade Immortal World, but no matter how he worked it out, he hit a dead end.
He even began to pray desperately that he wouldn't be chosen in the selection three days later.
If a weakling like him, who couldn't even break through to Soul Grandmaster, were sent there, he probably wouldn't be able to beat even a low-level wild spirit beast.