The wounded Ghost Shadow Cat raced through the forest for its life, leaving a trail of crimson blood behind it.
Dai Weisi and the two sisters followed at an easy pace, like hunters toying with their prey.
After several miles, the scenery ahead suddenly opened up, but it also grew strange.
A vast hollow stretched before them, shrouded in thick, multicolored mist.
The mist churned ceaselessly, as though alive, and wherever it passed, the vegetation withered.
A pungent, sickly sweet smell filled the air. A single breath was enough to make one dizzy.
"It's miasma, and it's highly poisonous!"
Zhu Zhuyun's expression changed, and she immediately held her breath.
When the Ghost Shadow Cat reached the edge of the poisonous mist, it plunged straight in without the slightest hesitation!
Its lithe figure flickered in and out of sight amid the colored mist, and it let out a series of pained shrieks. But soon, it seemed to adapt and crossed the land of death without slowing down.
After reaching the other side, the cunning Soul Beast stopped and turned around.
Its blood-red eyes were full of relief at having survived, as well as undisguised mockery and provocation toward its pursuers, as if to say, Come on, follow me if you dare!
"That beast!" Zhu Zhuyun gnashed her teeth in anger, but she could do nothing about the poisonous mist.
Dai Weisi looked at the poisonous miasma, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Interesting."
He raised his right arm, and in an instant, a surge of blood-colored baleful Qi, far more savage and overbearing than the poisonous miasma, soared into the sky!
Dark red light dyed his entire arm, making it look like the arm of a demon god. Intricate demonic patterns lit up across its bones, as though some ancient Ferocious Beast were about to awaken.
"Blood Prison Fiend Abyss!"
Dai Weisi gave a low shout.
"Boom!"
A blood-colored domain suddenly expanded with him at its center.
Within the domain, blood mist churned and baleful Qi surged, completely enveloping the three of them.
The multicolored poisonous miasma surged toward them, but the instant it touched the blood-colored domain, it sizzled like ice and snow against a hot iron. All of it was kept outside, unable to penetrate in the slightest.
"Let's go."
Dai Weisi looked unperturbed, as though he had done something utterly insignificant, and led the way into the poisonous miasma.
The sisters, Zhu Zhuyun and Zhu Zhuqing, exchanged a glance and hurried after him. As they walked within the blood-colored domain, they felt warmth all around them, while the deadly poison outside, which could have killed them in an instant, was now as docile as a household pet.
On the other side, the humanlike mockery on the Ghost Shadow Cat's face froze completely, then turned to utter terror.
It could not understand why these humans could so easily pass through a natural barrier that even it had needed all its strength to cross!
Fear overcame its pain. It let out a strange cry, no longer daring to linger, and turned tail and ran!
But it had barely darted ten meters when a lazy, raspy voice sounded through the forest without warning.
"Little fellow, why are you running? My herb garden happens to need some ten-thousand-year-grade fertilizer."
Before the voice had faded, a jade-green figure appeared like a ghost in the Ghost Shadow Cat's path.
It was a tall, thin old man with long, dark green hair hanging loosely around him. His jade-green eyes held not a trace of feeling, like two venomous snakes poised to devour someone.
He merely raised a hand, and a pale green mist drifted out, enveloping the Ghost Shadow Cat in an instant.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could not even struggle. Its body stiffened abruptly, and it fell straight out of the air. Its limbs twitched a few times before it went completely still.
Clearly, it was not dead, but had been thoroughly knocked unconscious by poison!
He had taken down a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in an instant, with a single move!
Only after doing all this did the old man slowly turn around, his green, serpentine eyes locking coldly onto Dai Weisi and the two sisters, who had just emerged from the poisonous miasma.
"You entered my territory without permission. You have some nerve."
He snorted coldly, and a terrifying, invisible pressure bore down on them like a mountain.
"Since you're here, you can all stay and become fertilizer."
A Titled Douluo!
Zhu Zhuyun's body instantly tensed. Her Soul Power circulated rapidly as she stood guard at Dai Weisi's side, bracing herself for a formidable enemy.
Dai Weisi also narrowed his eyes. He drove the defensive power of his hundred-thousand-year Golden Hawksbill Turtle Torso Bone to its limit, forcibly withstanding the pressure and protecting the Zhu sisters behind him.
Yet at this moment, with swords drawn and bows bent, Zhu Zhuqing's reaction took everyone by surprise.
The instant she saw the old man's face clearly, the fear in her eyes turned into wild joy and a desperate, all-or-nothing madness!
She had seen it-the only chance to escape her fate!
"Whoosh!"
Moving as swiftly as a ghost, Zhu Zhuqing left the safety of Dai Weisi's protection of her own accord and shot to the green-haired old man's side like lightning.
Then she bowed respectfully, her voice carrying just the right touch of excitement and earnestness.
"Your Majesty Poison Douluo! I am Zhu Zhuqing. I once had the honor of witnessing your distinguished bearing! I am now being held under a scoundrel's control and have no choice. Having met Your Majesty, I beg you to protect me!"
The atmosphere instantly became utterly strange.
Zhu Zhuyun froze, unable to believe her eyes.
The green-haired old man was none other than Poison Douluo Dugu Bo.
He too was taken aback by Zhu Zhuqing's sudden action. He glanced down at her, then looked up at the extraordinary young man opposite him, who carried a faint kingly majesty, and frowned.
"A little cat from the Star Luo Empire's Zhu Family? Hmph, so this is a dispute within your imperial family."
Dugu Bo immediately guessed the gist of it, and a flash of disgust crossed his eyes.
"I do have some connection to you, but I have no interest in your family affairs. Don't bring your trouble to me!"
Though that was what he said, he no longer intended to kill them for fertilizer.
After all, the Star Luo Empire was a colossus, and he did not want to offend it beyond repair for no reason.
"Zhu Zhuqing!"
Zhu Zhuyun finally came to her senses. Trembling all over with anger, she pointed at her younger sister and shouted at her.
"Have you gone mad?! This is betrayal! His Highness gave you a way to live, yet you actually turned to an outsider to deal with us?"
Zhu Zhuqing kept her head lowered and did not look at her sister. She only gazed pleadingly at Dugu Bo, staking her fate on a single thought from this Titled Douluo.
"Betrayal?"
Just then, Dai Weisi, who had remained silent, suddenly laughed.
His laughter was soft, but carried a knowing amusement and a domineering air, drawing everyone's attention to him.
At the same time, a voice only he could hear sounded in his mind.
[Ding! The God-Level Selection System has been activated!] [Target Zhu Zhuqing has been detected switching sides at a critical moment and attempting to use outside help to escape the host's control. Please make a selection!] [Option one: A gentleman's bearing. Her heart is no longer with you; there is no use forcing her to stay. Let her leave here and now, demonstrating an imperial bearing. Reward: Increase the age of all Soul Rings by five hundred years and raise Soul Power by one level!] [Option two: Watch coldly from the sidelines. This is the Zhu Family's business. Let Zhu Zhuyun handle it; do not intervene or interfere in the sisters' dispute, and watch how events unfold. Reward: One Snow Soul Demon Fox Left Arm Bone from a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!] [Option three: A sovereign's dominance. How can someone this prince has set his sights on simply leave as she pleases? Publicly declare ownership of her, subdue her with thunderous force, and take her away by force. Beneath all heaven, is there any land that is not the king's? Your life and your person are both mine! Reward: One Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone of a designated body part!]
Dai Weisi looked at the gleaming golden third option on the system panel in his sea of consciousness, and the curve of his smile grew wider and wider.
He raised his eyes, his gaze passing over Dugu Bo to settle on Zhu Zhuqing, who was looking pleadingly at someone else, and slowly spoke.
"Zhu Zhuqing, you seem to have misunderstood one thing."
"From the moment you stepped out of Star Luo City, your fate was no longer yours to decide."
"Besides, do you think a mere Poison Douluo can stop me?!"