61: Crazy Beast King Palm Pet 1

Bai Shuang's eyes snapped open, the icy air piercing her lungs, instantly jolting her muddled consciousness into a sharp, explosive clarity!

She had been reborn!

It wasn't a dream! The rough cage bars, the foul stench of blood and herbs permeating the air, and the faint roars of beasts echoing in the distance… everything cruelly declared—she had returned to the starting point of that nightmare!

The terrifying night she was offered as a sacrifice by her tribe to that degenerate Beast King, Lie Xiao!

That madman! That monster!

The suffocating feeling of being imprisoned and controlled in her previous life instantly clutched at her throat.

Lie Xiao? What Beast King? He was nothing but a beast enslaved by a berserk bloodline, unable to even control his own power!

The heavy, never-washing-off scent of blood on him, his cold golden eyes that looked at people as if scrutinizing dead objects, and his destructive fury that could erupt at any moment!

Such a madman was not worth loving at all!

Those 'good things' he sent? Blood-stained beast fangs, raw meat, grotesque bone tools… all the aesthetics of a beast! How could she, a living person, like these?! It was nothing but that monster's wishful, nauseating charity!

What kind of responsibility? What kind of tribal survival? Why should she sacrifice herself to satisfy that madman's desires? The humiliation and resentment of being imprisoned in a luxurious cage and losing her freedom in her previous life instantly coiled around her heart like a poisonous vine.

She must escape!

She would make it so that madman could never imprison her again!

This thought burned wildly in her reborn soul; that monster didn't deserve an ounce of her pity!

The instinct for survival overrode everything.

Bai Shuang suppressed the surging hatred, her gaze sweeping like lightning across the beast-bone cage that held her.

There!

That was it! In her previous life, she had also discovered this gap, accidentally torn by a beast's claw, in extreme fear! Time was tight, she had to be quick!

With a 'whoosh,' she nimbly slipped through the narrow gap, instantly disappearing into the thick darkness outside the stone house.

The wind of freedom brushed her cheek, carrying the ecstatic and resolute feeling of escaping hell.

This time, she would never repeat her past mistakes! She would completely escape this purgatory!

Almost at the same moment Bai Shuang's figure completely merged into the dark jungle.

Heavy footsteps, carrying an undeniable pressure, stopped at the entrance of the stone house.

Beast King Lie Xiao's tall figure blocked the flickering firelight, casting a huge, suffocating shadow behind him.

In his rough hand, he tightly clutched the still-warm heart of a giant beast he had just hunted.

This was the most precious and most 'welcoming' gift he could think of at the moment.

The heart still pulsed faintly, and viscous blood dripped through his fingers, splattering dark red flowers on the cold stone ground.

His golden vertical pupils, with a hint of clumsy anticipation he himself hadn't noticed, turned towards the beast-bone cage.

Empty.

Only cold beast bones and the faint, rapidly dissipating scent of the female remained.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

The still-dripping heart of the giant beast fell from his suddenly weakened hand with a 'thud,' hitting the ground heavily, rolling twice, and becoming covered in dust.

A strong smell of blood permeated the dead silence, but it couldn't suppress an even colder, more violent aura that was wildly emanating from the statue-like figure at the doorway.

"Beast… Beast King, spare us!!!"

"It's not our fault! It—it was her herself…"

"Mercy! Mercy!!!"

The hyena guards by the cage were terrified, all collapsing to the ground with thuds, their foreheads pressed hard against the cold ground, trembling like autumn leaves in the wind.

They didn't even dare to look up at the figure engulfed in dead silence; every cell screamed death!

Lie Xiao's gaze was fixed on the empty cage, unmoving.

He was stiff as cold rock, maintaining that stunned posture, his golden vertical pupils staring intently at the cage.

The cold rage burning deep within his pupils, after the initial ferocity, suddenly collapsed and extinguished, leaving only something deeper and more desolate.

She ran again.

These three words, like poisoned ice picks, fiercely stabbed into his already scarred heart.

That familiar, soul-shattering pain, like a maggot attached to bone, instantly seized all his senses.

Sure enough… sure enough!

Every time! Every single time it was like this!

Whether it was the females forcibly offered as sacrifices, or the tribe members who had tried to approach him in the past, they all ended up with only one outcome.

Fearing him, fleeing him, like avoiding the dirtiest plague!

They looked at him as if he were a monster that could go mad and devour people at any moment, with only the purest, undisguised fear and disgust in their eyes.

"Roar—!!!"

A deeply suppressed, painful, and furious roar suddenly rumbled from deep within his throat, not aimed at anyone, but more like a roar at this cruel fate itself!

The sound was deep and hoarse, with a scraping metallic quality, yet it contained endless brutality and… an indescribable despair.

As if a ferocious beast, abandoned by the entire world and trapped in a thorny thicket, each struggle only brought deeper wounds.

His massive body unconsciously trembled violently from excessive exertion, his knuckles cracking under the strain.

The smell of blood on him suddenly became even more intense, more frenzied.

The violent bloodline almost burst through his skin, along with the deep-seated loneliness and coldness of being completely trampled upon, of being proven once again that 'no one wishes to stay.'

Why?

A silent, blood-tinged question echoed wildly in his chaotic mind.

Why did everyone run?

Why would even a humble and weak sacrifice rather rush into the perilous, life-threatening dark jungle than stay by his side, even for a moment?

He was born this way! This violent bloodline, these inhuman beast eyes, this never-washing-off stench of blood! This wasn't his choice!

Yet, it became a curse he could never escape, nailing him to a lonely throne, admired by all, but also feared, despised, and fled by all!

A destructive impulse swept over him.

Tear apart everything in front of him! Destroy this damned tribe! Make all those who fled pay the most tragic price! Let the whole world feel his tearing pain at this moment!

His golden vertical pupils were bloodshot from extreme pain and brutality, their edges tinged with frightening crimson streaks, like lava on the verge of losing control.

The terrifying pressure emanating from him was like a tangible heavy hammer, fiercely striking all around.

Meanwhile, in the distance.

Wen Ci, who had just arrived in this unfamiliar world, was being escorted by a team of silent and oppressed tribespeople, as the 'new' sacrificial saintess, towards the legendary and dreaded Beast King's territory.

The air felt like solidified lead, heavy on everyone's hearts.

Suddenly—

"Boom!!!"

An incredibly dull, colossal roar, like an extraterrestrial meteor violently crashing to earth, suddenly erupted from the direction of the Beast King's camp!

An incomparably violent wave of air instantly expanded, carrying shattered rocks, broken wood, and dust, forming a visible, air-distorting shockwave, like the invisible claw of a giant beast, fiercely sweeping across the jungle's edge!

The ground trembled violently!

Wen Ci's tightly closed eyelashes suddenly fluttered, and she abruptly opened her eyes!

In that instant, it was as if the dim morning light had been illuminated.

Her astonishing beauty made all the escorting tribespeople gasp, gasps of cold air rising one after another.

It was a beauty beyond the mundane, almost ethereal, yet it was about to be cast into the abyss of despair.

"What a sin…" an old woman's voice, thick with pity and regret, sounded hoarsely, "This delicate porcelain-like person… I'm afraid she won't even see tonight's moon."

"Hearing that commotion…" another voice trembled, filled with fear of that terrifying power, "It must be… it must be the Beast King raging again! The last sacrifice… must have escaped again, right? Alas…"

Wen Ci's calm, unruffled gaze followed the fearful and pitying glances of the crowd, turning towards the direction from which the loud noise came.