67: Crazy Beast King Palm Pet 7

“Roar—!”

However, just as he was about to attack, Wen Ci hugged his arm.

Lie Xiao saw her approach, and the ferocity in his eyes slightly froze; he instinctively took half a step back.

He let out an unintelligible growl from his throat, carrying a hint of… panic? that was hard to detect.

Wen Ci gently cupped his hard, chiseled face with her warm palms. Her movements were soft yet firm, forcing those chaotic and violent golden vertical pupils to meet her clear, calm, yet undeniably scrutinizing gaze.

“Lie Xiao,” her voice was very soft, yet it clearly penetrated the dead silent plaza, and also his frantic soul, “you can be fierce to others, you can intimidate them, and even… punish them when necessary.”

Her fingertips gently caressed his taut jawline, carrying a soothing power.

“But,” her tone suddenly became serious and earnest, looking directly into the depths of his eyes at that self-destructive pleasure brought by slaughter, which he himself had never noticed, “do not harm yourself, and do not hurt the hearts of your warriors.”

Lie Xiao was completely stunned.

Harm… himself?

He was accustomed to pain, accustomed to the temporary numbness and sense of power that slaughter brought. No one… no one had ever said such words to him.

Slaughter, to him, was instinct, catharsis, a means of rule. How could it… harm himself?

The Leopard Clan Warrior beneath him took advantage of this gap to escape.

Wen Ci’s fingers traced the gruesome old scar above Lie Xiao’s brow bone, her voice tinged with heartache: “Every uncontrolled slaughter, every time you are consumed by brutality, is tearing your own soul apart. Your heart will ache.”

She paused, looking at his golden eyes filled with bewilderment and confusion, teaching him word by word, as if instructing a naive young beast, “Meaningless slaughter will only make you lose more. Your warriors will fear you, and their loyalty will waver.

A king who only knows how to rule through fear will eventually become a truly solitary figure, abandoned by everyone.”

Her voice was like a clear spring, extinguishing the destructive flame ignited in his heart by slaughter.

He followed her gaze, looking at the beast warriors who were prostrate on the ground, trembling violently with fear.

In their eyes, besides the bone-deep fear, there seemed to be… something deeper? Was it disappointment? Was it alienation? Was it… a reverence that no longer dared to approach?

Lie Xiao’s heart sank sharply.

For the first time, he clearly realized: Wen Ci was right. Endless brutality and indiscriminate killing seemed… to truly be pushing him towards a more isolated abyss.

He needed power to intimidate, but perhaps… he also needed something else to maintain it?

Looking at the warriors' eyes, and at the worry and instruction in Wen Ci's eyes, a strange emotion called “recognition” cast a stone into the cold lake of his heart.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his tense body slowly relaxed. The crimson and brutality in his eyes receded like a tide, leaving only a tamed bewilderment and a hint of… docile obedience, as if he had been taught a lesson.

He let out a low “hmm,” like a fierce beast that had made a mistake and been enlightened, slightly lowering his head, allowing Wen Ci to cup his face.

Wen Ci looked at him in this state, sighing softly in her heart, yet a hint of relief surged within her.

She stood on her tiptoes and gently pressed her forehead against his sweaty forehead, like a silent affirmation and comfort.

*

The scent of late autumn yellowed the forest's edge, and the air was heavy with the ominous feeling of an impending storm.

The news brought back by the beast tribe hunters became increasingly unsettling: the depths of the forest were unusually agitated, and large numbers of low-level fierce beasts, as if driven by an invisible whip, began to migrate abnormally towards the periphery, even leading to small-scale conflicts and stampedes.

Panic spread like a plague among the various tribes. Experienced beast tribe elders were deeply worried; they smelled an ominous premonition in the air.

A beast tide.

That was a destructive disaster that erupted every few decades or centuries for unknown reasons. Countless rampaging fierce beasts would sweep across all living beings and tribes in their path like a bursting dam, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake.

The Wolf Tribe, a medium-sized tribe located on the outskirts of the forest, known for its bravery and unity, was now shrouded in a huge shadow.

The tribe’s walls were reinforced again and again, warriors patrolled day and night, and the air was filled with anxiety and despair. They knew very well that given the tribe’s location and size, if the main force of the beast tide was directed here, they would be the first to bear the brunt, and their chances of survival would be slim.

Bai Shuang huddled in the simplest lean-to in the furthest corner of the slave camp.

The whip marks and bruises on her body had not yet fully healed, and the pain from her broken ribs was even more excruciating in the cold, damp weather.

Ever since she was almost beaten to death last time, she had completely recognized reality, becoming numb and silent, like a walking corpse, mechanically performing arduous chores, just to get a little food for survival.

She listened to the discussions about the beast tide in the tribe, her heart filled with dead silence. Destruction? Perhaps for her, it would also be a release.

However, when the disaster truly struck, its terrifying extent still exceeded everyone’s imagination.

It was a pitch-black night with no moon.

At first, there was the vibration of the ground, like countless heavy drumsticks pounding the earth. Immediately following that, from the distant depths of the forest, came a unified roar and howl, like a tsunami! The sound came from far away and grew closer, with a destructive force that instantly shattered the night’s tranquility!

“Beast tide! The beast tide is here!!!” A shrill alarm pierced the night sky.

The walls of the Wolf Tribe were instantly battered and on the verge of collapse by the first wave of impact from the rampaging beast horde! Flames shot into the sky, illuminating countless pairs of eyes glowing with bloodthirsty red light in the darkness!

Like a black tide, a torrent composed of rampaging Earth-Rending Bears, Thorn Wolves with dripping fangs, massive Iron-Armored Rhinos, and countless unnamed, ferocious beasts instantly engulfed the outer sentry posts!

The slaughter began.

The sturdy wooden walls were torn apart and smashed down like paper.

Fierce beasts rushed into the tribe, pouncing on anyone they saw, destroying everything in their path! Screams, wails, sounds of collapsing houses, and the roars of fierce beasts intertwined into a dirge of hell. The beast warriors resisted fiercely, but in the face of absolute numbers and rampant power, their lines collapsed and disintegrated instantly like castles on a sandy beach.

The slave camp where Bai Shuang was located, being on the outermost edge of the tribe, was almost immediately swallowed by the beast tide!

“Run!” Someone shouted, and the slaves scattered like startled birds.

Bai Shuang, dragging her injured and crippled body, desperately ran in the chaos and darkness.

She saw fierce beasts easily tear apart a beastman slave who tried to resist; saw the bear tribe overseer who had once whipped her being flattened into a pulp by a huge Earth-Rending Bear’s paw; saw countless familiar or unfamiliar figures wailing and falling under the flames and beast claws…

Fear overwhelmed the pain, and the instinct for survival drove her. She fled blindly, was knocked down by the fleeing crowd, and then trampled by the fierce beasts surging from behind! Excruciating pain shot through her leg; she even heard the crisp sound of bones breaking!

“Ah—!” She shrieked in agony, the intense pain almost making her faint.

A drooling Thorn Wolf discovered her, isolated, its crimson eyes locking onto this fragile target, and it growled as it pounced! A fishy wind assaulted her face, and the shadow of death instantly enveloped her!

In despair, Bai Shuang unleashed her last burst of strength, rolling violently to the side!

The Thorn Wolf’s sharp claws grazed her shoulder, tearing off a large chunk of flesh, but it also allowed her to narrowly avoid the fatal bite. She grabbed a burning wooden stick from the ground and wildly swung it at the fierce beast; the flames temporarily forced it back.

Dragging a leg that was almost useless, she scrambled and crawled into a crevice in the ruins of a collapsed house, desperately blocking the entrance with broken wooden boards and stones.

Outside, there were deafening roars, the sounds of bones being gnawed, and dying wails; the thick smell of blood almost suffocated her.

She huddled in the cold corner of the ruins, covered in blood, with wounds on her shoulder and leg so deep that bone was visible. The intense pain and blood loss blurred her consciousness.

The cold touch of death was so clear. At this moment, what flashed through her mind was not freedom, not hope, but Lie Xiao’s impregnable and heavily guarded royal court fortress.

That cage she had desperately escaped… that place guarded by the crazy beast king… was it also now bathed in blood and fire? Or…

An absurd and chilling thought, like an ice pick, pierced her confused consciousness: that woman named Wen Ci… that human sacrifice who stayed by Lie Xiao’s side in her place… where would she be now?

In Lie Xiao’s royal court.

This answer, with its suffocating sense of irony, clearly emerged in Bai Shuang’s collapsing mind.