74: Crazy Beast King Palm Pet 14

Bai Shuang left the Beast King's territory, like a lost soul torn by a fierce wind, aimlessly drifting in the perilous wilderness.

Lie Xiao's cold 'Get out' and Wen Ci's bottle of medicine, which she had abandoned, burned her heart day and night like a red-hot branding iron.

Regret, jealousy, unwillingness… and her utterly shattered pride, all brewed into a pot of poisonous soup in her chest.

She was unwilling.

What she couldn't have, no one else should have either.

Bai Shuang began to wander like a ghost around the fringes of the beast tribes, spreading carefully woven venom in her hoarse voice, by campfires and in dark corners, to the beastmen who were already suspicious or jealous of having a human queen:

"Do you really think that human woman is genuinely submissive?"

"I saw it with my own eyes… she used a secret method to transmit information late at night, and the direction… was precisely the Human Race's Royal City!"

"Lord Lie Xiao has been deceived by her pretense of weakness! She is lurking by the King's side to steal our Beast Race's intelligence and prepare for the next human invasion!"

"Think about it, why have border skirmishes increased since she arrived? Why have the King's recent decisions become… less 'beastly'?"

"She is a spy! A beautiful and deadly trap!"

Rumors, like a plague, quietly spread in the shadows. Some ignorant and disgruntled beastmen began to whisper, their gazes towards the Royal City filled with suspicion and hostility. Inevitably, the whispers reached Lie Xiao's ears.

Upon his throne, a storm unlike any before brewed in Lie Xiao's golden eyes.

Someone dared to slander his treasure so, attempting to shake the fortress he had built with both iron will and tenderness!

He did not order the secret arrest of those spreading rumors; instead, he chose the most direct and thunderous approach.

He summoned the leaders of all tribes within his territory, the elders, and the Royal City Guard to a public declaration ceremony on the majestic altar plaza.

Bai Shuang, like a rat in a gutter, also hid in the shadows at the edge of the crowd, her heart pounding, both anticipating the chaos the rumors would bring and fearing the King's thunderous wrath.

Lie Xiao stood on the high altar, his posture as tall and unyielding as ancient mountains, exuding a suffocating aura of power. His gaze, like tangible ice picks, slowly swept over the dense crowd below.

The plaza was silent, as if even the wind had frozen.

His voice was not loud, yet it resonated like a thunderclap in the ears and hearts of every beastman, every word carrying the undeniable force of law:

"Wen Ci—"

He clearly uttered her name, his voice imbued with an almost reverent solemnity.

"—is my mate."

These simple five words, like a sea-stabilizing needle, instantly quelled all restless undercurrents.

Mate! In the Beast Race, this was not merely a title; it represented a soul contract, the highest recognition and a vow of protection, far weightier than the words 'Queen'!

Immediately after, Lie Xiao's voice suddenly sharpened, like ten thousand years of ice shattering, and terrifying killing intent burst forth from his golden eyes. That killing intent was so palpable that the beastmen closest to the altar involuntarily took a step back:

"Those who slander her—"

He paused for a moment, his gaze seemingly piercing through the crowd, precisely locking onto the trembling figure in the shadows.

"—die."

The last word fell, like a death sentence, carrying an absolute coldness that froze the soul.

A deathly silence on the plaza was immediately followed by a thunderous echo: "We obey the King's command! Those who slander the Queen shall die!"

All doubts and whispers were crushed by this iron-blooded declaration at that moment.

The King's will was unquestionable! The King's mate was not to be defiled!

Hiding in the shadows, Bai Shuang felt as if struck by five thunderbolts.

Her final madness, her last bit of unwillingness, was utterly pulverized into dust before Lie Xiao's brief yet mountain-heavy declaration.

She clearly saw Lie Xiao's cold glance in her direction; there was no anger in his eyes, only the indifference of looking at dust and the ruthlessness of a death sentence. He didn't even bother to point her out publicly, because in his eyes, she was already a dead person.

It's over… it's all over…

The last thing supporting her collapsed.

Immense fear and despair, worse than death, instantly seized her.

She scrambled and crawled, fleeing the plaza, fleeing the Royal City, like a rabbit targeted by a hawk, frantically rushing into the depths of the perilous wilderness.

She knew the Royal City Guard would soon pursue her, or perhaps the King wouldn't even need to send anyone; the wilderness itself would execute the 'death' sentence for him.

She ran aimlessly, her wounds tearing open with the strenuous movement, blood staining her tattered clothes.

Hunger, thirst, blood loss, and despair that permeated her bones rapidly drained her life force.

She didn't know how long she ran until a massive shadow enveloped the sky.

The ground began to tremble, like muffled drumbeats approaching from afar, growing louder and more frequent. The air was filled with dense dust and the rank smell of wild beasts. On the distant horizon, a black line was rapidly expanding, like a rolling, all-consuming black tide.

It was a beast tide!

A beast tide of unprecedented scale! Thousands of startled or migrating colossal beasts were sweeping towards her direction like an uncontrolled flood.

Hoofbeats, roars, and the snapping of trees being broken merged into a symphony of destruction.

Bai Shuang stopped, standing on an open high slope, gazing at the terrifying tide that engulfed heaven and earth.

Her face was no longer fearful, only a deathly calm and… a deep, unyielding self-mockery.

Run? Where to run? This wilderness, this wilderness where she once thought she could establish herself with strength and wisdom, had now become her only burial ground.

Her hand trembled as she instinctively reached into her bosom, where, surprisingly, she still clutched that warm, small white jade medicine bottle.

Did she pick it up by some strange impulse when she fled the Royal City? Or had she subconsciously never truly discarded it? She didn't know.

The cold jade bottle pressed against her burning palm, like a piece of unmelting ice, and also like a huge, silent mockery.

She watched the approaching beast tide, the stampeding giant beasts like a black army of death, the dust they raised obscuring the sky. She could even clearly see the crimson eyes and stark white fangs of the colossal beasts leading the charge.

"Heh…" A very soft, very hoarse bitter laugh escaped her parched lips.

So… after all this circling, all this scheming…

"So… I was the… idiot…"

Before her words finished, the surging beast tide, like a relentless giant wave, instantly completely swallowed her tiny figure.