Chapter Thirteen: The Beast King Captured

Wu Rousha was forced to revert to her true form, her howling screams piercing the sky and drawing the parasitic beasts around her into a frenzied tide. Huo Jingyu watched the Parasite Beast King’s miserable fate, feeling both elated and nauseated. One beast egg after another was extracted from the Beast King and crushed, making her grimace with every pop.

Zou Xiuzhen’s attention was elsewhere. He pulled Huo Jingyu to a nearby rockery to hide. A dense mass of parasitic beasts surged forward like an unending tide. The red barrier welcomed all comers. From a distance, it looked like a tiny flicker of red wavering atop a black sea.

His heart quaked. “With so many parasitic beasts, can Jiang Wangshu hold out?”

Within the eighteenth domain, Wu Rousha shrieked, struggling to lift her head toward Jiang Wangshu in the sky.

“I’d like to see how much spirit power you truly possess. I have eighteen thousand four hundred and sixty-seven parasitic beasts. Can you kill them all?”

She watched as the beasts advanced over each other, forming ladders of flesh as they quickly closed in on Jiang Wangshu, and burst out laughing triumphantly.

Jiang Wangshu raised her eyelids coolly. Her left hand formed a seal, a finger tapping the page before her. “Hell of Tongue Extraction—Expand!”

A torrent of spirit power surged into the book, and the red hell instantly doubled in size. Countless arms broke through the ground with renewed ferocity, snatching the parasitic beasts and dragging them beneath the earth.

Jiang Wangshu felt the abundant spirit energy coursing through her body, a flicker of doubt crossing her mind. The triumphant laughter interrupted her thoughts, and her gaze fixed on Wu Rousha. “Keep laughing, why don’t you.”

The swarm of parasitic beasts couldn’t harm the arms in the slightest; as soon as they entered, they were dragged underground, struggling. In the blink of an eye, half the beasts had vanished, and the blood-red earth glowed even brighter. The empty spaces were soon covered by more beasts, only to be devoured in turn.

Wu Rousha stared in disbelief at the carnage, screaming, “Impossible! How could this be happening!”

In the Abyss, Xiao Hei’s body suddenly staggered as an enormous amount of spirit power began draining from within. He looked down to see the contract mark on his collarbone glowing faintly—the spirit power was vanishing from there.

He understood at once: it was all the doing of that “emergency ration.” Despicable humans!

He bared his teeth, agitation flowing from his eyes to his face, then turned and sprinted deeper into the Abyss.

With so much spirit power being drawn, was his “emergency ration” trying to drain him dry?

Xiao Hei hunted the nearby monsters with wild abandon, snatching their demon cores and consuming the spirit energy to fill the bottomless void within himself, working tirelessly.

The monsters attracted by the Beast King’s demon core were utterly terrified by the slaughter. Dragging their battered forces, they retreated toward their dens in droves.

Heavens, it was too horrifying! They swore never to leave home again.

Elsewhere, the Heavenly Authority Squad sacrificed five members to open a path for Li Huanyi to lead the rest back to the surface. Clutching the last third of her spirit power, Li Huanyi managed a wry smile. With so little power left, facing an R-rank Beast King was a joke.

Yet until the road reached its end, she dared not give up. Should they succeed, they could save thousands upon thousands of families.

Pulling herself together, she asked, “What’s the situation on the surface now?”

The squad’s dedicated scout opened his eyes in astonishment. “All the parasitic beasts are heading southwest!”

“All of them?” Li Huanyi was stunned as well. “Let’s hurry over!”

“Commander, there’s still the aura of a Beast King over there.”

Li Huanyi bent forward, alert. “We must be even more careful.”

As they crept toward the commotion, the sight that greeted them left them rooted to the spot.

Were they dreaming?

Parasitic beasts were shrouded in red light, countless jade-pale arms tearing their massive bodies apart. The remaining limbs were quickly devoured by the crimson earth.

Most striking of all was the central mountain of a beast, emanating the powerful aura of a Beast King, now wailing and begging for mercy.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“There’s a human traitor among you—aren’t you curious who it is?”

“Let me go and I’ll tell you everything… ah—spare me…”

“Look, I’m laughing, see? Please, just spare me…”

Wu Rousha was utterly changed, her eggs all gone, her body collapsed and slug-like on the ground.

Jiang Wangshu manipulated the arms, inspecting Wu Rousha as one would examine pork, prodding and turning her over. After a thorough check, not a single beast egg remained. Her obsessive nature was satisfied—how refreshing!

She nodded in approval. “In that case, you can die—”

“Show mercy!” The sudden cry made Jiang Wangshu turn her head.

A woman, drenched in blood and teetering on her feet, appeared—clearly just out of a brutal fight and gravely wounded.

Huo Jingyu and Zou Xiuzhen stared in shock. “Commander! You’re Li Huanyi, Chief Commander of F City!”

Li Huanyi acknowledged them with a polite nod before turning to Jiang Wangshu. “Hello! On behalf of F City, I’d like to requisition this Parasite Beast King from you, and you will be compensated accordingly.”

Jiang Wangshu rose, her landing light as a feather, and approached Li Huanyi. “How much?”

Li Huanyi, seeing her unperturbed expression, paused to consider her options. “Three hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones.”

Jiang Wangshu frowned slightly; still accustomed to RMB, she found the amount a bit paltry. She could win that much with a casual scratch-off lottery ticket.

Still, three hundred thousand pure stones couldn’t be called a windfall, right? It shouldn’t bring bad luck, should it?

She was about to agree when Li Huanyi, mistaking her hesitation for dissatisfaction, thought of the finance department and gritted her teeth. “Four hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones, plus a set of storage rings.”

Jiang Wangshu’s eyes lit up. Afraid Li Huanyi would regret it, she nodded at once. “Deal! How do I hand her over to you?”

Li Huanyi looked to the Heavenly Authority Squad behind her. One soldier stepped forward. “Please attach this to the Beast King’s vital point.”

He offered a silver claw the size of a fist, inscribed with countless runes. Once clamped onto a vital point, not even a god could escape.

Jiang Wangshu took it and turned to Wu Rousha. “Will you do it yourself, or shall I help you?”

Wu Rousha hastily shifted into human form, her gaunt face full of deference. “No need to trouble you, I’ll do it myself.”

Without hesitation, she clamped the device onto her own vital point. The sudden pain drenched her in cold sweat, but she endured it gladly—compared to the torment Jiang Wangshu could inflict, this was nothing.

She had no desire to experience Jiang Wangshu’s cycle of death and resurrection ever again.

So, as Jiang Wangshu withdrew her domain, Wu Rousha all but skipped in delight toward Li Huanyi’s group.

Li Huanyi stared at Wu Rousha as if she’d seen a ghost.

Wu Rousha nodded obediently. “Human, ask me anything—I’ll tell you everything.”

She cast a sidelong glance at Jiang Wangshu and positioned herself protectively behind Li Huanyi. “Let’s go quickly.”

Li Huanyi touched her forehead, feeling as if she were in a dream. After all the battles and the countless demons she’d captured, never before had she seen one so docile and obedient.

She hesitated, looking toward Jiang Wangshu. “You…”