The Wan Sou flying boat pierced through the dense fog and sped forward.

Everyone on the boat wore face coverings to shield their mouths and noses.

Each boat had designated personnel to crush medicinal pills, and a team of soldiers took turns maintaining a barrier.

“Is the air in the Beast Realm always filled with this kind of poisonous fog?” asked Fifth Sheng with concern.

If that were the case, it would be impossible to fight the battle.

“No,” Qin Ruqing replied while using her spiritual sense to observe ahead, “The fog is only near the barrier. Once the flying boat passes through the fog zone, the air will return to normal.”

“So, what’s our current direction?”

With Qin Ruqing’s status as a Dao Ancestor heir and her experience in exploring the Beast Realm, she was undoubtedly in charge of this mission.

“To the Tian Qian,” Qin Ruqing said. “The Tian Qian is perilous and hard to attack. Capturing it will serve as our future base of operations in the Beast Realm.”

“Are there many beast groups stationed near the Tian Qian?”

“Not many, but not few either. There are the beast tribes originally living at Tian Qian, the troops stationed at the mountain top’s beast palace, and the reinforcements dispatched by the beast race,” Qin Ruqing casually listed. The beast combat strength near Tian Qian was already considerable.

“In that case, our combat strategy…” Fifth Sheng intended to discuss a plan with Qin Ruqing but was immediately silenced when he heard Qin Ruqing’s indifferent response.

Qin Ruqing said lightly, “There’s no strategy. Just kill them all.”

On the flying boat, faintly, one could hear Lu Wei instructing soldiers to clear the fog, her tone gentle and soft: “First crush the brown pills, then the red ones. The effects last for an hour, so the medicine needs to be used every hour.”

The soldiers on the boat were very fond of Qin’s gentle and elegant elixir master, who was also a top-level alchemist.

However, Fifth Sheng felt a chill in his heart.

For the first time, he felt the significant difference in character between the “Qin Sisters.”

At the pre-departure meeting, Qin Ruqing had stated that regardless of the cost, the battlefield should be moved to the Beast Realm.

To make the beast race feel pain.

At that time, Fifth Sheng had not understood the meaning of “pain,” but now he did.

—“There’s no strategy. Just kill them all.”

The beast race was known for its ferocity, with a penchant for combat and torture.

But if you angered Qin Ruqing, she would show them that she could be more ruthless and cruel than they were.

Qin Ruqing was not a flower in a greenhouse;

She wasn’t just a talented moral teacher with lofty ideals.

She was more powerful than most people; more resourceful than most people; and also more ruthless than most people.

She was truly the trailblazer chosen by this era, the true daughter of destiny.

Lingyu could not compare to her.

The last bit of subtle unwillingness in Fifth Sheng’s heart slowly dissipated as he clearly observed it himself.

Before giving orders to the soldiers on the flying boat, Fifth Sheng slightly bowed and calmly withdrew.

The Tian Qian was indeed easy to defend but difficult to attack, yet the human race captured it in just one day.

There were no special methods, just overwhelming combat power.

All the invisible rules about higher-ups not acting against lower-level targets were completely ignored.

The highest-ranking ancestor of the cultivation world, Feng Ancestor, personally took action, summoning a wind blade as tall as a mountain.

The cliff of Tian Qian was cleaved in half from top to bottom.

The human army announced their arrival in such a grandiose manner.

---

“They annihilated nearly fifty beast villages around the Tian Qian!”

“It’s terrifying! The humans preach morality and benevolence, and this is their so-called benevolence?!”

“What morality and virtue, it’s just pretense. They’ve merely taken advantage of the world’s source laws, and now their true colors are showing!”

“…”

In the Beast God Palace atop the Beast Head Mountain, leaders of various tribes from the Seven Mountains and Eight Veins gathered, shouting in different beast languages.

The unified theme of their shouting was:

Condemning and cursing the human race; Urgently seeking to retaliate; And a few rational ones reintroduced the earlier peace negotiation proposal, arguing that the previous refusal was too hasty.

They believed they should have dragged it out, using a ruthless stance to force the humans into desperation, which might have prevented the current major loss.

The beast race was largely driven by instincts, and this kind of hindsight was unwelcome.

They responded harshly.

“Now you’re being smart, why didn’t you say this earlier?”

“If we didn’t refuse, were we really supposed to negotiate with the humans and hand over the great advantage we’d gained over hundreds or thousands of years of our people’s efforts?”

“War involves bloodshed. It’s not about lacking strength. The humans moved the battlefield to the Beast Realm, and we’re just going to passively accept? We’ll send demon kings to raid human villages and see who feels more pain!”

The Wolf King stood in the hall, feeling deeply disappointed as he watched the beasts quarrel and fight among themselves.

Some were even so enraged that they began fighting right there in the hall.

In such times, shouldn’t they focus on minimizing losses?

It would be more effective to deploy troops to protect the remaining beast villages than to argue here!

The Wolf King thought of the dazzling human face.

She had said, “War will always bring bloodshed. I promised the Great King that as long as I am here, I will fiercely retaliate against the Beast Realm. I will make the Beast Realm bleed.”

She had meant it as a threat, but her expression was more like a jest.

“Does the Great King enjoy war?” she had asked.

The Wolf King shook his head.

How could he enjoy it? He was thoroughly disgusted.

He just wanted to find a mountain top, hold his little fox and cuddles, and enjoy a leisurely life with a few subordinates.

“Then why don’t you stop the war?”

The Wolf King couldn’t help but emphasize, “I tried to stop it!”

“But you failed. You couldn’t stop it, could you?” Her voice was gentle.

This was a truth the Wolf King couldn’t admit.

Fortunately, the human seemed indifferent and simply smiled, her gaze sharp, “Since the Great King can’t do it, I’ll have to try my own way.”

The Wolf King wanted to ask what she intended to do, and how she knew he had failed.

He felt that she harbored some kind of expectation for him, but he didn’t understand what that expectation was.

Before he could ask, she left.

Later, when the Tianqian Mountain Range fell and blood flowed through fifty-six beast villages, the Wolf King finally understood the method the human had spoken of, and what it meant to “make the Beast Realm bleed.”

The blood stung his eyes.

He was filled with helplessness and anger—why couldn’t he stop the war!

Surrounded by the sounds of bickering beasts, he suddenly clenched his teeth and moved to the center of the hall.

“Your Majesty!” the Wolf King shouted, “It’s not too late to negotiate with the humans!”

“Not for real negotiations, but for pretense… We pushed the humans too hard before. Now they are like mad dogs, attacking recklessly, only wanting to hurt us!”

“We can use a delaying tactic. Once the humans cool down from their rage, they will want to retreat. At that point, we can drive them out of the Beast Realm and open a battlefield in the human realm. It will be much more advantageous!”

When a cornered rabbit bites, a battle with humans should be dragged out, not rushed, or it will only bring out their fighting spirit.

Although the Wolf King personally didn’t want any war to happen, using this argument to persuade the tribal leaders seemed unfeasible.

He had to find a way that they could accept.

His mind raced, and he felt more clear-headed than ever.

By the end of his speech, his tone was impassioned.

However, the reaction he received was not approval but mockery from his peers.

“What qualifications does the renowned coward have to speak here?”

“You always retreat when faced with problems!”

“Have we all forgotten that you surrendered to a human in the Ruins?”

The Wolf King’s eyes turned toward the beast who spoke.

Angered by their lack of respect, he leaped forward, using his divine abilities to lock the beast’s throat and bite down without hesitation.

In an instant, the beast was dead, his legs twitching as he lost his breath.

With the fresh, warm blood still on his fangs, the Wolf King turned and surveyed the crowd, his eyes cold and sharp, “Do I have any blood in me now?”

The meeting ended on a sour note.

In the back hall of the Beast Emperor’s palace, Wumu did not leave.

The Beast Emperor had reduced his massive form, standing behind Wumu.

“We’ve removed all the remaining beast cores from the temples as you instructed and thrown them into the blood pool,” the Beast Emperor said.

Wumu’s aura was dark as he stared ahead, lost in thought.

After a moment’s hesitation, the Beast Emperor spoke again, “Actually, the Wolf King was right… We did push the humans too hard. They are now attacking all the beast villages in the Tianqian Mountains recklessly. It seems we might consider their previous offer for negotiation.”

The Beast Emperor was wavering.

He felt that their aggressive combat style had put the Beast Realm in a difficult position.

Wumu turned his head and looked at the Beast Emperor, then suddenly smiled.

“In fact, bloodshed in war is not entirely a bad thing.”

The Beast Emperor was startled.

“Do you know why?” Wumu’s voice was soft.

The Beast Emperor had a strange feeling but still shook his head.

“Because blood spilled on the ground only wastes it, but I can make use of it.”

With a squelching sound, something pierced into the flesh.

The Beast Emperor’s massive, crimson eyes narrowed into a straight line, unable to conceal his extreme shock.

It felt like blood was about to burst from his throat, making a muffled gurgling sound.

The Beast Emperor slowly lowered his head to see a short, sharp bone dagger embedded in his vital spot.

It was made from the remains of countless ancient demon kings and beast cores.

Wumu’s smile widened as he pushed the bone dagger forward another inch.

This time, the Beast Emperor spat out a mouthful of blood, his beast core shattered.

—Only the Beast Emperors of past generations knew where the vital spot of a Beast Emperor was.

The bone dagger was withdrawn, and the Beast Emperor fell, enraged and unwilling.

His gaze turned as he saw Wumu looking down at him with a subtle smile.

“Wumu,” he said with unprecedented tenderness, “I don’t think much of your son’s beast body.”

“But your beast body will do just fine.”