Qin Ruqing suddenly opened her eyes.

She was back in the scene before her departure.

The camp was lit with clusters of bonfires, and the crackling of burning wood echoed through the quiet night.

The bonfire in front of her was the largest, a square frame built by the soldiers, and it was lit by her own hand, glowing in a purple-golden hue.

Several familiar high-ranking officials were meditating with their faces illuminated by the firelight, still unaware of her return.

Qin Ruqing tried to suppress it but couldn’t hold back the wave of nausea.

Her lips parted slightly as blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, creating a red streak.

The sword cultivator was the most perceptive.

The wind blew gently, and Ancestor Feng, meditating on the mountaintop, opened his eyes and looked toward the foot of the mountain.

Feng Qinxue’s beautiful brows twitched, and she opened her eyes abruptly, a flash of light passing through them.

Fifth Lingyu, standing a bit away from the crowd but not too far, straightened up and turned his head toward Qin Ruqing.

“You…” Feng Qinxue looked at Qin Ruqing, hesitating to speak.

The exclamation woke everyone up.

“Commander’s back!”

“Commander, you—!”

Words choked off.

The nearest people to Qin Ruqing had their eyes drawn to the blood at the corner of her mouth.

They looked uncertain and were momentarily unable to speak.

Qin Ruqing smiled, casually wiping the blood from her lips and briefly explaining, “Just a little backlash. No big deal.”

Fifth Sheng and Feng Qinxue exchanged glances.

If Qin Ruqing was injured, it would be a serious matter, potentially unsettling the troops.

They quickly eased their expressions and said, “As long as it’s not serious… Commander, did you discover anything?”

Discover something?

Scenes from not long ago surfaced in Qin Ruqing’s mind.

The dense, eerie dark red blood pool, the six bronze beast head statues, the massive and familiar beast eyes, and… the mysterious beast corpses.

She exhaled slowly, her voice almost whispering as if afraid to disturb something, “I might have discovered a big secret.”

A big secret was not something to be revealed in front of the army, mainly because Qin Ruqing wasn’t sure herself.

She was shocked, hesitant, and carried a hint of barely perceptible fear.

It wasn’t until a private meeting with several high-ranking officials that Qin Ruqing detailed her observations at Tianxing Mountain, focusing on the scene she saw after the second barrier.

“Corpses?” Several people frowned in unison.

Qin Ruqing nodded solemnly and described, “The horns were very long and slightly curved, resembling bull horns. The head was enormous, covered with numerous eyes of various sizes. The eyes were full of blood vessels, eerie and terrifying. The largest eye was closed. The corpse had no breath, but the pressure was suffocating.”

“No breath, but the residual pressure is still so formidable?” The leader of Taiyi Sect clicked his tongue, “This must be a top-tier beast from the Beast Clan, a king-level beast at least.”

“Perhaps more than that,” Qin Ruqing said with a meaningful tone.

More than that?

The group exchanged puzzled glances.

If it was more than a king-level beast, the next possibility would be…

“Could it be the Beast Emperor?” Fifth Sheng spread his hands, feeling even the suggestion was laughable, “The Beast Emperor of the Beast Clan is dead? The war isn’t over yet, and the most intense and dangerous times are still to come. To say that the Beast Emperor is dead… it’s like dreaming too big.”

As everyone shook their heads, Ancestor Feng pondered, “Not necessarily. It might actually be the Beast Emperor.”

“The Beast Clan distinguishes levels by their bloodlines. The length of the horns and the number of eyes are often external manifestations of their bloodline power. The mysterious beast corpse you mentioned, with horns as long as an adult man’s arm and a head full of eyes… To put it in perspective, the Seven-Merit Beast King who severely injured me in the past had only a handful of eyes on his head.”

If the Beast King who injured their world’s strongest experts had fewer than ten eyes, then a corpse with significantly more eyes… the answer indeed seems to point toward the Beast Emperor.

The group looked at Qin Ruqing for confirmation.

“The corpse in the blood pool had definitely more than ten eyes, probably even twenty,” Qin Ruqing said with certainty.

Twenty!

This…

The group exchanged glances, and for a moment, no one dared to speak.

Qin Ruqing seemed oblivious to their reaction and continued, “If I remember correctly, that crimson beast eye should belong to the soul of an ancient Beast Emperor who escaped from the Void Realm. It was previously attached to the Black Wood. This time when I investigated, it was lying in the blood pool, its flesh and blood muddled, making it hard to distinguish if the beast body was indeed the Black Wood’s. However, its aura was much stronger than before.”

Qin Ruqing spoke calmly, as if the death of the Beast Emperor was not surprising. The group gradually found their inner calm as they listened to her detailed account.

“Considering the environment at that time, the six beast head bronze statues were likely part of some mysterious ritual. This ritual could have made him stronger, but apparently, the ritual was not yet complete—he was unable to free himself,” Qin Ruqing asserted.

“How do you know he couldn’t free himself?” Fifth Sheng asked, surprised at Qin Ruqing’s assured tone.

“Because he clearly knew my location and had the power to kill me, yet when I stumbled upon his greatest secret, he simply crushed and drove me away,” Qin Ruqing said with a hint of subtle sarcasm, her lips curving slightly.

So, in the end, she only coughed up a bit of blood and suffered some backlash from the rules.

“The most appropriate action he should have taken was to kill you on the spot when he knew your location,” Feng Qinxue’s voice was cold as she continued Qin Ruqing’s thought, “His failure to do so means only one thing: the ritual was at a critical moment, and he was too occupied to spare any attention.”

“If that’s the case, then this is our chance to counterattack!” Qin Ruqing’s tone became fervent at the end.

However, such a significant matter cannot be confirmed with just a few speculations. Ancestor Feng looked up at the sky; the sky in the Beast Realm seemed lower, and the stars appeared larger.

She composed herself and said, “All of this is still just our guess.”

“It would be great if we could determine the effects of that ritual. Knowing what the other side is doing would allow us to make further plans.”

“But such secret and taboo arts, probably only the Beast Race itself knows about them. Only high-level great demons with bloodline inheritance would have that knowledge,” Fifth Sheng said with concern.

A high-level great demon with bloodline inheritance?

Qin Ruqing’s thoughts stirred as her distant gaze fell on the Sirius in the night sky, her eyes narrowing slightly.

---

When the Wolf King received the mysterious message, a smiling face almost immediately appeared in his mind.

This was the most common method of communication in the Beast Race—wind leaves mixed with spiritual awareness.

The leaves, carried by the wind, seek out the communicator.

As long as a beast receives the leaves and reads them, they would hear the information contained in the wind, which only sounds once and leaves no signature.

No signature meant that the sender’s identity was unknown.

Yet the Wolf King was certain it was that human!

That scheming human female!

The Wolf King could even pronounce her name in the awkward human language, “Qin Ruqing,” or perhaps “Human Tribe Leader.”

She invited him for a meeting—“For an important matter to discuss,” according to the original words in the wind leaves.

The Wolf King could hardly contain his laughter, finding this invitation ironic.

They were a tribal leader and a human leader; what important matter could they discuss in private? Who knew if it was a conspiracy?

Despite countless reasonable suspicions, the Wolf King still went.

By the Beast Gods, he was extremely loyal to the Beast Race.

Yet he had an inexplicable intuition that having a private meeting with that human was something the Beast Gods allowed.

Even though the human led the human race to kill countless beasts, the Wolf King still felt—this human didn’t seem to be so hostile towards the Beast Race?

Damn it.

The Wolf King arrived with such doubts and when he saw Qin Ruqing, her first words were:

“Great King, I thought you were too afraid of ambushes to come. I had prepared ten wind leaves to urge you, but it turns out the remaining nine weren’t needed.”

It was still that familiar face, always unable to say a good word, making beasts angry.

The Wolf King immediately began to regret, overturning his previous thoughts, realizing he must have been out of his mind to come here and listen to this human’s ridicule!

The Wolf King turned to leave.

Qin Ruqing smiled and, like the wind, disappeared.

When she reappeared, she blocked the Wolf King’s path.

Again with this mysterious technique!

The Wolf King gritted his teeth, forcing his eyes to become fierce as he growled, “Human, what exactly do you want?”

Qin Ruqing’s expression became serious, and she dropped her previous playful demeanor, speaking with unprecedented solemnity, “There is a matter related to the future of the Beast Race that I must inform the Great King.”

The Wolf King could hardly contain his laughter, and he did laugh.

“A matter concerning the future of the Beast Race needs a human to inform us? Are you suggesting your entire human race might come to submit? If that’s the case, I’d actually welcome it,” the Wolf King said with a touch of learned sarcasm, having dealt with Qin Ruqing before.

Qin Ruqing’s verbal skills were honed over the years.

She responded with a calm smile, “To submit the entire race? I’m afraid that would disappoint you. I’m here for something even more pressing than that.”

The Wolf King remained silent.

Something more pressing than the submission of the entire race—if such an urgent matter truly exists and concerns the Beast Race, why would it require a human to inform them?

He shook his head mockingly, not even looking at Qin Ruqing, feeling that staying here any longer would only confirm his foolishness.

Qin Ruqing did not block or persuade him.

She stood calmly, her tone light and casual, speaking slowly:

“This matter concerns the safety of the noble Beast Emperor.”

“We suspect that the noble emperor might have been framed and perished.”

The Wolf King’s front foot was already lifted to leave, but upon hearing this, he abruptly changed direction, darting toward Qin Ruqing like lightning.

He forcefully threw her to the ground, extending his sharp claws to press against her throat.

“I believe you are different from other humans, with some connection to me, but that doesn’t mean I can tolerate you repeatedly provoking me and the dignity of the Beast Race!”

The Wolf King’s voice was deep, with his beastly eyes wide open and dangerous, narrowing into sharp needles.

Qin Ruqing, under his piercing gaze, began to laugh freely. “Don’t believe me?”

“The Beast Emperor with antlers as long as an adult man’s legs, eyes all over his head, the largest one like a lantern, with a bull’s head and horse’s body…” Qin Ruqing accurately described the Beast Emperor’s features, “Isn’t this your Beast Emperor?”

“Just yesterday, I went to Tianxing Mountain to gather information and discovered that your Beast Emperor is dead.”

Qin Ruqing’s tone was like telling a story, drifting and indifferent, her voice sounding almost unreal.

Yet the more indifferent she seemed, the more horrified the Wolf King felt.

“The Beast Emperor’s son, Wumu, should also have some issues. I don’t believe you haven’t noticed the changes in him during this time.”

“You may say I’m alarmist or think I’m playing tricks on you. Whatever the truth is, Great King, you can investigate for yourself. No matter how much I talk, I can’t change the factual reality.”

As Qin Ruqing’s body, pressed by the Wolf King’s claws, began to ignite with fierce flames.

The flames burned intensely, scorching the Wolf King’s pads, serving as a response to his earlier actions.

Accompanied by the clear and severe pain, the Wolf King and Qin Ruqing’s final gaze met.

Before the smoky, fiery human form completely dissipated, the Wolf King heard her say the last words:

“If the Great King finds that I am not lying, come back here in two days. At that time, Qin Ruqing will be willing to conspire with the Great King about the real important matter!”