Whether during her years as a mercenary or her time as Princess Yao, in any battle she’d ever faced, Ziqing had never once fought clinging to the resolve that she would not die — she had always held instead to a single conviction: hold onto that one last breath.

But now, she wasn’t alone anymore.

She had a child now!

Faced with everything before her, this wasn’t a moment where she could stubbornly force her way through out of sheer pride — and yet, there was no way out either.

She hadn’t even had time to make a real choice. But even if she’d been given all the time in the world to decide, she still would have chosen the same thing — to give her own life to protect the big foolish bear.

A beast that was a complete stranger to her, and yet it had not only saved her life, but had brought her comfort and hope in the depths of despair!

What could possibly be more precious than that?

To repay it — even at the cost of her own life — she would gladly do it.

Her eyes burned red with bloodlust; both the dagger Liuguang and her own teeth were coated in blood. At this moment, Ziqing seemed less like a person and more like a beast herself.

But then, gradually, something strange began to happen!

Fighting like this, throwing everything into it without restraint, without even sparing a thought for the tiny life within her — and yet, rather than growing weaker or more exhausted the longer the fight went on, she grew fiercer and fiercer instead!

Neither her mind nor her body showed any sign of fatigue — quite the opposite, she felt herself growing stronger and stronger, as though with every poisonous beast she killed, she gained just a little more strength.

Yet Ziqing herself remained entirely unaware of this. It was the beasts surrounding her who gradually began to notice something was terribly wrong.

How could this be happening?

This creature’s constitution was extraordinarily unusual — at first, with sheer numbers on their side, the beasts had managed to wound her. But gradually, not only could they no longer harm her at all, she was cutting them down in three or four moves each!

Such a small, insignificant-looking creature, and yet she was managing to protect an enormous, hulking bear in the midst of an entire horde of beasts, keeping every single one of them from getting within a single step of it!

Gradually, the ground became littered with corpses, blood flowing like a river. A growing number of beasts began to feel real fear, and despite the Nine-Tailed White Fox’s presence, they started retreating timidly, one by one.

The Nine-Tailed White Fox, having suffered no small internal injury from that unexpected paw-strike from the big foolish bear, its lips still stained with blood it couldn’t quite hide, paid no attention at all to the beasts retreating around it — it simply stared at Ziqing, utterly dumbfounded.

This creature — how strange it was!

Why was this happening?

Even beasts of its own rank, on the level of itself or the Zizhu Great Beast, could never grow stronger the longer they fought the way she did — and she was pregnant, no less!

The Nine-Tailed White Fox noticed not only Ziqing’s abnormal stamina, but also the fact that the moment poisonous beast blood touched her skin, it was instantly absorbed into her body!

How could this possibly be?

What exactly was she?

What was she really here in the poisonous-beast world to do?

As the pile of slain beasts grew ever larger, the Nine-Tailed White Fox finally grew afraid, letting out an urgent, mournful howl toward the sky, a sound as desolate as a wolf’s cry in the dead of night.

This was the call summoning every beast in the domain — and it was also a signal reaching out for help from the other three special-grade poisonous beasts.

Ziqing couldn’t understand what it meant, assuming only that this wretched fox was calling in more reinforcements. She paid it no mind, her vision filled entirely with blood, her mind consumed entirely with the will to kill.

She hadn’t even noticed the change in her own stamina, or the growing intensity of her killing intent — there seemed to be some uncontrollable urge rising within her, driving her to slaughter every last beast in this place!

This process, after all, was precisely the process of cultivating a human Gu.

Ziqing couldn’t understand what the Nine-Tailed White Fox’s howl meant, but the big foolish bear understood immediately. It, too, had been alarmed by Ziqing’s ferocity, and immediately let out anxious roars at her, as if urging her to seize the chance to flee!

But Ziqing didn’t understand, assuming only that the big foolish bear was frightened. She drove Liuguang savagely into the heart of the beast lunging at her, wrenching it back out with brutal speed and precision.

She turned back to look at the big foolish bear and shouted, “Trust me — I will absolutely not let them touch a single hair on you! I, Han Ziqing, keep my word!”

With that, she twisted sideways, seizing hold of a claw that had been sneaking toward her from behind, and with a violent wrench, snapped clean through a limb as thick as a tree trunk!

This action startled even Ziqing herself, and she suddenly realized her own strength seemed to have grown noticeably greater!

But she had no time to dwell on it — the horde of beasts the Nine-Tailed White Fox had summoned had already arrived in droves, and at the same moment, the Roaring Hare and Henggong Fish arrived as well!

Facing this fresh wave of beasts, Ziqing felt no fear, gave it no further thought, and threw herself immediately back into battle.

She had no idea just how terrifying she looked from outside the ring of combat.

She looked, in truth, like nothing less than a veritable war god — one possessed of endless, inexhaustible energy, one who would never tire, never fall.

As her strength continued to grow, as her movements grew ever faster, the number of fallen beasts around her only kept climbing.

The Nine-Tailed Fox, Henggong Fish, and the Roaring Hare — all three special-grade poisonous beasts — watched this with hearts pounding in dread, feeling as though they were witnessing a living hell unfold before their eyes. If this continued, the entire poisonous-beast world would be finished!

“What in the world is she!” Henggong Fish cried out in shock.

“Whatever she is, she must be killed! Where has that Zizhu Great Beast gone off to!” The Nine-Tailed White Fox demanded, displeased.

“We were just about to go find it. We can’t locate it anywhere. Nine-Tails, let’s the three of us join forces and take her on together!” the Roaring Hare suggested loudly. By now, the cries of the beasts thundered through the air, filling the entire world with their din.

The Nine-Tailed White Fox had never once deigned to associate with the likes of the Roaring Hare and Henggong Fish before — but at this point, it could no longer afford to care about such things.

That terrifying creature had struck fear into it, whether it wanted to admit it or not.

Just as Henggong Fish and the Roaring Hare were about to move in, the Nine-Tailed White Fox stopped them, saying in a low voice, “You two go kill that bear. Draw her attention away from me — I’ll handle her myself.”

Truly a fox — how cunning! Henggong Fish and the Roaring Hare were both quite satisfied with this arrangement. As for the big foolish bear, they’d been itching for the chance all along — they still remembered their grudge from before all too well!

Compared to those lesser beasts, the special-grade poisonous beasts were, naturally, not to be underestimated at all — especially when they truly, genuinely threw themselves into the fight without holding back.

And yet, when Ziqing, too, threw everything she had into the fight without reservation, the Nine-Tailed Fox proved to be no match for her at all!

“Whoosh…”

A vicious wind-blade cut down through the air, like the flash of a long sword, sweeping through with unstoppable force. The Nine-Tailed White Fox couldn’t even get close to Ziqing at all. Its eyes flickered, and it suddenly darted straight toward the big foolish bear instead, moving even faster than Henggong Fish and the Roaring Hare, its long jaws clamping down on a chunk of flesh at the bear’s chest, savagely beginning to tear it away.

This was the most primal, most merciless method beasts used to slaughter one another — biting, tearing, killing outright.

“You filthy fox, if you dare touch it, I will absolutely skin you alive and pull out every one of your tendons!”

Ziqing roared with fury, surging upward with a killing intent so overwhelming it left the Nine-Tailed White Fox utterly stunned, its jaw frozen in place.

Why?

Why did it sense, in this creature, the very aura of a true sovereign? Why did it find itself unconsciously wanting to submit to her?

The Nine-Tailed White Fox froze in shock — but Ziqing wasn’t about to hesitate. In an instant she closed the distance, seizing the fox’s long muzzle in one hand, driving Liuguang down with the other, ready to strike—

And it was in that very instant that a startled cry stopped her cold. “Human, spare her!”