Not even Baili Weisheng, let alone Xiong Xiaobao, had expected the Dumb Bear to suddenly swing that paw!

That was a real, living bear’s paw—and an enormous one at that!

What was this creature trying to do?

Xiong Xiaobao, who’d originally been in a hurry to leave, immediately scolded upon seeing this, “Big Bear, no!”

But it was already too late, and Baili Weisheng, caught completely off guard, tried to react but couldn’t in time.

If this had happened before, he might have dodged it—but after losing his memories, though his martial skills remained, he’d simply forgotten he ever had any.

So that massive, very real paw came crashing down straight onto his head, right in front of everyone!

Baili Weisheng immediately threw his arms up to protect his head, but unexpectedly, at that critical split second, the Dumb Bear’s paw stopped short—it didn’t crush him, but instead grabbed him by the neck.

Xiong Xiaobao was stunned speechless, taking a long moment to recover, while Baili Weisheng, even more so, didn’t dare move a muscle.

That was a bear’s paw, after all—soft, fleshy pads with razor-sharp claws, now clamped around his delicate neck. If he so much as twitched, who knew what might happen.

Every part of Baili Weisheng’s body had gone as rigid as his neck—only his eyeballs and his mouth still dared to move.

He glanced sideways at Xiong Xiaobao, saying timidly, “Young friend Xiong Bao, this humble scholar truly doesn’t remember any grudge between us from the past, and honestly, looking at things now, I don’t wish to have one either… could you perhaps ask your subordinate here to… show some mercy?”

By this point, Xiong Xiaobao had recovered his composure, his dark eyes narrowing as he broke into a dazzling smile. “No problem!”

Only then did Baili Weisheng let out a breath of relief.

Xiong Xiaobao kept smiling, his delicately handsome little face carrying even more imperious dignity than his father’s, “Big Bear, go ahead and show him mercy, then!”

The moment the Dumb Bear received the command, it immediately raised its paw—except it didn’t raise its paw after releasing Baili Weisheng first, but rather… hoisted him straight up by the neck!

Baili Weisheng’s face went white with terror, crying out, “Let go of me!”

“Common man, let’s go serve our country!” Xiong Xiaobao said, feigning noble resolve, directing the poison beast to turn and march off.

“Xiong Xiaobao, let go of me!”

“Let me tell you, I absolutely will not kill anyone!”

“Xiong Xiaobao, this is an utterly despicable method!”

Baili Weisheng shouted even louder. Though he’d lost his memory, he certainly hadn’t lost his intelligence—he understood perfectly well what Xiong Xiaobao was up to.

This little troublemaker insisted on claiming he used to kill without blinking, that he was some kind of great demon lord!

Determined to force him onto the battlefield, force him to kill, all to recover some familiar feeling from his past!

How could such a gentle, weak-natured person possibly have been some ruthless demon lord who killed without blinking?

Baili Weisheng couldn’t make sense of it at all. But whether he could make sense of it or not, at this moment, he found himself firmly gripped in the Dumb Bear’s claws, being dragged forward as the pack of beasts charged ahead like a stampede.

At the front lines, though not a single flying beast had managed to cross the border yet, Ziqing and the others had already burned through a considerable amount of strength. With both sides evenly matched, the beast horde beneath them began pressing in unison against the barrier, forcing Meng Duo’er to split her focus to reinforce it.

She had no idea how much longer this hastily erected barrier of hers could hold.

Yet just as everyone charged forward, cutting down flying beast after flying beast, a buzzing, humming sound suddenly rose from the sky.

Following the sound, Jun Beiyue was the first to realize the danger. “Poison bees!”

The Medicine Clan head had finally unleashed his trump card!

Amid the dense mass of beast forces, amid the dense swarm of flying beasts, a black mass had already made it impossible to spot the Beast Clan head or the Medicine Clan head at all.

Even if Ziqing and Jun Beiyue had wanted to kill the Medicine Clan head, they simply had no time to spare.

Facing such an enormous swarm of beasts, they were already short-handed. Add the Medicine Clan’s poison bee army into the mix, and things grew even more troublesome.

“Beiyue, watch this side for me—I’ll deal with the poison bees!”

Ziqing called out loudly, her figure darting straight toward them. The flying beasts concentrated their attack along this one line of defense, and with several people holding different positions, if Ziqing pulled back now, someone had to cover her spot.

Jun Beiyue, forced to split his attention even further, was caught off guard as the flying beasts, sensing weakened defense here, all suddenly charged toward this position.

Vultures with feathers nearly plucked bald, ferocious hawks, and countless other bizarre, foul-smelling, repulsive-looking flying beasts all pounced at once.

Jun Beiyue held his ground, and the shadow guards immediately rushed in to support him. Ziqing glanced back, anxious, but couldn’t spare the time to help.

She had to eliminate this swarm of poison bees first—poison bees were absolutely lethal to Jun Beiyue and the others, who weren’t immune to all poisons.

Ziqing’s hands never stopped moving, continuously unleashing wind blades to cut down the poison bees charging at her. But the poison bees were simply too numerous—she couldn’t kill them all, and soon found herself completely surrounded.

Fortunately, the poison bees’ venom had no effect on her whatsoever. She let them surround her densely, then suddenly unleashed a burst of internal energy, instantly blasting all the poison bees away, wiping out nearly the entire swarm in one stroke!

The remaining poison bees, realizing their poison had no effect on Ziqing, immediately regrouped and shifted their target. But though they’d given up on Ziqing, she had no intention of letting them go.

She immediately gave chase, but just then, Meng Duo’er shouted urgently, “No good, they’re flying west!”

West!

At these words, Ziqing was instantly alarmed, instinctively looking toward Jun Beiyue.

West—that was rugged mountain terrain, Nangong City’s territory. Besides Nangong City, there was no path through there at all!

Though it was technically part of the border, it was essentially left undefended.

But “no path” applied only to humans. For beasts, especially flying beasts, paths were something they simply carved out for themselves.

The flying beasts headed west, and soon, under the command of various musical instruments, the ground-based beasts too began shifting their attention westward.

This was bad!

Once they reached the rugged mountains, they’d have absolutely no advantage at all.

Ziqing made a swift decision, drawing out the zither she always carried and beginning to play, the notes ringing out sharp and clear.

Elder Sheng commanded the beast horde through music—so she would counter his music with her own!

But she soon discovered this wouldn’t work at all. Only a small portion of the beasts were affected; most simply abandoned their assault on the barrier and followed the flying creatures westward instead!

Many of these beasts were being commanded by the Gu Mo clan!

At last, Ziqing exploded with fury. “Where in the world has Jun Buli gone! Tell him if he doesn’t show up, I’ll destroy his Qiankun poison pouch myself!”

No one had called him Jun Buli in a very, very long time.

Xiong Xiaobao had nearly forgotten his own name was Jun Buli. Hearing that all-too-familiar roar from far away, he flinched violently, glanced back at Baili Weisheng, now hoisted high atop the Nine-Tailed White Fox’s back, flying high in the sky, and without a moment’s further delay, immediately shot off westward on Zizhu, the massive beast.

A streak of white flashed past Ziqing and the others in a blur, followed instantly by another streak of white, accompanied by Baili Weisheng’s terrified screams…