The old witch doctor was preparing to lead the beast tide when a sharp, high-pitched scream echoed through the empty village.
It was the voice of a female.
The Bird Tribe leader stiffened, his feathers bristling.
"A female voice?" he whispered, his eyes wide. "Did they actually abandon a female here?"
The old witch doctor was stunned. He recognized that voice immediately.
His wrinkled brows furrowed in a way that was hard to read, but the Bird Leader didn’t wait for him.
To any beastman, a female was the most precious treasure. Hearing her scream in agony made his blood run cold.
Without a second thought, the Bird Leader transformed into his massive hawk form. He soared toward the sound and hovered over a secluded corner of the tribe.
But as he looked down, he stopped dead in his tracks. His wings flared out to brake his flight as he stared at the horrifying scene below.
There was a huge, deep pit dug into the ground. Sharp wooden stakes were embedded in the ground.
It was a "dungeon pit," the kind tribes used to punish the worst criminals.
The prisoner would be thrown into the damp, muddy hole and covered with heavy wooden poles, leaving only a tiny gap to breathe and see a sliver of sunlight. It was a slow, miserable torture.
But why was there a female inside such a place?
Suddenly, a massive, evil ferocious beast...a mutated bear roared and slammed its heavy paws onto the wooden poles covering the pit.
With its insane strength, it ripped the poles away and tossed them aside like toothpicks.
Below, Mu Lihua let out a blood-curdling scream.
As the poles were ripped away, the beast’s foul, bloody saliva dripped onto her face. She looked up, her eyes bulging with terror, as the monster stared down at her with hungry, red eyes.
Mu Lihua was completely bewildered. She had been trapped in the dark for so long, wondering why the tribe had gone silent.
She didn’t know the village had been evacuated.
She had been waiting for someone to come and mock her or feed her, but instead, she was face-to-face with a nightmare.
"How... how are you here?" she whimpered, her voice cracking.
The evil ferocious beast didn’t answer. It let out a guttural growl that shook the walls of the pit. It didn’t care who she was; it only saw a piece of meat trapped in a bowl.
The Bird Tribe Leader watched from above, his heart hammering. He saw the blood and the madness.
The darkness of the dungeon pit had been Mu Lihua’s world for a long time.
Ever since her lies were exposed and Su Mingxuan had detained her, her life had become a living hell. She was covered in deep bruises and filth.
Once a proud female, she was now just a bag of bones. Her skin was caked in mud, and insects crawled over her open sores, biting her incessantly.
She was fed only a single piece of stale, rotting meat once a day. She was starving, weak, and broken.


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