As long as it was her suggestion, he would agree without hesitation.

Once the signal connected, the screen revealed the upper echelons of the Di family gathered around a large redwood conference table. These seasoned men, well-preserved into middle age, were dressed in bespoke suits, sitting upright with an air of refined elegance. Before each of them, steam curled from cups of black tea.

They had expected Di Hui to bring good news, but instead, they were met with the shocking sight of the dignified second young master, face smeared with blood, cowering inside a protective shield, one eye blinded.

Instantly, the entire leadership was thrown into shock.

“Where are your bodyguards?” demanded Di Guofeng, the authority of the Di Shelter, his perpetually icy expression now visibly cracking as he witnessed the desperate condition of his second son.

The men he had assigned to protect him were the finest, most formidable forces in the shelter. Yet, they had only just reached the summit of Nine Mountains, and already their leader was gravely wounded.

Useless—nothing but a pack of incompetents!

Seated at Di Guofeng’s right hand, Di Yan watched the scene unfold as well. He had known his foolish brother would rush headlong to his doom—just not quite so quickly. Truly, his brother never failed to live down to expectations.

“Dad, send someone to save me! The whole useless lot are dead!” Di Hui tapped into the camera outside his shield, broadcasting his perilous predicament back to the conference room.

A pack of robust, burly tigers prowled menacingly around the metal shield. Their short, dense fur gleamed a vivid golden yellow, their presence so powerful it seemed to shake the air even through the lens.

They were sharp-eyed, muscular—natural-born hunters.

Yet, for all their ferocity, they were still beasts. How could a pack of animals systematically rout over a thousand well-trained mercenaries?

“There are only wild beasts atop Nine Mountains? No humans directing them?”

“There is—there’s one... Ah! Dad... Dad, save me... ah!”

Before Di Hui could finish his sentence, Liang Zuan had already reached an agreement with Liu Yi: whatever she requested, he would grant.

Beneath the dazzling aurora, vines sprouted and surged forth like a torrential downpour, attacking with the hunger of famished beasts. Imbued with a bestial, mutated power, they turned vicious, coiling deftly around the protective shield. Wooden spikes stabbed directly at the thick metal shell, strength and flexibility combining to deform the supposedly indestructible shield, crushing those trapped within.

Di Hui fought back with all his might, struggling desperately.

With a flick of Liang Zuan’s snowy wings, the vines struck, swift and merciless, ending his life in an instant.

In a single breath, Di Hui was crushed to pulp, his blood bubbling out in gruesome streams.

What level of wood-based ability was required to overpower an aviation-grade shield, reinforced by a high-level metal ability user?

Through the camera, the entire Di family leadership witnessed Di Hui’s torment and death at the hands of the vines.

“No, no! Xiao Hui!” Before the screen, Di Guofeng’s rigid posture broke as he watched his second son die in such misery.

Yet this was not the final blow.

Liu Yi, using spatial teleportation, slipped through the tigers. Her wide, white snakeskin cloak fluttered in the wind. She glanced at a battlefield camera, smiled faintly, twisted away from the lens, and drew from her spatial pocket the corpses of the Di family’s highest-ranked ability users—already dead from suffocation.

When air pressure drops near zero, fluids in the skin and soft tissue vaporize rapidly. Blood boils, forming terrible swelling as gas bubbles accumulate, and the internal organs rupture.

Thus, the Di family saw a mountain of bodies piled together, blood streaming from every orifice—a sight too ghastly to bear.

At the same time, Liu Yi gave a clear thumbs-down, an unmistakable gesture of provocation.

Beside her, the formidable tigers of Qisha stood guard, their powerful bodies and piercing eyes scanning the surroundings with authority, yet showing only gentleness and obedience toward Liu Yi.

At that moment, Liang Zuan, as if sensing something, extended his vines, absorbing the mutilated corpses one by one until only empty, discarded clothing remained.

This eerie wood-based ability, strangling and then absorbing its prey, was unlike anything the Di family’s leaders had ever encountered. The visceral shock of witnessing it firsthand far surpassed any written report.

The once-unassailable Di clan now seemed no more than lurking thieves, forever bracing themselves for retaliation from Nine Mountains.

In time, they would face a baptism of blood.

Yes, it was the apocalypse.

Survival was now a rare prize, yet the summit of Nine Mountains teemed with life, untouched by the horror and desolation that followed the end of the world.

Clearly, countless deadly trials must have already been fought and won there, wresting victory from the harsh, unforgiving laws of nature.

This crushing defeat sounded a dire warning for the Di family leadership: this world was no longer theirs to rule as they pleased.

The screen went dark.

In the conference room, Di Guofeng’s face darkened visibly.

The temperature seemed to drop by a dozen degrees, a chill settling over the room.

Suppressing his anguish, he forced himself to conduct a meeting with the leadership that lasted an entire day and night.

They analyzed the mysterious abilities of the girl amidst the tiger pack.

“Beastmaster! She must be a beastmaster! Even tigers raised from cubs wouldn’t be so obedient, yet she moves among them unhindered.”

“No, I think the vines are her power. In the world of beasts, only strength commands respect—she must have subdued the tigers with her vines!”

“Tigers are apex predators—how could they submit to beatings or commands? The girl’s teleportation on camera suggests she’s a speed-type ability user.”

“Could a mere speed-type control a tiger pack—or slaughter our most elite mercenaries... cough, cough...” Di Guofeng grew agitated, his cough worsening.

The shelter had poured blood and lives into cultivating these high-level ability users.

To have their entire force wiped out in a single encounter, unable even to save his son—

Was the enemy truly so powerful, or had he raised a den of incompetents?

“Over a thousand ability users! Eighty-three of them—fire, metal, and wind types at the fourth level, two hundred thirty-four at the third. Are they all made of tofu... cough, cough!”

No one dared to speak under the master’s wrath.

In the weighty silence, Di Guofeng turned to his eldest son at his right: “Yan, you’re the only one who led men out of Nine Mountains alive. Tell us—who is this girl?”

“I’ve fought her before...” The moment Di Yan spoke, the room erupted in astonished whispers.

Their gazes toward him changed.

Previously, Di Yan—always outstanding—had been looked down upon for fleeing Nine Mountains in disgrace. Now, however, the situation was reversed.

Was that a mere girl?

She was a goddess of slaughter.

To have survived an encounter with her—what kind of talent did that require?

No wonder he was the Di family’s acknowledged heir.

Remarkable... truly remarkable!

Di Guofeng, for all his understanding that his eldest was superior to his second son, had always felt less close to Di Yan. After all, Di Yan had been switched at birth with Liang Zuan in the hospital, growing up apart from him.

Now, though, he had only one son left—

Only this one son.