Chapter 1: Boiling Beast Blood

"Sikong Jing, as the Invincible Divine General of the Great Shang Dynasty and a prince of a different surname, you have allowed your arrogance to cloud your judgment, committing acts beneath a beast against the Ninth Princess, Yan Ruyu. You are hereby demoted to a commoner, exiled to Yun Province, and shall never be employed again!"

On the borders of the Great Shang, in the territory of Yun Province!

From within a thatched hut, a heaven-shaking roar erupted: "I am not reconciled!"

Inside the hut, a man of about twenty years old sat up abruptly from a straw mat, his teeth chattering. His face, however, was deathly pale, as if he were suffering from a grave illness.

He was none other than the former Invincible Divine General of the Great Shang Dynasty, the Prince of Equal Rank, Sikong Jing!

At twelve, he joined the Great Shang army.

At fifteen, with eight thousand remnants, he wiped out a million roving bandits in the north and was conferred the title of General.

At seventeen, he ventured deep into enemy territory alone to rescue the Great Shang Emperor, Yan Tianmo, who was leading his troops in person, and was conferred the title of the Great Shang’s Greatest Warrior.

At nineteen, he led his troops to quell the rebellion of seven kingdoms, slaughtering countless enemies, and was conferred the title of the Great Shang’s Invincible Divine General and Prince of Equal Rank!

With illustrious military achievements unmatched by any, he was the greatest general in the history of the Great Shang!

Time froze at this moment.

When Sikong Jing stepped into the Great Shang Imperial City with the heads of the seven kings, what greeted him was the butcher's knife of Emperor Yan Tianmo.

At the victory banquet, Sikong Jing was poisoned and thrown onto the bed of the Ninth Princess, Yan Ruyu.

When Yan Ruyu woke up, her hair was disheveled, her clothes in disarray, and her face was covered in tears, looking pitifully beautiful.

On the spot, Sikong Jing was thrown into the celestial prison. Yan Tianmo personally dug out his dantian and shattered his meridians. The next day, he was shackled and exiled to Yun Province. In less than a day, he went from an Invincible Divine General to a prisoner.

"Ugh!"

Inside the hut, Sikong Jing spat out a mouthful of blood, which seeped into the straw mat.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand and said hoarsely, "Yan Tianmo, you are ruthless. A single accusation of 'merit so great it threatens the throne' was enough to destroy me."

Back in the celestial prison, Yan Tianmo had patted his face with a smile.

"You, Sikong Jing, were conferred a prince of a different surname at only nineteen. Was your next step to seize my throne?"

"Therefore, you must be destroyed!"

At this moment, Sikong Jing added, "Yan Ruyu, you are venomous. Our past vows of eternal love have turned into me being 'beneath a beast'."

The Ninth Princess, Yan Ruyu, was as beautiful as her name suggested.

She was the recognized number one beauty of the Great Shang. Before this, she had expressed her secret affection for Sikong Jing many times, swearing she would marry no one else.

In the end, all that remained was a single sentence from her in the celestial prison.

"I, Yan Ruyu, am a princess of the Great Shang. How could you, a commoner like Sikong Jing, be worthy of me?"

"Your dantian and your martial talent will be given to the man who truly deserves them."

With those words, Yan Ruyu took the dantian that had been dug out of Sikong Jing's body from Emperor Yan Tianmo, let out a series of giggles, and turned to leave, not sparing Sikong Jing another glance.

"Creak..."

Just as Sikong Jing was recalling this monstrous blood feud, the door of the hut, riddled with holes, was pushed open.

A slender figure walked into the room carrying a bowl of medicinal soup.

Her figure was delicate and beautiful, but her face was covered by a thick black veil, making it impossible to see her features.

"Ah? You're awake." The woman exclaimed subconsciously upon seeing Sikong Jing sitting up.

The next second, seeing the blood at the corner of Sikong Jing's mouth, she hurriedly said, "You're vomiting blood? Are you alright?"

In a few quick steps, the woman reached Sikong Jing's side, took out a white handkerchief, and gently wiped his mouth. Her boneless, slender jade hands made the hatred in Sikong Jing's eyes soften slightly.

"Miss, who are you? Where am I?" Sikong Jing asked.

The woman's hands paused slightly, her eyes involuntarily filled with sadness and shyness as she replied softly, "Have you forgotten? My name is Su Yueshi, and I am now your wife."

Sikong Jing was stunned. Wife? What a strange term.

His memory was quickly unlocked. When he was shackled and exiled to Yun Province, an old eunuch of the Great Shang Dynasty had ridden hard to catch up and, in front of Sikong Jing, asked the Lord of Yun Province

"Within the borders of Yun Province, which woman is the ugliest?"

Not long after, a veiled woman was brought before the old eunuch; she was the very same Su Yueshi before him.

On the spot, the old eunuch had brutally ripped off Su Yueshi's veil. Her ugly, terrifying face had satisfied the old eunuch immensely, and he immediately announced the marriage between Sikong Jing and Su Yueshi before laughing and leaving.

At the same time, Sikong Jing had vomited blood and fainted, remaining unconscious until now.

Seeing Sikong Jing in a daze, the sadness in Su Yueshi's eyes grew more intense. She said, "I'm sorry. If you feel this title is unworthy of you, then I won't mention it again."

Sikong Jing came back to his senses and smiled bitterly, "It's not about being worthy or unworthy. How long have I been asleep?"

To him, beauty and ugliness no longer mattered. What use was Yan Ruyu's heavenly beauty if her heart was as venomous as a scorpion's?

As long as someone was truly good to him, Sikong Jing would repay them a hundred or a thousand times over.

Su Yueshi replied, "It has been five days."

Five days. Sikong Jing looked at his clean clothes and the tidy straw mat beneath him. He understood that he had been meticulously cared for by Su Yueshi over these five days, and a warmth surged in his heart.

Fragments of memory from the past few days flickered in his mind.

Su Yueshi changing his clothes, wiping his body, feeding him water, food, and medicine—she had been attentive to every detail...

Across from him, Su Yueshi could not bear Sikong Jing's gaze. She hurriedly placed the medicinal soup on the wooden table and said, "I have other things to do, so I'll be going out. The soup is here; can you drink it yourself?"

Sikong Jing nodded and watched as Su Yueshi hurried away.

He looked at the medicinal soup on the wooden table and smiled bitterly, "I, Sikong Jing, am now a cripple. How could mere ordinary medicine cure me? But I am not reconciled!"

He struggled to sit cross-legged, wanting to mobilize the true qi in his body, but his dantian was gone, his meridians were shattered—he had nothing left!

*Hum!*

Suddenly, the mouthful of blood he had just spat onto the straw mat began to glow with a blood-red light.

In the blink of an eye, the light flared, condensing into a translucent blood bead.

Even though Sikong Jing was now a cripple, he could still feel a vast, oppressive aura emanating from the blood bead.

Sikong Jing was filled with disbelief; this was definitely not just his own blood.

The next moment, a cold and vast voice echoed in his mind: "Swallow the Blood of Ten Thousand Beasts, and you shall become the Master of Ten Thousand Beasts!"

Sikong Jing's entire body shook violently, his eyes widening: "Who is that?"

"Swallow the Blood of Ten Thousand Beasts, let the beast blood boil, and be reborn! Do you dare? Do you dare?"

The voice remained vast, as if goading Sikong Jing, and as if carrying an unquestionable authority!

Sikong Jing stared fixedly at the blood bead and asked again, "If the beast blood boils, will I still be human?"

"Do you dare? Do you dare?" The voice did not answer, only urged him.

*Slap!*

As he hesitated, a heavy sound of a strike suddenly came from outside.

"Ah..." Su Yueshi let out a scream and flew into the thatched hut. Straw flew everywhere, and the broken door shattered.

A fierce woman stepped in, grabbed Su Yueshi by the collar, and said with a hideous expression, "You ugly freak? A pig is missing from the pig farm. Did you slaughter it to feed your sickly husband?"

As she spoke, the fierce woman pointed at Sikong Jing on the straw mat.

Su Yueshi shook her head desperately: "I didn't."

*Slap!*

The fierce woman slapped Su Yueshi across the face again, viciously saying, "You still dare to say you didn't? In the Su family pig farm, besides you, this ugly freak, who else would dare to steal a pig?"

A trace of blood dripped from beneath Su Yueshi's thick veil. She shook her head desperately: "It really wasn't me."

Sikong Jing witnessed this scene, his eyes instantly turning blood-red.

He wanted to strike, but his body would not obey him. In his mind, the vast voice continued to chant, "Do you dare, do you dare?"

Suddenly, Sikong Jing roared at the sky: "What is there not to dare!"

He reached out, grasped the blood bead, and swallowed it in one gulp. Inside his body... the beast blood began to boil!