Somewhere in the Dawn Base.
“It’s them! They’re here!” A voice rang out, gritted with hatred.
A faint light fell across his face, revealing a strikingly handsome yet hideously disfigured appearance. It was none other than Su Muxu, who had escaped.
A shadowy figure stood concealed in the darkness. Its voice was calm. “I never expected them to come this far. Quite surprising.” There was a deeper meaning behind those words.
Su Muxu, however, seemed restless with anticipation. He barely appeared to hear what the person in the darkness was saying, muttering to himself instead, “I was wondering when I’d get the chance to go back and take revenge. Who would’ve thought they’d deliver themselves right to my doorstep?”
The shadow fell silent, watching Su Muxu with an expression full of amusement.
“Then go ahead and do what you have in mind.” The figure chuckled, its voice brimming with mischief.
At the market.
Chu Tian and his group had barely taken a few steps when a lion blocked their way.
It was a lioness. Its mutation was not particularly advanced, and it did not seem friendly.
But even less friendly was the group of people behind it.
They wore uniforms and looked like members of a security force. Yet at their head stood a little girl who appeared to be fifteen or sixteen.
The girl was pretty and charming. Her snow-white princess dress made her look adorable and lively, quite different from Miss An’s saintlike demeanor.
As soon as she approached, she ignored everyone else and fixed her gaze on Xiaoyu and Xiaoning. Then, in a clear, gentle voice, she asked them, “Who are your masters? Would you consider changing owners and coming with me? I can give you the very best.”
“The best food, the biggest house. All you’d have to do is play with me every day.”
Her tone was utterly innocent.
Xiaoyu and Xiaoning, however, seemed to understand every word. They snorted disdainfully, making their contempt perfectly clear.
The girl immediately grew annoyed. “Why? Is your master stronger than me?”
The scene was rather bizarre. A group of uniformed people stood menacingly behind a little girl, with a majestic lion at her side. Yet the girl was having a childish conversation with two tigers.
Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu exchanged a glance. The same thought crossed both their minds.
A beast tamer! This little girl is a beast tamer, too.
Chu Tian raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the butler behind them, who was sweating profusely.
Seeing his gaze, the butler hurried over and lowered his voice. “She is the general’s precious daughter.”
“The general?”
“The founder of the Dawn Base and currently its highest-ranking authority,” the butler explained. “The Dawn Base was originally established single-handedly by the general and his subordinates. The various administrative departments were formed later.”
“This little ancestor is the general’s only beloved daughter, and she is also one of the rare beast tamers.”
After explaining, the butler hesitated before adding, “The deputy chief who was killed earlier was one of the general’s trusted men.”
With just those few words, Chu Tian roughly understood the situation.
The Dawn Base had originally been established by an army that had fled north from the south. The general had been its highest-ranking commanding officer. For the sake of administration and development, various functional departments had gradually been established as the base took shape.
Because of the instability of the apocalypse and various other factors, authority had gradually become divided among the different departments. Different factions and power blocs had consequently emerged.
Even so, the general’s faction was probably still the most powerful force in the Dawn Base.
The situation unfolding before them was likely because the general had already received the information Chief Gu had passed along about the secret of crystal cores.
The general could neither afford to attack Chu Tian and his companions outright nor accept the death of a trusted subordinate without doing anything. So he had simply sent a little girl to test them.
Of course, this was no ordinary little girl. Her identity alone was enough to make most people back down. On top of that, she was a rare ability user who could tame mutated beasts.
If Chu Tian’s group proved easy to bully, she could take action and reclaim some of their lost face. If they proved difficult to deal with, she had the advantages of her status, her age, and the many ability users assigned to protect her. She would hardly suffer any serious loss.
Later, when it came time for proper negotiations, the general could simply claim that it had all been a childish tantrum.
It was a clever scheme designed to achieve two goals at once.
Unfortunately, even if Chu Tian and the others saw through the plan, they could not deal with a little girl the same way they had dealt with the deputy chief. At most, they could teach her a small lesson.
No one knew what Xiaoyu and Xiaoning had said in response, but the girl soon grew furious. She finally tore her attention away from the two tigers and turned her angry gaze on Li Nan.
“They say you’re stronger than me! Let’s have a duel!”
Caught completely off guard, Li Nan froze for a moment, unable to respond.
“Hey!” The girl’s tone was extremely rude. Her bratty manner ruined the charm she had displayed while silent. “Do you dare to fight me? If I lose, Meisha is yours. If you lose, those two mutated tigers belong to me! Well? Do you dare?”
Li Nan frowned and did not answer immediately.
Chu Tian was just about to speak when Li Nan suddenly said, “They aren’t objects. They’re my friends. You can’t just give them away like that. And I don’t need to compete with you. What’s the point of proving who’s stronger?”
The girl was taken aback. For a moment, she actually seemed to consider Li Nan’s question.
But soon, she sneered. “I don’t care! Either you fight me, or you leave those tigers here. Otherwise, none of you will get out of here today.”
After saying this to Li Nan, she turned to the ability users behind her and ordered, “Surround them! Don’t let a single one of them leave!”
The ability users had been assigned to ensure the girl’s safety first and foremost, and to back her up when she went looking for trouble. At her command, they immediately took advantage of their superior numbers and surrounded the entire group.
Chu Tian and the others were not particularly bothered, but the butler was already as anxious as an ant on a hot griddle. His master had entrusted these guests to him, which meant he was responsible for their safety.
The general’s daughter was notoriously domineering in the city. With a pet beast at her side, she often acted without restraint. If either side suffered any injuries, he would have no way to explain himself.
“Miss, Miss, please listen to me. These people are our master’s honored guests. You can’t— Ah!”
The butler hurried forward to intervene, but before he could finish, the girl waved a hand. The lion in front of her leaped toward him, frightening him so badly that he fell backward.
The girl giggled. “Who are you? How dare you try to stop me? Are you tired of living? Get out of my way!”
The butler knew she was probably pretending not to recognize him. If she genuinely did not know who he was, given her usual arrogance, the lion would have swallowed him whole.
She likely understood perfectly well that her father was backing her today, and she could use her young age as an excuse to throw a tantrum as outrageous as she pleased.
This was a real headache!
The butler could only pray that the person he had just sent to inform his master would hurry back with help.
The girl was determined to make a scene. Without further ado, she waved her hand again. The mutated lion, which had only been pretending to lunge at the butler, suddenly changed direction and sprang straight at Li Nan’s face.
Flames of anger rose in Quan Xiaoyu’s eyes. He had no intention of going easy on a spoiled, unreasonable brat like this.
However, just as his hand reached for his saber, Chu Tian gently pressed it down.
Quan Xiaoyu looked at him in confusion, but Chu Tian merely shook his head.
At the same time, a command passed through Chu Tian’s mental power and reached Xiaoyu and Xiaoning alongside Li Nan’s own instruction.
Li Nan: Fight back!
Chu Tian: Kill it!
Chu Tian knew Li Nan would never issue a particularly ruthless command. If they wanted to teach this unreasonable young lady a lesson, killing her pet was the best way to do it.
As long as they did not hurt the girl herself, and as long as the general still wanted to learn their method of ability advancement, he would have to swallow his anger.
After all, this was merely a contest between two children. The adults were not interfering, and the other side had initiated the provocation. What could the general possibly say?
The three mutated beasts clashed almost immediately, but Meisha soon began to lose ground.
Meisha was a strength-type mutated beast. At first, it could rely on its size and strength to exchange several blows with the two tigers on fairly even terms.
But once Xiaoyu and Xiaoning figured out its abilities and attack patterns, they launched a fierce counterattack.
The two little tigers had fought alongside the people of Dawn Base through countless battles since they were young. They were experienced fighters, and their abilities, combined with their teamwork, gave them a considerable advantage.
Within minutes, Meisha was scorched by flames. As it hit the ground, an ice spike pierced straight through its heart.
“Ahhh!” The girl screamed in an instant. “You actually killed it!”
But the person she screamed at was not either of the two tigers. Instead, she turned on Li Nan.
“Pay for its life with yours! I’m taking your mutated tigers today, no matter what!”
Meisha’s death and the speed with which the battle had ended only strengthened her determination to possess Xiaoyu and Xiaoning.
She had already heard that another beast tamer had arrived at the base. As a rare ability user—and the only one of her kind in the base—she had always taken pride in her uniqueness. The thought that someone else possessed the same ability was absolutely unacceptable!
She had to remain the only one.
Originally, she had intended to sneak out with her pet beast and deal with this so-called other beast tamer herself. Meisha had been her pet since before the apocalypse, and the two of them shared an extraordinary bond.
She simply could not believe that some beast tamer who had emerged from among those filthy, lowly commoners could possibly be better than her.
In her imagination, the other person would be nothing more than a wretched commoner with a filthy mutated stray dog. It would be easy to make someone like that disappear.
Unexpectedly, her father had caught her before she could sneak out—but instead of stopping her, he had given her his full support. He had not only tacitly approved of her desire to make the other beast tamer disappear, but had even assigned his own team of ability users to protect her.
What she had not expected was that, instead of some filthy stray dog, she would encounter two strong, beautiful little tigers. Judging by their size, they had already grown considerably but had not yet reached adulthood.
They were absolutely captivating!
Once she raised them to maturity, they would surely be even more magnificent than Meisha.
So the moment she laid eyes on them, she had resolved to make them her own.
Reality, however, had been somewhat cruel. In just a few minutes, she had witnessed the gruesome death of Meisha, the pet she had always believed to be stronger than any opponent.
No! It wasn’t that she was weaker than that brat! Meisha was simply not as powerful as those two little tigers!
Mutated beasts with fire and ice abilities!
They were simply too beautiful!
Meisha’s death had happened so that she could witness their beauty. That had to be it!
Such beautiful creatures belonged to her alone!
The girl’s gaze turned toward Li Nan, instantly filling with malice and murderous intent.