’Could the passage to the Beast God Continent be under the Treasure Pearl Sea?’

Surprise flashed in Yu An’s eyes, but she said nothing and followed them into the water.

The place where they entered the water wasn’t the coastal settlement of the Merfolk Clan, so they didn’t see a single Merfolk along the way.

The further she swam, the more familiar the scenery became to Yu An. When a familiar red light appeared, she remembered.

’Isn’t this the place she and Lan Ying came to before?’

They had seen a red light here—a glowing, miniature stone house. She had even seen flowers with human faces inside...

"Get a move on!"

Seeing Yu An stop swimming, Yu Yun thought she was up to something and quickly shoved her forward from behind.

Yu An didn’t say anything and swam all the way to the miniature stone house, where Granny Gu stopped.

Her expression was serious, as if she was about to do something very important. Yu An held her breath and watched her movements carefully.

Granny Gu wore a solemn expression. She took a light breath and said to the miniature stone house, "Open sesame!"

Yu An: "..."

She nearly choked on her own saliva and coughed heavily a few times. Granny Gu shot her a look. "Go."

The door of the miniature stone house opened. Granny Gu stuck her finger inside, and her entire body immediately vanished.

Yu Yun urged Yu An to do the same. Yu An pretended not to hear, crouching down to grab a large handful of pearls.

"Wait, wait, let me grab a couple of pearls to play with. Don’t be in such a hurry."

Taking this opportunity, she buried the Shark Pearl Lan Yin had given her at the very bottom. Amidst Yu Yun’s urging, she reluctantly did as she was told.

In the blink of an eye, Yu An found herself in an unfamiliar forest. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Granny Gu waved her hand, and they continued on their way.

Yu An looked around and asked curiously, "Are we on the Beast God Continent already?"

’That was too easy!’

Yu Yun had been sent to the Beastman Continent right after she was born and had never been back, but when Granny Gu was in a good mood, she would tell her stories about it.

"Not even close," Yu Yun said, lifting her chin. "The stone house just brought us to the Mist Forest. Only after we cross the Mist Forest will we have truly entered the Beast God Continent."

"Oh."

Yu An immediately asked, "Then how long will it take to get there?"

Yu Yun didn’t know either, as Granny Gu had never mentioned it to her, but she wouldn’t show any weakness in front of Yu An.

"Why do you care so much?" she said coldly. "In a hurry to die?"

Yu An understood. "Oh, so you don’t know."

Yu Yun: "..."

For the rest of the journey, Yu Yun ignored her. Yu An focused on observing the Mist Forest and didn’t say much either.

The forest here looked much like any other, except that a mist would appear at night.

At that time, no matter how urgent things were, they had to stop and wait for sunrise before continuing. Otherwise, no one knew where they might get lost.

This was something Yu An had learned from listening to the male Beastmen’s idle chatter.

When night fell, the males found a spot and started a fire. Granny Gu had everyone sit in a circle around it.

She said sternly, "I’ll say it again: no one is to run off during the night. No matter what you hear, you are not to move. Understood?"

These words were mainly directed at Yu An and Yu Yun; for the others, it was just a reminder.

The ten of them knew better than anyone how terrifying the Mist Forest was. When they first came, there had been a hundred of them. After crossing the Mist Forest, only twenty remained.

With an elder like Granny Gu leading them, the ten of them might be able to return safely. The same couldn’t be said for their brothers who had been sent on other missions.

Seeing how tense Granny Gu was, Yu An gave up on the idea of escaping here. She nodded obediently, indicating that she would definitely behave.

"Granny, I cherish my life, so I definitely won’t run off. Could you tell me, if I do as you say, will you spare my life?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Granny Gu ignored her. She could tell at a glance that Yu An was only pretending to be good, but she still gave her an extra look before sitting down in her spot to stare at the fire.

’Bloodlines are truly powerful,’ she thought. ’The mother and daughter have clearly never officially met, yet their mannerisms are a perfect match.’

’Back then, when she had been ordered to bring Yu Huang to the Beast God Continent, Yu Huang had also pretended to be obedient, calling her "Granny" with every other word. If she hadn’t been extra cautious, that girl would have escaped to who-knows-where long ago.’

Granny Gu was lost in thought as she recalled the past.

’Yu Huang was the most brilliant and stunning person she had ever met. If she had just been obedient, she wouldn’t have ended up in her current predicament.’

’Fortunately, she had brought Yu An back.’

’Once Yu Yun becomes the "daughter" who possesses the bloodlines of both Yu Huang and the Venerable One, the memory-altered Yu Huang will surely accept the Venerable One.’

Her thoughts drifted far away, but soon, a song full of sorrow and grievance reached her ears. Granny Gu’s mind wavered, and she was dazed for a moment.

Fortunately, she quickly steadied herself. Looking at the others, she saw they were either closing their eyes tightly or covering their ears, all resisting the song’s temptation.

Yu An didn’t find it particularly tempting—it was just okay-sounding. Still, if she didn’t follow suit, she would seem out of place.

The singing continued for a long time. Just as Yu An was about to fall asleep, it stopped abruptly.

The Beastmen showed expressions of great relief. When they saw Granny Gu wave her hand, they each found a place to rest.

Yu An was already used to sleeping on the ground. She found a random tree to lean against and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

’Granny Gu and her group care more about my life than I do right now,’ she thought. ’So for the time being, I don’t need to worry about my personal safety.’

「Meanwhile, in the Imperial City of the Beastman Continent」 Mo Yan and the other four were going crazy with worry after they woke up.

Yu An had been abducted. They had fought desperately against those people, but their opponents had used some kind of drug that made their spiritual power vanish in an instant, leaving their limbs weak and powerless.

Ao Wu was a bit stronger than them, but under the siege of the men in black, he was soon severely injured and fell to the ground.

When they woke up, they discovered that not only was Yu An gone, but the Zaizais were missing too!

The entire Imperial Palace had been knocked unconscious. Just as they were about to go searching, the Beast Emperor and Qiuyue arrived, supporting each other.

"People from the Beast God Continent came," the Beast Emperor said, her face pale. "They must have taken Yu An!"

"The Zaizais, they’re gone too!"

Yu An could protect herself, and she had a personal space she could enter to hide at any time. Since the five of them were still alive, it meant Yu An was safe for now.

But the Zaizais were different. They were still learning to control their spiritual power and had no way to fight back against bad people.

The Beast Emperor froze for a moment. At some thought, the color that had just returned to her face drained away again.

"They... probably took them too."

"Besides taking the most talented Beastmen from the Imperial Family, they also select a batch of gifted cubs from other places."

The Beast Emperor was powerless to stop them and didn’t know what they would do to the cubs, but it certainly wouldn’t be anything good.

What she had thought of, the others had also guessed.

Mo Yan didn’t dare to imagine what Yu An and the Zaizais would face. "Let’s go! We’ll go find them now!"

"It’s useless," the Beast Emperor said, her face a mask of despair. "By now, they should have already crossed the Endless Sea. The Endless Sea... no one from the Beastman Continent has ever been able to cross it."

"Then what do we do?!"

Han Li slammed his fist into a tree. "Just do nothing?!"

"Of course not."

Ao Wu, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up. "I know how to get across."