Chapter 628 - 625: What an Ugly Face

Chapter 628: Chapter 625: What an Ugly Face

"Wanwan, Chou Rong was right. You’ve been at this for so long. Go rest. Yin Ze and I can take over," Jin Yi said, his voice gentle and coaxing.

"No," Bai Wanwan said without looking up, her gaze still locked on the screen. Her voice, however, was exceptionally firm. "I can’t possibly sleep until we have a result."

She had her reasons.

The terrain was incredibly complex. And while Jin Yi and Yin Ze were very intelligent, they weren’t from the modern world. Their understanding of these precision machines—and their feel for operating them—couldn’t be better than hers.

If this were somewhere else, somewhere less dangerous, she could let them practice with the controls.

But this was Roger’s lair, riddled with danger. The slightest slip-up—a tiny bit of lag or a single mistake at the controls—and all their efforts would be for nothing.

It could even expose the fact that the drone wasn’t a real bug, drawing Roger’s attention and suspicion. The consequences would be unthinkable.

The males couldn’t sway her; they knew how difficult it was to change her mind once it was made up.

They could only sit behind her, letting her lean back against them for support and to be as comfortable as possible.

Bai Wanwan continued to maneuver the bug, crawling through the dark cave with Jin Yi and Yin Ze giving directions...

Soon, another fork in the path appeared ahead. She opted for a lifeline. "Jin Yi, Yin Ze, we haven’t been this way before, have we?"

"No," Jin Yi replied instantly.

"So which path do we take now?" Yin Ze’s question was the same one Bai Wanwan and Jin Yi were pondering.

They could only determine whether or not they had been to a location, not which path Roger had taken.

She had the bug observe for a moment, then she saw beastmen coming and going from two of the other paths.

She turned her attention to the middle path, the only one with no traffic.

’This is it!’

The little bug crawled laboriously through the pitch-black caverns.

It was too small and too slow, but she couldn’t bring herself to spend tens of thousands more on a larger reconnaissance drone right now.

After she had guided it some distance down this relatively quiet tunnel, the muffled sound of a conversation came through the drone’s audio feed!

Her spirits surged, and she immediately made the bug crawl faster.

Gradually, the back of a male beastman appeared in its line of sight.

Worried about being discovered, she maneuvered the little bug to a halt, hiding it behind a protruding rock and cranking the audio sensitivity to maximum.

A voice, slightly distorted yet carrying immense pressure, was the first to speak. It seemed to emanate from deep within the shadows. "Have you found anything?"

"As you requested, I have already sent beastmen to the Tiger Clan—"

It was Roger’s voice, filled with utter reverence.

He was cut off by the deep voice. "There’s no need. I’ve already found out."

"You... you’ve found out?"

Roger’s voice cracked, but he quickly composed himself, masking his momentary lapse and guilt.

"That’s right," the voice from the shadows said with the detachment of one in complete control. "You’re not the only beastman working for me. You’d best not betray me... I doubt you want to experience the consequences of that firsthand."

The blatant warning seemed to make the very air freeze.

Bai Wanwan strained to see through the screen, but could only make out the vague shape of a beastman hidden in the shadows, one much larger than average. It was impossible to see its true form.

Its silhouette, however, looked abnormally tall and massive, almost deformed, and it radiated an oppressive aura.

’So this is the "Beast God" they’ve been talking about?’

Roger remained silent, his head bowed, seemingly crushed by an immense pressure.

The tall beastman opposite Roger spoke again, his voice laced with a playful curiosity. "Bai Wanwan, the Wife of the Tiger Clan’s Leader. Do you know her?"

Roger’s breathing hitched. Even through the drone’s feed, Bai Wanwan could practically feel him stiffen.

Roger’s mind raced. He wasn’t sure what the other beastman was getting at.

But with Bai Wanwan’s name in the mix, he didn’t dare lie outright.

After a long pause, he finally spoke, his voice hoarse. "I know her. She was the female I intended to mate."

"Oh? And why didn’t you?" the voice from the shadows asked with undisguised amusement.

"Because she looked down on me," Roger’s voice was heavy with suppressed humiliation and resentment. But then, a near-fanatical ruthlessness replaced those feelings. "But now... I will make her understand that I am the male who controls her destiny."

The beastman opposite him let out a laugh. It was a strange, gravelly sound, making it impossible to tell if he was being praised or mocked.

Roger didn’t know if the Beast God believed him, but he knew that one wrong move and the creature could crush him without a second thought.

He had to endure. He had to wait... The hand hanging at his side quietly clenched into a fist.

Back in their own cave, Yin Ze and Jin Yi, who had heard everything clearly through the tablet, were flushed with rage.

Yin Ze’s nails nearly pierced his palms, and Jin Yi’s gaze was as cold as ice.

Roger’s covetous and arrogant attitude toward Wanwan made the two males exchange a look. Both saw murder in the other’s eyes.

Roger took the initiative, his voice desperate to prove his worth. "Lord Beast God, I am willing to lead the Beast Army to attack the Tiger Clan! I will conquer them and offer them to you..."

He was trying to prove his value and loyalty through action.

The tall beastman hidden in the shadows threw his head back. A strange, guttural "HUH, HUH" laugh, like the rasp of a broken bellows, erupted from his throat. The sound echoed through the empty tunnel, carrying a hair-raising chill.

But halfway through, the laughter cut off abruptly.

The atmosphere instantly froze.

"Silence!"

The tall beastman hissed, his voice holding the sharp focus and alertness of a predator that had spotted its prey.

The next second, he strode out of the shadows.

The drone’s night-vision mode captured his appearance and transmitted it with horrifying clarity. His entire body was covered in abnormal folds and protrusions, like scar tissue from a severe burn that had healed poorly. It was covered in disgusting, fleshy blisters of all sizes and depths, making it nearly impossible to discern his original features. Only his eyes, gleaming in the night-vision feed, shone with an exceptionally sharp and cold light.

Before Bai Wanwan could even react to this sudden turn of events or the creature’s horrific appearance, the image on the screen lurched violently.

The deformed "Beast God," moving at a speed that defied logic, had appeared in the blink of an eye right where the drone was hidden. A distorted, magnified face covered in fleshy bubbles filled the entire screen—a close-up so sharp that every nauseating detail on his skin was perfectly visible!

"A bug?" the Beast God murmured, his voice holding a hint of confusion but far more cold scrutiny.

Bai Wanwan’s heart plummeted. A chill shot up from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head.

’It’s over!’

The thought had barely crossed her mind when, a split second later, a faint CRUNCH—like a hard shell being crushed—came through the drone’s audio.

Immediately after, the image on the display shook violently, warped, and then plunged into a hopeless, utter blackness devoid of any light.