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Chapter 685: Chapter 689: The Imprisoned Cubs
"What about the Wooden Crystal Stone?"
The elderly Beastman’s query left Liao Li momentarily at a loss for words.
He turned his head towards Xi, "This..."
Xi, seizing the hint, immediately stepped forward to explain, "Actually, I didn’t bring the Wooden Crystal Stone with me. I left it with my sister and can get it at any time."
Upon hearing this, Liao Li turned his gaze to the elder Beastman, "Your majesty, you can rest at ease. No one is more eager than I am to enter the Wood Immortal Mansion. I am not joking about this matter, we will acquire both the cultivation methods and the herbal medicine you want."
The emperor, after listening, cast another profound look at Xi, then moved aside to let them in.
Upon stepping through the stone doorway, a stifling odor permeated the air, a mix of mustiness, the stench of decay, and blood!
Why the smell of blood?
Also, why choose such a secretive location?
Pooling together all these factors, Xi’s eyebrows furrowed deeply as chills ran up her spine.
The surroundings were very quiet with the only audible sound being the breathing of several people.
Liao Li suddenly asked, "How are the cubs doing? We can’t let them die. If that happens, I won’t know how to explain things to the city’s residents."
The emperor snorted coldly, "They won’t die just yet, although a few are in pretty bad shape. They are all merely low-class citizens. Why should you fear them?"
Liao Li responded, "Even if they’re low-class citizens, it’d be a headache for me if they were to riot. For those cubs whose conditions are worsening, don’t take their blood for now. I’ll have a doctor take a look at them later."
From Liao Li and the emperor’s brief exchange, Xi seemed to understand something. A shiver ran from the soles of her feet to her head, and her heart suddenly felt cold.
Before she could ask, the scene before her eyes changed.
They moved through another stone door. The surroundings became slightly brighter, but the smell of blood became even more pungent.
Behind the door was a narrow corridor, the sides of which were hollowed out and replaced with wooden barriers to form separate rooms, each with a door for passage.
Xi looked inside the cages and saw more than a dozen cubs crammed inside each one.
The cubs were all huddled in one corner, their eyes devoid of spirit as they distinctly watched them. A glimpse of fear and panic could be spotted in the eyes of a few cubs.
They were incredibly thin, thinner than any other cub Xi had ever seen before. Their skeletal frames were painfully evident.
Upon closer inspection, nearly every cub’s wrist was marked with a gash. Some of the cubs had beast skin tied around their wrists. Undoubtedly, there would be a bloody wound under the skin.
Both sides of the path were filled with these small makeshift rooms and each housed ten to a dozen of these cubs.
At a glance, there was no knowing how many rooms there were.
Xi’s breathing quickened slightly. She suppressed her urge to smash everyone in sight and continued on.
Along the way, she roughly figured out that there were more than seventy rooms, each containing approximately ten to twenty cubs.
Adding them up, there were a total of thousands of cubs! They must have confined all the cubs in the city here!
Remembering the helpless and desperate looks in the eyes of those cubs, Xi’s heart ached!
The Mermaid Clan didn’t have a single cub, yet the Ten Thousands Beast Country could treat so many of their cubs so poorly! Such gross injustice!
Xi’s breath uncontrollably trembled slightly.
They passed through another stone door.
The scene inside made Xi enraged.
It was a circular stone platform, with cryptic patterns engraved on it. The platform was on a slant with the center of the platform being the lowest point.
A stone was placed in the center of the platform, which was surrounded by fresh blood. On either side of the stone, two cubs were firmly tied to a wooden beam.
They extended out an arm, drops of fresh blood falling onto the stone platform. The blood followed the intricate patterns on the platform and pooled next to the stone in the center.
There were two of these platforms, and four cubs were being held up to bleed!
They had been trapped here for who knows how long. Their skin was pale and clearly, there was a bleeding wound on their wrist. Yet, they were neither crying nor making a fuss, staring at the front blankly, like puppets.
Seeing this scene, Xi couldn’t hold back anymore as rage surged in her heart, burning furiously.
Ignoring any disguise, she said coldly, "What is the meaning of this, Your Majesty? These cubs are from this city, isn’t it? You’ve locked them here to bleed them. Is this your so-called secret?
I really did not expect that you, as the ruler, would stoop so low as to harm these small cubs. Is there nothing you wouldn’t dare to do?"
Xi coldly glared at Liao Li, prepared mentally to expose his true intentions.
Unexpectedly, Liao Li suddenly chuckled softly, and the emperor, standing beside him, stared emotionlessly at Xi.
Xuan Tian hurriedly stepped forward to explain, "Don’t misunderstand, we captured these cubs out of necessity. As long as we cultivate the Blood Crystal Stone, we will let them go."
Xuan Shui nodded in agreement, "Indeed, although these cubs seem miserable, they’re not in immediate danger. As long as we can cultivate the Blood Crystal Stones, His Majesty won’t treat them ill."
Xi curled her lips up into a cold smile.
That was such a bullshit excuse.
It wasn’t them who were being held captive and bled. It was truly painless for bystanders.
Plus, they had the audacity to say they wouldn’t mistreat the cubs. How exactly were they planning to compensate these cubs?
The more Xi saw of this place, the more disgusted she felt. She conjured a water spike with her hand and aimed it at the stone platform.
The faces of everyone present changed dramatically!
"What are you doing!"
With swift reflexes, Xuan Shui erected an earth wall, blocking Xi’s attack.
Xi’s action provoked everyone present.
Especially the emperor, who glared menacingly at Liao Li. His disapproving finger was almost on Liao Li’s nose, "Is this the ’no problem’ you were talking about?! He nearly ruined all my hard work. Now, kill him immediately!"
Liao Li’s face also was incredibly somber, due to both Xi’s abrupt action and the emperor’s shouting.
Liao Li suddenly slapped away the emperor’s hand, coldly saying, "I don’t need you to dictate what decisions I should make."
This shock made the emperor a lot calmer.
He retracted his angry gaze, bowed his head towards Liao Li, "I apologize, I was too impulsive, Your Majesty. Please punish me."
The emperor’s submission made Liao Li’s expression slightly less severe, but he still said coldly, "Don’t let it happen again."
The emperor stood silently behind Liao Li, not daring to utter a word.
Then, Liao Li turned his gaze to Xi.
He asked coldly, "Prince of the Mermaid Clan, what are you playing at? You talk about cooperation on one hand and then try to destroy the fruits of our labor with the other."
