Chapter 157: Chapter 157: Underground Mine

"Little sister, I’m your brother!"

Ao Si said with a wide smile, "I’m your fourth brother, Ao Si. You have three older brothers besides me. I’ll introduce you to them when we see them."

Ao Wu chimed in at the right moment. "An’an, Fourth Brother and I are both the children of Female Mother and Beast Father. Beast Father is the Dragon Clan Leader, Ao Jin."

Yu An paused. "Then our relationship is..."

Ao Wu grew anxious. "There’s no blood relation! An’an, we were all adopted!"

"Oh, then it’s fine," Yu An said, breathing a sigh of relief. "No wonder you mentioned something about a betrothal in the womb. So that’s how it is."

’If that was the case, then she really did meet Ao Wu first.’

Ao Si overheard the gist of it. "A betrothal in the womb? Little sister, don’t listen to his nonsense. That never happened. Beast Father wishes he could annihilate every male within a hundred-mile radius of you."

Yu An couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

Ao Wu shot his fourth brother a glare. ’You looking for a fight?!’

Ao Si ignored him. ’My little sister is so adorable,’ he thought, ’I could never get tired of looking at her.’

"Oh, right," Yu An suddenly remembered. "What about Mo Yan and the other two? Didn’t you all split up to look for me? Ao Wu, why are all the Zaizai here with you?"

She remembered Han Li saying that the five of them had split into five groups, and that everyone except Ao Wu had taken one Zaizai with them. Why were the others not here, and why did Ao Wu have all the Zaizai?

"Huh?"

Ao Wu looked completely bewildered. "I don’t know! I went into that little stone house in the Treasure Pearl Sea, and when I woke up, I found myself in the Dragon Clan’s Imprisonment Cave."

He proceeded to give an embellished and exaggerated account of his tragic ordeal of being locked in the Imprisonment Cave.

The damn dragon’s mouth was too fast; Han Li couldn’t even stop him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then handed the fifth egg he was holding to Yu Huang.

Yu Huang came over at the right moment and gestured for the other Zaizai to follow her.

Xiao Yu, held by Chu Feng, wrapped his little arms around himself and shot Han Li Beast Father a sympathetic look.

Ao Si didn’t understand what was going on, but he was delighted to see Yu Huang. "Female Mother!"

Yu Huang glanced at him. "Ao Jin’s son?"

Ao Si nodded vigorously.

"Come on, let’s go get something to eat."

Ao Wu also sensed that something was wrong. He carefully observed Yu An’s reaction. "An’an, what’s the matter? Did I say something wrong?"

"No," Yu An said, unusually calm. "You go get some rest. I need to talk to Han Li about something."

For once, Ao Wu didn’t pester her and left obediently.

After everyone else had left, Han Li quietly explained what had happened after they woke up in the Imperial Palace, including why he had hidden it from Yu An.

Afterward, he didn’t even dare to breathe, hanging his head as he awaited Yu An’s reprimand.

After a long moment, Yu An finally spoke. "Han Li, you shouldn’t have hidden this from me."

’If I had known sooner... But what good would knowing sooner have done? It’s been a long time since the Zaizai were taken. Could I have found them right away?’

Yu An sighed. "I don’t blame you. I blame myself."

She shouldn’t have followed the Poisonous Insect Granny to the Beast God Continent on a whim. If she had managed to get away and return to the Imperial Palace sooner, she might have been able to stop whoever took the Zaizai.

Han Li looked up, his tone anxious. "An’an, don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have expected them to go after the Zaizai."

The incident had tormented him for days, leaving him unable to eat or sleep peacefully, and he was afraid Yu An would suffer the same way.

"If anyone is to blame, it’s the Invincible Alliance," Han Li said angrily. "They’re responsible for the Zaizai being taken, and for those young cubs under the wooden cabin! It’s all their evil work!"

Yu An nodded slightly. The thought that Da Hu and the others had nearly followed in the footsteps of those young cubs made it hard for her to control her emotions.

’Invincible Alliance... What in the world are they trying to do?!’

After calming herself, she and Han Li went to find the others.

They were already out of the Mist Forest, and Yu Huang was planning to take her people back to the Invincible Alliance.

Yu An gave her plenty of Divine Spring Water and also had her take the compass Ao Wu had used to find her.

The device looked like a compass, but it was used to find her—or more accurately, to find her space.

Back on the Beastman Continent, Ao Wu hadn’t known how to explain it to her, but now it could be made clear.

Only then did Yu An realize that her obtaining the space in her previous life was no accident. The space had been hers all along.

’If that’s the case, then perhaps she and the original owner of this body aren’t two separate individuals, but the same person?’

Ao Jin hadn’t said much. Perhaps when Yu Huang regained her memories, or when Yu An met her birth father, Ao Jin, these questions would be answered.

After Yu Huang left with her people, Yu An decided to go look for Mo Yan and the others.

The contract between a female and her Beast Husbands allowed her to sense their location within a certain range. However, the Beast God Continent was vast, so she could only try her luck.

Fortunately, Ao Si mentioned that the Dragon Clan was also searching, so there might be news after some time.

...

When Feng Xuan and the other four had first come to the Beast God Continent, they had speculated on who might have taken Yu An and the Zaizai.

Connecting this to the fact that everyone in Yu Yun’s Princess Mansion had died overnight, and that Yu Yun and Granny Gu had disappeared, they had a faint idea of the answer.

After separating from the other two, Feng Xuan unexpectedly heard news about the Poisonous Insect Granny.

Their names sounded almost the same, and both used Gu Worms... He connected the two, and a few suspicions formed in his mind.

He heard that the Poisonous Insect Granny and her group had died in the Mist Forest, and was about to go there to find Yu An. But then he heard another rumor that the Poisonous Insect Granny had come out alive and returned to the Invincible Alliance.

At the time, he was far from the Invincible Alliance. Upon hearing this news, he immediately turned back toward it.

As for the mission the Alliance Hierarch of the Invincible Alliance had entrusted to them... Heh. If the three of them had known earlier that the Invincible Alliance was the enemy, they would have turned the place upside down first!

However, before he could even sneak into the Invincible Alliance, he was sucked into a prison.

Feng Xuan: ???

He had no idea how he’d gotten in. He was just walking along on flat ground when the world suddenly spun around him, and then he was here.

Before he could react, two men appeared before him. "Newcomer? Come on, we’re short on manpower."

Feng Xuan asked warily, "Who are you people? What is this place?"

Perhaps because many people asked these two questions upon arrival, one of the men answered matter-of-factly, "This is the Underground Mine. Since you were unlucky enough to end up here, don’t even think about resisting."

"Check your spiritual power. See if it’s gone."

Feng Xuan checked, and it was just as the man had said.

The two men in front of him, however, still had their spiritual power, and this was their territory. Feng Xuan immediately dismissed any thoughts of a direct confrontation.

"Brothers," he said, "I truly ended up here by accident. Is there any way to get out?"

As he spoke, he took out ten Gold Coins.

The two men’s eyes lit up. Each took five, and their attitude toward Feng Xuan improved considerably.

"Once you’re here, don’t even think about getting out," one of them said, as a kindness. "I’ve been here for over a decade. I worked my way up from a miner to a foreman, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting out."

Feng Xuan’s heart sank. He then heard the man continue, "For the sake of the Gold Coins, I’d advise you to give up on leaving. Just mine diligently, and maybe you can become a foreman like me."

"A lot of people refuse to accept their fate when they first get here. They insist on escaping, and they end up getting beaten black and blue. The ones who get it bad die within a few days."

The other man added, "Just a few days ago, there was one who tried to escape. Even tried to get others to join him. The Steward had him beaten a hundred times to make an example of him. He didn’t die on the spot, but he’s probably stopped breathing by now."