"I swear! I will make you die in the most excruciating way imaginable..."
The middle-aged man's face twisted with rage. His meticulously crafted plan had been completely shattered, pushing him into a state of furious desperation.
Fine snake scales instantly surfaced across his hand, and then his fist shot forward like a cannon blast, slamming directly into Belinda's abdomen.
The sheer power of a pure-blooded fifth-level devil White Phosphorus Snake sent Belinda hurtling backward like a runaway locomotive. The sickening sound of cracking bones echoed from her body one after another.
Some fragments of her internal organs, mixed with blood, poured directly from her mouth.
"You think you can just die like this? No! I'll heal you, and then we'll repeat this process over and over again!"
A massive phantom of a white serpent materialized from the swirling smoke, and at its base stood the enraged figure of the middle-aged man.
He approached Belinda. A flash of crimson light flickered in his eyes, and Belinda's entire body floated into the air once more. It was as though an unimaginable force was crushing down upon her—inch by inch, her bones were being ground to dust. Yet something unknown kept Belinda lucid, and an expression of incomprehensible agony spread across her face.
"Now, tell me—what kind of pain would you like to taste?"
The middle-aged man stood before Belinda. On the palm of one hand, several small white snakes writhed and coiled into view, flicking their tongues at her.
Buzz!
At that moment, a light flickered across Belinda's body, and a Beast Soul tattoo blazed with radiance.
A translucent phantom of a Beast Soul materialized directly in front of her, shielding Belinda.
It was unmistakably a humanoid Beast Soul—bearing the features of a snake-woman, radiating fourth-level fluctuations. Most remarkably, its eyes still held a trace of rationality.
For a Beast Soul, this was practically unthinkable.
When Belinda faced mortal danger, the Beast Soul had instinctively moved to protect her—and it still retained a portion of its memories from life.
"It's you!" A sinister smile crept across the middle-aged man's face as he gazed at Belinda. "Indeed... still protecting this trash even now? How about I destroy you first? I'm sure our little Belinda will be quite devastated..."
"You... will... not..."
The broken, labored words leaked from Belinda's lips.
"No wonder Belinda never used her Beast Soul—so this is the reason..." Leilin nodded in sudden realization. As a fourth-rank Beast Soul Master, Belinda had never summoned a Morning Star-level Beast Soul, and that had always puzzled Leilin somewhat.
Now he could see that the Beast Soul's face bore a striking resemblance to Belinda's own.
"And combined with this instinct to protect its master, it seems the fourth-level Beast Soul on Belinda is her mother. And judging by the circumstances, this was very likely her father's handiwork..."
Encountering something like this, it was no wonder Belinda's temperament had changed so drastically and she was bent on bloody vengeance.
She had previously been restrained by the doctrines of the Eye of Judgment, but now she clearly had nothing left to hold her back.
"How dare you..." Belinda nearly ground her teeth to dust, her wide eyes fixed furiously on her father.
"Heh heh heh... why wouldn't I dare? That lowly woman was nothing more than a half-blooded servant girl. I granted her supreme glory and a life of luxury. In return, isn't this what she should have done? Don't you agree?"
The middle-aged man stared at the Beast Soul with a warped, obsessive gaze. Unfortunately, after being refined into a Beast Soul, the entity had clearly lost most of its memories and emotions—merely protecting Belinda on pure instinct, its expression blank under his stare.
"Sigh... this creation still isn't quite perfect."
The middle-aged man shook his head with regret, then suddenly snapped his fingers. "Belinda! How about we seal your sister away next? I imagine the process would be quite exquisite!"
Seeing Belinda begin to struggle violently, a triumphant smile spread across the middle-aged man's face. "And now... let me..."
Masses of dark red mist coalesced into a cage, enveloping the snake-woman Beast Soul within.
"Hsss... hisss..." A warning hiss emanated from the snake-woman's eyes, but at only fourth-level strength, she clearly had little power to resist.
"Beep! Soap opera interrupted—looks like it's my turn to step in!"
Terrifying black chains materialized out of thin air, slashing forward like swords, planting themselves between the middle-aged man and Belinda, cleaving them apart.
"Who's there?"
The middle-aged man snapped his head up, his expression one of deep wariness.
He was a fifth-level powerhouse, after all, yet this intruder had managed to infiltrate this place without making a single sound. The ability alone required for such a feat was enough to send a chill down his spine.
Then he saw it—a figure shrouded in a black cloak, hovering in midair, its pair of frigid eyes trained directly upon him.
"No! It's not coldness! It's indifference! Like an ordinary person stepping on an ant—and he believes killing me would be exactly the same!"
In that instant, having read the complete apathy in Leilin's gaze, the middle-aged man erupted into a frenzy.