Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off

All around them, the people of Dragon Beast City were growing restless. Low whispers spread through the crowd. After all, their City Lord had just been imprisoned inside his own residence. How could they stay calm?

And yet, no one moved.

The City Lord had already given an order before this happened. No one was to interfere. Everyone was to continue their daily lives as usual and not act rashly.

Those words carried weight. So they endured everything.

Even so, no one could truly relax. The murmurs grew louder as worry spread.

"How long will this go on...?"

"What is he planning...?"

"Can we really just wait like this...?"

People exchanged uneasy glances, some gesturing quietly as they tried to come up with solutions. But no one dared to act first. The pressure hanging over them was simply too great.

Then suddenly, the crowd stirred.

Someone pointed toward the residence. "He’s coming out!"

All eyes turned at once. The gates slowly opened, and then he appeared, the City Lord of Fox Beast City.

He was tall, calm, and completely composed, as if none of this chaos had anything to do with him. Behind him, a large group of fox beast warriors followed in silence, their movements perfectly in sync.

The moment he stepped out, the entire area fell into silence.

Su Qinglan looked at him, seeing him clearly for the first time.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. There was something familiar about him. For a brief moment, her mind raced, and then it clicked.

It was him.

The same man she had seen before... that day, when she was with Shi Feng.

Her heartbeat skipped.

At that exact moment, the man suddenly turned his head. His sharp gaze swept across the crowd before stopping directly on her.

Their eyes met.

For a brief second, there was a flicker of surprise in his eyes, and he stopped walking.

Everything seemed to pause.

But in the very next instant, before anyone could notice anything unusual, Su Qinglan had already moved. She stepped back, blending into the crowd with ease, and disappeared from sight.

The man blinked once.

The spot where she had been standing was now empty. His eyes slowly narrowed.

Rong Yanchen’s brows slowly drew together as he continued walking, his steps steady and unhurried, yet his thoughts had already drifted far from the noisy crowd behind him.

Something was wrong.

That female...

At first, it was only a faint discomfort, like a small thorn lodged somewhere in his chest.

But with every step he took, that feeling only grew sharper.

Until it was no longer something he could brush aside. His pace slowed slightly.

Then he suddenly stopped. The movement was so sudden that the fox warriors behind him almost failed to react in time.

Rong Yanchen’s eyes widened just a fraction, a rare crack in his usually composed expression.

Her face.

Yes... her face.

It flashed clearly in his mind now, every detail becoming more vivid.

It was very familiar... so familiar that it made his heart jolt violently against his ribs.

The Priestess. The resemblance was undeniable. Not just similar, but nearly identical.

His fingers curled slightly at his sides as a cold chill spread through him.

But how?

A dark thought rose from the depths of his mind, and in an instant, the faint warmth in his expression vanished completely.

The hell...

If they had truly hidden something like this from him...

A dangerous light flickered across his eyes, cold and merciless. He would not let it go so easily.

Why had he never heard of this?

Why had no one mentioned that the Priestess had another daughter?

Because that face... that face could not belong to a stranger.

The resemblance was too precise. Only the hair was different, which created an illusion of a completely different person.

But if someone saw closely, they would notice... everything else... the eyes, the features, even the faint aura she carried... it was almost a mirror image.

His jaw tightened, the line of it growing sharp and tense as the realization settled deeper within him.

This was no coincidence. They had hidden it from him, and he hated being kept in the dark.

A cold silence surrounded him for a brief moment before he suddenly turned his head.

His gaze landed on his men.

Immediately, one of his most trusted subordinates stepped forward, lowering his head respectfully, not daring to meet his eyes.

Rong Yanchen took a single step closer, his presence pressing down like an invisible weight.

He leaned slightly toward the man and spoke in a low voice, his tone calm but laced with an unmistakable chill.

The subordinate’s expression flickered for just a brief second, a hint of surprise crossing his face before it was quickly suppressed.

He bowed deeper. "Yes, City Lord."

Without another word, he turned and swiftly disappeared into the crowd, his figure blending into the flow of people as he carried out the order.

Rong Yanchen straightened slowly.

His face had already returned to its usual cold indifference, but his eyes remained dark.

The next moment, he continued moving, but not in the direction he had originally been heading.

His path changed without hesitation.

His long strides were sharp and decisive, his robes swaying behind him with a faint, restless motion as the aura around him grew colder with each step.

His new direction was towards her house... Lan Yue’s house.

The mere thought of that woman made his expression sink even further. If not for her identity, he would not have spared her even a glance.

The Priestess’s daughter.

That was the only reason she held any value in his eyes.

And yet...

That woman truly thought too highly of herself, her chin slightly raised as if the world itself was beneath her.

A faint, mocking sneer curved at his lips.

Did she really believe someone like her was worthy of standing beside him?

If not for that old man’s insistence...

That the Priestess’s daughter was someone extraordinary...

He would never have agreed to this engagement in the first place. Never would he have wasted his time on such arrangements.

And now...

Now this situation had become even more complicated. That they were hiding another daughter. One he had never heard of.

His eyes darkened dangerously, a storm brewing beneath their calm surface.

Were they playing with him?

Testing him?

Or worse...

Deceiving him?