Consciousness was in turmoil, and the body felt weightless, unable to perceive its own weight. The sound of waves washing against the shore echoed in the ears, while the nose was filled with the scent of earth.
Where am I...
He struggled to open his eyes but couldn't even feel his own body.
"Scanning host's physical condition... Body healthy, mental stability... Soul deployment ready... Deployment complete, dormancy ended, mission reactivated."
Suddenly, his body sank, and he quickly opened his eyes, only to be startled by the cat-like face right in front of him.
"Ah, it's alive! Quick, dig it out!"
The cat-faced creature retreated, and then a fox-faced one leaned in. "What is it? A snake? But why is it so dark?"
"It's not a snake, I think. Snakes aren't short and chubby like this. I think it's a bug," chimed in a rabbit-faced creature. Its three-part mouth moved animatedly. "But it's quite cute, just looks a bit silly."
The cat-faced one leaned in again and even reached out to scratch Ye Zhizhou. "But it's so small, why would it hide alone in this muddy hole? Where are its mother and father beasts?"
Ye Zhizhou was dumbfounded. He couldn't be hearing this right, could he? These cat, rabbit, and fox creatures were talking? In human language?
"It's really silly... I think it must have been abandoned," the rabbit said, its red eyes becoming moist. "Left all alone in this desolate mud hole, how pitiful."
"Let's take it back with us," the fox said decisively, biting Ye Zhizhou's tail and mumbling, "From now on, it's our little sister."
Ye Zhizhou was completely baffled, not by the gaping maw of the fox but by his own seemingly elongated body. He couldn't help but scream in surprise, but what came out was a high-pitched, ear-piercing cry, like a broken flute producing a monotonous note.
"You scared it!" The little cat hurriedly reached out with its paw to soothe Ye Zhizhou's elongated body and exclaimed with wide cat eyes, "And it might not be a sister, I think it's a brother."
The fox probably got stunned by Ye Zhizhou's unpleasant cry, so its bite softened, and it turned its head to put Ye Zhizhou on its back, shaking its tail as it said, "Fine, then it's a brother. Brother, you can curl up on my neck or tail. We're going home."
Ye Zhizhou was in the midst of self-doubt, and after a moment of bewilderment, he screamed silently in his heart, "What on earth is happening?! What kind of body do I have now? Did I accidentally trigger some animal mode? I just wanted to be a simple, ordinary human!"
Suddenly, the tip of his tail became warm, and a screen popped up: "Do you accept plot information?"
Glancing at his dark, chubby tail, Ye Zhizhou felt like crying. "Tongtian, are you not even a mirror now? And we have to share a body... with this?"
"I'm in your personal space," came the reply.
With a resigned sigh, Ye Zhizhou accepted the plot information.
The protagonist of this world was named Xuan Yuan Hong, born with a human body and unable to transform into an animal. He was considered an oddity by his family and suffered constant oppression.
Ye Zhizhou paused the information briefly, mentally preparing himself, and then skimmed through the background information of the world.
This world was inhabited by beast people, with a relatively low level of technological development but extraordinarily powerful combat abilities. In addition to the inherent skills and strengths of their animal forms, the beast people could also cultivate a form of power similar to martial arts called "beast power." Due to their tribal nature, there were no nations in this world. The beast people lived in different tribes, each led by a tribal chief, and above them all was a Beast Emperor. The Beast Emperor changed every ten years, determined through battles among the tribal chiefs. The Beast Emperor oversaw the spiritual aspects of the beast people and held little real power. Beast people typically transformed at around five years old and could then enter the tribal school for education and beast power cultivation.
Ye Zhizhou was somewhat dazed; it turned out to be a world of beast people... So how old was his current body? It couldn't be that he had just been born, right?
He reined in his wandering thoughts and returned his attention to the plot information.
The protagonist, Xuan Yuan Hong, had parents who were both from the snake tribe, possessing strong beast power and a high status in the snake tribe. They were fiercely competitive. However, after giving birth to the protagonist, a worthless child who couldn't transform and had slow progress in beast power cultivation, they became extremely dissatisfied. So, after giving birth to a second healthy child, they abandoned the protagonist.
Heartbroken and abandoned, the protagonist embarked on a solitary life of wandering. Over a decade later, when the protagonist had grown up, he heard by chance that the father beast who had abandoned him was about to become the leader of the snake tribe. Filled with nostalgia, he couldn't help but sneak back into the snake tribe to witness the ceremony of his father beast's promotion. However, he didn't see the ceremony; instead, he encountered his estranged younger brother, Xuan Yuan Tian.
Although Xuan Yuan Tian was younger, he was much stronger than the protagonist. At first sight of the protagonist, he remembered how his peers had mocked him for having a worthless older brother and cold-blooded parents who abandoned their child. Fueled by anger, he immediately captured the protagonist and crippled his limbs before throwing him off a cliff in the snake tribe's restricted area.
The protagonist, who hadn't expected his impromptu homecoming to end like this, fell into despair and anger. He swore in his heart that if he didn't die this time, he would exact revenge on everyone who had wronged him. Then, miraculously, he didn't die. Instead, he awakened the bloodline of a divine dragon through an unfortunate accident.
With broken bones from the fall at the bottom of the cliff, the protagonist experienced his first transformation as a beast person, but he didn't transform into a snake. Instead, he became a race that only existed in ancient beast people records—a dragon.
As a dragon, the protagonist was reborn, his appearance changed, his age reduced, and his aptitude went from being a waste to becoming a top-tier genius. He climbed out of the abyss and, disguised as a young snake who had lost his parents, infiltrated the snake tribe's school to start his path of revenge.
The subsequent plot followed the classic trope of acting weak to later exact revenge, with the protagonist eventually outsmarting Xuan Yuan Tian and causing him to become a cripple. The protagonist's parents lost their beast powers and were expelled by the tribe, and not long after, they died in misery. The new tribal leader took power, and the protagonist, as the beloved adopted son, gained the favor of the entire tribe. He also garnered the admiration of one of the tribe elder's daughters, You Xiao Xiao.
At this point, the story seemed like it could end, but the protagonist, now consumed by darkness, was not satisfied. After seeking revenge, he had a new goal—becoming the Beast Emperor and unifying the entire beast people's world.
With his dreams in mind, the protagonist bid farewell to his reluctant tribe and You Xiao Xiao, beginning a journey to collect concubines by stirring up trouble among various tribes.
The fox tribe had beautiful sisters, so he collected a pair of them. The deer tribe had a cute and spirited girl, so he took one. The cat tribe's girl had a wild beauty, so she was added to the harem. The rabbit tribe's girl was timid and shy, an essential addition. The wolf tribe had a proud and loyal young man, so he was recruited. The bear tribe had a boy who looked oddly adorable when he smiled, so he was included. The avian tribe had some appealing candidates too; the hawk tribe's young man had a captivating, icy demeanor, so he was recruited. Whether they flew in the sky or walked on the ground, he gathered them all. For the aquatic realm, why not take a young man from the fish tribe along?
With his harem complete, the protagonist turned the tribes upside down, causing chaos among the various groups. After successfully sowing discord, the protagonist quickly returned to the snake tribe, defeated his adopted father, and became the new tribal leader. Then, he participated in the competition to become the Beast Emperor and easily won.
As the newly crowned Beast Emperor, the protagonist was in high spirits. He decided to get married to celebrate his victory, and that's when the harem found out they weren't the only ones. Beast people practiced monogamy or same-sex pairings, and they had never encountered someone like the protagonist who courted multiple partners.
The harem wanted to leave, but the protagonist couldn't allow that. He threatened them with force and attempted to take them by force. The harem resisted, and their tribes joined forces in anger, determined to remove the protagonist from his position as Beast Emperor. In the face of their rebellion, the protagonist merely sneered, releasing the aura unique to dragons for the first time, and killed several of the leaders who were inciting the rebellion.
The beast people were shocked by the first taste of dragon's pressure, instinctively submitting. The era of the protagonist's dominance had officially begun.
The harem was still forced into marriage, and with the weight of the dragon's power hanging over them, they could only suppress their resentment and reluctantly serve as the protagonist's bedwarmers.
Over a decade later, the beast people's world was forcibly unified under the protagonist's rule, tribes began to coexist, and it gradually took on the appearance of a nation. Twenty years later, the beast people's world had become a dictatorship under the protagonist's rule. Thirty years later, the long-lived protagonist began to rule in a tyrannical and oppressive manner, causing chaos in the beast people's world. Fifty years later, the harem, who had long harbored grudges, began to unite with their tribes and raised the banner of rebellion against the protagonist's rule. A hundred years later, the protagonist still clung to his position as Beast Emperor, but the unified beast people's world had once again divided. One hundred and fifty years later, the harem gradually died off, but the protagonist remained youthful and continued to reign as Beast Emperor. Two hundred years later, the lonely and cold protagonist, after slaughtering the successors of the rebellious harem members, self-destructed.
The beast people's world fell into chaos. Several decades passed, and the chaotic situation didn't stabilize but grew worse. The beast people's world officially entered an era of great upheaval, ultimately leading to its destruction.
Ye Zhizhou stared in disbelief at the information, couldn't help but lift his chubby tail. This time, the protagonist seemed to be playing both sides. Wasn't the plot a bit too bizarre?
Suddenly, a melodious bird call rang out from above. He looked up and saw a stunning, fiery-red bird circling overhead. Its target... seemed to be himself, curled around the fox's neck.