Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

Observation Room One, Jing Yao.

Marshal White Tiger had already climbed down from the stone platform and was lying on the ground, feigning sleep. Hearing the sound of the food delivery passage opening, he didn't even lift his eyelids, only his nostrils twitched slightly.

Then his eyes snapped open. He'd been numbed by the bland, pasty smell of the nutrient solution for countless years, but today it carried a cool, sweet scent, along with an indescribable volatile component that instinctively excited felines.

He snatched the bundle of catnip from the teleportation portal, hesitated for a second, then chewed and swallowed it. His pupils dilated slightly for a moment as he felt several stubborn, turbulent nodes within his chaotic mental field being gently and steadily suppressed, as if a hand were slowly and deliberately untying several knots. His collapse value dropped from eighty-nine to eighty-six.

Jing Yao stood up from the ground, his massive white tiger body walking to the glass wall. His amber tiger eyes looked down at the petite figure pushing a food cart into the next observation area in the corridor.

Observation Room No. 2, Hanzhou.

Black Panther's reaction was more acute than White Tiger's. His mental field itself was a finely intricate, spiderweb-like structure; the higher the collapse value, the easier it was for that web to spiral out of control and backfire.

He had originally planned to just lick the nutritional supplement a couple of times and leave it at that, since it wouldn't make much difference whether he ate it or not. But when the scent of catnip wafted in from the teleportation portal, he stood up gracefully, walked to the portal like a flowing stream of ink, bent down, and carried the bundle of green plants inside.

After chewing and swallowing a few times, he stood silently in place, his light golden leopard eyes locking onto Ye Tang's back through the glass wall.

Observation Room No. 3, Ling Shou.

The peregrine falcon had the best eyesight of the five. As it hovered in the air, it spotted the bundles of green plants on the Wild Begonia food cart from afar, and also saw Jing Yao and Han Zhou's reactions as they walked to the glass wall after finishing their meal.

He was a bird of prey, and that bundle of grass held no appeal for him. He wasn't even sure if it would be of any use to him. But when the bundle of grass was pushed into the conveyor, he still swooped down and snatched it away.

Chewing, swallowing, pausing. Then he folded his wings and landed on the perch inside the observation wall, his silver-gray eagle eyes fixed unblinkingly on Wild Tang. Eighty-eight dropped to eighty-five.

The fourth detention area, Chiheng.

The young chieftain of the Vermilion Bird Clan was standing on the stone mountain, radiating a scorching aura. The entire observation area was more than ten degrees higher than other places because of his body temperature.

He looked visibly confused when he saw the catnip. Birds and cats have different needs, after all, but since the previous three had eaten it, he reluctantly took a small bite as well.

Then he paused for a moment, looked down at the bundle of grass, then at the wild crabapple trees in the corridor, and pecked away the rest. He folded his crimson wings, jumped down from the rocky hill, and walked to the glass wall.

Ye Tang didn't notice any of this.

She was standing at the entrance of Observation Zone No. 5, facing the huge pool in front of her, her brows furrowed.

To be honest, when Lu Yu told her to pay close attention to Cangming, she had already agreed.

As a seasoned worker who has been tempered and refined by clients and superiors in the 21st century, the idea that "the client's requirements are my pursuit" is ingrained in her DNA. Anything Lu Yu specifically mentions, she will do diligently and without compromise. And now, her target is at the bottom of the pool, motionless.

Cangming's mermaid form floated in the water, his huge fish tail gradually changing from deep blue to silver-white scales that refracted a cold, gem-like light in the water, pale blue scales covered his strong upper body, and his seaweed-like long hair drifted silently in the water.

This scene would definitely be a popular photo spot in an aquarium, but at this moment, Ye Tang's attention was entirely focused on his breathing.

Lu Yu said he hadn't left the water for eleven days. Mermaids need air; they'll get damaged if they don't breathe for more than two weeks. Today is the twelfth day.

Ye Tang pressed the call button on the window and shouted several times at the pool, "Cangming! Surface! Dinner's ready!"

The water was completely still, and the mermaid in the water didn't even blink.

Ye Tang called twice more, but there was still no response. She pushed the light blue seaweed-flavored nutrient solution on the food cart, trying to open the lid of the conveyor and stuff the contents in, but Observation Zone 5 was different from the others.

This is a water environment. The teleportation portal connects to a small platform floating on the water's surface. If Cangming doesn't rise to the surface, anything placed inside will simply float on the water, and he won't touch it. Ye Tang took a deep breath, turned around, and pushed open the safety door of Observation Zone Five.

Chi Heng, who was taking catnip from the teleportation point and about to chew it, dropped the leaf from its beak onto the ground. In the adjacent observation area, Jing Yao and Han Zhou, who had just reached the glass wall, froze simultaneously—their brains stopped battling the mental field for a split second, all their attention focused on the small female pushing open the security door. Ling Shou hovered in the air, its eagle eyes wide open.

Youlie reacted most directly. He rushed to the safety door, grabbed Yetang's trouser leg with his mouth, and tugged it back. The force was extremely light, not enough to hurt her, but enough for her to feel his disapproval.

"It's alright, it's alright," Ye Tang squatted down and patted his head, lowering her voice to say, "I'll just go check on him. If he's awake, I'll come out."

Youlie loosened her trouser leg, not because he was relieved, but because he quickly assessed in his mind that Cangming was currently the only sea creature among the five. Because he was in the water, he was more difficult to be awakened by external stimuli than the others.

If Ye Tang had only approached the edge of the pool, perhaps nothing would have happened. He followed closely behind Ye Tang through the safety door, his muscles tense, ready to snatch her away the moment any unusual reaction occurred.

Ye Tang entered Observation Area No. 5. The temperature around her was noticeably several degrees lower than in the corridor, and the air was filled with the salty smell of the sea. The pool was large and the water was deep, allowing her to see the mermaid floating quietly at the bottom.

Then she took out a net from her storage space.

Youlie stared at the suddenly appearing metal landing net with its enlarged opening, his pupils dilating for a moment. He had seen Ye Tang conjure spices and a blanket out of thin air in the forest, but he hadn't thought much of it then. Now, however, he realized she must possess some kind of spatial special equipment. But this landing net—what was she going to do with it?

Ye Tang estimated the size of Cangming in the water. The mermaid's upper body was humanoid with clearly defined muscles, and his lower body was a huge fish tail. Even though he was in a state of energy conservation through self-compression, his length was estimated to be more than two meters.

Her extra-large and extra-long net had been lying quietly in her inventory among a pile of post-apocalyptic stockpiles—she had bought it purely to reach the minimum purchase amount for a discount.

She gripped the metal rod of the landing net, carefully lowered it into the water, and opened the net, aiming it at the vast ocean. She didn't know how to fish, but she knew how to catch fish. During her university years, she went to a water park with her roommates, and she played the goldfish scooping game, catching seven goldfish for ten yuan, achieving the best score in the entire class.

At this moment, at the bottom of the pool, Cangming is engaged in a life-or-death struggle with his own turbulent mental energy field.

His mental breakdown value reached a staggering 95. Deep within his mental domain, it felt as if a swarm of wildly spinning kaleidoscope fragments had been stuffed inside, each piece desperately squeezing, colliding, and tearing apart. He had endured this state for twelve days without surfacing for air—not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to.

The Sea Abyss royal family was proud; he didn't want anyone to see him lose control during the riot, nor did he want to accept anyone's reassurance. He submerged himself underwater, compressing his body into its most energy-efficient form, attempting to withstand this wave of mental backlash.

Then he felt he couldn't move.

A net-like object fell from the sky and precisely caught him. A fishing net? Where did this fishing net come from? He looked up and began to question his existence.

A female in a dark blue uniform stood by the pool, gripping a metal rod longer than her arm with both hands. A net was tightly covering her body, and she was using all her strength to lift it up.

Her face was flushed red from the effort, but her eyes were unusually determined, and she kept muttering things like "client requirements," "performance indicators," and "the task must be completed."

Cangming's brain briefly stopped functioning.

He was a member of the Abyss Royal Family, one of only three SS-level combatants in the empire, and the absolute ruler of the deep sea. The last time he was treated like this was probably when he was still a cub and was being disciplined by his elders.

This female's mental strength was so weak it was almost non-existent. How did she dare to enter this observation area? What kind of thought process led her to think of using a fishing net to catch him? Cangming felt that his chaotic mental strength had been completely overwhelmed by the dense question marks in his mind.

Ye Tang used all her strength, using both hands and feet, to drag the net to the shore, and then with a "splash," she pulled Cangming out of the water. The mermaid's upper body emerged from the water, her wet long hair clinging to her face and shoulders, water droplets rolling down her pale blue scales.

His eyes were a deep sea blue, and he was staring intently at Ye Tang. The expression in his pupils was neither anger nor murderous intent, but a pure speechlessness and confusion belonging to intelligent beings—are you serious?

"That's a good girl."

Before he could react, Ye Tang grabbed his chin and forced the light blue seaweed-flavored nutrient solution down his throat. Then, she took out a bundle of catnip and catnip mixed with grass from her spatial storage and stuffed it into his mouth.

Cangming chewed and swallowed unconsciously, then tasted the most peculiar flavor of sashimi. The cool sensation sliding down his throat shot straight to the top of his head—he felt the wildly spinning fragments in his mental domain being gently and irresistibly soothed by this cool power, the turbulent nodes loosening one by one, like knots being untied. The collapse value dropped from ninety-five, step by step.

Seeing that he had finished eating, Ye Tang clapped her hands in satisfaction, wrung out the water from the scooping net, turned around, and pushed the food cart out of Observation Zone No. 5. The security door closed automatically behind her with a dull thud.

The corridor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Behind the glass walls of observation zones one through four, four of the Empire's top combatants stared with unanimous, utterly bewildered expressions at the small female pushing a food cart and humming a tune as she walked towards the end of the corridor. Jing Yao's massive tiger paw pressed against the glass wall, his amber tiger eyes filled with disbelief.

Han Zhou's dark figure pressed completely against the glass, and for the first time, a look of "Am I dreaming?" appeared in his leopard eyes; Ling Shou tilted his falcon head, wondering how a small female could have such audacity; Chi Heng Zhuque's tail feathers bristled, and red feathers fell to the ground in a flurry.

Youlie followed quietly behind Yetang, his steps steady and his face expressionless. The shock he felt was no less than that of the people behind the glass wall.

Cangming, a member of the Haiyuan royal family and one of the Empire's three SS-level combat forces, was scooped up by a small female with a net.