Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

It was late at night, and the lights were off in the living room of the Zero Prison's living quarters. After being thrown out of the bedroom, Chi Heng rolled around on the sofa several times, each roll filled with even more resentment than the last.

The sofa was a fabric sofa that Ye Tang took out from the Space Supermarket. The fabric was soft, but lying on it felt almost like lying on a needleboard—because in the bedroom just a door away, that scheming wolf was flirting with his little warden.

He pressed his ear against the door, and every word of the conversation between the Canglang Clan Major General and Ye Tang reached him. Property documents, house deeds, land deeds, two hundred million star coins, and something about "special allocation from the Canglang Clan treasury" and "transfer of Netherworld dowry."

Although he didn't see how thick the stack of documents was, judging from Ye Tang's exclamation, "You've robbed us!", the wolf had taken half of the Azure Wolf Clan's wealth. Then he heard Ye Tang's kiss to You Lie.

Chi Heng sat back on the sofa, arms crossed, his crimson-gold eyes shining like two burning embers in the darkness. Ghost Hunter's move was too ruthless.

A dowry—why didn't he think of that? During the day, Ye Tang was still asking Ling Shou how to buy a house, and at night You Lie handed over the deed and all his assets. Who could resist that? He looked down at his empty hands.

It's true that he gave away his tail feathers, but according to the empire's marriage rules, a male beast without a dowry cannot get married.

He didn't know what Youlie had gone through on his trip back to the Canglang Clan, but that didn't matter. Youlie had the Canglang Clan, and he had the Zhuque Clan. The Canglang Clan had moved half a warehouse; could the Zhuque Clan possibly be outdone?

Chi Heng jumped off the sofa and walked barefoot to the living room window. A night breeze blew in from the direction of the forest, carrying the coolness of pine resin and earth. He glanced back at the tightly closed bedroom door, then flapped his wings and flew directly out the window.

Crimson wings unfurled in the night sky, tail feathers tracing a streak of light as it sped toward the Flame Ridge Mountains.

The Vermilion Bird Clan's old residence is located deep in the Flame Ridge Mountains east of the capital, the entire mountain being the hereditary territory of the Vermilion Bird Clan. Chi Heng landed familiarly on the rooftop terrace of the main residence, transforming into human form before even properly folding his wings.

He ran barefoot down the long corridor, its sides adorned with portraits of past leaders of the Vermilion Bird Clan, the candlelight flickering before them, but Chi Heng paid no attention to any of them. He shoved open the heavy ebony double door at the end of the corridor, the force so great that the door slammed against the wall with a loud bang.

Chi Xiong sat behind his desk reviewing the mountain of documents piled up by the Security Department. This Suzaku clan chief and Minister of Security was used to working overtime until late at night; the documents on his desk were never finished, just like the endless trouble his grandson was causing.

Hearing the loud crash as the door was kicked open, he didn't even lift his eyelids—in this house, only one person dared to barge into his office without knocking. He slowly took a sip of his tea, thinking that this kid coming back in the middle of the night must have either burned down someone's house or gotten into another fight and was now coming to him to clean up the mess.

"Grandpa, I want to get married."

Chi Xiong spat out a mouthful of tea directly onto the documents in front of him. He frantically grabbed a few tissues to wipe the tea-soaked documents, his white eyebrows twitching several times. His golden eyes, peering through his reading glasses, stared at his grandson who had barged in in the middle of the night saying he wanted to get married, and he wondered if he was getting old and his ears were failing him.

Chi Heng braced his hands on the desk, leaning forward. His long, crimson hair was disheveled from the high-speed flight, draped over his shoulders, and the sash of his robe was tied in a crooked, knotted mess—clearly, he had jumped out of bed and flown straight here. His expression was ten times more serious than when he went to the battlefield.

"What did you say?" Chi Xiong took off his reading glasses, wiped the lenses with his sleeve, and put them back on, making sure that his eyesight was not failing and that the person standing in front of him was indeed Chi Heng.

"I want to get married! Right now! Give me the dowry!" Chi Heng slapped the desk with each short sentence he uttered. On the third slap, even the lid of Chi Xiong's teacup jumped up from the impact.

Chi Xiong didn't answer immediately. He took off his reading glasses and placed them on the table, rested his chin on his hands, and looked at his only grandson with a "grandpa is going to reason with you" kind of look. "Xiao Heng, it's not that grandpa looks down on you—with your temper, what female would want you?"

Chi Heng's eyebrows twitched, but Chi Xiong didn't give him a chance to refute. Old Zhuque started counting on his fingers, one by one, his voice neither loud nor soft, but every word pierced his grandson's heart.

At the age of twelve, he learned to control real fire for the first time, and burned down the clan's martial arts arena. It took the elders three months to repair it. At the age of fifteen, the young chief of the neighboring Tengshe clan called the Zhuque clan "roasted chickens." He beat them up so badly that they cried and went home to find their mothers. The chief of the Tengshe clan went to the security department to stage a sit-in protest.

At eighteen, he got into a fight with an instructor at a military training camp, burning down half the training base. The military's complaint letter was sent directly to the clan chief's office. At twenty, he got drunk and flew to the top of the palace to sing. He was captured by the security department as an assassin and brought back, and it was the minister himself who went to pick him up.

At the age of 23, he was imprisoned in Nanling Prison for injuring a female member of the Phoenix Clan in a fight. He served two years in prison, and after his release, he continued to fight. On the day of his coming-of-age ceremony at the age of 25, he burned off the tail of the Lion Clan's young master. The Lion Clan is still suing him to this day.

He was either fighting or on his way to fight. Chi Heng's mental breakdown value of 93 was mostly caused by his own belligerence. Chi Xiong knew all these incidents by heart, and he didn't even forget the dates.

Chi Heng stood in front of the desk, listening to his grandfather recount his "great achievements" from childhood to adulthood, his face growing increasingly grim. "Anyway, she took my tail feathers." He stubbornly revealed his last trump card.

"You lied and accepted it, didn't you?" Akio said without even lifting his eyelids, his tone certain.

"I'm not lying!" Chi Heng's voice rose half an octave, but his confidence was noticeably lower. Chi Xiong looked up at him from above his reading glasses, his eyes clearly saying—guess whether your grandpa believes me or not.

His grandson had caused countless troubles since childhood, but his skill in throwing tantrums and begging in front of females was unparalleled; he would use any means to achieve his goals. The tail feathers were probably something he'd forced on her when she didn't know their meaning.

"Anyway, she accepted it." Chi Heng continued to be stubborn, avoiding his grandfather's gaze, but the tip of his ear turned slightly red.