"Our Female Master is acting a little strange today..." The Peacock Beast Husband, Hua Xi, stared at Jiang Xinli for a long while, his mind filled with questions:
'Normally, Jiang Xinli would have already flown into a rage and started torturing us. She's never been this weak and helpless...'
He reached out and poked Sheng Tianze, whispering, "You think our Female Master could be sick?"
"Sick?" Sheng Tianze raised an eyebrow, glancing at him before his gentle gaze fell back on Jiang Xinli's pale, delicate face.
After a moment's thought, he rose gracefully to his feet, his long, fair, slender fingers slowly reaching for Jiang Xinli's forehead.
Jiang Xinli instinctively flinched back, her body tensing as her voice trembled with a hint of fear. "Wh-what are you doing?!"
She had been secretly observing them, and of the five Beast Husbands, only the White Tiger, Sheng Tianze, seemed relatively gentle and kind.
'If I act weak,' she reasoned, 'I might be able to appeal to his protective instincts...'
And so, with that thought, she put on the act.
"I'm just checking on you." Sheng Tianze's fingers hovered three centimeters from her forehead, a knowing smile playing on his lips. "Has our Female Master forgotten? I am a doctor."
"A doctor?" A flicker of wariness and suspicion crossed Jiang Xinli's eyes, but she stayed where she was and didn't try to pull away again.
Sheng Tianze quickly withdrew his hand. "Our Female Master is still quite weak," he stated calmly, "but it's nothing serious."
From the side, Ye Kuo let out a cold, disdainful snort. "In her state, it'd be better if she just died."
"If she dies, we die too." Xuan Ying's cold gaze swept over Jiang Xinli, a black mist slowly churning in the depths of his frigid eyes. "But she isn't worthy of having us die along with her."
Jiang Xinli's expression didn't change, but inwardly, she was secretly alarmed.
Just then, a light, elegant scent of green tea wafted in from the window.
The scent seemed almost magical, moving with unerring precision past Sheng Tianze and Yue Hua Yin, rushing straight for the furious Ye Kuo.
"Heh, if none of us are going to live, then let's all just die!" Ye Kuo's leopard ears shot straight up. His once-orange pupils were instantly flooded with crimson, dilating violently.
"Jiang Xinli, die!" In the blink of an eye, his calloused fingers transformed into Vajra Sharp Claws, which he viciously clawed at her neck!
"Ye Kuo, don't be impulsive!" The first to react, Yue Hua Yin, hastily whipped up a ball of scorching flame and sent it hurtling toward Ye Kuo's wrist.
Xuan Ying also made his move. With a simple twist of his fingers, several streams of water condensed into bands of ice, instantly freezing Ye Kuo's Vajra Sharp Claw as it lunged forward.
A Seven-Colored Feather Fan suddenly appeared in Hua Xi's hand. He moved swiftly, giving it a gentle wave forward. Countless Peacock Feathers shot toward the back of Ye Kuo's hand like a shower of colorful blades.
All four of their superpowers were at the 1st Rank. However, the abilities of Yue Hua Yin, Xuan Ying, and Hua Xi were all low-level elemental types. They were no match for Ye Kuo's Enhanced Superpower, which, despite being the same rank, was in a completely different league of strength.
Now out of control, Ye Kuo's Speed and Strength were unrivaled by anyone present.
He simply gave a vicious backward swipe with his Vajra Sharp Claw, and the defensive measures the three had carefully constructed with their superpowers instantly shattered. The powerful impact sent all three of them flying.
Sheng Tianze reacted in a flash, instantly activating his Spatial Teleportation. In the nick of time, he pulled Jiang Xinli, who had no time to dodge, tightly into his protective embrace.
But before he could escape with her, Jiang Xinli's slender, fair neck was already caught in the fierce grip of Ye Kuo's other Vajra Sharp Claw.
CRACK! The sickening sound of bone shattering echoed through the air. Jiang Xinli's face instantly contorted in agony.
"Ye Kuo! Are you crazy?! Stop!" Yue Hua Yin's eyes were wide with fury as he roared, then once again summoned several balls of roaring flame to attack Ye Kuo, whose face was now covered in leopard markings.
Not to be outdone, Xuan Ying and Hua Xi also launched their own attacks to help.
In truth, they weren't genuinely concerned for Jiang Xinli's safety. Rather, the Interstellar Marriage Law clearly stipulated:
During the course of a marriage, if a Female Master dies, the Beast Husbands bound to her will be punished by losing all of their superpowers.
Furthermore, without the soothing comfort of a Female Master's spiritual power, they would sooner or later suffer a spiritual riot and eventually die.
However, if a Beast Husband were to die, it would only cause a certain degree of damage to the Female Master's spiritual power.
During this period, as long as the Female Master could find a new Beast Husband quickly enough, this damage could be minimized.
After all, throughout the entire interstellar beast world, the female-to-male ratio was severely imbalanced, approaching nearly 1:6000.
For females, there was an endless supply of high-quality Beast Husbands to choose from.
Hua Xi suddenly exclaimed, "What's going on? Ye Kuo's Uprising Value has skyrocketed to 67 percent! And it's still rising!"
Sheng Tianze's gaze instantly turned deep and solemn. He said in a low voice, "If it reaches 70 percent, he'll be completely beyond saving."
In the interstellar beast world, Male Beastmen awaken a superpower after turning 18.
The initial awakening value of a superpower is 1st Rank, followed by 2nd Rank, 3rd Rank, 4th Rank, 5th Rank, 6th Rank, 7th Rank, 8th Rank, 9th Rank, and 10th Rank.
Reaching the 8th Rank was an exceedingly rare feat, achieved by only a handful of individuals.
Although females do not awaken superpowers, they awaken their spiritual power after turning 18.
The initial strength of one's spiritual power depends on individual talent, with levels ranging from the lowest, F-level, up through E-level, D-level, C-level, B-level, A-level, S-level, SS-level, SSS-level, and SSSS-level.
Similarly, females who reached SS-level were also extremely rare.
Male Beastmen possess superhuman physical strength and aggression, keen senses, and astonishing combat prowess. But because of this, they are extremely susceptible to spiritual riots.
When their Spiritual Riot Value exceeds 50%, their bodies will show signs of partial bestial transformation.
When their Spiritual Riot Value exceeds 70%, they begin to emit Spiritual Silk, and their Spiritual Sea is on the brink of collapse.
And when the Spiritual Riot Value reaches 100%, their Spiritual Sea will completely collapse. They will lose all self-awareness and either die instantly or turn into a full-fledged Mutant Beast.
After a Mutant Beast dies, there is a high probability it will become a Puppet Corpse, a mindless walking corpse controlled by Dark Beastmen.
Females with spiritual power, though appearing soft and weak with no combat ability to speak of, are able to soothe and reduce the Uprising Value of Male Beastmen.
Typically, the higher a female's Spiritual Power Level, the more Uprising Value she can reduce and the greater number of Male Beastmen she can soothe.
Someone like Jiang Xinli, with only F-level spiritual power, has a negligible effect, but it's better than nothing.
Even if they can only soothe and lower the Uprising Value by 0.1%, it can be enough to pull a Male Beastman back from the brink of death or prevent them from fully turning into a Mutant Beast.
Sheng Tianze's superpower was a Healing Ability.
However, a Healing Ability could only treat external wounds caused by physical injury; it was completely useless against a spiritual riot.
But the original owner of this body was malicious, dark-hearted, and selfish. Ever since the marriage, she had never once used her spiritual power to help her five Beast Husbands soothe and heal their spiritual riots.
The current Jiang Xinli, of course, was willing to help them, but her very life was currently clutched tightly in Ye Kuo's hand.
At the side, Hua Xi was as frantic as an ant on a hot griddle, his peacock feathers all puffed up in alarm:
"Only an S-level female can save him!
But this Deserted Star is just a place where they dump serious criminals to let us live or die on our own. We'd be thanking the heavens just to have a B-level female here!"