The three of them held their breath and concentrated.

The remnant soul suddenly turned cold and said, "But you must treat my crocodile clan's cubs well, as a condition for my exchange with you."

The next sentence suddenly softened.

From his perspective, it was indeed quite tragic, so Shen Miao repeated herself, indicating that she would absolutely not harm the crocodile cub.

The remnant soul then took out something and tossed it towards them: "Take it."

Shen Miao took it, opened it, and saw that it was a map drawn on animal skin. The map was drawn very simply, with only a few strokes, but for some reason, it looked quite clear.

The remnant soul said, "This is a map of a spirit mine; it should be useful to you."

Shen Miao was overjoyed. She had always wanted to find something similar to minerals, but such things were rare and hard to come by. She never expected to find it here today.

"Alright, you can leave now."

The remnant souls began to drive them away.

Shen Miao looked up and noticed that the remnant soul seemed much fainter than when they had first seen it. She couldn't help but call out, "Senior..."

"Go, go, go. I don't have the habit of letting people watch me dissipate." The remnant soul's voice grew weaker and weaker.

Not wanting to go against his wishes and guessing that he wouldn't last much longer, the group said goodbye and left the room. Shen Miao even closed the door for him.

With her last glance, she saw the shadow of the remnant soul, which had faded to almost nothing.

The group returned the way they came. When they passed the demon tree, Jiuying squatted down beside the demon tree, which was now just a stump, and used the leather bag to deal with some tree spirits.

It is said to be a tree spirit, but it is actually just the sap left behind by a demonic tree.

Shen Miao asked him, "What are you going to do with collecting this?"

"Keep it for now, it might come in handy sometime," Jiuying explained.

Shen Miao didn't ask any more questions.

The three of them left the secret passage. The rest of Xuanran's army had also finished searching. After inquiring about the situation and finding nothing unusual, Shen Miao led Xuanran's army and the remaining crocodile cubs back to the Beast Domain.

She distributed the crocodile cubs to families without offspring, so they could raise them. The standard of living in the Beast Realm was quite good, and Shen Miao felt that those families wouldn't be short of food for their cubs.

In this way, the promise to the old crocodile orc can be considered fulfilled.

However, Shen Miao did not expect that a tragedy would occur in the Beast Realm the next day: a baby crocodile was killed by the family that adopted him.

It is said that the cub was hung under a tree by its adoptive parents, and many people went to watch.

Shen Miao was so angry she almost fainted. She took Jiu Ying and several Xuan Ran soldiers and rushed over. The orcs from that family were still smugly showing off to the people around them: "See this? This is our enemy, the crocodile cub. They killed so many of our brothers. I killed him too to avenge our brothers."

The people around cheered, saying that the orc had done a good job.

The orc's cheeks flushed with excitement as he fanned the small corpse repeatedly, demonstrating his power.

When Shen Miao squeezed into the crowd, what she saw was that bloody little corpse, hanging there as a public spectacle. A group of adult beastmen were around, and no one thought anything was wrong. On the contrary, they all thought the little beast deserved to die.

Her blood rushed to the top of her head.

He picked up a pebble from the ground and cut the rope.

As the young beast's corpse fell to the ground, the people began searching around for the person who had attacked. Shen Miao stepped forward from the crowd, her face cold, and shouted, "What are you all doing here?"

Some orcs, unaware of the gravity of the situation, chuckled and said, "We're watching the crocodile cubs being tortured."

"Who gave you the right to dispose of the cubs?"

Everyone finally realized something was wrong; Shen Miao seemed very angry.

Someone mustered up their courage and said, "But aren't these cubs our spoils of war? Spoils of war are meant for us to have our own amusement with."

Shen Miao's forehead veins throbbed.

She said sternly to the person who spoke, "I don't care where you come from or what the rules of your tribe were before. Here, in my beast realm, everything must be done my way. You have no right to deal with the people I bring back."

The crowd was silent.

Shen Miao turned her head to face the owner of the house, who was also the foster father of the cub, and said in a sinister tone, "Did you kill this cub?"

The male beast, instead of showing remorse, proudly declared, "That's right, it was I who did it. Crocodile cubs are not worthy of our care."

Suppressing her anger, Shen Miao asked, "Since you don't want to raise them, and since you hate the crocodile clan so much, why didn't you just refuse yesterday?"

The male beast said dismissively, "How can I torture him if he refuses? I'm going to kill him to avenge our Exuanran soldiers! A defeated race doesn't deserve to live."

"Do you think you did the right thing?" Shen Miao asked again.

The male beast said, "That's right."

Shen Miao nodded and said calmly, "Fine, in the Beast Domain, a life for a life. You think he deserves to die. But here, if you kill indiscriminately and break the rules of the Beast Domain, you deserve to die too."

Upon hearing this, the male beast was stunned.

Seemingly not expecting Shen Miao to be so ruthless, actually wanting to kill him for a crocodile cub.

"You, you, you can't kill me! I'm from the Beast Realm!" the male beast cried out in panic.

Shen Miao ignored him and ordered the soldiers following her, Xuan Ran, "Take them away and execute them on the spot. Jiu Ying, you issue a notice to announce to the entire Beast Domain that if such a thing happens again, the person will be executed as well. Let them decide what to do."

Jiuying hesitated, as if he wanted to speak.

"What?" Shen Miao turned her head to look at him, her expression calm and composed.

Jiuying sighed and said, "Chenmiao, aren't you being too kind? You once said that being merciful to the enemy is being cruel to yourself."

Shen Miao raised an eyebrow: "So you also think there was a problem with how I handled it?"

After a moment of silence, Jiuying said tactfully, "The Crocodile Clan is indeed our enemy."

“But the cubs are different.” Shen Miao said seriously, “Nine Infants, besides that saying, I also want to tell you one more thing: do not bring misfortune upon your children.”

Jiuying paused for a moment, then lowered her head and thought about it carefully, saying, "You're right, I was too naive. I'll go and arrange the announcement right away."

This matter is far from over.

After one baby crocodile was killed, another baby crocodile soon left its adoptive family and entered the arena.

The orcs, having heard about Shen Miao's handling of the previous male beast, dared not delay and immediately came to report, repeatedly stating that the crocodile cub wanted to leave on its own and had nothing to do with them.

Shen Miao was annoyed by what she heard and waved for the person to leave.

She knew in her heart that because of the tragic death of one baby crocodile, the rest of them no longer trusted them.

She messed up the task the crocodile tribe leader had entrusted to her.