Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

Chi Heng sat next to her, poking at the piece of boiled meat on the plate with his chopsticks with a bitter expression. He poked at it for a long time before stuffing it into his mouth, chewing it twice, and then swallowing it.

He remembered something that had been bothering him for days, put down his chopsticks, and asked, "Grandpa, does our Vermilion Bird clan have some secret method that allows male beasts with stronger bloodline power than females to carry eggs on their own?"

"Pfft—" Chi Xiong almost spat out his nutrient solution, his gray eyebrows nearly flying into his hairline. "What nonsense are you spouting? It's the law of nature for the weaker bloodline to conceive, there's no such secret method!"

He grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth, brownish drops of nutrient solution still clinging to his beard. He was both angry and amused. "Don't go out and say you're my grandson, or people will laugh at you."

Chi Heng recounted in detail what happened when he encountered Bai Jianjia and her son at the mall a few days ago. From Bai Jin blocking the road and provoking him, to Ye Tang calling him a "spoiled chicken," to him discovering that he neither looked like Bai Jin from the same mother nor was he supposed to have been hatched by his own father, and then to them running back to ask their grandfather, completely baffled.

When Ye Tang was talking about cursing "mixed-haired chicken," Chi Xiong slammed his hand on the table and said, "Well said! I've disliked that monstrous, incongruous chicken for a long time!" After cursing, he urged Chi Heng to continue.

"Grandpa," Chi Heng leaned forward, lowering his voice as if he were plotting some important military or national matter, "did my father come to you asking for some secret method, and you secretly gave it to him, which is why he was the one who incubated me? Tell me, and I won't tell anyone else."

"No!" Chi Xiong's temples throbbed several times, and his voice rose a full pitch. "Your father conceived you naturally! There was no secret method involved. Do you think the Vermilion Bird Clan runs a pharmacy?"

Chi Heng blinked. Natural conception. These four words entered his ears and spun in his mind several times before being digested. His father was a direct descendant of the Vermilion Bird, an S-rank combatant, and possessed pure ancient divine beast bloodline.

Bai Jianjia is a peacock, lacking the bloodline of an ancient divine beast. According to the natural law that the weaker bloodline conceives, Bai Jianjia should be the one who became pregnant. However, her father conceived naturally, meaning he was indeed the one with the weaker bloodline. But how could this be?

Akio also realized what was happening. The grandfather and grandson stared at each other across the dining table, their identical crimson-gold pupils reflecting each other's gradually freezing expressions, even the curve of their slightly open mouths was exactly the same.

"Wait—your father's bloodline power couldn't be weaker than Bai Jianjia's, so how could he conceive and carry you naturally? Unless—" Chi Xiong's fingers tapped repeatedly on the stone table, his mind racing.

"Unless Bai Jianjia never conceived you at all. The egg your father carried must have been of his own bloodline, but the female bloodline power needed to conceive you did not come from Bai Jianjia, then—" He suddenly stopped and looked at Chi Heng.

"No, I have to ask that unfilial son." Chi Xiong stood up abruptly, and the quantum computer communication interface had already popped up.

Ye Tang sat quietly to the side, pushing the vial of nutrients in front of her further away. The grandfather and granddaughter's thought processes weren't exactly similar, but rather identical.

One was overjoyed to hear his father was having an affair, while the other, upon discovering he might have been raising someone else's eggs for over thirty years for nothing, didn't react with anger but with, "I need to call my son right now and yell at him." Do they even need a DNA test? They're definitely grandfather and grandson.

However, everyone has a gossipy nature, and Ye Tang moved her chair forward, listening intently. Anyway, Chi Heng was already married to her, so she wasn't exactly an outsider—no, she never was an outsider to begin with, so it was only natural for her to listen to her own bird's family affairs.

Chi Xiong dialed the number and it was answered within two seconds. A face that looked five or six parts like Chi Heng appeared on the holographic screen, with the same long red hair and red pupils, but with softer features and a gentle, scholarly air between his brows.

Chi Yan doesn't look like the eldest son of the Vermilion Bird Clan with S-level combat power; he looks more like a scholar who spends all his time in the library.

"Father, what's wrong?" Chi Yan's voice was gentle, with a hint of confusion at receiving a sudden call from his father.

"Are you alone?" Akio lowered his voice, his sharp eyes scanning the background of the screen.

"No, I'm in the study. What's wrong?" Chi Yan subconsciously looked around to make sure Bai Jianjia wasn't nearby.

"I'm asking you, did you use some secret method to possess Chi Heng?" Chi Xiong went straight to the point without any preamble.

"No." Chi Yan's expression was completely frank, and his confusion seemed genuine. "When I was pregnant with Xiao Heng, it was a natural conception. I didn't use any secret methods."

"No?" Chi Xiong's beard twitched, and he exchanged a meaningful glance with Chi Heng. "You, go home right now."

"Oh, okay." Although Chi Yan didn't understand what was going on, he still habitually obeyed his father's orders. He had already disobeyed his father once in the important matter of marrying Bai Jianjia, and had felt guilty about it for decades. In other matters, he was almost always obedient to Chi Xiong.

Chi Yan rushed from his own residence to the main house. When he pushed open the door, he was still slightly out of breath, with a fine layer of sweat on his forehead.

He paused for a moment when he saw Chi Heng sitting at the table with a petite female he didn't recognize. "Chi Heng? What are you doing here? And who is this—"

"Your daughter-in-law," Chi Xiong said succinctly.

"Xiao Heng got married?" Chi Yan's eyes lit up, and he was about to go forward to exchange pleasantries when Chi Xiong slapped his hand on the table, interrupting him.

"Chiyan, tell this old man the truth, do you have another wife?" Chixiong rested his hands on his knees, leaned forward, and his golden eyes gleamed with anticipation. His expression didn't seem like he was questioning his son about infidelity, but rather like he was asking, "Did you win the lottery and not tell me?"

"Father, what are you saying?" Chi Yan was anxious, and a look of panic appeared on his usually gentle and refined face.

He knew his father disliked Bai Jianjia, even before the marriage, but he never expected his father to actually expect him to have an affair.

He, Chi Yan, has lived for over a hundred years, and in this life he has only ever loved one female, Bai Jianjia, wholeheartedly. How could he possibly have another wife?

"Then explain to the old man that the bloodline power of our Vermilion Bird clan is stronger than that of the Peacock clan. That's an indisputable fact, right? According to the laws of heaven and earth, the one with the weaker bloodline should conceive, so the one carrying the egg should be Bai Jianjia. Why is it you who hatched Chi Heng instead of her?" Chi Xiong said, enunciating each word clearly, his tone like reading evidence in a military court.

Chi Yan opened his mouth, as if to say something, but something seemed to be blocking his throat. He had thought about this question before, but every time the thought surfaced, he suppressed it. Bai Jianjia was his wife, and he could not question her.

"I remember, Bai Jin and Bai Chu were both born to Bai Jianjia, right?" Chi Xiong continued, providing further evidence. "Bai Jin's father was a phoenix, and Bai Chu's father was a dragon. Both of these bloodlines surpass those of the peacock. But is the true divine beast bloodline of our Vermilion Bird clan inferior to that of the phoenix and the dragon?"

"I..." Fine beads of sweat appeared on Chi Yan's forehead, and his fingers unconsciously clenched his sleeves. He had never thought about the problem from this perspective before. Every time Bai Jianjia became pregnant, she would return to the Peacock Clan to rest and prepare for childbirth, and a few months later she would return with her hatched cubs. He had never inquired about the details.

"Furthermore, let's not even talk about Chi Heng. He's completely crimson without a single feather of any other color. But look at Bai Jin and Bai Chu—they both have white stray feathers. Other husbands' bloodlines all have distinctive features, but your Vermilion Bird bloodline doesn't show any at all?" Chi Xiong presented his final piece of evidence.

Ye Tang listened with wide eyes. Sure enough, big families have a lot of gossip, and each one is more explosive than the last.

She picked up her teacup and took a sip silently, her gaze darting back and forth between the three men, Chi Xiong, Chi Yan, and Chi Heng. She felt as if she wasn't listening to a family meeting, but rather watching a long-running drama series about a wealthy family feud, with twists and turns in every episode.