"...Where did Gu Yin go? Why don’t I see him?"
Ling Hong’s voice paused. "He said he had something to take care of," he replied, his tone flat. "Don’t worry about him. Let me get you something to eat first."
「...」
Chi Li finished the last of the treatments and left early.
The crowd of Beastmen who rushed into the thatched hut saw that the injured clan members had already woken up.
They were alive and kicking, and even had the energy to roughhouse with each other??
The newly arrived Beastmen stared with wide, shocked eyes, then surged forward in pleasant surprise, asking all sorts of questions.
An Jin had told them that certain things on their bodies could cause the injured Beastmen’s wounds to get infected again. They kept his words firmly in mind and didn’t dare get too close to the patients.
Once they confirmed that their clan members were truly healed, the Beastmen were both shocked and proud. In their minds, this had been an incurable condition that left one either dead or permanently crippled. They never imagined that the Clan Leader and the Witch Doctor could actually...
As An Jin was in his hut, taking large bites of meat, a series of notification sounds suddenly rang out in his mind.
[Ding—Congratulations on completing the random side quest (Treat the Injured). Gold Coins +61!]
[Popular Support +2. Current: 71↑]
[Personal Prestige +5. Current: 132↑]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the rare title—The Perfect Clan Leader in the Eyes of the Beastmen.]
「...」
The nights in the Beast World were different from those on Blue Star, terrifyingly silent and vast.
A person only had to look up to see two enormous crescent moons, one red and one blue, hanging in the deathly still and desolate night sky. They resembled a pair of mismatched eyes, constantly gazing down upon all creation and taking up nearly a quarter of the sky.
They created an immense sense of pressure. Anyone with megalophobia might drop dead on the spot from staring at those enormous, unsettling moons.
The lush jungle canopy blocked the faint moonlight, while the dense branches and tangled vines pressed against each other, casting vast swaths of shadow.
Several agile, dark figures darted through the jungle, approaching the Sheng’an Tribe. They were the same long-armed ape Beastmen from before.
They were extremely skilled at climbing vines and concealing themselves in the jungle.
But something seemed different tonight.
One of them wore a cloak woven from large leaves and carried a long wooden staff. A long vine dangled from the staff’s tip, and at the end of the vine was a half-man-tall, oval-shaped object.
This oval object was wrapped in animal hide.
In the faint moonlight, one could vaguely see sticky, wet stains seeping through the hide, and a buzzing sound seemed to echo in the air.
"I wonder if those Beastmen are dead yet? Even if they’re not, they’ll be crippled for life! Hahaha, we’ll show that tribe the power of the Long-armed Ape Tribe!"
"A new tribe that was just built in the last two years, and they’re already so arrogant! They don’t respect us at all. We have to teach them more lessons!"
"Yeah, teach ’em a lesson! A lesson!"
A few of the other apes chimed in.
Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from the group of apes. "Weird, something just slithered past my foot... It was slippery and slimy..."
Someone exclaimed in terror, "I think it was a snake!"
"By the Beast Mother, there are snakes coiled around my feet, too! Get off, get off! Get off me!" The branch shook violently, showering the ground below with leaves.
With a few SNAPS, branches broke, and several apes were thrown violently to the ground.
But the ground was even more terrifying—it was a massive swarm of snakes?! They didn’t remember there being a snake nest here!!
Swarms of snakes of all colors were coiled together in a dense mass, their red tongues flicking as they stared intently up at the trees. The scene was unsettling and horrifying.
The moment the long-armed apes fell from the trees, the dense swarm of hungry snakes instantly engulfed them. As the Beastmen struggled violently, the venomous snakes became enraged, baring their fangs and sinking them into their victims.
The giant beehive wrapped in animal hide also crashed to the ground.
"BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ—"
A huge swarm of venomous hornets quickly poured out of the hive.
The hornets weren’t interested in the hard-scaled snakes; instead, they viciously swarmed the long-armed apes, who were now covered in honey.
Bloodcurdling shrieks and howls erupted throughout the jungle.
One by one, the long-armed ape Beastmen scrambled up from the ground, crying and screaming. Dozens of snakes were coiled around their bodies, and a massive swarm of hornets was chasing them from behind.
They planned to jump into the nearby river to escape with their lives, but a dark figure flashed before them. A terrifyingly powerful force instantly whipped them through the air, sending them crashing violently into the trees.
A large number of trees snapped and fell at the impact.
Two Third Rank long-armed apes were knocked unconscious, spitting up mouthfuls of blood.
Under the cold moonlight, a bewitching man with black hair and red eyes, dragging a long, black-and-red snake tail, stood on the riverbank, lazily blocking the path of the long-armed apes.
His red eyes, as sharp as blades and terrifyingly bloodthirsty, stared expressionlessly at the pale-faced apes. A forked, crimson tongue flicked from the man’s mouth, letting out a warning HISS.
"Wh-who are you?!"
The Beastmen’s blood ran cold. Stared at by those sinister serpent eyes, their bodies stiffened, unable to move.