Beauty and the Beasts

This time, faint blood vessels could be seen in the golden bubble.

Jean let out a horrified cry. “King? Who injured you so?”

“Follow me.”

King pulled her hand and stuffed her into a bubble somewhat brutishly.

Jean stroked her painful wrist and gazed around as she sat inside the bubble. She asked nervously, “Are we being attacked by the other merfolk groups?”

“No.”

“Then, what’s going on?”

The image of the corpses strewn throughout the seas surfaced in King’s mind, overwhelming him with grief and taking away any desire to speak. If Jean hadn’t come back, if it weren’t for the continuation of their species, he wanted to fight to his death.

Their tribe had faced extinction since that day Jean disappeared. The peace they had these ten years was merely a facade while they dragged out their feeble existence.

“What exactly is going on? Speak!” Jean demanded.

“It’s him.” This reply was forced out of King.

“Who?”

“The snake beastman you mentioned.”

Jean was stunned for a moment. But after a while, she shook her head as though she had lost her soul. “That can’t be possible… He’s merely one beastman. There are so many of you…”

In her heart, King was the most formidable existence. Although Curtis wasn’t bad in all aspects, he paled in comparison with King. Also, Curtis wasn’t warm-bodied. That was the reason she gave him up without hesitation back then.

So, it turned out Curtis was so formidable? So formidable that he could single-handedly destroy her entire tribe?

This calamity drenched the seawater into a faint red color. More than a hundred thousand mermen reduced to a population of less than a hundred. And it wasn’t that those hundred or so mermen were formidable or something—they had merely managed to escape with some luck in the sea strewn with corpses.

King left that section of the sea leading the few surviving merfolk.

“We’ll consider this as our rebirth.”

A glow symbolizing hope appeared in King’s golden eyes as he faced Jean.

“Now that you’re back, we can scale up again. The core members of our tribe are still on the land searching for you right now. When they return, we’ll find a new territory and start things anew.”

Jean ran a hand through her messy long hair, her eyes sweeping over the few surviving mermen with a look of disdain.

This wasn’t anything like the scale when she had left. How many years would have to pass before they could return to their past glory? She really wanted to change tribes.

“No, I still have a mate on the shore. I can’t abandon him,” Jean suddenly said.

King gazed at her, the hope in his eyes speedily diminishing, and his face resumed its usual cold and aloof countenance. “Up to you… Just don’t abandon us.”

Jean revealed a rare expression of guilt as she pressed her face against King’s palm with the thin membrane separating them.

“It’s my fault for not coming back earlier to find all of you. I won’t ever leave you again. That mate of mine is very intelligent, he will be able to help us.”

…

After the little cubs had their bellies filled up, they laid face-down on their mother’s lap and took a nap. Bai Qingqing was seated beside the river as she waited, a pine cone placed next to her while Parker helped her peel it.

Bluepool’s appearance attracted the gazes of quite a few females. They would either peek at him or stare in an above-board fashion, but the astonishment in their eyes was similar.

Although they lived right next to the sea, they had never seen this neighboring tribe due to their unique identities.

Bai Qingqing was eating the pine nuts on and off when, from the back, a familiar female voice sounded.

“Bai Qingqing, who are they?” Though Bella’s words were directed at Bai Qingqing, her vision moved up and down Bluepool and Parker.

Parker’s appearance wasn’t as gorgeous, but he was handsome in a sunny way, exuding a wild and vibrant air that gave off both mature and youthful vibes, making him really charming too.

This was a quality not seen in the peacock tribe.

But after seeing that litter of leopard cubs, Bella lost all interest in him, so she turned all her focus onto the merman.

Bai Qingqing turned around and glanced at her, then towards Alva standing by the side. The meaning in her eyes was clear: Aren’t you going to take your tribesman in hand?