Beauty and the Beasts

The next day.

A leopard transformed into human form and back-faced Moore, walking in the forest with a group of leopards. He said worriedly, “Moore, are you okay? Shall we send you back to the City of Beastmen first?”

Moore shook his head feebly. “It’s of no use. The only way to neutralize the poison from snake beastmen is to eat them. Don’t bother wasting your energy by running back for me. The more important thing is to rescue the female.”

The snake beastman had four animal stripes, whereas their group only consisted of two-striped leopards. They couldn’t even rescue a female from his hands, much less kill him.

Now that the strongest among them—Moore—had lost his combat power, they would probably even fail in their task to save the female.

The leopards felt dejected.

“Roar!” Someone discovered something!

Very quickly, a leopard beastman in human form ran to Moore’s side with a tree leaf that had a snake scale on it. “We found a snake scale in the place where the snake beastman lived, appropriately placed on a tree leaf. It will definitely help to neutralize the poison!”

Moore stared at the snake scale blankly, unable to describe his feelings at the sudden turn of events.

Next to him, the leopards talked noisily. His senses were already blurry at this moment, yet he clearly heard this— “There’s the scent of a female on this scale. That female must have plucked it.”

…

Bai Qingqing sat on Cortis’ arm, following him as he proceeded to the beach. After he made up his mind to shift to a new home, he brought Bai Qingqing back to the cave, packing up all his things into a piece of luggage which he now carried with him.

It was noon sharp, yet the skies suddenly darkened, the air pressure so low that it made one feel stuffy in the chest. With the birds in the forest flying at a low altitude, if one didn’t pay attention he might just walk right into a few.

“Seems like it’s going to rain,” Bai Qingqing said as she stared at the skies.

This was bad. If they were to stop now, Cortis was still brimming with energy. What if he decided to unleash all this energy on her?

Cortis said, “There’s a cave in front. Let’s seek shelter from the rain there.”

Bai Qingqing grinned. “Why are your caves everywhere?”

“It’s like that for homeless beasts,” Cortis said.

This cave was rather hidden. On top of the dense vines hanging at the entrance of the cave, there were red little flowers blooming amidst those vines—quite a beautiful sight to behold.

Bai Qingqing pried the vines away and tied them to the two sides, to let air circulate into the cave. Just as she was about to enter, Cortis suddenly pulled her behind him.

“Roar!”

A strong and bulky tiger pounced out. Cortis’ upper body dodged it and, twisting his body, transformed into his snake form and curled around the ferocious tiger.

The tiger was clearly purely a wild animal. In one move, Cortis had him subdued. The tiger struggled with all his might in Cortis’ stranglehold.

However, the more it struggled, the tighter Cortis twisted around him. Every time it breathed, the hold around him became tighter, until it completely lost all room to breathe.

Bai Qingqing stared in shock as this unfolded before her, and she even heard the sound of bones cracking, giving her such a scare that she went weak in the knees.

Her heart ached as she recalled that Parker was strangled in the same way earlier too.

After Cortis strangled the tiger to death, he transformed into his half-human form. When he turned around and saw the terrified expression on the female, he frantically dumped his prey aside and slithered to her side.

“Don’t be afraid.” Cortis coaxed as he hugged Bai Qingqing.

Bai Qingqing lowered her head and didn’t look at Cortis, saying softly, “I’m fine.”

Cortis thought to himself that the females were too well protected by their tribe and that in the future, he must hunt for prey while she wasn’t around, in order not to scare her.

“We have food for today. I’ll start a fire and cook for you.”

Bai Qingqing nodded her head gently. “Mm.”

The place where he lived naturally had a water source nearby. Cortis went to gather firewood nearby while the rainstorm had yet to start.