The light in the forest completely dimmed, and the beastmen who were traveling found a large tree root covered in moss and stopped to rest.

The ones holding the dominant position in this group were more than a dozen beastman warriors from the Fierce Beast Tribe. They all had towering, iron-tower-like builds, rough and wild features, voices like muffled thunder. Whether in appearance or sound, they were dangerous through and through.

Their intimidation was too strong. The captives in the group had been trembling with fear the entire way, obedient to the extreme.

These hundred-plus captives were beastmen from several scattered small tribes in the northern coniferous forest, basically all females, with original forms such as squirrels, foxes, rabbits, martens, badgers, and the like.

Their figures were generally petite. They could not compare to those Fierce Beast Tribe beastmen whose original forms were tigers, lions, leopards, and bears. Having been taken away from their homes, they did not dare resist or flee. After all, these Fierce Beast Tribe beastmen were not taking them to kill them, but to expand the tribe.

“After walking for so long, we’re finally almost there. When we get back to the tribe tomorrow night, we can finally relax!” a beastman covered in black fur said gruffly as he sat on a protruding tree root.

A big-bearded beastman who was a bit shorter than him was handling prey caught along the way, cutting off large bloody chunks of meat and tossing them onto the fire to roast, grinning as he said:

“Exactly. And we can even bring back a female. Our tribe has way too few female beastmen, there aren’t nearly enough to go around!”

“One isn’t enough,” another beastman with eyes like copper bells said impatiently as he roasted meat, directly tearing at raw flesh with his hands and chewing, glancing toward the captives who were squeezed into a cluster. He spoke indistinctly, “They look so weak, not fun to play with. At least two.”

The sturdy beastmen burst into laughter, their words becoming even more vulgar.

The captives did not have much reaction to what they said. Small tribes were always facing the danger of being swallowed up. If they could be taken in by a large tribe, attach themselves to other strong beastmen, and obtain sufficient food, life might be a bit better than in a small tribe.

These past few days, the Fierce Beast Tribe beastmen would stop every night to rest and eat, but they would not share any food with the captives.

The captives could only, during the gaps in travel, find some tender shoots by the roadside, fallen fruits, and small insects to wolf down, barely maintaining their strength. At this moment, every single one of them was exhausted and starving.

Many of the captive beastmen had longing in their eyes, continuously swallowing as they smelled the aroma of meat drifting over.

Song Xu sat among this group of hungry captive beastmen, holding her sunken belly, staring around in a daze.

She knew her name was Song Xu. She remembered that her home was in Xihai Huating. She remembered that her school was Jin City No.1 High School. She even remembered that the math test handed out that morning scored 108. In short, she remembered all the big and small events of her eighteen years of life.

But in the blink of an eye, she had become a squirrel beastman named “Song” on this forest continent.

This “Song” had just come of age, been driven out by her mother to live on her own, wandered around, and finally managed to join a small tribe of only thirty-something people—only to be captured by beastmen from the southern Fierce Beast Tribe who appeared out of nowhere. She was currently on the way to the Fierce Beast Tribe.

“Song’s” memories were very simple, not as clear as her own memories, like a long documentary.

Song Xu did not doubt who she was because of the sudden extra portion of vague memories. She was simply collapsing over this sudden transmigration.

She was about to take the college entrance examination!!!

Over there, the Fierce Beast beastmen, full and with nothing to do, tore off a piece of meat and walked over to the captives to amuse themselves.

A burly beastman with a lion-like mane waved the chunk of meat above the captives’ heads. “Hey! Want to eat it? Come and grab it!”

The squatting captives immediately leapt upward, trying to snatch it, and even fought with those beside them, causing bursts of commotion and making the lion beastman laugh loudly.

The center of the disturbance was very close to Song Xu. She was clutching her stomach in despair and got stepped on twice by the beastmen scrambling for food.

Song Xu instantly felt that the joys and sorrows of beastmen were not interconnected. They were noisy, while she only felt that the liveliness belonged to them—she had nothing at all. Painfully squeezing out from the “can,” she shifted aside to give them space to perform.

Amid the scene of everyone crowding forward to snatch food, someone moving backward was especially conspicuous, and the lion beastman noticed her at a glance.

Song Xu’s current body had a squirrel as its original form. Even in human form, she was nimble and cute, with large, watery eyes.

One major trait of lion beastmen was their love of appreciating beauty and their ability to appreciate any type of beauty.

Shiyou had never encountered this type of female beastman before. His sexual interest surged, and he rudely swept aside the captives who were still scrambling for the meat in his hand, walking toward Song Xu.

Hit on the head by a large chunk of meat, her face splattered with blood, Song Xu lifted her head. “……”

The lion beastman grinned. “Hurry and eat. After you’re done, come over there with me and do it.”

Song Xu: I * your father.

She had only just come of age. She was not ready to enter the adult world so quickly!

First of all, she was not a furry-fetish person. Just the oil and blood casually smeared on this big guy’s luxuriant mane, the clumped-together fur, and that body odor more choking than luosifen¹Luosifen: A Chinese noodle dish from Liuzhou made with river snail broth, famous for its extremely strong, pungent smell.—who could stand it?

Seeing Song Xu not move, the lion beastman was puzzled. “You don’t want to eat? Then come with me now.”

One filthy, blood-stained claw grabbed Song Xu’s arm, about to lift her up. Song Xu’s expression changed.

In the distance, the other Fierce Beast Tribe beastmen were watching the fun. The captive beastmen around them were looking at that chunk of meat with envy, swallowing their saliva.

And Song Xu—she suddenly flopped onto the ground, her limbs twitching, making yue yue sounds, looking exactly like she had suddenly fallen gravely ill.

The last time she had used such superb acting skills was at twelve years old, to stop her dad from marrying a stepmother. She had twitched and rolled on the ground, scaring her dad into thinking she was having epilepsy.

Although that time it ultimately hadn’t worked, this time it did. The lion beastman had probably never encountered someone who could pretend to be sick before. He was truly bluffed by her performance and released her arm.

“Is she having an episode?”

“Maybe she ate something poisonous. I’ve seen ones poisoned to death before.”

“Looks like she’s about to die.”

The captive beastmen around whispered to each other, cautiously observing their companion. The lion beastman also looked regretfully at Song Xu twitching on the ground, took a bite of the piece of meat he hadn’t given out, patted his butt, and returned to the group of fierce beasts. He looked like he had no interest in doing anything else.

As things gradually quieted down on this side, Song Xu, no longer being paid attention to, silently stopped her performance. Lying in the corner, she raised a hand to wipe her saliva, cursing under her breath.

Damn it, this place can’t be stayed in anymore.

At dawn, when there was only a little bit of light in the forest, the beastmen all got up one after another, preparing to continue traveling. The lion beastman thought of that female beastman from last night, wondered whether she had died or not, and wandered over to the captives to take a look.

With this look, he immediately noticed something was wrong. That female beastman—she had run away!

Like a nasty big cat that had seen a small animal it was playing with escape from under its paw, the lion’s dissatisfied roar echoed through the forest.

“Ran away?” The Fierce Beast Tribe beastmen were surprised. Under the pressure of their original forms, those weak beastmen didn’t even dare resist, let alone escape.

All along the way, they had been leading in front, and those captive beastmen had obediently followed behind, not a single one daring to fall behind. This one actually dared to run—now that was fresh.

“Forget it, Shiyou. It’s just a squirrel beastman. In this forest, she’ll quickly be killed and eaten by some fierce beast.”

“No. If she dares to run, she’s provoking me. I must catch her back.” Shiyou snorted out a breath in displeasure.

“Hey, Shiyou!”

The companions watched as the lion beastman transformed into his original form, sniffed the scent left behind by that female beastman, and chased after it in a few bounds. No matter how they shouted, they couldn’t call him back, and could only scratch their heads.

“Forget it. Let him go chase her. We’re already close to the tribe’s forest anyway. Nothing will happen.”

At this moment, Song Xu was leaping among the trees. She had spent the entire night familiarizing herself with this beastman body, learning how to transform into beast form, and flexibly use her limbs and tail.

Running for one’s life really could stimulate potential. Just looking at how skillfully she was jumping between branches, who would know she wasn’t a native squirrel, but a halfway squirrel?

After parkouring desperately for a while, Song Xu felt she had more or less escaped danger. Just as she was about to slow down and let her nearly sparking-with-friction paws cool off, she suddenly heard a faint lion’s roar.

That sound was filled with information only the beastman race could understand, roughly meaning: “Don’t run! When I catch up to you, you’re dead for sure!”

Song Xu: Your f*cking original form is a lion, so why are you chasing and biting like a mad dog?!

In order not to be caught, she could only desperately increase her speed. Without realizing it, she plunged into an even denser forest.

Here, the gradually rising sunlight could not fully shine in, making it appear dim and quiet.

The tree trunks were thick, almost all giant trees that would take several people to encircle with their arms. The trees were messily hung with tough vines that drooped all the way to the ground.

There were almost no shrubs on the ground, only a wide variety of mosses, ground lichens, and ferns.

Song Xu could not distinguish the boundary between one forest and another. She could not sense that subtle division of territory. She was even so busy fleeing for her life that she did not notice the strange, soft, slippery sensation beneath her feet when she stepped on a “vine.”

Shiyou, who had chased her here, hesitantly stopped his steps.

In the forest ahead lived a snake-type demi-beastman named Wumu. After he came of age, he had been expelled from the Fierce Beast Tribe because of incomplete evolution, and had since occupied this forest.

Even though Shiyou was a famous warrior in the Fierce Beast Tribe, he would still feel three parts fearful when facing Wumu—especially since he was not sure whether the current Wumu still retained his rationality.

If he had already completely beastified, then it was truly possible that he would launch a strangling attack because of Shiyou’s intrusion into his territory.

Thinking of that female beastman who had escaped, Shiyou irritably shook his big head and tentatively stepped onto the damp, soft green moss.

A “vine” hanging from a nearby tree moved.

When the dangerous “hiss” sounded, Shiyou smelled a gust of fishy wind very close by. He abruptly leapt backward.

A snake’s hiss was both a warning and a signal of attack. Shiyou hesitated only for a moment, then quickly chose to turn his head and leave this forest.

Footnotes

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  Luosifen: A Chinese noodle dish from Liuzhou made with river snail broth, famous for its extremely strong, pungent smell.