Beauty and the Beasts

Parker quietly heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Qingqing neither grumbled nor asked any questions. He didn’t wish for Qingqing to find out how the males hydrated themselves.

As the water at home was barely sufficient for Bai Qingqing to sustain till the heavy rainy season arrived, Parker couldn’t bear to drink even one sip. When he returned, he heard many females throwing a temper in their homes. He guessed the males in those families were exposed.

…

Indeed, just as Parker said, that very day the ape king announced that he was going to pray for rain. In any case, regardless of whether Bai Qingqing believed it or not, all the beastmen in the City of Beastmen were highly excited, and that included Winston and Parker.

The top level of the ape castle was different from other castles in that it was a patch of level ground. The ape king sat on top of his castle without moving at all, and it went on for three days and three nights.

At noon, Bai Qingqing was leaning over the railings on the sixth floor of her home and watched him for a long time. All this while, the ape king didn’t even budge an inch! Bai Qingqing was impressed.

Will he really be able to get it to rain? Bai Qingqing looked up at the skies, which with the mid-day sun was so glaring one couldn’t look straight at it, nearly morphing into one with the white skies.

Dazzled by the sunlight, Bai Qingqing had no choice but to shift her gaze away.

Wait a minute, what’s that?

Bai Qingqing instantly lifted her head again and saw a large dark cloud floating in their direction.

Damn, is this a coincidence? Or is it really from all that praying the ape king did?

“It floated over from the seas.”

It was Curtis’s voice. Bai Qingqing turned around and saw Curtis staring at the dark cloud. He licked his dry and parched lips, desire clearly written in his eyes.

Bai Qingqing grabbed his hand.

As the dark clouds drew nearer, the skies dimmed and the atmospheric temperature suddenly declined.

The beastmen swarmed out, transformed into their beast forms, and started shouting loudly, their reverence towards the ape king evident in their beast howls.

Bai Qingqing finally got to witness how exaggerated was the beastmen’s adoration of the ape king. If the ape king was truly the one who summoned this cloud, his astounding powers were indeed worthy of respect, or he could even be regarded as a deity.

The ape king stood up very slowly. Although he staggered, his eyes were particularly bright and spirited. He raised his head and closed his eyes, as though he was communicating with the deities.

Bai Qingqing couldn’t help feeling nervous. She glanced at Curtis beside her and eased her breathing, then quietly started to pray.

All the beastmen had fallen silent. Despite the fact that nearly all the beastmen were out in the streets—nearly ten thousand of them—it was complete silence. All that could be heard were their nervous and suppressed breathing sounds.

Everyone was focused on watching the ape king and the skies, yet no one noticed the wisps of mental energy emanating from the top of the ape king’s head into the clouds. Contrasting the enormous cloud, that mental energy was as insignificant as a speck of dust in the vast universe.

The ape king had spent a great deal of time before finally finding this one cloud. Summoning all his powers, he twisted the direction in which the cloud was floating by several degrees until it floated right above them. But with his mental powers as a two-striped beastman, it was a little dangerous for him to shake the entire cloud. Moreover, he was already fully exhausted.

Suddenly, the link between that mental energy and the cloud snapped, and as the ape king’s knees gave way, he fell half kneeling on the ground.

“Roar roar roar!”

Underneath, the ten thousand or so beastmen started roaring. The sounds they produced seemed to vibrate even the air.

The dark cloud was moving at a visible speed. A blazing white light flashed across the horizons of the City of Beastmen again. Under the illumination of that light, a holy and colorful glow consisting of seven colors could be seen by the edge of that cloud.

Bai Qingqing was equally anxious as everyone else. Can’t let this cloud drift away!

“Ssss~”

Curtis flicked out his tongue. Bai Qingqing cast a glance at him and was about to ask him something when, suddenly, she indistinctly felt a small raindrop fall upon her face.