Beauty and the Beasts

After she managed to calm down, Bai Qingqing analyzed the situation rationally.

Since the ape king was able to conjure those magical illusions, perhaps there really existed deities in this world.

Due to the drought, the tree branches and tree leaves on the ground felt particularly pricky to the feet. But it was like Bai Qingqing didn’t sense anything—she merely walked on the ground in a wooden manner.

Muir turned his head and looked at the top of her head. If she would only look up, she would clearly see the loving look in his eyes.

“I’ll bring you to Sea Cliff. There are only eagle beastmen there. Even if those calamities came true, no beastman would get injured.”

“What about females?” The tempted Bai Qingqing asked, not entirely assured.

“No females,” Muir replied in a deep voice.

Bai Qingqing froze for a moment, then glanced up at him. Muir instantly kept away his insolent gaze, before gazing at the path ahead.

“Alright, then let’s go to Sea Cliff.”

…

On the other side, Curtis, Parker, and Winston were anxiously walking in the withered forest.

Behind, there was a swarm of hostile-looking beastmen.

As males could sense where their mates were quite strongly, Curtis and Parker would definitely be able to find Bai Qingqing. This was why they kept following them despite the danger.

They wouldn’t allow their females to suffer that sort of brutal harm.

There were simply too many of them. Even though Curtis and Winston were sufficiently powerful, they couldn’t very well kill all of the beastmen. Hence, they had no choice but to move forward with such a long tail.

But even if Curtis wanted to kill them all, this group of beastmen wouldn’t stand there and simply allow themselves to be killed. If nearly ten thousand beastmen were to spread out all at once, how many could Curtis—who, despite how powerful he was, was only one snake—kill?

He was in a rush to find Bai Qingqing.

Curtis brought along the clothes he made out of his snakeskin, a small bag of rice, and two wine jars.

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Parker carried flour and seeds on his shoulders.

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Winston was hugging the four remaining wine jars to his chest.

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Also, little snakes the thickness of an arm were hung all over their bodies, to the point where they nearly couldn’t see the path ahead.

“Qingqing went through so much effort coming up with all this. We oughtn’t to benefit those beastmen!” Parker said bitterly.

Ignoring him, Curtis suddenly placed his stuff on the ground, before speedily starting to dig into the ground.

Without Snow, none of this mattered to him anymore. His priority was to find Snow.

Seeing this, Parker and Winston started digging a hole as well.

Food items like flour go bad easily. Curtis laid the clothes he made out of the snakeskin over the bag, before speedily burying it.

Their speeds were extremely fast. Before the beastmen behind caught up to them, they had already finished burying the stuff.

Taking the little snakes from Parker and Winston’s hands, Curtis hung them over his own arms, covering them completely. Suddenly, with a shake of his tail, he slithered in a certain direction in the blink of an eye, completely ignoring Parker and Winston behind him.

Parker halted for a moment. That wasn’t Qingqing’s direction. They very quickly understood Curtis’s intention—he was trying to mislead the beastmen.

His opportunity was here. He must take this chance to find Qingqing before anyone else did!

With a curl of his lips, Parker said to Winston, “Seems like we need to act separately. Good luck in finding Qingqing!”

With that, Parker transformed into his beast form and ran in another direction. In order not to bring danger to Bai Qingqing, he naturally didn’t run in the correct direction.

“You must be dreaming.” Winston, too, transformed into his beast form and stubbornly followed behind the leopard.

The leopard was so furious that he leaped up high, before speedily running ahead. Alas, the difference in their levels was there—throughout, Winston followed behind him at a comfortable distance.

Though they did manage to shake off that long tail.

However, with the beastmen’s keen sense of smell, so long as it didn’t rain, they would be able to find them by tracking their scent.

…

Curtis slithered to a river where the water was shallower and coldly glanced at the little snakes, before tossing them into the water without any hint of reluctance.

As the little snakes fell into the water with a splatter, they let out horrified cries.

Gazing at the snake beastmen who bore identical appearances to him, the urge to kill welled up in Curtis’s heart. It was only when Bai Qingqing’s gentle face surfaced in his mind that he forced down that urge.

“You’re already much more powerful and strong than ordinary snake beastmen when they become independent. If you’re still unable to survive, you can only blame yourselves for being useless.”

With that, Curtis turned around and chased in the direction of Bai Qingqing.