Beauty and the Beasts

“I can go catch another one. It’s not too much of a trouble,” Muir said softly.

Bai Qingqing had an even gloomier look on her face.

It’s no trouble for you, but it is for me! I really need to use the bathroom!

“Are you hungry?” Muir reached out to take an orange fruit that resembled a steamed meat dumpling. “Eat a honey fruit first. I’ll go out and hunt again.”

“Wait, wait!” Seeing that Muir was about to transform, Bai Qingqing quickly grabbed onto his wrist.

Bai Qingqing hesitated and only spoke after a moment. “Can you lead me down the cliff? I want to… you know…”

She held her stomach even more tightly and raised an eyebrow, giving Muir a knowing look.

Muir couldn’t help but smile. When Bai Qingqing glared at him annoyedly, he kept a straight face and transformed into an eagle.

This area was mostly grassland. There were also small forests in the area that seemed tiny from above but were much bigger once you walked in them.

Muir brought Bai Qingqing to a dense forest according to her habits. She felt much more comfortable after solving her physiological problems.

Bai Qingqing felt like all her joints were stiff as she hadn’t moved about for several days. She stretched and asked, “Are you hungry?”

“No,” Muir replied.

“Then, go for a walk for me after hunting.” Bai Qingqing walked forward and casually glanced at the surrounding flora, hoping she could find something to eat.

“Okay.”

However, Bai Qingqing didn’t have much knowledge of edible plants, to begin with. She was uninterested, thinking that there were only weeds.

“Is the eagle tribe the only beastmen living here? No other beastmen live here?” Bai Qingqing asked, trying to make small talk.

Muir was tall and had long legs. He could take small steps as he walked behind Bai Qingqing. This caused him to appear swift and fierce.

“Did you notice the forest over there on the way back?” Muir pointed in a certain direction.

Bai Qingqing asked, “The biggest forest over there?”

“Mm. A peacock tribe lives there. It’s an independent tribe.”

“Peacock beastmen.” Bai Qingqing remembered that that forest was especially dense and full of life. There had to be an abundant number of species there.

2

“Why doesn’t the peacock tribe live on the cliff?” What Bai Qingqing wanted to say was that the peacock tribe was living much more enjoyable lives than the eagle tribe. What was so fun about a barren cliff and grass? And there wasn’t a lot of food around either.

Muir said with disdain, “That tribe doesn’t have any fighting spirit. Although they can fly, they’re even slower than the prey in the grassland.”

1

Of course they’re like that, Bai Qingqing thought. Peacocks aren’t eagles. They aren’t that aggressive, to begin with. If you take away their pretty feathers, they aren’t all that different from chickens.

But they were beastmen, after all, and they had different ranks according to the number of animal stripes they had. She couldn’t compare them to the animals she was familiar with.

“Who else lives here?” Bai Qingqing asked again.

Muir glanced at her expression and replied, “A merfolk tribe lives along the coast near where the peacock tribe lives. Beastmen from the City of Beastmen come here to look for the merfolk every year to trade for salt.”

Bai Qingqing’s footsteps stopped abruptly.

“Merfolk?”

She had asked Curtis about Jean, who had escaped from the merfolk tribe when they were eating that day. Was this the merfolk tribe she had escaped from?

Beastmen from the City of Beastmen came here to trade for salt, and Jean was with the ape king now. This meant that this was probably Jean’s old nest.

“Qingqing?” Muir placed a hand on her shoulder and called out to her worriedly.

Bai Qingqing shook her head, indicating that she was okay.

“Can the merfolk come ashore? Can they transform into humans and walk on land?”