Beauty and the Beasts

Bai Qingqing’s mouth hung open, and not a sound escaped from it.

Following that, something even stranger happened.

Smoke rose from the other six crystals at the same time and converted them into ashes.

Startled, Parker instantly shook his hands. “I didn’t do anything.”

“It’s all gone…” Bai Qingqing muttered dazedly.

Gazing at the empty shell, Curtis and Parker felt the onset of sadness for some reason. A thought appeared in their heads out of nowhere—it had died.

It had truly died.

If after beastmen died, their souls transformed into transparent crystals, then, at this very moment, this soul had died in the true sense.

Astounded, Bai Qingqing gazed at Parker, then at Curtis. She didn’t understand their sadness over this.

“What’s the matter?” Bai Qingqing asked strangely.

“It died,” said Parker.

Bai Qingqing felt even more incredulous now. The Parker she knew wasn’t someone who would grieve over other females. Much less Curtis.

For them to experience such emotions, was perhaps a constraint designated of them in this world.

It was a soul, after all. Bai Qingqing also couldn’t feel lighthearted about this.

“A crystal tough enough to smash a rock was destroyed by the sun just like that…”

In modern ages, spirits couldn’t be exposed to light. Hence, Bai Qingqing guessed, “Perhaps soul crystals can’t be exposed to daylight. When you gathered those light rays earlier, the transparent crystal was exposed to a strong source of daylight, so it burned.”

Parker punched a fist into the ground in remorse. “This was my fault.”

Bai Qingqing poked his arm and attempted to change the subject. “Is there ice underneath?”

“Mm. A large patch,” Parker replied to her distractedly. His expression was painful as he gazed at the smudge of black ash on his palm.

Something suddenly occurred to Bai Qingqing, and she said, “Eh… I saw ice blocks in Chris’s dream as well.”

Parker glanced at her, doubt clouding his eyes. Isn’t ice pretty common?

Bai Qingqing said, “No, that was during the hot season.”

Parker raised his brows in surprise. Was it the same type of ice crystals he saw earlier?

Bai Qingqing walked to the earth fissure and cautiously stuck her head in. “Nature truly is amazing.”

A natural fridge? Fantastic.

“It would be great if these soul crystals weren’t here. Because then we can come here to retrieve ice during the hot season,” Bai Qingqing said with great pity.

Parker immediately said, “That’s not a problem. I can come and get it during the hot season. If you can’t bring yourself to eat the ice in the earth fissure, I can bring water into it.”

At the thought of the fact that countless souls resided inside, Bai Qingqing felt the shivers.

She turned and walked towards a large rock and waved a hand as she said, “Forget it, it’s cool enough at the bottom of the waterhole. If I want to eat something that requires ice, I’ll just look for Bluepool.”

Bai Qingqing touched An’an’s face. The baby raised both arms and wrapped them around Bai Qingqing’s arm, making babyish sounds as she did so.

Bai Qingqing immediately understood what the baby was trying to tell her. She lifted An’an up and fed her.

Parker looked like he didn’t care at all. If it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t touch the ice crystals, he would have brought some back to the village.

After playing outside for the entire noon, Bai Qingqing got hungry, so the family of four returned to the village.

The duels had ended by now, and the males who successfully found themselves spouses moved into their females’ homes; as for those who weren’t selected, they began constructing their own homes.

The leopard cubs, who were looking for their mommy everywhere, let out aggrieved howls as they sprinted towards Bai Qingqing at the sight of her.

Howl~

Bai Qingqing beamed at them and bent over to welcome her cubs.

“Babies, don’t run so fast.”