Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off

The days following that horrific night in the mountain cave passed like a slow, suffocating nightmare.

The air in the Fox Tribe grew heavy, thick with a truth that no one dared to speak aloud but everyone felt in their bones. The silence was louder than any scream.

When Han Jue finally returned from the mountain, he didn’t come back with a happy expression of finally finding Su Qinglan.

They carried the broken body of Su Mingxuan, whose body was soaked in a terrifying amount of crimson.

Beside them, Su Qinglan walked like a hollow shell. Her steps were mechanical, her eyes fixed on the dirt, her face a mask of nothingness.

And Hu Yan never returned with them.

The tribespeople stood back, their eyes darting from the blood on the leader to the conspicuous absence of the tiger cub.

In that singular, chilling moment of realization, the tribe understood. Something unholy had happened.

From that day forward, the world turned cold for Su Qinglan. She became a ghost walking among the living, a creature the entire tribe avoided with disgust and like a plague.

"She killed her own flesh and blood," the women would gossip, pulling their own cubs away as she passed.

"How heartless must a female be to murder a cub that hasn’t even seen the sun?" The words spread like a slow-acting poison, and no one...not even her father’s most loyal warriors tried to stop them.

Isolated and reviled, she retreated into her cave. She sat in the darkness for days on end, a broken puppet whose strings had been cut, staring at the stone walls with eyes that saw nothing.

As Su Qinglan withered in her cave, Su Mingxuan withered on his bed.

The physical wound on his chest, carved by Hu Yan’s grief-stricken claws, refused to close, but it wasn’t the injury that was draining his life.

It was the heartbreak.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the mud-stained, lifeless body of his grandson.

He heard his daughter’s voice, flat and icy, claiming the deed. He wanted to go to her, to demand an explanation or offer comfort, but the image of that blood-soaked cave acted like a barrier he couldn’t cross.

At night, the proud leader would weep into his furs, his voice a fragile thread in the dark.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he sobbed.

"And Hu Yan... I wronged that boy. I forced this fate upon him, and it has destroyed us all."

A year bled away, and the strong, vibrant leader was gone, replaced by a man who looked like a brittle autumn leaf.

He lay hollow-cheeked and gray, the spark of life nearly extinguished. Sensing the end, he called for Han Jue.

"Leader... I am here," Han Jue whispered, kneeling by the bed.

Su Mingxuan struggled to turn his head, his eyes clouding over. "There is... one thing," he gasped, clutching Han Jue’s hand with a strength born of desperation.

"Promise me... take care of her. Just keep her alive."

Han Jue’s gaze darkened with complex emotions of duty and sorrow. "I promise," he said solemnly. "Even when you are gone, I will ensure she survives."

When Rong Ye returned from his travels and saw the state of his mentor, he froze at the entrance.

The man before him was a shadow of the hero he had once respected as a father. He stepped forward; his usual smiling face was filled with sorrow. "Leader... I have returned."

Su Mingxuan offered him a sad smile. "You came."

Han Jue relayed the leader’s final wish, and Rong Ye, after a long silence, lowered his head in a silent vow. "I will take care of her," he stated firmly.

"I won’t let anyone harm her, even if I must guard her from a distance."

Relief finally washed over Su Mingxuan’s tired features. His lips moved as if to say one last word of thanks, but his breath simply hitched and stopped.

The great leader of the Fox Tribe collapsed forward into the arms of his two most loyal men. He was gone.

He was buried in the mountains with the quiet dignity he deserved, but one person was missing from the graveside. Su Qinglan never came. She didn’t say goodbye, and no one went to fetch her.

The tribe assumed she simply didn’t care. "She killed her own cub," they muttered. "Why would she grieve for a father?"

Life moved on, but the atmosphere remained grim. Han Jue and Rong Ye took up the mantle of responsibility, their days filled with the chaos of a leaderless tribe.

True to their word, they left meat and water at the mouth of Su Qinglan’s cave, but they never spoke to her. They never entered. They just ensured she didn’t starve, fulfilling a promise to a dead man.

Then, on a quiet afternoon when the sun was high and the grass was still, the peace was shattered.

A terrifying roar and angry screeches filled the air; it shook the very earth and echoed across the valley. Screams erupted from the outskirts of the tribe.

"Attack! We’re under attack!"

Massive, ferocious beasts with eyes glowing with a mindless killing intent burst from the forest.

The Fox Tribe, already weakened by grief and internal strife, was suddenly fighting for its very existence.

The day the sky fell upon the Fox Tribe, the world was already gray. The attack of the evil ferocious beasts was not a battle; it was a slaughter. They have simply come here with one intention, and that is to kill every single existence.

Screams of terror echoed as the tribe scattered like fallen leaves in a storm. High-level beasts, their eyes glowing with a mindless hunger, tore through the trees and caves and the peaceful grasslands.

In the chaos, Han Ju and Rong Ye didn’t think twice...they grabbed the silent, puppet-like Su Qinglan and ran.

They fought their way through the initial wave, their claws stained with the black blood of the monsters.

They didn’t look back to see who else had survived. They couldn’t.

By the time they reached the outer valley of the mountain, which was the only path to leave this mountain range, their home was already destroyed beyond repair.

It had become a graveyard and a feast for the hungry and mindless evil, ferocious beasts.