Chapter 159: Where Are My Cubs and My Little Female?
At the command, the beastmen at the edge of the pit extended their sharp claws and severed the vine.
Fortunately, Qiao Xixi was prepared. She had already transformed into her beast form, and she dug her claws into the stone wall to steady herself.
"Mother, I’ll go up and deal with them."
Qiao Lie suddenly shifted into his beast form and shot away from Qiao Xixi before she could even stop him.
"Qiao Lie, you have to be careful!"
Qiao Lie was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, he was in the midst of the beastmen, preventing them from throwing stones at Qiao Xixi.
"A little snake cub dares to act so arrogantly before us? You’re asking to die!"
The other male Golden Lions roared and lunged at Qiao Lie.
Seeing Qiao Lie draw the beastmen away, Qiao Xixi quickened her pace and climbed faster.
Tulun stared coldly at Qiao Xixi. He suddenly transformed, leaped onto the stone wall, and charged toward her.
"Mother, look out!" Sangqi shouted, seeing Tulun approach, and threw the Bubble Fruit in his hand.
This time, Tulun dodged it with ease.
"A clumsy trick only works once. Now, die!"
Tulun swiped his sharp claws viciously at Qiao Xixi.
SSSHH!
Tulun’s claws suddenly froze, barely a hair’s breadth from Qiao Xixi.
Tulun stared at her in shock. When he tried to strike again, he found his movements were dozens of times slower than before!
’What in the world is happening?’
Qiao Xixi glanced at him, her face impassive. "Sangqi, stuff a Bubble Fruit in his mouth."
Tulun’s pupils contracted. The next second, a Bubble Fruit was shoved into his mouth.
Qiao Xixi kicked him in the shoulder. Slowed down as he was, Tulun was losing his grip. His whole body began to plummet. A Bubble Fruit would explode on impact, and since Tulun’s movements were too sluggish for him to save himself, the fall would be a certain death.
"Captain!"
Seeing Tulun fall, the other Golden Lion beastmen rushed forward in alarm to catch him.
"Quick! Get this fruit out of my mouth and throw it away!"
Startled, the Golden Lion beastman quickly pulled the fruit from his mouth and tossed it aside.
BOOM!
The violent explosion made their expressions turn grim.
Especially Tulun. To have nearly died at the hands of a female today was the ultimate humiliation!
"Get them!"
Just as Qiao Xixi was about to reach the top, she threw several more Bubble Fruits. Once she confirmed the beastmen had been forced back, she finally pulled Sangqi up and over the edge of the pit.
"Qiao Lie, over here!"
Qiao Xixi immediately spotted Qiao Lie surrounded by beastmen, two of whom were grappling with him.
Qiao Xixi rushed over with the Dull Liquid and sprayed it on them.
Once their movements slowed, Qiao Xixi grabbed Qiao Lie, turned, and ran.
"Don’t let them get away!"
Qiao Xixi quickly ducked behind a large tree. Before their pursuers could catch up, she took out the Invisibility Cloak and threw it over them.
The beastmen arrived just as they vanished.
They scanned the area, sniffed the air, and said in a cold voice, "They’re close. Find them!"
While they were invisible, Qiao Xixi quickly led her cubs away, intending to find a hiding spot near the pit.
Qiao Xixi carefully leaped up into a tree with dense foliage. Just as the Invisibility Cloak was about to wear off, she took out a powder to conceal their scent and sprayed it, making them even harder to find.
The beastmen searched the area again and again, but found no trace of Qiao Xixi and her children.
"Damn it, where the hell are they hiding!"
"There’s something unnatural about that female. She couldn’t possibly have the ability to heal that little monster, could she? The Young Clan Leader went to a lot of trouble to get his hands on that beast bone."
"How could a female Wandering Beast have that kind of power? Even if she did, the Young Clan Leader still has the beast bone. Without it, that cub will always be nothing but trash!"
"The Hopeless Abyss is crawling with demonic beasts and Mutant Beasts. They can’t have gone far, nor would they dare. Let’s go back to the pit and wait. They’re bound to return."
"Right."
What they didn’t know was that at this very moment, Sangze was arriving at the edge of the pit, happily humming a little tune.
The reason he was a bit late tonight was that he had run into some demonic beasts with whom he had a prior disagreement.
He’d only spent a tiny bit of time destroying their lair and, while he was at it, beating them until they were crying for their mothers. Thus, he was just a little late.
"My delicate little female, tonight we get to eat delicious Deer Beast meat."
The moment Sangze neared the pit, he smelled something unusual in the air.
The smile on his lips slowly faded. He loosened his grip, letting the prey he was carrying fall to the ground.
The heavy THUD seemed to strike fear directly into the hearts of Tulun and the other beastmen.
Tulun glanced at the sky. ’It’s almost time. Dawn is coming!’
"Since you’re all here, why not come out and say hello? Hmm?"
Tulun and the others gritted their teeth and remained silent.
Sangze glanced down into the pit. Qiao Xixi and the others were gone. The smile on his lips widened.
"I said, come out!" The moment the words left his mouth, a jet of flame shot out and instantly incinerated the hiding place of Tulun and his men.
Huddled in the large tree, Qiao Xixi witnessed the entire scene. She had no intention of revealing herself, though. ’Going out now would just be getting in the way.’
With their cover gone, Tulun and his men had no choice but to emerge, taking on an attack stance.
"Sangze, we’re just passing through! What do you want?"
Sangze slowly cracked his neck, his mismatched eyes glinting with a strange, eerie light in the dark.
"Passing through? Through the Hopeless Abyss? Do you take me for a fool? Where are my little female and my cubs?"
Tulun’s eyes darted around, and he said deliberately, "They’re in our hands now. If you don’t want anything to happen to them, you’ll do exactly as we say."
Sangze’s eyelids twitched. He looked up, a humorless smile playing on his lips.
"The thing I hate most... is being told to do as I’m told!"
The words had barely faded when Tulun and his men saw a wisp of black mist flash toward them. A dangerous aura closed in. Tulun wanted to dodge, but the immense power radiating from their opponent pinned them in place, rendering them completely immobile.
Qiao Xixi heard a loud BANG, then saw Tulun get launched into the air. He fell like a stone, smashing heavily into the ground.
"Captain!"
"Get him!"
The beastmen swarmed him, nearly surrounding him, but he showed no fear, handling them with ease.
Qiao Xixi silently counted them. ’There are at least thirty or forty beastmen, all 3-star or higher. Why does it feel like Sangze is an adult fighting children?’
A chorus of screams erupted as beastmen fell one after another.
Sangze shifted into his beast form—a panther of pure, solid black. He walked step-by-step to Tulun and slowly placed a paw on his face.
"I’ll ask you one last time. Where are my cubs and my little female?"
Tulun opened his mouth to spit out a mouthful of blood. "I... I don’t know... We... don’t... have..."
A cold smile slowly formed on his lips. "If you don’t know, then you can just die."
The instant Tulun’s head was kicked clean off his body, Qiao Xixi quickly covered her two cubs’ eyes.
Seeing Tulun killed, the other beastmen were terrified.
"Run! Go tell the Clan Leader! Tell the Young Clan Leader!"
After one beastman shouted the warning, several Eagle Beasts in the sky began flapping their wings, soaring quickly into the air.
Sangze killed all the other beastmen as they tried to flee. Fresh blood stained his mismatched irises red.
Sangze looked up, watching the escaping Eagle Beasts, a bloodthirsty sneer spreading across his face.
The sky was turning a fish-belly white. The moment the first golden rays of light pierced the dense forest and fell upon Sangze, he irritably smashed a nearby beastman’s skull with a single swipe of his paw.
"Little female, you’d better be alright. Otherwise..."