She walked up to Yuan.
Human and tiger stood facing each other beneath the flickering firelight.
Yuan stopped pacing. He lowered his enormous head, his golden vertical pupils fixed intently on the leaf Lin Shengsheng held in her hand.
His nostrils flared, hot breaths like miniature storms blowing against Lin Shengsheng’s face and hands.
That aroma drew closer, clearer.
It aggressively invaded every pore of his being, clamoring, tempting.
Lin Shengsheng’s heart leaped into her throat once more.
Her hands trembled slightly.
She didn’t know what awaited her next—the giant beast’s acceptance, or… being swallowed whole along with the leaf and meat.
“F-for you to eat.”
She spoke in a voice as faint as a thread of smoke, unsure if he could even understand.
Summoning all her courage, she extended the leaf in her hand a little further.
Yuan did not move.
He only watched her, his golden vertical pupils swirling with complex emotions.
There was desire, wariness, and a hint of… confusion toward the unknown.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly in that moment.
Inside the cave, only the crackling of the fire and Lin Shengsheng’s increasingly loud heartbeat remained.
Just as Lin Shengsheng’s arm grew sore and nearly gave out, Yuan finally moved.
He did not use his claws, but instead, with extreme slowness and gentleness, leaned his massive head forward.
He opened his mouth.
That maw, large enough to snap a bear’s neck in one bite, loomed larger and larger in Lin Shengsheng’s eyes.
She could clearly see the pink soft tissue inside his mouth, the neatly arranged, dagger-like pale white teeth, especially the four longest canines gleaming with a deadly chill.
Lin Shengsheng instantly held her breath in terror, every hair on her body standing on end!
Yet, the expected sharp pain never came.
A sensation—warm, rough, with tiny barbs—lightly, cautiously, swept across the leaf she held.
The piece of meat, roasted to a fragrant crisp, was precisely scooped away by his tongue.
His movement was as light as a feather’s brush.
Apart from that fleeting, scorching touch, it didn’t even disturb the thin leaf.
Lin Shengsheng was utterly stunned.
She stared at her now-empty leaf, then at the giant tiger who had closed his mouth, seemingly savoring the taste, her mind completely blank.
Yuan was also stunned.
When that warm piece of meat, carrying a strange savory aroma, burst open in his mouth, an unprecedented, explosive taste experience instantly overwhelmed all his senses!
The outer layer was slightly crispy, carrying the unique fragrance of fire.
The inside, however, was tender and juicy. The meat fibers, broken down and restructured by the heat, had become exceptionally soft, melting in his mouth with just a gentle press of his tongue.
And that faint saltiness—far from masking the meat’s natural deliciousness—instead elevated it to a whole new, unimaginable level!
What was this?!
What in the world was this?!
Why… did it taste so good?!
Yuan’s brilliant golden vertical pupils widened to their absolute limit.
It was as if taste buds that had slumbered for millennia had been rudely, yet exquisitely, awakened in this moment!
He even forgot to chew, just holding that small piece of roasted meat in his mouth, his entire tiger body frozen in place.
Lin Shengsheng looked at his stunned expression, as if struck by lightning, and couldn’t help but let out a soft “pfft” of laughter.
That light chuckle acted like a switch, instantly startling the petrified giant tiger.
“Gulp.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed that piece of unparalleled deliciousness before he could even savor it properly.
And then—
“ROAR!!”
An ear-splitting, thunderous roar filled with urgency and longing exploded through the air!
Before Lin Shengsheng could react, a white blur flashed past!
Yuan’s massive head was already hovering beside the fire.
He opened his huge mouth, unafraid of the heat, and in one bite snatched the roasted lamb leg—along with the branch it was skewered on—right off the fire!
“Hey! My branch!”
Lin Shengsheng let out a startled cry.
But Yuan was already completely beyond caring.
Clutching the still-sizzling, oil-dripping roasted lamb leg in his mouth, he retreated to the side and began tearing into it with large, ravenous bites.
“Crunch! Crunch!”
The sound of bones being easily crushed echoed through the cave.
Scalding chunks of meat were swallowed whole, burning his tongue so much that he kept panting and sticking it out, yet even so, he never stopped eating.
His eating style was rough, savage, yet carried a kind of urgent desperation that somehow felt oddly satisfying.
Soon, a lamb leg weighing over ten pounds was completely devoured.
He licked the grease from the corners of his mouth with lingering satisfaction, then turned those burning, golden vertical pupils—still filled with longing—toward the remaining skewers of tenderloin meat by the fire.
“…”
Lin Shengsheng silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Right.
It seemed that tonight, she, the cook, wouldn’t be getting any rest.
For the rest of the time, Lin Shengsheng was completely reduced to an emotionless meat-roasting machine.
She would roast one skewer, and Yuan would devour it.
His eating speed was astonishingly fast. By the time she had just sprinkled salt on a new piece of meat and placed it over the fire, he had already chewed up and swallowed the previous skewer—branch and all.
In the end, he couldn’t even wait for the meat to cook fully. As soon as the surface turned slightly brown, he would impatiently snatch it away and eat it.
Lin Shengsheng strongly suspected that he was eating meat that was only about thirty percent cooked, or even bloody and barely seared.
But judging by his utterly captivated expression, he had clearly fallen completely in love with this “half-raw” texture.
An entire antelope, larger than Lin Shengsheng herself—aside from its hide and the inedible organs—had almost all its flesh, blood, and bones consumed by Yuan alone.
The cave was filled with an overwhelmingly rich aroma of roasted meat.
Yuan was finally full.
He let out a contented burp and lazily sprawled beside the fire, his snow-white belly stretched round and taut.
The warm, yellow flames reflected off his smooth fur, casting a gentle glow that softened much of his usual cold, murderous aura.
He looked like… a big cat, content and satisfied after a full meal.
Seeing him like this, Lin Shengsheng’s nerves, which had been tightly wound, finally relaxed completely.
She was exhausted.
From the moment she woke up until now, she had hardly stopped for a moment.
Starting the fire, preparing the ingredients, roasting meat nonstop…
This already weak body had long been drained of its last ounce of strength.
She felt darkness swimming before her eyes, her head stuffed with a muddled, buzzing sensation.
This is the aftereffect of overusing the [Life Purification] ability.
She is too weak.
Just then, the large cat that had eaten and drunk its fill, moved.
Yuan stood up and walked over to Lin Shengsheng with a lazy stride.
He lowered his head and gently, with a hint of fawning, rubbed his massive, furry head against Lin Shengsheng’s slender shoulder.