“Are bad beasts coming to invade Mother’s home?”
Wariness filled Little White Tiger’s golden eyes. It struck the classic feline pose, arching its back and turning sideways as it fixed its gaze on that direction.
Before long, Baixi appeared in front of Little White Tiger alongside You Nian.
Little White Tiger suddenly slapped a paw against the ground and hissed, then lunged at Baixi and sank its teeth into his calf.
“Hah! Awooo, awooo!” Baixi fell silent.
Even in human form, Baixi’s skin was as tough as snake scales, like armor.
How could a tiger cub that hadn’t even grown all its baby teeth possibly bite through his skin?
“Baby, this is Mother’s new mate.”
You Nian helplessly grabbed Little White Tiger by the scruff and pulled it away.
Baixi had probably already recognized Little White Tiger as his own cub by its scent or something.
Otherwise, a male cub that wasn’t his would have been kicked away like a football for daring to provoke an adult male like that.
Little White Tiger had even launched the first attack. It would have been booted off ages ago.
At the words “new mate,” Little White Tiger stiffened. Its whole body began to tremble, and it buried itself in You Nian’s arms, whimpering sadly.
“Mother has a new mate. Does Mother not want Baby anymore?”
“I’m not going to stop wanting you, Baby.”
You Nian’s heart softened. She hugged Little White Tiger and stroked its fluffy head to comfort it.
You Nian hadn’t expected Little White Tiger to react so strongly.
It was probably like human children who didn’t want a stepfather, afraid their mother would treat them badly afterward.
Beside them, Baixi’s expression seemed unchanged. His lips pressed together slightly, and deep in his jade-green eyes lay a trace of gloomy, merciless intent.
In the Beast World, females’ attitudes toward their cubs varied.
Most females loved their cubs more if their cubs’ fathers were favored.
If a male beast died or was injured while hunting and became unable to raise his cubs, the female would very likely take a new beast husband.
Some males, however—such as males of the Lion Tribe—would be especially hostile toward cubs left behind by other males.
They would kill the cubs their female’s former mate had left behind before agreeing to mate-bond with her.
Those females often abandoned their original cubs without a second thought and went on to bear the stronger male’s children. The abandoned cubs usually met a terrible fate.
In his inherited memories, Baixi’s father had died horribly in the sea after trying to fulfill a female’s demand for a merperson pearl.
Of the Snake Cubs born in Baixi’s litter, he was the only one who survived.
Born into such a world, Baixi had long since accepted this rule of survival.
This little cub was nothing but the offspring of a male who had probably been dead for ages.
It ought to have gone off to join Baixi, its own dead father, long ago. Instead, it was here interfering with his mate. It must have a death wish!
Baixi wanted You Nian to bear his snake cubs soon, so naturally he loathed the remnants left behind by her previous mate.
Snake Tribe males were naturally jealous, and secretly eating a weak male cub belonging to their mate was nothing unusual.
But most females disliked jealous males.
He had only just gotten close to Niannian. He needed to pretend to be magnanimous for now, or he might make her hate him.
Baixi put on a deliberately gentle expression and said to Little White Tiger,
“From now on, I’ll take good care of you together with your mother.”
But it couldn’t call Baixi Father. Only the cubs he had with Niannian could call him that.
Little White Tiger raised its face and met Baixi’s gentle expression, which somehow sent a chill down its spine. Its limbs stiffened.
It could tell that the male in front of it was dangerous and definitely not a good person.
Unfortunately, it had no proof, and Mother probably wouldn’t believe it anyway.
The days ahead were going to be hard.
You Nian spent five system points to exchange for a length of white hemp cloth in system space. She cut it into two pieces: one to filter the clay slurry, and one to save for later.
“Best to save wherever we can.”
She also had Baixi bring back plenty of water from the river.
For the next few days, she put the clay she’d collected into water and stirred it until it broke apart, picking out twigs and stones as she went.
Once the rough screening was done, she poured all the reddish-brown slurry onto the hemp cloth to filter out the impurities, leaving only clean clay slurry.
Baixi had wanted to help, but You Nian said,
“I can manage. You can go hunting. Nothing too big, though—it’s too much trouble to butcher.”
Baixi nodded and left, following the female’s instructions.
You Nian waited for the water in the clay slurry to drain gradually through the hemp cloth until it reached the right consistency.
Then she mixed it in a ratio of eight parts clay to two parts river sand.
“To fire red bricks, the ratio is two to eight. For pottery, it needs to be one hundred percent clay.”
“I’ll make the red bricks first, then build a simple kiln. That’ll make it easier to fire pottery later, too.”
Once she had her plan, You Nian quickly used wooden boards to shape the prepared brick mixture into uniform rectangles, setting them out one by one.
She built a simple brick kiln out of clods of earth to keep the temperature steady while the bricks fired.
When she had finished, You Nian called Little White Tiger over.
“Baby, come here. Blow fire into the kiln and fire these bricks.”
At her command, Little White Tiger quickly crouched by the kiln’s opening and breathed fire as Mother had instructed.
Baixi hunted a young deer. He remembered You Nian’s instructions clearly, so he hadn’t gone after any wild cattle or other large prey.
Deer blood tasted sweet and warming, and was also nutritious—good for a female preparing to carry a cub.
When Baixi returned, he saw You Nian directing Little White Tiger to breathe fire into the kiln.
Baixi’s jade-green eyes darkened.
Lightning flickered within the flames, too. This White Tiger Cub’s ability level was no low one.
If it grew up, it should reach at least the level of a seven-mark beastman.
But Baixi had no intention of telling You Nian. If a highly gifted cub died before it grew up, she would only be more heartbroken.
When You Nian saw Baixi had returned with a deer, she hurried to her feet.
First, she cut the deer’s throat and hung it upside down, draining all its blood before it had time to clot.
“Why drain the blood? Doesn’t deer blood taste good?”
Baixi was puzzled.
He had made sure to kill it with a single blow, his snake tail breaking its throat bone without damaging the skin.
That was a highly precise hunting technique: it kept the blood from spilling and the hide intact.
“It smells too gamey. I don’t want to eat it.”
You Nian shook her head. Beastfolk might be used to eating raw meat and drinking blood, but how could a human stomach that?
Even pork smelled strong if it wasn’t drained properly, let alone a wild animal!
“All right.”
Baixi nodded. He could drink blood himself and hunt for it whenever he wanted. Since this prey was for the female, she could eat it however she liked.
Once most of the blood had drained, You Nian took out her boning knife and removed the deer’s hide cleanly and precisely.
She soon butchered the meat, separating the different cuts and setting them aside.
Baixi stared, dumbfounded.
He didn’t know what the silvery thing in her hand was, or why it was sharper than the claws of some high-ranking beastmen.
He also couldn’t understand why You Nian was so particular about her food.
A whole deer usually wasn’t enough to fill him up. He would just swallow it whole.
But he’d heard females couldn’t eat unclean food, or they would get sick.
It seemed he still had a long way to go before he learned how to care for a mate.
Meanwhile, at the Black Tiger Tribe,
Mo Ling hunted as usual, then hung his prey outside the cave. Some of it had already piled up and begun to rot and stink.
His impressive hunting ability had naturally won him the favor of the tribe’s other females and the admiration of its male beastfolk.
Mo Ling, however, felt nothing about it.
He was restless, unable to say what was on his mind.
There was already more prey at home than he could store. Why was he still hunting?