Li Zhu woke up because she was hungry.
When she opened her eyes, above her head was a bundle of crookedly tied dry grass. A faint scent lingered at the tip of her nose—something like dandelion fluff.
“You’re awake?” A gentle voice sounded by her ear, carrying the soft, delicate tone unique to rabbits.
“Get up and wash. Today is a big day.”
Li Zhu blinked and slowly turned her stiff neck.
Sitting beside her was a woman wearing a gray beast-hide skirt. The edges of the hide were still lined with uneven tufts of fur, glowing dully in the flickering light of the campfire.
The woman was holding a thin bone needle, its end tied with a gray-brown tendon thread. Her nimble fingers moved skillfully through a nearly finished beast-hide skirt.
“Mother…”
Li Zhu spoke instinctively. Her voice was soft and sweet, like a glutinous rice ball—completely different from the slightly hoarse voice she’d had in modern times after constantly shouting “Received!” and “Got it!” at work.
Sixteen years.
It had been a full sixteen years since she’d been a corporate slave chased by KPIs every single day, only to be hit by a truck that ran a red light on her way home from overtime. When she opened her eyes again, she was already inside her mother’s womb in this new world.
At first, it hadn’t seemed so bad. As a baby, she just drank milk and slept.
But once she grew older, she nearly broke down.
The food was fishy and hard to swallow. There were no phones! No WiFi! No novels! No TV! There wasn’t even a proper toilet! People in the tribe communicated by shouting, ate meat roasted over fire, and lived in caves remodeled into “rabbit dens.”
Still, there was one enormous advantage…
No work!
That kind of beast-of-burden life? She was absolutely done with it!
A nitpicking boss! Smiling colleagues hiding knives behind their backs! Endless overtime, endless tasks!
Waaah, what a rotten life that had been.
Even now, Li Zhu felt sorry for her past self for a full three seconds.
So, upholding her life motto—“Since I’m here, I’ll settle in. If I can lie flat, I will never stand”—Li Zhu began her glorious sixteen-year career of lying flat.
Especially after she used her “clever little brain” to introduce new cooking methods and new food ideas to the tribe, life had become quite comfortable.
She hardly needed to do anything every day—just stay at home researching this and tinkering with that. It was simply amazing!
“What are you daydreaming about?” her mother asked softly, patting her back. Her fingertips brushed against Li Zhu’s smooth long hair.
“Today is your coming-of-age ceremony. You need to look spirited.”
“This is the new beast-hide skirt I made for you. Do you like it?”
Li Zhu accepted the brand-new white beast-hide skirt from her mother, her heart swelling with emotion.
“Mother, I like anything you make. You’re the best~”
Waaah, as expected—her dearest mother.
In her previous life, Li Zhu had been an orphan. She came alone, and she left alone.
But in this life, she had a loving father, a caring mother, and an older brother.
Hehe, and most importantly—no job!
But at the mention of her coming-of-age ceremony, Li Zhu’s heart skipped a beat.
The coming-of-age ceremony in the Beast World was nothing like a modern eighteen-year-old birthday.
Among the rabbit tribe, females reached adulthood at sixteen.
And for female beastfolk, this was the day they would go to the tribe’s altar, where the shaman would test their fertility using “Pregnancy-Testing Grass.”
On this continent, where females were scarce and fertility rates were low, a female’s fertility almost directly determined her status—and even the rise or fall of an entire tribe.
As a modern woman reborn at birth, Li Zhu retained her modern mindset and knowledge. At the same time, she had inherited the legacy bestowed by the Beast God of this world.
As for the one-wife-multiple-husbands system here? She wasn’t opposed to it at all. In fact… she felt a tiny bit excited. Hehehe.
“Where’s Big Brother?”
Li Zhu smoothed down her new white beast-hide skirt. Along the hem were a few crooked little flowers dyed with red plant pigment—her mother’s half-month-long effort.
“Your brother went to the back mountain,” her mother said with a loving smile. “He said he’s picking ‘Moonlight Fruit’ for you, to wish you good luck at your ceremony.”
Li Zhu’s older brother was named Li Heng. He was a rare, sturdily built rabbit beastman. Even in human form, his ears were still short, but he was far stronger than ordinary male rabbit beastfolk. He was the only dual-element, sixth-tier beastman in the entire rabbit tribe, possessing both fire and water abilities.
Across the Beast Continent, tribes were divided into low-level, mid-level, and high-level tribes. Low-level tribes were mostly in the Northern Continent, while high-level tribes were concentrated in the Southern Continent.
Their rabbit tribe was a low-level tribe in the North.
Her brother was the only sixth-tier warrior in the entire tribe. Sixth-tier beastmen were common in mid-level tribes, but in the rabbit tribe, he was the sole one. Some other low-level tribes didn’t even have a sixth-tier warrior at all. As for high-level tribes, they even had eighth- and ninth-tier powerhouses.
In the Beast World, each tier was like a vast chasm. Crossing it was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Li Zhu had once heard her father say that there was only one tenth-tier beastman in the entire continent—an incredibly powerful figure who came and went without a trace. There were several ninth-tier warriors as well.
Back then, she had thought: if only she could bring that mysterious tenth-tier powerhouse to their rabbit tribe, wouldn’t they be able to dominate the entire Beast Continent? That would be the ultimate golden thigh to cling to!
“Mother, did Big Brother say when he’ll be back?”
“Probably soon. Alright, let’s go. Your father and the shaman are already waiting at the altar.” Mother helped her to her feet.
Li Zhu took a deep breath and followed her toward the tribe’s central altar.
The rabbit tribe was built in a low valley, surrounded by a fence made of thick tree trunks that served as simple fortifications.
The tribe wasn’t large—just over a hundred members. All of them were rabbit beastfolk—sharp-eared, timid, incredibly fast runners, but with pitifully low combat power.
There were only seven or eight females in total. Aside from elderly beastfolk and young cubs, almost every female had eight or nine beast husbands—some even had more than ten.
And today, there were only three females attending the coming-of-age ceremony.
Still, one thing was worth mentioning: their tribe was united.
Over the past sixteen years, Li Zhu had used her modern knowledge to teach the tribe many new things. However, because their combat strength was so weak and they feared inviting disaster, not a single bit of that knowledge had been allowed to spread beyond the tribe. So although they appeared poor and lowly on the outside, they actually ate well and slept well.
That was one of the reasons Li Zhu had been able to lie flat in peace.
As a low-level tribe, the rabbits always upheld the principle of “keeping a low profile to stay safe.” They mostly lived quietly behind closed gates and rarely ventured outside.
Li Zhu was the exception.
She wanted to go out and find treasures. She wanted to go out and find powerful thighs to cling to! Powerful thighs wouldn’t just walk themselves into her home!
As they passed their “kitchen,” Li Zhu couldn’t help glancing at it a few more times. It had taken her three full years to “renovate” that place.
Three stone pots carved from solid bluestone sat atop a stove built from stacked rocks. Nearby were piles of “treasures” she had discovered over the years—dried red chili peppers, ginger chunks, garlic cloves, and strips of dried meat.
Now, nearly every household in the rabbit tribe had these things. Each family had even cleared two small plots of land to grow them.
It had to be said—on a continent as primitive as the Beast World, plants grew larger and tasted better.
Back when she first suggested “boiling food in pots,” the entire tribe had opposed her. The elders had insisted, “Meat roasted over fire carries the Beast God’s blessing.”
She had conquered them with one pot of mushroom meat stew.
The rich broth and tender meat were a hundred times better than dry roasted meat.
Later, she discovered chili peppers. The first time she made hotpot, the entire tribe of rabbits had hopped around from the spiciness, tears streaming down their faces—yet they couldn’t stop eating.
Now, if someone cooked meat without adding chili, it felt tasteless.
“A’Zhu, what are you spacing out for?”
“Coming.”
Li Zhu pulled her gaze back and hurried to catch up.
The altar stood at the deepest part of the valley—a flat, massive stone engraved with crooked totems of a rabbit holding the moon.
The shaman was already there, a white-haired elderly rabbit beastwoman.
Her father was there too. As the tribe leader, his ears bore a scar from when he’d been clawed by a wolf beastman while protecting the tribe in his youth.
When he saw Li Zhu, the sternness on his face softened slightly.
“A’Zhu, don’t be nervous. No matter the result, you’ll always be Father’s good daughter.”
Li Zhu nodded and stepped into the center of the altar alongside the other two sixteen-year-old females.
The shaman trembled as she raised the Pregnancy-Testing Grass, muttering prayers for the Beast God’s blessing.
Then she gently pressed the leaves against the wrists of the three females.
Time seemed to freeze.
Li Zhu could hear her own heartbeat—and the breathing of the tribe members around her.
The rabbit tribe’s fertility had always been decent. The problem was simply that there were too few females. She estimated she’d probably be average—not too low, not so high as to attract attention.
However—
The pale pink Pregnancy-Testing Grass on her wrist suddenly began to glow.
At first it was only a faint pink halo. Gradually, the light grew brighter and stronger until it resembled a burning pink flame, enveloping her entire body.
The leaves visibly unfurled before everyone’s eyes. Tiny white blossoms even bloomed from the stems.
“Th-this…”
The shaman’s eyes widened so much the grass nearly slipped from her hand.
“A miracle! A miracle from the Beast God!”
The surrounding tribe members instantly erupted into chaos.
“My heavens! The Pregnancy-Testing Grass has bloomed!”
“I’ve lived fifty years and never seen such bright light!”
“A’Zhu… A’Zhu’s fertility…”
Li Zhu was stunned.
She looked down at the brilliant light on her wrist, her mind completely blank.
Was this thing broken?
She was just a laid-back former office worker who did nothing but eat and sleep every day. How could she possibly have such strong fertility?
Li Cheng stared at his daughter’s test result in shock. He exchanged a glance with his mate. In each other’s eyes, they saw astonishment—and a trace of unease.
The rabbit tribe was only a low-level tribe.
A female with such terrifying fertility was like a three-year-old child carrying a brick of gold through a busy street. Whether it was a blessing or a disaster remained unknown.
The shaman trembled with excitement and bowed repeatedly toward Li Zhu.
“A holy maiden! A’Zhu must be the holy maiden sent by the Beast God!”
The words “holy maiden” hit Li Zhu like a heavy stone.
When she had first transmigrated here, her greatest wish had been simple: lie flat, coast through life, and avoid all trouble.
But this spectacle… no matter how she looked at it, it was the complete opposite of “lying flat.”
At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded from the direction of the back mountain.
Li Heng rushed over, arms full of round Moonlight Fruits. When he saw the scene at the altar, he froze. The fruits slipped from his arms and scattered across the ground with a series of plops.
“A’Zhu…”
Seeing him, Li Zhu suddenly felt at a loss.
But then she reconsidered.
Perhaps this was also an opportunity for the rabbit tribe.
As the daughter of the tribe leader, protected by her people, didn’t she also have the responsibility—and obligation—to protect and help develop the tribe in return?