Without too many seasonings, the fish meat tasted very bland, but the meat was tender and fresh. With the addition of red fruit juice, there was no earthy smell, and the texture was even more refreshing, carrying a hint of fruit fragrance.
He didn’t know what species of fish this was, each as long as half an adult’s arm, with only large skeletal bones and no small, troublesome thorns.
It was very convenient to eat. Lu Xuan and the three little cubs devoured the fish without lifting their heads.
His peripheral vision swept over to the black bear sitting under the tree resting with his eyes closed. Lu Xuan’s face flushed red. He had only cared about himself eating and hadn’t had time to call him yet.
“Black bear, come eat some roasted fish.”
The black bear sat there motionless with his eyes closed. Lu Xuan’s heart tightened. He called out again, but still no response.
“Aow aow…” Was he about to go see the beast god?
The three little cubs stretched their necks and looked curiously at the black bear. They tilted their heads, their big, round eyes pure and innocent.
Lu Xuan took a deep breath. Although the moment was highly inappropriate, the three little cubs’ perfectly synchronized head tilts were really cute and adorable.
“No, he’s just too tired and needs some rest. You eat first. Daddy will go check on him.”
The black bear’s nose was dry and peeling, a sign of unhealthiness. His fur was matted and tangled all over, and the dried liquid on him could have been blood or something else.
“Are you okay?” Lu Xuan asked.
The other didn’t answer, didn’t open his eyes.
Lu Xuan’s heart pounded violently: “Hey, you’re not actually dead, are you?”
He nervously reached out a finger and placed it under the other’s nose. There was no breath at all. Lu Xuan fell back onto the ground.
“Really dead?”
He murmured in disbelief.
“Take your cubs and get out of here.”
Suddenly, four beastmen wearing animal hide skirts jumped out from the bushes. They were skinny as sticks, with fierce eyes.
The three cubs were so frightened that they instantly scrambled onto Lu Xuan’s body, climbing up to his shoulders, each still holding a piece of roasted fish in their mouths.
Lu Xuan shielded the three cubs and retreated next to the black bear. His face turned cold, and his eyes became sharp.
He shouted sternly: “What do you want to do?”
Lu Xuan assessed the four men’s strength in his mind. They weren’t even as tall as he was, so skinny that their ribs were almost piercing through their skin.
If it came to a physical fight, he could handle two of them without a problem. If he chose to run, he believed he could get away.
But…
He looked at the black bear sitting motionless under the tree, not sure whether he was truly dead or just pretending.
Lu Xuan didn’t dare think about it.
“Squeak, of course, to eat bear meat.”
The four beastmen instantly transformed into four half-human-tall gray rats. They split into two groups: two charged at Lu Xuan, while the other two ran straight for the black bear.
Lu Xuan was horrified. How was this any different from humans eating humans?
He retreated quickly, holding the three cubs tightly. Fighting two men, he could manage. But fighting two half-human-tall rats? Absolutely not!
The gray rats leaped mid-run. At that moment, time seemed to slow down. Just as the gray rats drew closer and were about to pounce on him, a dark shadow flashed by.
With a loud crash, one gray rat slammed into a tree trunk, bounced off, fell to the ground, and lay motionless, bleeding.
One was pinned under the black bear’s foot, its fate unknown.
“You’re not dead?” Lu Xuan’s eyes were full of joyful surprise.
“Almost,” the black bear said in a deep, muffled voice.
“Squeak—”
Having lost two companions in the blink of an eye, the other two gray rats’ eyes turned red. They let out sharp shrieks and pounced at the black bear in fury.
Rustling sounds came from the forest, something was darting rapidly through the woods.
The black bear let out a long roar. He swung his left and right fists, one gray rat falling to each punch.
He turned his head and shouted to Lu Xuan: “Run!”
Lu Xuan turned and had only taken two steps when a dark mass charged straight at him. He wrapped the cubs tightly and rolled on the spot to dodge it.
Looking back, he saw it was a half-human-tall black rat. The black rat bared its teeth, turned around, and charged at him again.
Lu Xuan quickly got up and ran toward the black bear. But the black bear already had three or four black rats clinging to him. The situation was dire.
He had no choice but to change direction mid-run and hide behind a tree trunk, dodging the black rat’s attack once again.
Rats live in colonies, and rat beastmen also live in colonies.
This time-travel rebirth of his was really starting in hell mode.
Leaning against the thick tree trunk, breathing heavily, the black rat’s tiny eyes were full of triumphant glee.
Roar—
A deep, powerful roar made the black rat in front of him change expression. It immediately turned and scurried into the forest, disappearing from sight.
Lu Xuan felt relieved and slumped down against the tree trunk.
Not far behind the tree trunk, suddenly came the sharp, fearful squeaks of rats.
Lu Xuan peeked out from behind the tree trunk. Two brown bears had appeared next to the black bear.
With the brown bears joining in, several black rats instantly lay dead or unconscious on the ground.
The remaining few black rats, seeing the tide had turned, turned and fled into the forest.
The two brown bears turned and walked toward the black bear. Lu Xuan’s heart skipped a beat. Could this be a case of “the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind”[1]a warning against fixating on an immediate advantage while a bigger danger closes in unnoticed: the mantis is so intent on catching the cicada that it never sees the oriole swooping in to eat it in … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2282794_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2282794_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });?
Although the two brown bears were shorter than the black bear, they looked stronger and healthier than him, with no wounds on their bodies.
If they fought, would the black bear even survive?
Should he run or not?
If he ran, where could he even run? He couldn’t even defeat one rat, let alone a colony of them.
While Lu Xuan was fretting, he heard them talking over there.
Brown Bear One: “How are you?”
Black Bear: “Too badly injured, might die.”
Brown Bear One: “No cure?”
Brown Bear Two: “Who will treat him?”
“He will treat him.”
The black bear’s gaze cut straight through the distance and landed on Lu Xuan. The other two brown bears followed the black bear’s line of sight and saw the sub-beastman hiding behind the tree, craning his neck.
Lu Xuan shrank his neck back, then after a moment stretched it out again, revealing a polite yet not-too-awkward smile.
“So you all know each other.”
Being stared at by three bears, Lu Xuan swallowed his saliva, the pressure was immense.
The two brown bears exchanged glances, then one of them curled his index finger to his mouth and let out a short whistle toward the depths of the forest.
Before long, three more people emerged from the forest. Two of them were sub-beastmen, one a half-grown teenager, one with a large belly, clearly about to give birth.
The other, a sturdy beastman, looked alert. He was protecting them.
“How is Tian Xuan?” he asked the two beastmen.
“He’s dying, but he says that sub-beastman can cure him,” said one of the brown bears, looking toward Lu Xuan.
Now Lu Xuan truly became the center of attention. He walked out from behind the tree trunk, holding the three cubs.
“My grandfather was a priest,” Lu Xuan said with a standard smile.
The pregnant sub-beastman looked excited: “You’re a priest’s apprentice?”
Lu Xuan smiled appropriately: “Everything that should be learned, I know.”
The pregnant sub-beastman’s eyes were very bright. He turned to the beastman beside him and said, “Xiong Xuan, did you hear that? Tian Xuan doesn’t have to die. That’s wonderful.”
Xiong Xuan was tall and powerfully built, with shoulder-length black hair tied behind his head. His stern face had lost its initial cold hardness.
“What’s your name? Which tribe were you from originally? Why did you become an exile beast?”
Exile beast?
The exile beastman in the original owner’s memories?
Lu Xuan clarified: “I am not an exile beastman. I came here because my tribe was attacked by wandering beastmen, and I fled into this place.”
Confusion flashed across everyone’s eyes.
The teenager hesitated: “There are still tribes near the Wasteland Forest?”
Lu Xuan smiled: “A small secluded tribe.”
The teenager nodded, half-understanding. The beastman continent was vast, it was normal that there were many tribes he didn’t know about.
Just then, the black bear suddenly transformed into a muscular man over two meters tall, with hair down to his neck and a full beard.
In the moment his body went limp, the brown bears, having transformed into human form, each supported him from one side.
Lu Xuan thought: B-big transformed wildmen?
The two men gently laid the muscular man on the ground. He had fainted. On his bronze-colored skin were scars of various sizes, old ones, new ones, and some areas were even inflamed and swollen with pus.
Lu Xuan hurried forward to examine him. The skin was scorching hot to the touch, he had a fever.
This was not a medically advanced modern society. Medicines would need to be found and dug up by his own hands.
He said to the beastmen: “I need to go into the forest to look for herbs. Which of you will come with me?”
Who will come to protect me and the three cubs?
You absolutely must choose the bravest among you.
Xiong Xuan said to one of the gray-haired beastmen with medium-length hair: “Xiong Qi, you go.”
“I’ll go too.” The teenager raised his hand, smiling with curved eyebrows: “I want to go too.”
After Xiong Xuan nodded in agreement, the teenager became even happier.
Lu Xuan put the three cubs into the leather pouch and brought them along to look for herbs.
The beastman with dark gray hair grinned and said: “He’s quite alert.”
The pregnant sub-beastman smiled and said: “Being alert is good, alertness helps one live long.”
Lu Xuan’s family had been veterinarians for three generations. His mother’s family had been traditional Chinese medicine practitioners for three generations. Back in the day, when it came to his parents’ marriage, his maternal grandfather had thrown a huge fit before reluctantly agreeing.
As a child, Lu Xuan was quiet and could sit still. He loved looking at herb picture books. So his grandfather took him in and kept him by his side. As it turned out, just as his grandfather had thought, Lu Xuan had a natural talent for studying traditional Chinese medicine.
But then that talented child applied for veterinary medicine in the college entrance exam. His grandfather was so furious that he chased him out of the house with a stick.
Although so much time had passed, Lu Xuan still felt a dull pain in his back when he thought about it. His grandfather really meant business with that beating.
There were no familiar plants around. Lu Xuan was very unwilling to give up. He searched one by one along areas with good light.
The original owner’s grandfather was a priest’s apprentice who had left a large tribe. He had taught the original owner everything he had learned in his life. The original owner was very smart, he learned everything immediately.
The original owner’s grandfather often sighed that the original owner had not been born in a large tribe, otherwise, he could have become a true priest.
As for whether he could find the herbs he wanted in his heart, Lu Xuan had no confidence. The surrounding plants and animals felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
“My name is Xiong Yue, a bear tribe sub-beastman. What’s your name?” the teenager asked curiously.
Lu Xuan smiled and replied: “Lu Xuan. Lu as in land, Xuan as in declare. A leopard cat sub-beastman.”
Xiong Yue’s voice was light and cheerful: “I still have two years until I become an adult. How old are you?”
Lu Xuan rummaged through the original owner’s memories. Good, he was already an adult.
“I’ve been an adult for two years already.”
That meant he was twenty-two years old. On the beastman continent, adulthood started at twenty, and the average lifespan was one hundred and eighty years.
Great. With this rebirth, not only was he younger, but he also had a longer life.
Suddenly, a familiar plant appeared before Lu Xuan’s eyes. His eyes lit up, and he rushed over to that clump of plants.
“Look, this is plantain herb. The leaves are rosette-shaped, most of them oval. This plant has obvious expectorant, antibacterial, and blood pressure-lowering effects. Its juice also has hemostatic and anti-inflammatory properties. In short, even if you don’t use it as medicine, you can eat it as a vegetable.”
He said happily: “Let’s dig up all these dozens of them.”
The three little cubs, seeing Lu Xuan digging wild vegetables, also stuck up their bottoms and waved their little paws, digging along.
As they dug, they started playfully wrestling with each other, covering themselves in dirt. Lu Xuan didn’t stop them, playing was a cub’s nature.
But those two just stood there without moving. He asked in confusion: “Aren’t you digging? Digging together will be faster.”
Xiong Yue snapped out of it and let out a shriek: “Are you teaching us to recognize medicinal herbs?”
In the tribe, only priests understood healing and saving lives. Only priest’s apprentices were qualified to learn about medicinal herbs.
“Huh? Not really, I’m just talking about its effects.” Lu Xuan scratched his head, a little embarrassed: “I know it’s a bit boring. You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to. I just can’t stop talking when I get excited.”
Finding familiar herbs on the beastman continent, how could that not excite him?
“No, no, we want to listen. I want to listen. Say as much as you want.”
“Oh, okay.”
Lu Xuan didn’t understand his sudden outburst.
He looked up, oh, isn’t this Sarcandra herb?
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