“It’s green vegetables and beans! Hu Zhuo, we’re in for a treat tonight.” Hu Li’s face was lit up with a blissful smile. Finally, they wouldn’t have to eat meat every single day.
In the past, she would have been overjoyed to have meat for every meal, but here, she was almost sick of it.
Hu Li carefully dug up the roots, wrapped them in a few large leaves as if they were treasures, and placed them in her small satchel. Just as the two were about to leave, a dark shadow loomed over them from the sky.
“It’s the Black Bear Tribe. Run!”
Hu Zhuo swiftly transformed into his beast form, scooped up Hu Li with his claws, and tossed her onto his back.
Beast form allowed for faster and longer runs, but they couldn’t return the same way and risk bringing danger to the tribe. They had no choice but to flee desperately. The Bear Tribe Beastfolk were naturally powerful, and both their beast forms and humanoid forms were much larger than those of the Fox Tribe. If Hu Zhuo were alone, he might have escaped, but with A Li, he didn’t dare take the risk.
A fox and a bear played a deadly game of chase through the forest. Unfortunately, Hu Zhuo wasn’t strong enough. The Black Bear Tribe excelled in combat, and with a single swipe of its paw, the bear uprooted a tree and hurled it ahead, blocking Hu Zhuo’s path.
Hu Zhuo was forced to stop, and in that moment of hesitation, the black bear caught up.
“The Fox and Bear Tribes have always respected each other’s territories. Do you intend to break that peace and start a war between our tribes?”
Unexpectedly, the black bear roared twice, its hind paws digging into the ground as it prepared to charge.
“Damn it, the black bear sees us as prey. A Li, I’ll lure it away. You run first.”
Hu Li clung tightly to Hu Zhuo’s fur. “No, I’m your Wife-Master. You have to listen to me. If we go, we go together.”
“Then I’d rather dissolve our Partner Bond right now.” Hu Zhuo’s fox eyes were fixed intently on the black bear’s movements.
With a furious roar, the black bear charged. At this critical moment, the System’s voice rang out.
[System maintenance complete.]
“System, System, save us!”
Time seemed to freeze.
[The System Store has added Teleportation Pills. They cost only 500 Points to exchange. Would the Host like to exchange?]
“Yes, yes, yes!” Survival came first. Besides, Hu Li was the first to make a name for herself in the System realm because of her Points. After this maintenance, her System had gained privileges unknown to others.
The moment the flow of time resumed, the black bear pounced on empty air, its large bear bottom landing on the ground as it looked around in confusion.
With two splashes, Hu Li fell onto Hu Zhuo. Since Hu Zhuo was in his beast form, he was much higher than the water’s surface, so Hu Li didn’t get a single drop on her.
“How did we end up here?” Looking at the familiar surroundings, Hu Li realized this was the waterfall where Hu Zhuo had first made her a wooden bucket.
Coming to his senses, Hu Zhuo stared at Hu Li in shock. “A Li, do you have Cultivation? Or a spatial skill?”
Hu Li assumed it was the effect of the Teleportation Pill, but she didn’t know how to explain it, so she simply remained silent.
“A Li, you must never let other Beastfolk know about this, understand?” Hu Zhuo felt the weight of responsibility growing heavier as A Li revealed more abilities. Could he truly protect her?
“Yes, I understand.” Hu Li no longer hid the fact that she had a Spirit Spring Space. After all, she could simply say it was one of her skills. She then placed the green vegetables and beans she had found into the space.
Hu Zhuo took a sharp breath. His path ahead was long and arduous! But… something didn’t seem right.
“A… A Li, your arm.”
Hu Li raised her arm. Last time after bathing in the Spirit Spring Space, she had casually smeared some dirt from outside to darken her skin, but unexpectedly, half of it had been washed away by water splashing from the waterfall.
Her delicate arm gleamed fair and bright under the sunlight. Hu Zhuo’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed with difficulty.
“A… A Li, you smell so good!”
Seeing Hu Zhuo’s face growing redder as he kept moving closer, Hu Li sensed something was off. “Hey, hey, hey, buddy, you’re acting strange. Don’t come any closer.”
Hu Zhuo immediately pinned Hu Li to the ground, his voice slightly hoarse. “A Li, I’m so hot.”
“If you’re hot, go stay in the water.”
“You smell too good. You’ve made me enter my mating season early. What should I do?”
“Wh… what?” Of course, Hu Li hadn’t considered that Beastfolk had mating seasons—no one had told her!
[Host, maybe you should help him? The mating season is quite tough for Beastfolk.]
[Warm him, pamper him, save him.]
“Go offline now. No eavesdropping on our conversation.”
[OK]
Hu Zhuo stared at Hu Li with a pitiful expression. “I… I’ll just stay in the water then! Suffering for a couple of days will pass.”
“Wait, hold on.” Hu Li hooked her arm around his neck.
The fire within Hu Zhuo ignited completely.
“You invited me. I didn’t force you.”
The waterfall cascaded down like a tide, its spray leaving damp traces on the soil on either side. The nearby grass rustled, perhaps stirred by a gentle breeze, as two wild ducks surfaced side by side, playfully swimming in the water.
After who knows how long, when Hu Li woke again, it was already dark. The cleaned beast hide was hanging from a tree branch, so… she was now lying naked in the grass.
Hu Li was furious. “Hu Zhuo, who told you to wash my beast hide? What am I supposed to wear?”
Hu Zhuo was somewhat confused. “Sorry, I washed it because it looked dirty. How about I give you mine?” As he spoke, he began to untie the beast hide he was wearing.
“Stop, stop, stop! Mine should be dry by now. Bring it to me!”
“Okay.” Hu Zhuo handed over the beast hide but showed no intention of leaving.
“What are you doing?”
“A Li, you smell so good!”
Now, whenever Hu Li heard the word “smell,” it gave her a headache. Her body still ached. “If you don’t leave now, I’m going to hit you.”
“I… I’ll go make grilled fish for you.”
Hu Li ate the grilled fish, which reeked of fishiness, with a look of utter despair. It wasn’t tasty—not at all. Suddenly, she remembered the cub waiting hungrily at home, and her heart tightened.
“What about the cub alone at home?”
“Don’t worry, before we left, I asked a fellow clansman to look after it. The cub will be fine.”
Hu Li finally felt relieved and began to form a preliminary good impression of Hu Zhuo’s relatives. She had assumed they were all bad.
Oh right, her vegetables.
After confirming that today’s harvest was not only fine but had grown even better after absorbing the Spirit Spring Water, Hu Li grew even happier. She began to look forward to a blissful life ahead. In the future, she, Hu Li, would become the Beast World’s greatest botanist and inventor. Hahaha, it was worth it—the knowledge she had acquired was finally proving useful.
As the two prepared to return home, they noticed Hu Li’s fair, delicate face. They couldn’t go back like this. Hu Li considered simply smearing dirt on her face but remembered how easily it washed off during the day and decided against it. Meanwhile, Hu Zhuo searched nearby for plants that could easily add color.
With time to spare, Hu Li browsed through the System Store and actually found something useful—modern cosmetics.
[“Host, are you sure you want to exchange for cosmetics such as sunscreen, primer, eyeliner, and foundation?”]
“Exchange, exchange.” Anyway, she had plenty of Points! Instead, she should worry about how to use up all these Points. She would need to study carefully when she got home.
Hu Li applied the brown foundation all over her body and drew a few freckles on her face. Mission accomplished—it didn’t look much different from before.