56: Chapter 56 Reaping the Bitter Fruit

"Fifth-Rank!?" Meng Qi's eyes were glowing. He looked at the stripes on his cub's arm, rubbed them hard, and after confirming he hadn't misread them, he slapped his shoulder forcefully, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkling with laughter.

"Meng Lai, you've broken through to the Fifth-Rank."

Good cub.

All those meals Qing Qing made weren't eaten in vain.

Now the Tribe will become even stronger.

"Good, good!"

This is wonderful.

Hahaha~

Meng Qi threw back his head and laughed heartily, his exhaustion instantly vanishing.

A surprised smile also appeared on Sang Qing's face as she shook his arm vigorously. "That's great, Brother."

"Hahaha, I've finally broken through to the Fifth-Rank, Qing Qing. It's all thanks to you!"

Meng Lai scooped Sang Qing up and spun around happily, his boisterous laughter echoing through the woods.

Whoa, whoa, I'm getting dizzy, I'm getting dizzy.

Sang Qing was spun until she was lightheaded and called out for him to put her down.

By the beast god, so dizzy!

Seeing this, Meng Qi kicked Meng Lai's butt and supported the wobbling Sang Qing. "Hurry back to the Tribe, or we won't make it in time."

There was still some distance from the chestnut grove to the Tribe, and traveling back and forth would take quite a while.

Oh!!

Meng Lai quickly shifted into his Beast Form and dashed into the woods, wagging his large tail.

Sang Qing let out a breath. It was great; her brother had become a Fifth-Rank, his strength had increased significantly, and she could feel more at ease.

A grand procession moved through the forest. Mao Shuo was beaming and full of energy, his affectionate gaze fixed on Meng Lai, who was leading the way. He wished he could lift him up and spin him around.

Fifth-Rank, it was unbelievable. No, not unbelievable—it was a surprise, a wonderful surprise!

A few days ago, they had gone to suppress the Gray Leopard Tribe, and many of their Tribesmen had been injured. He had been moping at home when Meng Lai suddenly appeared with this good news.

Qing Que ran alongside Meng Lai, happy for him but feeling dejected about himself.

It seemed he needed to hurry and break through to the Fifth-Rank, or Qing Qing would look down on him even more.

The other Tribesmen were also jubilant. With a second Fifth-Rank in the Tribe, they were becoming stronger and stronger.

As they approached the chestnut grove, roars mixed with anger rang out. Meng Lai's heart tightened. "Father, Qing Qing!"

What happened?

Mao Shuo's expression also changed as he sped up and rushed over.

When the Tribesmen rushed in, they saw Sang Qing raise the weapon in her hand and neatly pierce the heart of a Bear Beast, twisting it forcefully.

Its limbs convulsed, its strength vanished instantly, and the light faded from the Bear Beast's angry eyes as its body collapsed.

Sang Qing jumped off the Bear Beast, looking at the blood on her arm and curling her lip in annoyance.

Beside her lay several large Bear Beasts that had already lost their breath, all of them dying with their eyes wide open.

Meng Qi looked at his cub with a smile and gave her a thumbs-up.

He hadn't expected his Little Cub to be so formidable.

"Meng Qi, Sang Qing Child!" Mao Shuo let out a breath and walked over with a smile, looking at the fallen Heng Heng Beasts around them, feeling incredibly shocked.

He had been a bit skeptical when he heard Meng Lai's description earlier, but seeing the ground covered in Heng Heng Beasts now, there were even more than Meng Lai had described.

It would probably take two or three trips to carry them all.

"Chief!" Sang Qing and Meng Qi spoke to him in unison.

Wiping the blood from her hands, Sang Qing walked to the side and watched Mao Shuo direct the Tribesmen to start moving the beasts, her eyes showing a hint of regret.

They had arrived too quickly; she hadn't had time to exchange the valuable Bear Beasts for points.

Tsk! What a pity.

Qing Que frowned and walked toward Sang Qing, lecturing her in a low voice, "Do you know how dangerous that was just now? How could you take on a Bear Beast yourself?"

She wasn't even enough for a single bite from a Bear Beast. Her limbs were so small and thin; it made his heart race with fear just watching her.

Sang Qing jerked her hand back, shot him a cold sideways glance, and walked away from him.

"Sang Qing!" Qing Que looked panicked and chased after her. "Can't you just listen to me? I'm worried about you."

"Enough. I have nothing to do with you; there's no need for your concern." Sang Qing turned to look at him, her face distant and indifferent.

"Sang..." Qing Que's eyes were full of loss, and his extended hand dropped.

Did she have to be so heartless?

He already regretted it.

Mao Shuo glanced at the two of them, then shifted his attention to the cici fruit overhead. Meng Qi had just told him that these fruits were edible.

The surprises Mao Shuo had received today were more than just one or two.

But they didn't have many Tribesmen with them today, so there weren't enough hands to harvest them. They would probably have to wait until tomorrow.

Looking at the mountain of Heng Heng Beasts, Mao Shuo was both happy and troubled.

Heavens!

How are there so many? And several Bear Beasts too.

Bear Beasts were too large; they never considered them when hunting, so they would have to butcher them first before bringing them back to process slowly.

The Tribesmen were busy and happy, but they still had to be careful to guard against other wild beasts that might suddenly appear.

Sang Qing put a few Heng Heng Beasts into her storage slots; these were for her to take back and eat herself. The rest were left to Mao Shuo.

Taking the chestnuts with her, Sang Qing followed the Tribe's group back first, leaving Meng Qi and Mao Shuo behind to finish up.

Back at the Tribe, Meng Lai went to handle some business, while Sang Qing and Sophia went home.

She poured out the chestnuts to dry and sorted out the bad ones. chestnuts needed to be dried raw for two or three days before they were good for roasting, but the days in the Beast World were very long, so they didn't need to dry for that long at all.

The chestnuts they picked this time probably weighed several thousand pounds. Each one was plump and round, and there wasn't enough room in the yard to dry them all.

Sang Qing had no choice but to dry them in batches, leaving the ones in her storage slots alone for now.

After setting the chestnuts out to dry, Sang Qing went to the stream to process the Heng Heng Beasts she had brought back.

But clearly, she wasn't cut out for butchering wild beasts. Looking at the Heng Heng Beast whose skin was already full of holes, Sang Qing offered a few seconds of silent prayer for it and decided to wait for her brother to come back and handle it.

She filled several baskets with small pebbles by the river to take back, preparing for roasting chestnuts tomorrow.

These stones needed to be taken back and washed first.

The bloody scent of the Heng Heng Beast attracted small fish and shrimp in the stream. Sang Qing stared at the fish and shrimp in the water, suddenly realizing she hadn't eaten fish in the Beast World yet.

It was just that the fish in the stream were too small; she figured she would have to go to the river to catch some.

She would try to buy a net and go to the river when she had time tomorrow; she wondered how the fish in the Beast World tasted.

Carrying a basket of pebbles, Sang Qing turned and headed back.

The sun had passed noon when Meng Qi and Meng Lai finally returned.

"Here, Qing Qing, shell crystals from the Chief." Meng Lai opened his hand, and five round, translucent shell crystals appeared in his palm.

Oh, the Chief was this generous? She had thought she'd be lucky to get two shell crystals at most.

Sang Qing took the shell crystals he handed over, the smile on her face deepening.

"Did the Chief say anything?" Sang Qing tucked the shell crystals into her small leather pouch and asked her brother with a smile.

Meng Lai thought for a moment. "He didn't say much. Oh, right, the Chief said if you find any more edible food in the future, you must tell him immediately, and he'll give you shell crystals for it."

It seemed the Chief already knew how capable Qing Qing was.

Sang Qing nodded in satisfaction. "Deal!"

That's more like it.

"Go take a bath, Brother. You stink." Sang Qing suddenly caught a pungent scent and, after searching for the source, realized it was coming from her brother.

Meng Lai gave a couple of silly laughs, then grabbed some clean animal skins and headed to the stream.

The transported Heng Heng Beasts were piled in a Treehouse specifically for food storage, but the Treehouse was clearly too small and couldn't hold them all.

Mao Shuo wiped his sweat and simply called the Tribesmen over to distribute the Heng Heng Beasts among them.

Zhu Li lay in the house in a daze, her face sallow.

Since being punished by the Chief and hung in the Tribe for three suns, she had lost all her former aggression. Most of the time, she stayed hidden at home, not even going out the door.

Her mates were starting to get worried.

But no matter how they tried to persuade her, Zhu Li remained indifferent, lying in bed all day.

On the other hand, Zhu Shan had also been crying at home for a long time. Her Father's repeated attempts to console her were useless; she had almost cried her eyes out.

Because her betrothed mates had broken off their engagements, she now found it hard to eat and could not rest easy.

But no matter how sad she was, those males were determined to go through with dissolving the bond.

With the Mother and daughter either crying or sighing, the atmosphere in the whole house was extremely oppressive.

Noisy shouts came from the Tribesmen outside, sounding as if they were celebrating something.

Zhu Shan liked excitement and couldn't help but go out to ask what was happening.

But when she learned that the Tribesmen were celebrating Meng Lai's breakthrough to a Fifth-Rank Warrior, she suddenly started crying even louder.

Waaaah, if they hadn't been egged on by Mother to steal things, she would have had a Fifth-Rank Warrior for a brother.

Waaaaah~~~

Another morning, Sang Qing wanted to sleep in for a bit, but she was woken up early by the shouting and cheering outside.

She pulled the animal skin over her head, feeling exceptionally irritable.

Who is it? It's too early for this racket.

But her thin animal skin couldn't block out the rising and falling cheers from outside. Left with no choice, she could only rub her eyes and get up to see what was going on.

Meng Lai looked at the young females cheering and waving at him from outside the fence, his face nearly frozen from smiling.

What's going on? He didn't want this.

Tidying her messy hair, Sang Qing yawned. Seeing the group of females outside the yard calling her brother's name with looks of admiration and infatuation, she immediately knew what had happened.

After hiding in the kitchen to eat breakfast with Sophia, Sang Qing ignored Meng Lai's attempts to stop her and dashed into the forest.

It was better if she didn't stay home and get in the way; maybe her brother could find a suitable partner.

What Sang Qing didn't know was that shortly after she left the Tribe, Feng Yuan had come to the Civet Cat Tribe with gifts, wanting to see her.

But when he learned from Meng Lai that Sang Qing had left for the forest early and wouldn't be back for a while, he could only leave the gifts and depart dejectedly.

In the forest, a light mist hung in the air. Sang Qing grabbed a vine from one tree and swung to another, her face full of joyful smiles.

Woohoo! This is so much fun.

No wonder monkeys are so happy all day; who wouldn't be happy swinging around like this?

Sang Qing decided to go further today to see if there were any new herbal medicines; the area she usually went to was almost picked clean.

Moving carefully through the forest, Sang Qing discovered many strange plants and various wild beasts. She had never seen many of these beasts in her past life; they looked unique but not deformed, and some were even quite good-looking.

After admiring them for a while, Sang Qing started her work.

"female, have you seen a wounded Golden Snake Beastman?" A tentative inquiry suddenly came from behind her.

Sang Qing, who was squatting on the ground digging up herbal medicine, froze for a moment. After pulling the herb out of the mud, she turned around to look behind her.

She saw a slender young beastman holding a spear, standing behind a tree just a few steps away from her, his face tense.

Sang Qing shook her head at the male behind her and looked back. "No."

Wasn't this one of the male beastmen who had attacked Xuan Xiao that day? Was he looking for Xuan Xiao?

Speaking of Xuan Xiao, when she had gone to the cave to find him for the third time, he was already gone. However, there were no signs of any intrusion nearby; he had likely left on his own.

He hadn't mentioned his departure to her, which made Sang Qing a bit angry.

But Xuan Xiao couldn't run away; he had to give her the shell crystals he owed.

Not here? He had clearly been chasing Xuan Xiao when he disappeared around here. He was injured, so he couldn't have gone far.

Muller gripped the spear in his hand, his brow furrowed as he scanned the surroundings.

Suddenly, he caught a faint scent of Xuan Xiao on this female. It was very faint, but they Golden Snake Beastmen were exceptionally sensitive to scents.

Taking two steps forward, Muller's gaze turned sharp with suspicion. "female, what are you doing here?"

Digging in the mud? Isn't it strange for a female to be digging in the mud in the forest?

Sang Qing stood up, glanced at him, and prepared to move to another spot. "It's none of your business what I'm doing."

Muller looked at her beautiful little face, a surge of anger rising within him as he barked, "Stop!"

She definitely has something to do with Xuan Xiao.

"Tell me where Xuan Xiao is quickly, or I won't be easy on you."

Not only was Xuan Xiao not dead, but he had also caused the deaths of Mu Jin and several other brothers. Mother was furious. He had come to the forest to search and, although he had found traces of Xuan Xiao, Xuan Xiao had also discovered his presence and immediately fled.

He had to kill Xuan Xiao so that his position as Chief would be secure.

But Xuan Xiao was very cunning; he had spotted his tracks several times but failed to catch him.

Sang Qing raised an eyebrow, a flash of displeasure in her eyes. "Who is Xuan Xiao? I don't know him. Why are you shouting? Get lost, or I'm the one who won't be easy on you."

Muller was enraged. Just by herself, a scrawny female?

Although males weren't supposed to bully females, he could still teach her a harsh lesson. Then she would naturally reveal Xuan Xiao's whereabouts.

"You clearly have Xuan Xiao's scent on you. How dare you say you don't know him."

He strode forward, reaching out to grab Sang Qing.

Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed overhead, and Muller was kicked hard, flying backward and rolling several times before crashing into the grass.

"Xuan Xiao, I knew it was—" Muller quickly scrambled up from the ground, spat out the grass in his mouth, and was about to explode with rage.

But when his gaze landed on the tall male standing in front of the female, he froze.

This wasn't Xuan Xiao at all.