Xue Zhu also lifted her little face, which looked so much like Si Shuo’s. "Father, there must be a lot of Wild Beasts in the forest. Take me to see them, please? What if I find one I like?"

The little one was capable of Beast Taming, but she was extremely picky. Aside from some venomous insects she had tamed when she first started studying her superpower—which she had been raising ever since—she had only accepted a Pangolin and a Snowy Owl, and had been picky ever since.

The Snowy Owl also flapped its wings. "Father, I can protect Xue Zhu! If we can’t win a fight, I can carry her and fly away..."

Zhi Le’s wistful feelings about his departure were interrupted. The cubs’ clamoring was giving him a headache.

The other cubs looked on with envy, each one glancing at their father. ’When will we get to be taken out to play?’

Si Shuo said with a smile, "Go on, it’ll keep your Father from getting homesick. With the four of you making a fuss, time will fly by."

Zhi Le nodded with a helpless smile, agreeing to the cubs’ request. "Alright, you can come with me." Then he walked over to Si Shuo and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Sweetheart, I’ll be back soon!"

"Mm," she stood on her tiptoes and leaned close to Zhi Le’s ear, whispering, "Zhi Le, you don’t actually have to hurry back. I can come find you to play."

Zhi Le’s breath hitched. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and said with a low chuckle, "Alright. Then when I’m resting, I’ll write you a note..."

After another moment of affection, he finally left with the cubs, looking back with every few steps.

Yi Wan was just about to leave when he saw Zhi Le approaching with three cubs. He chuckled and asked, "What are you all doing here?"

Zhi Le scratched his head. "My mate told me to go along and have a look, so I figured I’d bring the cubs to let them see the world." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Yi Wan was quite pleased. He lifted the two male cubs straight onto his shoulders and boarded his Flying Beast. "Alright, Grandpa will take you out to have some fun! Our Southern Continent has its own charms, you know..."

The group left Golden Lion City and headed toward the former location of the Luoni Tribe. They would pass many tribes along the way, but Yi Wan couldn’t wait. He was afraid that Xia Ming, having just been reborn, would be snatched away by a wolf again.

So he and Zhi Le rode their Flying Beasts, rushing ahead to the place where Xia Ming had disappeared all those years ago.

There weren’t any particularly High-level Wild Beasts in this mountain forest, but for females, males without superpowers, and those with weak superpowers, it was still a rather dangerous place.

What’s more, after numerous Beast Tides of varying scales, the Levels of the Wild Beasts here had been raised by one or two, and their numbers had increased by twenty to thirty percent. Even Level 5 and Level 6 Beastmen wouldn’t dare to venture in alone.

The smile vanished from Yi Wan’s face, his expression turning solemn as he strode ahead. He had walked this path countless times and had scoured the entire mountain hundreds of times over. Now, he was heading to the spot where the blood-stained leather skirt had been found.

The closer he got to that place, the heavier his steps felt, and his pace slowed accordingly.

Birds chirped in the mountain forest. From not too far away came the grunting of long tusked pigs, as well as the howls of wolves and roars of tigers. The sounds made the two Flying Beasts tremble in fear, but they forced themselves to stay close behind Yi Wan and Zhi Le.

Yi Wan’s heart pounded like a drum. One step, two steps, three steps... The area ahead was empty, just as it was every time he ran over here when he was in a dark mood. ’She was gone, and that was that.’

So much evidence proved that Xia Ming couldn’t possibly be alive anymore. ’If she were still alive, she would have definitely returned to the Luoni Tribe to find me.’

For all these years, he had traveled far and wide, supposedly on tribal business, but wasn’t he also running from Ping Mei and the others, all while clinging to the slimmest of hopes of finding Xia Ming?

’What if someone had rescued her only to hold her captive, and she was waiting for me to save her?’

All of Yi Wan’s courage drained away, and he squatted on the ground, scratching his head. ’I don’t want to be some High Priest, and I don’t want to level up to gain another eight or ten years of life. I just want to go to the Beast God’s side as quickly as possible and be reunited with Xia Ming and Zhi Li.’

’In this entire Beast World Continent, Zhi Le is my only remaining attachment. Now that Zhi Le has a family of his own, I have even less reason to go on...’

"Brother Yi Wan? Are you here to find me?" A weak, timid voice came from above him.

Yi Wan’s entire body went rigid. ’Is this an auditory hallucination, brought on by my own desperate hope?’

"Is it not Brother Yi Wan?" The young female’s disappointed voice drifted down.

He shot to his feet and looked up. There was Xia Ming, her dark eyes filled with a mix of surprise, tenderness, hurt, and longing as she gazed down at him.

Yi Wan’s eyes began to sting. He stood where he was, tremblingly opening his arms.

Xia Ming chuckled softly and stood up straight on the branch. As she spread her arms, the specially-made Beast Skins connecting her arms and legs also spread out. She leaped down effortlessly, and the skins caught the wind, instantly slowing her descent.

She expertly controlled her direction and landed steadily in Yi Wan’s arms. Clinging tightly to his neck, she began to pour out her fears. "Brother Yi Wan, what took you so long to find me? It’s gotten so dark, and I got lost. I was trying to walk to the top of the mountain to find the way home... I walked for so long that my legs are sore, and my feet are all blistered...

I was so scared. I didn’t dare make a sound, afraid I’d attract Rogue Beasts... But then, suddenly, I saw so many green dots of light—it was a wolf pack! They were even snarling at me. It was so scary...

I climbed a tree and waited for so long, and I got so hungry... I’m so glad you came to find me, Brother Yi Wan...

I could eat a whole long tusked pig right now!"

She was crying and laughing at the same time, continuously nuzzling against Yi Wan’s face as if trying to dispel her fear with intimacy and embraces.

Yi Wan remained silent, simply holding her tightly and looking at her. The warmth and softness in his arms, her clear voice, her face, her smile—it was all real.

Every word she spoke was like a knife twisting in his heart. ’Whether this is a dream or not, the Xia Ming of the past really was this frightened and this desperate for me to arrive.’

Just thinking about it made him wish he could have followed her in death. ’Sometimes I even wanted to know what it felt like to be torn apart and devoured by wolves...’

"Xia Ming? Ming’er?" Yi Wan called out softly.

"Hm? Brother Yi Wan, am I being too greedy? Long tusked pigs are hard to hunt. They always appear in groups, and when the tribe hunts one, the pregnant females and cubs get to eat first.

My appetite isn’t that big, I’ll just have a piece the size of my palm!" Xia Ming said in a subdued voice, sensible as always.

Yi Wan remembered that back then, he had only been a Level 5 Beastman and couldn’t hunt on his own at all. He had to go with the tribe’s hunting party, and the distribution of prey had to be approved by the Clan Leader and the elders.

But back then, Zhi Li was a Sixth Level Beastman and a formidable Thunder Element user, so he was always able to secretly stash away some food for him to give to Xia Ming...

"Ming’er, I’ll hunt a long tusked piglet for you. We’ll roast the whole thing, and you can eat any part you want!"

Xia Ming’s eyes widened in surprise, and she even forgot to cry. "Long tusked pigs are very protective of their young. Brother Yi Wan, I can eat any kind of meat. You don’t have to take a risk for me.

But," she touched Yi Wan’s chin, her fair, delicate hand pricked red by the dark stubble that had grown there, "Brother Yi Wan, we’ve only been apart for two days. How did you get so old?"

The arms Yi Wan held her with faltered. Before he could even savor the taste of joy, it felt as if a basin of ice water had been dumped over his head.