The journey toward the settlement felt less like a walk and more like a slow, agonizing crawl through a furnace. Every step Lin Wan took sent a fresh jolt of nausea rolling through her stomach, a physical, churning reminder of the "Tier-1 Milestone" she was now carrying. Her body felt heavier, more fragile, as if the secret life inside her had its own gravity.

Around her, the three males moved with the synchronized precision of a hunting pack. Bax, the leader, stayed a half-step ahead, his massive Rhino-beast frame cutting a path through the dense, humid foliage.

Their gazes were a heavy, physical weight on her skin; they were constantly checking the shadows of the treeline for predators, then darting their eyes back to her small, veiled form.

There was a disturbing mixture of religious awe and raw, primal hunger in their expressions that made Lin Wan want to shrink into the earth.

"Almost there," Bax grunted. His voice didn’t just carry; it vibrated through the air like low, distant thunder, making the mud beneath her shoes quiver. "Just past the ridge, little bird. Then you can rest."

As they crested the final hill, the forest fell away, and Lin Wan’s breath caught in her parched throat.

It wasn’t just a tribe village. Sprawling across the vast valley below was a massive citadel of stone and timber, looking like a grey scar carved into the vibrant green flesh of the earth.

Smoke rose from a hundred chimneys, and the sound of industry,the clanging of metal and the low roar of a thousand voices, drifted up to meet them.

[Warning: Host’s heart rate is exceeding 110 beats per minute,] Weiwei’s voice dryly noted, cutting through the haze of Lin’s shock.

[I suggest you stop gaping like a landed fish. You look like a lost chick, and these Southern males are already projecting ’savior complexes’ onto you. It’s an inefficient look. Also, the toxin from the Heart-Sting Vine is reaching its peak concentration. Expect the stinging to transition into an intense, maddening itch.]

’Shut up, Weiwei,’ Lin hissed internally. She felt a bead of sweat roll down into one of the angry red welts on her jawline, and the stinging flared into a white-hot itch. She clutched the dark fabric of her mask tighter, her knuckles white, praying the cloth wouldn’t slip.

As they descended the ridge and approached the massive, iron-bound gates, the ambient chatter of the town died away into a sudden, suffocating silence. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

It was as if someone had sucked the air out of the valley. Hundreds of males, towering Bulls with massive horns, lithe Falcons with sharp, golden eyes, and the restless, long-eared Rabbit beastmen, stopped dead in their tracks. The air became thick, almost oily, with the sudden spike of testosterone and pheromones.

"A female!" a voice roared from the stone battlements above, a sound of pure, unadulterated shock. "Bax has returned with a female!"

The gates groaned open on massive wooden hinges, and the pressure of the crowd was immediate. As Lin Wan was ushered inside, she felt like a single drop of ink lost in a vast sea of white water. The males didn’t dare crowd her, the fear of the armored guards kept them at a respectful distance, but their eyes were everywhere. They were hungry, searching, and filled with a desperate kind of hope that made her skin crawl.

"Make way!" Bax bellowed, his Rhino-beast energy flaring in a visible ripple of heat. He shoved through the throng with his broad shoulders, acting as a living shield for Lin Wan. "She goes to the High Hall! She goes to the Chief! Move or be moved, whelps!"

They were led to the heart of the town, to a stone hall that looked like it had been carved from the mountain itself. Standing on the dais was a lean, silver-haired male with silver-tipped ears and a calculating, cold gaze. This was the Chief of the Orycto, a man who didn’t look like a warrior, but like a king.

"She was found at the riverbank, Chief," Bax reported, his head bowed low in a show of rare deference. "She survived the Great Flood, but lost her family to the depths. She is... she is delicate, and hurt."

The Chief stepped down from his throne, his sandals clicking rhythmically on the stone floor. His eyes narrowed, focusing with predatory intensity on Lin Wan’s dark mask.

"A survivor of the Great Flood is a blessing we did not expect," he said, his voice smooth and dangerous. "But Bax is right about one thing. Our laws are here to protect this Sanctuary. But you must remove the veil, we need to be sure of who we are letting into our home, I hope you don’t mind little female."

Lin Wan’s blood ran cold. The heat of the rash felt like a branding iron being pressed against her skin. She looked at the thousands of eyes watching her from the shadows of the hall, all of them waiting for the her face to be revealed.

"I... I am not a threat," she whispered, her voice trembling and muffled behind the cloth.

[Host, play the ’trauma’ card,] Weiwei suggested, sounding bored but strategically sharp.

[If you show them the rash now with a smile, they’ll be disgusted. But if you show them while looking like a broken victim, they’ll see it as a badge of survival. Appeal to their ’rarity’ logic. They won’t turn away a female, even an ’ugly’ one, if they think the world has been cruel to her.]

Lin took a shuddering breath, her eyes stinging. She didn’t have to act; the terror of her situation provided all the drama she needed. She reached up with a shaking hand and untied the knot at the back of her head.

The mask fell away.

A collective, sharp gasp hissed through the hall, like the sound of a thousand snakes.

The vibrant, angry red patches of the Heart-Sting Vine looked like jagged, weeping burns across her pale skin, distorting the soft curve of her jaw and cheek into something raw and diseased. Lin stood there, her chin trembling, looking every bit the broken "monster" she feared she was.

The silence that followed was deafening. She waited for the jeers, for the disgust, for them to throw her back into the mud.

But then, the Chief stepped closer. He didn’t flinch. Instead, he reached out a long, pale hand and touched a clawed finger to the very edge of the rash.

"Heart-Sting Vine," he murmured, his voice echoing in the rafters. He looked up at the thousands of shocked males, his gaze hard as flint.

"She has survived the great flood and poisonous plant She is not just a female; she is a fighter." He turned back to Bax, his voice ringing with authority. "Take her to the Edge-Stone house. It is far enough from the barracks to give her the peace she needs to heal, but close enough for your guard to keep her secure. She is the fifteenth female of this Sanctuary. Treat her with the honor that rank demands."

. . .

The Edge-Stone house was a sturdy, circular cottage of dark stone, tucked behind a small grove of weeping willow trees. It was the first taste of true privacy Lin Wan had experienced since the world turned upside down. As the heavy timber door clicked shut, the sound of the iron bolt sliding home echoed through the room, leaving Bax and his elite guards stationed outside like statues.

Lin Wan didn’t even look at the room. She simply collapsed onto a thick pile of soft, silver-fox furs laid out near the hearth.

She didn’t cry. She didn’t have the energy left for tears. Her body felt like a spent candle, the wick burnt down to nothing.

"Fourteen other females," she muttered, staring up at the soot-stained stone ceiling. "In a town of thousands of males. And a baby on the way that doesn’t belong to any of them.

[And a very localized, very itchy skin infection,]** Weiwei added, her voice appearing like a neon sign in Lin’s mind.

[Don’t forget the rash, Host. It’s really doing wonders for your ’mystique’ right now. I’ve begun synthesizing the neutralizing agent using the nutrients from your last meal. It will take approximately 24 hours to fully clear the inflammation and the redness. Until then, I strongly suggest you stay inside and play the part of the ’ailing survivor.’]

"I’m not going anywhere," Lin sighed, her hand moving almost unconsciously to her stomach. She felt a strange, quiet warmth radiating there, a tiny spark of light that felt like the only real thing in a world of monsters and stone. "Weiwei... can the others tell? Can the Chief or the guards smell the baby? I know beastmen have senses like animals."

[Not yet,] Weiwei reassured her, though there was a hint of warning in the calculation.

[Their hormones are currently overloaded by the sheer ’novelty’ of your female scent. It’s like a perfume that’s blinding their deeper instincts. But once the shock of your arrival wears off, once they stop seeing you as a miracle and start seeing you as a mate, their predatory instincts will sharpen. You have a house, you have a guard, and you have me. But make no mistake, Lin Wan: you are a drop of honey in a very large, very hungry hive.]

Lin looked up at the high, barred window. Through the slats, she could see the flickering orange glow of torches and the long, dark shadows of the guards pacing the perimeter of her new home. She was safe for the night,

But as she closed her eyes, she knew the Chief’s "special treatment" wasn’t an act of kindness. In a town where females were rarer than gold, she wasn’t a guest. She was a resource. And, resources were meant to be used, claimed, and guarded until there was nothing left to give.

It seems, why she didn’t experience this in the leopard tribe was because she came with Wang. . . Thinking about Wang brought Lin Wan’s hand to her belly, gently stroking the live within her.