Beast World: A Fragile Beauty Blessed with Many Children-Chapter 46 - 45: Big Fish Beast Gong You
Males were incredibly devoted to the females and cubs, spending lavishly without giving a second thought to the Crystal Stones.
Moreover, Beastmen had huge appetites and were very active. Even the females and cubs could eat more than a growing teenage boy from modern times!
In the time it took her to nibble on her pastry, the shop’s earnings climbed into the tens, then the hundreds...
She was still excitedly counting on her fingers when Shan Man and Hezhu, having finished their look around, ran back in excitement. They each grabbed one of her hands and started pulling her into the dense crowd.
The males followed closely, their expressions serious, afraid of losing track of their females.
"Hey, where are we going?" Si Shuo glanced back reluctantly at the long line in front of the pastry shop. ’Maybe I should take advantage of all the Beastmen in Nanye City right now,’ she thought. ’I could set up a stall with my Beast Husbands and earn a little extra cash.’
"To the Beast Fighting Arena," Shan Man said with a smile. "It’s not just us females coming to Nanye City to find Beast Husbands. Lots of males with high Combat Power come looking for females with strong fertility, too.
Just talking big and showing off the Combat Power Value on your Beast Pattern isn’t enough. For all anyone knows, you could just be all for show, your level padded out with Crystal Stones.
That’s why this Beast Fighting Arena exists—to attract us females! It gets incredibly lively this time of year..."
Hezhu nodded in agreement, a look of yearning on her face. "If a female takes a liking to a male on the stage, they can become mates, as long as the male is also satisfied with her.
Many males use the fights in the Beast Fighting Arena to win the favor of the Female Saints."
The females nearby also clenched their fists, their voices filled with excitement. "I heard from the older women in my tribe that there’s a Big Fish Beast from the outer seas named Gong You—they don’t know what species he is. He fights on the Beast Fighting Platform every year, but no Female Saint has claimed him yet."
"But why? Isn’t he looking for a Female Saint? Every year the Beast God designates three to five Female Saints, and that’s not even counting the ones who travel here from all over. With that many Female Saints, not a single one has caught his eye?"
"Who knows? Anyway, I heard he’s incredibly handsome, rivaling even the Mermaids..."
Si Shuo listened with great interest. ’It’s true what they say, gossip thrives in a crowd. Being away from all my electronics has really shrunk my mental world by half.’
Still, like a child who had never seen the world, she kept turning her head to make sure her Beast Husbands were still following.
Passing a stall, she picked up a mask of a Cat Beastman carved from bone. She put it on, obscuring the upper half of her face. All that remained visible were her eyes, as clear and blue as a washed sky, and her lips, more beautiful than peach blossoms on a spring branch.
She smiled at Zhi Le and struck the pose of a beckoning cat, then turned to Ji Liang and let out a fierce MEOW.
Her adorable, playful antics made both males’ hearts pound!
Neither of them mentioned that their little female was especially eye-catching with the mask on.
Ji Liang dutifully handed the stall owner a Level 1 Crystal Stone.
The closer they got to the Beast Fighting Arena, the thicker the crowd of Beastmen became. From a distance, they could hear the hoarse shouts of the males. A few daring females were also shouting the names of certain Beastmen—all popular contenders in the arena this year!
Shan Man and Hezhu had arrived a few days before Si Shuo, so they were more familiar with everything and took turns filling her in.
They couldn’t compete with the Female Saints, but there were plenty of males in the Beast Fighting Arena. Surely some of them would be on a similar level and willing to become their mates.
When they reached the edge of the crowd, Ji Liang shifted into his Beast Form. He lifted Si Shuo onto his head, instantly raising her ten meters into the air. Aside from the females sitting on the Flying Beasts that circled overhead, Si Shuo now had one of the best views.
Almost immediately, however, several Snake Beastmen hoisted their own females up and raised their heads high.
Some distance away, Si Shuo spotted the Female Saint, Chu Man, sitting atop a Golden Python Beastman!
The Beast Fighting Arena contained ten Beast Fighting Platforms, each about a hundred square meters and surrounded by a Protective Shield powered by Crystal Stone energy. A match was underway on every platform.
The males mostly fought in their Beast Form; only ten or twenty percent remained in their humanoid form.
They had been rushing on the road lately, so Si Shuo had to put her gathering tasks on hold. The few Beast Coins she had saved up back in the Fengchuan Tribe had been all but squandered on her cravings.
She had just traded for a few more snacks—some crab-roe-flavored sunflower seeds, potato chips, almonds, and various dried fruits. She didn’t get much of each, just about a pound in total, which she tucked into the Beast Skin Bag at her waist.
She was really just there for the spectacle and wasn’t particularly interested in the males’ fights. Her mind was on her pastry business idea as she casually glanced at the platforms, popping snacks into her mouth while talking to Ji Liang.
"Ji Liang, you said they sell Floating Wheat and rice here? I haven’t seen any."
"They do, but those few shops buy up all the Floating Wheat and rice before it can even be sold to the public. They turn it into prepared food and then sell it to customers."
’Isn’t that a monopoly? No one else can even get the ingredients to compete with them.’
"Do the owners of those shops have powerful backgrounds? You can’t just sell food freely in the workshop, can you?"
She hadn’t just been browsing. She had also been observing carefully. The owner of every stall had a respectable Combat Power, and their way of dealing with customers carried an undercurrent of confidence, an aura that they weren’t afraid of trouble. It was very similar to the long-established merchants in tourist hotspots.
Ji Liang was surprised by his little female’s perceptiveness. He nodded slightly and hissed, "That’s right. Nanye City has been developing for several hundred beast-years now. Many of the stalls have been passed down for generations. They’re all packed in one next to another, so there are almost no open spots.
Because of that, the few workshops here all sell similar things, following the same model. What is sold in each workshop, and how many stalls sell it, has all been temporarily settled through countless struggles, big and small."
Si Shuo sighed softly. "In other words, if we were to set up a stall and business was bad, we wouldn’t be able to afford the fee and would end up losing Crystal Stones.
But if business is good, we’ll attract the wrong kind of attention and will probably be ganged up on by the other food vendors?"
Ji Liang’s eyes narrowed slightly as he let out a hissing laugh. "Exactly. The more prosperous a place seems, the more complex and unshakeable the powers behind the scenes are.
Back when I was leading the Traveling Merchant Team, I made sure to stay out of their way when we were procuring goods in Nanye City.
There’s no need to attract trouble just for a few Crystal Stones."
Si Shuo popped some more snacks into her mouth, sounding a little dejected. "Then if we go to the Central Continent, will the situation be even more severe?
Will we even have a chance to make our mark?"
Ji Liang really wanted to pull his little female into his arms. ’What other female thinks about things like this?’
This meeting of minds was far more thrilling than any visual beauty, and it made his heart melt like a pool of spring water.
He chuckled softly. "In that case, Little Shuoshuo, you should just find a powerful Beast Husband from a great family with a strong background. We can rest in the shade of a big tree, and all our problems will solve themselves!"
Si Shuo nearly choked. ’Why is it that no matter how a conversation starts, it always ends up being about finding another mate?’
Suddenly, a series of sharp cries pulled her attention back to the Beast Fighting Arena.
"It’s Gong You! Ah, Gong You just leaped onto the platform! This time he’s facing a Level 10 Long Tusked Elephant Beastman! There’s a whole color difference between Level 9 and Level 10! Besides, Long Tusked Elephant Beastmen are known for having extremely high attack and defense..."
