Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 331: The future looked black

Su Qinglan looked up at the platform and saw the Priest.

The Priest of the Fox Tribe was a very mysterious and strange man. She had only seen him a few times, but his words were always true.

He was a major reason the tribe had survived for so long. His warning about the rainy season had been perfectly right, and now, Su Qinglan felt a knot of fear in her stomach.

She suspected he was about to announce the beast tide. She prayed that he would only announce an upcoming attack and not tell everyone that the tribe was destined to perish.

She watched him nervously as the center filled up.

Because this call was so urgent, everyone had arrived. People had even notified the Rabbit Tribe and the Lion Tribe.

The area became so crowded that you could barely move; it felt like being squeezed in a giant crowd.

Thankfully, Su Qinglan was at the very front near her father. She didn’t have to worry about being pushed because her four husbands surrounded her like a wall.

Each of them looked so intimidating and powerful that no one dared to press against them.

She looked around the clearing to find familiar faces. On one side, she saw Bai Ling waving at her frantically from the crowd. Su Qinglan gave a small nod back, but her heart wasn’t in it.

Then, she looked toward the opposite side. Her eyes suddenly met with the Lion King, Shi Feng.

He was standing just a few meters away, looking directly at her. Even in this massive crowd, he stood alone. No one dared to approach him or stand too close because his aura was so regal and fierce.

The loud sound finally stopped. A heavy silence fell over the hundreds of people gathered in the clearing.

The Priest was unnaturallu calm, his eyes milky and deep as if he were looking into another world.

Su Qinglan held her breath, clutching her clothes tightly as she waited for the words that would decide the fate of her home.

The tribal center was packed so tightly that there was barely any room to breathe.

Thousands of voices rose together in a loud, confused hum as the fox beastmen, the visiting rabbits, and the strong lion warriors all wondered the same thing:

Why had the tribe leader summoned every single soul to the square?

The air was filled with the scent of sweat, fur, and growing anxiety.

Females held their cubs tightly, and beast warriors gripped their stone knives, sensing that this was not a normal gathering.

Su Mingxuan, the Tribe Leader, stepped to the edge of the high wooden platform. He looked out over the sea of faces, his own expression grim and aged.

He let out a loud, sharp cough that sliced through the noise. When that wasn’t enough, he used his internal power to let out a boom of authority.

"Silence!" his voice roared, echoing off the tall trees surrounding the center. "Listen to your leader!"

The crowd immediately began to settle. Su Mingxuan did not waste time with small talk.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a man who hadn’t slept in days. "I have not summoned you here for celebration," he said, his voice dropping to a serious tone.

"The Priest has received a vision. It is an honor that the heavens acknowledge us, but you must behave and listen with your full attention. If any beastman speaks while the Priest is talking, they will face my wrath."

His voice carried a clear threat, and his terrifying expression made even the bravest hunters shrink back.

The entire crowd went deathly silent. Even the small cubs, who usually whimpered or played, stared up with wide, fearful eyes.

They could feel the depressing and heavy atmosphere pressing down on them.

The Priest stepped forward. He was draped in old furs and wore a necklace of ancient fangs.

His eyes seemed to look through the people and into the very soul of the forest. He raised his wooden staff and slammed it against the floorboards.

"Children of the Beast God," the Priest began, his voice raspy but reaching every ear.

"May the Beast God bless us in times of peace, but know this: there comes a time when the God takes our test. We are being tested. I have felt a darkness moving in the deep woods. I have received an intuition that our tribe is about to face a calamity so great it will shake the earth."

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. "If we survive this calamity, there will be no tribe in the world as great as ours. Our culture, our food, and our strength will increase by leaps and bounds. We will become a legend among beastmen. But..."

The Priest’s face darkened, and he looked down at his trembling hands.

"But if we fail, the entire Fox Tribe will perish. Not a single survivor will be left to tell our story. The forest will swallow our homes, and our names will be forgotten forever."

A wave of shock rippled through the crowd, but before anyone could cry out or digest the news, the Priest spoke the most terrifying words of all.

"I have seen the vision of our future," he whispered, yet the silence made it sound like a shout.

"In the vision I saw most clearly... the Fox Tribe has already perished. I saw our fires extinguished. I saw our homes empty. I saw the end of our bloodline."

The silence that followed was like a physical blow. A cold chill swept through the square.

The fox beastmen, who had always relied on the Priest’s accuracy, felt their hearts drop into their stomachs.

He had never been wrong. He had predicted the great floods and the droughts. If he saw them dead, did that mean they were already walking ghosts?

Many of the females began to weep silently, while the males stood in a daze, refusing to believe their ears.

Some looked toward the forest edge, tempted to grab their families and run away immediately, hoping to escape a fate that seemed already written.

The small group of Rabbit Tribe members, no more than twenty people, stood huddled together in a corner.

Their long ears were flattened against their heads in terror. They had joined the Fox Tribe for protection and a better life.

Now, they realized with dread that if the Foxes fell, they would be the first to be crushed. Their hearts were filled with a suffocating fear.

On the other side of the square, the Lion Tribe warriors stood in a tight formation. They were powerful and brave, but even they were stunned.

They had come to this village as weary travelers and had been met with kindness they never expected.

The Fox Tribe had given them shelter and delicious food during the hardest time of their lives.

To hear that such a kind and generous people were destined for total slaughter made the lions growl in low, angry tones.

They looked at the Fox Tribe members...their new friends and potential mates...and felt a surge of protective fury.

How could the Beast God be so cruel to the kindest tribe they had ever met?

Su Qinglan stood at the front, her hand clutching Xuan Long’s arm so hard her knuckles were white.

She looked at the Priest, then at her father, and finally at the hundreds of terrified faces behind her.

The System’s warning and the Priest’s vision were the same. The future looked black.