Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 229: Lie to the Liar of Liars

Vex’s smile was blinding. He released her hand and took a graceful step back.

"Excellent," Vex purred, clearly pleased with his morning’s work. "I will be back before you leave for the swamp."

Ren froze, her hand still hovering in the air. She furrowed her brows, staring at the Fox in utter bewilderment.

"How do you know about that?" Ren demanded. She had literally just finalized that yesterday. How on earth did the Fox already know her schedule? 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Vex smirked, tapping the side of his jaw. "I know everything, Little Rose. Information isn’t nearly as hard to get as you think."

With a dramatic swish of his three fiery tails, Vex turned and began walking away toward the tree line. As he strolled, he began humming a light, airy tune.

Ren furrowed her brows even deeper, wracking her brain as she watched him disappear into the foliage. She had heard that tune before somewhere. It was a catchy, rhythmic little melody. It drove her crazy not being able to place it, but she had no time to play name-that-tune.

Meanwhile, deep in the thick brush of the forest, Vex continued his leisurely stroll.

His face was composed, his posture elegant, but his lower half was in sheer, unadulterated agony. His erection was still painfully throbbing against his loincloth. The intoxicating taste of Ren’s mouth, the soft feel of her breast in his hand, and the wet friction of her grinding against him had left him in a state of hyper-arousal that was thoroughly frustrating to walk off.

He let out a long, heavy sigh as he stepped into a quiet clearing. The forest here was completely peaceful, silent save for the gentle morning wind rustling the leaves and the distant, cheerful morning song of the birds.

Vex stopped walking. He didn’t turn around.

"I know you’re following me," Vex said into the empty air, his voice dripping with bored amusement.

He slowly turned his attention toward a patch of thick foliage to his right. His orange eyes locked onto a large, bright purple flower. Or rather, what wanted to look like a flower.

Slowly, the colors on the petals began to shift and warp. The camouflage melted away, revealing the cold, swiveling eyes and scaly skin of a chameleon lizard blending perfectly into the flora.

Having been spotted, the chameleon lizard dropped from the branch. In a flash, it shifted into a lanky, shifty-eyed lizard beastman with mottled green and brown scales along his jawline.

Vex wasn’t the least bit surprised. He had known this overgrown reptile was tailing him since he left the clearing where Ren was. In fact, he knew the lizard had been creeping around the edges of that very clearing while he was busy coercing Ren.

Vex raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Why are you following me, reptile?"

The lizard beastman puffed out his chest, trying to look imposing, though he failed miserably against the towering Fox. "I am Yurk. I am from the high north, where the Golden Eagle Beast King rules the northern mountains."

Vex crossed his muscular arms, genuinely intrigued now. "Oh? The high north? You’re quite far from home, Yurk."

"I am," Yurk said, his swiveling eyes darting around nervously before settling back on the shaman. "And I wish to do a trade with the infamous Fox Shaman of this forest."

Vex scoffed softly. He had absolutely no interest in the gossip of the high north.

"What could a lizard from the high north possibly offer me?" Vex asked dryly.

Yurk took a step closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "That bird... the one that strange red-haired female is now mates with. He is actually the Golden Eagle Prince. And he is wanted back home. But he is... stubborn."

Vex’s eyes gleamed. ’Ah. The pretty birdy is royalty.’

"For a prince to fly this far away from his kingdom, there must be serious problems at home," Vex deduced instantly.

Yurk waved his scaly hands, shaking his head rapidly. "No, no! We only want the prince home safely! His father misses him terribly."

Vex smirked in deep amusement. This pathetic, cold-blooded lizard was actually trying to lie to him. Trying to lie to the liar of liars. Vex found it all so incredibly amusing.

He easily guessed the truth. A prince hiding in a foreign forest, tracked by a stealthy lizard? A massive bounty must be on the bird’s head.

But Vex decided to play along with the desperate lizard.

"I see," Vex hummed, feigning sympathy. "What do you want from me, then? Is it really that difficult catching a baby bird?"

"It is very difficult!" Yurk complained, rubbing his scaly arms. "The Eagle Prince is much stronger than he looks, and he is very smart. Brute force is not going to work on him. He also has a remarkable healing ability! I heard rumors about the Fox Shaman of this forest even in the high north. They say your mind is lesser than none in the world. The smartest and most cunning beastman alive."

Yurk bowed his head slightly. "I need someone who can outsmart the bird into a trap. You could figure out a way."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Vex chuckled softly. "But you still haven’t told me what I get in return for doing your dirty work."

The lizard finally smirked. He lowered his voice even further.

"That strange female," Yurk hissed eagerly. "She has many secrets. And I know them all. I have been watching her. Listening to her."

Vex raised his brows in feigned amusement, though a genuine spark of curiosity flickered in his orange eyes.

"You are quite smitten by the female, Shaman," Yurk went on, sounding incredibly smug. "Help me trap the bird, and I will tell you everything she hides."

In Yurk’s mind, he was a tactical genius. He thought the female was incredibly strange. She talked to herself, she pulled strange items out of thin air, and she spouted complete nonsense about ’Michelin stars’ and ’systems.’ It meant absolutely nothing to him. But he figured her nonsense could be the perfect leverage to help him secure that massive bounty on the prince.

He needed the Shaman. The prince was far stronger than he expected. He needed someone to build a trap. And Yurk was highly amused that such an intelligent, legendary beastman like Vex could be manipulated just like any average male—using the female they desire.

Yurk himself had absolutely no interest in the female or her bizarre secrets. He couldn’t understand any of it anyway. Plus, she was mates with the lethal Snake King of the swamp, and that massive White Tiger he saw her with looked terrifyingly strong. Messing with her directly would be a monumentally bad idea.

A dead lizard cannot collect a reward.

"Well," Vex murmured, leaning against a tree trunk. He admitted to himself that he was, in fact, intrigued.

But as Vex looked down at the smug lizard, a dark, incredibly arrogant thought crossed his mind.

’What could this pathetic tree lizard possibly tell me about my pretty, little human that I don’t already know?’