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Chapter 321: Beast God’s Punishment
Qiao Xixi nodded.
"They’ve stayed in Tiger Beast City before. Just in case, I’ve had someone keep an eye on them."
Qiao Xixi realized that when Feiyan was handling official business, he wasn’t a fool at all.
"Mm."
The current number of beastmen in the tribe was less than half of what it used to be. The size of their population was key to making the tribe strong again.
But the prerequisite was that these beastmen couldn’t have ulterior motives.
"Let’s wait and see for now."
A fox will always show its tail eventually.
Meanwhile, on a mountain outside the tribe, Xijing was hidden in a crevice not far from the water source.
He kept a close watch on his surroundings.
Before long, a Deer Beast slowly walked over.
He came to the water’s edge and looked around, as if to confirm whether there was any danger.
After confirming that there was nothing out of the ordinary, he shifted into his human form, took out a beast-hide pouch, opened it, and poured the powder inside into the water.
The powder drifted on the breeze. Xijing’s expression darkened—it was the scent of that poison powder.
The male Deer Beast had just sprinkled the poison into the water and was about to leave when a pillar of water shot up from behind him, binding him like a rope and suspending him in mid-air.
"Ah! W-what is this? Let go of me! Let me down!"
Xijing walked out. With a wave of his hand, the pillar of water dispersed, and the male Deer Beast slammed hard onto the ground.
As soon as the male Deer Beast was free, he tried to run, but a tall figure blocked his path. He was so frightened he fell right on his butt.
...
Back in the tribe, Qiao Xixi and Feiyan returned to the inner city after visiting the last female whose cub had been born with problems.
As soon as Qiao Xixi entered the stone house, she saw Jin Ling coming out of the kitchen.
"Jin Ling, why are you back?"
"We caught the beastman who was poisoning the water."
Qiao Xixi frowned. "Where is he?"
"I had Xijing lock him in the dungeon. He said another male told him to do it, but the person hid their face and concealed their aura, so he doesn’t know who it was."
Seeing her frown made Jin Ling’s heart ache. He reached out and gently smoothed the space between her eyebrows.
"Xixi, don’t worry. We can first determine whether the enemy is inside or outside the tribe."
Feiyan was confused. "Didn’t he say he has no idea who it was? How can we determine that?"
Jin Ling said, "Their motive isn’t clear yet, but the fact that they’re still sending someone to poison the water means they haven’t achieved their goal."
Feiyan: "And then?"
A dark glint flashed in his gilded golden eyes. "If we cut off the poisoned water source and obstruct his plan, what do you think? Will he get anxious?"
Qiao Xixi gave Jin Ling a thumbs-up. "We can connect a new water source. He’ll definitely make another move."
Feiyan clapped his hands lightly. "Right, let’s do it."
Early the next morning, Feiyan announced that the water source was contaminated. He forbid the beastmen from collecting water there and led them to a new collection point instead.
Jin Ling had already started work on the new location with some others, but it hadn’t been finished. Last night, they worked through the night to connect it.
The beastmen of the tribe were confused, but since they knew it wouldn’t affect their water supply, they didn’t say anything.
Among the beastmen collecting water, a pair of dark, somber eyes stared coldly at the new water source.
To Qiao Xixi’s surprise, the person behind this was patient. For the next several days, Jin Ling and the others guarding the new water source didn’t notice anything unusual.
But before long, a rumor suddenly spread through the tribe: because they had been punished by the Beast God, the tribe’s females were giving birth to monster cubs.
Night fell.
Almost all the beastmen in the tribe were asleep.
"Aah! A monster!"
Just then, a terrified scream shattered the quiet night.
The patrol team heard the commotion and quickly followed the sound. When they reached a stone house, they saw a male Horse Beast sitting on the ground, staring in terror toward the house.
"Ma Zhu, what’s wrong?"
Ma Qing stepped forward and helped Ma Zhu to his feet.
Ma Zhu grabbed Ma Qing’s hand, trembling in fear. "Big Brother, i-it’s a monster! They were right! The Black Panther Tribe has been cursed by the Beast God, and that’s why the cubs born to the females in our tribe are turning into monsters!"
Ma Qing’s face fell, and he glared sternly at him. "Shut up! Don’t spread nonsense."
This rumor had only started spreading in the last two days. After he reported it to Feiyan, Feiyan had told him to investigate its source, but he hadn’t found anything yet.
Ma Qing hurried into the house. The air was thick with the overwhelming stench of blood. Ma Zhu’s female mate lay weakly on the bed. Her other two beastman mates were clearly frightened as well, standing frozen without reacting.
Ma Qing walked over to a beast-hide pouch and looked inside, his expression changing slightly.
Several bloody, bizarre-looking cubs lay lifeless inside. Judging by their size, they were less than a month old, only as big as his palm.
Ma Qing quickly covered the pouch. "Don’t spread this around. I will explain the situation to the Clan Leader."
Hearing this, the female on the bed sat up weakly.
"Is it? Is it because the Beast God doesn’t accept the current Clan Leader, so he sent down this punishment on the tribe, making us give birth to these monsters?"
"It must be! I’ve heard it’s because of the Clan Leader."
"Those are just false rumors!"
Ma Qing wanted to argue, but he didn’t know what to say. After all, what was happening now was beyond his comprehension.
"How can they be rumors? The one Ancient Flower gave birth to was a monster too, and so were the cubs of other females. It’s not just one or two."
Ma Qing looked up in surprise and realized that a large crowd of beastmen had gathered outside the stone house at some point.
"This is all because the Clan Leader isn’t acknowledged by the Beast God! That’s why we haven’t received the Beast God’s blessing!"
"That’s right! I’m going to find the Clan Leader! If she can’t make the cubs in our females’ wombs normal again, then she has no right to be the Clan Leader!"
The beastmen shouted as they started heading toward the inner city.
"What are you doing?! You can’t go! This has nothing to do with the Clan Leader!"
Ma Qing immediately ordered the patrol team to block them, but there were too many of them. The patrol couldn’t hold them back, and the crowd heading for the inner city was growing. Things would get out of hand if this continued.
"Hold them back as best you can! I’ll hurry ahead and explain the situation to the Clan Leader."
"Right."
After saying this, Ma Qing immediately shifted into his beast form and sprinted toward the inner city.
「In the inner city.」
Qiao Xixi had just taken a bath and returned to her room.
When the little tiger cub saw her mother, she scrambled into her arms on all fours.
Qiao Xixi picked her up and planted a kiss on her tender little cheek.
"Not sleepy yet?"
The little tiger cub kept nuzzling against her chest, and Qiao Xixi looked helpless.
She had weaned the little one before she left to find Xijing. Who knew the cub had such a good memory? As soon as Xixi came back, she started pawing at her, looking for milk.
"There’s none left, none left. Stop fussing."
Qiao Xixi gently pinched her little mouth to stop her from nibbling randomly.
None left!!
The little tiger cub understood.
Her world came crashing down!
The cub’s little body slumped over, overcome with grief.
Qiao Xixi couldn’t stand how cute she was. She grabbed her for a storm of kisses. "You drink so much goat beast milk every day and it’s still not enough? You’re such a little glutton."
The little tiger cub was kissed into a daze, her big eyes about to close, but when she heard footsteps outside the door, she shot up from the bed.