SGSHE70

As an expert hunter who had captured countless prey, the beastmen’s keen instincts told him he had to seize this opportunity!

Therefore, AXing reached out and wrapped his arms around the waist of the young beastman, who was already taller than himself, and said jokingly, “If you stay well-behaved like this, brother Xing will like you.”

Jing Heguang: …Treated like a kid again.

But he was being hugged back!

Jing Heguang embraced the one he loved, completely oblivious to the fact that he was already bigger and taller than AXing. He continued acting like a child: “If I’m good, will brother Xing really like me? You can’t lie to me.”

AXing nodded. “I’m not lying. You’re adorable when you’re well-behaved, who wouldn’t like that?”

Jing Heguang thought back to his cub form, which had indeed charmed the entire tribe, and suddenly felt a surge of confidence.

Overjoyed, Jing Heguang’s tail began to wag on its own.

Noticing his tail, Jing Heguang grabbed the large, fluffy appendage and thrust it into AXing’s hands.

“Here, you can play with my tail!”

His ears were too small, but his tail was big, touching it felt no different from petting his cub-form self.

AXing grasped a section of the tail, his smile freezing. “Don’t you know that you shouldn’t just let people play with your tail?”

A beastmen’s tail and ears were actually highly sensitive areas. Back when the cub used to perch on his head, AXing would often feel an itch in his ears.

And the tail was even more sensitive than the ears. But these were things a beastmen would only understand after reaching adulthood.

“But my tail feels really good to touch!” Jing Heguang said. He wanted to please AXing.

AXing felt the cub was truly innocent.

Then again, the cub had only just come of age, how could he possibly know that one shouldn’t let others play with their tail?

AXing mischievously stroked the little cub’s tail, running his hand from the base all the way to the tip.

Jing Heguang felt a jolt of electricity shoot up from his tailbone straight to his brain, leaving his whole body tingling and weak.

He let out a soft, involuntary sound and shifted his tail, and his backside, backward.

Feigning ignorance of the cub’s reaction, AXing continued to stroke the tail, using a deliberately provocative touch.

Hearing the cub’s breathing grow heavy, AXing suppressed a smile. “AGuang, your tail really is great to touch.”

Jing Heguang: …He was going to die of embarrassment.

He didn’t dare speak. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, brother Xing would realize something was amiss.

Damn tail! Why was it so sensitive?

Jing Heguang took a couple of surreptitious breaths and quietly pulled his tail away. “Let’s…let’s just go to sleep.”

The beastman, who possessed excellent night vision, replied, “Sure, let’s sleep.”

Only when he heard the other’s breathing steady did the sensation in his lower body finally subside.

He touched his tail himself, but felt nothing.

“Why did I react so strongly when brother Xing touched it?” he wondered. “That was almost humiliating.”

With his mind still on his tail, Jing Heguang tossed and turned before finally drifting off to sleep.

Once the little beastman was asleep, AXing, lying on the outer edge of the bed, reached out in high spirits and ‘accidentally’ brushed against the cub’s tail.

Feeling the tail instantly curl up, AXing chuckled softly to himself. What a silly cub.

His cub was so naive, he’d have to keep a close eye on him, or someone else might easily trick him away.

Plus, the fact that the cub hadn’t recoiled when touched in that spot was a very good sign. As a mature beastman who had been an adult for years, the maltese tiger thought he must find an opportunity later to let the little cub experience other kinds of pleasures and broaden his horizons.

Just as AXing was thinking this, the sleeping Jing Heguang, sensing his hands were empty, reached out to touch AXing’s waist again, wrapping his arms around him possessively before finally settling down to sleep.

AXing’s mood improved even further, the little cub really relied on him.

As for the cub being a bit possessive?

Actually, he preferred a mighty yet adorable young beastman over a merely cute little cub.

***

The next day.

Jing Heguang rose early and joined AXing in the hunting party to go out and catch wild beast.

The previous incident involving the spiny behemoth in the cornfield had been partly caused by Huang Shi’s deliberate actions, but it was also because the beast had wandered near the area where the corn grew.

Therefore, whenever the hunting party set out, they would make a few rounds through the areas where sub-beastmen frequently ventured.

The forest was full of branches, so AXing told Jing Heguang to be careful and wait until they encountered prey before shifting into his beast form.

Thus, while some of the beastmen had shifted into tigers, Jing Heguang continued to walk on two legs, trailing at the back of the group.

His original owner had previously accompanied the sub-beastmen on gathering trips, so he recognized quite a few fruits and plants. The path they were taking today was one Jing Heguang knew well.

As he walked, Jing Heguang picked fruit and stowed it in his animal hide pouch, he had finished all the fruit at home.

***

As the beastmen moved forward, another group, whose members looked somewhat less clean, was approaching from the opposite direction.

Lion beastmen from the Wandering Lion tribe walked through the forest. Their cold, indifferent eyes sweeping over the tawny brown tiger. “Huang Shi, is that really the place where your Tiger Clan’s sub-beastmen gather fruit? We’re new to this territory, but if you’re lying to us…”

As the Lion Clan beastmen uttered this threat, the other lions opened their massive jaws, exhaling waves of foul-smelling breath toward Huang Shi.

Huang Shi snorted coldly. “Why would I lie? You’re the ones who want the sub-beastmen.”

Huang Shi hadn’t expected to be so unlucky. He had barely stepped outside his tribe’s territory when he ran into a powerful group from the lion tribe beastmen.

This group belonged to a lion tribe that had recently relocated en masse. Rumor had it that the tribe boasted three exceptionally strong lion brothers, the eldest of whom was a rare, mutated black lion.

Compared to other tribes, the lion tribe had a notorious reputation.

Lion beastmen were inherently greedy and unfaithful to their mates. They had a voracious appetite for procreation, leading to chaotic sexual dynamics within the tribe.

Since bearing offspring took a heavy toll on a sub-shouren’s body, their numbers were constantly dwindling, prompting lion beastmen to prey on other tribe’s sub-beastmen.

Once a lion tribe had victimized enough local settlements, they would inevitably face a united resistance from the area, which was exactly why this particular tribe had been forced to retreat.

The group Huang Shi encountered was led by the second of the three lion brothers; it consisted of over twenty strong, young male lions.

Upon their first encounter, Huang Shi had been swarmed by the powerful lions and nearly mauled to death.

Desperate to survive and knowing the lion clan’s nature, he had saved his life by dangling the prospect of tiger sub-beastmen as bait.

After issuing one final threat to the tiger, the lions moved forward with satisfaction, though they proceeded more cautiously now. After all, they were here to snatch sub-beastmen. They couldn’t afford to scare everyone away before they even arrived. At the thought that the tiger tribe sub-beastmen were likely well-cared-for, quite a few lions in the group began to grow restless.

They had just moved to the area, and for a long time on the journey here, they hadn’t encountered any decent sub-beastmen.

***

Meanwhile, within the tiger tribe hunting party, a few tigers acted as the vanguard while the rest of the beastmen followed close behind.

The tiger tribe beastmen were industrious, finishing the hunt early meant they could return to spend time with their cubs and sub-beastmen, so everyone was highly motivated.

Jing Heguang, however, felt differently. He had picked a good number of delicious fruits, peeled one, and popped it into the mouth of the maltese tiger, who was currently in his beast form.

With the person he loved right by his side, he found being out here quite pleasant.

The maltese tiger swallowed the fruit in one gulp and praised it: “It’s very sweet.”

The white tiger, still in human form, leaned in close to Jing Heguang: “What kind of fruit is that? I want something sweet too!” He had a sweet tooth as well.

Jing Heguang thought about how he had eaten all the other party meat last night, so he shared half of his fruit with him.

While the two were sharing the fruit, a group of lion beastmen, who had been lying in wait nearby, spotted this party of tiger beastmen!

Their target was supposed to be the sub-beastmen, yet what they encountered instead were beastmen warriors.

The lion beastmen’s first reaction was, they had been deceived by Huang Shi!

Shi Er, the leader of the Lion group, quickly counted the tiger warriors, seeing that the numbers were roughly equal, he felt reassured.

After all, lion beastmen possessed slightly superior combat strength compared to the tiger and were more accustomed to coordinated team fighting.

Huang Shi was a step behind, but he too realized that the approaching group was actually a hunting party!

Among the tiger group, he spotted an old nemesis.

Just as Huang Shi was about to let out a low growl and charge over to maul the maltese tiger to death, Shi Er, thinking Huang Shi intended to tip off the enemy, pounced, pinning him to the ground and biting down hard on his neck, a spray of blood splattered across the forest floor!

Bitten and roaring, Huang Shi struggled violently, inadvertently revealing the lion beastmen’s presence to the opposing side.

The tiger warriors immediately shifted into their beast forms, their backs arching as they prepared for battle.

Only Jing Heguang remained standing in human form.

Jing Heguang was surprised, why did the lion beastmen arrive so early?

It was only after recognizing Huang Shi’s roar that he pieced the situation together.

So, Huang Shi had colluded with the lions! He had hooked up with them and provided the information they wanted regarding the sub-beastmen.

However, Huang Shi was unaware that the tiger-clan tribe had altered their hunting party arrangements. Thus, the lion beastmen had run into this group of warriors instead of the sub-beastmen.

Realizing something was amiss, the lion beastmen had turned on Huang Shi in frustration!

As it stood, the lion beastmen had already intruded deep into tiger-clan territory. Among beastmen tribes, carnivorous beastmen of the same rank cannot coexist. The actions of the lions were a blatant provocation!

Not to mention that the lions were coveting the tiger-kin’s sub-beastmen, a clash between the two tribes was inevitable. To defend their territory, it would be a fight to the death.

Jing Heguang decided to wait and play the role of a cunning, ambush-loving ‘dog’. Otherwise, the moment he shifted into his beast form, the little lions would all scatter and run.

Across the way, Shi Er, having just mauled the ‘lying’ tiger to death, roared arrogantly at the tigers.

“Roar—”

The other lions, emboldened and aggressive, joined in with low growls, locking eyes with their respective targets.

In the midst of roaring, Shi Er noticed something: among the tiger-kin, standing beside a dark-colored tiger, was another beastman who was foolishly remaining in his human form.

Shi Er couldn’t help but look down on the tigers even more. The fact that there was actually a beastmen too terrified to shift into beast form was absolutely hilarious to him!

Jing Heguang: ???

Was that lion laughing at him?!