SGSHE72

As the lion tribe beastmen made their way there, beastmen from other tribes spotted their movements. Consequently, the various tribes dispatched their swiftest runners to secretly tip off the tiger tribe.

The tiger tribe beastmen were known for their good temper, they wouldn’t bully the weak without cause. For a long time, the beastman tribes in the area had lived in peace, minding their own business and maintaining friendly neighborly relations.

Moreover, since the tiger tribe was the only one nearby capable of contending with the lion tribe, the other beastmen were eager to see the lions driven away and certainly didn’t want the tigers to suffer a defeat.

No one wants to be constantly oppressed, not even the weak.

The goat tribe beastmen arrived first, having traveled via mountain paths.

Upon entering the tiger tribe’s settlement, the goat beastmen hurriedly recounted the outrageous things the lions had done and mentioned how they had been snooping around for information about the tigers.

After explaining the situation, the goat beastmen anxiously urged the tigers: “Quick, go tell your patriarch! Tell him to be on his guard against the lion tribe beastmen!”

The tiger tribe beastmen remained remarkably calm.

“It’s fine. If the lion tribe dares to come to our settlement, they’re sure to suffer a crushing defeat.”

The goat beastmen were puzzled: Why were the tiger tribe beastmen so confident?

Logically speaking, tigers couldn’t beat Llons in a fight!

While the tigers remained unperturbed, the goats were frantic. They rushed to see the tiger patriarch, only to be told there was no need to worry. He explained that their tribe had a powerful canine beastman with a massive beast form, one capable of stomping a Spiny Behemoth flat with a single kick.

Spiny Behemoths were notorious, ferocious beasts, the kind that could swallow a goat in a single bite!

The goat beastmen: …Have the tiger tribe beastmen all gone mad?

A short while later, beneath the large tree where the tiger tribe received guests…

The goat beastman was surrounded by deer beastmen, cat beastmen, and canine beastmen…

They all shared the same grim realization: they were done for.

***

Before long, the black Llon arrived deep within the tiger tribe’s territory, accompanied by his fellow lion beastmen.

The tiger tribe had left a portion of their warriors behind to guard the settlement. The rest, having eaten and rested well, marched out to confront the hostile lion beastmen.

The black lion’s indifferent gaze swept across the crowd of tigers.

“Two days ago, my second brother accidentally wandered into your territory, and I haven’t seen a trace of him since. Did you tiger tribe members hide him away?!”

In his human form, the black lion was exceptionally tall and powerfully built, with bulging muscles.

The tiger tribe patriarch, standing amidst his kin, spoke up: “Leader of the Lion tribe, you’ve brought so many of your people into our territory, is this really just about finding someone?”

“Hand over my brother! If you don’t, I’ll bathe your tribe in blood!” With a furious roar, the black lion transformed into his mighty beast form.

As littermates, the black Llon held a genuine bond with his brother. This connection fueled an even more intense desire to slaughter the tiger tribe members before him.

After the roar, a crimson hue bled into the black lion’s eyes, making him appear all the more eerie and terrifying.

The tiger tribe warriors stood widely spaced, ready to quickly close ranks and form a perimeter.

Upon hearing the lion’s roar, many of the tiger tribe warriors also shifted into their beast forms.

Yet, these tiger tribe warriors were not at all as the lion beastmen had imagined.

Why did they look so calm? There was no sign of nervousness, agitation, or even the anger one would expect when their territory was being invaded.

Shi San, who was sharp-witted, sensed this oddity most clearly.

However, he had always believed in his eldest brother’s prowess, and his resentment toward the tiger tribe over his second brother’s disappearance caused him to dismiss these small details. Shi San thought to himself: “After all, the tiger tribe has a mutant of its own, a formidable one at that, so they’ll surely look down on our tribe!”

A massive clash between the two sides was imminent.

The black lion spotted the maltese tiger, whose coat color and markings were truly unique, and charged straight toward him.

The forest erupted with the ceaseless roars of lions and tigers.

The noise was so loud it could be heard all the way back at the tiger tribe’s settlement.

Inside the settlement, beneath a great tree…

A goat beastman was fretting aloud: “I’m worried sick! Maybe we should pack up early and just run for it together?”

They couldn’t beat that wretched pack of lions, it would be better to flee early and save a few more sub-beastmen in the process.

The shaman tried to reassure him: “Hiu Yang, don’t worry. Our tribe will drive the lions away. Why don’t we discuss how to take in the sub-beastmen the lion tribe will leave behind?”

The lion tribe’s sub-beastmen were all from being abducted. If the tigers could defeat the lions, they could certainly return those sub-beastmen to their respective tribes!

The goa beastman sighed heavily, on the verge of asking, “Are we really relying on that canine beastmen?” After all, just yesterday, two beastmen from the Short-Legged Dog tribe had just been mauled to death.

Suddenly, the ground shook in the distance, and a massive canine beastman appeared.

The goat beastman: !!!

The short-legged dog beastmen: ???

Wasn’t that the beast form of the Shiba Inu clan—a branch of their own Dog Tribe?!

Could a Shiba Inu beast form really be that huge?!

Why hadn’t their tribe’s ancestral records ever mentioned this?!

Beastmen from all the other tribes stared in dumbfounded shock.

It turned out the tiger tribe beastmen hadn’t gone mad after all, the world itself was simply bizarre!

***

Back in the settlement, all was peaceful.

Outside, Jing Heguang was chasing the black lion, trying to stomp on him. This black lion actually wanted to bully his brother Xing, just like the lion from yesterday.

Did he really look like such an easy target?

Jing Heguang was annoyed. He abruptly thrust out his right forepaw and stomped hard onto the black lion’s head.

Fueled by his irritation, Jing Heguang stomped on the black lion several extra times.

Consequently, the black lion’s agonized shrieks rang out, reaching the ears of every lion beastman.

Shi San was so terrified his legs gave way.What kind of monster is this canine beastman who had emerged from the tiger tribe? He had actually stomped his big brother to death right before their eyes!

The black lion’s formidable strength had been deeply etched in the minds of every lion beastman.

Now that their strongest warrior had been stomped to death, unable to put up even the slightest resistance, the lion beastmen’s psychological defenses completely collapsed.

Many lion beastmen abandoned their opponents, attempting to flee amidst the chaos. If they didn’t run, they would surely be stomped to death sooner or later!

The lion members scattered in all directions, while the tiger beastmen pursued and intercepted them.

Last time, with fewer people involved, the lion beastmen hadn’t managed to escape. This time, despite the larger numbers, a few desperate lion beastmen still managed to get away. The rest were either trampled or mauled to death, or captured with their legs broken.

AXing, who was usually the main combatant, glanced somewhat uncomfortably at the little cub stomping around wildly, then turned his attention to organizing other matters.

He had originally intended to spar with the black lion himself.

But the moment the black lion roared at him, the little cub had angrily shifted into his beast form, charged out, and…trampled the opponent to death.

It turned out that not being the strongest beastman wasn’t a bad feeling after all. This must be what it felt like to be protected, right?

As this thought crossed his mind, AXing glanced at that massive canine beast form, a smile unconsciously appearing on his lips.

***

After clearing away the bodies of the lion beastmen, the tiger tribe, acting on the shaman’s advice, joined forces with beastmen from other tribes to head to the lion tribe’s territory and ‘reclaim’ the sub-beastmen.

The beastmen reacted and moved swiftly. By the time they arrived, the lion beastmen who had fled back hadn’t yet managed to forcibly drag the sub-beastmen away.

With advantages in both numbers and strength, the allied beastmen quickly subdued the lion tribe.

As for the sub-beastmen, they were all willing to leave the lion tribe.

Most of them had been abducted and disliked the lion beastmen’s ways.

Even the sub-beastmen native to the lion tribe held very low status there, treated much like slaves to the beastmen. Once they learned they were free to leave, even the lion tribe’s own sub-beastmen wanted to run away!

As the most powerful tribe, the tiger tribe attracted the largest number of sub-beastmen willing to follow them. Others chose to return to tribes of their own kind.

Since the various tribes respected the sub-beastmen’s wishes, there were no objections. Thus, without any dispute, the beastman tribes reached a consensus and returned to their respective homes.

***

Jing Heguang didn’t try to steal the spotlight this time. Instead, the tiger beastmen were getting carried away, each striving to show off their prowess before the new sub-beastmen.

The white tiger was trailing close to a tiger sub-beastman, offering him sweet, fragrant fruit to curry favor.

The sub-beastman being pestered by the white tiger was named Huanghua, he had yellow ears, and his name signified that he was as beautiful as a flower.

Huanghua was the very sub-beastman the black lion had previously favored most. Having stepped out of the lion tribe’s territory, he still found it hard to believe that he no longer had to worry about being eaten.

As Huanghua seemed lost in thought, the white tiger looked dejectedly toward his friends, brother Xing and AGuang.

His friends didn’t seem interested in the sub-beastmen at all. Right now, brother Xing had shifted into his tiger form and was carrying the block of salt from the lion tribe, while AGuang walked beside him, chatting and laughing.

However, when he saw AGuang grab and stroke brother Xing’s tail, the white tiger suddenly realized something was amiss.

A beastman’s tail wasn’t something to be touched casually, only a sub-beastman was allowed to touch it.

His two friends had been getting awfully close lately, hadn’t they?

***

Just ahead of the white tiger…

The Maltese tiger used his tail to lightly swat the little cub’s restless hand, deciding he would have to ‘teach the cub a lesson’ later.

Tails weren’t meant to be touched indiscriminately. If the cub kept touching it like that, he would have to take responsibility for him.

And so, after bringing the sub-beastmen and the supplies back to the tribe, the two of them ducked into their own cave.

The Maltese tiger shifted back into human form and rubbed his tail against the animal hides spread over the sleeping platform, trying to soothe his restless agitation. AXing looked at the innocent-faced youngster and said bluntly, “AGuang, you can’t just go around touching tails like that.”

Jing Heguang flicked his tail. “But brother Xing, don’t you quite like touching my tail?”

Jing Heguang felt aggrieved. His tail was incredibly sensitive, touching it was almost unbearable, yet he let brother Xing touch it. Yet when he tried to touch brother Xing’s tail, brother Xing wouldn’t let him play with it.

The original owner had just come of age, before that, the tail hadn’t shown any sensitive reactions. Plus, having worked alongside young sub-beastmen who were completely innocent about such matters, Jing Heguang assumed that only his tail was sensitive.

AXing was left speechless.

He certainly couldn’t admit that he touched the youngster’s tail specifically to tease him.

But if he didn’t make it clear, it wouldn’t do for the youngster to keep touching his tail out in the open.

AXing thought about it and felt a headache coming. He had no idea how to explain it.

If he told the truth, he wouldn’t be able to explain why he touched the youngster’s tail. But if he didn’t tell the truth, he couldn’t explain why he wouldn’t let his own tail be touched.

AXing said awkwardly, “You can’t touch in public. I don’t touch your tail in public either, right?”

Jing Heguang didn’t think that was right.

Why can’t it be touched in public?

Was there something about it that couldn’t be seen by other beastmen?

Then it clicked for Jing Heguang: the reaction he had when his tail was touched, that was something that couldn’t be seen by other beastmen!

Could it be that his tail wasn’t the only sensitive one? Was brother Xing’s tail sensitive too?

His own tail was sensitive, yet he was willing to let it be touched because he wanted brother Xing to be happy because he liked the Maltese tiger!

If the Maltese tiger tail was sensitive too, and he was willing to let Jing Heguang touch it…

Doesn’t that mean…

Jing Heguang’s eyes lit up as he looked at the tail behind the Maltese tiger, then he fixed his gaze on AXing: “We aren’t outside right now.”

—So, can I touch your tail now?

The Maltese tiger looked at the young beastman, whose eyes burned with intensity, and felt a heat rising all the way to the tip of his tail.

Then, a large cat tail, patterned with black and white rings, curved around its owner and gave Jing Heguang’s palm a resigned, gentle tap.