Beastn from all over were gathering in the tribal square, surging forward with loud cries as if for a grand sacrificial ceremony.
Approaching the crowd was a tall, sturdy Wolf Beast.
Its entire body was covered in wounds, its matted fur so filthy its original color was indiscernible. A deep, abyssal chill, born from countless slaughters, was settled in its erald-green, slitted pupils.
Its wolf ears suddenly perked up, and it scanned the crowd, searching for a long-missed figure. Without a sideways glance, it strode right into the throng of people.
The Beastn instantly parted for him, like the sea before Moses.
"Lord Ling Hong..."
One Wolf Beast was so excited his eyes turned red. Beastn had a keen sense of sll; there was no mistaking that scent!
An Jin stopped at the edge of the crowd. When she saw the Silver Wolf from a distance, she held her breath, a torrent of emotions churning in her chest.
She suddenly found herself afraid to recognize him.
The Silver Wolf before her had a terrifying aura, comparable to Mi Yin’s. He was shrouded in a thick scent of slaughter, and his fierce, erald-green beast eyes were chilling to the bone.
Furthermore, his build was stronger and leaner than Ling Hong’s usual beast form. Beneath the blood-matted fur on his neck was a golden mark resembling a six-petaled flower.
He was a Sixth Rank Beastman!
The mont he caught sight of her, a brilliant light erupted in the Silver Wolf’s dead, gray eyes. He let out a long howl and, dragging his battered body, charged to her side in the blink of an eye.
WHINE.
Before she could react, he was already licking her face, covering it in drool.
An Jin’s eyes suddenly reddened, and her nose tingled. This scene was all too familiar.
Based on how expertly he licked her face, this Silver Wolf was, without a doubt, Ling Hong.
The blood-stained Silver Wolf’s form elongated, transforming into a handso man covered from head to toe in wounds.
His snow-white silver hair was fluffy and soft, and his erald-green beast eyes were sohow both fierce and gentle. The corner of his mouth was bruised, and several cuts marred his handso, well-defined face.
"Sorry, I’m back late..." He collapsed weakly against her, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.
An Jin quickly caught him. The man’s heavy body pushed her back two steps, and she only managed to steady herself when her back hit a cold wall.
Ling Hong rested his head on her slender shoulder, his eyes half-closed. He opened his mouth, but his voice was so dry and hoarse that no words would co out.
An Jin had no ti to ask where he had been for the past half-year. She quickly called over a few nearby Beastn to help carry him to the dical room, where they cleaned his wounds, applied dicine, and bandaged them...
He seed to have been dehydrated for a long ti; his thin lips were chapped and tinged with purple, and he looked haggard and pale.
Suppressing the poignant mix of pain and the joy of having him back, An Jin steeled herself and pried open the unconscious man’s clenched lips, pouring a bowl of water into his mouth.
Most of the water trickled down the sharp line of his jaw, but he managed to swallow so with difficulty. After a few coughs, Ling Hong finally, slowly opened his eyes.
The mont he awoke, his erald-green eyes focused on the woman before him, whose own eyes were red and swollen.
’...Was she crying?’
Ling Hong froze, a slight pang in his chest. He laboriously raised a hand to gently wipe away two tears rolling down An Jin’s cheeks.
’This is all my fault. I didn’t keep my promise.’
He was at a complete loss, wanting to comfort her, but his vocabulary had always been barren and rigid, and he couldn’t think of anything to say to a woman. In the end, he pulled a large Beast Skin Bag from the beast-skin kilt at his waist, opened it, and stuffed it into her hands.
"This is all for you," the man’s low, hoarse voice was tinged with pride.
Opening the Beast Skin Bag, she saw it was filled with white Crystal Cores and even two Green Crystals.
Mi Yin had given her a Green Crystal once before. Although she hadn’t felt any different after eating it, she had heard that Green Crystals were extrely rare and valuable, sothing that many females in the large city-states couldn’t hope to obtain.
And Ling Hong had two of them!
In the distance, Mi Yin watched all of this silently through a window, his hand tightening its grip on a tree trunk.
Soon, he turned and walked away without a sound.
An Jin’s attention was completely focused on the heavily injured Ling Hong, so she didn’t see the black-and-red figure outside the door. Her peripheral vision caught sight of the dense scars on Ling Hong’s back, a mixture of old and new, so nurous that not a single patch of smooth skin remained.
A fresh wave of pain washed over her. She placed the Beast Skin Bag on the table and looked at him, her expression a mixture of sorrow and slight anger. "Not a single word for half a year. The tribe and I couldn’t find you. We all thought you were dead."
"Where on earth did you go? Didn’t I tell you not to run off like that?!"
An Jin was genuinely angry and gave him a punitive thump on the back. She thought she had hit him quite hard, but to a strong, thick-skinned male, it was no more than a tickle.
Ling Hong could feel the soft, delicate touch of her hand on his back. His concentration wavered for a mont before he quickly explained, "I wanted to improve my strength, to better protect the tribe and... and you. So I went out to find beast hordes to train with."
"Hordes of Demon Beasts and Giant Beasts often erge in the distant foothills. If left unchecked, they would have beco a threat to the tribe in the future, so I spent the last six months culling their numbers."
"Besides, I’m back alive and well, aren’t I? The tribe shouldn’t be attacked by any beast hordes for a while, so you can have ti to focus on developing it."
Having barely spoken for six months, Ling Hong’s voice was as gravelly and hoarse as grinding stone, yet it carried a uniquely masculine, steely resilience.
He was taciturn by nature and not a man of many words, but now it was as if he was trying to pour out everything he hadn’t said for the last six months. His expression was gentle, yet it also revealed his excitent and pride.
Behind him, his snow-white wolf tail was even wagging happily at her, as if asking for praise.
He had condensed nearly half a year of life-and-death battles into these few, lighthearted words seeking praise, completely omitting the several tis he had almost died.
He wanted to appear stronger and more dependable in front of her—a trustworthy male warrior.
An Jin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had still been angry and wanted to give him a piece of her mind, but seeing him acting this way, all she could do was put on a cold expression and tell him to lie down and rest.
She then personally fed him several bowls of dicinal soup and told Ling Hong to get so proper rest and recover from his injuries.
’She was so, so glad.’
’She was glad Ling Hong was alright, but the rascal had made her worry and grieve for half a year for nothing. She wouldn’t feel right until she found a chance to teach him a lesson.’
An Jin was also still thinking about his scars.
They were all marks he had earned for the tribe, but these dense, so-called "dals and glories of a male" only made her heart ache to see them.
So, she bought another bottle of scar-removal cream from her spatial shop, rubbed it on his back, and then urged him to go take a quick bath.
The ointnt worked quickly. After bathing in the river and coming ashore, Ling Hong returned to the house, his body still damp. An Jin saw that the scars on his body had already vanished.
The man’s skin was naturally a fine, healthy, cool-toned white. In the llow light of dusk, it took on a wild, sun-kissed quality.
With his scars gone, his tall, imposing fra possessed an even greater, statue-like perfection.
The curves of his muscles were full and defined, and the lines of his sturdy back were smooth and not at all exaggerated. The man’s entire body exuded a pleasing sense of power and the beauty of a Greek sculpture.
After nearly half a year of constant slaughter without a mont’s rest, the instant Ling Hong returned to the tribe, his taut body and frayed nerves finally, completely relaxed.
After his bath, a long-unfelt wave of exhaustion finally washed over him.
"I’m going to rest." An Jin let the man hug her deeply for a mont, then watched as he disappeared into his room, not erging for two full days and nights.
Once things with Ling Hong had settled down, An Jin belatedly noticed how strangely quiet the past few days had been. She realized she was missing the pestering and advances of a certain snake.
An Jin went to Mi Yin’s house and found the door shut tight.
She knocked on the door.
No response.
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