Bei Ji remained silent. Selling them? He believed that vile female was capable of such a thing. They were only worth a single Beast Skin, after all. Cold-blooded snake Beastmen, unwelcome wherever they went, were beings that not even their own birth mothers loved.
Xi Qing and Bei Ji couldn't stomach any food. The two snake cubs reverted to their human forms and sat facing each other, sadness welling in their eyes.
「 」
Deep in the woods, Si Yan took several deep breaths.
In the post-apocalyptic world, she had been a warrior, skilled in survival techniques.
The trees here were truly enormous, commonly towering over twenty or thirty meters, with leaves that were exceptionally large, generally two to three times the size of those on Earth.
After being thrown into the back mountain's forest by some damn brats, Si Yan's eyes darted around craftily as she pulled out a short dagger, carefully navigating the forest.
Upon a towering tree, a pair of eagle eyes suddenly sharpened. They belonged to a white hawk hidden among the trees, its Beast Crystal, set between its brows, was a deep red that verged on purple.
He sniffed the air and, his eagle vision piercing far, he watched cautiously.
Is that a little female from the Yanxiang Tribe? Mu Xiao pondered, confused. What's the Yanxiang Tribe up to, sending a little female into the deep forest in the dead of night?
Indeed, Si Yan, who had a terrible sense of direction, thought she was heading back to the cave but ended up going further and further away.
Mu Xiao flapped his wings and flew a little closer to get a better look at Si Yan. Tch, thin and small, not an ounce of meat on her. A useless and incapable little female, looks like she won't live long. Perhaps she has been abandoned by the Yanxiang Tribe.
Mu Xiao noticed a forest White Tiger approaching Si Yan, lurking in the darkness, seemingly ready to hunt her.
Mu Xiao preened his feathers. A female abandoned by another tribe is none of my concern, so I won't bother saving her.
Due to the ten-to-one ratio of males to females, even the ugliest, most ill-tempered female would receive careful attention from her tribe, with countless male Beastmen pursuing her. A female abandoned by her tribe is probably already beyond medical help, terminally ill. Such a female isn't worth saving.
Si Yan was completely unaware that she was being watched by an eagle Beastman.
A sense of danger came from behind. Si Yan turned her head to see a pair of strange eyes, suffused with a reddish-purple glow in the dark, greedily fixed on her.
The White Tiger before her was astoundingly huge, thrice the size of the normal White Tigers from her post-apocalyptic world. Facing a White Tiger nearly five meters tall, Si Yan's legs nearly gave out!
Those damned brats, they really did want to feed me to a wild beast!
Si Yan weighed the dagger in her hand. Against the White Tiger before me, this dagger is probably no more than a toothpick!
Having never had a direct understanding of the beasts of the Beast World from her readings, she now felt that not fainting on the spot was a testament to her encounters with zombies in her former life!
Without a second thought, Si Yan broke into a run, and after a few paces, scrambled up a tree!
Clenching her teeth, Si Yan exerted herself and momentarily opened her space, immediately retrieving a handgun.
BANG. The space snapped shut abruptly.
Without time to think, she quickly loaded the gun and counted her bullets.
Her stock of bullets wasn't large; every shot fired meant one less.
But in a life-or-death situation, she couldn't afford to hesitate. She raised her gun and shot repeatedly at the White Tiger's eyes. BANG! BANG! BANG!
Mu Xiao jolted and immediately pulled his head out from under his wings.
The tiger moved too fast. Its eyes weren't hit, but its face was still scraped by several shots.
The tiger was clearly even angrier.
Si Yan noticed she had enraged the tiger. But that doesn't matter; whether it's enraged or not, it still wants to eat me.
Si Yan hurriedly climbed the tree, angrily gritting her teeth as she ascended.
Is this even an animal? It's harder to kill than a zombie!
After climbing just a few steps, Si Yan was out of breath. Seeing the tiger about to reach her, she grasped a vine and quickly used her Wood-based Ability—Entanglement!
The vine grew rapidly, but Si Yan's Wood-based Ability was limited, so its growth wasn't very fast.
Si Yan had just enough time to set a small trap to ensnare its legs.
As expected, the tiger's paws moved too quickly. It was caught by a suddenly sprouted vine, lost its balance, and tumbled to the ground.
Si Yan immediately grabbed vines on the large tree and climbed higher.
This tiger was relentless—it clearly wanted to eat her. It would be a long time until dawn before anyone would notice she was missing and come looking for her; stalling for time was useless. If she didn't kill the tiger, Si Yan might become its meal.
Mu Xiao flew quite close now.
What's with this female? So thin and small, yet so agile? And what was that strange, black, cold thing just now? The things it fired were so odd.
Si Yan's release of her Wood-based Ability was very weak, and from this distance, Mu Xiao didn't notice her Special Ability.
She was reluctant to use her bullets, as each one fired was one less, and their destructive power seemed limited; they couldn't even penetrate the beast's hide.
Si Yan gave up using bullets and once again, in the nick of time, forced open her space.
Heavens! Because the space is too small, I couldn't put any large melee weapons in, so I don't have any now!
However, in a corner of her storeroom, she did find something useful.
Three years into the apocalypse, scientific laboratories had developed various useful weapons for Special Ability users, and this bundle of silver wire in her corner was one of those effective melee weapons.
It could be called a "wire blade." In the post-apocalyptic melee weapon catalog, it was also known as the "Flying Guillotine."
Si Yan didn't hesitate. She swiftly unfurled the silver wire, wrapped one end around a branch, leaped across, and wrapped the other end around another branch.
Her trap was well-concealed. After setting it up, she saw the White Tiger had recovered and was ready to charge up again. Si Yan gave the tiger a provocative look and then climbed higher up the tree.
The White Tiger, provoked, leaped fiercely towards the tree. Soon, dense lines appeared on its body. Droplets of blood flowed from the wire blade, and its eyes, neck, and legs were sliced. An expression of disbelief appeared on the White Tiger's face.
Losing strength and balance, the White Tiger fell heavily to the ground once more.
Si Yan observed for a while to ensure it was safe, then she neatly coiled the wire blade and tied it to her waist.
The fallen White Tiger wailed in pain.
Standing in the tree, Si Yan watched the White Tiger for a short while. It thrashed about for over ten minutes and then lay motionless. She waited for another twenty-plus minutes, and only when she felt certain the White Tiger was completely dead did Si Yan cautiously climb down from the tree.
Once on the ground, she picked up the dagger—which was no more than a toothpick to the White Tiger—and cautiously approached, touching the White Tiger's tail with her hand.
After repeatedly confirming the White Tiger was dead, she sat beside its body, staring at it for a long time. Eventually, she decided to conceal the existence of the wire blade, starting to skin and butcher the White Tiger along the cuts made by the wire, harvesting its pelt and meat.