Chapter 123: Chapter 123: The Lava Chasm
Finally, Kaelen had to accept his fate and carry his children back himself to wash them.
On the way back, the smallest egg kept drooping, the color of its shell dimming a lot. Kaelen playfully teased: "You look no different right now from a boiled egg soaked in fish sauce, making me just want to eat you while you’re still piping hot."
The baby froze for a moment, then swayed crazily. Kaelen laughed loudly. This could be considered the first time he had laughed so happily since their eldest child went missing.
"Brother Kaelen!"
Wilder appeared out of nowhere, using his short, stubby legs to run up to Kaelen. In the early spring of this year, Wilder had entered his transformation period. When in beast form, he was a chubby tiger; in human form, he was also white and round. Kaelen couldn’t pick him up anymore. He could only pat Wilder’s head, digging into his pocket to pull out two milk candies to give to the little boy.
Wilder accepted the candies, excitedly pointing at the two eggs: "Did you go pick up your two younger brothers?"
"Yes, aren’t you staying at the school today?"
Wilder giggled, revealing a smile missing two front teeth, and said: "My Daddy has the day off today. Grandfa Jaxon and Grandfa Zephyr wanted to cook a meal, so I asked for the lunch off to go home and eat."
Kaelen nodded, supporting the egg bag with one hand and holding Wilder’s hand with the other as they walked toward his house together. He said: "I am making a new dish this afternoon; come over to my house this evening and take some back to eat."
"Yes!"
Hearing there was delicious food, Wilder nodded without hesitation. Arriving at Kaelen’s house, Wilder said: "I won’t go into your house; I have to go back to take a nap and go to school in the afternoon. If my second brother catches me skipping my nap, he’ll definitely beat my butt until it’s swollen."
Wilder’s second brother was named Urion, a Fox clan Sub-Beast, just turning eleven this year. Wilder’s eldest brother, Vesper, was already fourteen and had started following Nordhal to participate in the Legion’s special training. Jaxon’s family didn’t have anyone who awakened Divine Energy, but they were all warrior beastmen. It seemed this little boy Wilder wouldn’t be bad either.
Before leaving, Wilder pulled out three tiny wooden carvings the size of a thumb from his shirt. They were all in the shape of the three children’s eggs. The little boy said innocently: "The younger brothers probably won’t know what their egg forms looked like when they break their shells; I learned this from Uncle Anthony, giving these to them as a souvenir."
He placed the three carved eggs into Kaelen’s hands, then nimbly ran back home. As soon as he reached the door, he saw Urion standing there waiting with a whip in hand. The brat let out a miserable howl, then shifted into his beast form, leaped over the fence, dashed into his room, and slammed the door shut.
Urion looked at his younger brother speechlessly, just wanting to say that he was only scaring him a little bit.
Kaelen looked toward Jaxon’s house until the gate closed, then looked down and stared at the three carved eggs in his hands, his gaze stopping on the egg with dense scales, looking at it for a long time.
While Kaelen was looking at the objects and missing his son, the little boy was also finding his way back to the tribe. Unlike his two younger brothers who ate in moderation, Edward had broken his shell early due to absorbing too much of Wofu’s excess spatial energy.
On the day Edward broke his shell, Wofu was fighting a pursuit squad from Beast City.
Because Edward absorbed a massive amount of excess Divine Energy, Wofu’s memories also gradually recovered. Although he hadn’t remembered everything, he at least remembered his name was Wofu and that his home was on the other side of the magical beast forest in the Southern Continent.
But what rendered Wofu helpless was that the place he was in was the Northern Continent, separated from the Southern Continent by a massive chasm, and in the middle of this chasm was a boiling, churning river of lava. Apart from the Temple’s teleportation array, no one knew how to cross to the other shore.
However, both he and the egg were people without identity verification cards, nor did they hold high-ranking positions to use that array. So the two of them could only be stuck in this place for the rest of their lives.
Ah, not entirely.
In Wofu’s inherited memories, there was a method to set up a spatial array different from the Temple’s. This array was an inheritance left for descendants by his ancestors, who had successfully led their clansmen across the lava chasm. But the misery was that his memory right now was like a basket with a hole in the bottom; he absolutely couldn’t remember anything at all.
In the Northern Continent, the spiritual energy was dense, and Wofu didn’t know how to compress his Divine Energy, so from initially being just a group of slaves no one paid attention to, Wofu became a target wanted by the Temple. Knowing this, he arranged a hidden living place for that slave group, then left alone carrying the green egg.
Throughout the fleeing process, Wofu constantly urged Edward to absorb his Divine Energy, because only when his Divine Energy stabilized would his sea of consciousness have a chance to recover. When his memories fully returned, he could naturally read the inheritance and find a way across the lava chasm.
Regrettably, one was a rough beastman who didn’t know how to take care of cubs, and the other was an ignorant cub who didn’t know that children weren’t allowed to be overly nourished.
The consequence was that Edward broke his shell too early, and the excessive energy caused the little boy’s Divine Energy to shoot straight from Beginner to Intermediate level. The lightning rain that struck down at that time leveled a third of the Northern Continent, blasting Uncle Wofu into a charred black lump of coal. Even the subsequent healing rain could only barely help Wofu reconstruct his body, but he regressed into a cub form.
As for Edward, after breaking his shell, the boy skipped the cub stage entirely and entered the transformation stage. Then, the six-year-old child carrying a six-month-old tiger cub began sweeping through all the magic stone mines of the Northern Continent while fleeing.
"The energy is too little; it crumbles as soon as I hold it. Uncle Wofu, are you sure this place has the most magic stones in the Northern Continent?"
"Of course." The tiger cub sat perched on Edward’s shoulder, using an immature, milky voice to say: "It was clearly marked in my inheritance; it’s exactly this place, it can’t be wrong."
Edward looked at the desolate ruins, feeling a bit speechless: "It’s been nearly a thousand years; if it was true, it would have all been mined out by people already. I see this place only has leftovers. To have enough energy to activate the spatial array, we need level-8 magic stones or higher."
The tiger cub scratched its ear, saying: "How about we just charge straight into the Temple and rob them?"
Edward rolled his eyes, saying: "Do you think those arrays in the Temple are trash? Besides, not to mention the City Lord of Beast City is currently of unknown level—nine or ten—even the soldiers under his command are all Advanced beastmen, the lowest being Intermediate. The two of us charging in there wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps in their teeth!"
"How about we go to some tribe and rob their grand seal? Having the seal means we can use the Temple’s teleportation array..."
"Shh! Someone’s coming!" Edward covered Wofu’s mouth, quickly hiding in a rock crevice, trying to conceal his aura. Regrettably, the person arriving this time wasn’t some insignificant pursuit squad; that person only needed one glance to discover where the two of them were hiding.
"Two little babies, come out quickly. It’s very dangerous in there."
Saying that, he swung his arm, and a cluster of earthy-brown thorny roots burst out of the ground, wrapping the two small bodies into cocoons, leaving only their heads exposed. Edward and Wofu struggled unsuccessfully and had to give up. The two squinted at the newcomer.
It was a very beautiful Sub-Beast; this beauty wasn’t the gentle type like Draven, nor the lively and adorable type like Cael, or pure like Kaelen, but an allure carrying a hint of wickedness. Edward had never seen anyone besides the beastmen chasing him and the tiger cub, so he knew nothing about ugly or beautiful, while Wofu had a quite straightforward assessment.
The only person whose beauty could rival this Sub-Beast was probably Aaron. Both had the special allure of the Silver Fox species, but if Aaron gave people a stunning feeling, this Sub-Beast made people want to rot, sinking deep into lust.
The Sub-Beast tilted his head slightly and gave a soft chuckle; Wofu felt his heart skipping a beat, his gaze gradually turning vacant, leaving only pure infatuation. Edward sensed that his uncle was not right, but the boy was also tied into a cocoon, only continuously calling out.
Wofu’s reason only stayed clear for a split second; upon meeting that Sub-Beast’s hook-like eyes, he became infatuated again. Edward was dying of anxiety, trying to urge his Divine Energy. Regrettably, his Divine Energy right now was like a grain of salt falling into a bowl of water; it dissolved as soon as it was dropped in.
That Sub-Beast blinked, his bare feet shifting slightly, the clinking sound of magic cores and beast fangs colliding making Edward’s head buzz. After only a short while, his consciousness gradually drifted away, sinking into darkness.
The Sub-Beast’s red lips curled into a provocative arc, whispering:
"From today onward, you are my most loyal servants..."
