Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Breaking the Shell
Asher’s group didn’t have to wait long; the old Chief quickly made a decision.
He led a group of people to Aaron and Asher, saying:
"We will dispatch three strong, young beastmen to go with you. Besides them, there are twenty middle-aged beastmen and thirty beastmen with minor disabilities. Rest assured, although they have some defects, they can still work normally. Additionally, these beastmen all have mates and children who want to go with them, including children; you guys don’t mind, right?"
Asher and Aaron pretended to lean their heads together, whispering. Aaron cleared his throat: "Cubs coming to our tribe cannot work, and our tribe still has to feed them, so a portion of the deposit supplies will be deducted. Think carefully; if you agree, we will bring the supplies over tomorrow morning to pick them up."
The Chief bowed his head in thought for a moment, then said: "Alright."
Aaron nodded, waving his hand. The group of warrior beastmen immediately shifted into their beast forms, carrying the two Sub-Beasts and Aaron on their backs, leaping across the thorny plant area in one bound. Once again, the clansmen of the Frostbite tribe had to sigh in admiration at this strength. Everyone thought that if their tribe had warrior beastmen, it would be great; they wouldn’t have to worry about being conquered by other tribes anymore.
A peaceful night passed; the next morning, as soon as the sun peeked out, the middle-aged beastman from the beginning actively led his clansmen over. One side delivered goods, the other side delivered people; a fair transaction.
Before setting off, the middle-aged beastman added:
"Our Chief says that about a two-day journey slightly to the West, there is another small tribe; they might also be willing to go to Crimson as hired workers, you guys can try stopping by to see."
Aaron nodded his thanks, then urged everyone to quickly finish breakfast, break camp, and set off. Traveling for two more days, they encountered the tribe the old Chief mentioned, successfully uprooting that entire tribe to follow their team. The Frostbite group bared their teeth, grumbling to each other: the Chief of this tribe was too easy to fool. After just a few enticing words from those people, he led the whole tribe to join Crimson.
Actually, this entire tribe had wanted to migrate for a long time. Their place had many soft-stemmed trees with yellow fruits arranged in clusters, which tasted very fragrant and sweet. For the past two years, for some unknown reason, many furry animals came from nowhere to occupy this fruit forest, frequently injuring their beastmen and teasing their Sub-Beasts and cubs. Occasionally, they even sneaked into the tribe to steal things; the misery was indescribable.
If it weren’t for lingering attachment to the abundant mountain forest resources, they would have left long ago instead of waiting until today.
Normally, Aaron wouldn’t care about these wild plants, but after hearing the people of this tribe say the yellow fruits tasted as sweet as honey, he decided to let Sorin’s group charge in and seize that yellow fruit forest. Normal beastmen all relied on climbing and claws to attack that furry group, and that furry group was too agile, causing the beastmen to eat bitter fruit.
The Sub-Beast warrior group was different. What they used were crossbows and bone swords; some drew bows to shoot, others held swords to stab; in no time, that furry pack was beaten to a pulp.
The group happily went into the fruit forest to chop down these yellow fruit clusters.
"Be careful, the caterpillars of this plant bite very painfully!"
Although warned, many people were still stung by the bright green furry caterpillars until their whole bodies swelled up, screaming in pain. It was still the locals who were experienced. They caught those very caterpillars, crushed them to extract their guts, and applied them to the wounds; waiting about ten minutes, the swelling subsided, and waiting another half an hour, it no longer hurt.
Everyone shared the yellow fruits to eat, marveling together at the refreshing sweetness of this fruit. Aaron ate two fruits and stopped eating. He didn’t like sweets very much. Ordering people to dig up a dozen young seedlings, Aaron urged everyone to hit the road again.
When Evan picked up his bag, he noticed the weight was a bit off. He opened it to look and saw that over a dozen yellow fruits had been added inside. His eyes wavered slightly, his lips pursing slightly. Aaron didn’t like sweets, but Evan loved them. He had reason to affirm that Aaron decided to seize this yellow fruit forest because he wanted to pick those yellow fruits for him.
His sinewy hands gripped the bag tightly, his heart beating like a drum. His footsteps quickened a bit; instead of falling behind in the middle of the ranks as usual, this time Evan stood a bit closer to Aaron’s cart.
Sorin, sharp-eyed, saw this and discreetly glanced at his team members. The group, without a word to each other, didn’t know when they had squeezed Evan right next to Aaron. Aaron looked at the person wearing a black cloak on the left side of the ox cart, coughed slightly, cleared his throat, and said:
"You there, get up here and drive the ox cart for me."
Evan trembled slightly; a warrior beastman behind him couldn’t hold back, grabbed his collar, lifted him up, and placed him on the ox cart. Aaron very naturally moved back, leaning lazily on the pile of soft cushions. Suppressing his wildly beating heart, Evan held the whip and the ropes, clumsily mimicking the driving posture of the others. The lips revealed outside the hood couldn’t help but form a joyful smile.
As the merchant caravan was slowly advancing toward the tribe, the tribe also began to welcome the most suspenseful day.
The Chief and the Priest’s two children broke their shells today. From early morning, an immense energy emanated from the hill dedicated to clansmen’s advancement; white clouds in the sky gathered consecutively, swirling into a churning vortex.
Although they were white clouds, not carrying thunder and lightning like dark clouds, for some reason, they made everyone break out in cold sweat. They felt a much greater pressure compared to previous clan advancements.
Even Kaelen and Sane couldn’t stay in the advancement area, having to leave the coverage of the white clouds to be able to breathe. The two looked at each other in worry. They had anticipated that their children would not be ordinary, but being unordinary to this extent was too terrifying.
Just what kind of figures were their children?
On the other side of the continent, the beautiful Sub-Beast lazily stretched; a little tiger cub lay on his lap, and a little snake was also curled up on his arm. The Sub-Beast stroked the little tiger’s head, toyed with the two bumps on the little snake’s head, his red lips parting slightly, letting out a soft voice as if sighing:
"So it finally descended. This time, who will come here. I hope they are not too weak, that would truly not be fun to play with at all."
The little snake, bewildered by his whispers, groggily raised its head, flicking its small tongue in inquiry. The Sub-Beast’s lips curled into a smile, saying:
"It’s nothing, baby, don’t worry. You must eat your fill and sleep well, and grow up quickly. At that time, I will take you to a fun place."
Saying it was like not saying anything.
Edward secretly rolled his eyes inwardly, but outwardly still played the good child, rubbing his head against the Sub-Beast’s hand, and continued to laze around. The Sub-Beast lifted his eyes, his hook-like gaze looking in a direction where the laws of the world were carefully operating.
Through the cloudy mist, he seemed to see something, yet seemed to see nothing at all.
"Take the children back to their room."
The Sub-Beast said a sentence, then flickered, vanishing into thin air. Right after the person in the room left, servants immediately entered, carefully placing the two beast cubs into soft nests, and carried them back to their private room. Edward’s eyes opened slightly, then closed again. This time it was a real sleep.
In the place the Sub-Beast looked toward before leaving, a stream of white clouds poured down like a waterfall, rainbow-like light streams flickered in and out, and birds hovered around, chirping. Everyone held their breath, looking at the marvel before them.
Kaelen found this image a bit familiar, leaning close to Sane’s ear: "Do you find this waterfall familiar?"
Sane blinked, saying: "In those Xianxia movies in your magic mirror, don’t the fairy islands also have waterfalls pouring down from the sky like this?"
The two tilted their heads to look closely, then unanimously exclaimed: "Damn it, it really looks like it!"
Ignoring the oppressive pressure that made people breathless, the current scene truly looked very much like a fairy island in a Xianxia world. Kaelen reached up to pinch his forehead, unavoidably sighing inwardly.
This world was both Eastern and Western, truly making people not know which way to go. Calling it Western, yet there were things only found in the East. Calling it Eastern, yet the character settings were only found in the West.
The shell-breaking process of the two children lasted for three days; during these three days, there was no night in Crimson. The sky remained perpetually daytime with bright sunshine and floating white clouds. Fortunately, there were hourglasses instead of sundials, so people knew when to rest and when to work.
Coming to the morning of the third day, the sky returned to normal, the cloud vortex gradually dispersed, and the cloud waterfall also slowly vanished. That oppressive pressure was gone, but for safety, Sane still ordered not to allow others to approach within a hundred meters around the advancement area.
He picked up Kaelen, speeding toward their children.
Arriving, the support array and the protective array had vanished at some unknown time; only two eggs lay bare in the nests. The magic cores lining the nests had also turned transparent, indicating their energy was depleted.
The couple squatted on the ground, nervously staring at their children.
’Crack! Crack!’
The green egg moved first, followed by the sound of the eggshell cracking. A black vein appeared on the eggshell, then spread out in a circle. The egg swayed twice, then slowly opened. A tiny panther cub wearing half an eggshell on his head, his paws clinging to the edge of the other half of the eggshell, poked his head out.
The panther cub’s eyes were open, but seemed to not have focus yet. He flared his nostrils, sniffing the air, then joyfully opened his mouth to let out a ’meow’.
Kaelen felt his heart seemingly shot by Cupid’s arrow, turning completely soft. He was about to reach out to receive the baby, but was stopped by Sane. Kaelen looked at him in confusion. Sane smiled, jutting his chin to signal Kaelen to quickly look.
The panther cub coquettishly let out another ’Meow’, then opened his mouth, revealing tiny milk teeth, and crunched on his eggshell. Sane explained softly: "A child born from an egg will eat his eggshell in the first month to supplement energy; entering the second month, they will begin to eat outside food."
Kaelen opened his mouth in surprise. No one had ever told him this before; he thought only snake cubs ate eggshells, not expecting all animals born from eggs would eat their eggshells.
While his older brother ate the eggshell, the third baby also seemed to be stimulated. The egg shook violently but couldn’t break open for a long time. The baby seemed very angry, not knowing what he was doing inside the egg, only seeing the eggshell didn’t crack in a circle like his brother’s, but kept denting here a bit, denting there a bit.
After a few shakes, a hole was punched through the eggshell. A tiny hand poked out then retreated, continuing to punch other spots. Kaelen and Sane even heard extremely rhythmic ’heya heya’ sounds.
The two looked at each other, blinking. The third child was actually a Sub-Beast. This was something they hadn’t expected. One must know that this child was always more active than his two older brothers when still in the egg; they all thought he was a beastman.
’Crack crack!’
The eggshell was finally completely punched open. The hot-tempered Sub-Beast baby pulled the eggshell right off his head and gnawed on it.
When seeing clearly the form of the third child, Kaelen fell backward, pulling Sane down with him. His expression looked extremely strange, turning to ask Sane:
"Has there... ever been a precedent of a Snake clan Sub-Beast being born before?"
Sane shook his head, affirming firmly: "The Snake clan has no Sub-Beasts!"
Whether there were any in the past was unknown, but for about the last thousand years, the Snake clan had never had a Sub-Beast. The Sub-Beasts born from the Snake clan’s eggs all bore the clan of their Papa. Normally, even if this child was born a Sub-Beast, he should rightly be a Panther clan Sub-Beast.
But Kaelen and Sane stared fixedly at their son’s wiggling snake tail, not knowing what to say. Kaelen licked his dry lips, saying:
"I know, that waterfall appeared because of him. Our children are not ordinary people at all. What do we do now? I no longer have the confidence to be able to protect them."
Not to mention Kaelen, even Sane felt the pressure. Previously, looking at the zodiac statue symbolizing the Snake, he thought that Snake clan Sub-Beast was imagined by Kaelen to complete the roster; he didn’t expect their son to be born looking exactly like that statue.
He looked at the purple-haired Sub-Beast wiggling his purple tail, diligently gnawing his eggshell, an indescribable anxiety rising in his heart.
