Free Web NovelChapter 377: Chapter 377: The Reason for the Migration
Qiao Xixi wanted to sleep—not to practice her skills, but to actually get some rest.
Jin Ling carried her back to the bed and lay down with her.
"If you’re tired, sleep for a while. I’ll take care of everything."
Qiao Xixi hummed in agreement and snuggled into his embrace. She had wanted to find a comfortable position to sleep in, but Jin Ling’s body was very warm. Since it was the hot season, she started to feel uncomfortably hot after just a moment.
She couldn’t stop tossing and turning in his arms.
As she tried to turn over again, a scorching hot hand suddenly clamped down on her wriggling waist.
Qiao Xixi groggily opened her eyes, her voice raspy with sleep. "What’s wrong? Did you hear something outside the door?"
Jin Ling looked at the exhaustion etched between her brows, took a deep breath, and suppressed the stirring in his body.
"Xixi, don’t move around so much."
Feeling hot, Qiao Xixi swatted his hand away and tugged at her Jue Sha nightgown. The slight breeze created by the movement made her feel a little cooler, but the moment she stopped, the heat returned.
"I’m hot." She pulled up her nightgown, exposing her legs, and spread her limbs out into a star shape to catch more air.
Hearing no sound from Jin Ling for a long moment, Qiao Xixi peeled her eyes open only to meet a pair of golden eyes simmering with suppressed desire.
His gilded pupils reflected only her.
Qiao Xixi remembered how every time she felt weak, empty, and powerless, she could always replenish her energy from them. The thought revitalized her.
She looked at Jin Ling and asked, feigning ignorance, "What’s wrong?"
Jin Ling knew she was hot and shifted away from her. "Are you still hot now? I can get some water to wipe you down."
He was just about to get up when Qiao Xixi hooked his waist with her foot. "Actually, I know a much better way to fall asleep. Want to know what it is?"
Jin Ling gazed at her, and her look pierced straight to the bottom of his heart.
She lay there languidly, her long hair spread carelessly across the wide bed. The Jue Sha gown perfectly outlined her magnificent figure. From head to toe, she seemed to sprout hooks that snared Jin Ling, holding him transfixed, unwilling to tear his eyes away for even a second.
He propped himself up slightly, and the movement caused his clothes to fall open, revealing a powerful chest.
"What way?"
Qiao Xixi’s toes traced a path up his thigh, following the distinct lines of his muscles, all the way to his perfectly sculpted V-lines, where they lingered and danced.
Jin Ling’s steady breathing grew heavy. He gently grasped her ankle and leaned over her.
Qiao Xixi looked up at him, her eyes glistening like a spring pool. "You guess."
His scorching palm traveled up her long, fair leg. The rough, calloused touch made Qiao Xixi let out a soft moan, but the sound had barely escaped her lips before he devoured it completely.
When the storm had passed, Qiao Xixi sat up in bed, feeling refreshed and invigorated.
’Just as I thought,’ she mused. ’A young, virile male is the best kind of tonic!’
Qiao Xixi was just about to lie down and sleep with Jin Ling for a while when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside the door.
She pulled the animal-hide blanket over him, got dressed, and went out.
"Xixi."
Feiyan hurried up the stairs and came before Qiao Xixi.
"What is it?"
Seeing him drenched in sweat, Qiao Xixi took an animal-hide cloth and wiped away the beads of perspiration rolling toward his eyelids.
The moment Feiyan got close, he smelled Jin Ling’s strong scent on her. He snorted softly, but now wasn’t the time to be petty about it.
"Xixi, beastmen from three small tribes have arrived outside our territory. They say they want to join our tribe."
Qiao Xixi was a little surprised. "They all showed up at the same time?"
"Yes. There are several hundred beastmen in total. I’m worried that so many arriving at once will cause a disturbance in the tribe."
Feiyan’s concern was not unfounded, but Qiao Xixi was more interested in figuring out the reason for these tribes’ migration. If their original homes were no longer suitable for life, she wanted to know exactly why.
"I’ll go take a look."
Feiyan had the guards bring the clan leaders of the three tribes into the Black Panther Tribe’s territory one by one to meet Qiao Xixi.
The first to enter the stone house was a male Deer Beast. He was burly, and he had to duck his head as he came in, afraid his antlers would hit the doorframe.
Qiao Xixi guessed his beast form was likely some kind of elk. Just by standing in the room, he made the whole place seem smaller.
The male Deer Beast hadn’t expected to be greeted by a beautiful female, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of condescension in his eyes. This was because Feiyan, standing to the side, had been emitting the powerful aura of an expert the moment he entered.
"Clan Leader, I am the Clan Leader of the Lumu Tribe. I hope to be allowed to stay in the Black Panther Tribe with my people."
"I heard you migrated because your previous home was no longer habitable, is that correct?"
The male Deer Beast nodded. "Yes."
"What exactly were the circumstances that made it impossible for you to survive there?"
Hearing this, the male Deer Beast frowned. The memory seemed to cause him great distress.
"There was a problem with our water source. After drinking the water, beastmen in our tribe began giving birth to monstrous cubs."
Qiao Xixi was taken aback. "How can you be sure the problem was the water?"
"At first, we weren’t sure either. But one time, I discovered that the fish-beasts in the water had changed."
Initially, he had thought the tribe was cursed to give birth to monsters, and for a long time, a shadow of despair hung over his people.
"That day, when I went to the river to catch fish-beasts, I found that the ones I caught were very strange. Some of them had even grown legs. My mind immediately went to the monstrous cubs in the tribe."
"Did they... look the same?"
The male Deer Beast shook his head. "They didn’t look the same, but what was similar was that they would have an extra eye or two, or two or three extra limbs. It wasn’t normal at all. Clan Leader, tell me, if our tribe was cursed to have monstrous offspring, fine, but could the fish-beasts in the water be cursed too? That’s when I started to suspect the water was the problem."
To confirm his theory, the male Deer Beast cleverly conducted an experiment. He stopped his own family from drinking the river water, instead walking a long way every day to fetch spring water from the mountains.
After some time, the cub his mate gave birth to was perfectly normal.
"So, you confirmed the water source was the problem and immediately led your tribe to migrate away from your original home."
The male Deer Beast nodded. The place where he fetched the clean water had very little of it, not nearly enough to sustain the entire tribe. He had no choice but to leave.
Qiao Xixi nodded after hearing his story. "Since leaving your home, have there been any normal cubs born on your journey here?"
"Yes. We traveled a great distance to reach the Black Panther Tribe. The cubs born to females who became pregnant on the road are all normal."
After asking a few more detailed questions, Qiao Xixi had him step outside for the time being.
Qiao Xixi then questioned the next two clan leaders in detail as they came in.
To her surprise, all three tribes had encountered the exact same situation.
"Feiyan, do you know of these tribes? It seems their territories are located somewhere just before the Silver Tribe."
Feiyan’s expression grew grim. He looked at Qiao Xixi and nodded.
