Chapter 679: Goodbye

The snow-haired beastman's thin lips were slightly pale and pressed tight; his snow-white hair, which covered his brows and eyes, was dampened by the forest's dew master, leaving his eyes wet and blurred.

Slivers of sunlight slipped through gaps in the canopy, lingering on his body; his slightly lowered side profile was so handsome it elicited awe.

Seemingly entranced by the beastman's appearance, the beastman captain unconsciously blurted: "Yeah, we've all prepared to cross the river."

Having said that, he only then realized what a foolish thing he'd done, and anxiously ruffled his already messy hair.

"Do you know anyone in our Kuma tribe?"

The faint rustle of leaves being stepped on sounded in the forest, and the handsome snow-haired beastman finally turned slowly: "Of course, I know one of the shamans in your party."

The beastman's eyes, deep-set beneath his brow ridges, were profound and dark, as if holding endless emotions within.

"Shaman Yue, is she alright?"

After the beastman's voice fell, the air suddenly grew still.

Perhaps because the beastman's expression was too stern, the beastman captain inexplicably felt that this person likely bore a grudge against Shaman Yue.

He immediately prepared to speak up in denial.

"Yuan Lang?"

A soft, almost disbelieving voice suddenly came from behind.

The startled beastman captain saw the previously downcast, grim beastman suddenly lift his head.

In his eyes, which had just been deep and dark, it seemed as if a volcano had erupted, spewing forth extremely hot, intense firelight.

The beastman quickly strode past the captain and his group, step by step toward Wu Yue, whose eye sockets were slightly red in the distance, and stopped two steps away from her.

"Are you alright?"

It wasn't a long distance, but the beastman seemed to have endured a long journey, his voice slightly terse.

His lips were slightly pallid, his deep black eyes showing obvious fluctuation, markedly different from what the beastman captain and his men had seen before.

Wu Yue opened her mouth, but felt as if something were choking her throat, and she hoarsely uttered a single word: "Good."

The beastman gazed greedily at the unfamiliar face before him; it wasn't A Yue's face, yet he knew it was the person he had long missed and been pursuing.

Noticing his poor condition, Wu Yue stepped forward once more, closing the distance between them: "Are you sick?"

Her snow-white, slender fingertips flickered with a jade-green light; shamanic energy coiled around the beastman's cold-white wrist, ready to probe further.

The beastman with a stern expression lowered his gaze, staring blankly at the female before him, and gave a slight nod.

"Host, stop quickly!"

Tongzi, who had been watching this Mary Sue charge mini-drama in the system space, sprang up and repeatedly stopped his host's probing action.

"Yuan Lang's body is full of iron-worm larvae, currently paralyzed by a toxin; if your life-force-filled shamanic energy enters, it will simply act as a switch to activate them."

Wu Yue's hand trembled; she looked solemnly at the somewhat dazed beastman before her: "Do you have parasites inside you?"

The beastman obediently nodded: "When the flood hit, I was trapped on the mountain with no food, so I ate the game washed down by the waters; I used toxin-numbing grass to paralyze the worms inside me, but overconsuming this poisonous grass also harms us greatly."

That's why we came to seek the sprouts of the immortal-crane herb; in our tribe, we... all consume the powdered form of this herb.

Wu Yue nodded: "In our Kuma tribe's unit, there have also been parasitic infections; a half-beast warrior has already died, killed by a parasite called the iron-worm, whose adult form is as long as a beastman's leg."

When they reproduce, they burst through the host's body and then use that corpse as a breeding ground for worm eggs and larvae.

Yuan Lang shifted his steps, slowly increasing the distance between them: "I'm not sure what kind of worms we have inside us either; I hope the immortal-crane herb sprouts will help."

Seeing him about to retreat again, Wu Yue couldn't help but step forward a few paces and seize the beastman's scorching wrist.

"What are you doing? You've already started to run a fever."

Her plain white little hand now seemed to possess the strength of tens of thousands of jin, firmly restraining the beastman as she turned her head to look at the Kuma tribe warrior peeking nervously from the side, unwilling to approach.

"This is a warrior from my former tribe; he too is infected with parasites, and since I've already touched him, I cannot return with you for now."

"Go back first and tell the healing shaman that Yuan Lang and his group have arrived; the healing shaman will understand."

"Once I find the herb that can expel the parasites, I will return directly to the tribe's base."

Several beastmen of the Kuma tribe exchanged glances; the beastman captain drew a deep breath and stepped forward: "Shaman Yue, we are ordered to protect your safety; we absolutely cannot leave you alone here."

"In that case, half of the beastmen will return to send word, while I and the remaining beastmen will stay here to guard you."

Seeing his resolve, Wu Yue could only nod in agreement.

Yuan Lang's dark eyes flickered with a hint of gloom; his large hand, with distinct knuckles, turned over and firmly grasped Wu Yue's small hand.

"Let's go; Teng Qian and Teng Kun are ahead."

The beastman captain, who had still been about to say something, looked at the beastman's dark, heavy gaze as he turned back, and snorted disdainfully.

He truly was only sent to protect Shaman Yue, with no ulterior thoughts, he swore!

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"Boss, did you find out? Is Yue in the Kuma tribe's camp? Are we supposed to set out to look for Yue...??"

Teng Qian, who had been excitedly chattering, saw his boss leading a sturdy unfamiliar female over, and immediately did a pupil‑quake.

"Who... who is this?"

Teng Qian snapped his nearly falling jaw shut, his questioning voice distorted by sheer astonishment.

The boss is really a dog—just after splitting from Yue a short while ago, he's already picked out a concubine for himself.

Moreover, who knows if it's because they've lived in this world too long, but this second lady's appearance fits the beastfolk's aesthetic of this world remarkably well—could the boss himself have been assimilated?

Thinking of that, Teng Qian felt utterly awful; the boss's concubine is a more burly existence than himself—just thinking about it makes his eyes sting and his hopes crumble.

He felt as if something in his mind had been struck.

Meanwhile, Teng Kun silently gazed at the sturdy female beside Yuan Lang, his eyes holding a faint doubt.

Watching Teng Qian's disillusioned expression toward his boss, Wu Yue smirked: "Teng Qian, did you get pressed down again on this return?"

As Teng Qian was concocting a moral high‑ground theory, he resembled a little wild chicken choked by the neck, letting out a 'ga' before his face flushed and his neck thickened as he looked at the speaking female who was both strange and familiar.

"Yue... Yue?"