Chapter 24: Chapter Twenty-Four: Visiting for a Meal

Thinking of this, Yun Li immediately withdrew her gaze.

Judging by her post-shift form, she truly is the female wolf Leng Xiu mentioned.

But to call her the best-looking female wolf without even seeing her beast form is too hasty.

"A Qing hasn't even seen my beast form, yet he's spouting nonsense here."

Although her female voice was low, aside from her, everyone present was a Qing Rank beastman—how could they not hear her?

Leng Xiao heard her previous sentence and couldn't help but slightly raise the corners of his mouth.

The beast form still matters quite a bit to beastmen, but A Li hasn't even shown her own beast form to Mu Qing—does that mean there's still an opening between her and Mu Qing?

Leng Xiu realized even more from this: Yun Li has been a beastman since childhood, so no beastman likely ever explained mate matters to her, but Mu Qing is highly regarded by the chieftain—he certainly wouldn't not understand what it means for a mate not to reveal their beast form to him.

Unless he too...

Seems he sensed their thoughts; Mu Qing's eyes dimmed slightly, he turned and said to Yun Li, "Then A Li, would you be willing to let a beastman see your beast form later?"

Yun Li gave him a "what do you say?" look, "En."

She moved lightly, her action of reaching up on tiptoe to slip into Mu Qing's embrace was practiced to perfection.

"Later I also want to see your beast form."

She needs to see what kind of snake his male beast form actually is.

If it's a python, wouldn't his beast form be huge—would she need to brace herself mentally? If it's a venomous snake, could she touch his fangs? She's never touched a venomous snake's fangs before.

Mu Qing indeed was as Leng Xiu thought: afraid that after A Li sees his beast form she'd become like other females, but he also knows he's been avoiding this, and sooner or later it will cause problems.

So after thinking it over, he said, "When you can hunt independently, I'll then show you my beast form."

Yun Li didn't quite understand and asked, "Why?"

She can casually show him her beast form, so why does she need conditions to see his?

This isn't fair!

"Because his beast form is huge; I'm afraid you'll be scared if you see it."

Leng Xiao suddenly interjected to explain for Mu Qing; although he wants to drive a wedge between them, that doesn't mean he wants to belittle Mu Qing in every way—comparing physique, ability, or beast form looks is fine, but he can't truly speak ill of Mu Qing or deliberately drive a wedge between their feelings.

Otherwise, Yun Li relies so much on Mu Qing that if their relationship were to fall apart, she'd also be heartbroken.

"But once you get used to the outside wild beasts, seeing Mu Qing's beast form won't scare you as much."

"Really?"

Yun Li looked at Mu Qing.

Mu Qing grunted an "en," perhaps because Leng Xiao had helped explain a sentence, so he also spoke kind words for both of them:

"The ferocious beast blood you used before partly came from them, and normally when we first start cultivating, we rely on eating ferocious beast meat to break through to the Red Stage. After the Red Stage, cultivation relies on extracting crystal cores from ferocious beast blood for training.

As for crystal cores, I still have plenty here—I'll give you whatever you need. But I'm not a wolf beastman; I can't give you experience on how wolf beastmen use their beast forms to hunt early on.

Why must we hunt using beast forms? Can't we hunt with weapons in human form?

But before she could say that, Leng Xiu instantly saw her doubt and explained, "When beastmen just break through to the Red Stage, they actually only have slightly better hearing and sight compared to ordinary beastmen.

Moreover, someone like you, a female who hasn't trained much since childhood, might not even be able to beat those juveniles who have trained since childhood after breaking through to the Red Stage.

If you don't go out to learn hunting with your beast form, going barehanded will easily get you injured."

Yun Li:......

She was provoked by his remark "you probably can't even beat juveniles after breaking through to the Red Stage," and she asked Mu Qing, somewhat unwilling to accept, "Is what he said true?"

She actually isn't even as good as a juvenile?

Please excuse Yun Li's imagination of juveniles as petite and delicate, easy to beat with a short stature, but in fact beastman juveniles at two or three years old already carry loads several times their own weight, and those who have trained since childhood can join the tribe for hunting lessons by age ten.

Someone like Yun Li, who suffered malnutrition since childhood, even after many days of medicinal food and nutritional supplements restored her health, her constitution definitely can't compare to juveniles who have been eating ferocious beast meat since childhood and have been trained without issue.

Mu Qing hesitated a moment, then nodded, "But A Li is smarter than them, and besides, you have me."

"And us too."

Leng Xiao chimed in with a squinting smile.

He wore an expression of "I'll latch onto Yun Li and not leave," which made Mu Qing feel a bit choked up, not knowing whether agreeing to let Leng Xiu and them come teach A Li hunting was correct.

Won't the teaching drift off to other things?

Yun Li didn't even show the slightest happiness from Mu Qing praising her intelligence—who wants to compare wit with juveniles? Winning is normal, but losing would mean losing face for all modern people.

A loss-making deal with no profit.

"I'm hungry, I want to eat, A Qing."

Not wanting to dwell on this issue, she shifted the topic directly, just as Leng Xiao had said before—after soaking in a blood bath, beastmen usually get very hungry; Yun Li didn't feel it at first, but now she's truly hungry and wants to eat meat right away.

"There's meat soup on the earthen stove; I'll bring you a bowl first, fill it up to pad your stomach."

After saying that, Mu Qing looked at the Leng Family brothers and finally said, "The giant-antlered deer you brought—let's keep it to eat together before you leave."

As long as A Li doesn't reject them, considering their great strength and the extra protection they can offer A Li, Mu Qing also doesn't want to continue making things difficult for them.

Upon hearing that, Leng Xiao immediately said, "Fine, we'll handle these two giant-antlered deer; you make something else Yun Li likes to eat, and I and my brother will eat whatever."

Mu Qing originally didn't plan to make anything special for them either—he didn't know their tastes, so just giving them some meat to eat would be fine.

Leng Xiu also sprang into action, scanning the area and asking, "Where is the firewood placed?"

"Behind the house."

Yun Li pointed to the rear of the stone house; the front yard either has a stone trough or a water stone vat, plus a wooden shed for cooking, plus a stone table and a few stone stools—basically there's nowhere left to put dried firewood.

Leng Xiu nodded, knowing that, then split off from Leng Xiao—he went to the back of the house to fetch wood and start a bonfire, while Leng Xiao took charge of setting up the meat-roasting rack.

This process took a long time; Yun Li didn't watch, she sat on a stone stool and first drank the meat soup herself.

Just after swallowing a bowl of meat soup, her stomach warmed but was still terribly empty, so Mu Qing took out a stone slab to pan-fry meat for her to eat while it cooked.