Chapter 108: The Little Ones' Encounter

The Little Ones' Encounter

Yinxu's slender, fair fingers were stained with golden oil, and the fish in his hand gave off an alluring fragrance. Yinxu froze for a moment, a faint smile playing on his lips, "A little."

Chaosheng looked at his somewhat distracted appearance and asked with concern, "Is something on your mind? Hmm?"

Yinxu paused while eating the fish, a flash of gloom passing through his lowered eyes, yet he still said, "Nothing."

Chaosheng looked at him with deep, quiet eyes, her tone tinged with two parts disappointment, "Alright."

The fish was soon finished. Changye rubbed his round belly and lay down on the ice wall to doze off, feeling satisfied.

After eating and drinking their fill, the White Whale was sleepy too.

In the distance, the sea waves surged, and for some reason, Chaosheng's heart suddenly sank.

She looked at the Male Beastmen who had eaten their fill and was just about to tell them to go home when—

Suddenly, a black dot appeared in the air before her. The black dot slowly rotated, growing larger and larger, and then slowly opened into a rift.

"Zhuche?"

Chaosheng looked at this black vortex in confusion. She had seen it many times; it could only be that Zhuche had arrived.

Sure enough, the next second, a bewitchingly seductive Male Beastman walked out from within. He had a tall stature, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist, with faint abdominal muscles hidden beneath his blue beast-hide clothing.

His bewitching face was slightly dark at this moment, carrying a hint of suppressed anger, "So you were playing here with them!"

"No wonder I couldn't find you!"

His cold, piercing gaze swept over Baini, Yinxu, Changye, and Guxian one by one.

Finally, his snake-like pupils constricted slightly, and anger surfaced in his eyes. Very well, they were all here, just without him.

"Zhuche, why are you here?"

Chaosheng blinked in confusion, her voice clear and melodious, truly pleasant to the ear.

Seeing Chaosheng acting as if nothing were the matter, Zhuche became even angrier.

The veins on his temples appeared, throbbing, and his speech became blunt, "Why are you all up here?"

"What's it to you?" Baini looked back at him unkindly; another beastman had come to compete with him for Sheng.

Chaosheng pursed her lips, feeling somewhat at a loss, and looked at Zhuche with unease, "I brought them up here to eat fish."

"Did you come to find me for something?"

"Hmph!" Zhuche curled his lips coldly. Since the female was willing to explain to him, he decided to let it go.

It was just that he had other matters now, "As for me, I encountered a small issue."

"So I came to find you all."

"Ah? What is it?" Chaosheng blinked in bewilderment. Finding them—what was the matter?

Zhuche turned around and waved his hand lightly toward the black vortex, and the few little beastmen blocked inside all tumbled out.

"Ouch!"

Before them were none other than Tuyi, Tu'er, and Tusan, whom she had just parted ways with. However, these three little beastmen were now bruised and swollen. A trace of blood still stained the corner of Tuyi's mouth, and he was currently sitting on the ground, wiping away the blood and sulking.

Tusan caught sight of them, and suddenly, unable to control his emotions, tears began to fall, "Mermaid sister, Brother Changye..."

"Sob, sob, sob!"

Tu'er hung his head, rubbing the unsightly bruises on his hands.

"Brother?!"

A soft, milky voice came from behind the three little beastmen. A small, orange-red octopus wiggled its short, chubby tentacles and slowly crawled out.

"Xiaodu, why are you here?"

Seeing it was Xiaodu, Guxian's beautiful face turned somewhat serious. He walked over and lifted Xiaodu up, observing him carefully. He discovered that two of his tentacles had marks on them and could no longer move normally, and a thin fin was missing a corner.

He looked at Zhuche vigilantly, "What did you do to him?"

"Hmm?" Zhuche spread his hands innocently, a flash of disdain crossing his dark blue eyes, "Don't talk nonsense."

"This has nothing to do with me!"

"Actually, no, it does have something to do with me." Zhuche paused. The killing intent in Guxian's eyes solidified, as if he had already determined that Zhuche was the culprit.

He ignored Guxian's gaze and curled his lips triumphantly, "You should thank me."

"If I hadn't appeared in time, your little trinket would have been torn apart by these three little cubs!"

Guxian was still somewhat skeptical. He frowned, his gaze falling on Xiaodu, "Is what he said true?"

"Mm." Xiaodu was dejected and dared not meet his brother's eyes. His two fins twitched habitually, and as it pulled at his wounds, he began to wince, "So... so painful."

His eyes, like rubies, instantly turned cold. He lowered his eyes and looked coldly at the three little beastmen with vibrant hair, a ripple of emotion stirring in his heart.

This is...

He remembered what the female had told him earlier about meeting three little beastmen from another sea area.

Could it be these three?

"Why did you hurt Xiaodu?"

Guxian held the limp little octopus and stared deeply at the three little beastmen sitting on the icy ground.

Tuyi suddenly raised his head, the blood at the corner of his mouth not yet wiped clean, and shouted defiantly, "It wasn't us! He was the one who came up to us!"

"We were just trying to find a place to hide, who knew this little octopus would suddenly pop out and bite us!"

Tusan cried even harder, sobbing as he said, "We just wanted to drive him away... who knew he was so fragile..."

Tusan muffled his voice and said, "Right, we weren't the ones who started it."

"You're lying!" Xiaodu was so anxious that he used his uninjured tentacles to pat Guxian's arm, "They were the ones who tried to steal my fish first! I just wanted to take it back!"

He flapped his fins, feeling so wronged he was about to cry, "Really, Brother, believe me."

Then he lifted his neck and looked at Chaosheng, trying hard to stop his sobbing, "Mermaid female, you have to believe me too!"

"They were the ones who provoked me first!"

As soon as he said this, the three little Beastmen immediately retorted, "That's not true at all!"

"Where did we steal his fish?"

"He's lying! He was the one who came to bite us, and then we fought back."

"......"

Both sides were chattering away, each sticking to their own story, making Chaosheng's head ache from the noise.

She was just about to speak up to mediate when she saw Baini suddenly sneer, "Tsk, so noisy!"

His pitch-black eyes looked coldly at the three little Beastmen and the small octopus that Guxian was holding carefully in his hands, and the little Beastmen immediately quieted down.

Zhuche walked over slowly, his snake pupils sweeping over the bruised and battered little fellows, his tone carrying a hint of nonchalance: "When I ran into them at the border, these three were pinning the little octopus against a reef and beating it."

"If I hadn't acted quickly, I'm afraid I would only be able to pick up a few octopus tentacles by now."

Zhuche recalled the scene at the time; he had originally come out to forage for food, never expecting to encounter the sight of the little octopus being ganged up on.

Thinking that Sheng seemed to quite like it, he stepped in to save him and, incidentally, taught those three little Beastmen a lesson as well, leaving them all covered in injuries.

Hmm... but looking at it now, it seems the little female also knows these few Beastmen.