Inside Hopeless Abyss, Sangqi had the Earth Escape Beast take them to a relatively safe forest.

The moment they returned to the surface, Feiyan staggered and collapsed.

The color drained from Qiao Qiao and Qiao Ang’s faces.

"Father-beast!"

Sunxiao’s serpentine eyes narrowed. He flashed forward and caught Feiyan, preventing him from hitting the ground.

"Let’s get him under a tree."

Jin Ling supported Sangze and settled him at the base of a large tree.

"Father-beast." Qiao Qiao and Qiao Ang frantically grabbed Feiyan’s hand. Only then did they see that he was covered in blood. The worst injury was a bite mark on his shoulder where a chunk of flesh had been torn away.

Qiao Qiao gritted her teeth and held Feiyan’s hand tightly. A faint blue halo slowly enveloped him, spreading rapidly across his body. Wherever the light passed, his gruesome wounds healed instantly. But when the halo reached his heart, it began to dim.

Qiao Qiao’s eyes widened in terror. Whenever she encountered an injury that her ability couldn’t heal at its current level, the halo would dissipate.

"Father-beast, wake up!"

Jin Ling stepped forward to examine Feiyan. He found a wound on his chest where the flesh had turned black. His expression grew grim. "It’s poison. Feiyan has been poisoned."

Poisoned. Tears instantly welled up in Qiao Qiao’s eyes. Her ability wasn’t high enough to cure poison yet.

"I’ll find an herb for Father-beast." Qiao Ang shot up, ready to charge into the woods.

Sangqi quickly ran over and held him back. "You can’t, Qiao Ang! Hopeless Abyss is too dangerous. You can’t just run off."

Qiao Ang clenched his little fists. "But Father-beast is poisoned! He needs medicinal herbs to be cured!"

Jin Ling took a green Crystal Stone from his pouch and placed it on Feiyan’s chest. Xixi had given it to him, and he hadn’t used it until now.

"Qiaoqiao, try again."

Tears in her eyes, Qiao Qiao nodded. "Okay."

She closed her eyes, focusing her mind and holding her breath. The faint blue halo from her hands began to spread over Feiyan again. At the same time, Jin Ling focused his own power, activating the Crystal Stone. The moment the green and blue halos merged, the beam of light shot back and enveloped Qiao Qiao completely.

Qiao Qiao silently chanted, ’Father-beast, I have to heal you. I have to.’

The beam of light suddenly surged into Qiao Qiao’s body, and she felt a powerful energy flood her limbs.

Qiao Qiao’s eyes flew open in surprise. The surge of energy was overwhelming, causing her great discomfort. Just then, Sunxiao moved behind her and placed a palm on the center of her back. A powerful, cold energy flowed into her, helping to calm the chaotic power within and allowing her body to absorb it completely.

The green light was assimilated, turning blue before merging completely into Feiyan’s body. The blackness of his wound began to recede at a visible rate.

Feiyan slowly opened his eyes. "Qiaoqiao..."

Qiao Qiao and Qiao Ang threw themselves into his arms and began to bawl.

’Feiyan had genuinely thought he was going to die. He was quite annoyed, really—he hadn’t even gotten to say any last words. But he was lucky. His little one was amazing; she had saved his life.’

"Qiaoqiao, did your ability level up again?"

Jin Ling sank to the ground, exhausted. "Qiaoqiao’s ability was already on the verge of a breakthrough. You got lucky."

Sunxiao withdrew his hand and went to check on Sangze. ’This kid... he really fought like he was trying to get himself killed last night.’ His injuries had been horrific. Qiao Qiao had already healed him once with her ability, but he still hadn’t regained consciousness.

Sunxiao looked at Jin Ling. "We’ll rest for a day before we move out."

Jin Ling nodded, but then his vision suddenly went black, and he collapsed.

"Father-beast Jin Ling!"

Qiao Lie cried out, rushing to catch Jin Ling. He looked helplessly at Sunxiao. "Father-beast."

Sunxiao went to Jin Ling’s side and examined him. Thankfully, there were no fatal wounds; he had likely just passed out from exhaustion. He looked at Qiao Qiao. "Qiaoqiao, do you have enough energy to heal Father-beast Jin Ling?"

Qiao Qiao nodded. ’Father-beast Jin Ling must have fainted because he helped me absorb the Crystal Stone’s power.’ She got up, went to Jin Ling’s side, and took his large hand to begin the treatment.

「The sky began to lighten with the pale white of dawn.」

By the sea, Qiao Xixi was startled awake by the little tiger cub, which had woken up hungry and begun to nurse on its own.

Qiao Xixi watched with amusement as the little cub suckled greedily. She noticed it seemed to have filled out a bit since yesterday.

"You’re such a big eater, aren’t you, little one?"

After feeding the cub, Qiao Xixi was starving as well. She took a few fruits and some jerky from her dimensional space to tide her over. It didn’t fully satisfy her hunger—she was craving something hot.

Picking up the cub, who had eaten its fill and fallen back asleep, Qiao Xixi decided to head to the shore. She hoped to find some seafood to eat, but more importantly, she wanted to see if she could find any nearby beastmen and ask about her whereabouts. She couldn’t just wait around here forever.

Qiao Xixi walked to the shore and found numerous small fish and shellfish trapped in the tide pools between the coast and the large rocks. She decided to go down and catch some for a fresh meal.

Qiao Xixi carefully made her way to a shallow channel between the large rocks and discovered that the stones were covered in oysters.

"There are so many!" She took a bamboo basket from her space and used a bone knife to pry the oysters off the rocks. Before long, the basket was half-full. There were too many to carry, so she decided to catch some fish in the pools instead.

’These fish must have been stranded here during high tide. They’re ridiculously easy to catch.’

Qiao Xixi couldn’t help but marvel at the abundance of resources. She even managed to find several crabs. This was quite a haul.

The bountiful seafood harvest helped to distract her, for a moment, from her longing for her mates and cubs.

"Help! Help! Won’t some kind soul please save me?"

Just as Qiao Xixi was about to head back to shore, she heard a childish cry for help from behind a large rock.

She looked toward the rock and saw a small, helpless-looking hand waving from behind it. It seemed a cub was in trouble.

She set down her bamboo basket and walked toward the rock.

But as she neared the rock, the ground beneath her feet gave way, and she plunged into a pit in the sand.

"HAHAHAHA, caught one!"

Qiao Xixi looked up into a pair of triumphant, azure-blue eyes.

Xiya started when she saw Qiao Xixi. "It’s you?"

’Qiao Xixi knew she had fallen for the little mermaid cub’s trap.’

"Pull me up first, and then I’ll tell you why it’s me!"

Xiya tilted her little head and darted off. When she returned, she was holding Qiao Xixi’s bamboo basket. "No way! It’s your own fault for being so dumb. Climb out yourself."

With that, she turned and ran off.

Qiao Xixi let out a laugh of exasperation.

But to her surprise, when she used a Vine Orchid to pull herself out, she found the girl was still standing by the edge of the pit.

Xiya’s eyes widened in amazement as she saw a vine lift Qiao Xixi out of the pit. Once she snapped out of it, she turned to run.

There was no way Qiao Xixi was letting her get away that easily. She strode forward and grabbed the girl by her small, pointed ear.

"Trying to run away after doing something bad? Didn’t your mother ever teach you that there are consequences for misbehaving?"