Future Beast World: Becoming A Pampered Beauty-Chapter 518 - 457: Return

...

Sang Luo arrived at the Divine Venerable Mansion in Qingqiu. It had been uninhabited for several hundred years and was still cold and desolate, but not as barren as her last visit.

She walked into the courtyard and saw a somewhat familiar figure sweeping fallen leaves with a broom.

Sang Luo greeted him. "Village Chief, long time no see. You look so much younger!"

Xu turned, saw it was her, and chuckled. "What brings you here today, Miss?"

The old Village Chief had previously looked like a man nearing a hundred, weathered and stooped beyond recognition. Now, he looked decades younger. His frame appeared much healthier than before, and his salt-and-pepper hair had turned a grayish-red.

"Congratulations, old Village Chief, on surmounting the hurdle of the Divine Venerable Realm."

"The joy is mutual! It’s all thanks to the Lord Divine Venerate. Otherwise, these old bones of mine wouldn’t have had many years left." Xu laughed heartily. "As a mere Mortal Beast, it was already a blessing to have idled away tens of thousands more years than others. Before he left, the Lord Divine Venerate remembered our old ties and helped me break through my bottleneck. Over these years, I’ve just been doing what little I can for him, so he’ll have a place to rest when he returns."

Xu kept the mansion immaculate. For the past several hundred years, he had come often to clean, just as if its master still lived here.

A flash of sorrow crossed Sang Luo’s eyes. She sighed softly. "I haven’t been here in a long time, either. It just occurred to me this morning, so I wanted to come and see it, maybe stay for a few days. I keep thinking he might come back one of these days."

"You are welcome to stay, Miss. The rooms have all been cleaned. The bedding is probably damp, so I’ll get you a new set of cotton quilts." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Thank you for the trouble."

Perhaps because her due date was approaching, Sang Luo’s mood had been low recently. She wanted to come to Qingqiu alone for a couple of days of peace, away from any other worries.

She moved a small lounge chair to the entrance of the courtyard and sat down.

Watching the mountains, watching the Water, watching the clouds drift by, watching the flowers fall and fill the hall...

It was an indescribable comfort.

...

「One evening.」

A small, grayish-white Snow Mink stood on its hind legs, its paws clutching the threshold as it peeked its head into the doorway.

It spotted the woman fast asleep on the lounge chair in the courtyard, a medical text covering her face. ’Perfect!’ it thought, overjoyed. It lowered its body and prepared to sneak in furtively.

Suddenly, a cool and elegant female voice rang out.

"Stop right there."

The little Snow Mink froze. It turned its head to see the woman was awake, though it didn’t know when she’d woken up. She removed the book from her face and gave it a faint, knowing smile. "To take without telling is to steal. To take without asking makes one a thief. You didn’t just come here to wander around for no reason, did you?"

The little Snow Mink feigned ignorance, pretending not to understand her words while looking for a chance to dig a hole and escape.

A chain shot from Sang Luo’s palm, seizing it and throwing it to the ground. It was unable to struggle free.

"The great Beast Emperor, Li Zhi. Do you need me to personally escort you back? Let your subordinates see you in this state."

Li Zhi couldn’t keep up the act. He started cursing, "Let me go, you cunning female! I haven’t even settled the score with you for tricking me back then! And now you dare to kidnap me!"

Sang Luo smiled faintly. "It’s true I tricked you, but that was after you trespassed in the Divine Venerable Mansion. Now that the Divine Venerable is not here, the defensive Barrier in the mansion has fallen into disarray. Who knows how many things you’ve stolen over these past few hundred years."

Li Zhi’s face flushed red, then paled. She had hit the mark. He really had pilfered quite a few good things over the years... ’But the Divine Venerable is long gone, and the mansion has been deserted for ages,’ he thought. ’It would be a waste not to take the treasures inside! Even if I didn’t steal them, there are plenty of rogue Beastmen nearby who would!’

"He’s been dead for ages. Why do you care so much?" Li Zhi said sarcastically.

Sang Luo replied, "When Yan returns, I will relay these words of yours to him verbatim."

Li Zhi’s expression changed drastically. "He! He’s still alive? He’s not dead?!"

"Hearing is hearsay, seeing is believing. When he returns, won’t you know for sure?"

The outside world rumored that Divine Venerable Yan’s Divine Soul had completely dissipated between heaven and earth, which was why he had dared to be so brazen. Hearing her words, he felt a chill in his heart. "I... I didn’t take much! When the Divine Venerable returns, I will naturally return everything I stole with my own two hands!"

"You’ve probably used up most of what you stole. How about this? I won’t make things difficult for you. I’ll ask you a question, and in return, I’ll pretend I never saw you today. How does that sound?"

"...What do you want to ask?" Li Zhi asked suspiciously.

"Do you have any siblings?" Sang Luo asked, studying his beast form. "Ones that look similar to your original form."

Li Zhi looked at her oddly. "Why are you asking that?"

"My daughter is raising a Snow Mink. I originally thought it was just an ordinary wild beast, but I suddenly realized the little one looks a lot like you, just a size smaller."

Li Zhi puffed up his chest proudly. "I am from the Moon Cloud Mink clan. All the Beastmen in our clan look like this. The one you saw might be one of the younger generation, I’m not too sure. I do have a female cousin, though, from my second uncle’s side."

"Do they live on the North Continent?"

"How did you know?"

"My Wolf Beast daughter and her father live on the North Continent. I took a trip to the North Continent a couple of months ago and saw that little Snow Mink."

"We Moon Cloud Minks are an Ancient Beast Clan from the North Continent. We later migrated to Qingqiu because the Spiritual Power here is purer and denser, which is better for Cultivation. But some clan members were attached to our ancestral lands and remained on the North Continent," Li Zhi confessed honestly.

Sang Luo nodded and asked him another question. "What were you sneaking over here to find this time? A written order?"

"Not that. I heard someone had come to the Divine Venerable Mansion, so I wanted to check things out. I didn’t expect it to be you."

"You don’t want to be the Beast Emperor of Qingqiu anymore?"

Li Zhi scratched his head with a paw, looking a bit embarrassed. "I used to think being the Beast Emperor was such a glorious thing, but I just ended up being used as a pawn. After thinking it over, being the Beast Emperor isn’t for me! I’d rather just focus on my Cultivation. My old lady got seriously ill a couple of days ago, so I came to the Divine Venerable Mansion to dig up some medicinal herbs."

"There aren’t many herbs left in the garden. Go take a look, and take whatever you need."

Li Zhi gave Sang Luo a surprised look, then said awkwardly, "Thanks."

After Li Zhi left with the herbs, Sang Luo took new medicinal seeds from her spatial storage and planted them in the garden. She tended to the herb garden when she had nothing else to do.

The rainy season was gradually approaching.

After eating and drinking her fill, Sang Luo lay on the lounge chair by the doorway, basking in the sun.

The sky gradually grew overcast, and soon a light drizzle began to fall. The rain grew heavier, falling like a curtain.

The eaves blocked the rain. Listening to the sound of its fall, Sang Luo slowly grew drowsy and drifted off to sleep.

Through the curtain of rain, a cyan bone umbrella appeared. Beneath it, a tall, slender figure stood silently outside the gate.

The man was dressed in a simple, elegant white robe. His flawless, snow-white hair cascaded down his back. His well-defined fingers gripped the umbrella’s handle. As the wind and rain swirled, the hem of his robe fluttered, making him appear as coolly handsome as a banished immortal who had descended to the mortal realm.

He strode into the courtyard, and the wind and rain retreated, making way for him.