Anthony kept looking back at the woods behind them. Caleb called out softly a few times but could not draw Anthony’s attention to himself.

Caleb’s long eyelashes fluttered slightly. He turned to the other beastmen, and seeing that the wounds of a few were only haphazardly bandaged, he volunteered to help re-bandage them. The beastmen could not have asked for more and hastily asked Caleb to help them.

Sub-Beasts of the Rabbit clan had a strong natural talent for medicine. The messy bandages gradually became neater under his hands. Andrew blurted out in admiration:

"You are truly skilled, Caleb, and so gentle and cute. Any beastman who mates with you would be incredibly blessed."

Caleb blushed, his eyes briefly glancing at Anthony brimming with affection. The group of beastmen understood it in their hearts but did not speak up. Before Caleb arrived, Walter and Anthony had been very close, and they all felt the two were very compatible. Now, with Caleb as a point of comparison, Walter’s strong personality seemed no longer suitable for Anthony.

Caleb gathered his things and said as if unintentionally: "I am not that skilled, Brother Walter is the truly skilled one. He is a Sub-Beast yet can kill demonic beasts, as strong as a beastman."

The beastmen twitched their mouths slightly upon hearing this. Sub-Beasts of the Striped Tiger clan were also very strong, but only within the scope of tribal duties. In this world, the only Sub-Beasts who dared to face demonic beasts were probably Walter and Sorin. Caleb spoke again:

"Brother Zale treats Brother Walter so well, will the two of them mate?"

The beastmen were a bit stunned. After a few seconds, Andrew said loudly: "Don’t speak nonsense, Zale already has a mate. They will hold the mating ceremony in the second month of this winter!"

Perhaps his voice was a bit too loud, frightening Caleb. Caleb dropped the bandages and medicine on the ground, his whole body shrinking back. Anthony, who had been spacing out, was jolted awake by Andrew’s loud shout. He turned to see Caleb cowering on the ground in fear, while Andrew was frantically at a loss for what to do. Anthony hurriedly ran over to them, asking urgently:

"What is wrong? Why did you shout so loudly and scare Caleb like this?"

Andrew scratched his head in confusion: "I didn’t shout at all, I have always spoken loudly like this, haven’t I?" None of the Sub-Beasts in their tribe had ever been scared by him, so why was this Sub-Beast so fragile?

"The Rabbit clan is inherently timid, you should lower your voice a bit." Anthony frowned, reprimanding Andrew, then helped Caleb up, supporting Caleb back to where Caleb was sitting. Caleb sobbed quietly, muttering: "I only asked the wrong thing, did you need to raise your voice at me like that? It’s just that I saw Brother Zale caring for Brother Walter so much, so I misunderstood their relationship."

Anthony was slightly taken aback, then his face immediately darkened, his voice carrying a bit of frustration: "Don’t speak nonsense. Cael would not be happy to hear that." However, a tiny seed of doubt had been planted in his heart, so light that Anthony did not even realize it. Caleb pouted, murmuring a quiet "I know," and lowered his head, cleverly hiding a flash of smugness in his eyes.

With the rustling of leaves in the distance, Walter and Zale returned. They did not know what had happened while they were away, only noticing that the way everyone looked at them had changed somewhat. Everyone’s gaze was focused on Zale’s hand, which was supporting Walter’s shoulder.

Anthony strode over with a black expression and slapped Zale’s hand away, causing Walter to lose balance and stagger a bit. Walter had to grab onto a nearby tree trunk to steady himself. Zale was pushed away in bewilderment, then angrily questioned:

"What are you doing?! Do you know..."

"What am I doing? I should be the one asking what you are doing! Zale, do you know you already have a mate? Hugging and cuddling another Sub-Beast, what kind of decency is this?!"

Anthony felt like he was about to go crazy. This privilege had clearly been his before, yet now Walter was giving it to someone else. Never mind Andrew, but how could Zale also not know his limits? He whipped his head around to glare at Walter, his eyes seemingly spitting fire:

"Walter, can you have some sense of propriety?! You are a Sub-Beast. Do not rely on having killed a few demonic beasts to consider yourself a beastman. Why are you walking so closely to a beastman like that?!"

The group of beastmen also stood up one by one, their eyes looking at Walter with some disapproval. Caleb’s mouth curled up inconspicuously. Zale could not hold back anymore and lunged forward to punch Anthony in the face. Anthony dodged the punch and quickly counterattacked. The two beastmen immediately brawled. Both were beastman warriors, and Zale was even a third-tier warrior; outsiders simply could not intervene and could only stand helplessly on the sidelines, shouting and urging them to stop fighting.

Walter looked at the scene before him with a broken heart. The tears he had tried so hard to hold back welled up once again. He used all his might to scream:

"ENOUGH!"

This shout caused his wound to bleed again. Walter’s face turned pale, but he still stood as straight as a pine tree. This scream also acted like a pause button, bringing everyone’s movements to a halt. The atmosphere became unusually quiet.

Walter took a deep breath, forcing his tears back, and said with a trembling voice: "I know, I was in the wrong. I am sorry, I will be mindful of my boundaries from now on."

Zale was anxious and said: "That is not it, Walter, you were clearly..."

"Brother Zale." Walter interrupted Zale and closed his eyes: "Please do not say anything."

Zale clenched his jaw tightly, released the hand pressing down on Anthony’s carotid artery, and stood up in frustration. Anthony looked at Walter’s pale face; his heart felt as if it were being bitten by tens of thousands of ants, both aching and itching. He stood up wanting to approach Walter, only to have Walter step back a few paces to evade him:

"The things we need to gather are enough, we should head back to the tribe."

Zale eagerly wanted to speak but was cut off by Walter’s head shake. In frustration, he gouged a long mark on an ancient tree trunk. The beastmen looked at one another, extreme bewilderment showing in their eyes. How on earth was this getting more and more complicated?

While the hunting party in the demonic beast forest was experiencing internal conflict, Kaelen had finished presenting his plan to the three adults. Even though they had mentally prepared themselves, all three were still stunned by the little Sub-Beast’s bold idea. Talon rubbed his forehead, experiencing a headache. His temples kept throbbing continuously, and his small head was about to be unable to think of anything else anymore.

"We need to think. Give us two... no, three days. In three days, we will give you an answer."

Kaelen nodded and said: [I hope everyone thinks carefully. Our tribe will be targeted sooner or later; wanting to live in seclusion is impossible.]

Having said that, Kaelen cast a glance at Sane, gave him a cold snort, then raised his chin high and swaggered out. The four people in the council tent could not help but shake their heads with helpless smiles.

"You all heard what Kaelen said. Our tribe right now truly has too many things coveted by others; in these chaotic times, it is indeed not easy to stay hidden. Instead of constantly worrying and defending, we can take the initiative to attack."

Talon pressed his temples, speaking to the three of them. Sane was deep in thought, while Collins and Jaxon both propped up their hands, not yet knowing which direction to take. Talon looked at Jaxon again and asked:

"Our old tribe did not have many beastman warriors, so I am not very clear on this. In your opinion, if we can trigger the current seven hundred or more beastmen of the Crimson tribe to become beastman warriors, what are the odds of winning against the Temple?"

Jaxon frowned in thought and said: "If we do not make the same mistakes as Obsidian, with seven hundred beastman warriors, we would still have less than a three-in-ten chance of winning. However, awakening Beast Energy is not that simple. In the past, the Obsidian tribe had as many as two thousand six hundred beastmen yet could not even produce more than five hundred beastman warriors. I do not have much confidence."

Weary sighs echoed in the tent once again. They did not notice a vine with a trumpet-shaped flower on its tip that had been clinging to the tent wall all this time; after eavesdropping for a while, it quietly slipped away.

Far away, Kaelen opened his eyes and began arranging his calculations in his heart. It was clear that there was wavering in their hearts; they were just afraid of the high risks, hence their hesitation to make a decision. He needed a larger, stronger spark to ignite their ambition.

---

"Welcome, Young Chief." Moharm led the second elder and the clansmen of the Obsidian tribe to stand at the tribe’s main gate to receive the group arriving from the other side of the demonic beast forest.

The one called Young Chief was a very young beastman of the Lion clan named Adrian. His fiery blonde hair spiked up slightly like a lion’s mane, and his gaze was chilling and vicious. His eyes swept over the people of the Obsidian tribe, lingering a bit longer on the group of Sub-Beasts, before calmly returning to look at Moharm:

"You have worked hard. From today onward, the name Obsidian no longer exists on this continent. Over there is a group of slaves I captured on the way here, handle them as you see fit."

Following the jerk of his chin, everyone’s gaze turned to the left. There were more than thirty people there, old and young, Sub-Beasts as well as beastmen, all of them shackled at the hands and feet. There were no elderly people; presumably, they had all been killed.

Moharm softly gave orders to a beastman of the Gray Wolf clan. The beastman nodded, then led people to herd all those shackled individuals and locked them in the holding area within the tribe.

Moharm then invited Adrian to the resting place they had arranged. When the people of the Cipher tribe passed by, the people of the former Obsidian tribe immediately huddled together, keeping their faces down, their eyes filled with endless unwillingness and regret. They regretted choosing to stay in the tribe, being led by the nose by the four elders to become puppets at the mercy of Cipher’s arrangements.

On the other side, Adrian was criticizing the cave that Moharm’s group had prepared. He walked around himself to pick a satisfactory dwelling, ultimately choosing the cave of Cael’s family as his residence. It was simply because Cael’s house had been renovated following the layout of Kaelen’s house, so it had three bedrooms, a bright kitchen, and a very long wooden table in the middle of the room.

This table was something Icarus had asked Cassian to make for his own home. He had originally planned that if he could not find a cave for Theron later on, he could let Theron’s whole family stay here together. The table was made of wood from a tree over a hundred years old using a mortise and tenon joint method, making it look exceptionally sturdy.

Adrian walked around the wooden table and tested its durability with force, feeling quite satisfied. He abruptly turned around and lifted a Sub-Beast standing nearby onto the table, wedging himself between the Sub-Beast’s legs in a highly indecent posture. The Sub-Beast was startled and let out a soft "oh my", then giggled, coquettishly poking Adrian’s firm chest and saying: "You are so bad~"

Adrian smiled lecherously, bit the Sub-Beast’s ear, and said: "Isn’t this the style you like? This table suits your taste perfectly."

Two other Sub-Beasts also quickly stepped forward, each hooking an arm around Adrian’s, pressing their bodies against him, and said petulantly: "You only care about Miles, we have never gotten to do it like this."

Adrian smirked, reached out his two hands to squeeze the buttocks of the two Sub-Beasts, and said wickedly: "Then let’s try it today, shall we?"

The two Sub-Beasts blushed and nodded, rubbing their heads against Adrian’s toned arms. The people of the Cipher tribe were already used to seeing this, but the escorting beastmen and the elders of Obsidian had never seen such a thing, making them somewhat endlessly astonished. Hiding in the crowd, Rylan saw this scene and subconsciously frowned, a wave of disgust rising in his heart.

Hearing Papa constantly talk about the Young Chief’s bravery, he had harbored many hopes, but now those hopes were completely shattered upon their first meeting. Rylan did not want such a promiscuous beastman at all.

Moharm tactfully led everyone to step down, not forgetting to order someone to close the wooden doors before leaving. The two guard beastmen of the Cipher tribe chased the Obsidian beastmen away, taking on the guarding duty themselves.

Before long, filthy, obscene sounds echoed within the warm house of Cael’s family, erasing the remaining traces of them in this place...