When Theron returned, Mie was sitting by the fire. On the stove was a bubbling pot of fish soup, and on the table sat a large plate of crispy fried fish.

Not knowing what Mie was deeply thinking about, Theron deliberately kicked some pebbles to make a rattling sound, but he still couldn’t attract Mie’s gaze. Helplessly, he used his head to rub against Mie’s hand a few times.

The warm softness spreading from the back of his hand snapped Mie out of his endless thoughts. He looked down and saw that the familiar leopard had returned. Smiling, he hugged Theron’s head and buried his face in the leopard’s neck, rubbing affectionately.

"Where did you go? Why are you only back now? I made the fish dish you like to eat the most."

"Mhm."

The voice coming from the leopard’s throat made Mie’s body stiffen. He let go of the leopard’s head in astonishment, staring blankly. Theron licked his lips, then approached and reared up, placing his paw pads on the armrest of the chair. A flash of light appeared; the leopard’s body gradually elongated, transforming into a tall, muscular beastman.

Theron half-sat on the ground, leaning his arm on the chair, looking down at Mie from above. He used a deep, warm voice to say to Mie, "Mie, I’m home."

Mie’s tears fell. He hugged Theron’s neck and burst out crying loudly.

Theron lovingly hugged Mie, gently pressing a kiss to Mie’s hair...

The group of elders standing outside, looking at the heartwarming scene inside, smiled kindly in unison. Collins said:

"We old folks were truly foolish. If we had made the decision earlier, the kids wouldn’t have had to suffer so much."

Talon sighed: "We’re old, always worrying about this and that. I think from now on, we should just let the kids decide for themselves. Our group can step back and enjoy our retirement."

Nyx pushed the two of them: "Let’s go, let’s go. They are having a romantic moment, what are we old folks doing here? Let’s all go back to our own homes."

Everyone outside had left. Inside the tent, Mie wiped his tears and looked up at Theron, using both hands to caress Theron’s face as if wanting to memorize every contour. His hand stopped at the center of Theron’s forehead, asking with some curiosity: "What is this? I remember you didn’t have this before?"

Theron grasped Mie’s hand, pressing it to his own cheek: "Priest Collins said it is a God-given mark. They performed a divine offering ceremony, begging the Beast God to grant me origin energy once again."

Theron gently patted Mie’s head. He didn’t want to bring up Kaelen’s name at this moment, partly because he himself hadn’t fully understood the surging power within his body, and partly because the fewer people who knew Kaelen’s secret, the better. This matter would have to wait until Kaelen woke up to be sorted out.

Mie looked at Theron in front of him, hiding a trace of melancholy within his joy. Withdrawing his hand resting on Theron’s cheek, he hid the emotions in the depths of his eyes and smiled, asking:

"Have you told everyone at home?"

"Not yet." Theron shook his head. "As soon as things stabilized, I came straight back here to you. I haven’t had the time to drop by Daddy’s place."

"Then you should quickly go back and let them know. Everyone will surely be very happy."

"Will you come with me?" Theron asked expectantly.

Mie clenched his fists slightly, but ultimately shook his head. Theron was a bit disappointed and pulled Mie into his arms. Every time he wanted to bring Mie home, he was rejected; clearly, Mie was still harboring feelings of inferiority. Perhaps now he should go back and ask Papa or Cael to come and talk to Mie, to help Mie untangle the emotions in his heart.

"Then I’ll go back first, and come find you later. You eat first, no need to wait for me."

"Wait." Mie left Theron’s embrace, picked up the plate of fish, and handed it to him, saying, "It’s been a long time since you ate with Daddy and Papa. You should stay and eat with them today, and after eating, just stay at home. Don’t come over here anymore. Before, when you couldn’t transform, it was one thing, but now that you have transformed, us... us being like this isn’t very appropriate."

Mie’s earlobes flushed bright red when mentioning his excessive intimacy with Theron. Previously, when Theron was in his beast form, Mie hugged and kissed him endlessly. Now that Theron had returned to normal, Mie suddenly felt extremely embarrassed.

"I won’t have a place to stay even if I go back home." Theron looked at Mie with teasing eyes. "Daddy and Papa have already assumed my home is over here. If you don’t let me go back, do you want me to sleep outside the tent? Everyone will think I did something wrong and got kicked out of the house by my mate."

Mie’s face, already red, turned even redder. Humiliated into anger, he forcefully pushed Theron out of the tent.

*Get lost, get lost, get lost! Who wants to be your mate! You shameless guy!*

---

The news of Theron regaining his origin power in just one afternoon spread throughout the tribe. Everyone found it hard to imagine, but alongside that, they were happy for Theron. One must know that a beastman who lost his origin power could only become a wild beast, forever unable to recover.

While the tribe was boiling over with the divine miracle, Kaelen was still sound asleep. Sane temporarily set aside the tribe’s matters and stayed by Kaelen’s side to care for him. He understood what Nyx’s implicit look meant. Kaelen fainting from exhaustion was partly the reason; the other part was due to Sane’s beast form. He couldn’t change his own race, nor could he change his child’s race. He only hoped the child born would be a Sub-Beast or a leopard cub, and definitely not a snakelet. Otherwise, he and his child could only lead each other out of the house.

Across the abyss dividing the two continents, at the Divine Temple in the Beast City.

An elderly Sub-Beast continuously danced around a large sphere, occasionally kneeling down, spreading his arms and looking up at the sky, chanting an ancient incantation. But the orb of light in front of him remained entirely unresponsive.

The Sub-Beast shouted loudly: "Why can’t I find it?! Why?! Where exactly did the Divine Miracle appear??"

Unresigned, the Sub-Beast continued to cut his own hand for blood, repeating the ritual to question the God once more. The group of people kneeling below were already covered in cold sweat, terrified that after the Temple Master’s questioning of the God yielded no results, he would drag one of them up to the sacrificial altar.

Fortunately, this time the orb of light finally glowed a little. An image of the dividing abyss appeared, then shifted slightly to the South, and then extinguished completely.

"The Southern Continent? The Southern Continent again!" The Sub-Beast gritted his teeth, his cloudy eyes turning bloodshot, and loudly declared: "Men! Pass down the order. The Southern Continent has violated the covenant set by the Beast God, causing the Beast God’s wrath and bringing down Divine Punishment. From now on, anyone who displays abnormal traits different from others will be executed immediately!"

A single command passed down sparked a large-scale purge. Anyone with physical features or abilities different from the norm was killed. Even newly born cubs, as long as they had abnormal physical traits, would be mercilessly strangled to death. A wave of terror enveloped the entire continent.

In a small tribe not far from the Mid-level city on the Southern Continent, a group of people wiped their tears, seeing off a young beastman leaving the tribe. Since birth, this Snow Leopard clan boy had a speed three or four times faster than a normal beastman, even higher than a warrior beastman. Previously it was a source of pride; now it was a knife demanding his life. The young beastman teared up and said:

"Chief, please don’t drive me away, okay? I don’t want to leave everyone."

The old Chief wiped his tears, patted the young beastman’s shoulder, and said: "Landon, staying here will only lead to your death. Go, leave before the people from the Mid-level city find you. Son, you are still young; don’t let your life be buried forever in this place. May the Beast God bless you."

In another tribe, a small family hugged their newborn child, kowtowed to the tribe’s old Priest, and then silently escaped into the thick curtain of snow. Their little Sub-Beast had just been born two months ago. Not long after the boy was born, everything around him froze; even the bubbling pot of water on the stove was frozen into a thick layer of ice.

The Priest, who had personally delivered the little boy, decided to cover this matter up upon seeing that scene. Unexpectedly, the Divine Temple’s order had just been issued, and people from the Mid-level city were searching everywhere; the child’s situation definitely could not be hidden. Finally, the child’s two fathers decided to take their son away from the tribe, fleeing the pursuit.

The Priest watched the family of three disappear behind the snow, knelt down, and looked up at the sky to plead: "Beast God above, please have mercy on your loyal followers, please bless the children, so they can safely find a place to settle."

In another tribe, a Sub-Beast hid his heavily injured beastman in a tree hollow, using snow and fragrant grass to cover the smell of blood, then draped the beastman’s blood-soaked animal skin over his own body, pretending to carry his beastman while fleeing. The pursuers trailing behind chased after him, completely ignoring the tree hiding the beastman, and ran after the Sub-Beast.

The Sub-Beast ran until he reached the edge of a cliff, unable to run any further. He turned his head to look at the people who were once his clansmen, now enemies chasing him down, and shed a line of tears. His beastman was being hunted down by their own clansmen simply because he belonged to the Tiger clan but additionally possessed a pair of eagle wings. His Papa was of the Tiger clan and his Daddy was of the Avian clan; the traits of both races appearing together on the beastman was previously considered a miracle, but now it had become a sin.

[Hunter, please live well. If there is a chance to be reborn, I still want to be your mate.]

Cooper closed his eyes and threw himself off the cliff.

When the pursuers arrived, they caught sight of the Sub-Beast falling into the abyss; they assumed both had fallen together. The leading beastman waved his hand and said:

"Withdraw the squad. This is the Exile Abyss; falling down means certain death."

A long while after the beastmen left, a three-tailed Red Fox wandering for food approached the tree hiding Hunter. He sniffed the air, catching the scent of blood mixed with fragrant grass, and, thinking that some injured prey was hiding in the tree, took the risk of scratching away the layer of snow. Unexpectedly, what met his eyes was a dying black-striped white tiger with wings.

[He is a mutant just like me!] The three-tailed Red Fox was startled, then let out a sharp hiss to signal. Immediately, several tall figures not far away hurriedly ran over; each of them had a very bizarre appearance.

"Jeremiah, what happened?"

"I found one of our kind, he is dying."

In the eyes of these beastmen, outcasts like them were their own kind; they had met each other while fleeing and therefore formed a group to travel together.

"Oh God, he is heavily injured. Quickly bring him back for Ian to heal."

The group of beastmen combined their strength to lift Hunter onto the back of Roman, the Wild Buffalo clan beastman, and brought Hunter back to their hideout.

There were many people like Hunter and this group of beastmen. They consciously gathered together into groups, fleeing from the Divine Temple’s pursuit together.

At this moment, the Crimson tribe was still busy preparing the mating ceremony for the three young couples, completely unaware that a hidden storm was rising, preparing to change the sky of the entire Beastman Continent.