Chapter 77: Chapter 77: To Save or Not to Save?

Nyx checked Lucian first. Seeing that the little boy’s health was temporarily stable and the wound was no longer serious, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other side, Collins was busy tending to Kaelen and Draven. The pulse signs of both showed that their physical conditions were stable. Kaelen had only fainted due to excessive consumption of his ability, but Draven was running a relentless high fever.

"Why hasn’t the fever gone down yet?"

The Sub-Beasts in the healer’s tent carried out basin after basin of water, while the group of beastmen outside was dying of anxiety.

"Brother Sane, Kaelen’s condition is fine. The priest said you should go and take care of the tribe’s affairs first." A Sub-Beast carrying water out took the opportunity to inform Sane. The Sub-Beast didn’t mention Draven’s condition, which was enough to know that things were not looking good.

Wofu was so anxious that he scratched a small hole in front of the tent entrance. Sane comforted him in a low voice:

"Rest assured, everyone’s medical skills have improved significantly, so nothing bad should happen. You keep watch here for now; I will arrange for someone to take your place at the military camp." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Wofu nodded heavily.

Sane called Quinlan and Andre to the meeting tent and also sent someone to invite Jaxon back from the construction area. Talon, who was sitting leisurely grading homework, temporarily set his pen aside and went to the meeting table in the center. Once Jaxon rushed back and everyone was fully present, Sane asked Quinlan and Andre:

"What is the situation?"

Quinlan lowered his head and said sadly:

"Obsidian is no more; they have now become Cipher people. I heard the guards saying that the one who arrived seems to be the young Chief of Cipher."

Andre continued, "They have a lot of slaves. Generally, any clan not under the jurisdiction of those four elders has been turned into slaves."

Quinlan added, "I took a quick look, and there are quite a few unfamiliar faces among the slaves, probably people captured by Cipher. Currently, they are busy making pottery and yellow tuber starch strands to send back to Cipher, so it seems they don’t have any intention of sweeping the surrounding areas."

Sane tapped his fingers on the tabletop. Currently, their location and the Cipher group were too close; the tribe was no longer safe. He asked:

"Could you figure out their fighting strength?"

Andre replied, "Just in the outer patrol ring alone, there are thirteen second-tier beastman warriors and about twenty first-tier warriors. However, they are only guarding the inner sector; they don’t care about the outer perimeter."

Quinlan chimed in, "I guess there are third-tier warriors among them. I was almost discovered when I tried to get close to the central area."

Sane nodded in acknowledgment. Ever since hearing the news that most of his clansmen had been reduced to slaves, Jaxon had been a little restless, but since Sane was the one in charge now, the older man didn’t dare to express his opinion. Sane glanced at Jaxon and asked Quinlan:

"What happened with Lucian?"

Hearing this, Quinlan became so angry his nose nearly twisted. "I saw him dragging his Papa’s corpse to bury, and not a single person there helped the boy."

Andre said apologetically, "At that time, we were hiding nearby. Two beastmen of the Lion clan voluntarily went to help the child carry his Papa’s corpse away. We don’t know what happened; we only know that the next time we saw the little boy, he had already been bitten on the neck by a wild beast, about to be eaten."

At that moment, disregarding the risk of exposure, the two of them immediately killed the wild beast, then carried Lucian to the cliff and used a net to snatch the boy back to the canyon. Quinlan said, "At that time, the invisibility charm’s effect was still active, and we only killed the wild beast biting the kid and ran away immediately. The dead wild beast will definitely be eaten by its peers nearby. With so many mixed scents, the Cipher group probably won’t discover us."

Sane nodded and said, "We can’t drop our guard. Quinlan, you go to the military camp and pass word to Nordhal to strengthen the outer perimeter’s defenses. Andre, you lead the giant Avian clan team to the canyon to keep watch; if any strangers approach, sound the alarm immediately."

"Understood!"

Waiting for the two of them to leave, Sane turned to speak to Jaxon: "Wait until Lucian wakes up to clearly ask about the situation in Obsidian, then we can decide whether to save them or not."

Sane knew Jaxon was very soft-hearted, especially toward his own clansmen, so the leader didn’t want Jaxon risking his life to save them and ending up hurting himself. Jaxon understood the implication in Sane’s words and slowly nodded. In fact, ever since Quinlan said no one had helped Lucian bury his Papa, the older man had already extinguished the thought of going to rescue those people.

At this moment, over at the healer’s tent, Nyx had chased all the apprentice Sub-Beasts out the moment he discovered the anomaly concerning Kaelen and Draven. Collins stood in front of the sickbed, excitedly grabbing Nyx’s hand and squeezing tightly:

"Oh Beast God, Nyx, your tribe is truly favored by the Beast God. Kaelen, Walter, then Theron, and now Draven. They are awakening their Divine Energy one after another. I... oh, my old heart..."

Nyx was squeezed so hard by Collins that it hurt, yet he remained as stiff as a log. He truly didn’t expect Draven to awaken his Divine Energy at a time like this. The wooden bed where Kaelen and Draven were lying was already covered with green sprouts, and on Draven’s forehead, there was a green flame symbol mixed with a hint of gold. It seemed Draven was awakening a Divine Energy similar to Kaelen’s.

Kaelen currently only felt his entire body relaxed as if soaking in warm water. Every pore seemed to open up, and his Magical Energy was more abundant than ever. In his sea of consciousness, the cracked fields had mended together. Although not yet covered in green, they were no longer the barren wasteland from before. The sprout in the middle of the field reached a bit higher, growing half of a fourth leaf.

While he was immersed in this endlessly mystical feeling, an itch in his throat pulled him back to reality. Kaelen couldn’t help but cough dryly a few times, then slowly woke up. The space before his eyes overlapped, hazy and blurry. He blinked a few times, and the scene gradually became clear. What struck his eyes was the tent ceiling along with two aged faces filled with a mixture of worry and joy.

Kaelen propped himself up to sit, and the two Priests supported him, one on each side. Neither of them said anything; they just waited for Kaelen to sit steadily, then used their fingers to point to the side. Kaelen looked in the direction they pointed, and his eyes instantly widened like brass bells.

This color! This shape! This ability fluctuation!

A healing ability! It was a pure healing ability!

Holy shit!

One must know that even in the most prosperous era of magic, healing abilities were rarer than diamonds in the sand. Unlike Kaelen, who was just a half-baked healer, a true healing-type ability user only needed a wave of their hand, and severed arms, severed legs, or even a half-severed head could grow back. Rumor had it that a max-level healing type could even bring the dead back to life.

Although he had never met a max-level healer before, just an intermediate-level healer was already ridiculously overpowered!

No wonder his Magical Energy refilled so quickly; it turned out he was mooching off the energy emitted during Draven’s awakening. Not only Kaelen, but even Collins and Nyx standing nearby felt their entire bodies relax, and the aches and pains of their old age were significantly reduced.

Kaelen suddenly remembered something and hurriedly jumped to the ground to look around. He immediately spotted the tiny figure lying on a bed far away. He hastily walked over, picked Lucian up, and placed the little boy on his own bed, signaling for the two priests to combine their strength and push the bed right next to Draven’s.

Almost instantly, the unhealed wounds on Lucian’s body completely closed up, leaving not a single scar behind.

The two priests watched with their mouths hanging open in astonishment.

Seeing that Lucian showed signs of waking up, Kaelen immediately picked the boy up, wrapped him in a blanket, and then signaled to the two priests:

[You two stay here to guard Draven; the awakening process will take at least a day. I will take Lucian back to my place.]

Collins waved his hand to show he understood, and then the two of them took turns guarding Draven.

At the bottom of the Exile Abyss, the group of mutant beastmen was trying to search for the whereabouts of Hunter’s mate, Cooper. A completely pitch-black Rabbit with a moon-shaped pattern suddenly stopped moving, stood on his hind legs, and tilted his head up to look in a certain direction. Jeremiah, the three-tailed red fox, saw him stop and walked closer, asking:

"What’s wrong, Ian? Do you sense something?"

The black rabbit Ian twitched his ears and said, "I don’t know, it seems like a voice is urging us to head in that direction."

Roman tapped his hooves to remove the mud and dirt, looked in the direction Ian was looking, and said, "South? Is your intuition telling us to go south? That’s the magical beast forest. I heard that on the other side of the magical beast forest, it doesn’t snow."

Ian blinked his red eyes and said, "Perhaps so, but we need to quickly find Hunter’s mate. I can feel that his life force is weakening."

Hunter anxiously sniffed the snowy ground, trying to find traces of his mate. They had been wandering around the bottom of this Exile Abyss for several days. If Ian hadn’t said he could still feel Cooper’s life signs, Hunter would have drowned himself in the glacial river by now.

"Here! Over here! I found him!"

Robert’s two pairs of horns poked out from the snow, and then his pure white snake body slowly emerged. Hearing the noise, the whole group came running over. Jeremiah and Hunter used their digging abilities to dig through the snow, and before long, they unearthed a person whose entire body was stiff.

"Cooper! Cooper!"

Ian transformed into his human form, stepped forward to check Cooper’s condition, and said in a deep voice:

"His arms and legs are all broken, and since he has been buried in the snow for too long, there are signs of freezing. Quickly put him on the stretcher and bring him back to the cave."

The group of beastmen busily prepared. Hunter transformed into his human form and carefully helped his mate onto the stretcher. His eye sockets burned, but before his tears could fall, he hastily shifted back into his beast form, biting one end of the rope to pull the stretcher away.

Upon returning to the shelter cave, Robert shouted loudly:

"Greyson, Jordan! Hurry and save him!"

The two Sub-Beasts in the inner cave heard the shout and hurriedly dropped the tools in their hands, rushing out to the outer cave. Ian said:

"Cooper’s arm and leg bones are all broken. Greyson, use your energy to temporarily help him ease his internal injuries; Jordan, follow my instructions and slowly help him thaw out."

Greyson immediately closed his eyes. Overlapping his two hands, he placed them lightly on Cooper’s chest. Gentle green energy overflowed, enveloping Cooper’s entire body. A portion of Cooper’s internal injuries gradually healed under the effect of the ability. But it was only a small portion. Seeing Greyson’s face turn deathly pale with sweat beading on his forehead, Ian shouted "Stop." Greyson retracted his ability and let out a heavy breath.

"Jordan, your turn. Follow my instructions and guide your energy through one cycle of Cooper’s body. When I say stop, you must stop immediately."

Jordan nodded, placed his two hands on Cooper’s shoulders, and carefully coaxed the energy from his own body over.

The sky gradually darkened, and the healing work also came to a halt. Cooper’s breathing had grown a bit stronger and was no longer as weak as before. Ian sat leaning against the rock wall, closing his eyes to sense for a moment. Only when his face turned pale did he open his eyes and say:

"We will stay here for two days. Greyson and Jordan will treat Cooper two more times, and then we will head South. I sense that our destination lies on the other side of the magical beast forest. What we will have to face will no longer just be pursuits and killings. If any of you do not want to leave, you can think it over carefully. We will leave supplies for anyone who stays behind."

However, right after he finished speaking, everyone resolutely stated that they wanted to leave this place together. Ian said nothing more; he merely nodded and then stared blankly into the fire, his mind wandering off to who knows where.

Hunter dabbed a little warm water onto Cooper’s lips, bitterly looking at his mate whose body was covered in wounds. He secretly swore that if they could survive this storm, he would definitely make the ones who reduced his mate to this state pay a heavy price.

As the night grew deeper, the blizzard blew harder.

The Divine Temple was still brightly lit with torches. The Temple Master knelt before the divine statue, eyes closed, murmuring prayers. Below, the disciples of the Divine Temple were also prostrated on the ground, waiting for the Temple Master’s orders.

The old Sub-Beast suddenly trembled all over, his eyes rolling back to show only the whites, and a shaking hand pointed in a certain direction:

"The Southern Continent... The place where snow does not fall... The demon descends to the world... Complete annihilation!"