nownovels Chapter 574 - 573: Just Afraid the Punishment Is More Than This
Chapter 574 - 573: Just Afraid the Punishment Is More Than This
Several other male beastmen let out huge sighs of relief, their mission accomplished. "Haha, the Beast God isn’t omnipotent. Just look at your grandpa—didn’t he go meet the Beast God ahead of schedule? He was dead, so how could he possibly have been the Beast King?
If the Beast King hadn’t hired the State Preceptor to perform a ritual, we never would have found you, the one that got away!"
"That’s why our Beast King, Ling Wei, is the true chosen one! You, on the other hand, are destined to be food for the fishes. Don’t worry, we’ll stick around and have a meal. We’ll make absolutely sure you have no chance of survival..."
After the beastmen finished speaking, Si Shuo heard a rustling sound.
They had stuffed the little fellow into a Beast Skin Bag, tied it shut, and thrown it forcefully into the river.
The Beast Skin Bag, weighed down with who knows how many stones, sank quickly. The little fellow inside struggled frantically, but the more he thrashed, the faster he depleted his stored oxygen. He didn’t have much time to escape.
Si Shuo watched from a distance. By now, the Beast Skin Bag had sunk to the riverbed. The little fellow thrashed about for a good four minutes until finally, his oxygen ran out. His body gave a final, convulsive shudder, and then he lay still, filled with despair and resentment.
Gong You teleported to Si Shuo’s side. Seeing her stare intently at the Beast Skin Bag, his eyes filled with confusion.
Si Shuo blew a bubble, then pointed at the Beast Skin Bag with her fin.
Gong You understood immediately. He shifted into his human form and snapped his fingers. A large bubble instantly formed and enveloped the Beast Skin Bag.
The bubble was filled with air, allowing the little fellow inside to finally take huge, greedy gasps, clawing his way back from the brink of death.
Up on the river, the men were sitting in their boat. They had taken out a stone basin, lit some firewood inside, and were enjoying a barbecue. They weren’t using oars, simply letting the boat drift on the water. From here, their view was unobstructed, and they could see everything around them.
"Tsk, my Curled Horned Sheep is already cooked. That little whelp should be good and dead by now, right?"
"No doubt about it! If I wasn’t afraid of the karmic backlash, I would’ve finished him off myself. Then I wouldn’t have to be out here eating barbecue in the cold wind."
"You should be grateful. Who do you think he is? He was destined by birth to be the Beast King. Under normal circumstances, he’d be impossible to kill... and anyone who lays a hand on him suffers a backlash..."
Si Shuo poked her head out of the water to listen. Her lips pursed and her eyes shifted. She then sank back beneath the surface and summoned Yin Jiang and Xu Chi.
The disturbance from their Teleportation was minimal, and since they were underwater, the faint fluctuations of Spiritual Power wouldn’t attract the attention of the beastmen on the boat in the slightest.
With Xiao Cheng’s help, Yin Jiang and Xu Chi also transformed into black fish.
Si Shuo wrote them a small note, explaining the plan...
Yin Jiang and Xu Chi nodded in succession, then vanished. Xu Chi possessed an Invisibility Ability. The pair completely suppressed their auras, becoming as unnoticeable as the air itself, without a single trace of their presence.
The two emerged from the water, hovering in mid-air. Yin Jiang had a Fire Ability—and not just any fire, but Samadhi Fire, which possessed devastating power and was nearly impossible to extinguish by normal means. Xu Chi had a Wind Ability, making the two of them a perfect combination.
With a subtle movement of Yin Jiang’s hand, the fire in the stone basin suddenly flared up as if doused by fat dripping from the meat. Sparks shot out, landing on a nearby pile of dry firewood, which instantly burst into flames!
Fanned by the wind, the fire’s momentum was ferocious. Before anyone could react, it had already climbed the mast, scorching a path along the hemp ropes to the furled Beast Skin sail. Burning debris began to rain down.
The beastmen had a natural fear of uncontrollable fire. What’s more, this was now a raging inferno. They abandoned any attempt to fight it—the fire was impossible to save—and helplessly leaped into the water.
One of the males watched in a panic as the fire licked the boat clean, not even leaving behind a single plank for them to hold onto. He was furious, anxious, and terrified. "This is cursed! How can a fire on the river burn a boat to cinders? I’d have to be a fool not to think this is the Beast God’s punishment..."
"If I’d known we’d face retribution, I would’ve never agreed to this... I’m not a good swimmer, and we’re so far from shore! Ahhh, I don’t want to die out here..."
"If we only lost the boat, it’d just be a close call. At least we’re still alive. I’m just afraid this isn’t the end of the punishment..."
He had barely finished speaking when the surface of the water suddenly erupted in bubbles. One of the beastmen let out a bloodcurdling scream. Before the others could figure out what was happening, they too felt something take a vicious bite out of them. Blooms of blood appeared on the river’s surface for an instant before being washed away.
"It’s Cannibal Fish..." The beastmen’s faces paled. Forgetting everything else, they began to swim desperately toward the riverbank.
Cannibal Fish aren’t solitary creatures; they travel in schools! Sure enough, when the men turned to look, they saw the nearby water churning with unnatural ripples. A closer look revealed that they weren’t ripples at all, but the black backs of countless Cannibal Fish.
Their crimson eyes and two rows of serrated teeth snapping together—CHOMP CHOMP—were enough to make one’s skin crawl with a single glance.
Wagging her tail, Si Shuo enjoyed the spectacle of the swimming race. Anyone who fell behind got a chunk taken out of them.
The men summoned every ounce of their strength, clawing desperately through the water. The strong swimmers could breathe a small sigh of relief; as long as they were faster than the others, they weren’t in mortal danger.
Just then, one of the beastmen’s legs cramped up, and he could no longer swim. He flailed at the water in terror. "Help me... My leg..."
But everyone was fleeing for their lives; who would be foolish enough to turn back to save him? In moments, the man was swarmed by the Cannibal Fish. Amidst his wretched screams, the water churned violently, stained by wave after wave of blood. A short while later, all that was left was a bare, white skeleton.
Finding no more flesh to devour, the Cannibal Fish resumed their pursuit of the larger group, while the skeleton slowly sank to the bottom of the river.
’Too vicious!’ Si Shuo watched for a moment longer before turning away in horror and burying her face in Gong You’s embrace.
Gong You gently stroked her back, his voice low. "This is the only way to truly strike fear into them, to stop them from disrespecting the Beast God and continuing to act so wantonly in the future.
A lesson taught in flesh and blood will ensure they carry the story back accurately, which will in turn solidify the belief that the poor little thing in the Beast Skin Bag is truly dead."
Si Shuo nodded. "I know. Tossing that Beast Skin Bag into the river was murder. A life for a life. They must have understood the consequences when they chose to do it, right?"
She was no longer in the mood to linger in the river, so she and her companions brought the Beast Skin Bag back to the bank.
Xiao Cheng opened the Beast Skin Bag, revealing an unconscious White Fox Cub with two deep, horizontal gashes across its back.
His eyes narrowed. He gently touched one of the wounds, and the little cub shivered violently in pain.
"They forcibly hacked off his wings," Xiao Cheng said, wincing just from the sight of it.
Si Shuo sucked in a sharp breath, her thoughts immediately turning to Yin Jiang, who had also had his wings cut off and his Dantian gouged out.
Yin Jiang’s intense gaze met hers. The little cub’s condition had clearly dredged up painful memories, and a gloomy aura settled over him.