Chapter 58

The last bit of light on the sea had disappeared, and the sky was thick with clouds. The sea breeze blew small waves, and the sudden unfamiliar voice startled the squirrel in this atmosphere, causing her fur to stand on end. She instinctively hugged the big snake’s head. Then she realized and quickly turned her head to look at the big tiger filling the groove.

The tiger was talking!

Since getting out of the water, the giant tiger had been very silent, lying there tightly. Song Xu thought she felt uncomfortable from the water and needed to rest. Who would have thought that the tiger, who had only communicated with roars for months, would suddenly start speaking?

Song Xu reacted twice, then jumped up: “You’re talking!”

The big snake swam over first, nudging the giant tiger’s chin, then circled around her body, subtly expressing his joy.

The squirrel’s excitement was more obvious: “How come you suddenly started talking? Oh my gosh! Have you recovered? You have, right?”

The giant tiger’s face, not very expressive in beast form, showed a hint of guilt in her big eyes.

In fact, she could talk before they set sail, but her mind was still unclear at the time. A mess of slowly remembered things cluttered her brain, and her cognition was a bit off. For instance, she remembered having a cub, but when facing the two cubs in front of her, she couldn’t tell which one was hers. She remembered a little snake, but her experience told her that the furry one made more sense, so she observed them carefully every day. On the first day at sea, seeing the vast ocean, a strong sense of suffocation revived in her body. She remembered several times when she almost drowned in the sea, which stimulated her memory to become much clearer. Although some memories were still vague, she remembered the important things and her enemies.

She remembered but couldn’t find a suitable opportunity to speak up.
She lay there pondering her thoughts, feeling a bit down about being confused for so long, but also relieved to see that the child who was almost an adult when she left hadn’t turned into a beast yet.

With his mate on his head, Wu Mu swam around the boat, occasionally diving to catch small fish and throwing them on the boat for his mate to play with, then coiling around her to rest… Although he looked like he was about to become a complete beast, he was very happy now.

As a mother, Hei Sen could tell when her child was happy. When he was young, Wei Shan gave him a bone knife made of beast bones. He didn’t react much, and Wei Shan thought he didn’t like it, but only Hei Sen knew he really liked it, as he would sleep with it every night. She quietly watched for two days, observing them sleep, eat, and play.

The little squirrel beastman would wipe the water off Wu Mu when he came out of the sea, accompany him in the water when he pushed the boat, tell him stories, and sing to him during rest.

Hei Sen also remembered the scenes of the two interacting during her muddled state over the past few months. She had never seen a pair of mates interact like this. Perhaps because of such a mate by his side, Wu Mu maintained a thread of sanity, refusing to turn into a beast despite the pain.

Moreover, she was surprised that Wu Mu could find a mate. She thought he would only cling to tree trunks for the rest of his life.

“Mom! You can finally talk. So, why are you so obsessed with that island? Is it because there’s something on it that can help Wu Mu recover? What’s on the island?” The squirrel beastman jumped over without hesitation, asking the questions she was most curious about.

Song Xu had been curious about this question for a long time, dreaming about the island.

Unfortunately, Hei Sen could only answer, “I don’t know what’s on the island.”

She still had affection for the little beastman initially mistaken for her cub and nudged her with her nose: “But there is indeed a way to turn Wu Mu into a beastman on that island.”

“A Lu Gu said so. When I was pregnant, A Lu Gu told me that if the child born was a half-beastman, I should go to the western primitive beast sea, to a small island, where the half-beastman could become a beastman… I only remember his general words; it was a long time ago.”

She hadn’t expected her child to be a half-beastman, as it was rare in their tribe. But as Wu Mu grew, she realized he might really be a half-beastman, so she set out to find a solution before he reached adulthood.
She left the tribe, first wanting to find A Lu Gu to ask clearly, but she didn’t know which tribe A Lu Gu belonged to. Thinking about how they met, he was more likely a wandering beastman without a tribe. She went to the place where they first met and waited for a few days but didn’t find him.
Moreover, she wasn’t even sure if his name was A Lu Gu, making it even harder to find him. With no other choice, she headed west to find the primitive beast forest, deciding to see for herself. She walked for a long time, encountering unfamiliar animals and beastmen and struggling with the terrain and weather, until she finally arrived here.

“A Lu Gu?” Song Xu wondered, guessing, “Is he Wu Mu’s father?”

The question took a sudden turn, and Song Xu curiously asked, “Is he also a snake beastman?”

“A Lu Gu’s beast form is a python, with a black base and yellow stripes, just like my coloring. It’s quite beautiful,” the giant tiger answered.

Song Xu nodded repeatedly, then whispered to Wu Mu, “I think dark red with black patterns looks the best!”

Even though she whispered, Hei Sen heard it. She pretended not to hear and scratched her claws, reminiscing, “When I met him, his size was about the same as Wu Mu’s now. That was the first opponent I couldn’t beat after leaving the tribe to travel!” The giant tiger got excited as she spoke, her claws tensing with fighting spirit as if she had returned to the past.

“I couldn’t beat him and almost got strangled to death. I was unconvinced, so I followed him and challenged him several times, but still couldn’t win. Since I couldn’t beat him, I decided to have a child with him.”

Song Xu: This logic is really beastman-like.

“And then? Did you become mates?” Song Xu asked.

“Of course not. I was traveling and wouldn’t stay in one place,” the giant tiger answered matter-of-factly. “I left when I got pregnant. I believed my child would definitely be stronger than him!”

Song Xu thought of the animal world she had seen. Indeed, it was mostly the females who raised the children. Even her original form, the squirrel, stayed with her mother when she was young and was driven out when she became an adult. Mates in the tribe were not fixed, and Hei Sen’s situation was not uncommon.

“So you never met A Lu Gu again?”

“I didn’t look for him,” Hei Sen scratched her claws, a bit troubled. “Later, when I wanted to find him, I couldn’t.”

Song Xu: After more than ten years, finding someone is hard.

“Why did A Lu Gu tell you from the beginning that if the child was a half-beastman? Was he a half-beastman himself and had experienced it?”

The giant tiger answered frankly, “I don’t know. I didn’t care about his past or what he had experienced.”

He was just one of the many opponents she encountered during her travels, the only special thing being that she couldn’t beat him, so she had a child with him.

“I remembered his words and wanted to come here to see. On the way, I passed a small tribe where an old parrot beastman also told me about this legend. At the edge of the forest where the primitive beasts live, there’s an ocean. If you reach the first small island in the ocean, you can turn a half-beastman into a beastman.”

After hearing this, Song Xu couldn’t help but sigh. Beastmen and half-beastmen were indeed different. Look at Tiger Mom, who had been confused for so long. Once she stopped taking the medicine, her language function recovered so well. And look at Wu Mu, who was born with poor language skills and had never spoken such a long sentence. With Tiger Mom able to speak, Song Xu wanted to pour out all her questions: “That strange creature just now, was it also a beastman before?”

“It was probably a half-beastman, severely deformed and turned into a complete beast after eating too many primitive beasts.” Hei Sen’s voice was rough and deep, like a smoky voice. Her paws were crossed, and although her fur wasn’t completely dry, she looked wild and elegant.

Song Xu had known her mother for a few months and was seeing her so dignified for the first time. She was no longer the big tiger who would chase her own tail, push rocks to flip shells, and vigorously shake the mud off her paws.

“There must have been many half-beastmen who heard about the island and came here, but not all could reach it. That was a failed example. He was lucky not to die in this ocean and lived here for so long.”

Because they didn’t succeed, those who failed halfway became obstacles for others?

Song Xu put aside the obstacle that had sunk to the bottom and continued to ask, “Was it A Lu Gu who told you that Wu Mu couldn’t eat primitive beast meat?”

“No, it was an elder in our tribe who said that half-beastmen couldn’t eat primitive beast meat.”

“Did you know that primitive beast meat shouldn’t be eaten too much after you came here?” Song Xu asked.

The giant tiger paused, licked her paws to cover her embarrassment, and said, “I thought eating one or two wouldn’t be a problem.”

She was too hungry and had no other food. She thought eating one or two wouldn’t be a problem. She also tried eating fish when attempting to go to sea but wasn’t good at catching fish. After several failed attempts to go to sea, she stayed here for too long and unknowingly ate too many primitive beasts, which led to her current state.

“Mom, don’t worry about it. It’s all in the past. Look, Wu Mu is fine, and we’ve made it here. The island is right ahead of us, victory is in sight, and our future is bright! My luck is very high!”

Song Xu couldn’t find out what was on the island from Hei Sen, but she was even more eager to find out. She wished to put a motor on the boat and immediately reach the island.

At this moment, a flash of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky. The clouds that had been gathering since evening had thickened without them noticing, and it was about to rain heavily.

Song Xu: “…Please, don’t let the waves be too big. I’m begging you.”