Rash, Too Rash

"Yo~~"

A resounding cry rang out, accompanied by the "Ho! Ho!" of several hundred burly men. A massive wooden frame was ignited by fireballs, tongues of flame leaping more than thirty feet into the air.

A grand clan bonfire gathering had officially begun.

Beneath the stars, groups of sturdy men and women clad in beast pelts and rough cloth sang and danced around the bonfire.

The men joined hands and sang ballads praying for a bountiful hunt;

The women shouted a few times, made a token show of dancing, then began wrestling in pairs.

At the top of the slope.

Following clan custom, Wu Wang, who was nearing adulthood, wore a long beast-pelt robe open at the chest, exposing a few abdominal muscles as he sat beside his parents and watched the singing and dancing.

He turned to glance at his mother.

Ah, there was light. So bright.

His mother sat upon her exclusive Cold Jade throne, wearing an ice-blue fitted gown without any superfluous adornment, like a crescent moon in the starry sky.

"Ba'er, what are you thinking about? Are you unhappy?"

A gentle voice called from beside him. A slender hand that seemed wrapped in soft radiance reached over, intending to touch Wu Wang's head, only to restrain itself and withdraw.

Wu Wang looked up at his mother and revealed a somewhat "innocent" smile. In a low voice, he said:

"Mother, untie Father first. Everyone is watching, and the leader's dignity is rather important too."

A certain bear-shaped ice sculpture seated in the place of honor squeezed out two moved tears.

This son had not been raised for nothing!

The bonfire gathering continued. Lin Suqing did not go inside the King's Tent to join them. Instead, she stayed outside, dancing and fooling around with a group of Bear Hug Tribe girls, having the time of her life.

After Clan Leader Xiong Han regained his freedom, he rose and drank a jar of wine with his clansmen, then hurriedly led people back into the tent and got straight to the point.

Treating the illness.

"My lady, I swear to the heavens that I don't have the slightest improper thought! This is purely to treat Ba'er's illness.

"Our Bear Hug Tribe is a proper great clan. As the Clan Leader, I certainly can't take the lead in being improper. Just rest assured, I know exactly what I'm doing..."

Inside the magnificent King's Tent, Xiong Han, Clan Leader of the Bear Hug Tribe, kept scratching his head and clapping his hands, chuckling foolishly.

The generals and priests seated in two rows on either side all lowered their brows and obediently kept their eyes down. They had long grown accustomed to such scenes.

"Family Imperial Throne."

Wu Wang sat beside his mother on a Beast Bone chair, the corners of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

He had no idea whether he had accumulated virtue or sin in his last life to end up with such a biological father in this one.

Hard to say. Hard to say.

At last, his mother reluctantly nodded and sighed. "Don't let Ba'er tire himself too much."

"Understood, understood. My lady, just rest assured!"

Xiong Han finally let out a breath of relief, returned to his leader's throne, and shouted in his booming voice:

"Bring them all in!"

The leader's personal guards, who had waited outside for a long time, immediately stepped forward. They placed over a dozen wooden cages wrapped in black cloth into two neat rows, then stood guard outside the King's Tent.

Xiong Han said rather proudly, "Ba'er? Go on, do it yourself. Lift the covers one by one."

Wu Wang could not be bothered to rise. Starlight flickered in his left palm, and a gust of cold wind swept through with perfect precision, blowing away all the black cloths at once and revealing what lay within.

Uh, had his father accidentally exposed some personal fetish?

Why was there not even one normal human girl among them?

Then again, these slaves had likely been traded from merchant caravans. If they encountered enslaved members of their own race, buying them back meant giving them freedom rather than continuing to enslave them.

But...

That beast woman with a seductive figure and tiger stripes on her face had such fierce eyes. It would be a terrible waste not to train her into a warrior.

The merman soaking in a huge barrel had the face of a beauty, but from the neck down, she had a fish body covered in scales. Make her a maid? Would her service consist of natural gua sha scraping?

And those few robust girls with luxuriant hair, each of them apparently weighing over six hundred pounds—perhaps they had Giant Country blood. Had Father bought them back to carry Fierce Beasts?

"Father."

"Ah, what is it?"

Wu Wang frowned. "Change them for another batch."

"Cough! Cough cough!"

An old general below nearly choked to death on his wine. He hurriedly called out:

"Young Master, please make do with them. We only traded for these this time. We've never done this before, and we were afraid of getting cheated."

Xiong Han scratched his head and muttered quietly, "Ba'er, you don't like any of them? You can try touching them one by one first. What if one of them can be touched?"

Wu Wang pondered for a moment. With this sort of matter, wasn't the greatest fear that there might be a one-in-ten-thousand chance...

"Someone, bring my Number Three wheelchair!

"Prepare a bucket of ice water. Let them pass out for now!"

A guard immediately answered from outside. Before long, they delivered the "wheelchair" Wu Wang had designed himself, along with cool water floating with ice chips.

A Priest also held a Crystal Ball and chanted an incantation. The dozen or so slaves who had been traded back each fell asleep in their cages.

What followed could truly be called too horrible to look at.

Wu Wang sat in the wheelchair as guards pushed him forward. Whenever his finger touched one of the slaves, he would pass out in the wheelchair and twitch a few times.

The guards would then bring over ice water and carefully pour it onto the Young Master's face. Wu Wang would shudder a few times and open his eyes, then be pushed toward the next cage with unwavering determination in his gaze.

Very quickly, the atmosphere inside the great tent... changed.

The generals and priests could no longer bear to watch. Some of the older ones even had tears in their eyes.

For the stability of the clan, for the future glory of their Bear Hug Tribe, how much pain had the Young Master endured!

Xiong Han tried hard to maintain a smile, clenching his huge hands as he stared fixedly at Wu Wang's back, wanting his expression to appear calmer. Yet his thick lips could not stop trembling.

Rash. This had been far too rash.

Cang Xue's expression remained unchanged. Two fingers pinched the soft flesh at Xiong Han's waist. Every time Wu Wang passed out, she would tug hard, then twist.

After Wu Wang had fainted more than ten times and shuddered dozens of times, Xiong Han's face had turned the color of eggplant.

Wu Wang wiped his face. When he stood from the wheelchair, his legs trembled slightly. He silently walked back to the Young Master's exclusive seat and lowered his head, breathing out.

Being brave enough to try was nothing shameful.

Beside him, his mother shot Xiong Han a fierce glare. Just as she was about to scold her husband, she heard Wu Wang chuckle softly.

"Sure enough, this strange illness of mine treats girls of every race equally."

Cang Xue called gently, "Ba'er..."

"Mother, it's fine."

Wu Wang waved his hand and looked up at the sleeping figures in the two rows of wooden cages. His gaze lingered on two corners.

In the left corner was a charming young woman with fox ears and a fox tail. She should have come from Qingqiu Country, where slave traders ran especially rampant.

In the right corner was a tiny curled-up figure. Her darkish skin and malnourished, frail body made it seem as though she could slip out through the gaps in the wooden cage at any moment.

Wu Wang said, "Keep this dark little one as my maid. Father can deal with the others."

Cang Xue glanced at her son. She had wanted to say something, but the words became a faint smile when they reached her lips, and she said nothing.

Knowing her son's methods well, she naturally did not need to worry too much.

The old father over there, however, found himself in a difficult position.

"Ba'er, you only want one?"

Xiong Han said gravely, "Then... shall we bestow the rest upon the generals? We already bought them."

The burly men seated on either side all shuddered in unison.

"Clan Leader, our crimes do not warrant such punishment!"

"That won't do, that won't do. The one at home would hammer me into the ground."

"Why not sell them again?"

"But if word gets out, won't the other clans laugh us to death? They'll think our clan is so poor that we sell off maids after buying them."

Wu Wang pondered for a moment. Though he wanted to lend these girls a hand, he hesitated somewhat.

If he spoke up, these girls would unconsciously be regarded as his private property within the clan from then on. Though the Bear Hug Tribe was mainly composed of humans, it did not discriminate against the Hundred Races, and a small number of other-race clanspeople lived among them.

Outside the Human Domain, most clans and kingdoms throughout the Great Wilderness were inhabited by mixed races.

Not to mention that his mother was beside him.

Sure enough...

"Let them stay," Cang Xue said softly. "If we simply set them free, then either the Northern Wilds will gain a few more skeletons, or they'll be captured and enslaved again."

Xiong Han nodded, agreeing to it.

An old Priest with a face full of wrinkles whispered, "Clan Leader, why not release this merman into the river? She looks a little frightening."

The Merman Country girl, who had realized she seemed to have escaped disaster, instantly put on a mournful expression.

Release... release her?

Nothing was more miserable for a fish than losing its spiritual registration.

One feast followed another, and the wine flowed at its height.

After accompanying his parents in conversation until midnight, Wu Wang secretly communicated with his mother to discuss the Star God Cult's future direction. Then, using drunkenness as an excuse to escape, he returned to his warm great tent with his new maid.

After having guards stand watch at the entrance and sending someone to invite Lin Suqing over, Wu Wang carefully examined the maid he had selected.

She was small in stature, dark-skinned, and not particularly striking in appearance. Faint spiral markings could be seen on her forehead and limbs, while dark-red scars marked the backs of both hands, as though they had been cut by sharp weapons.

Yushique Kingdom was near Tanggu. It was one of the Great Wilderness's renowned witchcraft nations, and its typical characteristic was "being dark-skinned." This girl's traits generally matched.

What interested Wu Wang was that her gaze had remained incomparably calm from beginning to end, without a ripple, making her eyes appear somewhat hollow.

Earlier, Wu Wang had sensed quite obvious Spiritual Energy fluctuations from her.

Though weak, those fluctuations truly existed.

"Do you have a name?" Wu Wang asked.

The Yushique Kingdom girl shook her head slightly and pressed her lips together.

"Is there anything you want to say?"

Wu Wang asked this.

The girl calmly watched Wu Wang for a while. Her voice was somewhat hoarse, yet exceedingly calm.

"Are you the master I am to serve?"

Wu Wang raised an eyebrow. This girl's circumstances seemingly went beyond simply being captured and made into a slave.

Of course, his reason for choosing her was not entirely pure either.

"Young Master? May I come in?"

Lin Suqing's call came from outside the tent, and Wu Wang gave permission.

Having changed into a bright Immortal Dress and applied some makeup, Lin Suqing drifted gracefully inside. She carried a trace of drunkenness and covered her mouth with a light laugh upon seeing the Yushique Kingdom girl.

"Oh my, is this the new little maid?"

Wu Wang: ...

What was with this overwhelming sense of workplace insinuation?

"Suqing, take her to wash up. Let her squeeze in with you tonight. I'll arrange a place for her tomorrow."

Lin Suqing answered in a sweet voice. She even deliberately displayed a bit of magic, wrapping the two of them in Magic Power and floating away.

After the two left, Wu Wang raised his hand and summoned two trusted guards, whispering a few words to them. The two burly men immediately accepted their orders and departed.

Staring at the empty tent, Wu Wang thought for a while, his finger tapping lightly against the tabletop.

There should not be much of a problem on Suqing's side. After all, she had already reached the Core Formation Realm.

Better think about the most urgent matter.

Alas, I still didn't find an opportunity today to talk with my old father.

Though Father was very strong, like the Northern Wilds priests, his lifespan had not increased at all. Four to six hundred years was the limit.

His parents were both over two hundred now. Father was in the prime of his life, while Mother's elegance was without equal.

If they got any older, having a second child would become even more difficult.

He spread out a parchment scroll and picked up his homemade Wolf Hair Brush.

After pondering for a while, Wu Wang prepared to draft a detailed plan to ensure that, should he have no younger brothers or sisters, the strange illness on his body would not affect the clan's stability.

He was rather attached to this place.

However, just as he raised his brush, before he could write even two large characters, a burst of commotion suddenly came from outside the tent.

"Stop! Let go of Lord Lin!"

"There's an assassin!"

"Everyone, go protect the Young Master!"

Wu Wang casually tapped the Crystal Ball on the table. Watching the image that appeared within, he then expanded his Spiritual Consciousness to confirm it. Finally, he was rendered speechless, too weak even to complain. He could only hold his forehead with one hand, unable to resist pinching his temples.

Before Lin Suqing's tent, the tiny girl held a short sword and forced Lin Suqing in front of her as a hostage, rapidly moving toward his great tent.

Lin Suqing looked utterly despondent. Her lips trembled constantly, and the light gradually faded from her eyes.

This!?

Big sister, you were already at the middle stage of the Core Formation Realm...

He always felt that the old auntie had stayed with him mainly to scam food and drink.

A normal update of nearly eight thousand words on the first day of the New Year. Asking for some votes shouldn't be excessive, right?

Dear readers, have a happy new year~ Come read for some entertainment once you're done being busy~