The beast companions in question were not the ones outside that could leave after a little basic care. These were dangerous beast companions whose berserk energy had reached a level that required "hospitalization."
Youguo nodded. "At the time, we hadn't confirmed that the Liao Leaf Forest had lost its purifying effect, but we were worried about further accidents, so we temporarily stopped accepting other beast companions. Before long, though, we discovered that the forest's purifying effect was gradually weakening, until it disappeared altogether. And the berserk energy in these beast companions seemed to have lost whatever was suppressing it. It grew more and more intense, and the outbursts became increasingly frequent."
"So you think this has something to do with the Liao Leaf Forest? Has your investigation turned up anything?"
"Nothing." The Beast-Tamer Guild had stepped in to investigate afterward, but they had found no clues regarding either the accident at the celebration or the changes in the Liao Leaf Forest.
"Then, Lord Youguo, was there anything unusual that set off your instincts, but yielded nothing when you investigated?"
Youguo froze.
Now that she put it that way, there did seem to be something.
"Miss Ye, please come with me."
Youguo took Ye Chuqi to a thoroughly unremarkable little courtyard. Inside was an equally unremarkable demon beast, a Bucktoothed Rabbit. As a demon beast, it was rather large, but compared with other demon beasts, it was quite small.
It was only about the size of an ordinary calf.
The rabbit's eyes were a misty white. Its vacant gaze made it impossible to tell whether it could even see. Rabbits usually had red eyes, and even allowing for mutations that produced other colors, this misty white looked far too eerie.
The eyes were windows to the divine soul, yet Ye Chuqi