Chapter 225: Fear Breeds Incessantly

Chapter 225: Chapter 225: Fear Breeds Incessantly

A thought struck Bai Wanwan, and her eyes lit up with anticipation. "Has the beast tide receded?"

"Yes." Jin Yi smiled and nodded.

He rarely smiled. The faint smile had a certain refined elegance, like light glinting off fine porcelain.

"I patrolled the eastern ridge. There are hardly any crazed beasts left. They’re all converging on a few other mountains."

Bai Wanwan let out a long sigh of relief.

"Does that mean we can go back to the tribe?"

"We can’t go back directly. We have to pass those mountains, and the beast tide there hasn’t subsided yet."

He paused, then continued, "But... there’s an underground river. It can get us past the beasts on those mountains and to the foot of the mountain near the tribe."

Bai Wanwan was sick of this primitive lifestyle. She nodded immediately. "Then let’s go now, while the light is still good."

"Alright."

After speaking, Jin Yi quickly transformed into a majestic Golden Lion before her.

Bai Wanwan, with practiced ease, hugged his massive body and started climbing onto his back.

Feeling the soft, delicate female squirming on his back, Jin Yi suddenly realized he could interact with a female so naturally.

He didn’t even feel the initial repulsion and resistance he once had when she climbed onto his back.

Before he could ponder it any further, Bai Wanwan gently patted his head. "Why aren’t we going yet?"

Jin Yi snapped back to his senses and quickly stood up. "Hold on tight."

With that, he leaped up, his golden figure darting into the forest.

It was as if the forest was also gradually reawakening. Along the way, she finally heard the sound of birds chirping again.

Occasionally, small animals would dart out from the bushes, only to vanish just as quickly.

This was a stark contrast to the deathly silent forest during the beast tide.

Bai Wanwan’s tense nerves slowly began to relax.

They hadn’t walked for long when the sound of rushing water reached her ears.

Lifting her eyes, Bai Wanwan saw a waterfall cascading down like a bolt of white silk.

"We’re here."

Hearing Jin Yi’s words, Bai Wanwan immediately looked around.

She finally spotted a cave next to the waterfall, half-hidden by vines.

The cave was enormous, about five meters high and four meters wide.

The depths of the cave, untouched by sunlight, were pitch-black and seemed bottomless.

Jin Yi didn’t stop, carrying her on his back as he walked straight toward the cave.

As they passed through the vine-covered entrance, a wave of damp, cold air rushed over them.

But just a few steps past the entrance, he suddenly stopped.

"There’s something in here. Hold on to me."

Bai Wanwan noticed it too—a thick stench of blood mixed with the damp, cold air.

It was nauseating.

Before Bai Wanwan could reply, a low growl echoed from the darkness.

Bai Wanwan stared intently into the depths of the cave as several pairs of eerie blue eyes gradually appeared in her vision.

"MEOW!"

With a blood-curdling cry, the bobcats charged, launching an attack.

Faced with bobcats that were small but agile and extremely lethal, Jin Yi didn’t dare let his guard down.

He leaped up, kicked off the cave wall, and swatted one bobcat away with a paw while his sharp fangs simultaneously snapped the neck of another.

But the leap was too jarring, and Bai Wanwan slid off when his body swung sideways.

Jin Yi and the other bobcats spotted the fallen Bai Wanwan at the same time.

MEOW!

The bobcats immediately locked their sights on the easier target—the female.

"Bai Wanwan, get back!"

Jin Yi swiftly moved to block her, but one bobcat still leaped from the wall and lunged at her.

Ignoring the other bobcats clawing at him, Jin Yi swiped at the one lunging for Bai Wanwan.

SQUELCH...

Bai Wanwan, wielding the watermelon cleaver she had taken from her System Space, stabbed it straight through the bobcat’s abdomen.

Jin Yi’s attack followed. He grabbed the bobcat’s head with his claw, gave it a hard tug, and ripped it off the watermelon cleaver.

Panting, Bai Wanwan looked up to see several bobcats latched onto Jin Yi, tearing at his flesh.

In an instant, his flesh was torn open.

"They’re biting you! Do something—"

Jin Yi paid the bobcats’ attacks no mind; he was more worried that the fragile little female would be hurt by these small beasts.

Only after seeing that Bai Wanwan was unharmed did he slowly raise a paw, grab a bobcat gnawing on his foreleg, and hurl it against the cave wall.

Bai Wanwan rushed forward too, stabbing her watermelon cleaver into a bobcat that was tearing at Jin Yi’s back.

The bobcat was so focused on devouring Jin Yi’s flesh that it paid no attention to Bai Wanwan approaching.

SQUELCH...

Bai Wanwan stabbed two bobcats in a row without even blinking.

After clearing the remaining bobcats off himself, Jin Yi turned his head to see her standing behind him, holding the watermelon cleaver with a calm expression.

"Aren’t you scared?"

He couldn’t help but ask.

"I’ve even seen a Mutant Beast..."

Bai Wanwan glanced at him, a hint of a smile in her eyes.

’I guess this is what it feels like to be reborn after a disaster.’

This incident not only gave Bai Wanwan a deeper understanding of the Beastman World, but also tempered her courage.

In her past life, she had only seen wild animals in zoos, and those beasts were so docile they would just roll over and play for you.

’Not like this world, where even the cats are so vicious.’

Bai Wanwan looked at her still-dripping watermelon cleaver. ’It’s good to get some practice,’ she thought. ’There will always be times when my Beast Husbands can’t protect me.’

’If I can handle these beasts with a weapon, I’ll be relatively safer.’

Jin Yi’s gaze lingered on her for a long time before he finally looked away.

After carefully inspecting the cave for a while, Jin Yi picked up the bobcat carcasses in his mouth and carried them outside to drop them over the waterfall.

He then pawed at the dirt on the ground, covering up the bloodstains.

Once he had done all this, Jin Yi transformed back into his human form. "The entrance to the underground river is too narrow for my beast form. I’ll walk in front; you stay close behind me."

"Okay."

Even in his human form, Jin Yi was very tall, at least 1.9 meters.

He walked ahead without looking back.

But as a Beastman, his intuition had always been sharp.

A persistent gaze was fixed on his back, following him like a shadow.

It was Bai Wanwan watching him.

His heart skipped a beat for some reason, and his back stiffened slightly.

But soon, he felt the gaze on his back shift away, and it didn’t linger on him again.

Jin Yi’s feeling was correct. Bai Wanwan had indeed been staring at his back for a moment.

’Zhuo Ling might be a terrible person,’ she thought, ’but she certainly has good taste.’

Then she averted her gaze.

The tunnel leading to the underground river grew narrower, damper, colder, and darker.

Bai Wanwan couldn’t even make out Jin Yi’s figure in front of her anymore.

There wasn’t a single sound, and fear began to fester in her heart.

"Jin Yi?"

She tried to hold it in, but couldn’t stop herself from calling out his name.

"Yes, I’m here."

Jin Yi’s clear, cool voice sounded from not far in front of her.

Bai Wanwan sighed in relief. "It’s too dark in here. I can’t see you."