Xuan Long stopped and looked at her. He was amazed by her quick thinking.
While everyone else was busy crying and praying, she was analyzing the enemy like a true warrior.
He nodded slowly, his erald eyes turning cold. "Your words make sense, Lan Lan," Xuan Long said.
"Wild beasts do not gather in thousands for no reason. This possibility cannot be ruled out. If soone is leading them, then this is not a ’test’ from a god...it is a trap set by a person."
"And what, God? Those being in the upper realm don’t even care about them... it’s only the people in the lower domain who associate everything with the beast god..."
Su Qinglan clenched her fists. "I won’t just sit and wait to be protected. If soone is leading them, we have to find out who, and we have to find out how they are doing it."
When they reached the treehouse, Su Qinglan did not waste a single second.
She gathered all three cubs...Xiao Yi, Xiao Er, and the tiny Xiao San and placed them securely into a large, sturdy basket.
She couldn’t leave them behind, and she couldn’t stay still while the tribe was in danger.
"Xuan Long, we are going out," she said firmly. "I need to explore the mountain. If there is sothing here attracting the evil ferocious beasts, we have to find it now."
Xuan Long did not argue. He understood that his mate was not a delicate flower who would hide in a corner.
With a nod, his body began to expand. His skin turned into shimring green scales, and in an instant, he turned into his huge snake form.
Su Qinglan carefully climbed onto his broad crown, holding the basket of cubs tightly against her.
They left the tribe and began to circle the mountain. Xuan Long moved with incredible speed and silence, gliding through the thick forest like a dark ghost.
They checked the caves, the water sources, and the deep ravines. Su Qinglan kept her eyes wide open, looking for anything strange...a weird sll, a glowing plant, or any hidden trap.
However, after checking almost the entire mountain, they found nothing suspicious. The forest seed normal, yet sothing felt wrong.
As they were finally heading back toward the village, Su Qinglan happened to glance up at the graying sky. Her eyes narrowed. High above them, a big bird was circling.
At first, it looked like a common eagle, but Su Qinglan realized it had been rotating over the sa small area for a very long ti.
In the village, no one would have noticed it. Everyone was too busy crying or packing to look at the sky. But Su Qinglan felt a prickle on the back of her neck.
She felt like those bird’s eyes were actually keeping them under a constant watch. It was a feeling she rembered from her old world...the feeling of being hunted.
"Xuan Long, look up," she whispered, leaning down toward his ear.
"That bird hasn’t moved from this circle since we started our return. I think we are being watched. Soone is using that bird to track our movents."
Her eyes beca cold and hard. "Can you take him down? I want to see if that is just a wild animal or a beastman spy."
Xuan Long looked up, his golden-erald slit pupils locking onto the distant speck in the sky.
He let out a low, vibrating hiss of agreent. He didn’t need a second invitation to strike at sothing threatening his mate.
"Hold on tightly, Lan Lan," he murmured.
Soon, Xuan Long’s massive tail whipped upward with the speed of a lightning bolt. With a loud crack, he struck the bird high in the air.
The creature let out a sharp cry and tumbled downward, crashing heavily onto the forest floor. Never expecting this move.
Su Qinglan climbed down from Xuan Long’s head and walked toward the fallen creature.
As she got closer, she realized her suspicion was correct. It was not a simple bird but a beastman.
The bird has already turned into a young man. He was struggling to get up; his face was dusty.
Both Su Qinglan and Xuan Long were stunned for a mont.
The young beastman looked up, and when his eyes t Su Qinglan’s, he was montarily dazed by her beauty.
However, the mont he looked at the giant, terrifying snake towering behind her, his face turned pale with fear.
Su Qinglan stepped forward, her expression cold. She pointed toward a much higher mountain in the distance.
"Are you from the Bird Tribe on that mountain?" she asked directly without beating around the bush.
The birdman looked to be only about 16 or 17 years old, but the look in his eyes was not good at all.
There was a flicker of sothing sneaky and dishonest in his gaze. He tried to act tough despite his injuries.
"How dare you knock down!" he exclaid, his voice cracking. "I was just flying ho! I was doing nothing wrong, and you attacked out of nowhere!"
"You have been circling our village for hours," Su Qinglan said, her voice steady.
"People who are just ’going ho’ don’t fly in circles over soone else’s territory. Who sent you?"
The young man opened his mouth to argue, but then his eyes t Xuan Long’s.
The snake man was staring at him with a murderous, erald gaze that promised a painful death if he lied. Like the snake wouldn’t even spit out a bone if he decided to chew him.
The birdman imdiately shut his mouth and began to tremble. After all, birds and snakes are enemies.
But He refused to answer a single question Su Qinglan asked.
Instead, he started to wail and create a scene. "Help! Bullying! You are bullying a young beastman!" he shouted, trying to make himself look like a victim.
"Is this how the Fox Tribe treats travelers? Attacking a young beastman?"
Su Qinglan rolled her eyes at him. His reaction only made her more suspicious.
A normal young traveler would be begging for rcy or explaining their path, not accusing them of bullying like a practiced liar.
"Xuan Long," she said, looking back at her husband. "He is stalling for ti. He doesn’t look like a simple traveler; he looks like a scout who has been caught."
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