Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming

Chapter 404 - 276: We Want to Go See & Exhaustion

Unlike the half-beast forms of other Beastmen, he possessed a complete human physique. The silver lightning mark on his forehead proclaimed him a powerful King Beast.

"Yes. The cub’s origins are somewhat unclear. Should we send it directly to the Witch Doctor, or..." Hu Mang swallowed hard. He always felt nervous when facing the City Lord.

"Send it directly to the Witch Doctor," Ling Hong said, his voice flat. He glanced down at the stacks of untouched paperwork on his desk and seemed to sigh. "Once the cub awakens, do your best to find its original tribe and have two Beastmen escort it back safely."

"Yes."

"What about the merchant caravan we sent out?" he asked, closing one book and opening the next.

"The goods have been all but destroyed. Other than the single survivor who came back to report, the rest of the Beastmen were devoured by Demon Beasts. We managed to bring back some of the more complete remains for burial..." Hu Mang’s voice was low. He couldn’t help but glance worriedly at Ling Hong, but the City Lord’s expression remained largely unchanged, as if he had already anticipated this outcome.

After a moment of silence, Ling Hong grunted in acknowledgment and waved his hand. Hu Mang bowed respectfully and withdrew.

The room was quiet once more.

The man set down his book and wearily rubbed his temples. His thin lips twisted into a cold smirk. ’Heh, you want this city?’

’I’d be more than happy to give it to him. The question is whether Mi Yin dares to take it.’

’A single demonized, stray Snake Beast could never withstand the fury of an entire city.’

Ling Hong had never imagined that this snake would later throw in his lot with the Demon Beastmen who had harmed Jin’er, even becoming one of them. It was an utter disgrace, an infuriating betrayal.

Indeed, who could have known? Years ago, no one would have imagined how much they would all change after An Jin left.

’To think that someone like him, a brutish beast "unfit for thinking, only for absolute obedience," would end up taking control of a Royal City.’

But he had no choice.

He couldn’t stand to see the city she had poured her heart and soul into fall to ruin.

After she left, the snake and the fish soon departed as well. All he wanted was to guard this city, the last thing she left behind, and live out his days in peace.

But ten years ago, the city was left without a leader. Multiple races broke out into conflict, all vying for supremacy, and the once-thriving city suffered a grievous blow.

Unable to bear seeing her life’s work destroyed in an instant, he intervened, putting an end to the years of strife. He seized all power in the city for himself, eliminated his opposition, and expanded its territory.

He tried to govern the city as she once had, learning, bit by bit, all the things he didn’t know, and working, bit by bit, to perfect the flawed systems.

From trivial matters and petty disputes to the city’s grand sacrificial rites and commercial summits, and even the raising and education of three children—for years, he had shouldered it all alone.

Three mischievous figures appeared in his line of sight.

Ling Hong’s cool, distant expression finally softened. So many years had passed. The three cubs were growing up, and he could see hints of her in their features.

"Father! Uncle Hu Mang just said there’s an injured little cub. We want to go see it!" The speaker was the second child, the most mischievous and clever of the three.

The little boy before him was still endearingly boyish, with a bit of baby fat clinging to his cheeks, but his features were strikingly handsome. A pair of wolf ears stood tall amidst his soft, silver-white hair, and his crescent-shaped, amber beast-eyes were inherited from his mother.

"Can we? Pleeease? It’s not like we have anything else to do, and it’s been ages since a new cub was born in the city! We don’t even have anyone to recruit as an underling!"

The second child wagged his fluffy tail happily, tilting his little face up as his small hands tugged on the man’s sleeve in a mix of petulance and pleading.

"Did you finish your hunting tasks for today?" Ling Hong closed his book and put on the stern expression befitting a father, eyeing the little Beastman before him.

"Ah! I—of course I finished! Not only did I finish my hunting tasks, I even learned several new words today!" he declared, full of confidence.

"Very well. I’ll give you a test. If you pass, you can go run wild." At these words, Ling Hong pulled out a sheet of paper, picked up a pen, and dipped it in ink.

The second child panicked. He quickly grabbed his older and younger brothers, who were peeking around the doorframe, and pulled them over. "If-if you’re testing me, you have to test all of us!" he declared righteously. "They finished their assignments too! The three of us were going to go play together!"

The eldest and third brothers, "..."

The eldest was the best hunter of the three, while the third was the cleverest, knowing the most words and always learning the fastest. The second child, however, was a good-for-nothing slacker who spent his days dreaming up schemes and trying to recruit underlings.

This particular cub often gave Ling Hong a headache. ’I don’t know who he gets this personality from. Jin’er was always so level-headed and intelligent. So... was I this mischievous when I was little?’

’Ah.’

’It seems I also enjoyed recruiting followers when I was a boy.’

Ling Hong sighed. ’Oh well. It’s normal for them to be mischievous and playful at this age.’

Though they were a handful, the three little ones had indeed finished their lessons for the day. He looked at their passable-enough results and nodded. "Go and play. Just be back before dusk. Don’t make me have to come find you one by one."

...

「Meanwhile, at the Witch Doctor Castle.」

Chi Li received a report from a Beastman: on their way back to the city, they had found a little white fox cub in a cave. It was on the verge of death and in urgent need of treatment.

He gathered some basic medical supplies and hurried over.

However, before he even reached the room, he caught an increasingly familiar scent on the air. His calm demeanor dissolved into shock, and he froze just outside the door, only a single wall away.

’A little white fox...’

’A cub?’

’Her scent?’

His thoughts descended into chaos.

In fact, back then, he had suspected that An Jin might be a female from the lost clan of Unicorn King Beasts. But that female hadn’t been seen in years and was rumored to have long since passed away. Besides, their ages didn’t match up in the slightest.

And so, he had dismissed the guess as absurd.

With a twitch of his fingers, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. A small white fox lay curled into a ball on the soft bed.

There was no mistaking that familiar scent.

’What on earth happened? He hadn’t witnessed the events of that night. All he knew was that there had been an unprecedented surge of Energy, and every Beastman below the rank of King Beast—himself included—had fallen unconscious.’

When he awoke the next morning, it was to the news that she was gone.

The cities under her command were thrown into chaos, and panic spread. Mi Yin and Xi left one after the other. If not for Ling Hong, a King Beast, holding the city together, it would have likely been destroyed.

He couldn’t make sense of the connections, but reality didn’t allow him time to dwell on it. The cub’s breathing was growing faint. He stepped forward to examine it but could find no sign of disease.

It was simply a case of heart failure.

This wasn’t an illness, but rather the most fundamental biological process of life giving way to death. But... this was something that should only ever happen to an Old Beastman on the verge of passing away!