Duan Si threw the leather bag onto the ground.
He was just about to bend down to set the Matriarch on her feet when he saw Lu Liufeng flying over.
Wings blotting out the sky, the young man landed, settling on the riverbank before the Matriarch. He stretched out a hand towards her.
Seeing him, Jiang Xi immediately opened her arms and leaned forward towards him.
Lu Liufeng caught the Matriarch in a full embrace.
The Matriarch’s unique fragrance filled his nostrils, her soft, leather-wrapped body warming his cheeks.
Standing firmly on the riverbank, Jiang Xi let out a sigh of relief.
She was just about to speak when she suddenly noticed Yifu swimming in their direction.
Her mind “boomed.” She whipped her head around to look at Duan Si.
“Where are Dana and Dale?!”
Duan Si was bending over, untying the leather bag. As Yifu swam up to them, he happened to pull the two little green snakes out from the bag, which was stuffed with corn cobs.
Jiang Xi stiffened, turning her gaze towards Yifu.
She was about to apologize, but Yifu’s face was beaming with joy.
He took his two little ones and immediately thanked Jiang Xi.
“Thank you, Matriarch Jiang Xi! My two little ones are truly blessed!”
Yifu was the young snakes’ father, so he could naturally sense their condition.
A hint of confusion appeared on Lu Liufeng’s handsome, gentle face, but the Matriarch’s next words gave him the answer.
“Just now in the mountains, when I was smoothing Duan Si’s energy, I think it affected them.”
Although Duan Si said it was a good thing, and Yifu’s expression confirmed it, Jiang Xi still offered an explanation.
Yifu was overjoyed; how could he possibly mind any ‘affecting’?
Probably in the entire Cursed Lands, only his two little ones could enjoy the rare honor of having their energy smoothed before their first transformation—a privilege not even available in the Holy City.
He thanked her repeatedly, already prepared to spend the coming winter searching the Hot River Valley for the foods the Matriarch desired.
Lu Liufeng, however, was stunned.
His amber eyes turned towards the Matriarch and Duan Si, filled with shock and disbelief.
“Matriarch… the Matriarch smoothed Duan Si’s energy just now?”
Lu Liufeng didn’t yet know that the Matriarch could directly smooth energy using her externalized spiritual power.
His mind was filled with the thought: The Matriarch and Duan Si mated.
Because his mind was in such turmoil, he subconsciously overlooked the fact that the Matriarch and Duan Si didn’t carry each other’s scent.
A complex and indescribably uncomfortable feeling churned in Lu Liufeng’s heart.
Because they were all going to dissolve their marriage contracts. Only he had chosen to stay.
They didn’t know the Matriarch was from another world. Only he knew.
He thought he was special.
He thought he could be the quickest to pursue the Matriarch, the quickest to win her favor, to have his energy smoothed.
But Duan Si…
He clearly wanted to dissolve his contract too. Why was the Matriarch still willing to smooth his energy, to mate with him?
Lu Liufeng knew he shouldn’t have such thoughts.
They were all beast-husbands serving the Matriarch. She could smooth whoever’s energy she wished.
But perhaps the preferential treatment she had shown him had fostered an inappropriate sense of possessiveness.
I’m a truly terrible beast-husband, a jealous beast-husband, Lu Liufeng thought with self-reproach.
Jiang Xi had no idea about the drama unfolding in his mind.
Her dark, clear, bright eyes looked at him as she said with a smile,
“That’s right. If you want yours smoothed, I can smooth yours too.”
“But it’ll have to be tomorrow. I still need to do my own treatment today. I don’t have any extra ‘energy’…” She was about to say “energy,” but changed course, using their term instead. “…extra spiritual power left.”
Lu Liufeng’s dimmed eyes instantly brightened again.
His hanging fingers unconsciously twisted his leather garment, his heart pounding.
“Okay, okay.”
“Liufeng, Liufeng is available anytime.”
As long as… as long as the Matriarch was willing.
A faint blush colored Lu Liufeng’s pale skin, his amber eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Matriarch, filled with nothing but her.
Duan Si, after a moment’s thought, understood what Lu Liufeng had misunderstood.
But he didn’t plan to explain. Instead, he said,
“In the future, when the Matriarch comes to the Hot River Valley, I will help search for food. You can go hunting without worry.”
Lu Liufeng thought his change of heart was due to having mated and had his energy smoothed by the Matriarch.
He nodded. “I understand.”
This was, after all, the duty and obligation of a beast-husband. He had no reason to object.
Although, truth be told, Lu Liufeng wasn’t particularly fond of Duan Si, that cold-blooded beast-man with his wildly unstable energy.
But he couldn’t deny that Duan Si was an extremely powerful beast-man, capable of protecting the Matriarch’s safety.
As the two conversed, Jiang Xi looked around the riverbank.
She noticed many of the ingredients were gone, and the sky-tribe beast-men and the First Matriarch were nowhere to be seen. She turned to Lu Liufeng and asked,
“Did everyone leave?”
Lu Liufeng nodded, a rare hint of mischievous amusement flashing in his eyes.
“They went back first to spread the news.”
Jiang Xi grinned.
Yifu also smiled, sharing the unspoken understanding.
Duan Si didn’t understand their conversation, nor did he wish to inquire.
Aside from this transaction, he had no intention of entering their lives or forming any connections with them.
He gestured for Lu Liufeng to look at the leather bag.
“This is the food the Matriarch gathered. Remember to take it later. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”
Even though the turmoil in his energy sea had subsided,
years of life in the underground city’s fighting arena had left his heart steeped in a relentless, murderous intent.
Before winter set in, he could still vent it by fighting cursed beasts.
But once winter arrived and he moved to the Hot River Valley, he could only rely on hunting to release the endlessly surging bloodlust.
In the Hot River Valley, aside from those few greedy females, the other females had already left with the First Matriarch.
Jiang Xi didn’t see the female who had been tailing her among them, guessing she must have taken people to the Snow Ravine Water Pool.
The amount of food Lu Liufeng needed to transport wasn’t huge.
Three leather bags, plus the one in Jiang Xi’s hand, made four.
There was still plenty of time. She wanted to take a treatment bath.
Considering the hot springs in the valley had likely been used by many females over the past day or two, and the water flow might not have completely refreshed them, she decided to go to the hot spring pool on the snow mountain.
She stated directly, “Lu Liufeng, let’s go take a bath on the snow mountain.”
Lu Liufeng’s heart skipped a beat. This time, even the tips of his ears reddened.
“Okay, okay.”
How could he possibly refuse when the Matriarch invited him to bathe?
Before leaving, Jiang Xi opened the leather bag to show Yifu what corn looked like, explaining how to prepare it. She told him and the snake beast-men to wait until those few females had left before going to pick the corn.
Yifu was momentarily taken aback, a complex look in his eyes.
“Thank you, Matriarch Jiang Xi, for considering us.”
These past two days, those greedy females had swept the Hot River Valley clean.
Even Yifu felt a twinge of dissatisfaction in his heart.
But he wasn’t one of the unmarried young snake beast-men. He understood this was beyond Matriarch Jiang Xi’s control.
If the Mangjiao tribe were this close, their females would also come to the Hot River Valley to gather extensively.
What he hadn’t expected was that Matriarch Jiang Xi had secretly left another type of food for the snake beast-men in the valley—a food not shared with the tribe.
Lu Liufeng transformed into his full eagle form. His sharp claws gripping the four leather bags, he soared into the sky with the Matriarch on his back.
After the sound of breaking air faded into the distance, a red figure slithered out from the forest.
Yifu glanced back at him and shook his head helplessly.
“They’re gone. What’s the use of coming out now?”
