When Xuan finally finished calming the rest of the tribe and returned, the first thing he saw was Sam and Qiuye, huddled together in a tight hug.
He froze, scratching his head in confusion. Why was Papa crying? And why did Yuqing look so heartbroken? Had something else happened while he was gone?
He wandered over, his mouth opening to ask—but a sharp instinct told him to stay quiet. This wasn't the time.
He hovered awkwardly beside the stone bed, shifting from foot to foot, unsure whether to stand or sit.
It was Qiuye who finally noticed him, pulling away from Sam to wipe his tears on his sleeve, his gentle smile returning as if the moment of vulnerability had never happened.
"Xuan—did you get everyone settled?"
"Yeah. They're all calm now. I sent them back to their homes."
"Good. Did you send someone to get Xia?" Qiuye nodded, his voice still soft with lingering exhaustion.
"Fei left to find Father and the others as soon as we got back."
"Make sure Ruya's family gets reimbursed for those herbs. His papa's in the hunting party—those supplies mean a lot to them. How's Lie?"
"Dan and Dong already took the herbs over. Lie's asleep now. Don't worry about him."
Xuan sat down on the edge of the bed, his voice quiet and reassuring.
Hearing that Xuan had everything under control, Qiuye let out a long, relieved breath. Sam helped him lie down, then fetched the remaining herbs from the house and dressed his wounds gently, cleaning the scrapes with soft, careful motions.
Once Qiuye had drifted off to sleep, Xuan stood up and gestured for Sam to follow him outside.
In the empty clearing by the door, Xuan turned to face Sam, his expression serious, his eyes filled with a depth of gratitude Sam had never seen before. "I can't thank you enough for today. If it weren't for you… we never would've saved them. We never would've gotten Papa back."
"Don't say that—we're family, aren't we?" Sam shook his head, his voice warm with sincerity. "I'm part of this tribe too. Li and the others were fighting tooth and nail to protect us. Mu stood between me and danger the entire time."
He paused, his voice softening with a flicker of guilt. "Besides… if Papa hadn't pushed me out of the way, *I* would've been the one taken. I'm not as strong as he is—I never would've found a way to save myself. If anyone should be thanking someone, it's me thanking him."
He trailed off, his tone growing heavy with regret. "If only I'd noticed those rovers sooner… maybe none of this would've happened."
"No. Don't you dare think that." Xuan cut him off sharply, his voice cracking with emotion, his words tumbling out in a rush. "If you hadn't figured out how to use the blackthorn grass, Mu would've been dragged away before we got there. All the sub-beastmen would've been taken. By the time we arrived, it would've been too late—we couldn't have saved everyone. And if you hadn't told us to coat the weapons with the juice? That hyena beastman would've killed Papa before I could reach him."
It was the first time Sam had ever seen Xuan this unhinged—this raw, this scared. He stepped forward without hesitation, wrapping his arms around Xuan's shoulders and patting his back gently, like he was comforting a cub.
"Xuan—calm down. It's okay. Everyone's safe now. Papa's in there, sleeping soundly. We're all okay."
At the end of the day, Xuan was only eighteen. Barely an adult. Still just a kid, forced to carry the weight of the tribe on his shoulders.
Slowly, Xuan's tense shoulders relaxed. He buried his face in the crook of Sam's neck, his warm breath fanning Sam's skin, until his rapid, uneven breathing finally slowed to a steady rhythm.
When he was sure Xuan had calmed down, Sam pulled away, his brow furrowing with a question he'd been dying to ask—unsure if it was the right time, but unable to keep it to himself any longer.
Xuan must've seen the conflict in his eyes. He took Sam's hand, leading him over to a flat stone nearby, and sat down, his voice soft and open. "Whatever you want to ask—just say it. I'll tell you everything."
Sam's frown lifted. "Those roving beastmen… who *are* they? Why did they attack us?"
Xuan's expression turned grim, his jaw tightening as he fell silent for a long moment, as if gathering the courage to speak of something terrible. Finally, he said, "They showed up three years ago. It was autumn. They raided Waterwood Tribe, taking twenty sub-beastmen and killing over a dozen of their beastmen. The attack was so brutal, Waterwood couldn't even hold their autumn hunt that year."
"We only found out about them because Waterwood sent messengers begging for help."
Sam's eyes widened in shock. The rovers' fighting strength was *way* lower than Azure Mountain's—Lie and Mu, who weren't even fully grown, could've taken them one-on-one. And those rovers were all adults.
"Where did they come from?" Sam asked, his voice sharp with anger. "How dare they march in here and attack us? Don't they fear the tribes banding together to hunt them down?"
Xuan shook his head, his voice heavy with explanation. "They're not just a small group—there are nearly two hundred of them. All adult beastmen. No cubs, no sub-beastmen. They don't have a territory to call their own. They're nomads—killing and raiding to survive."
"Waterwood only has around three hundred beastmen total. They can't abandon their tribe to chase a bunch of nomadic killers across the wilderness."
"Besides… their beastmen aren't as strong as ours." At that, Xuan's expression flickered with confusion, the same furrow between his brows Sam had seen so many times before.
Other than the strange power he carried inside him, most beastmen were evenly matched—Waterwood and Stone Horn's warriors were on par with each other, at least. But Azure Mountain's beastmen were *stronger*, somehow. Even those with the exact same animal forms as other tribes.
He didn't dwell on it long, though, pressing on with his story, his voice growing colder with every word.
"Five or six days after the raid, Waterwood's patrol found the sub-beastmen they'd taken—left discarded in the patrol zone, like trash."
"The Waterwood beastmen thought the sub-beastmen had escaped on their own. But the ones who were still conscious said the rovers had *dumped* them there. The ones who weren't left behind? They were all dead."
"Every single one of them was hurt—hurt *on purpose*. There were only twenty sub-beastmen… and nearly two hundred rovers."
Xuan's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles whitening with rage, his voice shaking with a quiet, seething fury. "They used them. All of them."
Sam's eyes went wide, his blood running cold. He didn't need Xuan to spell it out. He understood exactly what he meant.
"After that, they raided Waterwood again. And Stone Horn, too. But they never once came near us."
"The tribes they attacked learned to guard their borders, so they didn't always succeed. By last summer, we hadn't heard a peep from them in months. We all thought they'd moved on. Left our lands for good."
He paused, his gaze falling to the ground, his voice thick with guilt. "We were wrong. This time, they set their sights on us. On our gathering party."
"If Lie and Mu hadn't tagged along today… if they hadn't stayed to protect the sub-beastmen… they would've gotten away with it. They would've taken Papa. And if we hadn't gotten him back in time…"
Xuan didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to.
Sam sat there, his hands balled into fists, his chest burning with a cold, fierce anger. These weren't just raiders. They were monsters. Savages. The beastman version of bandits, preying on the weak.
He reached out, patting Xuan's shoulder firmly, his voice steady and unshakable, filled with a resolve that burned brighter than any fire. "I'm going to make this tribe stronger. I promise you that. Strong enough that no one will ever dare to hurt us again."
Xuan turned to look at him, his dark eyes holding Sam's gaze, steady and unwavering. For a long, quiet moment, he said nothing. Then, softly, so softly Sam almost missed it, he said, "I'll protect you. No matter what. If you ever don't understand something—anything—you come to me first. Okay?"
Sam blinked in surprise. He stared into Xuan's eyes—those emerald-green irises were clear, unclouded by even a hint of darkness, yet they washed over him with an inexplicable sense of calm.
He lowered his gaze and let out a soft hum through his nose.
A commotion erupted from the village square: Xia and Lan were back from the hunting party early.
Even from a distance, they could see Xia hurrying toward them. Sam and Xuan shot to their feet instantly.
"Qiuye! How is Qiuye?!" Xia's voice cracked with urgency, a stark contrast to his usual steady demeanor.
"Uncle's hurt, but he's resting now," Xuan replied.
Without another word, Xia darted into the hut. Xuan and Sam followed close behind.
Inside, Qiuye lay quietly on the stone bed. Xia knelt half beside him, his gaze fixed on the older man's face, unblinking.
He slowly reached out a hand—only to yank it back the moment his fingers were about to brush Qiuye's cheek. He hung his head, covering his eyes with his palm, and let out a quiet sigh.
"Just… just glad you're home," he muttered, his voice laced with a barely perceptible tremor. "So long as you're home…"
Outside the hut, Sam watched Xia's broken silhouette, a lump forming in his throat. He hadn't been in the village long, but the raw, unshakable bond between these people never failed to stir something deep inside him.
A hand clapped down on his shoulder. He turned to find Xuan standing behind him.
"Papa and Uncle grew up together," Xuan explained softly. "They bonded as mates the second they came of age, and they've been inseparable ever since. Uncle's never been strong, so Papa drops everything the second he's done with village work—he's always by Uncle's side."
After listening, Sam pulled the animal-hide curtain shut, leaving the space to Xia alone.
It felt like an eternity before the curtain was drawn aside again. Xia emerged, his emotions carefully schooled back into his usual calm, collected mask—save for his white-knuckled fists, which betrayed the storm still raging beneath the surface.
He stepped up to Sam, dipped into a slight bow, his voice still trembling a little.
"Thank you. Truly. If you hadn't told me I could make a weapon for Qiuye… I don't know what I would've done."
The gesture made Sam jump. He scrambled behind Xuan in the blink of an eye.
"You guys have all treated me like family from day one—I see you the same way," he stammered. "Don't… don't do this. I don't deserve it."
No way he was taking a bow like that. No way.
Xuan, caught off guard by Sam hiding behind him and leaving him to face Xia's gratitude head-on, panicked. He tried to dart sideways to escape.
But Sam wasn't about to let him get away. He latched onto Xuan's arm like a lifeline. Xuan didn't dare yank it free—afraid he might hurt Sam—but he also refused to accept Xia's bow. He twisted his body backward, contorting himself into an awkward, almost comical pose.
Their bumbling antics managed to soften Xia's tense expression a little. He straightened up, his eyes flicking to Xuan.
"To the council hut," he said.
Hearing they were off to talk business, Sam let go of Xuan's arm and backed away a few steps, already plotting a detour to Lie's hut.
Just as he turned to slip away, Xia called out.
"Yuqing—you come too."
"Me?" Sam blinked, pointing a finger at his own chest.
Xia nodded once, then strode off toward the council hut without another word. Sam turned to Xuan, his face falling.
"What do I have to do there? I can't— I *can't* do this! I have social anxiety!"
This was a tribal leader's meeting—way out of his league. His first instinct was to bail. He'd never seen anything like this, no way he could hold his own. Nope, nope, nope—time to vanish.
He spun on his heel, but before he could take even one step, a hand shot out and hauled him back.
Xuan had no clue what "social anxiety" meant, but he sure as hell knew Sam was trying to run.
He spun Sam around and ruffled his hair gently.
"Don't panic. I've got you," he said, a teasing lilt to his voice as he added, "You can just hide behind me the whole time. Like you always do, right?"
Sam thrashed against him, still protesting. "I can't! I really can't—!"
But his struggles were nothing to a beastman. Xuan pinned him easily.
In the next second, Sam's feet left the ground entirely. Xuan had lifted him clean off his feet with one arm and was heading for the door.
Wait. Hold up.
WHOA.
Talk first! Don't just manhandle me! We can *negotiate* about this meeting thing!
PUT ME DOWN!
Sam's eyes went wide as saucers.
No—no way Xuan was actually gonna walk out there like this! The village square was full of people! If anyone saw him being carried like a kid, he'd die of embarrassment—so much so he'd have to flee to another world and conquer it just to save face!
"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW! PEOPLE ARE GONNA SEE!"
Sam flailed wildly in Xuan's grasp, but Xuan acted like he couldn't hear a thing. He marched straight for the hut's entrance.
Okay! OKAY! I'll go! I'll go to the stupid meeting! Just put me down before I fall! I'll walk on my own, promise!
Sam's voice rose to a frantic squawk.
Only when Sam agreed to come did Xuan finally stop. He set Sam gently back on his feet, steadying him with a hand on his arm.
"Relax. I wasn't gonna let you fall," he said with a grin.
With his feet back on solid ground, Sam regained a smidge of his dignity. He shot Xuan a withering eye roll, then shuffled after him as they stepped out of the hut.
He glanced up at Xuan from the corner of his eye, making sure the beastman was focused on walking and wouldn't notice.
Hmph. Meeting my ass. I'm outta here.
With that thought, Sam turned on his heel and bolted for his own little hut.
This time, he made it three whole steps.
An arm snaked around his waist, and suddenly, his feet were off the ground again.
He spun once in midair—then, before he could even process what was happening, he found himself slung over Xuan's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Host. What on earth gave you the audacity to try sneaking away from a beastman?
The system's snarky voice echoed in his head.
SHUT UP! Sam snapped, his face burning with humiliation and rage. He didn't have time to retort further—Xuan was walking faster now, and he could already hear the chatter of other tribesfolk nearby.
Sam patted Xuan's back frantically, switching to a pleading tone.
"I won't run! I swear I won't! Just put me down, please! I promise I'll go to the meeting!"
"Really?" Xuan shot him a disbelieving glance over his shoulder. "You said that before, too."
"I mean it this time! I didn't swear last time—I'm swearing now! Cross my heart, I won't bolt!"
But instead of setting him down, Xuan just said, "If you try to run again, I'm carrying you into the council hut like this."
"YES! YES! I WON'T RUN! NOW PUT ME DOWN BEFORE SOMEONE SEES!" Sam yelped.
Meeting schmeeting. Social anxiety be damned. Embarrassing himself in front of the whole village was way worse than sitting through a boring tribal meeting.
This time, Xuan relented. He slid Sam back down to his feet, but kept a firm grip on his arm as he steered him toward the council hut.
The walk was a long one—twenty minutes, give or take—before they finally reached their destination.
The hut was massive, easily three or four times the size of the village's regular dwellings. A giant animal hide served as its door, and two burly beastmen stood guard on either side of the entrance.
When they stepped inside, Xia was already waiting, flanked by seven other beastmen—all of them towering, imposing figures.
If you enjoy the story, please add it to your library and support with a Power Stone.