Chapter 300: Plan for a World of Two Falls Through
The next day, as they resumed their journey, a well-fed Han Li was eager to show off. He changed into his beast form and carried Yu An.
Suddenly, a giant wolf appeared in the territory. The Wolf King smelled a strange yet powerful aura and thought another wolf had come to seize his land.
After a night’s rest, he was overjoyed to find his old injury had healed. His hurt foreleg no longer ached or itched; it was even stronger than before.
After calming his pack, who were panicked by the unfamiliar aura, the Wolf King went alone to face the intruder.
But when he got there, he saw... oh, it was his benefactor.
His benefactor’s human companion was gone, replaced by a Snow Wolf twice the Wolf King’s size.
The Snow Wolf glanced over nonchalantly, and the Wolf King was so terrified he nearly turned and fled.
"Wolf King?"
Yu An noticed him. "What brings you here?"
The Wolf King didn’t know how to explain. On impulse, he adopted a submissive posture.
Yu An was bewildered. She slid off Han Li’s back. "What are you doing...?"
"AWOOOO—"
The Wolf King let out a few howls of varying lengths. Han Li walked over and guessed, "An’an, do you think it wants to follow you?"
The moment the Snow Wolf spoke, the Wolf King nearly jumped out of his skin.
’Heavens!’
’A beast can talk!’
’He had never seen a talking beast before. Could it be... because it’s following the benefactor, a human?’
The Wolf King’s eyes lit up. At the same time, his tail began to wag so hard it looked like it might fly off, as if to confirm Han Li was right.
’Yes, that’s it! I came to pledge myself to my benefactor! She has to take me in... No, not just me, my entire pack!’
The Wolf King wagged his head and tail. If not for the Snow Wolf’s threatening glare, he would have gone forward and let Yu An pet his fur however she pleased.
’I hope my benefactor will accept.’
"You want to follow me?"
The Wolf King nodded, and nodded, and nodded frantically.
Yu An didn’t see why not. It was just one more mouth to feed. But...
"What about your pack? Are you just going to abandon them?"
’Please take all of us in.’
The Wolf King grinned, and Yu An strangely managed to read those very words in his eyes.
Her mouth twitched. After a moment of thought, she said, "Alright. Go bring your pack over."
The Wolf King was overjoyed. He leaped up and bounded off in the direction of his pack, afraid that if he delayed, Yu An might change her mind.
Han Li nuzzled Yu An with his head. "An’an, they’re old and sick. Why take them in? If you like wolves, I’ll give you the pack from my temple when we get there."
Each temple had a group of subordinates at its command. For example, Mo Yan had his swarm of snakes, and Lan Yin and Lan Ying had their Merfolk.
Han Li’s temple had a pack of wolves, each one of them powerful and agile—a hundred times stronger than this bunch of old, weak, sick, and disabled ones.
Most importantly, the wolves of his temple obeyed his commands absolutely. As long as he didn’t give the word, they would never dare defy him to get close to Yu An.
Han Li used to be wary of everyone, but he had relaxed his guard a little now. ’At least when it comes to wolf-beasts, An’an can only be close to me!’
A certain hardworking Zaizai was completely forgotten, thrown to the back of his mind.
Yu An smiled, pressing her lips together, and patted his head. "My space is huge anyway, so a few more wolves won’t make a difference. Don’t worry, you and Zaizai are my favorite wolves. No one will ever surpass you two."
His petty thoughts exposed, Han Li just grumbled under his breath without saying a word.
The Wolf King was fast and returned to his pack quickly. It was the pack itself that took a long time to arrive.
After a good while, Yu An saw the Wolf King approaching, leading his large troupe. He was carrying the sickest wolf of the pack on his back.
Yu An casually healed the sick wolf, then brought them all into her space.
Old age was something no one could control, but as for the sick wolves, if they ate food irrigated with Divine Spring Water for a long time, their illnesses would gradually heal.
Yu An had Red Fox show the wolf pack around the space to familiarize them with the environment, while she and Han Li continued on their journey.
The nearby area was the Wolf King’s territory, so there were no other fierce beasts around. The few rabbits and pheasants that occasionally appeared in the woods were all scared off by Han Li.
Han Li zipped through the forest with Yu An on his back. Once in a while, he would let out a roar on a whim, startling the birds into flight.
And then, his big head would get a smack from Yu An.
"What are you roaring for? My ears are ringing!"
"I won’t roar, I won’t roar," Han Li said, turning his head to lick her hand. "An’an, let’s spend the night here. It doesn’t look like there are any clearings this big further ahead."
Clearly, a certain big-tailed wolf with ulterior motives wanted to spend the night outside and had already found the perfect spot.
Yu An tapped him on the head in annoyance, which earned her a few calls of "sweetheart" from Han Li.
Each one was said in a sweeter, more cloying tone than the last, until his voice was practically hoarse from the effort. Only then did Yu An reluctantly agree.
She rarely heard him call her that, but whenever he wanted something from her, each "sweetheart" sounded sweeter than the last.
Yu An had to admit, she loved to hear it.
The spot Han Li chose was excellent—a wide-open space with a small river not far away.
Yu An had sharp eyes and spotted a fish leaping out of the water. While Han Li was setting up the tent, she took a trip to the riverbank.
She casually sharpened a stick, took aim at a fish swimming in the river, and jabbed down forcefully. When she lifted the stick, a large, plump fish was impaled on the end.
She speared several more in a row, put the fish in a bucket, and carried them back.
Han Li saw that she had caught fish, so after finishing the tent, he gathered a lot of dry firewood and had already started a fire.
Yu An shot him a sidelong glance. "You’re pretty quick on your feet."
Han Li chuckled. His hands never stopped moving as he cleaned the fish, quickly gutting them and handing them over to Yu An to be marinated.
While waiting for the fish to marinate, Yu An picked a few lotus leaves from her space, preparing to make beggar’s chicken.
There was a small pond in her space. Yu An had no idea when it was dug; all she knew was that by the time she noticed it, small lotus leaves were already floating on the surface.
Now, lotus flower buds were poking through the water. They would bloom in a few days.
Seeing Yu An, the group of Zaizai came running over in a swarm, whining to be let out.
They had been in the space the whole time, and no matter how big it was, it was still boring. They wanted to go out and have an adventure with their Female Mother too.
"An adventure?"
Yu An chuckled. "Your Female Mother isn’t on an adventure. Besides eating and resting, your Beast Father and I have been traveling all day."
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to let the Zaizai out; it was just that they spent most of the day traveling. Bringing the Zaizai along would slow them down considerably.
The little ones pouted. They had to settle for the next best thing: having dinner with their Female Mother and Beast Father.
Han Li, who had been planning a romantic evening for two: "..."
’They’re my own Zaizai. What can I do?’
One by one, they pushed him aside and gathered around Yu An to help make the beggar’s chicken, getting mud all over their hands and faces. Han Li, uncomplaining, took them to get cleaned up.
The Zaizai hadn’t been out to play in a long time. They went wild, rolling and frolicking on the grass in both their human and beast forms.
Yu An poked Xiao Hu, who was lying sprawled out in her lap. "Xiao Hu, why aren’t you playing with your brothers?"
"It’s too childish," Xiao Hu said with his eyes half-closed, speaking in a world-weary tone. "Xiao Hu wants to keep Female Mother company."
Seeing that he could barely keep his eyes open, Yu An said helplessly, "You just want to sleep, don’t you? Whose Zaizai is this lazy!"
The children had a mix of lively and quiet personalities, but only Xiao Hu seemed to be perpetually sleepy.
While she was speaking, Xiao Hu had already drifted off, murmuring in his sleep, "Female Mother... Female Mother’s Zaizai..."