Chapter 492: Splitting Up
Fengxuan didn’t rush forward. Instead, he summoned beastman soldiers to silently surround the row of shelves.
Jin Ling stood behind the shelves. As he watched the beastman soldiers draw nearer, he held his breath.
Fengxuan gestured with his hand, and all the beastman soldiers charged toward the last row of shelves.
"Who is so bold as to trespass in the Priest’s pharmacy!"
The beastman soldiers were stunned when they got behind the shelves. There was no one there.
"Did you catch him?" Fengxuan asked, his gaze fixed on the shelves.
The beastman soldiers searched the area behind the shelves thoroughly. Once they were certain they hadn’t missed anything, they returned to Fengxuan to report.
"Priest, there’s no one behind the shelves."
Fengxuan frowned. "No one?" He walked over, but there was indeed no trace of anyone.
’Did they manage to escape before I got here?’
"Did anyone approach this area after I left?"
"Priest, we’ve been guarding the door the entire time. We haven’t seen anyone suspicious."
Fengxuan’s brow furrowed deeper. He was so familiar with the aura of the pharmacy that he could sense the slightest anomaly. He trusted his instincts—someone had definitely been here.
"Tighten security. Guard every entrance and exit."
"Yes."
After confirming one last time that the room was empty, Fengxuan turned and left.
But even before Fengxuan had left, Jin Ling had already donned his Invisibility Cloak and jumped out the window.
He was out of the palace before the Invisibility Cloak’s effect wore off. When it did, his figure quickly vanished into the endless darkness of the palace grounds.
Outside the palace, in an inconspicuous stone house, Xijing had just dozed off when he heard a faint noise outside.
His eyes snapped open. He got up and went outside, just in time to see Jin Ling approaching.
"How did it go?"
Jin Ling said in a low voice, "Let’s talk inside."
The two went into the stone house and sat down.
"It seems the forbidden drugs all come from Fengxuan, the Priest of Tiger Beast City. I was thinking of capturing and interrogating him, but I was worried he wouldn’t tell the truth and it would just tip him off."
’If we keep Fengxuan around, we can find the drug first and then force him to tell us the antidote. But if we grab him now, he’ll know we don’t even know which drug it is, so he probably won’t tell us the truth. After all, as long as we don’t know what the drug is, he knows his life isn’t in immediate danger because he’s the only one with the information.’
"You’re right."
"I overlooked something. We need to find out who gave Sangze the forbidden drug. We should be looking for that person, not breaking into the palace."
"You mean Sangze’s father, Sanggu."
"Right. After our great battle with Tiger Beast City, they fled here."
At the time, no one paid much attention to where Sanggu and his people went, only that they headed for Tiger Beast City. Finding one person in a city this large wouldn’t be easy.
Jin Ling thought for a moment. "Let’s split up. You keep an eye on the palace, and I’ll search the city. We’ll regroup here tonight."
Xijing nodded. "All right."
「Back in the tribe.」
The first thing Qiao Xixi did after waking up was open her tracker to check on Jin Ling’s location.
She knew they had reached Tiger Beast City yesterday, but she had no idea if they’d found anything out. The member of the Phoenix Wing Clan sent with a message should be arriving there soon as well.
Seeing that Jin Ling’s locator icon was moving, Qiao Xixi got out of bed, relieved.
She had just sat up when Qiao Qiao, who was leaning against her, stirred and woke up.
"Mother?" Qiao Qiao sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Qiao Xixi reached out and smoothed her daughter’s messy hair. "Why are you up? Don’t you want to sleep a little longer?"
Qiao Qiao yawned and shook her head. "No, I have to go with Yuyu to treat the sick cubs in the tribe today."
Qiao Xixi hadn’t realized that while she was away, Qiao Qiao had practically become a little healer.
"Healing people every day... can your body handle it?"
Qiao Qiao grinned and nodded. "I can, Mother! I have a 3-star beast soul Healing Skill now, you know."
Seeing her daughter’s rosy cheeks and that she didn’t seem unwell, Qiao Xixi didn’t press the issue. ’Her cubs are growing up,’ she thought, ’and they have their own ambitions. As long as it doesn’t put them in danger, I won’t stand in their way.’
As mother and daughter were talking, a groggy Qiao Ang sat up as well.
"Mother, I’m going hunting with Father today."
The last time he went hunting, not only did he fail to catch anything, he was nearly carried off as prey by a Hunting Eagle Beast. The memory still irked him.
Because of that incident, Feili was hesitant to let him go hunting again. Qiao Ang had no choice but to pester Feiyan, who couldn’t stand his whining and finally agreed to take him today.
"All right, but you have to be extra careful this time."
"I know."
Still dazed from sleep, Qiao Ang was even more guileless than usual. Seeing Qiao Qiao leaning against Qiao Xixi, he sleepily crawled over and snuggled into his mother’s arms as well.
Qiao Xixi let them cuddle with her. After a little while, they all obediently got up.
After Qiao Ang and Qiao Qiao got up, Qiao Lie sat up too.
He had actually been awake for a while. He wasn’t as self-disciplined in the mornings, because he, too, liked being close to his mother at this hour, just like Qiao Ang and Qiao Qiao. Leaning against her felt comfortable and safe.
"Qiao Lie, are you going hunting with Feiyan today?"
Qiao Lie shook his head. "Father said he’s going to train with me in the inner city today."
"Okay."
Yesterday, she had checked on the vegetable garden. The plants were growing better than she’d expected, but the yield was still a little low. She suspected it was an issue with management. She planned to go back today, identify the problem, and figure out how to increase their output.
Forget the leafy greens for now; if they could at least mass-produce staple foods like the Yellow Earth Fruit and Red Earth Fruit, it would greatly enrich their food stores for the cold season.
"Xiya, Mother prepared a bath with Salt Crystals for you. Make sure you have a good soak after you finish eating."
"I know, Mother."
After breakfast, Feiyan took Qiao Ang to meet up with the Hunting Team.
Qiao Qiao also got her small satchel ready to go find Yuyu.
Sunxiao stood up, gathering the bowls and chopsticks from the table. He looked at Qiao Xixi. "I’ll take Qiao Lie and go with you in a bit. Feili will arrange for someone to watch Sangze."
Qiao Xixi wanted to refuse, but knowing Sunxiao’s temperament, she knew he would never let her go alone. "All right, we’ll go together."
Just as the dishes were cleared, Qiao Qiao came downstairs, her small satchel on her back.
"Mother, I’m leaving now!"
"Okay, be careful."
Before Qiao Xixi could even finish, Qiao Qiao was already running off into the distance.
Qiao Xixi watched her daughter’s retreating figure and muttered to herself, "Is her patient in that much of a hurry today?"
When Qiaoqiao ran outside, Yuyu was already waiting for her.
Yuyu’s eyes lit up when he saw her. "Qiaoqiao, you’re here!"
"Mhm, let’s hurry. The little cub is waiting for us. I don’t know how her parents could have been so careless as to let her get so badly injured."
To speed things up, Yuyu had Qiao Qiao climb onto his back, and he flew her to a row of stone houses in the tribe.
"We’re here."
Just as Qiao Qiao slid off Yuyu’s back, she saw a figure storm angrily out of the stone house.