Chapter 483: Has He Returned to Normal?
"Has Kunlin returned to normal now?"
Huang Yue nodded. "We found him inside Beast King City. He was unconscious at the time, but after he woke up, he was just like his old self."
Feiyan frowned at his words. ’Could it be that because Xixi purified the power source of the dark primal stone, the monster disappeared from Kunlin’s body as well?’
"Did Kunlin leave on his own, or was he taken?"
Huang Yue said, "We had just found a place to rest. Kunlin said he was going into the woods to find some firewood. I saw that he seemed fine, so I let him go. Who would’ve thought that he wouldn’t come back for so long? When we realized he was gone, we started searching and ran into you."
"We haven’t seen Kunlin."
Huang Yue nodded. "Sorry to have disturbed you. We’ll go look elsewhere."
After speaking, Huang Yue led the other members of the Wing Clan into the night sky.
After Huang Yue left, Feiyan and the others didn’t let their guard down. Instead, they continued to observe their surroundings.
Inside the shelter, Qiao Xixi sat beside Sangze, her ears cocked to the sounds outside.
She had been sleeping restlessly tonight, worried about Father and Jin Ling’s group. She’d woken up the moment Feiyan got up earlier.
But they waited for a long time, and nothing else unusual happened outside.
After speaking with the Phoenix Wing Clan male who stayed behind, Feiyan turned and returned to the shelter.
"Xixi, why are you awake?"
Qiao Xixi hummed in response. "I heard the commotion and got up. Hasn’t Sunxiao returned yet?"
Feiyan walked over and sat beside her. Sensing her tension, he pulled her into his arms. "No, but it’s nothing to worry about. You should get some sleep."
How could Qiao Xixi possibly sleep? "I heard City Lord Huang Yue was here. He said Kunlin is missing?"
Feiyan nodded. "Mhm. He said Kunlin is back to normal and probably ran into some wild beasts in the woods. He might be tied up for a bit."
Qiao Xixi knew Feiyan was just trying to comfort her, but she wasn’t an idiot. ’How could I not understand?’ Kunlin was a high-rank beast soul powerhouse; even a whiff of his aura would make ordinary wild beasts too scared to approach.
Besides, if he had run into wild beasts, it would have surely caused a commotion. The other Wing Clan males would have heard something.
Qiao Xixi was worried. ’Has the monster inside Kunlin truly, completely left his body?’
Qiao Xixi nestled in Feiyan’s arms, her head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
After an unknown amount of time, her eyelids began to grow heavy. Just as she was about to drift off, she sensed Sunxiao’s aura approaching.
She opened her eyes and gently nudged Feiyan. "I think Sunxiao’s back."
Feiyan sighed helplessly. He could only lay her back down. "Lie down. I’ll go have a look."
Qiao Xixi nodded.
Feiyan walked out of the shelter. Sure enough, Sunxiao had returned.
"How was it? Did you find anything?"
In the darkness, Sunxiao shifted back to his human form and shook his head.
"No. But when I entered the woods just now, I sensed a monster’s aura."
Feiyan’s expression immediately darkened. "Could it be that the elders didn’t completely annihilate the monsters outside the city, and some of them escaped?"
Sunxiao shook his head. Even if a few monsters had slipped through the net, given their current energy levels, they absolutely wouldn’t dare approach this place. A monster with no energy is, at best, only as strong as a wild beast.
That amount of power is nothing to a high-rank beastman.
The monsters wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here just to get themselves killed.
"The trace of aura fled very quickly. I was worried it was a diversion to lure me away, so I didn’t give chase."
Listening to Sunxiao and Feiyan’s conversation, Qiao Xixi frowned as well.
"Sprite, have you tracked where that bit of dark energy fled to?"
"Found it, Host! I’m sending you the location now!"
Qiao Xixi hadn’t expected it to show up again. She immediately opened the map to check the location.
"This is... Tiger Beast City?"
"That’s right, Host! The moment you asked, I searched and found it."
’So Jin Wei really did have someone steal that dark energy! They’d been suppressing it so well before. Why is it leaking out now?’
"I don’t really get it either. But my guess is that this dark energy is probably unstable. They can’t control it very well yet, which is causing it to be released and then contained, back and forth."
Qiao Xixi sat up abruptly. "If Jin Wei’s group already has the dark energy, won’t it be extremely dangerous for Jin Ling and the others to go there?"
"Don’t worry, Host. Not just anyone can control dark energy. From their current state, it looks like they haven’t figured out how to control this power yet. And if they can’t control it, they can’t use it effectively. So for now, you don’t have to worry about it being a threat to your beastman mates."
Qiao Xixi still wasn’t reassured. But if she rushed to Tiger Beast City now to find and purify the dark energy, she would definitely tip them off. She could only stick to the original plan: return to the tribe first and wait for news from Jin Ling’s group.
’But I have to tell Jin Ling’s group about this so they can be on their guard.’
With this in mind, Qiao Xixi got up, but just as she was about to go out, Feiyan came back in.
Feiyan had a helpless look on his face. "Sunxiao is back. It’s fine. Go to sleep."
"Feiyan, I found the dark energy. It was most likely stolen by Jin Wei. It’s in Tiger Beast City now. Quickly, tell the male from the Phoenix Wing Clan. See if they can get a message to Jin Ling’s group immediately."
"Okay, I’ll go tell them right now."
After Feiyan went outside the shelter and spoke with the Phoenix Wing Clan male, they immediately decided to send one of the males to Tiger Beast City to deliver the message to Jin Ling’s group.
Only after hearing the sound of the Phoenix Wing Clan male departing did Qiao Xixi lie down on the beast-skin blanket again and close her eyes.
The night grew deeper. After one more patrol revealed nothing out of the ordinary, Sunxiao returned and sat down outside the shelter.
The instant he sat down, a pair of dark red eyes appeared in the mountain forest behind him.
In the darkness, where the moonlight couldn’t reach, those eyes stared grimly in the direction of the shelter.
But after a violent tremor, the color of those eyes quickly changed to a deep black.
Kunlin looked around, then turned and ran back into the woods.
He hadn’t run far when he heard a commotion up ahead.
"Kunlin, is that you?"
Kunlin stopped and looked at Huang Yue and the others emerging from the darkness.
"City Lord."
Hearing Kunlin’s voice, Huang Yue let out a breath. "Where did you run off to? You had us searching everywhere."
Kunlin frowned, trying hard to recall what had just happened, but he couldn’t remember anything.
"I... I think I got lost. I’m sorry for making you worry."
Huang Yue frowned at his words, but then thought that since Kunlin had been possessed by the monster before, his beast soul energy might have weakened. It was possible that he’d lost his sense of direction for a while.
"As long as we’ve found you, that’s what matters. Let’s hurry back and rest. We have to travel tomorrow."
"Okay."
But just as Huang Yue and the others turned to walk away, Kunlin’s deep black pupils once again turned dark red.
He watched their departing backs and revealed a chilling smile.