The group went to find Sang Luo, and she readily agreed to go with them. After all, she was living in the Kordo Tribe as an outsider, so she couldn't refuse when the native females took the initiative to befriend her.
'I've been here for over half a month, and no one has come to visit me. The moment Lan Cang left, people started showing up,' she mused. 'It's not hard to guess he specifically asked his friends to look after me. He certainly wouldn't do anything to harm me.'
Most females brought one or two Beast Husbands with them for protection when they went out. But there were a few, like Sang Luo, who were young and unmated. They had fewer partners, or their partners were all out with the Hunting Team, so they went out unescorted.
However, a group of five or six young females traveling together was quite an eye-catching sight. Along the way, several young, single male Beastmen eagerly approached, offering to be their escorts and attend to their every need.
"You… you're that young female from the other day?!" A blond Beastman strode over from a short distance away.
Sang Luo stopped. He looked a little familiar, and then she remembered he was among the group of Beastmen she had seen when she first arrived at the tribe.
Atai rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things. Half a month ago, this young female had been filthy, frail, and pitiful. Her face and body were covered in blood, looking as if she were disfigured, and she had been barely clinging to life. But now, she wore a linen-colored dress and was spotlessly clean. The skin he could see was whiter than winter snow. Her soft black hair was tied back in a simple, low ponytail. She had a palm-sized, fair face, and her dark eyes were large and bright. When she looked at him with a slight smile on her pink lips, it was enough to make his heart pound and his face burn.
The scars on her face had also faded a lot.
He barely recognized her. If her build hadn't been vaguely familiar, and if he didn't know the tribe hadn't welcomed any new females lately, he would have sworn she was someone else entirely.
"H-hello! I'm Atai!"
He stared, captivated, his face burning as he stammered, "When Lan Cang was captain of the Hunting Team, I served under him. He and the others are out on a hunt for a few days, and you don't have anyone to look after you. Where are you all headed? How about I escort you?"
'Before, I thought this young female wouldn't last long and wasn't worthy of Lan Cang,' Atai thought, a little ashamed. 'But she looks so full of life now. Other than being a bit small and thin, she's not much different from the other females in the tribe. And without those scars... she'd be more beautiful than every other female I've ever seen, combined!'
"Didn't I see you just the other day? Weren't you Third Rank then? How did you break through so fast?"
Li Man narrowed her slender, cat-like eyes. She scanned Atai's well-built frame, her interest in him obvious.
"'I was stuck at the peak of Third Rank for almost five years, right on the verge of a breakthrough,' he said, puffing out his chest. 'Then, a few days ago, I got an Orange Crystal and broke through all at once!' The way the females looked at him instantly changed."
'A Fourth Rank Beastman! He's one of the strongest of the younger generation. In a tribe of several hundred Beastmen, there are only about a dozen who've reached Fourth Rank.'
Sang Luo also looked toward Atai's arm. A Beastman's rank was represented by their Beast Patterns, which usually appeared on the arm or neck. Atai had four faint, green Beast Patterns on his arm, a clear sign he had only recently broken through to Fourth Rank and his power hadn't fully stabilized.
Most of the other males had two orange Beast Patterns or three yellow Beast Patterns. The only other person she'd seen with four green Beast Patterns was the middle-aged Lion Beast accompanying Duoji, who was one of the tribe's stronger warriors.
Along the way, she had also seen a few Beastman children who had just recently learned to shapeshift; they had no Beast Patterns at all. Most of the twelve or thirteen-year-old youths had a single red Beast Pattern.
'Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The color and the corresponding number of Beast Patterns represent the Beastman ranks from First to Seventh.'
'But Lan Cang has a single violet Beast Pattern on his arm. That's not normal at all.'
'Is it just a drop in rank?'
The journey wasn't long. After walking for less than an hour, they reached the forest to the east.
Everyone spread out to pick fruit.
It was the autumn harvest season, and a refreshing mountain breeze blew through the trees. The forest was full of seasonal fruits and vegetables, many of which were bizarrely shaped—nothing she had ever seen on Earth.
"Our luck is really good today! There are so many Sweet Fruits here!"
Li Man plucked a bright red little fruit from a bush, wiped it casually on her clothes, and ate it.
The bushes were covered in the little red fruits, and hearing her cry out, the others rushed over and started picking them too.
Seeing how happy everyone was, Sang Luo figured the fruit must be delicious. She picked one for herself and was just about to pop it into her mouth.