The aged shaman stood beside the stone bed where Yue Ling had once lain herself. Several tall, powerfully built beastmen surrounded the bed, their attention fixed on the injured male lying atop it.
Blood was everywhere.
The metallic stench was so thick that it drowned out Yue Ling's scent entirely. No one noticed the sudden arrival of the small female at the cave entrance.
"Shaman, please—save my brother!"
Lang Zuo knelt at the old shaman's feet, his voice hoarse with desperation. He slammed his forehead into the stone floor again and again, each thud heavy and resounding.
Their beast parents were long dead. In this world, only the two brothers had depended on each other to survive.
"I can't save him."
The old shaman slowly shook his head, then closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight.
Yue Ling stepped closer—and finally saw Lang You clearly.
His upper body was covered in vicious claw marks, as if a ferocious beast had raked him repeatedly. His left shoulder had been torn open by brute force, a jagged wound nearly ten centimeters long. A tree branch as thick as a forearm had pierced straight through his abdomen.
Sweat mixed with blood, clinging to his face in sticky streaks. His complexion was deathly pale. The pain was so severe that it kept him barely conscious—his narrow eyes half-open, unfocused, yet inexplicably fixed on the small female who had rushed in uninvited.
Blood dripped steadily to the ground. The animal hide covering the stone bed was completely soaked through with his still-warm blood.
It had only been a few hours since she'd last seen Lang You. And now he was hovering at death's door.
Was hunting really this dangerous?
"Why aren't you stopping the bleeding first?"
Yue Ling's clear voice cut through the heavy silence.
The beastmen were simply standing there—watching. Whether he could be saved or not was one thing, but if the bleeding wasn't stopped, he would surely bleed to death.
At her words, several beastmen turned to look at her all at once.
What they saw was a delicate, strikingly beautiful face. A small female stood at the opposite end of the stone bed, her gaze steady as she looked at them.
The old shaman froze for a moment, staring at the unfamiliar female.
"What are you doing here, little female?"
There was a hint of reproach in his tone. Whether or not she belonged to their tribe, this was no place for a female—let alone such a small one. This level of bloodshed was not something she should witness.
[Host, Seduction Target Number One is directly in front of you.]
What Yue Ling could see, System 999 could see as well.
The four beastmen who had entered with her merely glanced at Lang You before calmly averting their eyes. There was no shock, no panic.
Hunting was a gamble with fate. One wrong step, and you died in the jaws of a ferocious beast. Beastmen only hunted prey they believed they could handle.
Clearly, Lang You had been unlucky enough to encounter something far stronger than expected.
Following System 999's guidance, Yue Ling looked up—and saw him.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Perfectly defined abdominal muscles. His features were sharp and sculpted, as if carved from stone.
In both her past life and this one, she had never seen a man this good-looking.
System 999's smug voice chimed in.
[Of course. The highest-quality male beastmen must possess both strength and appearance. Host, your good fortune is only just beginning.]
Yue Ling: ...
"Female Yue Ling, let's step outside first," the bear beastman said gently, stepping in front of her. "This isn't somewhere you should be."
Yue Ling: You're blocking my view of the handsome man.
When Bai Ying saw Yue Ling for the first time, a flash of astonishment passed through his beautiful green wolf eyes—but it vanished almost instantly as he looked away.
Too pretty. Too frail.
A female like that wouldn't survive easily.
[Host, you cannot leave.]
[Healing Lang You is your best chance to overturn the 'mad female' image.]
[You can also raise Seduction Target Number One's affection level.]
Yue Ling frowned slightly.
[I understand all that, but I don't know medicine. I'm just a professional lay-flat salted fish. You want me to suddenly turn into a miracle healer? Isn't that asking too much?]
She wanted to—but wanting didn't equal ability.
[It's fine. I'll help.]
[Are you reliable?] Yue Ling asked skeptically, listening to the system's confident tone.
[Hey, I'm basically the Beast World's encyclopedia. Just do exactly as I say. If you save Lang You, you'll completely shed the 'mad female' label—and gain affection from Seduction Target Number One.]
[You wouldn't want to be locked up by Lang Zuo again, would you?]
Meanwhile, everyone else in the cave was stunned when they heard the bear beastman address her as "Female Yue Ling."
This was that mad female?
After being cleaned up, she looked like this?
Yue Ling looked down at Lang You, who had already lost far too much blood.
She didn't particularly like the Lang brothers—but she didn't hate them enough to want them dead. If she could save Lang You, then she'd be doing a good deed.
If she failed… then it was simply his fate.
She stepped around the bear beastman, grabbed a clean animal hide from nearby, and gently pressed it against the most severe wound on Lang You's shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
Bai Ying stared at the small female holding down the wound. Sticky blood instantly soaked her pale, delicate hand.
The contrast between the vivid red and her extreme whiteness was jarring—almost painfully so.
"Stopping the bleeding," Yue Ling replied.
It was her first time trying to stop someone else's bleeding.
At such close range, staring at the torn flesh—exposed muscle and bone—her hands trembled even more violently than Lang You's.