Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World

Chapter 136: Local Wolf Refuses to Die

The usual morning roar of lions waking up, the clatter of bones, and the squabbling of cubs was entirely absent.

Instead, several beastmen stood in a terrified circle around the center of the camp, their golden eyes wide with shock and something akin to shame.

In the middle of that circle lay two bodies.

One was Jin Ze, the feral, corrupted brother of their Prince, unconscious and bound in thick vines woven by Qing Lin’s snakes.

The other was Sha Chen, the Arctic Wolf Alpha, lying terrifyingly still on a bed of furs that Xin Yi had demanded be brought from the Neutral Zone supplies.

Xin Yi sat between them, her knees pulled to her chest, her face pale and streaked with dried tears. She hadn’t slept. She hadn’t eaten. She had spent the entire night holding Sha Chen’s massive, furry paw, whispering pleas to a goddess who was currently napping somewhere in the cosmos, and glaring at the Chief of the Lions until he looked like he wanted to dig his own grave.

"He’s cold," Xin Yi whispered, her voice cracking. She rubbed Sha Chen’s white fur vigorously, trying to generate friction, trying to force warmth back into his still form. "He’s so cold. Wolves are supposed to be warm. Why is he so cold?"

Qing Lin knelt beside her, his usual ethereal composure shattered. His dark green robes were torn, stained with dirt and blood, both Hei Yan’s and Sha Chen’s. His emerald eyes were red-rimmed, fixed on the wolf’s chest.

"His heart beats," Qing Lin said softly, though his voice trembled. "It is slow. Too slow. But it beats."

"He hit his head," Hei Yan growled from where he sat nearby. The Panther Alpha was wrapped in bandages, his chest heavily bound where Jin Ze’s claws had raked him. He looked ready to kill someone, but his purple eyes were filled with a helpless agony as he stared at the wolf. "I saw him fly. I saw him hit the stone. If he dies... if he dies because of me, because I wasn’t fast enough..."

"Stop it," Xin Yi snapped, her head snapping up. "Nobody is dying. Not today. Not ever. Do you hear me? I didn’t drag you all out of your primitive holes just to watch one of you die on my watch!"

She turned back to Sha Chen, leaning down until her forehead rested against his snowy flank. "Wake up, you arrogant, smug, beautiful wolf. Wake up and tell me I’m bossy again. Wake up and make a joke about the lions being uncultured. Just.....wake up."

As if hearing her plea, a low, ragged groan escaped the wolf’s throat.

Xin Yi gasped, scrambling back. "Sha Chen?"

The massive white beast shifted. His ears twitched, flattening against his skull before perking up slightly. A shudder ran through his enormous body, rippling the white fur. Slowly, painfully, his eyelids fluttered open. They weren’t the sharp, mocking white orbs she was used to, they were hazy, unfocused, and filled with pain.

"Ugh..." Sha Chen groaned, the sound vibrating deep in his chest. He tried to lift his head, but it lolled back down onto the furs. "My head... feels like... the tiny female hit it... with her bone..."

Xin Yi let out a sob that was half-laugh, half-scream of relief. She threw herself forward, burying her face in his neck fur.

"You idiot! You stupid, heroic idiot! Don’t you ever do that again! Don’t you ever throw yourself in front of a monster for me!"

Sha Chen blinked slowly, his vision clearing enough to recognize the small female clinging to him. A weak, familiar smirk tugged at the corner of his muzzle. "Had to... someone has to... protect the architect... who else will build... the toilets?"

"Oh, shut up," Xin Yi cried, kissing his wet nose. "Just rest. Don’t move. Qing Lin, get the water! Hei Yan, check his ribs!"

The camp exhaled collectively. The tension broke, replaced by a rush of activity. Qing Lin poured water into a wooden bowl, helping Sha Chen lap it up. Hei Yan gently probed the wolf’s side, nodding when he found no broken bones, only severe bruising.

But while the Alphas tended to the wolf, a low, guttural sound drew everyone’s attention back to the second body.

Jin Ze was waking up.

The massive lion beastman thrashed against the vines binding him. His red eyes, no longer glowing with the same manic intensity but still clouded with confusion and pain, darted around the camp. He let out a confused whine, a sound that didn’t match his terrifying size. When he saw his father, Chief Jin Hai, standing amidst the crowd, he let out a heartbreaking cry.

"Father?" Jin Ze rasped, his voice rough, unused. "Why... why does it hurt? Why am I tied?"

Chief Jin Hai took a step forward, his face crumpling. The great chief, who had ordered his son abandoned years ago, now looked smaller than any cub in the tribe. "Ze... my son. We thought... we thought you were gone."

"Gone?" Jin Ze struggled, the vines creaking under his strength. "I was... lost. In the dark. So hungry. So angry. Everything burned inside me." He looked at his hands, which were trembling. "I remember... chasing. Chasing the fast one. Chasing the smell." His eyes landed on Xin Yi. "You. The small one. You stopped the burning."

Xin Yi stood up, wiping her eyes, and walked toward the fallen lion. The Alphas moved to block her, but she pushed past them. "It wasn’t just me. It was the light. And the bonk. Mostly the bonk." She looked down at Jin Ze, her expression hardening. "You attacked us. You hurt my friends. You nearly killed the Wolf."

Jin Ze flinched, shrinking back as much as the bonds allowed. "I... I did not mean to. The darkness... it told me to eat. To destroy. It has been there for years. Since the core cracked." He looked at his father, tears streaming down his scarred face. "You left me. You left me to the darkness."

"We made a mistake," Jin Hai choked out, falling to his knees in the dirt. "A terrible mistake. We feared the corruption. We thought it was a death sentence. We did not know you could be saved."

"Saved?" Jin Ze laughed bitterly, a harsh, broken sound. "I am not saved, Father. The darkness is still there. It is quiet now, thanks to the small female’s magic bone, but it is waiting. It is always waiting."

Xin Yi frowned, kneeling beside him. "What do you mean? The System said your core was corrupted. Can’t it be healed? Isn’t there a cure?"

Jin Ze shook his head slowly, his mane rustling against the dry grass. "None that I know of. Not in the savanna. Not in the swamps. Not in the mountains." He looked up at the sky, his red eyes filling with a terrifying realization. "I thought I was alone. For years, I thought I was the only one cursed with this fire in my blood. The only one who heard the voices telling me to tear and burn."

He turned his gaze back to Xin Yi, and the look in his eyes made her blood run cold.

"But I was wrong," Jin Ze whispered, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial hiss that silenced the entire camp. "While I wandered the wastelands.....while I hid in the caves and ate scraps... I saw others."

Xinyi felt a chill crawl up her spine. "Others?"

"Yes," Jin Ze nodded, his body trembling again, not from pain this time, but from fear. "Not just lions. I saw a bear in the northern peaks, tearing apart his own kin. I saw an eagle diving into the ocean until it drowned, screaming about the sky falling. I saw a tiger in the eastern jungles who burned his own village to ash."

He leaned forward as much as the vines allowed, his eyes locking onto Xin Yi’s with desperate intensity.

"I am not the only one, little female," Jin Ze said.

"The corruption... it is spreading. It is not just a sickness of one beast. It is a plague. And it is waking up everywhere."

The camp went deadly silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

"It started slowly," Jin Ze continued, his voice shaking. "Years ago. Just a few of us. But now? Now I can smell it on the wind. I can feel it pulsing in the earth. There are more of us. Many more. And soon... soon the darkness will not be quiet. Soon, we will all be like me. Feral. Hungry. Unstoppable."

He looked at Sha Chen, who was struggling to sit up, then at Hei Yan, then at Qing Lin.

"And when that happens," Jin Ze whispered, "your walls, your fires, your cooked meat... none of it will matter. Because the monsters won’t be outside your gates anymore. They will be inside them. They will be your brothers. Your fathers. Your mates."