âTake a seat! Howâs your injury?â Yun Jiuge asked. Advisor Jun looked fine so he should have recovered well.
âMy injury has healed, thanks to your prompt rescue. Aâgu has also awakened and is accompanying Guoâer over at the city,â said Advisor Jun as he sat down.
âWait a moment,â Yun Jiuge said and called Da Meng in. âLater, tell Clan Leader Meng to note down all the pregnant human-beast hybrids. Every morning, Iâll be at the house at the square to check on them and issue them an extra portion of food.â
âOkay,â Da Meng replied loudly and left.
âMiss Yun, one bodyguard isnât enough for you. How about I send Aâping and Aâfei too?â Advisor Jun asked cautiously.
âNo, just Aâze is enough,â Yun Jiuge said and shook her head.
She could protect herself and didnât need human-beast hybrids to protect her.
âAs your bodyguard, Aâze lost control and went crazy. He must have let down your trust,â Advisor Jun said and lowered his head in shame. If Aâze hadnât been in a coma, he would have dragged him over as well.
It hadnât been easy for the human-eagle hybrid clan to give Miss Yun a good impression, and now this was all destroyed because of Aâze.
âI donât blame Aâze. Iâll wait for him to return and be my bodyguard,â Yun Jiuge said.
âIâm just afraid that heâll have no face to meet you,â Advisor Jun said and shook his head helplessly.
Yun Jiuge thought about it for a moment, then said to Advisor Jun, âHow about I set up a bevy of guards? Thereâll be two human-eagle hybrids, human-snake hybrids, human-rabbit hybrids, human-horse hybrids, and human-cow hybrids each. Aâze will be the captain, and Aâmeng will be the vice-captain. What do you think?â
âIf Aâze is the captain, the whole group will fall apart,â Advisor Jun said in exaggeration.
Although he was very grateful for Yun Jiugeâs trust in the human-eagle hybrid clan, Aâze was really unreliable.
âThen Iâll let him be the vice-captain,â answered Yun Jiuge. She continued, âI recently found some clues that might help stimulate the Golden Light in the human-beast hybrids. Would you like to investigate this with me?â Advisor Jun was rather smart, and it was good to let him assist.
âIt would be my honor,â Advisor Jun said, secretly happy. He saluted Yun Jiuge.
âGo to the mountain behind first to see if Meng has taken the human-beast hybrids there yet,â Yun Jiuge said.
âOkay,â Advisor Jun said. After he left, Yun Jiuge called Aâmeng in and asked him to notify the clan leaders of the human-beast hybrid clans to select members for the guards.
âIâll go now,â Da Meng said. He didnât know that he was going to be the captain, and was so happy when he heard that he could choose one more human-rabbit hybrid to join him.
Yun Jiuge left the parlor and went to the mountain behind.
The mountain behind was empty, except for a large fence. Inside, there was a short, gray cell.
There were two floors in the cell. Above ground, there were more than a dozen small cells. The dungeon below ground was used solely for people of importance.
Yun Jiuge pushed the door and walked into the cell. She saw that Meng and Advisor Jun had placed all the human-beast hybrids who had lost control into a large cell.
From the human-snake hybrid clan, there was Aunt Gaga, as well as four middle-aged female human-snake hybrids who had been responsible for planting the Gaga Grass.
There were also two aunts from the human-horse hybrid clan and two teenagers from the human-cow hybrid clan. They all had blank expressions and dull eyes.
âThese people are only being controlled because of their long-term contact with the demonic stones,â Meng briefly explained the situation they were in.
âAlright, I know. You can go now!â Yun Jiuge waved her hands and Meng left respectfully.
âMiss Yun, how are you going to test whether these people have Golden Light?â Advisor Jun asked, slightly excited.
âAfter researching, I found that the Golden Light will awaken in human-beast hybrids under three scenarios. First, through the inheritance of blood. Second, with the death of a loved one, and third, through life and death. I want to simulate these scenarios to see if I can make them awaken.â
However, as far as she knew, only strong, young men could awaken the Golden Light. It might be difficult to do so for these old weak women and children.
In this situation, she had no choice but to try all the same.
âMiss Yun, why donât you let me try it?â Advisor Jun asked. He did not believe that these old weak women and children could successfully awaken the Golden Light.
âYou?â Yun Jiuge asked and glanced at Advisor Jun, who was a strong, young man.
âI, Eagle Jun, voluntarily agree to letting you experiment on me. No matter what happens, Iâll not complain,â Advisor Jun swore solemnly.
The outcome of the human-wolf hybrid clan had sounded alarm bells for all of the human-beast hybrids. The awakening of the Golden Light was the only way out, and he was willing to pay any price for this.
âOkay, I accept your proposal, but Iâll still use them for testing first because the gray energy in their brains is easier to observe. Itâll not be too late to experiment on you after I find a more suitable plan,â Yun Jiuge said.
She didnât want to waste a good man like Advisor Jun, so she would only experiment on him after coming up with a good plan that was guaranteed to work.
âOkay.â Advisor Jun nodded, and then asked seriously, âSo what are we going to do now?â
âThere are no human-rabbit hybrids here, so the blood inheritance method cannot be used. Weâll just try the other two. Go and investigate the family situations of these human-beast hybrids,â Yun Jiuge instructed.
Advisor Jun was stunned for a moment, then asked nervously, âDo you mean to kill their loved ones?â
âDo I look like such a brutal, senseless person?â Yun Jiuge asked. She was speechless. Who did Advisor Jun think she was?
âNo,â Advisor Jun answered. He also felt ashamed of what he had been thinking.
âOkay, go and investigate properly. Iâll leave for a while,â Yun Jiuge said and left the mountain, preparing to go to the plantation to find Yin Shili.
The plantation was a few miles long, and a gray wall separated large plots of fertile land. These were the territories for the different human-beast hybrids.
Yun Jiuge didnât walk along the passageway but instead, jumped onto the wall.
She looked down and saw that there was yellow grazing grass growing at the territory of the human-snake hybrid clan, and its walls were covered with green moss.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
The human-snake hybrid clan had a row of wooden houses similar to stilted buildings near the entrance. It was said that these stilted buildings were personally designed by Yin Shili.
The human-beast hybrids lived upstairs and raised animals downstairs. Now, they were raising many elks, pheasants, goats and other wild animals.
These wild beasts had initially wanted to run away. But after discovering that this place had food, water and safety, they gave in one by one.
The neighboring territories of the human-horse hybrid clan and human-cow hybrid clan also had grazing grass and moss that were beginning to grow.
They also lived in stilted buildings and raised wild beasts downstairs. In future, they would use these to trade with the other clans.
And because they were herbivorous human-beast hybrids, these wild beasts were very tame and were much less worried compared to those in the human-snake hybrid clan.
The territory chosen by the human-rabbit hybrid clan was at the intersection of the various territories.
Although only two days had passed, rows of stilted buildings had already been built.
They were indeed very gifted in planting. Their grazing grass and moss grew faster than the human-horse hybridsâ and human-cow hybridsâ.
In front of a sturdy stilted building, Guoâer was saying to Aâgu, âIf you live together with me, we can raise some wild beasts under the stilted building.â
âOkay, Iâll follow what you say,â Aâgu replied. He would just listen entirely to Guoâer.
âThen what are you waiting there for? Quickly go catch some now,â Guoâer said and slapped Aâguâs wings.
âIâll go now.â Aâgu immediately flapped his wings and flew away, soon becoming a small black spot on the horizon.
...