After climbing a slope and wandering through the forest for half a day, Xing Lian was dumbfounded.
Everywhere looked the same, and she couldn’t find her way back. This put her in a terrible mood.
She couldn’t find her package, which greatly reduced her chances of survival.
Xing Lian had no choice but to forage for food in the forest to fill her stomach.
Without flint, starting a fire was impossible.
Even if she got incredibly lucky and caught a rabbit by chance, she couldn’t roast it and eat the meat.
She could only find wild fruits to eat.
Having been stranded in the wilderness many times, Xing Lian had accumulated a fair amount of survival experience. After searching all morning, she found a few fruits and happily ate them up.
After finishing, Xing Lian sighed deeply.
The fruits were delicious, but too few in number. The energy spent finding them roughly equaled the energy gained. At this rate, she would definitely starve to death.
Xing Lian didn’t want to starve, so she had to work even harder.
But her ability was limited. Even though she tried very hard, she still didn’t gain much.
Time slowly passed. Two days went by.
During those two days, Xing Lian ate fewer than ten fruits. Her stomach growled with hunger, she couldn’t sleep well at night, and she worried all night long. She really couldn’t take it anymore.
Sure enough, she was now dizzy with hunger and couldn’t even walk.
But even if she couldn’t walk, she had to keep going.
Fainting in the forest likely meant never waking up again. For a slim chance of survival, she had to leave this place.
‘But can she really leave?’
‘When she was full of energy, she couldn’t leave the forest. Now that she’s in bad shape, it’s even more impossible.’
Xing Lian staggered along the way. Because of hunger, she even found it difficult to activate the gemstone necklace to see the path. Her vision grew darker and darker, and she could collapse at any moment.
‘Is this the end? Am I going to die?’
‘Maybe I really am going to die.’
Xing Lian’s face turned pale. Before her eyes flashed the faces of Fei and Xing Lian, as well as the happy days she had spent in this world. She felt very unwilling.
But even if she was unwilling, there was nothing she could do.
Miracles did not happen. Xing Lian fell face-first to the ground. Her vision grew blurrier and blurrier, and finally she sank into deep darkness.
…
Darkness seemed endless. She couldn’t distinguish directions and couldn’t hear a sound.
Xing Lian felt her consciousness drifting, not knowing where she was.
‘Is she dead? Is this the world after death?’
Her heart was full of questions, but no one could answer them.
All around was dead silence. There was no reference point, making Xing Lian feel very uneasy. She couldn’t help curling up her body, trying to gain some sense of security this way, but it was barely effective.
Panic, fear, loss… countless negative emotions flooded her mind.
And just then…
Meow.
A meow rang out, like warm sunlight piercing through the haze, making her anxious heart suddenly calm down.
‘Who is it? Who made that sound?’
Curiosity arose in Xing Lian’s heart. She gradually felt the presence of her body.
‘These are hands, these are feet. My head is dizzy. It seems I’m not dead.’
“Meow, she’s awake, she’s awake!”
The cat cry came again, accompanied by a clear and lively female voice.
The voice sounded very young. Xing Lian opened her eyes curiously and subconsciously activated the gemstone necklace. Then her eyes widened suddenly.
“This is… a cat… cat girl?”
…
The little cat girl, Lulu, had been physically agile since childhood, with skills far surpassing ordinary people. Although she was not a Transcendental Beast Girl, she was a standout among ordinary Beast-Girls.
Lulu’s wish was to join the Imperial Guard and become a glorious Imperial Knight.
However, because she was too young, no one would take her. They wouldn’t even give her a chance to take the exam. She could only wait slowly, wait until she grew up. But now she couldn’t wait any longer.
The enemy country invaded, and war suddenly began. The village was in a state of panic.
To prevent their village from being massacred like the neighboring village, everyone had no choice but to move deep into the mountains.
However, once they entered the deep mountains, problems emerged one after another.
Too many people, too little food, and shelter was also a problem.
Under the village chief’s call, the adult laborers cut down trees and built temporary small houses.
The housing problem was barely solved. Next was the food problem.
Time was short, and there was no time to farm. They hadn’t brought much grain, so they couldn’t just sit and eat.
The village arranged for many people to go hunting. Because Lulu was agile, she was also assigned to the hunting team.
One day, Lulu took two companions into the forest, carefully searching for prey.
Three cute cat girls tiptoed along. Suddenly they heard movement ahead. They exchanged excited glances and slowly walked forward.
Beside a big tree not far away, a small deer was lowering its head to eat grass and nibble on leaves.
Seeing this, a flash of joy crossed Lulu’s eyes.
She took an arrow from behind her back, nocked it, aimed, and released her fingers.
Whoosh—
An arrow shadow flashed, and the arrow hit the deer.
The deer let out a cry, but instead of falling immediately, it turned and ran.
“Let’s chase it!”
The little cat girl chased out from the grass, and while chasing, she drew her bow again. This time she missed; the arrow flew past the deer.
But Lulu wasn’t discouraged, because the deer hadn’t run far before it fell to the ground. Its limbs trembled, its body twitched a few times, and then it didn’t move anymore.
“Lulu, you’re amazing! As expected of you!”
The three little cats ran to the deer, examined the deer carcass, and the yellow-haired cat girl couldn’t help letting out an exclamation.
The black cat Lulu grinned upon hearing this. She put her bow and arrow on her back, placed her hands on her hips, raised her head, and said.
“You only just now realize? I, Lulu, am a genius! Not to mention a little spotted deer, even those bad dogs are no match for me!”
“Little Lu is so cool!”
Another cat girl looked at her with an admiring face.
Lulu’s cheeks reddened a little.
“I-it’s not that cool… Stop talking about that. Let’s carry it back.”
“Mm.”
The white-haired cat girl stabbed the deer again with a spear to make sure it was completely dead. Then each of them grabbed two legs and lifted the prey.
On the way back, the three little cats were very excited and chatted enthusiastically.
“This deer is very big. It’ll be enough for us to eat for several days. How do you think we should cook it when we take it back? Roast it or boil it?”
“Let’s roast it. I want to eat roasted meat.”
The yellow-haired little cat swallowed as she spoke.
“Mm, right, right. Roasted is the most delicious.”
“I also want to eat roasted meat. It’s very far from here to our hiding place. It’ll take a long time. Why don’t we roast some now?”
“Roast now? Here? Is that okay?”
“What’s wrong with it? This is the prey I caught. I have the right to handle it. Eating a little first won’t hurt. Don’t you guys want to eat?”
“Well…”
The yellow cat and white cat exchanged a glance and couldn’t help swallowing.