Xie Ziyuan stared blankly at the firewood in front him. The cracking fire occasionally resounded in his ears.
At midnight, the person's stubbornness ceased, yet he somehow found himself walking back to the place where he had met the cat beastman.
As a result, he had two little tails now.
The pair of siblings, Lin Yu'an and Lin Yuyao, carefully roasted the goat meat, paying utmost attention to the fire and making sure it wasn't too hot or too little.
Both of them had fire ability.
The older sister, Lin Yuyao was only one year older than her brother, Lin Yu'an. She was more cheerful compared to her scaredy-cat brother.
Inwardly, Xie Ziyuan let out a sigh. The person was gone; he could feel it. Their presence disappeared a few minutes before midnight struck. If they came back, wouldn't they be surprised to find that he had two more people at the base?
Somehow, he was looking forward to it. He didn't bring only the cat boy after all. There was one additional person.
He had confirmed what that person wanted now: building the base. Otherwise, why would there be such a magnificent building there? One person couldn't take care of it. He, alone, wasn't enough.
As such, he ended up with two more people now. He also had made sure that the cat boy didn't see him transforming into a silver wolf or saw his amethyst snake form.
"Big brother, try the leg." Lin Yu'an handed him the goat's leg after putting it on a leaf.
Xie Ziyuan took it. In his heart, he told himself he took these two in because they were quite good at roasting meat and cooking, not because of that person's will.
"How is it?" Lin Yuyao asked, her eyes twinkled slightly, but there was also nervousness.
Only the heavens knew how scared she was when she saw her younger brother bring a small goat tail. After she interrogated him a bit and made sure it wouldn't invite them trouble did she dare to roast it.
She was starving, and the goat's tail felt like a heaven-sent item. A mutant animal! Even if it was just little, it was enough to restore some of their energy.
The last time she ate was three days ago. She had given the last bird egg to her brother yesterday, making sure he had something to eat every day.
Somehow, he found out what she did and went out to find something to eat. She had been worried sick when she noticed he hadn't returned even after a long time passed.
Even if she wanted to chase after him. Unfortunately, she also didn't have the strength to do so.
"It's decent." Xie Ziyuan gave her a nod of approval.
Lin Yuyao heaved a sigh of relief. She was terribly scared when this silver wolf beastman suddenly found the cave they lived in, thinking they were in trouble.
Until now, his presence still made her unsettled. This man seemed to be dangerous. Unlike his chiseled appearance and fluffy silver ears which gave off a touch of softness, there was a gloomy and sinister aura about him.
"Mister, what kind of job do you want to assign us…?" She immediately brought up the topic.
He had invited them to this majestic castle, saying he had a job for them. To be honest, their awe for the castle hadn't ceased. Such a huge place, why had they never seen it before?
Xie Ziyuan thought about it for a moment. "You take care of this place, do whatever you seem fit."
The castle was too big. Two people definitely wasn't enough. He also didn't want to overwork them. He can see that the two of them were still wary of him; it was only natural.
The area where he had dropped that key was near a dangerous zone infested with countless mutant animals and plants.
Considering the strength of the pair of siblings, he was surprised they could survive until now. However, he deduced they probably hadn't entered this zone for too long yet.
Mutant animals and beastmen were similar yet vastly different. Beastmen had their human form which still retained their beast characteristics, but mutant animals were completely feral animals; they couldn't turn into humans.
A long time ago, this place was still inhabited by humans, animals, and plants. Somehow, a strange mutation happened after an unknown substance polluted nature.
Some humans began to show beast-like characteristics. Animals could turn into humans too. However, the latter had a smaller number of cases compared to the former.
Now, both beastmen who were the descendants of pure animals and mutant humans were mixed. They had no apparent distinction except for slight differences in strength.
Animals who could turn into humans were generally stronger, but those who were originally humans were more clever. In other words, the former won in strength while the latter won in terms of brain.
Now, because they have offspring with each other, the difference was less noticeable.
The only beings with the least mutation were the plants.
The three of them enjoyed their dinner. Lin Yuyao stored the rest of the meat in the underground ice cellar they had found. Xie Ziyuan didn't even restrict them from roaming anywhere they wanted.
While they two siblings busied themselves, Xie Ziyuan laid down on the top of the fortress. His figure slowly disappeared from the spot.
"What is this?" He discovered a new building in his inner space. A warehouse.
When he entered, there were some grains of rice inside, already divided into several portions. In total, there were twelve portions of rice.
On the field, the four plots of rice already sprouted again. He remembered before he arrived at the castle earlier that the rice plants have strangely grown to the size of his index finger. Yet, now they had just sprouted again.
It meant that the person had harvested it before they disappeared, right? The proof was right inside the newly-built warehouse. Unexpectedly, the time it took for the rice to be ready for harvesting was so short.
He calculated it. If there were twelve portions, each plot should have yielded three each. They might have used the seeds from the harvest to plant the plots, so approximately, each plot yielded four portions of rice.
He approached the rice, which were still intact with their hulls. After a while, his pupils constricted. It was the first time he showed such a shock.
The contamination level of the paddy rice…