The two of them worked together to sort the herbs in record time—mostly thanks to how quickly Qiuye moved.
As soon as they finished, the system sent a task completion notification:> **Random Quest: Teach sub-beastman Qiuye to identify three types of medicinal herbs (Completed)**> **Reward**: Energy added to host's usable energy pool. Please check details yourself.
Qiuye stood up, glanced at the sky, and said, "I'm going to prepare food. You rest for a bit first."
"No need—I'll come with you."
Sam sorted the cleaned herbs into separate piles, put them back into the woven bag, then stood up to follow Qiuye into the house. Qiuye glanced at the woven bag twice but said nothing, turning to head inside.
Just then, a commotion broke out not far away.
"Xuan! Why are you running so fast? What's wrong? Why are you dashing through the village in beast form?"
At the sound of the voice, Qiuye froze mid-step, and both he and Sam turned to look in that direction.
Moments later, Xuan skidded to a halt in front of them, his voice urgent with panic. "Luo's injured! He's bleeding so much we can't stop it—he doesn't look good at all!"
Sam and Qiuye exchanged a look, then said in unison, "We're coming right away!"
Qiuye wasted no time climbing onto Xuan's back, then turned to wave at Sam. "Yuqing! Hurry up and get on!"
Xuan lowered himself to the ground, looking up at Sam. Sam slung the woven bag over his shoulder, stepped onto Xuan's foreleg, and scrambled onto his back, sitting in front of Qiuye.
Feeling the two of them steady themselves, Xuan stood up instantly and darted toward the village square, his paws thudding against the ground. Along the way, many tribesmen poked their heads out of their houses to watch them race past.
When they reached the square, a crowd had already gathered around Luo. Xia stood at the front, keeping the men who'd carried Luo back in line and maintaining order.
Spotting Xuan rushing over with Sam and Qiuye, Xia immediately called out loudly, "Make way! Make way! Let Xuan bring them through!"
The people in the crowd didn't know what was going on, but they obeyed, quickly clearing a path for them.
Xuan ran straight to Luo's side and knelt down. Qiuye and Sam slid off his back and rushed to kneel beside the injured man. Luo's consciousness was already fading—he was on the verge of shock.
His body was covered in wounds, but the most terrifying one was a long, deep gash on his hind leg that exposed the bone. Blood was gushing out in torrents; it was clear his artery had been severed.
"System—scan his status," Sam ordered silently, even as he reached into the woven bag to pull out the freshly sorted herbs. He leaned down to speak into Luo's ear, "Can you shift back to human form? It'll be easier for me to treat you that way."
Thankfully, Luo was still conscious, if barely. Hearing someone say they could save him if he shifted, he summoned his last bit of strength to transform back into his human form. The effort drained what little energy he had left.
The patrolmen who'd carried Luo back watched anxiously from the sidelines, several of them stepping forward as if to intervene—only to be stopped by Xia and Xuan.
"Don't come any closer!" Xia snapped. "Right now, he's the only one who can save Luo's life."
Hearing Xia's words, the crowd fell completely silent, not daring to even breathe too loudly. They'd seen injuries like this before—victims always died within minutes, bleeding out before anyone could do anything. They could only pray that this new sub-beastman really had the power to save Luo.
Moments later, the system sent its feedback to Sam:> **Luo**> Age: 37, Gender: Male, Race: Adult Beastman> Physical Status: Dying, severe hemorrhaging, femoral artery laceration.
Just as he'd suspected. Sam grabbed a handful of blood-clotting herbs and stuffed them into his mouth, then handed another handful to Qiuye. "Chew these up and press them onto the worst bleeding wound on his leg—we need to stop the arterial bleeding first!"
Qiuye took the herbs and immediately copied Sam's action, chewing them into a paste. He watched as Sam spread his own chewed herbs over Luo's leg, then quickly pressed his own paste over the rest of the gaping wound.
The wound was huge—they had to chew several more handfuls of herbs to cover it completely before turning their attention to treating the other injuries.
The blood-clotting herb worked quickly. The torrential bleeding from Luo's leg stopped almost immediately, but his condition was still critical. His face was ashen, completely devoid of color. He'd slipped into unconsciousness, and his body temperature had dropped to a dangerously low level.
Sam glanced at Luo's status update—it still said *Dying*, but the cause had changed to *Severe Blood Loss*.
"Qiuye! The blood-nourishing herbs—quick!"
At Sam's urgent call, Qiuye fumbled inside the bag to pull out the blood-nourishing herbs and handed them to Sam. He had no idea how to use them.
Sam pinched Luo's chin, trying to pry his mouth open to force the herbs down his throat. Qiuye helped, but Luo was completely unconscious—his jaw was clamped shut, and they couldn't pry it open.
"Xuan! Hurry and help!" Sam called out.
Xuan stepped forward immediately, gently taking hold of Luo's head and prying his mouth open with his strong fingers. Sam and Qiuye quickly tore the blood-nourishing herbs into small pieces, rolled them into tiny pellets, and stuffed them into Luo's mouth.
"It's no good—he's unconscious, he can't swallow!" Qiuye said, panic creeping into his voice.
"Water! Does anyone have water?" Sam looked up and shouted at the crowd.
"I do! My house is close—I'll go get it right away!" several voices replied in unison, and people turned to dash toward their homes.
The water arrived quickly. Xuan kept Luo's mouth pried open while Qiuye carefully poured small sips of water into his throat. Seizing the moment when Luo's throat reflexively swallowed, Sam slipped the herb pellets into his mouth one by one.
"He's swallowing! He's swallowing them!" Qiuye cried out in relief, his eyes lighting up with hope.
"Don't stop—keep feeding him the water," Sam ordered, checking Luo's status again.
As the blood-nourishing herbs took effect, Luo's ashen face gradually began to improve, slowly fading from its deathly gray to a pale, but less alarming, white. The faint hint of color returned to his cheeks.
Sam checked the system status update again—Luo was no longer marked as *Dying*.
He let out a long, relieved breath. It looked like he'd pulled through.
Luo's mate and young son had arrived while Sam and Qiuye were treating his wounds. They'd thought Luo was already dead, and had tried to push through the crowd to see him one last time, only to be stopped by Xia.
His mate stood holding their ten-year-old son, tears streaming down her face as she stared intently at Sam and Qiuye, not daring to make a single sound for fear of disturbing them. She prayed silently that the new sub-beastman could save her mate's life.
When Sam finally announced that Luo was out of danger, she collapsed, clutching her son tightly as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Xia looked at Sam, and after receiving a nod of confirmation from him, he stepped aside to let Luo's family through.
Luo's mate approached cautiously, reaching out to gently touch his body. She felt that his skin was still cold, but not the deathly cold that signaled the end—there was a faint warmth left. She collapsed onto his chest, sobbing as she looked up at Sam and Qiuye, her voice broken with gratitude. "Thank you… thank you so much…"
Her young son had been standing by her side, biting his lip to hold back his tears. Now, seeing his father alive, he too broke down, tears streaming down his face like a waterfall.
The crowd around them let out a collective sigh of relief, their faces breaking into joyous smiles. They stole glances at Sam, who they now recognized as the sub-beastman Xuan had brought back a few days ago—the one staying with Xia and Qiuye.
They knew Qiuye had no knowledge of healing before this, which meant he must have learned it from Sam. Some of them felt a twinge of envy toward Qiuye—he was now a sub-beastman who could save lives—but that envy quickly faded, replaced by relief and gratitude. After all, Sam was part of their tribe now. From now on, if anyone got injured, they could count on him for help.
Once everything settled down, the system sent another notification to Sam:> **Hidden Quest: Save the dying beastman Luo (Completed)**> **Reward**: Energy added to host's usable energy pool. Please check details yourself.
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