Although the beasts lacked intelligence, they knew how to survive and had a strong will to live.
So when they realized that this group of people wasn’t out to kill them, even the wolf king, under the oppressive presence of a certain dragon, obediently bowed its head.
At this moment, though, it looked quite miserable.
The wolf king’s fur was disheveled—matted from the beating it took.
Its body appeared swollen, also from the beatings.
It had even lost two teeth, its mouth bloody—a result of being battered.
A truly pathetic sight for a wolf king.
In the end, Ruan Shu didn’t ride the wolf king’s back with Almer but was instead tucked into his older brother’s coat, without a single glance in another direction, as he walked to another wolf and leapt onto its back.
And so, the wolves that had previously regarded them as prey became their mounts.
Almer could only glance wistfully at the little cat peeking its tiny head out from Ruan Fengsi’s coat.
Using beasts as mounts—this was a rather… wild idea, even for Star Beasts.
No one had ever done this before; after all, they were all beasts, and it felt a bit odd.
But after running on the snowy plains for a while, the Ruan brothers began to see the advantage—no need to walk on their own, and the speed was exhilarating. The only word to describe it was: addictive.
“Ruan Fengsi, I told you, your mouth is a curse; no sooner had you spoken than we ran into beasts.”
Ruan Fengsi occasionally glanced down at the little cat in his arms and, hearing his brother’s mockery, shot back without hesitation.
“So what? Are you saying you’re scared of a few beasts? Besides, we’ve benefited from it. And if you’re going to blame me, you might as well blame His Majesty. Doesn’t he have that bad luck aura buff?”
Almer replied seriously, “That’s just a rumor—a slander. If I were truly that unlucky, then today we’d really be out of… luck…”
Before he could finish, a rumbling sound interrupted him. All of them, including the wolves beneath them, turned in unison toward the source of the noise.
An avalanche was coming, triggered by a herd of Iron-Horned Bulls.
And the area they were currently in was sure to be hit.
They all turned their gazes to Almer, who was now silent.
Almer forced an explanation: “This has nothing to do with me—it’s the Iron-Horned Bulls over there causing too much noise and triggering the avalanche.”
Ruan Xinglan shouted, “What are you standing there for? You want to get buried in snow? Run!”
The avalanche roared with overwhelming force, bearing down on them quickly, while the Iron-Horned Bulls that had triggered it were also fleeing desperately in their direction.
The wolves, with paws nearly sparking from their frantic running, were fortunate that the Star Beasts had transformed into human forms, keeping their weight within the normal human range; otherwise, the wolves might have been crushed flat.
The avalanche moved fast, and in the blink of an eye, some Iron-Horned Bulls were swallowed up. From his older brother’s shoulder, Ruan Shu glanced back, her heart pounding.
The avalanche was getting closer and closer.
In a final dizzying moment, Ruan Shu felt herself being bundled into a warm embrace. Then, everything went black, and she felt nothing more.
The avalanche’s roar gradually faded, coming to a stop just as it completely buried the group and their wolves.
Silence returned to the snowfield, the only sound being the wind howling through. The white snow had erased any trace of life, as though nothing had happened here at all.
A few minutes later, a black, scaly claw reached out from under the snow.
Then came his head, followed by his entire body, as the snow covering him melted into water almost instantaneously.
Almer emerged quickly and immediately began looking around for his little mascot.
Not finding it, he dove headfirst back into the snow.
When he came back up, he had something in his mouth.
Almer looked down—it was the wolf king, but it seemed to have fainted.
It hadn’t fainted from being buried in the snow; rather, it had passed out from being squashed by a certain black dragon and was even rolling its eyes.
The black dragon snorted in disdain, shaking his mouth free, and continued searching.
But before Almer could find Shushu, Ruan Fengsi emerged on his own, carrying the little cat.
The last layer of snow wasn’t too deep, so the big cat carefully protected the tiny ragdoll cat in his arms as he dug through the snow to emerge.
Ruan Xinglan and Ruan Qingran also managed to get out by themselves, pulling a few wolves out along the way.
“Is Shushu alright?”
With snow still dusting her head, Ruan Shu shook it.
She was fine—just a bit dizzy.
When they were buried by the snow, even Ruan Fengsi’s body had tumbled uncontrollably, which was why Ruan Shu had felt like everything was spinning.
Ruan Xinglan said, “Come drink some hot water to warm up.”
Almer added, “Have a little dried fish to calm your nerves.”
Ruan Qingran chimed in, “How about I make you some milk tea? We’ve got the ingredients anyway.”
They didn’t show any sign of the thrill of having survived an avalanche; it was as if they’d just been lightly dusted by snow.
As her brothers fussed over her, Shushu felt like something was missing. It took her a moment to realize.
Her mushroom! Where was her mushroom?
Buried in the snow, shivering in the cold and unable to go up or down—her poor pink mushroom!
A tropical rainforest mushroom, now stuck in this freezing, snowy place, and to top it off, it was buried in snow.
Being buried was bad enough, but Shushu hadn’t even thought to look for it right away.
It was so pitiful!
In the end, it was actually rescued by its arch-nemesis, the little vine, which found and dragged it out.
The little cat’s paws made tiny paw prints in the snow, neat and orderly.
None of the men looked at the poor, pitiful pink mushroom; instead, they all focused on the dainty, adorable paw prints in the snow.
They even took a picture!
“So tiny.”
Ruan Fengsi and the others compared their palms to the tiny paw prints.
The little cat had walked in a straight line, and the neat, orderly paw prints were oddly satisfying to look at.
Almer muttered, “So cute.”
Although they weren’t thrilled about this emperor who seemed to be stealing their sister’s attention, they had to admit he wasn’t wrong about this.
Almer lowered his head, fiddling with his terminal, and soon the StarNet exploded.
It wasn’t much, really; he’d simply posted a picture before Shushu’s brothers had the chance to do so.
Emperor of the Star Beast Empire: Little paw prints [Image]
The picture was a row of delicate, petite plum-blossom paw prints in the snow, with a well-defined, elegant hand beside it for size comparison, making the tiny prints even more striking.
This was only Almer’s second personal post, and though there was no actual cat, everything was about the cat.
[“Once in a millennium! Didn’t think His Majesty’s second post would arrive so soon—yay!”]
[“Your Majesty, feel free to post more of these! We love it!”]
[“Is that the emperor’s hand? Obsessed, hand lovers unite!”]
[“You’re all looking at His Majesty, but I’m only focused on those tiny paw prints. So cute! But who made those prints, Your Majesty?”]
[“Do we even need to guess? Considering the emperor’s first post, who else would leave such prints?”]
[“Adorable! How could paw prints be so tiny? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want them to step on my hand.”]
[“Uh… if I’m not mistaken, isn’t that adorable little one supposed to be Marshal Ruan Xiao’s?”]
[“Beep beep! Calling Marshal Ruan Xiao! Your daughter has been ‘borrowed’ by His Majesty!”]