The golden light of the morning sun spilled over the Orycto village, but it seemed to concentrate most intensely on the doorstep of a single, modest cottage.

Lin Wan stepped out into the crisp air, stretching her arms above her head with a satisfied hum, Long Zhan had received notice that they found her mates, although she didn’t know when they’ll be back, but anyways everything was good as Long as they’ve good.

Today, she felt good. The lingering sluggishness in her limbs had vanished, replaced by a vibrant, humming energy that made her feel as though she were walking on air.

Her outfit today was a careful choice, a masterpiece of primitive luxury, courtesy of Long Zhan’s relentless hunting and his surprisingly discerning eye for materials.

She wore a crisp white tunic made of finely beaten plant fibers that felt like linen against her skin. Over it, a short, snug tube top cinched her waist, paired with a short skirt that flared slightly at her hips.

To complete the look and ward off the morning chill, she draped a magnificent, plush fur over her shoulders.

The fur hung down to her stomach, thick and silver-tipped, leaving her long, shapely legs fully exposed. It was a look that balanced the wild aesthetic of the beast world with an undeniable, refined grace.

As she began her walk toward the village square, the effect was instantaneous.

Conversations died mid-sentence. Hunters carrying their morning catch froze in their tracks.

Females gathering water whispered to one another, their eyes wide with a mixture of envy and pure awe.

Lin Wan’s beauty had transcended the simple "enhancements" of the spiritual fruit; she moved with a celestial radiance that made the very air around her seem to shimmer.

Lin Wan noticed the staring, of course. A small, narcissistic smirk played at the corners of her lips, hidden only slightly by the loose silk mask she still wore out of habit.

She caught the way the younger warriors’ eyes followed the line of her legs, their imaginations clearly racing.

’I really wish I could call my girls back home right now’, Lin Wan thought to herself, her smirk widening.’ Imagine the group chat if I dropped a selfie in this outfit. They would absolutely lose their minds’.

Weiwei’s voice echoed in her mind, sounding dry. [You are enjoying this a bit too much, Host. Your vanity levels are currently at an all-time high].

Let me have this, Weiwei, Lin Wan replied mentally, her stride turning into a confident sashay. ’After being stuck in that hut for days looking like a swamp monster, showing off a little is good for my mental health’.

She arrived at the communal gathering area where a group of the thinner rabbit-females were waiting for her.

They looked at her with such reverence that Lin Wan felt a momentary pang of guilt for her earlier vanity.

These women were struggling, and she was their only hope for a better life.

"Good morning, everyone", Lin Wan said, her voice clear and melodic. "Today, we are going to do something really good, not just cleaning greens. I am going to teach you how to extract the starch from these roots. It is what will give you the strength, the nutrition that meat alone cannot provide".

" What’s nutrition?" A female asked

"Nutrition. . ." Lin wan began but got cut off by the females ramblings.

"Let me get my males to go hunt for it"

"Yes, yes, they’ll definitely get good ones too"

"No, Nutrition is what your body needs. ..’

"female Lin! What does it look like."

In exasperation Lin wan replied them " for short, it’s something very good for your health, and yes you do have to hunt for some, fish for some, and harvest for some".

"Harvest. . ."

As Lin Wan immersed herself in the lesson, she didn’t notice a pair of pale, slitted eyes watching her from behind a stack of lumber.

Su Mei stood in the shadows, her claws digging into the wood until it splintered. The sight of Lin Wan’s legs, her radiant skin, and the way the entire tribe looked at her like a goddess was a poison in Su Mei’s veins, she couldn’t wait any more, she needed to get rid of Lin wan, letting her stay till the Moon cleansing ritual won’t do.

"She is a demon", Su Mei hissed under her breath. "She has enchanted them all".

While Lin Wan was demonstrating the proper way to crush the tubers, Su Mei saw her opportunity.

Long Zhan and his men had been called away to the Square to deal with something, leaving the cottage unguarded for the first time in days.

Su Mei slipped away from the square, moving with the silent, predatory grace of a fox.

She reached the cottage and slipped inside. The room still held the scent of Lin Wan, a mix of sweet jasmine and Long Zhan’s scent. Su Mei’s lip curled in disgust.

She began to rummage through Lin Wan’s few belongings, her eyes landing on a small, hand-carved box near the head of the makeshift bed.

Inside, resting on a bed of soft moss, was a Leopard-tooth pendant.

Su Mei gasped. She recognized the craftsmanship. It should be a token from Lin wan’s beast husband, a high ranked male.

" This should be very important to Lin Wan, If I take it, she will definitely want it back", Su Mei whispered, a malicious grin spreading across her face. "And if she follows me into the Woods, she won’t be coming back, if she does comes back it will be her corpse".

She tucked the pendant into her tube top and stepped back outside. She was careful, however. She didn’t just want to steal it; she wanted to be followed.

She took a tuft of her own white fur and snagged it deliberately on a jagged splinter of the doorframe.

Then, as she moved toward the forest edge, she made sure to trample the tall grass in a clear, unmistakable path.

Back in the square, Lin Wan finished her lesson. She felt a sudden, inexplicable coldness wash over her. A sense of dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

"Thank you for today, Wanwan", Lilly said, smiling brightly. "We feel stronger already just listening to you".

Lin Wan managed a tight smile. "I need to go check on something. Please, continue with what I taught you all".

She hurried back to the cottage, her heart hammering against her ribs. The moment she saw the door ajar, she knew her instincts was right. She burst inside, her eyes caught the box open and tossed aside.

"No", Lin Wan breathed, her hands trembling as she searched the floor. "No, not that. Anything but that".

The pendant was her only physical connection to Wang. It was the last thing he had given her before the world turned into a nightmare of water and shadow. Losing it felt like losing him all over again.

[Host, calm down], Weiwei warned. Your heart rate is skyrocketing. [The cubs are reacting to your stress].

"Someone took it", Weiwei! Lin Wan cried, her voice cracking. "Someone took Wang’s keepsake!"

She turned and ran to the door, her eyes scanning the ground. She wasn’t a tracker, and she lacked the keen sense of smell that the beast-kin possessed, but she wasn’t blind. Her eyes landed on the snag of white fur caught on the doorframe.

White fur, Lin Wan hissed, her eyes narrowing with a lethal intensity. Su Mei. It had to be that white fox, looking for trouble now.

She looked out toward the forest and saw the trail of flattened grass leading directly toward the dark, looming silhouette of the Whispering Woods. Any sane person would have waited for Long Zhan to come back, or any of long Zhan’s male.

Any rational mind would have realized it was a trap. But Lin Wan was neither sane nor rational when it came to the leopard who had claimed her heart.

She didn’t stop to think. She didn’t grab a weapon. She simply bolted toward the trees, her white tunic fluttering behind her like a ghost in the wind.

The Whispering Woods lived up to their name. As soon as Lin Wan crossed the threshold of the first ancient oaks, the sounds of the village vanished.

The air grew heavy and damp, smelling of rot and ancient magic. The trees here were massive, their bark twisted into shapes that looked like agonized faces.

"I see you, Su Mei!" Lin Wan shouted, her voice muffled by the thick moss hanging from the branches. ""Give it back!"

There was no answer, only the rustle of leaves that sounded like mocking laughter. Lin Wan pushed forward, her short skirt snagging on brambles, her skin scratched by low-hanging thorns.

She followed the trail of white fur and broken twigs, her focus entirely consumed by the glint of silver she occasionally saw in the distance.

[You are going too deep, Host,] Weiwei cautioned, its voice echoing with an uncharacteristic urgency. [My sensors are picking up high levels of spiritual interference. This part of the forest is not natural. It is a dead zone].

"I don’t care" Lin Wan gritted out, her breath coming in ragged gasps." I’m not losing him again"

She couldn’t explain this sudden anxiety that washed over her, a voice screaming ’go after her’.

She reached a clearing where the trees seemed to lean inward, their branches interlocking to block out the sun. In the center of the clearing, hanging from a thin, silvery thread on a low-hanging branch, was the pendant. It swayed gently in a breeze that Lin Wan couldn’t feel.

’There you are’, she whispered, her eyes filling with tears of relief.

She stepped into the clearing, her hand outstretched. She was so focused on the tooth and the leather cord that she didn’t notice the way the ground beneath her feet felt soft and spongy, or the way the silence had become absolute.

The moment her fingers brushed the pendant, the trap snapped shut.

"Lin Wan!" a voice screamed, but it wasn’t Weiwei. It was a voice she didn’t recognize, a chorus of whispers that seemed to come from the trees themselves.

The silver thread didn’t break. Instead, it expanded, weaving itself around her wrist with the speed of a striking cobra. Lin Wan gasped and tried to pull away, but the more she struggled, the tighter the thread became.

From the shadows of the surrounding trees, thick, obsidian-colored vines began to slither across the ground like snakes.

Su Mei stepped out from behind a massive trunk, her arms crossed and a triumphant sneer on her face. "You really are a fool. You think a pretty face and some clever words are enough to survive here?"

"Give it back", Lin Wan snarled, her voice trembling with rage and rising fear.

Su Mei laughed, a sharp, grating sound. "Oh, you can keep the tooth. You’ll need something to hold onto while the forest drinks your life. These are Spirit draining-Vines, Lin Wan. They don’t eat meat. They eat essence. And since you are so ’full’ of it, they are going to have a feast".

Lin Wan felt a sharp prick at her ankles. She looked down to see the black vines beginning to coil around her legs, their thorns sinking into her skin.

A sudden, cold lethargy began to spread through her body.

"Weiwei?" Lin Wan whispered, her vision beginning to tilt.

[Host!] Weiwei’s voice was a siren in her head. [Emergency! Your essence levels are dropping! The vines are bypassing my filters! The cubs are sensing the drain—they are starting to pull from your core to compensate!]

Lin Wan fell to her knees, her hands clutching the pendant even as the silver thread bit deep into her flesh. She looked up at Su Mei, who was watching with wide, excited eyes.

"Long Zhan... will kill you", Lin Wan managed to gasp.

Su Mei leaned in, her voice a cold whisper. "By the time the Dragon finds you, there won’t be enough of you left to bury. And as for me? I’ll be back in the village, weeping for the poor, lost female who wandered off while he was busy saving our stores".

Su Mei turned and vanished into the fog, leaving Lin Wan alone in the suffocating silence of the clearing. The black vines climbed higher, wrapping around her waist and shoulders, their thorns drinking deeply.

Lin Wan felt her consciousness beginning to fray. The radiant beauty she had displayed that morning was fading, her skin turning ashen and her eyes losing their luster. She curled into a ball, protecting her stomach with her arms, the Leopard-tooth pendant pressed tightly against her heart.

"Wang", she whispered, the name a prayer against the encroaching darkness. "I’m sorry."

She closed her eyes as the Whispering Woods began to swallow her whole, unaware that miles away, the fire had just died out, and a Dragon Lord had just realized his treasure was gone.