Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 370: Lost in the Endless Sea

The moment Su Qinglan’s consciousness returned, it was not to the sound of birds or the smell of a forest.

Instead, a wall of cold, stinging liquid slammed into her face.

She tried to take a breath, but only gulped down a huge mouthful of salt water that burned her throat and filled her lungs like molten lead.

She gasped and choked, her eyes snapping open to see nothing but a murky, endless blue.

She was sinking.

Panicking, she kicked her legs and thrashed her arms, pushing against the weight of the water until her head finally broke the surface.

She spat out the salt water, coughing violently as she tried to catch her breath. When her vision finally cleared, her heart nearly stopped.

Water.

There was nothing but endless, shimmering blue water on all sides. No valley, no trees, no tribe.

"Xuyu!" she screamed, her voice sounding thin against the vast horizon. "Where did you dump me? Is this your idea of a safe place?!"

Then, the memory of the explosion hit her like a physical blow. The witch doctor, the dark light, the self destruction... her family! She frantically tried to reach for her back to feel the bond mark with Hu Yan, but the heavy, wet clothes made it impossible to see.

"Xuyu! Answer me! What about the tribe? What about Hu Yan? Are they alive?"

"Host..." Xuyu’s voice sounded muffled, almost like he was hiding.

"The blast was massive. The teleportation was a last second emergency override. I do not have data on the Fox Tribe yet, but your husbands’ marks are stable. They are not burning, which means they survived the initial explosion."

Su Qinglan felt a tiny spark of relief, but it was immediately extinguished by a terrifying realization.

"The cubs! Where are my babies? They were in the basket! Did they get left behind in the blast?!"

"No, Host," Xuyu whispered. "The cubs were within the system’s emergency protocols. They were teleported along with you."

Su Qinglan’s eyes went wide. She looked at the rolling waves around her. "You teleported three tiny cubs into the middle of the ocean?! Are you nuts?!"

She began to flap her arms frantically, spinning in circles as she searched the water.

"How are they supposed to survive? They cannot swim! What if they choke on the water? What if they have already sunk?!"

"Host, please calm down," Xuyu’s voice became smaller and smaller, sounding incredibly guilty.

"The target was the shore. I swear, I was aiming for dry land! But the energy from the witch doctor’s self destruction warped the space time coordinates. You were accidentally dropped a few hundred meters offshore..."

"Accidentally?!" Su Qinglan cursed, her voice cracking with rage.

"If anything happens to my cubs, I will find a way to delete you myself! You and your useless ’safe place’! Shut up and help me find them!"

She dived back under the water, her eyes stinging from the salt as she searched for a floating basket or three small, furry bodies.

She felt like she was going insane. The thought of Xiao San, Xiao Yi, and Xiao Er struggling beneath the waves made her heart feel like it was being ripped out.

"Host, they are not in danger yet!" Xuyu tried to explain.

"The basket should not sink, it should float for a while! And if their life signs drop too low, the system will trigger another..."

"SHUT UP!" Su Qinglan roared, surfacing again and gasping for air. "Do not talk to me about your ’protocols’! Just tell me where they are!"

While Su Qinglan was frantically searching the waves, something was happening a hundred meters away in the deep, churning water.

When the explosion had triggered the teleportation, Lan Yue had been holding the basket of cubs with all her strength, shielding them with her own body.

Because she was touching the cubs, the system’s emergency field had snatched her up too.

The moment she hit the salt water, Lan Yue did not panic like a land dweller.

Her legs instantly fused together, her skin shimmering as they transformed into a beautiful, powerful mermaid tail. She was a daughter of the sea, and she was finally home.

She immediately kicked her tail and surged toward the surface.

In her arms, she clutched the three cubs. Xiao San, the little snake, seemed perfectly fine. As a serpent, he instinctively held his breath and did not mind the cool water.

But the two tiger cubs, Xiao Yi and Xiao Er, were choking. Their little lungs were filled with salt water, and their tiny bodies were going limp.

Lan Yue broke the surface and immediately began to pat their backs, tilting them so the water could drain out of their throats. "Come on, babies, breathe!" she coaxed, her voice frantic.

The tiger cubs let out loud, wet coughs before exploding into high pitched, terrified crying.

"Wahhhaa"

They were finally breathing.

Xiao San, seeing the waves, immediately climbed up Lan Yue’s wet hair and perched on top of her head, his little tail wrapping around a strand of hair to make sure he would not be floated away.

He was terrified looking at the endless sea.

Lan Yue looked around at the endless blue horizon. Her eyes were wide with shock.

This was the sea... her home. But how? One moment they were in a dark, bloody valley, and the next, they were in the middle of the ocean.

"What kind of miracle is this?" she whispered.

Suddenly, a voice drifted over the waves.

"Xiao Yi! Xiao Er! Xiao San! Where are you?"

Lan Yue’s eyes lit up. "Qinglan jie! Sister! We are here!"

She began to swim with powerful strokes, her tail cutting through the water like a blade.

Within minutes, the two women were reunited.

Su Qinglan was treading water, her face pale, but when she saw Lan Yue and the crying cubs, she let out a sob of pure joy.

The cubs immediately lunged from Lan Yue’s arms to Su Qinglan, clinging to her wet clothes and crying as if their hearts would break.

Su Qinglan kissed their cold, wet heads, her heart finally stopping its frantic pounding.

"Lan Yue! You are here too!" Su Qinglan gasped, wiping salt water from her face. "I thought... I thought I was alone."

"Host," Xuyu’s voice whispered in her head, sounding a bit relieved.

"It seems that because she was holding the cubs so tightly, the system recognized her as part of the cargo. She was accidentally teleported along with you."

Su Qinglan did not care if it was an accident. She was just happy to have a friend.

But then, a sharp pang of sadness hit her heart. She looked at the water and thought of Hu Yan. If I had just grabbed Hu Yan’s hand a second sooner, would he be here with me?

"Do not dwell on it, Host," Xuyu said, pouring cold water on her thoughts.

"The energy required to teleport a high level beastman like the Tiger beastman would have crashed the system entirely. You would have all died in the void. This was the only way."

Su Qinglan bit her lip, looking at the endless ocean. She was safe, and her cubs were safe, but they were lost at sea with no land in sight.