Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World-Chapter 109: Fork-Induced Brawls

Day Two of City Planning

Sha Chen stood at the edge of the sprawling construction site, his arms crossed over his broad, muscular chest.

His eyes were currently narrowed into a permanent, headache-inducing squint.

His nose twitched. The air, which was usually crisp with the scent of pine, frost, and the familiar, comforting smell of his pack, was completely ruined.

To his left, the heavy, pungent musk of the Tiger tribe hung in the air.

To his right, the damp, earthy scent of the Panthers.

And everywhere else, the cold, distinctly wet smell of the Azure Scale and Black Water Snakes. It was a sensory overload that was enough to make an Arctic Wolf vomit.

Why am I doing this? Why am I allowing this? Sha Chen thought to himself. He had sworn to never let outsiders know their secrets, and now he had let not one, but THREE new species have access to his land.

What would Lin Zhiying and Wang Xianmo say if they could see him now?

He shouldn’t have let them in. He was a Wolf. Wolves did not share territory. They definitely did not share their resources. And above all else, they did not share their mates. The very concept of this "Neutral Zone" went against every primal instinct screaming in his blood.

He wanted to scoop Xin Yi up, carry her back to the warmest room in his stone fortress, lock the heavy oak doors, and never let these mud-crawlers look at her again.

"Did you hear?" a hissing voice drifted over the noise of crashing timber.

Sha Chen’s ears swiveled.

A few yards away, two Azure Scale snakes were using their massive tails to pack dirt into a plumbing trench, whispering to each other.

"The Panther Alpha marked her first," the first snake gossiped, tongue flicking out to taste the air.

"Yes, but he was a complete savage when he did so," the second snake replied, shaking his head. "I heard from the Shadow Claw scouts that he banished her! Because she mated with our king!"

Sha Chen scoffed quietly, his upper lip curling into a sneer.

Banished her?

What kind of absolute idiot finds a treasure like Xin Yi and lets her walk away? If Sha Chen had been the first to find her wandering naked in the forest, she would never have left his den.

Never.

He would have kept her hidden from the prying eyes of other hungry Beastmen.

He glared across the clearing. Qing Lin was directing a group of his water snakes, looking entirely smug and regal in his clean silk robes. And Hei Yan.....that stupid shadow cat was currently hauling logs, his dark muscles flexing under the sun.

Sha Chen hated them. He hated them all.

His eyes scanned the crowd, searching for the only reason he was putting up with this humiliation.

He finally spotted her.

Xin Yi was sitting under the shade of a large oak tree. She wasn’t looking at him. She wasn’t even looking at the blueprints. She was laughing, her face lit up with a bright, beautiful smile as she played with that tiny Black Water snake cub.

Xiao Long, his name was apparently.

And he liked calling her pink skin.

Sha Chen groaned internally. Hmm.

Even the toddlers were competition now. She was giving the tiny reptile more affection in five minutes than she had given Sha Chen all morning.

Well....it wasn’t as though he had a right to her affection. After all, he had told her she could leave his harem.

But hmm, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Sha Chen uncrossed his arms and started marching toward her. He was going to demand she inspect the stone masonry. Anything to get her attention back on him.

Suddenly, a heavy weight dropped from the sky.

CRUNCH. A massive, steel-toed boot slammed down directly onto Sha Chen’s foot.

Sha Chen froze. The pain was sharp, but the sheer disrespect was worse. He slowly looked up. Hei Yan had just dropped from the scaffolding of a nearby roof, a massive cedar log balanced casually on his shoulder.

"Watch where you are going, you wet dog," Hei Yan snapped, his eyes flashing. For a supposed ’savage’, he had a sharp tongue.

Sha Chen’s vision instantly tinted red. His volatile temper,the famous, uncontrollable rage of the Arctic Wolf, flared up.

"You stepped on my foot, you clumsy stray!" Sha Chen roared, stepping directly into the Panther’s space.

Hei Yan dropped the massive log. It hit the dirt with a loud THUD that shook the ground.

Hei Yan’s primal nature surfaced immediately. His vertical pupils slitted, his fangs elongated, and a low, guttural growl vibrated deep in his chest.

"Do you want to lose your ear, Wolf?" Hei Yan threatened, his claws sliding out from his fingertips, sharp as daggers.

Sha Chen’s own claws extended, slicing effortlessly through the tips of his leather gloves. "Come try it, cat."

"HEY!"

Both Alphas flinched violently. A small, chalk-covered hand slapped the log between them.

Xin Yi stood there, her hands planted firmly on her hips, glaring at them with fury.

"Are you two cubs?!" Xin Yi scolded. "I turn my back for five seconds to check the plumbing trenches with Xiao Long, and you are ready to rip each other’s throats out over a stepped toe? Put your claws away! Both of you!"

Hei Yan looked away, his ears flattening against his head in embarrassment. The fearsome Panther Alpha suddenly looked like a scolded kitten. "He was in the way."

"I do not care who was in the way!" Xin Yi barked, poking Hei Yan in the chest, then turning to poke Sha Chen. "Back to work! If you two break this foundation with your brawling, I am making you both sleep in the sewage trench tonight! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," they both mumbled simultaneously.

As Xin Yi huffed and spun around to go yell at a group of Tigers who had stopped to watch the drama, Sha Chen felt his lips twitch.

He lowered his head, trying to hide it, but a slow, highly inappropriate smile spread across his face.

He loved it when she yelled at him. She was so small, lacking any beastman strength, yet she commanded the deadliest apex predators in the world without a single drop of fear. It was intoxicating.

~

By nightfall, the camp was a picture of exhaustion.

Day Two was officially complete.

The marketplace walls were half up, the residential cabins had roofs, and the beastmen were finally resting. Dozens of roaring fires dotted the clearing as the tribes gathered for dinner.

Sha Chen sat on a carved stone bench near his pack’s fire, taking his time to eat.

He used his bone knife to cut a perfectly roasted piece of meat, lifting it to his mouth with a fork. It was proper. It was how Lin Zhiying would have wanted it.

He glanced to his left and nearly choked on his water.

A few yards away, a group of Shadow Claw panthers were staring at the wooden forks Xin Yi had handed out.

Wooden forks to start and practice with. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

One of them tried to stab a piece of meat, missed completely, hit the edge of his wooden plate, and launched a roasted potato directly into another panther’s face.

A brawl immediately broke out, complete with both of them hissing and rolling in the dirt.

Sha Chen rolled his eyes and let out a scoff. Tsk. Barbarians.

Even the tigers weren’t having better luck. Infact, he had gotten at least 100 complaints about how the Tigers were stealing the mates of his fellow wolf Beastmen.

He nearly killed one, if not for Bai Feng.

Why were Tigers so.....

He looked across the massive camp.

Through the smoke of the fires, he saw them. Qing Lin and Hei Yan. They were sitting on opposite sides of the Neutral Zone, far away from each other, but both of them were staring directly at Sha Chen. Glaring daggers.

Sha Chen sneered back. All these wet, musky smells polluting his territory. He could not wait until this city was finished so they would all pack up and leave.

His gaze shifted away from his rivals, searching for peace. He found it near the river. Xin Yi was sitting on a soft pelt with Ai Yun and Bai Feng. She was happily talking, laughing at something Ai Yun said, looking completely relaxed and beautiful under the moonlight.

She was completely oblivious to the intense, silent territorial war happening all around her.

A sudden, freezing chill in the air pulled him from his thoughts.

The soft rustle of silk announced his arrival. Qing Lin walked over to where Sha Chen sat. Without asking for permission, the Azure Scale King sat down on the stone bench right beside Sha Chen.

Qing Lin did not look at him. He kept his glowing emerald eyes fixed straight ahead, staring into the flames of the fire.

"What do you want, snake?" Sha Chen asked, saying the last word with incredible malice.

"To warn you. I see your eyes watching her like a moth. She is my mate, wolf Alpha," Qing Lin said softly. His voice was a quiet hiss that barely carried over the crackling fire. "I marked her. She would never mate with you. You kidnapped her, and forcefully added her to your harem."

Sha Chen didn’t stop chewing. He took his time. He swallowed the roasted meat, took a sip of his water from a cup, and then turned his head just enough to look at the snake out of the corner of his eye.

"Hmm. Hei Yan marked her too, and yet she’s with you," Sha Chen stated flatly.

Qing Lin flinched.

It was a microscopic movement, but with his wolf senses, Sha Chen saw it clearly. The snake’s jaw clenched. His knuckles turned stark white where they gripped the fabric of his robes.

The hit had landed perfectly.

Qing Lin turned his head slowly. His vertical pupils were blown wide, swallowing the green iris with rage. He bared his fangs, a drop of lethal venom pooling at the tip.

"You think you can steal her from me, Wolf?" Qing Lin whispered.

Sha Chen set his fork down. He didn’t back away.

Instead, he turned his entire body to fully face the Snake King. He leaned in, his own white eyes flashing with the cold, unyielding dominance of the North.

"I want to," Sha Chen said simply.

Qing Lin let out a deafening hiss. His arm snapped back, his hand forming a fist. He aimed straight for Sha Chen’s jaw.

Before the punch could even cross the space between them, two things happened at once.

A massive, dark-skinned hand clamped around Qing Lin’s wrist, stopping the punch dead in its tracks. Mo Yan stood on one side of the bench, his yellow eyes glowing ominously in the dark.

On the other side, Bai Feng, Sha Chen’s second-in-command, had materialized out of the shadows with his spear leveled directly at Qing Lin’s ribs.

"Ah, ah, brother," Mo Yan chuckled smoothly, though there was absolutely no humor in his voice. "No fighting. Have we forgotten the rules already? Calm yourself, Qing Lin."

Qing Lin breathed heavily, his chest heaving as he stared pure murder at Sha Chen.

Slowly, agonizingly, he lowered his fist. He ripped his arm out of Mo Yan’s grip and stood up, smoothing his robes with trembling hands.

"This is not over, Wolf," Qing Lin spat, turning his back. He stormed off into the darkness.

Sha Chen watched him go for a moment. Then, completely unbothered, he calmly picked his fork back up and stabbed another piece of meat.

"Wolf," Mo Yan sighed, sitting down heavily in the spot Qing Lin had just left. He crossed his arms and looked at Sha Chen. "I have heard of you before. Your cruelty and your impatience. I see they weren’t lying when they said you know now to make beastmen want to peel your skin off."

Sha Chen smirked around his fork, still staring at Xin Yi. "It’s a gift."