TFBAT – Chapter 20

“Your wife says she can save Hu Ya?” The chieftain’s voice was loud, with a trace of doubt in it.

It wasn’t his fault.

To Hu Zhuo, Chi Yuyang was an outsider. Even if she knew medicine, it didn’t necessarily mean she was skilled in treating tiger beastmen.

Chi Yuyang guessed what the chieftain was thinking at that moment.

Unease flickered through her heart as well, but the condition of the cub lying on the ground was far from optimistic.

“Chieftain, let her try…” The tigress guarding the cub suddenly spoke. Her voice was hoarse from crying, but her words carried determination.

As a mother, she would not give up any chance to save her child.

“But…” Hu Zhuo was still hesitating.

As the leader of the tribe, he had to consider more than the others.

“Since this female says she is a Shaman, why not let her try?” The tribe’s Shaman, Hu Yu, also voiced his support.

“Thank you.” Chi Yuyang nodded.

Whether it was out of respect for a healer, or because the one who brought her here was Hu Jin—

She would not betray this trust.

Chi Yuyang quickly crouched down to examine the cub’s condition.

It was still in its juvenile stage. Now it lay on a piece of beast hide, trembling while gasping for breath.

Its half-open amber eyes were clouded and unfocused.

It had completely lost the vitality a young tiger cub ought to have.

“Did it eat something strange?” Matching her earlier suspicion, Chi Yuyang concluded the cub had been poisoned through food.

But she couldn’t be sure what exactly it had eaten.

Since coming to this continent, Chi Yuyang had found that there were far more unknowns than what she already knew.

Upon hearing her question, the tigress beside her shook her head.

“Hu Ya was playing here. I was nearby watching her the whole time. Besides…”

Perhaps because of her emotional turmoil, the tigress suddenly coughed.

Originally, Chi Yuyang thought she would say something like the cub was well-behaved.

But instead, Hu Zhuo added, “Besides, on this continent, there is nothing that can threaten the life of a tiger beastman.”

So most of the injuries tiger beastmen suffered came from internal conflicts or from fighting other carnivorous beastmen for territory.

There was one other possibility—unless, like Hu Jin, another tiger tried to challenge the heavenly tribulation.

Aside from that, tiger beastmen were the strongest existence on this continent.

That strength placed them above all else.

And that applied not only to animals, but also to plants.

Chi Yuyang was stunned.

She hadn’t expected that answer.

Though it did match the logic of the animal kingdom—tigers were the kings of beasts.

But she didn’t believe her own judgment was wrong.

“What if—I’m just saying what if—it’s only that you haven’t yet discovered something that restrains you?” she said, then reached out and touched the cub’s body.

Its temperature was even lower than her palm.

Chi Yuyang needed to induce vomiting quickly, to help it expel whatever poison it had ingested.

Her words made the tiger beastmen present exchange glances.

Since Chi Yuyang and Hu Jin had arrived, more and more tiger beastmen had gathered.

But she was focused only on the cub’s condition.

Hearing her words, the expressions on their faces loosened slightly.

At the same time, out of the corner of her eye, Chi Yuyang noticed Hu Jin’s face change.

But now was not the time to question why.

“Hu Jin, the soap-fruits you found for me last time—are there any nearby?”

Back in the stone hut, she had once described the function of shampoo to him, just so she could wash her hair.

Then Hu Jin had brought her a few milky-white fruits.

These fruits could completely replace soap, so Chi Yuyang named them soap-fruits.

But since Hu Jin had gone alone that time and spent quite a while searching, Chi Yuyang never asked him again to look for more.

Even without him saying so, she could sense their rarity.

“There should be some nearby.” Hearing her voice, Hu Jin came back to his senses.

Naturally, Hu Jin would unconditionally support Chi Yuyang’s actions.

“What are these soap-fruits? I have many fruits stored in my cave. Perhaps among them there are the ones Chi Yuyang mentioned.”

Hu Zhuo also voiced his stance. His curiosity made him quicker than the others to accept Chi Yuyang’s hypothesis.

“Soap fruit is the same as milk fruit,” Hu Jin added.

Chi Yuyang used functions to differentiate fruits, while the beastmen named them by color.

…

Very soon, the chieftain brought the soap fruit from inside the cave.

Chi Yuyang was pouring clean water into the cub’s mouth.

Hearing hurried footsteps, she turned her head slightly.

“Hu Jin, could you cut a little piece off for me, and then…” Chi Yuyang gave him a meaningful look.

But before she finished speaking, he had already taken the fruit from the chieftain’s hand with perfect understanding.

Then he broke off a small piece and placed it on a lotus leaf.

“…” Chi Yuyang was momentarily speechless.

She felt that sooner or later, Hu Jin would split into two—one part being himself, and the other part becoming the roundworm in her stomach.

When the soap fruit dissolved into the clean water, Chi Yuyang lowered her head, intending to test the effect first.

But Hu Jin acted faster, taking the lotus leaf away.

“Wife, what are you going to do?”

“I want to see if it tastes like I expect…” Chi Yuyang glanced at her now-empty hands, then looked up to see worry written in the mismatched eyes of Hu Jin.

“No, you’re not as strong as a tiger beastman.” Hu Jin lowered his gaze to the mixture on the lotus leaf. “I’ll test it for you.”

“But I wouldn’t know how to describe exactly what it tastes like.” Chi Yuyang pinched his hand lightly. “It smells about the same as I remember, so it should be fine to drink.”

At most, it would cause nausea.

Besides, soapy water was hard to swallow.

She had already explained to all the beastmen what she intended to do, and she had also obtained the mother’s consent.

But before making the cub vomit, she had to make sure this was indeed the soapy water she knew.

“Then I’ll taste it with you.”

At the very least, he could determine if it was poisonous.

“Alright.” As she spoke, Chi Yuyang dipped both hands into the lotus leaf Hu Jin was holding, coating her fingertips.

With her left hand, she put some in her own mouth.

Her other hand brushed against the corner of Hu Jin’s lips, letting him taste some as well.

Sure enough, it was soapy water.

Just as Chi Yuyang was about to pull her right hand back, she realized Hu Jin still had her fingertips held in his mouth.

“Hu Jin?”

“Mm. No poison.” Hu Jin finally let go.

He licked his lips.

Hearing Hu Jin’s words, the few tigers around them finally relaxed.

Hu Jin’s action wasn’t only about testing for poison; it was also to make the clan believe in Chi Yuyang.

Even if they nodded on the surface, subconsciously they still preferred Hu Jin to confirm things again.

In front of outsiders, tiger beastmen habitually sided with Hu Jin.

What they didn’t expect was that Hu Jin would always stand on Chi Yuyang’s side.

After that, Chi Yuyang slowly poured the soapy water into the cub’s mouth.

“Just wait five more minutes.”

The soapy water in the lotus leaf was nearly gone, and Chi Yuyang stopped to wipe the sweat off her face.

From the time she and Hu Jin arrived, it had only been about ten minutes, yet she felt as if she had just gone through a long operation.

In Chi Yuyang’s era, if someone ingested poison and received timely treatment, there was a high chance of survival.

But here, it was immediately deemed hopeless.

Meanwhile, complicated traumatic injuries that would require surgery in her world were trivial in the face of the tiger beastmen’ powerful healing abilities.

Thinking of this, Chi Yuyang let out a sigh.

Suddenly, the cub lying on the ground stopped trembling.

“Hu Ya?” Its mother screamed when she saw the cub suddenly go still.

Chi Yuyang froze.

This was earlier than she had expected.

The next second, the cub opened its mouth and began to vomit.

“Hu Ya…”

Seeing the filth on the ground, Hu Jin frowned.

“Wife, Chieftain, I need to speak with you.”

Chi Yuyang might not have noticed it, but Hu Jin could hear more and more tiger beastmen gathering nearby.