CHAPTER 228: CHAPTER 228: HER MOTHER

She continued to look at the tiger, her mouth gaping. Meanwhile, Cassias slowly took a few steps back with her in his arms.

"Are you my mother?" She carefully asked. Her paw grabbed Cassias’ hand in an attempt to console him.

Her bewildered face said it all. How could a tiger give birth to a fox? But perhaps, the tiger had poor eyesight and mistook her for a white tiger cub? Her thoughts were everywhere.

"Have you lost your memory?" The tiger growled and advanced again. It was really a female tiger...

Her predatory eyes glanced at Cassias, examining him up and down as if treating him as her next meal.

"But... I am a fox!" Zerra hurriedly said. This wasn’t the real world, so this tiger couldn’t be the same tiger she was familiar with, right? She continued to deny in confusion.

"You have truly lost your memory." The tiger immediately concluded. Her sharp pair of eyes shifted to her, as if examining her condition. "That’s the reason you haven’t gone back home."

"Let’s return with your mother." The tiger stopped, waiting.

She seemed confident Zerra was willing to go back with her. "You must have gotten hurt. Mother will nurse you back to health."

Even if the tiger stopped, Cassias didn’t. He kept glancing at the house, wanting to dash there for protection but also wary of the tiger’s sudden movement.

Zerra bit her lip, a little troubled. What should she do? The tiger was restraining its aura and didn’t resort to violence, most likely because of the fragile layer of peace between them.

Spiritual beasts were known to be protective of their cubs. She knew the tiger was barely holding herself back after she found out the fox body she occupied had lost her memories. Losing memories meant that she had gotten hurt.

"Come here, little cub," the tiger repeated, impatience brimming in her tone.

Her eyes darkened as she stared at Cassias with anger. "Is it this impertinent cub who doesn’t let you go?"

Zerra’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she witnessed the tiger jumping at them. She wanted to pin Cassias’ tiny figure to the ground and stomp on him.

Cassias was also quick to evade, jumping away in a split second. His expression was cold. "Are you really her mother?"

"Since she has lost her memories, we don’t really know whether you are her actual mother. On top of that... aren’t you a tiger?" He sneered, his face fearless.

Zerra sensed the tiger didn’t have malice toward her, but the same couldn’t be said for Cassias. With his current unyielding personality, she was really concerned.

Things could escalate quickly in seconds, especially when there was no ounce of mercy in the tiger’s eyes. She regarded Cassias merely as a pest.

"My little cub." The tiger called again.

Zerra turned toward her. She suppressed the worry in her heart, and spoke. "S-since I lost my memories, I can’t be sure you are really my mother. I am a fox, and you are a tiger. Can’t you prove this?"

The tiger let out a low growl in dissatisfaction, obviously unhappy Zerra was questioning her. However, seeing the serious face on Zerra’s little face, she finally opened her mouth.

"You are not my biological cub." The tiger began. "I saw you lying in the forest, injured, so I decided to take care of you. But does that matter? Even if you are not of the same species, you are still my cub."

The tiger’s explanation made sense, but Cassias still knitted his eyebrows in distrust. Obviously, he still couldn’t believe the tiger’s explanation. It was too shallow for anyone to believe.

Zerra fell silent. She didn’t sense that the tiger was lying, but she couldn’t be sure. They needed more proof.

Honestly, even if the tiger said she was her biological cub, they had no way to prove it. In the celestial realm, there was no scientific test like the DNA test. On top of that, there were also rare cases where a species would mate with other species.

It would result in the cubs between the two taking after one of the parent species, but there was also a chance of oddity in the cub’s characteristics. Like the pinkish color at the tip of her tail and ears.

She had never seen such a peculiar color in foxes, so the best explanation was that this body’s owner was a unique species. Based on the tiger’s explanation, if it was true, it would also make sense that she was abandoned since birth.

Most of them weren’t children born out of love from two beings who promised to be with each other. They were the result of a forced bond.

In other words, the tiger was most likely to be honest when she mentioned she had adopted the fox body owner.

"Do you have a way to prove it?" Cassias pressed further.

The tiger growled, her patience thinning. Still, she restrained herself and threw something toward him.

It was a box.

Cassias bent down to pick it up. Zerra curiously stared at the box in his hand. She had noticed the familiarity from the box; she just couldn’t put her finger on where the familiarity had come from.

Other than that, she couldn’t deny the solid proof, which made her fall silent. Even Cassias was hesitating when he tried to open the box, as if he dreaded what was inside. He had a hunch and wasn’t ready to see whatever it was.

"Open it." The tiger noticed Cassias’ hesitation and growled smugly.

Cassias gritted his teeth and slowly opened the box. Under their watchful eyes, what was inside the box was finally open for all of them to see.

It was actually empty.

However, traces of Zerra’s scent were still there. It was apparent that this box had been hers.

"With this item alone?" Cassias narrowed his eyes.

The tiger’s menacing eyes stared at him condescendingly. "Of course, I have her other items."

"I forgot the box was empty because my little cub was playing with the items inside." The tiger pulled something and presented them to their eyes. "You have been asking your mother how to make use of those, right, little cub?"

Zerra widened her eyes. Her heart palpitated, and before she knew it, she had jumped from Cassias’ embrace toward the tiger.

She had to check whether her guess was right. How did these items appear here?!