CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER 15 SETTING DONGCHI’S BONES RIGHT_1

Si Yan’s heart was bitter. She closed her eyes tightly, suppressing all the harsh feelings within her before saying, "Dongchi, Mother will set your bones. Do you agree?"

Dongchi immediately looked up at her, his eyes full of mockery and distrust. "You vile female, I’m warning you—don’t even think about touching me! Whether I live or die has nothing to do with you!"

Si Yan fixed her gaze on him.

Xi Qing calmly asked, "What does ’setting bones’ mean?"

Si Yan slowly explained, "Setting bones means breaking your bones again and fixing them properly, just like your leg bones."

Dongchi’s eyelids trembled. "Don’t even think about touching me..."

Pain, it was all pain. As expected, the vile female had no intention of helping him. She wanted to torture him, to make him suffer even more, to make him wish he were dead! He hated this so much. Why did she have to be his mother? He hated it so much!

Si Yan continued, "Mother doesn’t want your arm to remain damaged. Your arm bones can’t be crooked."

Dongchi was the leader of the four villainous cubs. A male snake Beastman with a crooked arm—how many people would laugh at him in the future?!

"Mother will set your bones right. If you still hate Mother afterward, you can use this hand to hit me, alright?"

Biting his lower lip, Dongchi said in a weak voice, "Why are you asking me? Don’t you just do whatever you want anyway?!"

Si Yan looked at this cub who hated her so deeply. He must really want to kill me.

After all, in the original story, the previous owner of this body was indeed killed by her eldest son, Dongchi.

Si Yan pursed her lips and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

Even knowing that Dongchi might truly kill her someday, at this very moment, she still wanted to heal him properly.

She clenched her hands, and when she opened them again, they were surging with green Wood-based Ability.

She gave Dongchi a bundle of hay to bite on. Her hands, filled with Wood-based Ability, gripped both ends of his twisted arm. "Dongchi, stop dreaming. I’m telling you, you’ll never kill me in this lifetime. No matter how much you hate me, you won’t be able to kill me!"

"You vile female, you—!" Dongchi had just begun to shout when a cry of excruciating pain escaped him. His head was covered in sweat as he clenched the hay in his teeth.

Si Yan used her power to re-break Dongchi’s already mending bone.

"AHHH!!!" Dongchi was in so much pain that his entire body was drenched in sweat.

Fortunately, it hadn’t been long—only fifteen days—so the newly formed bone was still fragile, making the break clean and precise.

Si Yan promptly applied medicine to Dongchi’s arm, then splinted it securely with wooden boards.

This time, the pain made Dongchi’s face turn alarmingly pale. Si Yan stayed by his side, constantly wiping his sweat.

Bei Ji asked worriedly, "Mother, how is Eldest Brother?"

Si Yan replied with concern, "I don’t know if he’ll develop a fever tonight." She turned to Bei Ji and added, "As long as he doesn’t get a fever, he’ll be fine."

With a stern face, Si Yan stood up. She took the hay she had gathered that morning, prepared it outside, and then spread it in a corner of the cave.

"Third child, Fourth child," Si Yan said to Xi Qing and Bei Ji. "We don’t have any beast skins left in our cave. Your eldest and second brothers need the bed tonight, so you two will have to sleep here."

Xi Qing and Bei Ji didn’t mind. After observing Dongchi for a while, Bei Ji asked, "Mother, is there anything else I can help with?"

Si Yan nodded. "Help Mother boil some water."

Si Yan made sweet potato soup. Xi Qing and Bei Ji ate some. Si Yan then fed Nan Mo, and afterward, carefully fed Dongchi, bit by bit.

Even after finishing the sweet potato soup, Dongchi continued to sweat profusely. Si Yan repeatedly wiped his body with warm water to keep him dry.

Xi Qing and Bei Ji fell asleep on the hay. Dongchi and Nan Mo were also covered with some hay. Si Yan rested by the bedside, dozing off as she leaned over, then waking to wipe Dongchi’s sweat and check his temperature.

「Somehow, the night passed.」

Fortunately, being a Beastman, Dongchi had a strong constitution and didn’t develop a high fever.

Once the critical period was over, Si Yan, utterly exhausted, found a spot and immediately fell asleep.

「When she woke up,」

Si Yan smelled a sweet aroma. Sitting up, she saw Bei Ji roasting sweet potatoes and making sweet potato soup, just as she had done before.

Seeing Si Yan looking at him in a daze, Bei Ji gave her a cute, boyish smile and handed her a bowl of sweet potato soup. "Mother, eat."

Si Yan took the sweet potato soup with a slight smile. Feeling parched, she drank it all in one go.

"What time is it?" Si Yan asked.

Bei Ji replied, "It’s afternoon."

Si Yan hurriedly got up. She saw Nan Mo lying on the grass mat, his eyes open, watching her. She also noticed that Dongchi was now sleeping soundly.

Finally, Si Yan had a moment to stop and really look at these two cubs of hers.

The previous owner of this body truly was... Such beautiful cubs, how could she have borne to sell them!

Perhaps feeling unsettled by her gaze, Nan Mo turned his back to her. Si Yan asked him, "Nan Mo, are you feeling any better?"

Nan Mo seemed startled and quickly slipped behind a large rock inside the cave to hide.

Seeing her cubs’ resistance, Si Yan felt somewhat downhearted.

The previous owner of this body had sold two of her children. In their eyes, she was the cause of all their suffering. She couldn’t blame them.

Si Yan once more wiped the sweat from Dongchi’s forehead and checked his temperature, ensuring he was fine before standing up.

「After Si Yan left,」

Dongchi slowly opened his vacant eyes. He bit his lip, tears welling up.

「In the Yanxiang Tribe chief’s small wooden house.」

The chief, the Witch Doctor, and Tai Seng were gathered. Tree shadows flickered outside the chief’s house when a scar-faced black wolf Beastman knelt on one knee, his expression grave and urgent. "Chief, bad news! The Holy Fire in the village... it has gone out!"

The chief was startled and quickly stepped forward. "Tai Dong, what did you say?!"

Tai Dong bowed his head, the tall male trembling slightly. "Chief, the Holy Fire... it’s out."

The chief staggered backward, and Witch Doctor Mei Wen steadied him.

The chief muttered to himself, "The Holy Fire has gone out... Our village is doomed..."

In the Beast World, fire was a revered and sacred force.

A former chief of the Yanxiang Tribe, from generations past, had carefully brought back a flame of the Holy Fire from Myriad Beasts City and learned specific methods to use it. Ever since then, in the Yanxiang Tribe, only the chief has known the method of controlling fire, passed down through generations.

In the Yanxiang Tribe, aside from the chief, no other Beastman could control fire. Even the chief could only occasionally borrow fire from the Holy Fire, and he did so with extreme caution and trepidation.

In the hearts of the Yanxiang Tribe’s people, the Holy Fire was an undying spirit, a necessity for their survival.

The chief murmured to Mei Wen and Tai Seng, "When I borrowed the Holy Fire from Myriad Beasts City, the Grand Priest there prophesied that as long as the Yanxiang Tribe’s Holy Fire burns, the tribe will prosper. If it goes out and is not relit within one day, the tribe will face destruction."

In an instant, the chief seemed to have aged many years, his face twitching slightly. "But in our tribe... there’s no Beastman who knows how to light a fire..."