Chapter 181 part2
Zhou Ji mixed truth with falsehood and told him about himself.
While he spoke, he concealed some things that he didn’t want Xiong Ye to know and also made some minor modifications to the rest.
He felt that Xiong Ye would likely believe him.
Xiong Ye did indeed believe him. After all, there was no need for Zhou Ji to lie to him.
“After I became the Beast God, I went back to the Big Bear Tribe, but there was nobody there. Later on, I encountered you and taught you that cultivation method.” Zhou Ji said.
“Thank you.” Xiong Ye said. That cultivation method was very, very important to him. If he hadn’t had the cultivation method to make himself stronger, the Big Bear Tribe might not exist by now.
“There’s no need for thanks. I owe you a life-debt.” Zhou Ji said. “You also know that the people of the Beast God Temple treat me as the Beast God. I was worried that they would realize the truth, so I could only pretend to be the Beast God all these years and remain at the Beast God Temple… I’m really very happy to be able to see you and the people of the Big Bear Tribe.”
“The people of the Beast God Temple are holding you there?” Xiong Ye was a little distressed for his sake.
Zhou Ji smiled and said, “Not like that. It’s just that I’m not as free to do as I like… Xiong Ye, Shi Li seems to feel that I deliberately destroyed the relationship between the two of you…”
“I know you didn’t.” Xiong Ye said. There had already been big problems between him and Shi Li even before Zhou Ji appeared.
“Thank you for believing me… however, I’m really happy that you two separated. I’ve been alone for all these years, staying here by myself in the Beast God Temple. I don’t even have anyone to talk to. When I heard that you wanted to find someone to spend your days with, I was suddenly very excited.” Zhou Ji gave Xiong Ye a kiss.
Xiong Ye: “……” He was certain that the person in front of him wasn’t the Beast God now!
All beastmen were children of the Beast God. The Beast God… definitely wouldn’t do such a thing!
“Xiong Ye, I really like you. I’m not aiming for your status or strength. I just like you as a person… I hope that you won’t reject me because of my identity or some other reason.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye really couldn’t refuse him.
Before, he had actually been a little doubtful and suspected that Zhou Ji was with him because he was a Beast King.
After all, Zhou Ji had suddenly come to find him and get close to him after he’d become a Beast King.
But now… He no longer had such doubts.
Zhou Ji was much stronger than he was. It was impossible for him to have approached him on purpose just because he was a Beast King.
All of the things that Zhou Ji had said and done for him before came from his heart.
Xiong Ye suddenly felt rather overwhelmed.
His relationship with Shi Li had been relatively equal, even if he had contributed a bit more. As for other people who courted him, they usually did so in order to ask something of him.
Now that there was a person who simply liked him for himself, the situation left him a little confused.
At the same time, all of the things that he’d been confused about recently were all explained.
The people of the Beast God Temple were so nice to him because of Zhou Ji, right?
Zhou Ji was always able to make delicious food for him because of his status and identity, right?
As for Hu Yue being unable to find any information on Zhou Ji… it would have been strange if she’d been able to find anything! Zhou Ji was regarded as the Beast God by the Beast God Temple and was served by the entire temple!
“Xiong Ye, shall we go pick mushrooms together?” Zhou Ji finished explaining and switched back to discussing ‘proper things’.
“Alright.” Xiong Ye subconsciously agreed, then suddenly thought of something else–what was going to happen with Shi Li?
He and Shi Li had known each other for many years. Even if they had had many unhappy quarrels, there would still be some leftover feelings. Xiong Ye didn’t want to see anything happen to him.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to plead with Zhou Ji.
Shi Li had wanted to kill Zhou Ji. If Zhou Ji’s strength hadn’t been so good, he might have already lost his life by now. Under such circumstances, how could he ask Zhou Ji to be lenient?
Xiong Ye ultimately chose not to say anything.
Zhou Ji could guess what he was thinking, but he didn’t take the initiative to bring up what he planned to do to Shi Li… He grabbed Xiong Ye’s hand and pointed in a direction before saying, “There are mushrooms over there.”
Zhou Ji pulled Xiong Ye in that direction, not letting go of Xiong Ye’s hand as they went.
Xiong Ye just felt that his hand was getting hotter and hotter. After a while, his hand was covered in sweat…
The two of them picked a lot of mushrooms and also collected some other plants.
Zhou Ji even managed to obtain some strawberries for him to eat.
Xiong Ye was a little uncomfortable at Zhou Ji’s behavior, but also a little happy… He finally couldn’t help but ask, “Zhou Ji, why do you like me?”
“Why can’t I like you?” Zhou Ji laughed, “I wanted to spend a lifetime with you when I saw you.”
Xiong Ye’s heart sped up involuntarily, but he was still a little hesitant.
Zhou Ji could understand his hesitation. The time that they’d spent interacting together was still too short…
“Xiong Ye, we’ve only been getting to know each other for a short time, and I don’t expect you to give me an immediate reply. I wanted to go back with you to the Big Bear Tribe and live like an ordinary person. We could have let our feelings grow naturally for a while before confessing. Today, I only exposed my identity because Shi Li attacked so suddenly.” Zhou Ji said, “I can wait for you.”
Xiong Ye looked at Zhou Ji gratefully.
Zhou Ji let out a secret sigh of relief.
Xiong Ye was really quite easy to fool.
He’d concealed his identity and gotten close to Xiong Ye. If this was during modern times, he would certainly be treated harshly by his other half, but Xiong Ye forgave him so easily.
How nice!
Zhou Ji led Xiong Ye back to their residence and began to cook a grand mushroom feast.
Some mushrooms were well-suited for soup, while others could be fried lightly. There were others that could be cooked with rice–fried rice was a very magical food. Many types of things could be added to it!
The people on the Beastman Continent generally didn’t eat mushrooms.
Not only were many types of mushrooms poisonous, they also weren’t good for staving off hunger!
Xiong Ye had never eaten mushrooms before. Back when Zhou Ji had first brought it up and said that he would pick mushrooms for him to eat, he’d even advised Zhou Ji not to do so in order to avoid being poisoned.
Someone in their tribe had once eaten mushrooms that looked similar to the ones Zhou Ji picked and had ultimately died from diarrhea!
However, even if he felt that these mushrooms might be poisonous, he still ate them after Zhou Ji had prepared them.
This was something that Zhou Ji had put effort into. He had to give it a try.
Besides, he was a Beast King and couldn’t be killed by most poisons.
Mushrooms were delicious, and this wasn’t an exception.
No, these mushrooms weren’t just delicious!
This bowl of mushroom soup tasted even better than anything he’d ever had before, and those fried mushrooms gave off a tantalizing fragrance.
Reasonably speaking, this kind of food shouldn’t taste better than meat, but Xiong Ye felt that these mushrooms were more delicious than meat!
Zhou Ji wasn’t surprised at all.
He didn’t know if there were such fragrant mushrooms on Earth, but he knew that if they existed on Earth, they would definitely fetch a high price.
As for the mushroom soup, he’d used a common mushroom, but he’d added a bit of sun-dried seaweed powder to it.
This seaweed, which was something he’d found accidentally, tasted very delicious and probably contained something like sodium glutamate, which was MSG.
Previously, he would use a bit of it when he cooked roasted meat. However, the seaweed powder was black, so he hadn’t used it because it wouldn’t look good in cooked dishes. Mushroom soup however… because the soup was made with slightly pickled salted vegetables that were dark in color, it wouldn’t show up at all, so he’d added some in.
Salted vegetable mushroom soup was very tasty. After seaweed powder was added for more flavor, it became even more delicious…
Xiong Ye originally didn’t much like watery soup or foods that weren’t very filling, but this time… He drank until he had a whole bellyful of soup.
Zhou Ji saw this and grinned as he started roasting some meat. He set it on a large plate and handed it to Xiong Ye, “You’ll definitely get hungry at night. This roasted meat is for you to eat in the evening.”
“Alright.” Xiong Ye said. He suddenly asked, “You ate less than I did. Will you be hungry?”
“I’ll have something else to eat later.” Zhou Ji said. He could just grow some plants to eat if he got hungry later.
Xiong Ye shot Zhou Ji a thoughtful look.
Zhou Ji had been cooking for him for over a month now.
Over the past month, Zhou Ji had always eaten less than he had and had always given him the delicious things to eat.
He hadn’t concerned himself over this before and felt that Zhou Ji had done so because he couldn’t eat that much–ordinary people couldn’t eat very much normally.
But now, he knew that Zhou Ji was actually very strong.
If that was the case, Zhou Ji’s appetite should be as large as his, or even bigger.
Which meant that before, Zhou Ji had never had enough to eat but had still given him good food…
When he and Shi Li had decided to be together, Shi Li had once said that he would give him the best meat in the future and never let him starve. However, Shi Li had failed to do so in the end.
On the other hand, Zhou Ji had always been doing so quietly.
Xiong Ye, who had originally wanted to ask about Shi Li’s situation, ultimately didn’t say anything.
This time, it was Shi Li’s mistake. In fact, it would’ve been normal if Zhou Ji killed him directly. And now… Xiong Ye sighed and decided to ask the High Priest about it tomorrow.
After Zhou Ji left, Xiong Ye flipped back and forth on the bed and slept restlessly.
As for Zhou Ji, he hadn’t actually gone to sleep. He’d gone to find Shi Li instead.
Shi Li was being kept in a cell at the Beast God Temple. He felt very uneasy.
Before, when he’d felt like he was being framed by Zhou Ji, he’d spoken rudely to Zhou Ji out of anger. He immediately regretted it after he was locked up and began to feel fear.
He was afraid that he would be left to die quietly here.
Zhou Ji was the Beast God. Even if he killed him, the others wouldn’t be able to say anything… he mustn’t allow such a thing to happen!
He didn’t want to die!
All kinds of thoughts flashed through Shi Li’s heart. When Zhou Ji appeared in front of him, he almost immediately began to beg for mercy, “Zhou Ji… no, Beast God… please let me go…”
“I’ll let you go.” Zhou Ji said.
Shi Li had an ecstatic expression on his face.
“However, I’m going to take away the strength that I’ve given you.” Zhou Ji continued.
Shi Li froze, “The strength you gave me?”
“I was the one who gave Xiong Ye the cultivation method that you used. Back then, it was Xiong Ye who begged me to let you cultivate. That was why I carved it into a cave so that you could cultivate together.” Zhou Ji said.
Shi Li stared fixedly at Zhou Ji. Zhou Ji had already been hooking up with Xiong Ye from such a long time ago? He hadn’t even known…
“My strength is something that I cultivated for myself. How could you say that it was given by you…” Shi Li tried to reason. However, he could feel the energy in his crystal core draining away quickly even as he spoke.
Zhou Ji had almost had his crystal core swallowed up by Xiang Tian back then, but after studying the method, he had learned how to absorb the energy from other people’s crystal cores.
Of course, he had never done this before. After all, this was harmful to others.
However, he didn’t feel that there was a problem with doing this to Shi Li.
Who knew what Shi Li would do in the future if he was released with his Beast King strength intact?
Based on Shi Li’s personality, there was a possibility that he would go after the weak and slaughter them in anger.
Since that was the case, it was better to make Shi Li weaker.
Zhou Ji finally left Shi Li with the strength of a junior level Beast Warrior. This was enough to live, but it would be impossible for him to find somewhere where he could be a tyrant with just that.
“No, you can’t do this!” Shi Li shrieked.
Zhou Ji didn’t say much else. He stared at Shi Li, “Look at me.”
Shi Li subconsciously looked at Zhou Ji.
Beastmen had very weak spiritual strength, and it was very easy to control them.
Zhou Ji didn’t like doing this and had never done such a thing before, but he still knew how to control others.
Of course, he didn’t plan to control Shi Li now. He just gave Shi Li a mental hint so that he would forget the cultivation method.
He made this suggestion very powerful. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for Shi Li to remember this cultivation method in his entire life.
If Shi Li really encountered a one in a million unusual situation and remembered it… Based on his current age, it was already too late for him to cultivate all over again.
And he had always been selfish, so he probably hadn’t been willing to teach others.
