gentle beast

55

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu felt her heart skip a beat and she immediately stepped back, asking vigilantly, “What are you doing here?”

This was still leopard territory, and the wolf’s was still a distance away, so Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu. How could Holden be there??

Holden leaped down from the tree and approached her slowly, the corners of his mouth curling up, “Came to see you, how you’re living with the leopards.”

“. . . None of your business,” Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu said.
She didn’t think her relationship with Holden was good enough for that, “Don’t come over here, or I’ll be unkind.”

“What are you going to do?” Holden asked with great interest, glancing at the pile of shattered stone, “Like that?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu kept silent and knew that Holden was trying to put words in her mouth, but she wasn’t going to tell him what it was.

Gunpowder was something of a transcendental age to this world. The beastmen here had never studied it, or even seen it before. Before she had fully developed it, even one more that knew what she was doing only added to the danger to herself.

But, Holden wasn’t an ordinary guy, especially no fool.

“Don’t look at me like that, I won’t hurt you,” Holden raised his hands, surrendering, “I just came to look around and see the sights.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu didn’t believe Holden’s nonsense, “Don’t you wolves have your own scenery? Why come here to look?”

“Of course, because the scenery here is better and won’t be as boring,” Holden’s smile became crooked in false sincerity..

Holden didn’t lie, though. He really was just looking around, but it wasn’t just wandering about. It was to observe the terrain.

Holden hadn’t given up the idea of competing for the leopard territory.

The number of wolves counted more than ten times the leopards, but had less than one-tenth of the leopard’s territory.

In the past few years, they had begun to increase but hadn’t expanded the territory.
There would be no place for their descendants to live in the future.

Holden knew that Ryan just changed the rules of the leopard race, which was good news for him.

As a leader himself, Holden naturally knew it was not an easy task to change the race’s laws.

There were very few female leopards. Once Ryan enforced the spousal system, a large portion of the males would be without a female. These males that could not obtain a spouse would become angry, and their loyalty to Ryan would reduce.

If he chose to attack then, the odds would be much better.

Of course, this he did not tell Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu.

Because he was interested in Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s black ball, almost like a “dung ball”.

Holden saw with his own eyes that Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu buried it under the stone and ignited it.
Then, the stone made a loud noise and shattered.

If such a powerful thing was used on their side of the war, taking the leopard territory would be no problem.

“Tell me how it was made,” He said. Holden stepped over to her and lifted an arm, pinning her between him and the trunk of a tree without beating around the bush.