She looked at the empty, hard stone bed—there wasn't even a piece of animal hide. Not to mention how uncomfortable it would be to sleep on; at night, when the temperature dropped, she'd probably catch a cold.
Day and night temperatures in the beastman world differed drastically. You'd definitely get chilled without something to cover yourself with.
Luna's gaze fell to the cave entrance. She eyed those filthy animal hides but just couldn't bring herself to use them as a blanket.
With a soft sigh, she decided to search nearby for some dry firewood, carried it back, and started a fire in the center of the cave.
This way she could keep warm and drive away wild animals.
She definitely wasn't counting on any of those five beast husbands to show up and protect her at night.
After hustling all afternoon, she was already exhausted, and her stomach was rumbling with hunger.
Her eyes couldn't help but drift toward the roast meat and grilled fish wrapped in broad leaves, and she swallowed hard.
"Can't eat, can't eat, if I eat any more I'll get so fat I'll die…"
She whispered to herself, desperately trying to hypnotize herself into submission.
With a struggle, she forced her gaze away, refusing to look at the roast meat and grilled fish.
But she really was starving. The few grilled fish she'd eaten in the afternoon had long been digested.
Her gaze drifted back to the grilled fish, her mouth watering at the thought.
But staring at all her body fat, she managed to resist temptation again.
Trying to distract herself, she simply sat by the fire and began cultivating her psychic abilities.
The Wood Spirit Energy in the beastman world was abundant, making cultivation smooth and easy—compared to the apocalypse, this was just heaven.
Luna figured it wouldn't take long before she'd rise to level 2 again.
She thought of her own face, tragic beyond words.
Her psychic power had dropped to level 1, and its healing powers were much weaker, but basic detoxification was still doable.
That face had clearly been wrecked by built-up toxins, plus an overactive oil secretion—no wonder it looked like that.
If she wanted to cure it for good, she had to start with detoxification.
She opened her palm, facing up, and at a thought, a small green vine sprouted from her palm, glowing softly with a faint green light.
It was really quite beautiful.
The vine kept growing, crawling up to her face, the green light spreading to cover her cheeks and starting the detox process.
As her psychic power seeped into her skin, her face itched horribly, as if something wanted to crawl out. More than once, she wanted to scratch it.
But she was scared she'd leave scars, so she held herself back.
Luna endured the itching, focusing on running her powers to detox.
After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea,
she felt her nose, eyes, and entire face get covered in some sticky black gunk. She could hardly breathe, and couldn't see a thing either.
The smell was horrible, like rotten eggs—it nearly made her throw up.
She withdrew her powers and wiped her eyes, nose, and face. Her hand came away coated in black, foul-smelling grime.
"This crap is the toxins that came out of my face?"
She was thoroughly disgusted, hurried out of the cave, but still grabbed her face wash on the way.
Though it was dark outside, the moon was bright enough to see the road clearly.
Many of the tribe's men, women, old folks, and children were still awake, chatting in groups, bathing by the river, or doing who knew what else.
Some were even hiding in the woods or corners somewhere, fooling around.
The beastman world was super open-minded, especially at night. No matter where you went, you could hear the unmistakable sounds of people… getting busy.
Listening to it made her ears burn, cheeks flush, and heart flutter.
All the way to the river, she spotted several couples doing who-knows-what—seriously, any patch of woods or a corner was good enough for it.
Luna's mouth twitched. She didn't understand why they couldn't just go back to their caves—why did they have to do it under the open sky?
But then she thought, this was the beastman world; deep down, they were all just animals. Was she really expecting shame or modesty?
She kept her expression unchanged and walked toward the riverbank as if she'd neither seen nor heard anything.
After decades in the apocalypse, what hadn't she seen?
Compared to the disgusting, vomit-inducing zombies from back then, this was child's play.
As she reached the river, she again heard the familiar noises ahead. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the grass all flattened in a big patch, but it was too dark to make out who was there.
Just as she was about to avert her gaze, a face turned in her direction, revealed by the moonlight—it was Mia.
As for which beastman it was, Luna didn't need to guess—it was bound to be one of Mia's beast husbands.
Luna recalled Mia mocking her not long ago. If Mia spotted her now, she'd probably think Luna was peeping on purpose and would just ridicule her to death.
To avoid trouble, Luna continued downstream, putting some distance between her and the others.
Only then did she squat by the river and start cleaning her face.
She washed it three times before she felt truly refreshed and stopped.
In the bright moonlight, she checked her reflection in the water—she still had lots of pimples, but they were definitely smaller and no longer oozing, so things were looking much better.
She touched her face, feeling pretty good.
Tomorrow she'd keep detoxing with her powers—a few more days of this and her face would be healed.
Just as she was about to get up and leave,
suddenly, she heard splashing from upstream and curiously looked over.
One look, and she froze on the spot.
In the moonlight, a man was bathing in the river, his upper body naked—bronze skin shining spellbindingly in the moonbeams.
Eight-pack abs, each muscle well-defined and symmetrical—absolute perfection.
Droplets rolled down his body, cascading into the river.
Luna swallowed hard; this guy's physique was incredible.
Those broad shoulders, that narrow waist, those long, strong legs…
Her eyes instinctively drifted to his lower body—too bad it was all hidden underwater.
Her eyes moved up to his face.
He was incredibly handsome too: chiseled features, sharp brows, star-like eyes, a straight nose, perfectly shaped lips.
Every inch of him radiated wild, untamed energy—captivating and dangerous all at once.
This was her fifth beast husband—Malachi Arcanus, wasn't it?
Fifth-rank Beastman. His real form seemed to be the Nether-dark Wolf, the only one in the entire tribe.
A rare specimen, for sure.
The man clearly sensed her, suddenly looking up, his gaze as sharp as a drawn blade.
Luna's heart leaped—she quickly looked away and turned to bolt.
But in the next instant, her body went stiff.
Because the man called out her name, his cold voice gritted between his teeth, "Luna Sutton, you've got some nerve—spying on me while I bathe."
As soon as he finished, the man stepped out of the river, striding toward her.
Luna didn't hesitate for a second and just took off running.
No joke—if she didn't run now, when would she?
In the original story, the original Luna was caught peeping at Malachi bathing and almost got beaten to death by him.
There's no way I'm looking for that kind of experience!
She also cursed Malachi out in her heart a thousand times—thinking he was such a drama king. He was the one bathing at the river—why blame her for "spying"? She was openly looking, okay?
Of course, she didn't forget to grab her face wash on the way back.
If she lost it, there was nowhere else to buy another one.
Malachi watched her run off clutching something, secretly wondering what it was. It looked odd and unfamiliar.
But it was rather delicate and pretty,
He didn't dwell on it—just got even darker in the face, annoyed that this female was actually peeping on him while he bathed.
The last time Luna Sutton peeped at him bathing, he'd given her a good lesson.
And now she was at it again—she never learns her lesson, does she?
Luna sprinted all the way back to the cave, breathed a secret sigh of relief when she saw Malachi hadn't chased after her.
She sat beside the fire, thinking back to Malachi's stunning physique just now, and couldn't help but swallow again.
Gotta admit, that man's body was just something else—the best she'd seen since arriving in this beastman world.
And handsome too, exuding that dangerous, predatory vibe.
A man like that—so perfect it was almost criminal.
Too bad he absolutely despised her.
Winning him over would be a real challenge too.