I Rise in the Beast World by Smelling Desires - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I uttered the words “grain storehouse,” everyone’s expression changed.

Everyone knew the Northern Wastes Tribe was on the verge of running out of food.

But what truly drove people mad wasn’t the shortage itself, but the fact that someone would dare to steal during such a time.

Cen Linxing was the first to react. The smile remained on her face, but her gaze grew cold.

“Fuyin, stop messing around.”

“Lying before the Altar will bring divine punishment.”

It would have been better if she hadn’t spoken. As soon as she did, that cloying sweetness in my nose intensified.

It was so sweet it tasted bitter.

This was the scent of a lie about to be exposed.

I wiped the blood from my lips and raised my hand, pointing directly at a leopard in the crowd.

“Last night at the hour of the rat, in the third compartment of the western grain storehouse, he took two bags of Beast Bone Powder. He hid one bag under his fur bedding, and the other was sent to the Witch Doctor’s healing tent.”

That leopard-tribe male jerked back a step and immediately barked, “You’re full of shit!”

I stared at him, the images in my mind becoming clearer.

The mouth of the bone powder bag had a tear, and grayish-white powder had spilled onto the side of his boot.

He had hurriedly tried to wipe it away with his foot, leaving a faint gray mark under the threshold.

I continued, “The bottom of your right boot is stained with dust; you can still find it under the threshold. Also, you didn’t steal it alone.”

“You’re afraid of death and didn’t dare keep it all for yourself, so someone behind the scenes made you do it.”

His face turned deathly pale in an instant, and his eyes instinctively flickered toward Cen Linxing.

At this point, even the densest person understood.

Ming Xingye had already lunged forward, grabbing him by the shoulder.

The leopard male struggled desperately, his mouth remaining stubborn.

“I didn’t!”

“She’s framing me on purpose!”

“Can a word of truth come out of the mouth of a discarded Useless Female!”

Listening to his shouting, I suddenly found it funny.

It turned out that when a person is at their most panicked, they can’t even hide their scent.

Fear is icy cold.

Guilt is sour.

But right now, the heaviest scent on him was fear toward the person on the high platform.

He wasn’t afraid of divine punishment.

He was afraid of Su Zhichuan.

I looked up at him.

The White Tiger Priest still stood on high, his expression showing no ripples.

Only when the wind lifted the hem of his robe did I see that white tiger tail tighten slightly.

In the next moment, he spoke.

“Search.”

Just one word.

Ming Xingye immediately led his men to the western storehouse.

The snowy ground fell into an eerie silence.

Cen Linxing wanted to say something more, but I was faster.

“Witch Doctor, you’ve changed the Bone Bell on your hand, haven’t you?”

Her fingertips trembled.

“The original string had blue-patterned bone beads, but now they’re white. That’s because the old string was stained with blood the night before last, and you threw it into the fire pit.”

Her face finally changed completely.

“Ning Fuyin, what exactly are you trying to say?”

I smiled at her.

“I’m saying that the bag of Beast Bone Powder in the healing tent wasn’t for the injured.”

“It was for you to refine ‘Calming Incense.'”

“You knew the High-Rank Males were about to lose control of their rut, so you wanted to use the bone powder to concoct medicine. You planned to curry favor with them first, then use the disastrous winter to keep all the females under your thumb.”

With every word I spoke, the fishy-sweet scent on her grew stronger.

By the end, it almost made my nasal passages ache.

I hadn’t actually mastered this ability yet.

I was just seeing fragmented images and following the scents to make a gamble.

But clearly, I had gambled correctly.

After half a stick of incense’s time, Ming Xingye returned and threw the bag of bone powder directly onto the snow.

The tear in the bag, the gray marks on the threshold-everything matched.

The look he gave Cen Linxing turned cold as well.

“We found it in the healing tent too.”

The crowd erupted.

Cen Linxing’s face was as white as paper, yet she still refused to admit it.

“I just wanted to try making calming medicine for the sake of the tribe…”

“For the tribe, or for yourself?”

My voice wasn’t loud, but it struck like a nail being driven home.

“You wanted to use the medicine to bind the High-Rank Males so they couldn’t leave you. But you didn’t know that what’s making them lose control this year isn’t their rut at all.”

“It’s because the Sacrificial Well has been tampered with.”

Even I was stunned for a moment after saying that.

Because I hadn’t deduced that.

It was a new image that flashed in my mind when I smelled the sudden surge of a cold, sharp scent from Su Zhichuan.

A sealed ancient well.

The walls of the well were blackened.

At the bottom of the well floated a piece of rotted bone.

A look of genuine panic finally flickered in Cen Linxing’s eyes.

I knew I had stumbled upon something much bigger.

On the high platform, Su Zhichuan began to walk down the steps, one by one.

The snow crunched under his boots, and all the Beastfolk instinctively made way for him.

It was only when he stopped in front of me that I realized I was still trembling.

It was too cold.

And I was too hungry.

But more lethally, now that he was standing close, that suppressed, burning aura felt almost tangible, trapping me entirely.

I could smell his restraint.

I could smell the predatory urge he was forcibly pushing down.

I could even smell a hint of near-violent lingering fear.

He was afraid I would die in the snow.

This realization made my heart thud violently.

Su Zhichuan looked down at me, his eyes extremely pale.

“Ning Fuyin.”

“When did you learn these things?”

I met his gaze. My throat was tight, but I kept my voice steady.

“I just learned.”

“So, Priest Lord, am I still considered useless now?”

The wind whistled between us.

He looked at me for a long time, as if re-evaluating an object he had personally discarded.

After a long while, he spoke in a cool voice.

“From this day forward, you will move back to the Inner Circle.”

“But not because you are useful.”

“It is because from now on, you are under my supervision.”

The crowd gasped.

And I only smelled his scent of cold snow draw an inch closer.

Like a suppressed blizzard, the first thought finally revealed itself clearly.

*Keep her.*