Chapter 01
“Big Sis, wake up! Wake up already!”
A warm little hand smacked twice against Ling Cheng’en’s sleeping face. Instantly irritated, she snapped her eyes open, murderous fury written all over her expression as she glared at the little brat daring to slap her awake.
She had expected to see some suicidal fool disturbing her peace.
Instead, staring back at her was a seven- or eight-year-old girl with a pair of fluffy cat ears on top of her head. The child’s big watery eyes were full of panic as she looked at Ling Cheng’en.
At that moment, Ling Cheng’en was fully awake.
She sat cross-legged on a pile of dried grass, turned her head to look at the empty stone cave around her, then glanced back at the little girl squatting beside the bedding. Finally, she reached out and pinched the girl’s chubby cheek.
The little girl burst into tears instantly. She jumped up and ran outside while wailing loudly:
“Father! Big Sis hit me! Waaaah!”
Ling Cheng’en: “???”
I pinched your cheek once and you’re crying already? Are you made of water?
You slapped me in the face first, and I haven’t even gotten mad yet!
The child’s cries quickly faded, replaced by the appearance of a burly man who lifted aside the grass curtain covering the cave entrance and walked in carrying the sobbing little girl with one arm.
“En’en, Xiao Xi said you hit her. What happened?”
While comforting the sniffling child, the man looked at Ling Cheng’en with concern written all over his face.
Ling Cheng’en’s attention, however, was entirely focused on the tiger tail swaying behind him.
Good grief.
She had fought through blood and carnage for decades in the apocalypse, finally wiping out all the zombies and mutant beasts, successfully ascending to her throne as Empress…
And now one nap later she’d been dumped into a primitive beast world?
How was that reasonable?
How?!
She was about to lose it.
Sitting numbly on the grass mat, Ling Cheng’en stared blankly into space before collapsing backward again.
“Don’t mind me. I want to die right now.”
The tiger-tailed man immediately set the little girl down and scooped Ling Cheng’en up in one motion. He touched her forehead anxiously.
“You sick? Come on, let’s go see the shaman healer. Father will carry you!”
With that, he slung her over his shoulder and prepared to rush outside.
Ling Cheng’en instantly abandoned all thoughts of playing dead. With a nimble flip, she leapt off his shoulder, patted down the short fur skirt and fur top she was wearing, straightened her back, and said:
“No need. I’m fine.”
Seeing how lively she looked, the man finally relaxed.
Ling Cheng’en walked over to the teary-eyed little girl, crouched down, and flicked her forehead with a finger.
“How exactly did I hit you? You slapped my face, but I can’t pinch your steamed-bun cheeks once?”
The cat-eared girl immediately hid behind the tiger-tailed man’s leg, peeking out angrily.
“Big Sis, you’re freakishly strong. That hurt!”
The man pulled the little girl out from behind him and patted her head.
“Alright, stop bothering your big sister. She still has to go bring your brothers-in-law home today.”
The smile on Ling Cheng’en’s face froze.
She slowly looked up.
“…Brothers-in-law? Plural?”
Xiao Xi tilted her head.
“Yeah! Big Sis, did you forget? Before, the southern tribes joined forces trying to steal prey and females from our tribe. But Father and the others defeated them.”
“And when they lose, of course they have to hand over prey and females to our tribe.”
“But our family doesn’t need females, so Father picked out the best unmarried male beastmen from those tribes to be your mates!”
Ling Cheng’en desperately searched through the pitiful fragments of memory she’d inherited.
The original owner of this body had died too suddenly, leaving behind very little. She only knew they shared the same name, this was a beast world, and the tiger-tailed man was her father and the tribe chief.
As for tribal wars and such…
Absolutely no clue.
So how exactly had the original Ling Cheng’en died?
Seeing her blank expression, Xiao Xi cautiously whispered:
“Big Sis… you’re not still obsessed with that pretty male from Hanshan Tribe, are you? He already rejected you so many times.”
“You gave him lots of gifts too, but he returned all of them. He doesn’t want to be with you.”
“As beastfolk, we should be generous! If someone doesn’t want us, we can’t just force them!”
Ling Cheng’en pinched her cheek again.
“You sure talk a lot.”
“Fine, fine. I got it. I’m going to pick them up, alright?”
She strode toward the cave entrance, lifted the grass curtain with one hand, and gazed out at the endless wilderness and primitive forest beyond.
A long sigh escaped her lips.
She’d struggled and fought for so many years only to wake up back at square one.
Just thinking about it made her eyes brim with tears. If she’d known she would transmigrate into this no-electricity, no-modern-convenience beast world, why had she worked herself to death in her previous life?
She should’ve just laid flat and freeloaded!
So infuriating!
Another day of wanting to go insane and destroy the world.
This damned life—
No, this damned beast life!
She wasn’t even human anymore. She was a female tiger beastman.
Grinding her teeth, Ling Cheng’en quickly headed toward a nearby stream and crouched beside it to wash up and fix her appearance.
The cool stream water splashed across her face, finally booting up her brain completely.
Back in the apocalypse, she’d read plenty of beast-world novels. Most of them portrayed males as numerous and powerful while females were few and weak.
At the time, she’d mocked the setting for being ridiculous.
Yet apparently the primitive beast world really was like that.
Still, females here weren’t truly powerless. Compared to the stronger males, they just seemed physically weaker.
Ling Cheng’en stared at a huge round boulder nearby, unconvinced.
She was someone who had survived until the end of the apocalypse and ultimately become an empress.
How could she tolerate being weaker than others?
If she couldn’t protect herself, she’d rather hang herself with a noodle.
She stared at the boulder for a moment before suddenly clenching her right fist and smashing it downward.
In the next second, the giant rock shattered into pieces.
Then the fragments crumbled further into powder.
Ling Cheng’en relaxed instantly and nodded in satisfaction. Happily washing her hands, she prepared to head back.
Then she looked up—
And spotted two fat fish swimming boldly through the stream.
Her eyebrow twitched upward.
With a tiger-like pounce, she leapt into the water and emerged gripping a fish in each hand by the gills.
Squatting beside the stream, she expertly scraped away the scales, removed the gills, gutted the fish, and cleaned them thoroughly before swaggering back toward the cave.
In the apocalypse, there were no such fat and stupid fish.
The rivers and oceans had been filled with terrifying mutated species. Some fish had evolved bodies so bizarre they were practically inedible, while others possessed enough combat strength to rival loaded cannons.
Honestly, the beast world did have its advantages.
At least food wasn’t a problem.
Forget it.
Since she was here, she might as well settle in.
A broken mental state could start with two delicious grilled fish.
When her tiger father, Ling Xiao, walked out of the cave, he saw Ling Cheng’en crouched on the rocky ground, sticking her butt in the air while kneeling beside a pile of wood trying to start a fire.
He walked over to the smoking mess and looked at his foolish daughter in confusion.
“What are you doing? You’re making smoke everywhere.”
“Starting a fire,” Ling Cheng’en replied while looking up, her face covered in soot.
Mostly, she was annoyed with herself because she’d just remembered something important:
These beastmen still mainly ate raw meat and had no concept of cooking with fire.
Ling Xiao nodded in realization, pushed her head aside with one hand, and opened his palm.
A small orange-red flame appeared instantly in his hand.
He casually tossed it onto the dry branches, and the wood burst into flames.
“There. Done.”
He handed her the fish skewered on a stick nearby.
“You still haven’t given up, huh? Trying to learn grilled fish again?”
“I already told you that’s a specialty from the great beast cities in the south. It’s not easy to learn.”
“Whatever. If you want to keep messing around, go ahead. Just remember to bury the fire afterward.”
After saying that, he turned and left.
Ling Cheng’en stared thoughtfully at his retreating back.
“Fire-type ability?”
Interesting.
This beast world actually had some things going for it.
So what kind of ability did she have?
She pondered for a while but couldn’t figure anything out. In the end, she decided not to think about it for now and eat first.
After all, she had plenty of time.
And if she really didn’t have any special ability, then she’d just start cultivating from scratch again.
She was going to become the strongest woman on this beast continent!
…No, wait.
The strongest female beastman!
