In the lush, leafy forest, the little female tore off another strip from her animal-skin skirt. What had originally been a knee-length garment was now reduced to a mini skirt that barely covered her buttocks. Her long, straight, and fair legs were exposed to the sunlight, looking absolutely dazzling.
Tyler felt an itch at the tip of his nose, as if something were about to drip out.
She carefully wrapped the torn fabric around the male's broad palm. Looking down at the fluffy top of the little female's head, Tyler couldn't resist lowering his head, wanting to plant a kiss on her hair.
"Be careful not to get any of the prickly fruit's juice on yourself," she warned.
"Okay, I know."
Ophelia knew her own limits. Instead of arrogantly stepping forward to get in the way, she quietly hid behind a boulder to watch Tyler fight the tiger.
The tiger, currently in heat, was incredibly fierce. Since he didn't need to kill it, Tyler avoided a head-on clash. Instead, he dodged nimbly, waiting for an opportunity to strike the beast with his Bone Knife. Fearing that one slash wouldn't be enough, he landed a second one for good measure.
In less than ten seconds, the tiger crashed to the ground.
Tyler stared at the Bone Knife in his hand in disbelief. He had never imagined that hunting a tiger could be this easy.
Seeing the beast completely immobilized, Ophelia finally breathed a sigh of relief. She had been worried that the medicinal effects of the prickly fruit in the Beast World might differ from those in the modern world. Now, it seemed that the crops and vegetation in both worlds were exactly the same.
"Why are you so foolish? You just listen to whatever they say, completely disregarding your own life!" With the danger gone, Ophelia's pent-up anger finally erupted. She clenched her fists and pounded them against the male's robust chest muscles. "Idiot! Fool!"
She never wanted to see Tyler get hurt or sacrifice himself for her again. Her eyes reddened at the corners. If it had to be this way, she would rather push him away.
Tyler was not a man of many words. He simply held Ophelia's tightly clenched, pale hands, his voice deep and magnetic. "I don't want you to harm yourself, not even the slightest bit." Let alone sacrifice half a year of her lifespan.
Little females inherently had shorter lifespans than males, and he only wished to spend as much of his remaining time by her side as possible.
Ophelia lowered her head, the memory of Tyler dying to save her in her previous life flashing through her mind.
"If you ever do something this dangerous behind my back again, I'll take back my offer for you to be my mate. We'll—"
A glint of obsession flashed in Tyler's eyes. His large hands gripped the little female's slender waist and pulled her into his embrace. The tight hold made Ophelia's waist ache slightly. She was about to speak, but the male gently lifted her chin and pressed his soft lips against hers, silencing the rest of her words.
Their breaths intertwined. When the male sensed that the girl in his arms wasn't resisting, he tentatively deepened the kiss.
SMACK.
Though Ophelia had lived two lifetimes, she had only experienced intimacy between a male and a little female once. Thus, being suddenly enveloped in such intense hormones made her dizzy, and her legs gradually lost their strength with each deepening kiss.
Supporting Ophelia's waist, Tyler panted softly. "You can't abandon me."
"You are not allowed to do dangerous things behind my back ever again," she demanded, "otherwise I'll—"
"I won't," he promised.
Unable to withstand the intense emotion practically overflowing from Tyler's eyes, Ophelia pushed him away and crouched on the ground to check on the tiger.
"The prickly fruit's medicinal effect should last until tonight. If we feed it another one then, it'll hold out until tomorrow noon."
Tomorrow afternoon was the arena tournament for the Clan Leader election. By then, the tiger would "coincidentally" wake up, and there would be a great show to watch.
That evening, before the two of them could even get close to the Snow Wolf Clan's tribe with the tiger slung over Tyler's shoulder, they ran into Loki and Miche.
"You actually hunted a tiger. The Dragon Beasts of the Golden Dragon Clan are formidable indeed." A layer of gloom lurked in Loki's green eyes. "Give the tiger to me."
"Give it to you? Where is the Blood Crystal Stone? Have you dripped your blood on it?" Ophelia raised an eyebrow.
Loki's expression turned ugly. "Are you really going to sever our mate bond? Do you not even care if you never see Amy again?"
"She's about to acknowledge another little female as her mother. Why should I care?" Ophelia retorted. "Cut the crap. Give me the Blood Crystal Stone, and I'll give you the tiger."
Loki's chest heaved with suppressed anger as he hurled the Blood Crystal Stone in his hand straight at Ophelia's face. The speed and sheer force behind the throw were so immense that if it actually hit the little female's face, she would undoubtedly bleed.
Ophelia instinctively tried to step back, but a large hand appeared before her eyes and effortlessly caught the speeding Blood Crystal Stone.
"From today onward, you will no longer have any ties to Ophelia." Tyler forcefully clenched his fingers, crushing the hard Blood Crystal Stone into fine powder.
Ophelia felt her body suddenly lighten, as if a heavy shackle had been lifted off her.
Loki instinctively looked down at his right arm. The golden dragon-shaped mark on his skin gradually faded away, proving that the severing of their mate contract was successful.
Seeing his arm restored to its original, unblemished state, Miche was thrilled. However, to maintain her persona, she could only force down the corners of her mouth that kept trying to curve upward.
"You can give me the tiger now, right?" Loki asked.
"Yeah." Tyler raised his foot and kicked the tiger on the ground over to him.
Loki crouched down and verified that the beast was unresponsive before hoisting it over his shoulder and walking toward the tribe's entrance.
"It's getting late. I'll allow you to leave tomorrow after the arena tournament for the Clan Leader election. I just hope you won't regret it when the time comes," Loki said. With this tiger, his position as Clan Leader was set in stone.
Ophelia's lips curled up into a smirk. "Okay."
Earlier, right as they bumped into Loki, she had secretly fed the tiger two more prickly fruits, ensuring the medicinal effects would last until tomorrow afternoon. By then, there would be a magnificent show to watch.
Returning to the stone house, Tyler took the rice and the game meat to prepare dinner, while Ophelia entered her spatial domain to check on the growth of her vegetables.
[Remaining maturation time for baby bok choy, green peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes: 80 hours.]
However, another batch of crops had already ripened. It was two hundred catties of millet and two hundred catties of rice, freeing up two hundred square meters of land.
Since she had decided to prioritize growing fruit, she planted five bags of lychee seeds and five bags of watermelon seeds for the new batch, taking up a total of one hundred square meters. In the remaining one hundred square meters, she planted ten bags of wheat seeds.
Now, she only had ten bags of rice seeds and ten bags of millet seeds left in her inventory.
After they finished dinner, Ophelia took out two peaches and a catty of lychees.
Tyler sat quietly, watching as the little female's delicate, jade-like fingers peeled the skin off a peach. The fist-sized fruit revealed its plump, juicy flesh, staining her slender fingertips with its pinkish juice.
Tyler's Adam's apple bobbed. Suppressing the urge to lick his lips, he could only lower his head to conceal the desire burning in his heart.
Suddenly, a cool sensation brushed against his lips, and a cloying sweetness seeped through the gap in his mouth. Astonished, he looked up and met the little female's bright, starry eyes.
"Is it good?" Ophelia asked with a radiant smile.
"It's good. Very sweet."
Ophelia blinked, leaning in to kiss the male's lips. "Is the peach sweeter, or am I?"
Tyler's ears turned bright red as he clenched his fists. "Y-You are sweeter."
"Your ears are red." Ophelia reached out and gently pinched one.
Now that her mate bond with Loki was severed, she felt much more relaxed. She could finally focus entirely on treating Tyler well and deepening their bond without any distractions.
"Princess, don't tease me. It's getting late, you should sleep," Tyler said, abruptly standing up and fleeing out of the stone house as if making an escape.
With a smile lingering on her lips, Ophelia lay down on the bed and drifted into a deep sleep.