Thinking of this, Ji Fengming thought:

Never mind, Yao'er is right, the cause and effect must be completely severed.

As for the affairs of the Zhao royal family and merchants, let's give Shang Xiye some more time; anyway, he's been bullied so badly by those bastards that he's already disillusioned and has begun to consider leaving. Once things are completely severed, he'll have no regrets or worries when he leaves in the future.

Ji Fengyao and her group were resting in a clearing deep in the mountains, basking in the sun and chatting.

Deep in the dense forests near the mountains, Cao Jinchang and his son were suffering terribly.

They were chased all night by a black bear as tall as a man. After finally shaking off the bear, they encountered a mother and cub tiger teaching their cubs how to hunt prey.

The mother tiger clearly used these two new "animals" as teaching material, and chased after them for most of the day with her cubs.

After this frantic, desperate run, even though Cao Jinchang was skilled in martial arts, he was nearly killed.

Cao Xiaosi's legs were so weak they were like noodles, and he had to be dragged forward by Cao Jinchang, who was pulling him by the arm.

"Xiao Si, are you sure you're on the right path? Are you sure your brother-in-law and the others have entered this forest?" Cao Jinchang asked, panting heavily, while cautiously keeping an eye on his surroundings, afraid that he might become prey for a ferocious beast if he wasn't careful.

Cao Xiaosi sniffed again, his head drooping listlessly: "I'm sure they really did pass through here."

"Hey, what are they doing in this deep mountain forest?" Cao Jinchang muttered to himself, puzzled. "My in-laws said they have important business to attend to. Could it be that their important business is hunting wild rats and looking for their hides in this deep mountain forest? If they want these things, they should just tell me. Our canal gang does this kind of business. What kind of wild rat hides don't we have?"

Cao Xiaosi rolled his eyes:

If he told his father that his brother-in-law and the others might have come with thousands of ferocious beasts;

I don't know if his father was scared to death or gave him a beating.

Although Cao Xiaosi couldn't understand how Ji Chenhai and the others could live peacefully with such ferocious beasts;

But in this situation, it seems they weren't really there to hunt monsters or skin them.

Cao Xiaosi then vaguely realized that his two brothers-in-law and their group were not ordinary people from the martial arts world.

Cao Xiaosi held back for a long time, just about to tell Cao Jinchang his suspicions.

Suddenly, he felt light as Cao Jinchang lifted him up onto a towering tree.

"Father, what are you doing..." Cao Xiaosi was about to speak when Cao Jinchang covered his mouth.

Following the direction Cao Jinchang pointed, Cao Xiaosi looked into the woods ahead and was so startled that he nearly fell:

In the woods ahead, a dense mass of ferocious beasts lay prone.

There are all kinds of wild boars, black bears, wild wolves, tigers, and leopards, as well as many others that I can't name;

These were all mutated beasts and monsters that had displayed extreme ferocity during the beast tide in Mangcheng that day!

Good heavens! They've stumbled into a den of ferocious beasts!

Cao Xiaosi was so frightened that he felt the urge to urinate and his limbs went weak.

But he could clearly smell the scent of his two cheap brothers-in-law not far ahead!

"Could it be that my brother-in-law and the others were carried back by these ferocious beasts as reserve food?" Cao Xiaosi whispered to Cao Jinchang.

"It's possible," Cao Jinchang said with a serious expression, feeling that Cao Xiaosi's guess was very much in line with the current situation.

They came to stay with their in-laws.

Unexpectedly, their in-laws were trapped in a den of beasts, in an even more dangerous situation than they were.