I Transmigrated as a Villainess to Raise Babies, and My Beast Husbands Are Fighting Madly Over Me!

Chapter 317: This Is Not an Accident

The elder female held a bloody animal-hide bundle. Inside it were three newborn cubs.

Qiao Xixi and Gu Man stepped forward to look, and their expressions turned grim.

One of the cubs had no eyes, or even limbs. Another had an extra hand growing from its back. The head of the last one was twice the size of a normal cub’s, and its eyes bulged like a frog’s. It was lying stiffly in the bundle, completely silent and still.

Although the other two were still breathing, their breaths were extremely faint. Qiao Xixi could already smell the stench of death on them.

Qiao Xixi quickly took the bundle from the elder female, wrapping it securely to prevent any other beastmen from seeing the three deformed cubs.

With a composed expression, she said, "Don’t panic. This is just an accident."

The elder female was old, after all, and recovered from her initial shock and fear.

"Yes, yes... look at me, spouting such nonsense."

After tending to Ancient Flower, the shaman came over. She opened the animal-hide bundle, glanced inside, and sighed.

She looked at Ancient Flower’s two mates and said, "Your female has just given birth and is very weak. Take good care of her for now."

The face of the darker-skinned black wolf mate was etched with unconcealable pain. This litter had been his. He choked out, "Shaman, what about the cubs...?"

The shaman whispered, "Don’t tell the other beastmen. We will handle this."

The black wolf male couldn’t stop himself from crying, but he didn’t dare say anything more.

"Thank you, Shaman."

Qiao Xixi had already taken the cubs to the stone house next door. By the time she unwrapped the bundle again, they had all stopped breathing.

Looking at the tiny bodies, her heart ached. But she knew that it wasn’t just their external appearances that were underdeveloped; their internal organs likely had severe problems as well.

They couldn’t have survived.

"Clan Leader."

Qiao Xixi covered the bundle and looked at the shaman. "Shaman, have you ever encountered a situation like this in the tribe before?"

The shaman exhaled and shook her head. "In the past, even when we had newborns with problems, it was an extremely isolated case. But for a whole litter to be like this... this is the first time I’ve ever seen it."

"Is it because of a problem with Ancient Flower or her mates?"

The shaman’s brow furrowed deeply. "It’s hard to say. I just examined Ancient Flower and couldn’t find anything wrong."

She looked at the dead cubs. "I must report this to the Beast God. Clan Leader, please give them to me."

"Alright."

The shaman took the animal-hide bundle and left.

Qiao Xixi walked out of the stone house with a heavy heart. ’Even in my old world, with its advanced medicine, finding the root cause of such birth defects was difficult,’ she thought. ’Let alone in a world with such limited medical knowledge.’

Standing outside the stone house, Qiao Xixi could clearly hear the sound of suppressed sobs coming from within.

"Ancient Flower has never been very fertile, so she was looking forward to this litter for a long time. To think this would be the result..." Gu Man said, coming up behind Qiao Xixi, her own heart just as heavy.

Qiao Xixi took Gu Man’s hand, comforting her softly. "You’ll all be alright. Perhaps this was just an accident."

Gu Man frowned, her gaze on Qiao Xixi filled with hesitation.

"What is it?"

Gu Man pulled Qiao Xixi farther away from the stone house. After glancing around and seeing that only Xijing was nearby, she lowered her voice. "It’s not that, Xixi."

"What do you mean?"

Gu Man’s voice dropped to a near-whisper. "This isn’t actually the first time. It’s just that this time, with Ancient Flower, the... strange cubs were actually born."

"I haven’t come to see you recently... It’s because I lost some cubs, too."

Qiao Xixi stared at her, stunned. "What exactly happened?"

Gu Man’s eyes immediately reddened. She was considered one of the more fertile females in the tribe, though she had taken her mates a bit later than most.

After she did, she gave birth to Tata before the Flame Season of the following year.

But Tata had been a large baby, and the birth had taken a toll on her body. The shaman told her she needed to rest and recover before trying for another child.

Her mates all doted on her and carefully looked after her health. It wasn’t until this year that she felt ready to have more cubs, and she got pregnant without any trouble.

"I got pregnant just before we reached the Black Panther Tribe. But not long after we settled in, something suddenly went wrong with the cubs in my womb."

"That day, I had just woken up as usual when a sharp pain shot through my abdomen. Before I could even react, I felt something... pass out of my body."

"There were four of them, already formed... but they were all gone. And the strange thing is, they looked a lot like... like the cubs from today..."

Qiao Xixi gently pulled her into a hug, feeling her silent grief.

After crying for a while, Gu Man gathered herself. "Xixi, it’s not just me. During this time, I’ve noticed several other females have had the same thing happen. But none of them have said a word about it."

After all, giving birth to... monsters... is not considered a good thing for a female.

"Okay. Tell me who they are, one by one. I’ll go and ask about their situations. Don’t be sad. I’ll find a way to get to the bottom of this."

Gu Man gave Qiao Xixi several names, and Qiao Xixi noted each one down.

Qiao Xixi comforted Gu Man for a little while longer before having her mate take her back to rest.

Qiao Xixi was silent on the way back to the inner city.

Xijing walked quietly beside her, keeping her company.

"Xijing, has anything like this ever happened among the merfolk?"

Xijing thought for a moment before replying, "Yes. At the time, we discovered the cause was a problem with the seawater in our domain."

"A problem with the seawater?"

"Yes. An ocean current brought poisoned water, which was toxic to the merfolk, into the waters where we lived. It caused health problems among our people. So, Xixi, if you want to find the cause, you could start by investigating the water source."

Qiao Xixi’s eyes lit up. She grabbed his hand. "Yes, you’re right. I can start by checking to see if there’s a problem with the water source."

Xijing squeezed her hand in return, the corners of his lips lifting in a happy smile.

"Should we go now?"

"Yes, let’s go now. It’s still early."

"Alright."

The Black Panther Tribe got nearly all of its drinking water from a stream not far from the village. It was a small creek that flowed down from the mountains, fed by a spring.

Qiao Xixi had previously found it inconvenient to have to go outside the tribe just to get drinking water, so she’d had them cut down a great deal of bamboo and use it to divert some of the spring water into the village.

This had neatly solved their drinking water problem.

Qiao Xixi and Xijing first went to the intake point for the spring water. Since the water was being diverted, they had built a very large stone cistern beneath it. Once the cistern was full, the water would overflow and run into the wasteland they had been clearing for farmland.

That way, no water was wasted.

Qiao Xixi walked to the edge of the cistern. Just as she was about to reach in to check the water, Xijing stopped her.