As long as a woman sleeps with a wolf, a werewolf will be born; as long as a man sleeps with a sheep, a ram-headed man will be born. Some of the Huihe people have even tried pioneering ideas like sleeping with eagles, fine horses, yaks, or snow leopards, to see if they could produce new, powerful offspring. They not only thought about it, but actually put it into practice... Every year, many people die because of this.

Although the above sounds absurd, the Huihe people take it seriously. In their tribal legends, the earliest Huihe ancestor was a woman who bore children for a wolf husband, and eventually multiplied into the powerful Huihe tribe.

So, every year, many Huihe women voluntarily walk into wolf packs, hoping to catch the eye of the wolf king...

Even the women are so adventurous—how could a tribe like this ever lack a spirit of adventure?

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Chapter 9: The Devil's Child

Because the Sai people are timid, they have always liked to camp near the Huihe royal tent. So, when there are external enemies, the Sai tribe feels very secure. But if there is a traitor within, the Sai people are doomed.

Charles Bennett is one of the few clever people in this tribe. In the face of such a great upheaval, he still knew to come and give a hint. It seems he truly loves Sarah Miller and Emily Clark.

This was also the first time Ethan Brooks discovered among the Huihe tribe that there are men who value the life and death of women more than their own.

You have to know, once Bi Suteqin finds out he leaked his plan, his end will be extremely miserable—beheading would be the lightest punishment.

Because Charles Bennett's life was at stake, Ethan Brooks had to be extremely careful. After preparing all the tools for catching marmots, he took the overjoyed Emily Clark and the helpless-looking Sarah Miller to Grasshopper Lake.

From start to finish, he never told Sarah Miller why he brought her and her daughter to Grasshopper Lake at a time that wasn't suitable for catching marmots.

Before dark, the three of them arrived at Grasshopper Lake. It was only a little over a thousand meters from the tribal camp, and the terrain was higher. If anything really happened tonight, the three of them should be able to see it.

When Sarah Miller saw that Ethan Brooks wasn't setting up the rope nets for catching marmots, but instead started building a simple shelter by the rocks, she knew something was off.

She wanted to ask Ethan Brooks, but remembering that Ethan Brooks was the head of the household, she closed her mouth and went with Emily Clark to gather dry branches nearby to use for the fire that night.

The spot Ethan Brooks chose to build the shelter was excellent—between three huge rocks. As long as some branches were added on top, the firelight would be well concealed.

After building the shelter, Ethan Brooks took a wooden fork and went to the lakeside.

The Huihe people don't eat fish!

It's not because of any taboo—they simply don't know how to prepare fish!

There are lots and lots of fish in Grasshopper Lake, and they're not afraid of people at all. So, Ethan Brooks easily caught five or six fish with the wooden fork.

The lake water here is quite cold, and it is home to a kind of cold-water flat-mouthed fish that can easily grow to fifty or sixty jin. In Grasshopper Lake, the big fish are very fierce and like to eat the small fish, so the small fish hide in the shallows to avoid them, which just benefits Ethan Brooks, Sarah Miller, and Emily Clark.

The three of them are probably the only ones in the entire Huihe tribe who know how to eat fish and how to cook this kind of fish.

Emily Clark is so young, yet so chubby, and it has a lot to do with eating this fish.

The flat-mouthed fish is a fine-scaled fish from alpine cold-water lakes. You cut a slit with a knife, remove the guts and gills, then grab the fish skin and pull hard to strip off the whole skin. Find a stick to skewer it, sprinkle some salt, and set it aside to marinate.

An old wolf with mottled fur, after patrolling the lakeside for a while, naturally came to lie down by their campfire, watching the busy Ethan Brooks with its yellow-brown eyes, just like an old dog.

"Old King!" Emily Clark cheered and rushed to the old wolf, riding her plump body on its back, grabbing its ears and rump, bouncing as if riding a horse.

The old wolf opened its mouth wide, pretending to bite Emily Clark, but she wasn't afraid at all, even sticking her hand into the wolf's mouth to grab its tongue.

Sarah Miller wasn't worried at all, busy laying sheepskins in the little shelter, and Ethan Brooks paid no attention to the girl and the wolf, focusing on skinning the fish.

If it weren't for Ethan Brooks finding herding sheep too lonely and boring, this old lone wolf, driven out by its pack, would have died long ago.

It was precisely because of this old wolf that Ethan Brooks brought Sarah Miller and Emily Clark away from the tribal camp to camp by Grasshopper Lake at night.

Ethan Brooks has quite a few good friends in the Tianshan Mountains, but all these friends are wild animals. There's nothing he can do about it—the longer he spends with the Huihe people, the more he prefers wild animal friends.

He has marmot friends, wolf friends, sheep friends, and even an old horse friend who can barely walk anymore—just not a single Huihe friend.

After eating the fish skin with scales, the old wolf set its eyes on the sizzling grilled fish over the campfire.

Flat-mouthed fish have a lot of bones. Ethan Brooks kept deboning fish for Emily Clark, who ate with great relish and greed, while Sarah Miller seemed to have little appetite, nibbling at her fish absentmindedly.

"Charles Bennett probably won't get into trouble."