Chapter 66
Dora looked down at her hands.
They were smeared with foul, pus-streaked blood.
Her mates stared in horror. The swollen bumps on Dora’s face had grown larger, and now that she had scratched them open, her skin was covered in raised wounds and oozing sores. Her once delicate features were distorted, streaked with blood and torn flesh. She looked terrifying.
Instinctively, they stepped back.
“Ahhh p>
Dora screamed and rushed outside to the water vat.
She leaned over it and saw her reflection—her face clawed raw and ruined.
“My face… my face! How did this happen? How did this happen p>
She stumbled backward in panic, tripped over a stone, and fell hard onto the ground.
Sitting there, she stared ahead, eyes wide with fear and emptiness.
The itching had started long ago. At first, she thought it was just mosquito bites. The shaman had examined her and come to the same conclusion. No one had expected that a single scratch today would cause everything to fester and rot so grotesquely.
One of her mates sighed. “Let’s ask the shaman to come again. And… have him check the eagle chick too p>
When the shaman arrived, he frowned deeply after examining Dora.
“I can’t determine the exact cause,” he said slowly. “But it may be a lingering effect of the poison from before p>
Then he turned to the tiny eagle chick and sighed heavily.
“This chick was likely affected by that same poison during development. The toxin has permeated his body. It’s not immediately fatal, but I cannot remove it. And the deformities… those cannot be reversed p>
A pitiful little life.
Dora’s mates lowered their heads in disappointment.
One of them let out a cold, humorless laugh under his breath.
So it really was the Devour-Flesh Fruit.
“We should take the chick to Jao,” one of the mates said. “He is the father, after all p>
The others nodded in agreement.
When Jao saw the eagle chick, grief flooded his eyes.
“This… is my child?” His voice trembled. “Why has he become like this p>
“Dora was poisoned before,” one of the males explained quietly. “The shaman believes it affected the pregnancy p>
Jao stared at the frail, misshapen chick whose breathing was faint and uneven. His heart felt like it was being carved apart.
Tears slid down his face.
“Beast God… is this my punishment?” he choked. “But why punish my child? What did he do wrong p>
The Black-Claw Eagle tribe struggled to reproduce. By Jao’s generation, their numbers had dwindled dangerously. He had longed for a child of his own.
And now he had one.
But p>
An eagle without full wings and claws—could he even be called an eagle? How would he survive? Even if he lived, would life not be worse than death?
It was all his fault. He had angered the Beast God, and this was the price.
Jao raised tear-filled eyes toward the statue of the Beast God and knelt.
“I know I was wrong. I truly know I was wrong. Please… please save my child. I will pay any price p>
Beside him, Shin also bowed his head, guilt gnawing at his heart.
They had dragged an innocent chick into their sins.
The male who had brought the chick could only sigh helplessly before taking the baby back.
Jao watched the tiny figure leave, eyes filled with remorse and sorrow.
That evening, Dora’s mates realized the eagle chick was missing and hurried out to search for him.
At the same time, Leah and the others came to visit Nina.
Nina stepped outside holding Yinny in her arms.
“Wow! Nina, your baby hatched!” Bibi exclaimed excitedly. “He’s such a cute little white tiger! Can I hold him p>
“Of course,” Nina said with a smile. “His nickname is Yinny. He hatched today p>
She gently placed Yinny in Bibi’s arms.
“So tiny… so adorable!” Leah leaned in, eyes shining. “I want to hold him too p>
Minnie carefully stroked Yinny’s soft fur. “A white tiger! I thought he’d be a white cat p>
“I thought he’d be Mino’s cub,” Leah laughed.
Nina only smiled, saying nothing.
That was not something she could easily explain.
As they were cooing over Yinny, they suddenly noticed a small, unsteady figure outside the courtyard.
Nina looked up—and froze.
It was a newborn eagle chick.
She hurried over and carefully scooped him up.
Leah and the others followed.
“Whose baby is this?” Nina frowned. “Why would anyone leave a newborn outside p>
Looking closely, she noticed the purple-red blotches and incomplete wings.
This looked like poisoning.
She quietly asked Little Bun to scan the chick.
[Host, the spots are from poison. The deformities are also caused by toxic interference during development. The poison can be removed, but the physical damage cannot be repaired p>
Nina immediately bought a detox pill and gently fed it to the chick.
“I hope this can ease your suffering a little,” she whispered.
Since becoming a mother, she could no longer bear to see a child suffer.
At that moment, Dora’s searching mates arrived. Seeing Nina holding the chick, their expressions darkened.
“Nina, what did you feed him p>
They took the chick from her arms.
“Even if Dora offended you before, the child is innocent p>
“He was poisoned,” Nina said calmly. “I gave him medicine to detoxify p>
Only then did she realize—this was Dora’s child.
The males exchanged uncertain looks. The chick appeared stable, so they said nothing further and carried him back.
Inside Dora’s stone house, one of the males confronted her.
“Dora… did you throw the chick away p>
Jao, recently released by the shaman, had just approached the house and stopped outside when he heard the question.
He did not step in.
“Yes,” Dora replied coldly. “So what? An ugly, weak cripple like that doesn’t deserve to be my child. Better he die p>
Her voice was filled with disgust.
“How can you be so heartless?” one of the males shouted. “He is yours and Jao’s child! Even if he’s disabled, we can still raise him p>
“Heartless?” Dora sneered. “I didn’t strangle him myself. I only threw him away. That was mercy p>
She showed not a shred of remorse.
“You’ve gone too far!” another male roared. “Why is the chick like this? Do you really not know p>
“If you hadn’t deliberately eaten the Devour-Flesh Fruit twice that day, he would never have been poisoned! He wouldn’t be disabled p>
The room fell into stunned silence.
The other males stared at Dora in disbelief.
Outside, Jao’s face drained of color.
The world seemed to freeze around him.
He gave a hollow laugh.
So this was the truth.
His expression twisted in anguish and fury.
It was Dora.
It had been Dora all along.