Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World

Chapter 141: Operation: Wake the Goddess

The savanna had never been so loud.

Xin Yi stood on a flat boulder in the center of camp, watching her chaos army prepare for deployment. It was magnificent. It was terrifying. It was definitely going to give her a migraine before lunchtime.

"Alright, let’s go over the battle plan!" she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Gou Sheng! Status report on the noisemakers!"

The hyena leader scrambled up beside her, his spotted chest puffed with pride. "Boss! We collected everything that makes sound!" He pointed with a trembling claw toward a massive pile of random objects. "Drums! Hollow logs! Bones to bang together! Some shells that whistle when you blow them! Er Gou found a hollow gourd filled with rocks!"

"It’s very shakey!" Er Gou demonstrated, rattling the gourd violently. "Shake shake shake!"

"Perfect," Xin Yi nodded. "Wan Ning! How’s the chant coming?"

The massive lioness stepped forward, looking deeply uncomfortable. She was holding a woven grass scroll covered in Xin Yi’s handwriting. "I still don’t understand why we have to say these words. ’Mán Shū, you lazy celestial potato, get your divine butt down here’—this feels disrespectful."

"It’s supposed to be disrespectful," Xin Yi explained. "She’s been napping while her world falls apart. She needs to know we’re angry."

"But she’s a goddess," Wan Ning argued, her yellow eyes wide. "She could smite us."

"She could also cure two dying beastmen and prevent a continent-wide plague." Xin Yi crossed her arms. "I’ll take my chances with the smiting."

\[Ding!\]

\[(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) Host’s Logic: Sound. Goddess’s Temperament: Unknown. Survival Odds: 50/50. System is fully supportive of this terrible idea.\]

Jin Xuan bounded over, practically vibrating with excitement. His massive golden mane was decorated with feathers and shells. "Tiny female! Look! I am the loudest lion now!" He shook his entire body, creating a cacophony of rattles and clanks.

"You look ridiculous," Hei Yan observed flatly, but his panther ears were twitching with interest.

"You look festive," Xin Yi corrected, patting Jin Xuan’s arm. "Festive and very, very loud. Exactly what we need."

Qing Lin slithered up, his human form pristine despite the chaos. His emerald eyes swept over the assembled army with clear disdain. "I cannot believe I am participating in... this."

"You’re participating because your mate asked you to," Xin Yi said sweetly.

"I am participating because if the world ends, I cannot protect you from the zombie hordes," Qing Lin corrected. "There is a difference."

"No, there isn’t."

"Yes, there is."

\[Ding!\]

\[(⁠¬⁠\_⁠¬⁠) Bickering Level: Domestic. Progress: Acceptable.\]

Sha Chen limped over, leaning heavily on his spear. His bandaged head made him look like a very handsome, very grumpy war veteran. "The prisoners are stable. For now. The red glow is getting brighter on the cheetah."

Xin Yi’s smile faded. "How much time?"

"Maybe a day less than your system said. He’s deteriorating faster."

The weight of those words settled over the group like a heavy blanket. The playful chaos dimmed, replaced by grim determination.

"Then we don’t have time to waste." Xin Yi climbed higher on the boulder, positioning herself where everyone could see her. "Alright, everyone! Form up! Lions on the left, hyenas on the right, Alphas in the back with the big drums! We’re going to make so much noise that Mán Shū has no choice but to wake up!"

The camp erupted into motion. Lions grabbed drums and bones. Hyenas shook their gourds and howled in preparation. Even the cubs joined in, Mao Mao and Qiu Qiu banging sticks against empty pots with enthusiastic abandon.

Xin Yi raised her glowing Bone of Discipline like a conductor’s baton.

"On my count! Three... two... one..."

She brought the bone down.

CHAOS.

The sound that erupted from the camp was indescribable. Drums pounded. Bones clacked. Gourds rattled. Hyenas howled. Lions roared. Cubs screamed at the top of their tiny lungs. It was a wall of noise so dense and so aggressive that Xin Yi could feel it vibrating in her chest.

And above it all, the chant rose up from a hundred throats:

"MÁN SHŪ! YOU LAZY CELESTIAL POTATO! GET YOUR DIVINE BUTT DOWN HERE!"

Xin Yi joined in, screaming the words at the sky with everything she had. "WE NEED A CURE! PEOPLE ARE DYING! YOUR WHOLE CREATION IS FALLING APART!"

"GET DOWN HERE!" the crowd roared.

"WE HAVE COOKED MEAT!" Jin Xuan added, because of course he did. "VERY TENDER! SEASONED PERFECTLY!"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THE MEAT!" Wan Ning yelled back, but she kept chanting.

Minutes passed. The noise didn’t stop. Xin Yi’s throat went raw, her voice cracking, but she kept screaming. Beside her, Hei Yan pounded a drum with his massive panther paws, his purple eyes fixed on the sky with fierce determination.

Qing Lin, despite his earlier protests, had shifted partially and was using his massive snake tail to bang a hollow log with terrifying precision. It was almost musical.

Sha Chen had given up on dignity entirely and was roaring along with the lions, his wolf howl cutting through the chaos like a silver blade.

"MÁN SHŪ!"

"GET DOWN HERE!"

"WE’RE NOT STOPPING!"

"EVER!"

The sky remained stubbornly, infuriatingly empty.

Xin Yi’s arms ached. Her voice was gone. Her ears were ringing. But she kept going, kept screaming, kept demanding attention from a goddess who clearly didn’t want to give it.

"Again!" she rasped, waving the bone. "Louder! She can’t ignore us forever!"

They screamed louder.

The hyenas collapsed from exhaustion first, Gou Sheng face-planting into the dirt but still shaking his gourd weakly. The cubs followed, their tiny voices giving out. One by one, the lions dropped, panting and hoarse.

Finally, only Xin Yi and the Alphas remained, screaming at a sky that showed no signs of responding.

"She’s not coming," Hei Yan panted, dropping his drumsticks.

"She has to," Xin Yi whispered, her voice barely audible. "She has to."

The red glow in the prison area pulsed brighter, a grim reminder of the ticking clock.

And then—

POOF.

A tiny, golden figure appeared directly in front of Xin Yi’s face, floating upside down with her arms crossed.

"WHAT?!" Mán Shū shrieked, her voice somehow piercing through the ringing in everyone’s ears. "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAD TO WAKE ME UP WITH THIS... THIS... NOISE POLLUTION?!"

Xin Yi stared at the tiny goddess, at her bedhead and her sleep-crusted eyes and her truly impressive scowl.

Then she grabbed Mán Shū by her tiny golden robes and pulled her close.

"You," Xin Yi hissed, "are going to fix this. Right now. Or I swear on everything I’ve built in this world, I will find a way to un-exist you."

Mán Shū blinked.

The Alphas collectively held their breath.

The tiny goddess looked at Xin Yi’s face, at the exhausted fury burning in her eyes, at the desperate hope underneath.

Then she looked toward the prison area, at the two corrupted beastmen glowing with sickly red light.

"Oh," Mán Shū said quietly, her playfulness vanishing. "Oh, that’s... that’s not good. That’s really not good."

"No kidding," Xin Yi snarled. "Now fix it."

Mán Shū floated out of her grip, her expression turning serious for the first time since Xin Yi had met her. She drifted toward Su Ye’s unconscious form, her golden light illuminating his corrupted features.

"This isn’t a normal corruption," she murmured. "This is... this is my brother’s work."

The words hit the camp like a thunderbolt.

\[Ding!\]

\[(⁠⊙⁠\_⁠⊙⁠) PLOT TWIST DETECTED!\]

\[Source of Corruption: Tiān Zhǔ, the Sky Lord. Mán Shū’s brother.\]

\[Threat Level: Upgraded from \’Apocalypse\’ to \’Divine War\’.\]

Xin Yi’s blood ran cold. "Your brother? The one who hates your creation?"

Mán Shū nodded slowly, her golden eyes fixed on the corrupted beastman. "He said he’d leave us alone. He promised. But this..." She reached out, her tiny hand hovering over Su Ye’s chest. "He’s poisoning them from the inside. Corrupting their cores. Turning my children into monsters."

She looked back at Xin Yi, and for the first time, the goddess looked scared.

"If we don’t stop this," Mán Shū whispered, "it won’t just be a few beastmen. It’ll be all of them. Everything I built. Everything you’re trying to save. It’ll all be gone."

The silence that followed was heavier than any sound they’d made all day.

Xin Yi looked at Su Ye. At Jin Ze. At the Alphas watching her with complete trust. At the hyenas and lions and cubs who had followed her into chaos without hesitation.

Then she looked back at the goddess.

"Then I guess," Xin Yi said quietly, "we’d better stop it."

Mán Shū stared at her. "You’d fight a god? For them?"

Xin Yi didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

\[Ding!\]

\[(⁠★⁠ω⁠★⁠) NEW MAIN QUEST UNLOCKED: Divine Intervention (The Sequel)!\]

\[Objective: Survive a war between gods. Protect the Beast World. Don’t die.\]

\[Reward: Everything.\]

\[Penalty: Nothing.\]

\[Good luck, Host. You’re going to need it.\]

Xin Yi gripped her Bone of Discipline, looked at her misfit family, and whispered, "Well. Time to pick a side in a divine sibling rivalry."