The wild beasts of the grasslands have dwindled, a fact that will be sung about by wandering bards...

After discussing with Cangmu Yuya the items to be exchanged with the Qunshan Beastman Clan, Jiang Yunlan handed the wooden cart to the clansmen, instructing them to organize and store the contents before putting the items intended for the Qunshan Beastman Clan into the cart.

Long wanted to see Zhe Lan, and seeing that Lan and Cangmu Yuya had finished their business, he asked, "Lan is done with her work, can I go see Zhe Lan now?"

The strong emotions reached Jiang Yunlan's ears. She looked at the dragon, who had been obediently following the winged beastmen and had never fallen behind even when he was curious about other things, and smiled reassuringly, "Greysien, wait for me at the Shafa Stone in the residential area. I'll go ask Zelan now."

Greysien nodded. He could guess that Zeran didn't want too many orcs to know they were Zeran, so he refused all the winged orcs' company and followed a wolf orc who could read the language of the mountain range to the foot of the Shafa stele.

He looked up at the unreadable characters on the stone tablet, staring at them for a long time.

“If only our people had a written language,” he suddenly said. If they had a written language, he might be able to see the messages left behind by his people.

Dragons don't need language. They can understand what their kind wants to convey simply by hearing their roars. The sky, naturally, also doesn't like to use language, always telling them its thoughts through a gust of wind.

Dragons learned "language" initially to communicate with orcs.

Unlike Zelan, their clan was unable to sense the existence of their own kind, relying instead on returning to the dragon's habitat to maintain contact. But his mother told him that Dragon Island had vanished.

The dragon was unable to find its lost kin.

Greysien felt a little lonely after Mother returned to the embrace of the sky.

“Graceion”.

A gentle voice called to him, and he turned around abruptly to see Lan, who was the same height as him, leading little Zhelan towards him.

Lan and Chaoxia walked with very small steps, and Xiaojiu accommodated the two little ones, walking with its wings folded like a trotting chicken, making a "clattering" sound.

“There are some empty orc dorm rooms in the residential area. Let’s go inside and talk. There are very few orcs in the dorms at this time, so we won’t be disturbed,” Jiang Yunlan said, exchanging glances with Greysien.

Her room would have been a better place for the two of them to talk. However, the former Morning Glow said she couldn't get too close to the hatchlings, so she had to find another spot.

Gracie and Dawn had no objections and followed in her footsteps. As for Little Chirp, the big bird walking on the ground, it had no choice but to follow along, as it was worried about Dawn.

Jiang Yunlan chose the quietest empty dormitory in the area, a dormitory specifically for carnivorous beastmen.

The orcs' dormitories are single rooms with individual beds. Each room is furnished the same way: a bed and a set of desk and chair. The desk and chair are placed in front of the glass window, and the door is next to the desk.

Upon opening the door, one sees a bed large enough to sleep a wolf-beastman or a leopard-beastman. There is no private bathroom in the room; the beastmen bathe in a communal, individual shower room.

Jiang Yunlan watched as Zhelan and Long entered the house, then pushed the large bird that was standing still, curiously looking left and right, into the house. She then went into the house herself and closed the door behind her.

"The curtains are drawn, so feel free to say what you want to say," she said, sitting down on the clean floor.

Chaoxia sat down close to Lan, and a small bird nestled beside him on his right. He couldn't understand the language of the mountains, so he asked Lan and Nature022 to relay messages between him and Gracie.

Seeing their casual movements, Grasien plopped down on the ground as well. He flicked his tail behind him, stretched out his legs, looked at Zeran, who was clearly a newborn, and said in the language of the mountains, "Are you... also alone on the grasslands?"

Jiang Yunlan learned the mountainous orc language from 022, but she wasn't as proficient as 022. 022 translated many of the sentences for the two little ones.

“I still have the unborn Zelan with me,” Zhaoxia said, looking at the dragon she had seen in her kin’s memories, her guard almost completely gone. “I originally had other kin who had already been born. But Aliya and the others went to find their suffering kin.”

“You are much weaker than before. I can barely sense the natural power within you. What happened to you?” Greysien asked with a frown and concern.

Dragons have a much longer lifespan than orcs; he was old enough for an orc cub to grow to adulthood. He should be a reliable elder to the newborn Zeran.

Chaoxia slightly raised her long ears that drooped to her shoulders and said nonchalantly, "I've just returned the power to the forest and the earth."

"Our clan doesn't have much power left, but we hope that nature will reappear from its dwelling place, and that we will frequently transfer our power to the dwelling place left by nature..."

As he spoke, it was as if many shadows of Zelan appeared on his body, as if he were talking to the dragon he hadn't seen in a long time on behalf of the Zelan of the past.

Only after hearing his explanation did Jiang Yunlan belatedly realize why the natural power within the fragments was so concentrated.

Fragments of the forest and fragments of the earth. Items so important to Zeran that they shouldn't have been given as a thank-you gift, yet Alia made no mention of them when she gave them to her.

Has Zelan given up on the idea that it would naturally appear from its dwelling place?

“We know that the two natures that voluntarily sacrificed themselves have no chance of being resurrected, and no new natures will appear in those two places. It’s just that in the past we were unwilling to give up, and only recently have we finally accepted the departure of natures.”

As Long listened to Ze Lan's words, which contained no negative emotions, his heart could feel Ze Lan's sadness.

When the sky naturally disappeared, it took the dragon a very, very long time to accept the fact that it would never see the sky again.

“Your health isn’t very good,” Gracie said in a low voice.

"Everyone's health isn't very good," Chaoxia replied.

Jiang Yunlan helped translate, her ears perked up, almost touching. It was the first time she'd heard that Chaoxia and Zhelan were unwell; what was going on?

Greysien didn't ask, because there was no need to. Guardians lacking energy are naturally prone to physical decline.

“I’ll share my food with you. Do you want to come with me to the mountains, or do you want to stay with the Xia clan?” he asked.

Zhaoxia didn't agree to go to the mountains with him, but he didn't mind, saying that he would bring energy stones next time he came to the Xia clan.

The winged beastmen didn't stay long in Xia's habitat; after only a few days, they came to say goodbye to Lan. Jiang Yunlan was surprised that they left so quickly this time.

Seeing her reaction, Cangmu Yuya explained, "We need to hand over the supplies to the other orc clans in the mountains when we get back, so we need to go back as soon as possible."

“It’s a pity. The summer harvest and planting have just ended these past few days. 022 and I were originally planning to take the tribesmen to build the waterwheel in ten days. It seems we can only take you to see it next time you come,” she said.

Upon learning from Lan that the waterwheel was used to irrigate farmland, Aoki Yuya was once again amazed.

“Lan truly lives up to his reputation as a wise man; he can even create something like that,” he remarked sincerely. “Next time we meet, take me to see it. During the Flower Cultivation period, I will bring Greysien to Summer.”

The winged beastmen pushed the wooden cart and walked away happily.

With Greysien by their side this time, they no longer had to fear encountering packs of beasts along the way, because Greysien would defeat them.

Thinking this way, on their return to the mountains, they unexpectedly encountered no wild animals. They had clearly encountered wild animals on their way there, but on their way back, they hadn't seen a single one.

The winged beastmen found it strange, as did Hati and Yanduoyu, who took turns leading their people to deal with the wild beasts.

This fruit season, why are there fewer and fewer wild animals being killed?

The orcs of Xia were somewhat bewildered, while the sheep-orcs of the grasslands were overjoyed. They assumed the wild beasts had left the grasslands and cheered with delight.

When Lingxiao returned to her clan that day, she heard her clansmen, who had just finished hunting, happily tell her that there were fewer wild animals on the grassland.

"It must have been the Xia beastmen who drove them away. That's great! We don't have to go through the beast tide anymore!" Her people were excited, their voices rising.

Seeing her people's smiles, she couldn't help but smile back, but a sudden unease welled up inside her.

Her sense of crisis was frantically telling her: Run! Run now! It will be too late if you don't run!

The happier her people were, the more restless Lingxiaocao became. She didn't know what she was uneasy about, but she decided to trust her intuition and, without further ado, told all her people to take the items from their habitat. Even if they couldn't take everything, they had to get to the Xia clan today.

Only when she thought of Xia could her heart find some peace.

The beastmen, including Lingyuan, were stunned, thinking: Has the clan leader finally come to his senses and is willing to lead us to join the Xia clan?

They were secretly delighted, took the best things from their tribe, and quickly followed the tribesman, whose expression was inexplicably solemn, to Xia's habitat.

The grassland sheep-beastmen arrived in Xia's time very quickly, entering Xia's habitat under the cover of night.

Jiang Yunlan was shocked by the fact that their entire tribe had fled to Xia overnight. Completely bewildered, she hurriedly went to see Ling Xiaocao, who was said to look unwell, worried that something major had happened on the grassland.

“Nothing happened,” Xia Lingcao said, her expression calming down as she arrived in the summer. “It’s precisely because nothing has happened, and it’s so rare to even encounter wild animals, that I feel even more uneasy.”

Jiang Yunlan understood her worries and calmly stated, "I feel the same way you do. It's like a beast tide is about to arrive."

Like the calm before a storm.

On the first day of summer, the grassland sheep and herdsmen lived in peace and stillness.

On the second day of summer, the grassland sheep and herdsmen lived in calm and windless conditions.

On the fifth day of summer, the grassland sheep-herds lived in calm, windless weather. Hunting parties discovered tracks of wild animals; everything was just as it had been the previous harvest season.

The tense beastmen were puzzled, and Jiang Yunlan also began to wonder if her feeling that the beast tide was coming was just her imagination.

That's perfectly normal, everything is as usual.

"Lan, the harvested food for this season has been counted. It's been a bumper harvest this time too." Maple Syrup suddenly appeared and said with a smile to Jiang Yunlan, who was sitting at the table in a daze.

Upon hearing this, she blinked and came back to her senses, staring at the maple syrup in front of her. Then she hesitated and looked at 022, "This fruit season, should we have a bonfire party like last time?"

The orcs have been on edge lately, and so has she.

The last time the grasslands experienced a beast tide was during the snow season. There's still a long time until then, and the beastmen can't possibly wait anxiously until the snow season arrives, and then anxiously wait for it to end. It's too exhausting; they'll deplete their energy before the beast tide even arrives.

Jiang Yunlan had figured it out. The beastmen shouldn't be so stressed; constantly worrying about things that might not even happen is not a good thing.

She immediately changed her mind: "This campfire gathering must be held, it absolutely must be held. We'll try to calm everyone down and get back to normal, but we'll have to increase the number of orcs patrolling and on guard."

"A balance of tension and relaxation is always better than maintaining the current state indefinitely," 022 said. It strongly agreed with Lan's idea.

Maple Syrup was even less likely to object. She had always been a supporter of Arashi, and when she heard that Arashi wanted to hold a bonfire party, she made the arrangements.

Prepare today and tomorrow, and hold a bonfire party the day after tomorrow.

The orcs were taken aback at first upon hearing the news, but then they became excited and began discussing loudly how to hold a lively gathering.

They've been suppressing their emotions too much lately, barely even going to the shops, spending their days pondering the methods Lan had mentioned for dealing with wild beasts. As for gunpowder, the clan has already used up all the raw materials.

"Lan said the gathering will be held in the clan's square. They'll even hang lanterns up there!" a fox-beastman said expectantly.

"Lanterns? Those beautiful paper lanterns the clan just released? That's wonderful, they're so pretty. I feel like they'd be perfect for performing a story at a party." A half-grown rock squirrel beastman pondered what kind of story he should tell the stage crew this time.

The future bard, the ram-orc, smiled gently: "Then I'll play songs at the party."

The wolf-orc who had once told stories of the wise clan on the "stage" felt a little regretful as she listened to her people's discussion. She could only attend half of the gathering.

"I have to go on patrol for the second half of the party. I probably won't be able to see your performance or hear your songs," she said regretfully.

Iwahana patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her, revealing her teeth: "Warriors are there to protect everyone. We are warriors, and we should protect everyone in this important moment."

She nodded in agreement, patting her chest and saying, "Don't worry. When that time comes, even if wild animals come, I will protect you!"

"Then shall we make some new tables and chairs to ensure everyone has a seat?" The horse-orc, skilled in carpentry, chimed in a bit late.

Upon hearing this, the sheep and beastmen of the grassland, who had not left since arriving in summer, suddenly realized that they seemed to have nothing to do.

They paused for a moment, scratched their heads, and managed to say, "How about we grassland sheep-orcs help you? We're very good at acting, and we're also learning carpentry and stuff."

The orcs chattered away, and in less than half a day they had told everyone what they wanted to eat and what activities they wanted to participate in at the gathering.

As Jiang Yunlan walked out of the central building, she bumped into the beastmen who had been waiting for her to get off work. She heard the beastmen ask her this question.

"What's Lan's favorite food? We'll cook your favorite dishes for this bonfire party!"

She blinked, trying hard to recall her favorite foods, and hesitated before speaking, "Rice, bamboo shoot stew with chrysanthemum leaves, and for meat, the meat of stone tree beasts and sea beasts... um, and white sauce."

These are the only foods she currently enjoys from her clan.

The beastmen noted it down and then asked her what kind of program she wanted to watch.

"Anything is fine with me, as long as you like it. Seeing you happy makes me happy too," she said, flashing a bright smile.

Perhaps because she had spent so much time with the beastmen, she seemed to be more honest than before and more willing to share her thoughts with them.

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Author's note: Little angels, don't worry, I guarantee that everything will be peaceful before and on the day of the party, and there will absolutely be no sudden appearance of a beast tide.

*This is the Beast World Encyclopedia

Medium-sized animal: Stone Tree Beast

Appearance time: Chapter 23

Appearance: The body and limbs are like stone, the neck is like a tree trunk, the head is like a fleshy tree crown, and the limbs are composed of two ovals and a circle that look like stone.

Edible: Yes

Taste description: The neck of the Stone Tree Beast resembles dried hardwood and isn't very tasty. However, the red meat inside the stone shell is quite delicious, though there's not much of it. But paired with the juicy, succulent-like crown, it's exceptionally delicious.