These strange beasts will be sung about by the bards...

Feeding area.

Iwata woke up in the early morning, walked out of the beastman dormitory built in the breeding area, and checked on the animals as usual.

She didn't notice the signal flare appearing in the sky, but she sensed danger for the clan from the muffled tolling of the bells. She immediately turned and ran back to the orc quarters to call the orcs living in the animal enclosure. She needed to lead them to the cub enclosure to take the clan's animals.

Lan said that the cub enclosure in the habitat is the best place for the entire clan to defend against enemy attacks.

As the orc in charge of the animal husbandry area, she had to find a way to move most of the clan's animals to a safe place to ensure that the clan could maintain its self-sufficiency in meat after the crisis.

Groups of animals were moved away by the animal hunters, and the once bustling animal enclosure gradually became deserted.

After arranging the last animals, Yan Dahe handed the fawn of the Hidden Feather Beast that had been following her to the beastman in front of her, and then patrolled the entire breeding area alone.

She hadn't seen Chaoxia in the dormitory; Chaoxia was probably with Xiaoqiu. However, she searched the entire animal enclosure but couldn't find Xiaoqiu or Chaoxia anywhere.

Strange, some orcs said they saw them before the bells tolled. None of the orcs who went to take refuge in the animal enclosure were with Dawn.

Where did that quiet and still sunrise go?

The thought that Asaka was just a cub that had been born for only one snow season made Iwata feel anxious.

In a flash, she remembered the earth beastman cub eggs in Lan's house and Chaoxia's kin, and immediately figured out where Lan Chaoxia had gone.

"Honestly, your fellow beastmen are also from Xia. The people in the residential area will definitely take good care of them in the nursery. Don't think of yourself as the only one who can protect them!"

A golden leopard charged out of the enclosure and headed straight for the living area, barking angrily.

Like all her kin who had experienced the wind beast attack, she had long ago etched the instinct to "protect the cubs" into her heart. Even though she could guess that her kin would protect Chaoxia when she saw her, she still dared not stop running, fearing that Chaoxia would encounter danger before she even met any other kin.

At this moment, accompanied by the big bird, Chaoxia ran towards Lan's residence with her short legs.

His health was poor, and he couldn't run fast. By the time he finally left the feeding area, most of the clan's orcs had already disappeared.

A group of orcs rushed to the first battlefield, the watchtower, where the signal flare first appeared. The other group went to the second battlefield to support Yan Duoyu and his men.

As dawn broke, he ran for a long time in the empty habitat with the big bird, and bumped into a ibex-man who said he would take him to the cub garden.

He looked up at the ram-beastman who often played the harp to lull him to sleep and said, "I'm going to Lan's place. Don't worry about me, Xiao Qiu will stay with me. Go help the cubs."

"Are you going to find your kind? Come, let me carry you and Little Chirp over." The argali beastman, Mian Shengsheng, squatted down and opened her arms to the cub and the large bird.

Holding a baby bird in one arm and a large bird in the other, Mian Sheng repeatedly got lost along the road that led to the residential area.

Seeing that he was about to take the wrong turn for the third time, Chaoxia had no choice but to pull him back and point to where Zelan and the others were, "The residential area is over there."

Mian Sheng was shocked and finally realized that she was getting lost again. She smiled sheepishly and said, "Then I'll have to ask Chaoxia for directions."

Lan would place road signs at every fork in the stone road. He rarely got lost by following the signs and had almost forgotten his terrible sense of direction. But unexpectedly, in order to save time and take a shortcut, he got lost again.

With the help of the cubs to guide them, Mian Sheng successfully entered the residential area.

The residential area was quiet. He couldn't hear any sounds, but he knew in his heart that everyone had either gone to the nursery or gone to the battlefield.

"Zhaoxia, are your clansmen still in Lan's house?" he asked.

He had been lost for too long with Morning Glow and Little Chick elsewhere, encountering other members of his tribe along the way. However, when he first went to find Arashi, he had met many members of his tribe. Gray Honey had asked him to check other areas for any cubs, which is how he happened to run into Morning Glow.

Asura sensed the location of her kind and nodded. "We are not food for beasts, so we are generally not harmed by wild animals. When we get to Lan, put me down and take Xiao Qiu to seek refuge."

He already knew from the sound of the cotton flute that the beast tide was coming.

“So there’s still a possibility of being harmed by wild animals, which is why you’re so worried. Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon. Lan specifically left your people in the house and didn’t let them take them away, it must be because your people are safe there,” Mian Sheng said reassuringly.

After he finished speaking, he vaguely felt he could hear the sound of birds and beasts flapping their wings through the air.

The faint sound gradually grew stronger and rapidly approached him.

Mian Sheng felt a chill run down his spine. His keen intuition made him rush to the right with the two little ones in his arms, not having time to listen to what Chaoxia had just said.

A clear voice, speaking in the language of Ze Lan, silenced the birds and beasts.

The bird or beast that flew in from the first battlefield veered off course, and its claws, which were originally meant to attack the argali beastman's head, landed in the wrong place, allowing Mian Shengsheng to survive under its claws.

The cotton shovel rolled several times on the ground, then, in pain, released the two little ones in its arms, its back bumping into a neatly piled-up junk next to the house.

He gasped for breath in pain, bracing himself on his arms as he trembled. His gaze fell on the red marks on the ground, and he belatedly realized that his back had been scratched by a bird or beast.

Chaoxia was speaking to the birds and beasts in a language he couldn't understand. He couldn't believe the birds and beasts that were constantly radiating murderous intent. He shifted his gaze to the cubs and birds and beasts talking, and struggled to move his body, preparing to escape with Chaoxia if the birds and beasts made any new moves.

Xiao Qiu didn't know why he had left Chao Xia behind. He didn't look in the direction Xiao Qiu had gone; his attention was entirely focused on Chao Xia.

"Can't we really let him go? He's the orc who protected me. You need food, can I trade other food for his life?"

Little Zelan pleaded with the birds and beasts she was meeting for the first time.

The bird hesitated. It had no memory of Zelan, but its rarely functioning brain told it that it didn't want to cause the creature before it any pain.

It was about to agree when its damned body, out of its control, aimed at the only living thing in its field of vision. It didn't even leave a word of warning to the Zelan it cared about.

The cotton flute rushed over, and the morning glow, which had become the target of birds and beasts, rolled twice more on the ground.

"Morning glow—"

Suddenly, a golden leopard appeared, knocking away birds and beasts, then spun around, grabbed Mian Shengsheng's collar, and threw her into the nearest house. It kicked open the wide-open wooden door with one paw, and Yan Dahe blocked it with his body.

The birds and beasts remembered that the orcs were inside the door, so they stiffly turned their heads and bent down to ram the fragile wooden door.

Unlike ordinary birds and beasts, it and its kind do not have soft feathers; their bodies are incredibly hard, and a single blow can make a wooden door creak as if it were about to shatter.

Yan Dahe swallowed the air she was about to exhale, and it stuck in her throat. She heard Chaoxia call her name and looked down.

"Let me out. There's something strange about it, but I'll handle it."

She remembered the scene of her barely saving Chaoxia, and sure enough, she shook her head.

“That beast is abnormal, too dangerous. I’ll deal with it.” As she spoke, she heard a loud crash from the door behind her, and a crack appeared in it. She was frightened, yet dared not move.

Are we really going to face birds and beasts? Birds and beasts that are more terrifying than normal wild animals.

Yan Dahe's body stiffened, his hair stood on end in a fit of irritation, but his brain noticed Mian Sheng's painful struggle to get up, and the tiny rosy dawn.

She recalled the scene of her clan chief's death, and the promise she made when she became a warrior's seed. Scenes from the past replayed in her mind, finally freezing on the day Lan came to find her.

I still want to be a warrior; I want to be an orc who can protect everyone.

I believe you can do it.

Yan Dahe slowly exhaled, then suddenly stood up, opened the door, and faced the terrifying birds and beasts.

She no longer wanted to lose any more members of her tribe.

The birds and beasts flapped their wings, creating a strong wind that forced the golden leopard to lower its body to protect itself.

The wind rushed into the watchtower.

Ah Bai gripped the telescope tightly to keep him and Lan from being blown away by the wind, daring not to let go despite the pain from the wound on the back of his hand.

“Maple Syrup and the others are very capable. They will definitely be able to find the weaknesses of the birds and beasts and kill them. Don’t worry, Lan.” He comforted Lan.

Jiang Yunlan blinked in response, but before she could say anything more, the swirling wind around her vanished completely. 022 transformed her body into a bowl, sheltering her and Ah Bai and blocking the wind blowing from both sides.

"Lan, are you alright? I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." 022 said worriedly, her voice unusually tinged with sadness.

It had only been away from Lan for a short while, so how could it have seen Lan being swept up by the whirlwind unleashed by the birds and beasts? If Ah Bai hadn't pulled Lan back in time, Lan would have died along with that fox-beastman.

It had clearly said it would protect Lan before Lan arrived on the battlefield.

Lan is still so young, yet she can walk with Xia Wenming for decades. Although it's only a blink of an eye, it still wants to accompany Lan through this blink of an eye.

"I'm not hurt, don't be sad, 022. Besides, you've been protecting me well, aren't you protecting me right now? Just now I asked you to tell the archers about the birds and beasts' weaknesses. So, don't apologize to me."

Jiang Yunlan sat up, glanced at the clean outside of the tower, and turned to 022, who had shrunk back into a circle, to reassure him: "The archers have learned the weaknesses of the birds and beasts and have already shot down all the birds and beasts surrounding the outside."

022 remained silent, flew back to Lan's shoulder, and gently patted her forehead with her round hand, "I will stay by your side to protect you until the beast tide ends."

She nodded, opened the shoulder bag that hadn't been blown away, took out the medicine powder and bandages and handed them to Ah Bai, then hurried back to the binoculars to observe the situation on the grassland.

The last wave of beasts were birds and beasts. After Hati and the others killed the wave before that, they could finally sit down and catch their breath. She had to warn them when the new beasts arrived at the watchtower.

"The beast tide here is really strange. Aren't they afraid when they see so many corpses of their own kind on the ground?" Jiang Yunlan couldn't understand.

Wild beasts also possess intelligence and know when to back down. However, the beasts that form a tide of beasts seem to be different; they show no fear even when they see their own kind being killed before their very eyes.

“They seem to have no emotions. Many wild animals only make a sound when they die. Is it really possible to go to such lengths just for food…” she frowned.

022 listened, recalling the previous waves of beasts that had charged in, and belatedly realized that things were just as Lan had described. The strange-looking beasts behaved very strangely, while the beasts that had appeared in the grasslands were more like ordinary ones, and they also knew fear, but in the very beginning, they had all been wiped out by explosive packs and arrows.

"It seems that the only way to deal with this beast tide is to kill all the wild beasts that appear." Jiang Yunlan said solemnly, and couldn't help but sigh.

I really hope the beast tide will pass quickly.