At the edge of the forest lies the clan of Lan.
“You are our clan leader.”
The beastmen spoke calmly, as if stating the truth, their expressions serious and their faces full of self-righteousness.
Jiang Yunlan couldn't help but pause, and subconsciously looked away from Maple Sugar and the others.
I can give, I can love anything in the world, but I will never expect a corresponding response in return for what I give. This is something Jiang Yunlan has come to understand through her long journey of growth.
Because as long as you don't expect a response, you won't be disappointed.
She had always thought she was doing a good job, until now, when she realized she hadn't left the orcs any choice. She hadn't even once asked them if they wanted to embark on this dangerous journey with her.
She finally realized that she was afraid of becoming an option, afraid of her expectations being dashed, so she didn't give the orcs a chance to choose her. Just like back on Earth, she didn't leave anyone a chance to get close to her, which is why she became "a gentle but unapproachable person".
"..."
Jiang Yunlan forced herself to look at Maple Syrup and the other orcs, and opened her mouth: "..."
She still couldn't bring herself to say the apology stuck in her throat.
"I understand," she said to herself silently. She must leave the choice to the beastmen, and not choose the option that would mean giving up her own out of fear.
Believe that you are worthy of being chosen.
"It's noon, let's have lunch first," Jiang Yunlan said to the beastmen with a smile, her eyes crinkling.
They looked thinner than before, and there were several new wounds on their exposed skin, indicating they must have gone through a lot of danger to find this place.
Feng Hong grinned and carefully put Lan down. During her search for Lan, she had to constantly check if the tribe had enough food; she hadn't had a proper meal in a long time. It was much better to be with Lan. With Lan around, she didn't have to worry about food at all, because Lan would find ways to find new food.
Several orcs led Jiang Yunlan back to the wooden cart, waiting for her to take out food from the cart and distribute it to them.
The leopard and squirrel orcs watching from the sidelines saw their softened expressions and knew there was no need to fight. They amicably gave up a corner of the fire so that the maple and other orcs could come and cook.
Rock received the food and turned around to see his kin standing behind him.
Yan Duoyu stretched out his arm, pressed down on his neck, and led him to sit down by the fire. He asked him what had happened after he got separated from Yan Lin and the clan, and also secretly inquired about Lan's clan. It was easy to get angry talking to Yan Lin, who had a sharp tongue, so it was more comfortable to ask Yan Shi.
Over by the fire, the leopard beastmen whispered amongst themselves, while the squirrel beastmen eavesdropped.
Over at the wooden cart, Jiang Yunlan finished getting food for Maple Sugar and the others, then peered inside, clinging to the edge of the cart. Autumn Fruit sat inside, and Green Robe lay down as well. But the other two elderly deer-beastmen were gone.
"Where did Green Green and Green Mountain go?" Jiang Yunlan turned to look at Maple Syrup. She had a guess in her heart and was waiting for Maple Syrup to give a specific answer.
“They died, like flowers falling into the forest soil.” Maple Syrup raised her cane and tapped the ground beneath her feet.
The woman in green, whose head was being held by Qiu Guo, vaguely heard Lan's voice and slowly opened her orange eyes. She was sleeping for longer and longer periods. She knew she would soon return to nature's embrace, just like Lü Qing and Lü Shan.
Green struggled to move her arm, glancing sideways at the beast tooth, stone, and flower-like leaf she held in her hand.
She called out Lan's name, her voice weak: "Lan."
Jiang Yunlan heard her call clearly and quickly turned her head to meet her gaze. She saw the woman in green raise the three items she was holding in her hands, and then reach out to take the items that the woman in green was about to hand to her.
"These are for Lan," said the woman in green.
These are the only items they preserved: fallen leaves from the homeland of the Deerbeastmen, stones found in the Deerbeastman clan's cave, and beast teeth obtained from defeating wild beasts.
They're leaving; their favorite items are for their beloved Arashi.
Jiang Yunlan steadily accepted the three items given to her by the woman in green. The woman in green looked at her quietly for a while before saying, "Lan, take them to your new habitat."
“Okay.” Her expression was gentle, but her words were clearly serious. She would take them to a new habitat, just as she would take them to a new habitat.
Green-clothed blinked with relief, then turned to look up at the lush green forest and the azure sky.
She gazed at the sky from the car for a long time, until the sky receded and the forest receded into the distance, still unwilling to close her eyes. A new habitat? She longed to see it. The habitat Lan had found must be even more beautiful than the forest and that mangrove forest.
"Gulp, gulp."
The wheels kept turning, moving forward without stopping.
Maple Syrup, who was walking with a cane, took out a few small fruits and handed them to Jiang Yunlan, who was sitting on the back of the leopard beastman. "Lan, eat this."
Seeing that it was something from Maple Syrup, Lan took a bite without hesitation.
"It's so salty!" She frowned at the saltiness, but quickly relaxed her brows and smiled with delight.
These fruits can be used to extract salt, so she won't have to drink animal blood to survive anymore. She still hasn't gotten used to drinking animal blood. She quite likes chicken blood soup, but she just can't get used to drinking blood directly.
Seeing that she had taken the salted fruit away, Maple Syrup's eyes showed disapproval, and she said in a serious tone, "Lan, you must eat this."
Lan needs to eat enough salted fruit during the flowering season, otherwise she will get sick.
"I'll cook it in a pot tonight and then eat it." She didn't want to experience swallowing salt raw again, so she decided to put the salted fruit in her bag and pretend she didn't know the maple syrup was meant for her to eat now.
Listening to Lan and Maple Sugar's conversation, the woman in green on the bus suddenly felt at ease. She smiled and closed her eyes.
She had already seen the clan of the future. It was a clan of orcs of different races. Lan would lead them onward, just as they had in the cave, just as they had now.
A clan of orcs of different races passed through the forest, leaving behind a small mound of earth with branches sticking out.
Jiang Yunlan stepped out of the forest, facing the light shining from ahead, and looked up. A sudden burst of blue caught her eye.
The azure sky met the sea, stretching from the horizon to her. She heard the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs, like the pounding of her heart.
"The forest ends at the sea," Jiang Yunlan said, her eyes reflecting the shimmering ocean as she smiled broadly.
The beastmen, who had never seen the ocean before, stood in a row and exclaimed in amazement at the endless blue sea: "Wow! It's such a huge river!"
Hearing their exclamations, Jiang Yunlan laughed even harder. She raised her hand and waved it towards the sea, turning to look at the beastmen and saying, "This is the sea, the ocean."
They didn't know the difference between the sea and the river, but they still remembered what Lan had said very carefully.
Lan isn't good at beastman language and often speaks Chinese. But that's okay, they'll learn all of Chinese.
After teaching the beastmen the pronunciation and spelling of "sea," Jiang Yunlan once again turned her gaze to the ocean. She and the beastmen hadn't found many salt fruits in the forest, making salt extraction difficult. She had been worried about this for a long time, fearing that the beastmen would lack salt.
Now that the ocean has been discovered, the salt problem can finally be solved.
But how could they obtain the seawater from below the cliff? Jiang Yunlan carefully approached the edge of the cliff and looked down.
The height she reached from the sea surface seemed to be the same as the height from the cave halfway up the mountain to the foot of the mountain—a height from which she wouldn't die if she jumped. But if she were to jump, she would have to be careful not to hit the sharp rocks on the shore.
"Forget it, it's too dangerous to go down here with a rope. There's no way to estimate the depth of the seawater." She readily gave up on getting seawater from here.
022 heard her sigh and glanced at the sea. It could detect the depth of the water; all it had to do was go out into the sea.
A fleeting thought made it pause. It suddenly realized that it no longer wanted to be a bystander recording this civilization. It wanted to be like the beastmen, accompanying Lan in building this new civilization.
During the silent period, Jiang Yunlan looked around. She noticed that the mountain to her right was becoming gentler, and perhaps she could find a suitable place to go into the sea if she went to the right.
"Let's go, let's go to the right." She led the beastmen toward the forest on the right, but after walking a distance, they saw 022 hovering in mid-air, staring at the sea without moving.
Jiang Yunlan looked puzzled, turned back to the transparent slime, and asked, "022, what are you looking at?"
022 suddenly snapped out of her daze, turned around and looked at Xiao Lan, "I was thinking, I can actually tell you the depth of the sea."
"But this is something that can't be said, so you don't need to tell me." If it were something that could be told to her, it would have said it long ago and wouldn't have hesitated until now.
022 smiled, a rare occurrence, her round eyes curving into an arch: "Yes, as the recorder, I cannot say. So, Lan, I must leave this planet for a while. You and the beastmen go to find a habitat, and I will come back to find you."
"I'll wait for you to come back, 022."
At the boundary between the forest and the sea, a human and a magical creature who came from afar to the beast world solemnly bid farewell, promising to meet again next time.
Under the watchful eyes of the transparent slime, the tiny squirrel-like beastman led the beastmen along the edge of the forest, always maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far from the cliff, gradually turning into a black dot.
The transparent T-shaped slime disappeared above the sea, leaving the primordial beast world planet.
On another day of travel, Jiang Yunlan had not yet found the way to the coast when she encountered a new orc.
They had no horns on their foreheads, no furry ears on their heads, and no tails of varying lengths. Jiang Yunlan almost thought she had encountered humans when she saw the curls on their foreheads suddenly stand up and point in her direction.
It turns out that the curled strands of hair were their antennae.
"Huh? Squirrel beastman cubs. And leopard beastmen, sheep beastmen, lemming beastmen, rabbit beastmen, and deer beastmen. So many beastmen." The beastman with pink eyes and red hair stammered, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Behind her, orcs of various appearances peeked out, looking in amazement at this clan of orcs of different races, and began to chatter amongst themselves.
“There are familiar deer-beastmen! I’ve seen their chieftain before. The deer-beastman chieftain exchanged herbal recipes with us last flowering season.”
"Speaking of which, didn't we pass by the sheep-orc clan before? How come there are only sheep-orcs here?"
"Oh right, there's also the lemming orc clan and the rabbit orc clan. It's strange, how come they left their own people behind?"
The long-limbed beastmen suddenly surrounded Jiang Yunlan and the other beastmen, their bright, curious eyes wide open. Their body proportions were excellent, almost the standard golden ratio on Earth.
"Are you the butterfly beastmen of the Healer Clan?" Maple Syrup asked, looking at the twenty or so beastmen in front of her.
The red-haired orc paused for a moment, then suddenly realized and said, "Oh right, that's what you call us. Yes, we are the Healer Clan."
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Author's note: The little angel "I love taking a bath" threw out 50 magic potions, successfully activating the "magic to see the future," and the green-clad girl saw the habitat that Lan had found.
The little angel "Cat Bug Lina罒ω罒" threw out 10 Space Stabilizers, and 022 safely passed through the space-time tunnel and left the Beast World.
The little angel "Xia Ran" cast out 10 guide potions, and Lan received guidance from the heavens, about to discover the way to the seaside smoothly.
The little angel "Mu^Mu^Lin" throws out 5 guiding agents, and Lan stumbles upon a new event, encountering a butterfly beastman.
The little angel "57385525" threw out two teru teru bozu dolls, and the next two days will be sunny, allowing Lan to more easily lead her people to the beach.
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