Lan brought supplies. The orcs are Xia's people; the others...
"What! Is it Lan who brought supplies?!"
"It's Lan! That's great! Lan arrived here so quickly, even earlier than I expected."
Upon hearing these words, the Forest Lake orcs suddenly stood up and excitedly gathered on both sides of the supply team.
As they led the supply team, they kept looking back to see how many supply vehicles were in the team. Along the way, they thoughtfully moved the debris on the road leading to the central building and helped the orc sitting on the road to get up and move to the side.
After inspecting the supplies, they turned to look at Lan at the front of the group, a silly grin spreading across their faces.
Initially, the habitat accepted few orc clans, and they lived as usual. However, a few days later, due to the migration of beast tides to Forest Lake, more and more orc clans entered the habitat. In just over twenty days, the habitat accepted eight suffering clans.
As time went by, the number of food that the Forest Lake Orcs could buy each day became fixed, and Orcs could be seen resting on the ground everywhere in their habitat.
The village chief of Senhu hadn't revealed to the orcs of Senhu how much food was left in their habitat, but they could sense his growing anxiety. Until a few days ago, when they were summoned to Senhu Square, they saw the village chief, who had been frowning, relax his brow.
That day, the village chief stood on the round platform and took out a letter from the grasslands. He said to them, "I know you are all worried about food. Some of the orcs have even considered leaving Forest Lake for the other two habitats. What I want to say is that from today onwards, we no longer need to worry about going hungry!"
"Lan is already on his way here with food, medicine and other supplies. In a few days, Lan's supply team will arrive at Senhu. Please stay here with peace of mind. Believe me, Lan will not abandon any orc, and Xia will not ignore any orc who asks us for help!" The Senhu village chief said, reassuring his own people and comforting the newly arrived orcs.
Upon hearing that Lan would be bringing supplies, the orcs of Senhu abandoned their plans to leave. They preferred to stay in their familiar home rather than go elsewhere.
The visiting orcs, upon hearing the village chief of Senhu Village say that they would receive food if they obediently followed instructions, all behaved very well.
As for the orcs who wanted to take advantage of the situation to commit evil and plunder, they have already been tied up in prison and are currently undergoing labor reform by spinning yarn on hand-cranked spinning machines and looms on foot, weaving winter clothes for the orcs to wear during the snow season.
“Lan, the village chief of Senhu Village led a team to check for dangers outside and went hunting on the side. The other healthy orcs who are not on duty are cultivating farmland and planting crops under the leadership of the steward,” a pale-faced Pallas’s rabbit orc explained.
He walked very slowly, occasionally letting out a gasp. He was clearly badly injured.
Jiang Yunlan heard him gasp in pain and turned to look at him with a pang of pity, but noticed his bright eyes and the expression that seemed like he was about to run away at any moment.
"You're a new orc, aren't you? But from what you've said, I can tell you know a lot about Forest Lake." Jiang Yunlan said, silently slowing down the pace of the group, without urging the orc in front of her to rest.
The Pallas's cat beastman smiled sheepishly, his gaze fixed on his surroundings. "Our clan was the first to arrive at Forest Lake, and we received a lot of care from the Xia beastmen. After I was able to get up and move around, the village chief assigned me the task of patrolling Forest Lake daily."
“There was a time when Forest Lake was not very peaceful,” he mumbled, speaking in broken Houhu Forest language, “so I would find out what was happening in Forest Lake every day and tell the village chief about it.”
Jiang Yunlan could understand his somewhat strange language from the Back Lake Forest and nodded in understanding.
Ahead of the column, several orcs were helping each other along the path the supply wagons needed to take. Suddenly, one of the orcs leaned against the shoulder of the one supporting her without warning, startling the orc beside her who quickly asked if her wound had reopened.
The healers from the supply team had gone out early to treat the wounded orcs in the surrounding area. One of the healers happened to be not far from her and, upon hearing the noise, immediately rushed to her side to treat her wounds.
As the supply team passed by, the voices of numerous healers rang out. They were busy running around, with assistants carrying stretchers beside them.
Upon seeing this scene, Jiang Yunlan asked the Pallas's rabbit-beastman in a serious tone, "How many wild beasts were in the beast tide you encountered?"
Few of the orcs she saw were lightly wounded; most were moderately wounded. There were no seriously wounded orcs, presumably because they were all in the treatment area at Forest Lake.
The Pallas's cat orc was stumped by the question, and the other orcs who had fled over also scratched their heads and gestured with difficulty.
An orc pointed to the end of the road, down to his feet, and shouted excitedly, "There are so many! So many that we found them before they even entered our clan's territory!"
"Those mad beasts are chasing us relentlessly. We even jumped to the bottom of the cliff and smashed the stone platform, but they still kept chasing us!" another orc said angrily, his voice filled with grievance.
They couldn't understand why there was a beast tide, or why wild animals would suddenly appear from some corner and chase after them like madmen.
Jiang Yunlan listened as they spoke with aggrieved and angry voices, accusing the beast tide that had destroyed their peaceful lives.
They just want to live a good life in their own habitat, why is it so difficult?
"Did many beasts you've never seen before appear in the beast tide?" Jiang Yunlan asked, puzzled, after comforting them.
The orcs nodded and chattered on, "We've seen some of these beasts elsewhere, but they're not the kind of beasts that have appeared in our clan's territory. That's how beast tides are, isn't it? A lot of beasts will suddenly appear."
The beast tide that had attacked the grassland habitat contained many wild animals that were not native to the grasslands. Jiang Yunlan remained silent, her expressionless face showing a slight gravity. She couldn't help but wonder how there could be so many wild animals from other places in the beast tide.
She suddenly felt uneasy.
Could simply controlling the beast packs within her territory truly suppress the beast tide? The question surfaced in her mind, and she instinctively gave a negative answer.
How exactly did the beast tide form, and where did the strange wild beasts come from?
Jiang Yunlan was puzzled, circling around this mystery with no clues, when she heard a sigh in her ear.
"After we escaped, the kind orcs we met told us that there was a very good tribe here called Xia. They told us that Xia was very powerful and that we didn't have to be afraid of the beast tides anymore once we came here."
A single exclamation drew echoes from orcs of different clans: "We also heard about Xia from other orcs we met by chance, so we came here specifically."
The various beastmen who had fled from the same region grinned foolishly and said happily, "Luckily we made it through."
After arriving in Xia, they no longer had to worry about being bitten to death by wild beasts that suddenly appeared. They also had food to eat and a place to sleep peacefully. They couldn't be happier.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yunlan's tense emotions gradually relaxed.
Has Xia's name spread so far that even the fleeing orcs can hear it? She thought about the orcs who were always recommending Xia and found it strangely reasonable; she shouldn't be surprised.
Different orcs chatted with Lan, leading the supply team through stretches of road until they finally delivered them to the central building.
Upon hearing from other beastmen that Lan had arrived at Senhu with supplies, the Senhu steward hurried to the central building. She was just a little faster than the supply team, and as soon as she stood still, she saw Lan slightly tilting her head to listen to the surrounding sounds as she slowly walked over.
“Lan, this is Feng Jiu, the orc in charge of task distribution and finances.” The horse-orc from the grasslands said this, crouching down his tall body, his tense eyes fixed on Lan.
The horse-beastmen of Xia were all beastmen led out by Xia. The horse-beastmen of the grasslands were even more influenced by Lan, gradually touching the world and rediscovering themselves. It was Lan who shattered the transparent barrier that separated them from the world.
The horse-beastmen of the grasslands hate any beastman riding on their backs, but they can accept Lan sitting on their beast-shaped backs.
Feng Jiu is also an orc who shares the same thoughts as his fellow orcs.
She reported on the recent situation of Forest Lake in an orderly manner, with clear logic and concise speech. It was impossible to tell that she was once an orc who had difficulty even hearing the outside world.
Looking into her bright, spirited eyes, Jiang Yunlan could clearly sense her unease. Seeing her tense body, after she finished reporting her recent situation, she reached out and took her hand, which was resting on her knees, and pulled her up from the ground as she used to.
"You and the village chief have done a great job. You've worked hard these past few days," Jiang Yunlan said, patting her back gently.
Feng Jiu was very familiar with this kind of comforting pat on the back. In the past, when she wanted to express something but couldn't say a word, Lan would gently pat her back and tell her not to worry.
The anxiety in her heart suddenly disappeared, she relaxed, and a smile unconsciously appeared on her lips.
“It wasn’t hard work. Lan, did we meet your expectations?” she asked.
Unlike the grasslands and mountains, Forest Lake encountered a special event halfway through its development. Having diligently helped the suffering orcs but still lacking sufficient strength, has Forest Lake's leader failed to live up to Lan's expectations?
"Of course, you did a great job. You can make up for the shortcomings later." Jiang Yunlan's voice was gentle.
Maintaining order in Forest Lake and mobilizing the newly arrived orcs to cooperate with the construction work has already been done very well. As for the problem of many orcs having nowhere to rest and having to sleep on the streets, this is not a problem that Forest Lake, with its labor shortage, can solve in a short time. Food is the biggest problem that Forest Lake needs to solve; everything else can wait.
Based on the previous crop yields in the planting area and the meat production in the breeding area of Senhu, even if they harvest food cultivated during the flowering season, they will still starve to death if they do not vigorously cultivate farmland and go out hunting.
Based on the current situation at Senhu, Jiang Yunlan assigned tasks to the beastmen who had come with her, and then led Heitu and the others to rush towards the treatment area.
She was also an orc who could heal wounds with the power of wood, so of course she had to work with the healers who had gone to the treatment area before her to treat the seriously injured patients.
There were few orcs on the way to the treatment area. Jiang Yunlan led Heitu and the others halfway there when she keenly sensed someone watching her. She subconsciously looked at the orc staring at her, and an indescribable sense of crisis washed over her.
Her body, long accustomed to battle, opened the backpack at her waist before her brain could, and took out plant seeds.
"Lan, be careful!" the two elves warned.
Jiang Yunlan scattered the seeds without hesitation, controlling the plants inside to protect the orcs on the ground.
At the same time, she saw the strange orc in her field of vision raise his palm, aim at her, and launch an attack with the power of fire.
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