The intelligence from Apocalypse states that the orcs are the children of Xia, and other living beings...
Jiang Yunlan learned about Jianying from Bai Su and naturally understood that Jianying was the orc mainly responsible for experiments in the Tianqi tribe.
"Why do you use wild animals for experiments?" Jiang Yunlan asked, finally voicing her long-standing question.
Bai Su's lips twitched as he heard her use the word "you," and he scratched his head in frustration before explaining, "They say it's because the tribe is always attacked by giant beasts. The beasts use these as consumables to deplete the giant beasts' power."
"So you were indeed attacked by giant beasts because you plundered elves?" She looked at Bai Su and nodded, then took out a bowl of food for Bai Su, pointed to the spoon in the bowl, and told Bai Su to use the spoon to eat his dinner.
She didn't feel comfortable letting this dangerous orc among her people, so she would find any open space and pull Bai Su to sit and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bai Su didn't care where he ate; as long as he was given food, he would eat it, and he was quite enthusiastic about it. Anyone who saw him eating could tell that he really enjoyed Xia's cooking.
"You are often attacked by giant beasts. Have you ever tried to capture them for experiments? Your tribe has survived, so you must be stronger than the giant beasts," Jiang Yunlan asked during a break in her meal.
Bai Su chewed and chewed, and found a moment to say to her, "Jian Ying seems to have wanted to do that, but she hasn't succeeded yet, and she even threw a big tantrum because of it. I don't know why she didn't succeed, that's not information I can know. But I can tell you that most of the beasts in the lab were captured from the beast tide."
She nodded knowingly, took a piece of spicy candy from her handbag, and tossed it to Bai Su. Bai Su caught it precisely, and after finishing dinner, popped the candy into his mouth.
After dinner, Jiang Yunlan continued her work, dragging the orcs who needed to be looked after.
A new day dawns. Roads are being rebuilt and damaged houses repaired in the Forest Lake habitat. The orcs of Forest Lake are cultivating the land and constructing new dwellings.
Jiang Yunlan observed their activity areas, determining which places were most lacking in labor and needed to be inhabited by healed beastmen. Bai Su was dragged around by her, constantly having to answer the questions that came out of her mouth.
Despite being a prisoner with his hands and feet cuffed in iron rings, Bai Su felt that he had grown closer to the Xia tribe while accompanying Jiang Yunlan in managing Senhu. It was as if he had become a member of Xia himself.
Jiang Yunlan is strange, the Xia tribe is strange. He didn't feel this way when he was in Tianqi, which made him miss his clan a little.
"You are clearly an orc capable of using fire power, so why can't the elves and I sense the fire element flowing through your body when you don't use fire power?"
Hearing Jiang Yunlan's confused voice, he glanced at the tree he had burned to charcoal and reached out to Jiang Yunlan with a straight face, "It's just that what Jianying carved on my back worked. I've cleared out the new planting area for you, and here's my chili candy."
Jiang Yunlan rummaged in her handbag at her waist, took out a paper bag of spicy candy that she had prepared beforehand, placed it in his hand, and told him to follow her back to Senhu Lake.
In the Apocalypse Tribe, asking a fire-wielding orc to clear a clearing in the forest with fire, only to receive a bag of food, would get you beaten up. But Bai Su accepted Jiang Yunlan's reward, happily unwrapped the paper bag, took out a piece of candy, and popped it into his mouth without any dissatisfaction on his face.
It was the twentieth day since Bai Su was captured.
He gradually got used to following Jiang Yunlan's lead, and also got used to 022 and the two elves studying every night how to unseal the fire power within him.
The array used by the Apocalypse Tribe to plunder elves is essentially a way to integrate a portion of the nature spirit into the body of the orc who bears the weight of the array, thereby gaining natural power that cannot be taken away by any elf. Jiang Yunlan, 022, and the two elves realized this and understood the direction of their research.
The array drawn in the language of the wise clan kept changing, and Bai Su fell asleep several times while lying on the spell array.
It was another night of failure, and he yawned and drifted off to sleep. In his half-asleep state, he heard Jiang Yunlan still fretting about what went wrong with the array she had drawn.
The fire spirit suddenly steered the conversation towards him, her words filled with deep bewilderment.
"This Hundred Sleeper is asleep again. What a strange beastman, isn't he afraid at all? And he hasn't tried to run away even once, which is even stranger."
It doesn't hurt at all, so there's no way I could be scared. He thought to himself with his eyes closed.
"Judging from his appearance, he's not only not afraid, but he seems quite happy to stay here with us. He does everything I ask him to do perfectly." Jiang Yunlan was equally puzzled as to why he was so cooperative with them.
Since he couldn't escape anyway, he might as well do some work to earn some spicy candy. With that thought, he drifted off to sleep, the emotions that had surfaced in his mind retreating back into the depths of his heart.
I don't want to go back to the Apocalypse Tribe...
Do you know which region your tribe has established a settlement in?
Bai Su sat cross-legged on the ground, fiddling with the clay he had asked Jiang Yunlan for as payment, his hands, which were bound by iron chains. He didn't notice for a moment that the question was directed at him.
"One Hundred Nights".
Hearing Lan call his name, he looked up at Lan, who was processing documents, and his tail left a question mark. This time, he heard Jiang Yunlan's question clearly and blurted out without thinking, "I wasn't taken to many Apocalypse habitats, I only know of five."
“Didn’t you interrogate the other captured Apocalypse Orcs? Maybe they know more than I do,” he said, lowering his head to continue kneading the clay in his hands.
“It’s precisely because I asked that I’m asking you about this now, to confirm their existence.” Jiang Yunlan held the report handed to her by her people, browsing through the information provided by the imprisoned Apocalypse Beastmen.
Bai Su ignored Agni, who was staring at him, and casually gave the characteristics of the five places he had visited.
Listening to the location he gave, Jiang Yunlan added the location of what appeared to be a new Apocalypse habitat to the report, and said in a soft and calm voice, "You hate the Apocalypse Tribe? You've told me almost everything you know."
"Who would like a place like that? I almost forgot, Yuan Dong, Jian Ying, and Ling Cai Yu Que would like it."
"If you don't like the Apocalypse, why did you join them to plunder the Elves' power, and why did you help the Apocalypse tribe?"
Bai Su paused. He blinked and looked down at the clay he had barely managed to mold into a rough outline.
“When I was still a child, the chieftain said that T would take us to a powerful clan, and that we would no longer be bullied by other clans of orcs. Since then, our clan has been Apocalypse Orcs, and I have become what I am now. No other place can take me in; the only place I can stay is the Apocalypse Tribe.” He twirled the clay in his hand, beginning to refine the details.
He didn't mention his attempt to defect, or the experience he went through, and his voice lowered slightly as he spoke again, "In the Apocalypse Tribe, orcs who are worthless and not strong enough can't survive. I need to prove my worth to the chief, so of course I have to complete the mission."
"You ask me why I work for Apocalypse? It's because I want to survive."
Jiang Yunlan looked up at Bai Su, who was sitting on the ground, and after several seconds said to him, "Even if you say that, I will not think you are innocent. Bai Su, everyone must be responsible for what they have done, because the lives lost because of you cannot be brought back to life."
“I won’t deny what I’ve done. I’m just telling you why I worked for Apocalypse. I can’t even remember all the bad things I’ve done to survive. If Palia knew what I’ve done with its power, she’d be so angry she’d want to burn me,” Bai Su said.
He couldn't help but smile as he recalled Palia and its guardian clan, whom he had met after his defection. The smile, however, was fleeting, like a firework bursting into existence, leaving behind only a look of disappointment on his face.
"After all, it didn't resist until it completely disappeared so that we could survive. Although in the end, I was the only one left alive," he said.
Hearing this, Agni sat up straight, feeling incredibly incredulous. He actually knew the vanished fire spirit, and was even quite familiar with that fire spirit, Palia.
Unaware of the turmoil in Agni's heart, Bai Su continued to explain, "Now that things have come to this, I no longer fantasize that I can still live after the... seal within me is broken. I understand that I should pay the price for the sins I have committed, and I just hope that my death will not be too painful. At least, I don't want to end my life with fire."
“I promise you, I won’t end your life with fire. I agree to your deal,” Agni said to him. He fulfilled his terms of the deal, answering all questions, and it certainly wouldn’t kill him in a painful way.
Agni's answer cheered him up and restored some of his spirits.
Seeing his joy at knowing he wouldn't suffer too much when he died, Jiang Yunlan couldn't tell if his happiness was genuine or feigned. She couldn't understand his thoughts, nor did she intend to.
As the leader of Xia, and a beastman standing on the side of the nature spirits, Jiang Yunlan will always stick to her position.
We will not let any orc who harms the elves go unpunished, nor will we forgive any orc who kills the innocent.
The room gradually quieted down.
The paper rustled as Jiang Yunlan processed documents. Bai Su, kneading clay, occasionally made small noises, but not loudly. Beside him, 022, Agni, and Freya were quietly discussing the direction of modifying the formation.
Before we knew it, it was evening again.
Jiang Yunlan got up from her seat, picked up 022 with two Pokémon hanging on its body, and hugged them to her arms. "It's time for my meal. You two can rest for a while before continuing."
The three little ones agreed without objection, and she then turned her attention to Bai Su. Bai Su was enthusiastically sculpting the clay beast, which was almost complete.
"You sculpted a beast? Is this your beast form?" she asked, looking at the beast with round ears in Bai Su's hand.
Bai Su carefully finished the last detail, then waved the clay that looked very much like Jiang Yunlan at him, and said proudly, "That's right, this is our clan's beast form! Isn't it easy to recognize?"
Jiang Yunlan nodded. It was the first time she had seen the beast form of the Bai Su clan, and she quickly memorized it.
This world is rich in the variety of beasts, and consequently, the beastmen's animal forms are incredibly diverse. The number of beastman races registered in Xia County has long exceeded fifty-eight.
Many orc races have come to Xia, and the languages they speak are not necessarily those spoken by the Xia orcs, which has led to many misunderstandings. There was even an instance where an orc who arrived in Xia in a python form was nearly killed by patrols who mistook him for a dangerous wild animal.
Finally, the python-like beastman who had pounced on them suddenly transformed back into human form, thus averting a potential battle.
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Author's Note: Within the Apocalypse Tribe, none of the surviving orcs with the strength to venture outside the tribe were weak. Their strength meant they had committed many evil deeds.
As Bai Su said, "I need to prove my worth to the leader, so of course I have to complete the mission."
Therefore, many of the orcs in Apocalypse, like Bai Su, don't actually care about the life or death of the Apocalypse tribe. They care more about their own lives and are the orcs who desert when faced with an enemy they know they cannot defeat.
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