The beastmen who captured the giant beast are Xia's subjects, and so are other living beings...
Feng Hong sat on the ground, pouring canned sweet fruit into her mouth with her left hand, while holding a giant hammer standing on the ground with her right hand, her eyes fixed on the prisoners in the ice cage.
She only looked away from the returning orcs, Hati, when she heard her teammates returning.
The alpha wolf, having failed to bring back any new prisoners, radiated an unpleasant aura, his lips pursed in a downturned gesture. Sveta, whom he carried, remained silent, lost in thought. The former leader of the observation team, who had been pursuing the enemy, was racking his brains trying to comfort their dejected state, but to no avail.
Seeing this, the Summer Orcs who remained in place went forward to comfort their teammates who had failed to capture the Apocalypse Orcs.
Feng Hong blinked and finished the rest of the canned food in one go. She then comforted him, saying, "Don't be sad. We've already captured the most important Wood Power Beastman and completed the mission Lan gave us! We'll catch the rest when we see them next time we encounter them."
Hati was not comforted at all. He stared at her with his emerald green eyes for a few seconds, then turned his head away in a wronged manner. Frustrated, he ran up to the Wood-type orc from Apocalypse, and interrogated him in a cold tone while sharpening his claws on the ground.
The wood-powered orc in the ice prison was frightened by the anger he exuded and answered his question timidly.
The Apocalypse Beastmen, having successfully escaped the Summer Beastmen's pursuit, did not leave the wasteland. Instead, they found a safe place to hide, as if waiting for something.
Three days later, the sun shone brightly.
A beast much taller than any large wild animal appeared. Beneath its round head was fluffy fur, its entire body covered in a golden-red gradient of down, like a cloak draped over its body. This made it look somewhat like an upside-down badminton shuttlecock that had come to life, or perhaps a spirit with a pair of ears and wearing a fluffy cloak.
It seemed to sense something; its diamond-shaped ears twitched slightly, and it locked onto the location with its pair of dark green round eyes. It bent down and ran quickly over, leaving pairs of footprints on the ground.
Clearly, it is a four-legged beast capable of standing on two legs, and it is more accustomed to raising its two forelimbs when exploring its surroundings.
The wasteland had no trees to guide it, yet it continued its journey, leaping off the bare, protruding rocks and rushing toward its goal at top speed.
Hati found a river flowing from the mountains in the wasteland and set up camp on its banks. Today is the second day of their camp.
Nourished by the power of nature, the mountains gradually returned to their lush green state, and the previously dried-up river resumed its flow, though the water level was less than a third of what it used to be. The observation team was drawing water from the river to prepare breakfast when they suddenly heard their teammates shouting loudly.
"A colossal beast has appeared! All personnel on high alert!"
The orcs responsible for fetching water looked up in a panic, failing to see the golden-red behemoth charging towards them, and almost mistook the nimble beast for a deer.
The next second, he dismissed his guess. Deer don't have diamond-shaped ears like bones, nor do they have fur long enough to cover their limbs, and they certainly aren't tall enough to be about the same height as Ilovian in his beast form when he's not standing up.
The giant beast opened its mouth and spat out seeds that hit the ground, causing plants to sprout and attack the Apocalypse Beastmen in the ice prison, but inexplicably stopped in mid-air.
Its attack failed, and Sveta and another wood elf took control of the plants it commanded.
“We have no intention of fighting you. Guardian of Nature, please tell me, where have the spirits you protect gone?” Sveta directly instilled his thoughts into the wooden beast, rather than speaking these words aloud.
Seeing that the plants it controlled were being restricted, the newly born wood beast silently changed its attack method, deftly bypassing the plants that were trying to bind it. The moment it bit into the ice cage imprisoning the wood-powered apocalyptic orc, it was rolled into a ball by the plants that had been lying in wait, barely managing to stick its head out.
The wooden beast blinked blankly, its diamond-shaped ears twitching slightly, and tilted its head to look at Sveta, which Maple Red was holding in its hands. It knew that the wood element was emerging from the translucent mushroom tree, and that this small mushroom tree was dealing with it.
"You don't want to talk to me?" Sveta asked, feeling wronged and sad. Even the pale yellow light around her dimmed considerably.
What happened to its guardian that it would refuse to communicate with?
The newly born wooden beast could not comprehend complex things, let alone things called "language" or "dialogue." It didn't even know that it was a guardian of nature, and had no idea who Sveta was referring to when he spoke of nature.
It stared intently, carefully discerning the two little mushroom trees, and then shifted its gaze to the orc that looked very similar to its targets.
Sniff.
The aura was different; the two spirits had given it protection. The wood beast looked at the "connection" between Feng Hong and the other beastmen and the two wood spirits, recalling the presence it had sensed at birth, and silently shifted its gaze back to the Apocalypse Beastman in the ice cage.
Now it only sees the Apocalypse Orcs in the cage as targets to be killed.
The wooden beast, wanting to break free from the traps surrounding it, simply ignored the voices of Sveta and the other elf, repeatedly rolling around and tossing itself against the branches and vines.
“This guardian refuses to communicate with us. Oh well, let’s take it back to Lan first. Lan will definitely have a solution.” Having exhausted all means, Sveta lay down and laughed a few times with considerable optimism.
But after stopping the wooden beast from attacking the prisoners for the hundredth time, it couldn't help but angrily knock the beast unconscious with its vines, and uttered a weary, puzzled sound, "How can this beast be even more troublesome than the Apocalypse Beastmen? It can launch a hundred sneak attacks with plants in less than a day."
Back then, even the Wood-Power Beastmen who were just imprisoned in the ice cage didn't always control the plants to escape.
“It’s very determined to kill them,” Hati said, pointing to the prisoners being transported by wooden carts. “It will probably keep attacking as long as it sees them. The way it looks at us Xia beastmen isn’t friendly either, but it’s probably worried about something so it doesn’t attack us.”
Feng Hong blinked, pedaling her bike as she spoke, but her focus was completely off-topic: "Should we go back to the mountains to see Mo Rong first, or go straight back to the grasslands to find Lan?"
When they received the message and left the mountains to meet the observation team, Lan was still in her grassland habitat. Before they escorted her people to the mountains, she had told them that she had no intention of going out. They naturally assumed that to see Lan, they should return to the grassland, completely unaware that to find Lan during this fruit season, they needed to go to the Forest Lake habitat.
“Go straight back to the grasslands to find Lan,” Sveta said thoughtfully.
Hati nodded in agreement. The sight of the behemoths and those Apocalypse Orcs always made his eyelids twitch; he definitely wanted to choose the ordinary Xia Orcs, minimizing his contact with them. He was genuinely worried they might cause some strange trouble.
The entire team adjusted its course and headed towards the grassland habitat.
After traveling for several days, they encountered a migrating tide of animals just before reaching their grassland habitat.
The beast tide's movement route differed from Jiang Yunlan's previous assumptions. The beasts did not head towards the wasteland in front of the mountains; instead, they arrived at a grassland filled with different natural forces.
The actions of the beast tide differed from Jiang Yunlan's later conjecture. Xia's grassland habitat was not attacked by the beast tide. After discovering that the grassland was an extremely suitable place for survival and reproduction, the wild beasts that came to the grassland immediately led their own tribes to fight with the original beast tribes for territory.
They're not stupid. The Xia tribe, which looks powerful, is much easier to bully than their less developed counterparts. They'll definitely try to take the easier-to-bully wild beasts first.
The returning observation team happened to witness a large group of wild beasts driving away the original inhabitants, and quickly fled back to their habitat.
"What? You mean, the beasts that formed the tide and came here have settled in the surrounding bamboo forests, woods, and bushes, and haven't attacked their habitat?" Jiang Yunlan asked in surprise, jumping off the back of the feathered horse beast and taking two steps forward to approach Feng Hong.
Feng Hong nodded vigorously, her voice still carrying a hint of shock as she spoke, "When we came back, we saw the wild beasts living around the area gathered together, fighting with the new beasts that had arrived. It must be that their territory had been taken over, and they wanted to take it back, but they were driven away by the new beast pack that had taken over their territory."
After leading her team to observe for several days, she discovered yesterday that the two sides, who had been fighting to the death, had compromised a little and each occupied half of the grassland territory.
"However, the area outside the habitat has become much more dangerous. It's difficult to gather supplies in those places occupied by wild beasts. Even if our guardians lead the team to gather supplies, some teammates will be seriously injured." Feng Hong said, gritting her teeth, her expression so fierce that it seemed she would pull out a giant hammer and smash it into the ground at any moment.
Jiang Yunlan, recalling the struggling Senhu Habitat, immediately understood the reason for her anger: the food supply had dwindled.
"Don't be angry. I'll ask Agni and me to clean up the area in the next few days and bring back any edible wild animals to Forest Lake for food," Jiang Yunlan said, patting her arm gently to comfort her.
022 also stretched out a hand and gently patted Feng Hong's forehead, echoing Lan's words. After it finished entering the information of the new beasts, it analyzed their weaknesses for Xia's beastmen and updated the "Beast Encyclopedia" it had written for Xia.
Bai Su, who had been barely noticeable to the side, raised his hand wearing the ironwood pendant and asked, "Can I join this operation too? I've heard that things from the grasslands are more interesting than things from Senhu. I'd like to switch."
Jiang Yunlan agreed without hesitation, not worried that he might have some tricks up his sleeve or try to escape. If he wanted to run away, he would have tried to escape long ago.
Seeing this, Feng Hong curiously examined the ironwood on his hands and feet. He was standing to the right rear of Lan, in a position guarded by the guards, and could clearly see Feng Hong's gaze fixed on the ironwood that signified his status.
"Hahaha, you're not mistaken, this is a replacement for the iron chains. I'm an orc serving my sentence." He waved his hands cheerfully, without any hint of embarrassment on his face.
Feng Hong suddenly realized and said to him earnestly, "Then you must listen to Lan and strive to complete the transformation as soon as possible. Don't make the same mistake again in the future."
The striking similarity of their words startled Bai Su; the beastmen he had seen in the forest lake had said the same things. Their reactions often made him think that if he were a little more obedient and worked a little harder, he might have a chance to become a Xia beastman like them.
To become an orc who can walk in the sunlight.
He glanced at Jiang Yunlan instinctively, but his clear mind told him he had no chance. He had killed innocent orcs and helped Apocalypse plunder elves; the laws of Xia could not allow him to live.
Everything he is doing now is simply a way of atoning for his sins, a way of gaining a moment of peace in the predetermined future.
Perhaps he paused for a while, because he saw Lan turn to look at him. Lan had a relaxed smile on her lips, her eyes seeming to ask him what he was thinking and why his reaction was different from before.
He felt inexplicably sad and couldn't reveal his identity as he had at Mori Lake.
"You're an orc from Apocalypse?! ...Lan is willing to keep you by her side forever. I believe you can become a better orc than before!"
The words he had heard in the past struck Bai Su deeply. He felt regret. Why hadn't he tried to save the orcs he could have saved? Why had he allowed himself to obey Apocalypse's orders? Why hadn't he tried to escape after obtaining Palia's power? Why... had he given up resisting?
If he had escaped from them back then, would he have been able to meet the Xia tribe before becoming a bastard who didn't value the lives of others, and would he have had the chance to become a Xia beastman?
I wish I had met the Xia tribe sooner.
Bai Su looked at Jiang Yunlan, who was tilting her head in confusion, and thought to himself, "If only I could have met Lan sooner. I would definitely be a good beastman like Heitu and Feng Jiu, one who wouldn't let Lan down, and I would work alongside all the Xia beastmen to guard our habitat, care for the wounded, and farm in the planting areas..."
"What's wrong? I can tell you're upset," Jiang Yunlan said worriedly.
He saw Lan's expression reflected in his eyes, but he just shook his head listlessly, "It's nothing."
"Are you still thinking about what will happen after the seal is lifted? I certainly won't let any orc who has harmed elves or innocent people live to a natural death, but you've been helping Xia all along, so I'm allowing you a suspended death sentence. That means you'll have a few seasons to a year or two to live after things settle down, depending on your performance," Jiang Yunlan said.
Bai Su was no longer sad, and asked with bright eyes, "Really?"
"Really," Jiang Yunlan said with a smile.
-----------------------
Author's Note: After much deliberation, I've decided to add a suspended death sentence. I believe Bai Su, who killed innocent people and caused the deaths of elves, should die, but he did provide a lot of useful information about the Apocalypse Tribe and helped Xia build a habitat, which can be considered a great contribution, so a suspended death sentence is appropriate.
So, it's a pleasant decision that the laws of Xia include a "suspended death sentence." And I think that with a suspended death sentence, imprisoned orcs will be more willing to reveal information and obey orders.
Just between you and me, in the original lore, orcs who had plundered the lives of elves would not only lose their original natural power and be unable to control it after casting the unsealing magic circle, but their lifespan would also be shortened! Reduced to only a few seasons to three years. Those who commit wrongdoings should be punished.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com