Is it a fight or a battle against the Xia clan from the forest...?
Several batches of clay bricks were produced from the kiln area.
After the orcs finished laying the foundation, they used wooden carts to transport the piles of bricks from the earthen kiln area and began building the walls from scratch.
The hunting party consisted of three semi-adult orcs and nine adult orcs. However, excluding Qiuguo, who was unable to move his legs, and five orcs patrolling the area, only eleven adult and semi-adult orcs remained who could build the wall.
With so few orcs in the tribe, the construction of houses naturally slowed down.
It seems I'll have to recruit some orcs from the neighborhood to work. Jiang Yunlan watched her tribesmen diligently carrying bricks, pondering whether to visit her neighbors today or tomorrow.
The clan's food supply was limited, enough to feed the entire clan for only twenty-three days, certainly not enough to hire orcs as laborers. However, she could use other items to trade with other clans for food and laborers.
Pottery, refined salt, medicinal herbs... these are all good trade items and should be able to be exchanged for a lot of food.
"Lan!"
Jiang Yunlan's thoughts were interrupted by Abai's call. She turned to look at Abai, who sounded anxious, and calmly said, "What happened? Tell me slowly, don't be nervous."
Ah Bai looked in the direction he had come from, then at Lan, and said nervously, "The wolf beastmen who came yesterday are coming over there, a lot of them."
"Luckily, Lan had scattered some medicinal powder around the clan's territory beforehand. When they suddenly rushed over, they encountered the powder and are now rolling around on the ground." He finished speaking and gave a shy yet happy smile.
Orcs who want to harm the clan are bad orcs, and it's best if they die. But Lan is soft-hearted and only sprinkled itching powder around them.
Jiang Yunlan understood, raised her arm and looked at Ah Bai, "Take me there, Ah Bai."
Ah Bai picked her up and brought her to the wolf-beastman.
Seventeen wolf-beastmen, transformed into their animal forms, rolled around on the grassland. At first, they only felt a slight itch on their soles, but after rolling on the ground, their entire bodies became itchy.
The more it itches, the more you roll, and the more you roll, the itchier it gets. It's a vicious cycle.
"Damn Xia Clan orcs! What have you done to us? Heal us now!" Lupu was itchy and uncomfortable, her face contorted, baring her teeth, but she still spoke with disdain, showing no sign of begging.
Jiang Yunlan arrived just in time to hear those words. She suddenly became curious about what was it that kept them so stubborn despite being itchy all over.
Is it the pride and dignity of carnivorous orcs? That's why they don't want to bow down to omnivorous orcs or herbivorous orcs.
Jiang Yunlan walked up to the wolf-beastmen and stopped an arm's length away from the powder. She crouched down, propped her face up with her hands, and looked at them howling. She asked calmly, "Hati clan beastmen. If you don't explain why you're here, you'll keep suffering until you scratch yourselves to death."
The calm tone, as if describing their future, directly pierced through the wolf-beastmen's defenses.
One of the wolf-orcs couldn't hold back any longer and whimpered, "Since your clan has come to the area protected by our clan, of course you should give us food or some novel items."
"Our chieftain said that since you are still a weak clan, you don't need to hand over food this time. Just hand over some novelties." The wolf-orc decisively betrayed his chieftain.
"Are they charging protection money?" Jiang Yunlan asked in surprise, glancing uncertainly at the seventeen wailing wolf-beastmen.
“What if we don’t pay?” she asked.
“Then let’s have a fight. If you lose, you’ll naturally hand it over,” the wolf-orc replied.
Jiang Yunlan smiled, her tone becoming even gentler: "What if we win? If we win, shouldn't it be your turn to hand over your things to us?"
The wolf-beastmen were speechless and all looked at Lup. Lup scratched off several handfuls of fur, her mind, occupied by discomfort, thinking for a while before finally speaking, "Should...should I ask our chieftain?"
Their chieftain, Hati, had never been defeated. She didn't know whether, if another clan won, they would have to give something to the winning clan.
Jiang Yunlan: ...
“Alright. Then go back and ask your clan leader. Tell him that the Xia clan does not need your protection and will not hand over any items to you.” Jiang Yunlan got up from the ground and looked back at her clansmen.
She pointed at Lup and said coldly, "Tie up all the orcs except that wolf-orc. Then give that wolf-orc a good rinse and let her go back."
“You must wear gloves and be careful not to touch the powder. If you feel unwell, come and get the antidote from me,” she said gently, looking at her people with concern.
She didn't care how long the orcs who hadn't taken the antidote would suffer after being washed. She wouldn't be gentle to orcs who wanted to harm her clan and people.
Lup was doused with several buckets of water before she finally felt a little better. She got up unsteadily, soaking wet, and walked away in the cold wind, looking disheveled.
She was wrong; this clan was no weak clan at all. She couldn't handle this clan, sob sob sob.
Lupu, walking unsteadily, let out a "woof" and disappeared without looking back. She had just been telling her people that she would bring the chieftain to rescue them.
Jiang Yunlan didn't look at the departing wolf-beastmen. She instructed two experienced and fast-running tribesmen to quietly follow them and gather intelligence, then turned around, took out new itching powder, and evenly sprinkled it on the areas where the wolf-beastmen had rolled.
She was never afraid of battle. If the Hatti clan wanted to fight, then so be it. Subduing them would be just as good; the clan was short of laborers to carry bricks.
After tying up the last wolf-beastman, Feng Hong tossed him to her tribesmen to wash, then strode over to Lan's side, saying with fighting spirit, "Lan, send me to fight this time! I'm strong enough to pin that wolf-beastman chieftain to the ground and beat him to a pulp."
She was annoyed with the werewolf beastmen when she saw them yesterday.
Jiang Yunlan was stunned, her expression blank: "Huh? Isn't this a battle between clans?"
She had already decided where to place the archers.
"Huh? Aren't fights always between two orcs?" Feng Hong looked equally bewildered. When those carnivorous orcs talk about fighting, don't they always mean a battle between two orcs?
The two orcs, one big and one small, stared at each other for a long time.
Jiang Yunlan blinked, then looked away at her tribesmen who were eager to try. "Get your weapons ready, then go back and start building the wall. Feng Hong and I will stay here and guard it."
If the Hati clan were to attack today, the orcs sent to gather intelligence would return beforehand to inform her. She wouldn't let all her people stand here waiting idly. The wolf-orcs might not even come today; a few orcs guarding this place would suffice.
Thinking about how she had been extorted just a few days after arriving in the plains, Jiang Yunlan couldn't help but sigh.
“Don’t worry, Lan, we will win,” Maple Syrup said.
With Lan around, they have no chance of losing.
"I'm not worried, I'm just a little helpless."
Jiang Yunlan let out a breath and remained silent. She didn't know if this fight was between clans.
If it came to the point of killing, she wouldn't hesitate. However… she had never killed a being with intelligence like herself, and though she spoke lightly, her heart was inevitably heavy.
Jiang Yunlan closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she was already mentally prepared to kill the wolf-beastman.
She took the ice crystal from her pocket, held it out in both hands, and handed it to 022 above her head. "It's too dangerous here. 022, I want to ask you to take the ice crystal back to the shelter. Please stay here and guard it, okay?"
The ice crystal sprite hated the dark and the feeling of being locked up. She promised it that she would take it to see the outside world, so she took it everywhere she went.
But she didn't want Ice Crystal and 022 to stay here. One of them was asleep, and the other had no fighting ability; neither of them was suitable to stay on the battlefield.
022 stared at her for a while, then looked away and said, "022 refuses. 022 can help you take the elf to a safe place, but 022 should not stay in the safe place."
"Lan, we're partners. And, if I want to, no orc can hurt me."
Jiang Yunlan was stunned for a moment, but quickly came to her senses and said, "Then I'll trouble 022 to take the elf to a safe place." She didn't mention 022 leaving again.
Upon hearing her change of heart, 022 floated down and reached out to catch the ice crystal.
However, the sleeping spirit remained sharp. It awoke as soon as 022 took it away from Jiang Yunlan.
"Who are you? Where did Lan go?" The Ice Crystal Stone Sprite got angry when it didn't see the little cub, and its body glowed with blue light.
022, which was flying in mid-air with it in its arms, turned around and gestured for it to look at Jiang Yunlan not far away.
“A wolf-orc clan is going to fight Lan’s clan. Lan was worried about you while you were sleeping, so she asked me to take you to a safe place to continue sleeping,” 022 explained.
The ice crystal sprite suppressed the icy aura it was about to unleash and said nonchalantly, "Let them come. I'll freeze them one by one. I've had a good sleep, and I'm well-rested."
It doesn't like killing living beings, so it'll just freeze their feet.
Upon hearing this, 022 carried it back to Jiang Yunlan's side.
“Lan, the elf has woken up. It doesn’t want to go to the sanctuary either,” 022 said to Jiang Yunlan, who looked puzzled.
Jiang Yunlan was puzzled, but chose to respect her decision. She put the ice crystal back into the pocket of her animal skin coat, sat cross-legged on the ground, and looked into the distance.
The quiet sprite didn't speak, as if it had fallen asleep again. It was never one to talk. Jiang Yunlan couldn't hear its voice, but she knew it was awake.
The Hati clan's wolf-orcs didn't keep Jiang Yunlan waiting long. The two orcs who had gone out to gather intelligence quickly returned.
"Lan, the wolf-beastmen in the grassland live in a round house, like an upside-down bowl."
"Lan, those wolf-beastmen are here. There seem to be a dozen or twenty of them?" The beastman, who wasn't very good at math, counted on his fingers but couldn't figure it out. He then said decisively, "Anyway, they look like there are more of them than the wolf-beastmen that came earlier."
Jiang Yunlan nodded, then turned to Abai and instructed, "Call our people here. Don't forget to bring your weapons and put on your armor. Prepare for battle."
All the beastmen from the clan had arrived, but the cubs were pushed into the shelter and forbidden to come out.
From afar, Jiang Yunlan saw the alpha wolf leading its people charging towards them, stopping thirty meters away from the Xia clan.
Clearly, they had heard about the itching powder from the wolf beast that had returned.
"You're the clan chief?" Hati, the wolf-beastman clan chief, narrowed his eyes as he scanned the tiny squirrel-beastman cub. "This is the first time I've heard a clan so arrogantly claim they can defeat me."
“I agree to your terms. If any of you can defeat me, you can take whatever you want from my clan. In return, if all the orcs in your clan lose, then you will have to hand over your goods to us, just like the clans on the grasslands.”
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