The clothing worn during the snow season now includes items from mixed clans of the forest...
Jiang Yunlan and the beastmen practiced spear throwing for two hours. After two hours, she and the beastmen went back into the forest.
We need to deal with the wild animals that have appeared near the river, and we can't neglect gathering food either. I spent the whole day yesterday making weapons and armor; today it's time to go find food.
Before searching for food, Jiang Yunlan and the beastmen went to observe the condition of the river.
The wild beast was no longer by the river, but new tracks appeared on the bank—several more footprints along a path-like path. The one-legged beast had brought its kind with it.
The footprints were very new. Jiang Yunlan counted them and found that there were seven different footprints.
These unicorns seem to vary greatly in size, with the smallest footprints being about ten centimeters long and the largest being forty centimeters long.
Seeing the seven footprints of varying sizes, Jiang Yunlan couldn't help but suspect that the wild beast that came to eat fish yesterday had enjoyed its meal in the river so much that it brought its whole family here for a buffet today.
It's such a pity that the new fish traps weren't made properly. The river only has fish that can escape and swim around, but no ready-made feast. They've missed out on nature's bounty.
Taking advantage of the beasts' absence, the orcs quickly filled the empty bamboo tubes with water and carried Lan away from the river.
"Shh, shh."
The orcs in the gathering team used stone spears to cut down the plants blocking their path, their eyes sweeping over the surrounding trees.
A gust of wind blew by, and Jiang Yunlan shivered, goosebumps rising all over her body. The temperature had dropped, and her palms continued to emit cold air; the skin, no longer covered by animal hide, grew cold.
Seeing her reaction, Ah Bai changed to holding her with one hand, freeing one hand to shield her from the wind, but it had little effect.
"Ah Bai, put me down." Jiang Yunlan patted Ah Bai's shoulder and pointed to the ground. She planned to use exercise to warm herself up.
When searching for food, the orcs don't walk too fast, and even she can keep up with their pace.
Ah Bai understood, carefully put her down, and followed closely behind her, ready to pick her up and run away if they encountered any danger.
Seeing Lan step down, Feng Hong silently surrounded her with the other orcs in the middle of the group.
Today we're going to the territory of the Hedgehog Orc clan, where our Deer Orc clan friends live.
Every year during fruit season, the Hedgehog Beastmen would bring many shelled fruits to exchange with the Deer Beastmen clan for sweet, juicy tubers called "Spring Fruits." The Hedgehog Beastmen clan's territory was small, and Spring Fruits were almost nowhere to be found. Most of the Spring Fruits they ate during the snowy season were obtained through trade with the Deer Beastmen clan.
The hedgehog orcs are no longer in the forest. Their beast forms are small, and their human forms are also tiny. Even orcs who cannot walk are carried away by their tribesmen. They refused to abandon any member of their tribe, and the entire tribe traveled with the deer orcs, leaving the forest together.
Before leaving, the hedgehog beastman told Maple Red that she could go to their territory to find thorny fruit during the fruit season.
The thorny fruit grows on the tree, its exterior covered in sharp thorns. She needs to open the inside of the thorny fruit to see the smooth, thornless, shelled fruit that the deer-beastmen traded for.
Feng Hong had never seen what the prickly fruit actually looked like, so she could only search for them based on her imagination.
Unfortunately, when she led her gathering team of beastmen to look for the fruit at the beginning of the fruit season, they couldn't find it. She did encounter a few fruits with thorns on their exteriors, but those weren't the thorny fruits.
Feng Hong wanted to find them, so she turned to look at Jiang Yunlan behind her. If it were Lan, she would surely be able to find them.
She wanted to describe the appearance of the prickly fruit, scratching her head for a while, unsure where to begin. How could she describe something she had never seen before? Feng Hong stared blankly.
Her hesitant manner and frequent glances were so obvious that Jiang Yunlan found them very puzzling.
“Lan, yo-woo, food, woo-ah, looking for it.” Feng Hong said, gesturing wildly.
Jiang Yunlan stared blankly. What? Food. What kind of food are you looking for?
Her orc vocabulary was clearly insufficient to understand what Feng Hong was saying; she only knew that Feng Hong wanted to find food. So, she nodded and said affirmatively, "Find."
Hearing that she had agreed, Feng Hong grinned happily.
The orcs in the gathering team searched for the thorny fruit, and their formation gradually changed from a circle to a straight line, and soon into an elongated S-curve.
Jiang Yunlan walked in the middle of the group. Every time she encountered a plant she didn't recognize, she would reach out and touch it to see if it had fruit on its branches and whether its fruit was growing in the ground.
She searched meticulously, and the beastmen, observing her closely, learned her methods. In no time, countless plants around them suffered terribly.
Jiang Yunlan pushed aside a bush once more, and a fluffy ball about half her height appeared before her.
The fluffy little ball of fluff is covered in mud and plant sap, making it difficult to discern its original color.
"Is this also an animal from the Beast World?" Jiang Yunlan asked in confusion. She wasn't too wary of it, but she didn't approach it either.
Upon hearing Lan's voice, 022 immediately floated over, ready to record the newly discovered animal.
Following Lan's movements, Ah Bai saw the little dumpling behind the bushes and was immediately startled, its tail bristling and ears standing up.
The harmless-looking fluffy ball swelled to five times its original size. It awoke, opened its black-hole-like eyes, locked onto the squirrel-beastman cub before it, and giggled.
"Lan!" Ah Bai's heart skipped a beat, and he picked up Lan and retreated sharply.
He picked up Lan faster than the furry beast could grow bigger, and barely managed to snatch Lan back from the furry beast's mouth.
"Pfft—squeak—"
The furry beast, having lost its food, roared in anger.
It leaped up and charged straight at Ah Bai, opening its pitch-black mouth, but its body was struck by a stone spear that appeared out of nowhere. Dark red blood flowed from its body. It was forced to fall from mid-air.
Feng Hong threw the stone spear in her hand, tore off the vine basket on her back, and then took the stone spear handed to her by Mo Rong and pointed it at the furry beast.
"Don't hurt Lan!" she shouted as she hurled her stone spear.
The injured furry beast hesitated for a second, then became enraged, dodging the stone spear and attacking Maple Red.
Seeing this, Jiang Yunlan, who was being carried, reached into the vine basket on Ah Bai's back and took out a stone spear, throwing it over, "Feng Hong, catch!"
They only had five stone spears; after throwing two, only three remained in the hands of Rock, Cotton, and Ah Bai. Maple Red, standing with the two lemming cubs, had no more stone spears.
The stone spear flew over the head of the furry beast and headed towards Maple Red.
Feng Hong leaped up and caught the weapon Lan threw at her, using offense as defense to block the first attack from the furry beast.
Beside her, Heitu pushed Mo Rong to a safe place, then used her beast-like hands to nimbly slide to the side of the fluffy beast, grabbing its fur and pulling it out hard.
A tuft of fur fell off, but the fluffy beast remained unmoved, still aiming at the crimson maple leaves in front of it.
What makes the fluffy beasts so troublesome for the beastmen is their soft, plush fur. The beastmen's sharp claws sink into this soft fur, losing their effectiveness. Furthermore, the fluffy beasts often appear in groups and enjoy fighting in packs, making them arguably one of the beastmen's least favorite creatures to face.
Fortunately, Feng Hong's weapon was a stone spear, and she was strong enough to stab the stone spear into the furry beast's body.
Having been trained as a warrior, Maple was unafraid to face the beasts and fought the Fluffy Beast to a standstill. Rock, knowing that the Stone Spear could damage the Fluffy Beast, joined the battle with the Stone Spear and finished off Maple.
Cotton was overwhelmed by the dazzling battle scene and didn't know where to begin. He dared not rush in rashly, fearing he would disrupt his tribe's rhythm.
Black Soil silently left the battlefield. She came to Cotton, looked up at him expressionlessly, and said, "Cotton, stone spear."
Cotton paused for a moment, handed her the stone spear, and watched as the still-young Black Earth ran towards the wild beast once again.
"Heitu!" Mo Rong called her name, but couldn't bring her back.
A beastman who has survived fourteen snow seasons is considered half-adult, with two more snow seasons to go before reaching full adulthood. Black Soil, having only witnessed thirteen heavy snowfalls, is currently a cub. She is the most skilled fighter among the lemming beastman cubs and shouldn't have become a warrior so early.
However, she was chosen. The chieftain of the lemming orc clan selected her, skipping over many adult and semi-adult orcs.
Because she was an orc brought from another clan by her mother, it didn't matter if she died in battle.
Mo Rong didn't want her to unknowingly go to her death, so she took her and fled the lemming beastman clan. Even so, Hei Tu still couldn't escape her fate of becoming a warrior this year...?
"Black Soil, kill that beast!" Mo Rong shouted.
He knew this time was different; this time, Black Soil had chosen to become a warrior. She had not become one of the abandoned orcs.
Hearing Mo Rong's call, she glanced back at Mo Rong, then gripped her stone spear and turned towards the fluffy beast. Hei Tu locked her gaze on the spot where she had plucked the fluffy beast's fur, and seized the opportunity to plunge her sharp weapon in with all her might.
The fluffy beast, in pain, shook its body frantically, throwing Black Earth off. No matter how skilled Black Earth was in combat, it was still a cub, and its stamina was no match for the fluffy beast.
She was thrown into the air.
Cotton stood where she landed and caught her.
"Black Soil, are you hurt?" Cotton lifted her up and asked gently.
She shook her head, jumped to the ground, locked onto the furry beast, and adjusted her timing to join the battle.
The furry beast was hit by Maple Red again and wanted to retreat. It looked around for a way to escape, but was repeatedly blocked.
Orcs from all directions were either stabbing it with stone spears or hurling stones and knives at it.
While Jiang Yunlan and Abai were fighting the beast in Fenghong, they scouted the surroundings and found no other furry beasts nearby. It was a lone beast, so they couldn't let it go back; they had to let it call for other furry beasts.
The battered furball was outnumbered and died on a clear autumn day.
As it fell, Rock lost control and dropped the weapon he was holding. He clutched the area where his shoulder connected to his back, gasping for breath.
He was struck in the back by a wind beast's blade when he was young, and the wound still aches frequently after it heals. His shoulders cannot be overworked. Now, in his beast form, he can no longer even run.
The fluffy beast doesn't have much attack power. Apart from ramming and jumping, its only attack is to eat the creature that attacks it.
The beastmen were not bitten and eaten by it; they were only bumped into a few times.
"This beast's fur feels very warm to the touch. Let's strip it all off and take it back." Jiang Yunlan touched the soft fur of the furball beast, then turned around and smiled, telling Feng Hong, Yan Shi, and Hei Tu to rest.
She took out a stone knife and, together with Ah Bai, Cotton, and Mo Rong, shaved off the soft downy fur.
The fur of the furball is very fine and can be spun into yarn to weave clothes.
The over two-meter-tall furry beast didn't curl up into a small ball after its death; its fur could make several pieces of clothing. Jiang Yunlan looked at it with increasingly loving eyes, completely forgetting the fear she had felt.
This isn't some frightening beast; it's clearly a messenger bringing warmth.
Finally, I have clothes to keep warm.
A note from the author:
----------------------
The little angel "vv" used 6 nutrient solutions on Jiang Yunlan, and Lan received nutritional support, making her healthier.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
