The naive and easily deceived sheep-beastmen come from the Xia clan of the forest...
Jiang Yunlan, wearing the number 022 on her head, took the gift and went out.
Yan Duoyu was worried about Lan's safety, so he handed over the task of managing the working orcs to Huimi and personally led Yanlin, Yanhua, Heitu and Yandahe to follow Lan.
Five orcs accompanied her, one or two more than Jiang Yunlan had expected. She hesitated for two seconds, then led the five tribesmen out of the clan's sanctuary.
Four golden leopards, each carrying a vine basket and a humanoid cub, ran across the plains. A glimmer of orange appeared from a low vine basket slung over one of the leopards' backs—it was Black Soil, a lemming orc who had transformed into its beast form.
The Xia clan's leopard beastmen had long since shed their arrogance as carnivorous beastmen who looked down on weaker beastmen, but they still refused to accept a beastman who had survived six snow seasons climbing onto their backs.
If danger arises, they are willing to carry all the cubs and the wounded. But in normal times, they can carry items and food, but they will not carry orcs.
Lan is the only exception. Even if Lan is only a cub that has survived ten snow seasons, even if Lan grows to be half-adult or fully grown, they will still carry Lan on their backs.
"Did you take the initiative to tell Yan Duoyu that you wanted to go to another clan with me this time, Yan Dahe?" Jiang Yunlan asked loudly to the golden leopard running to her right.
Yan Dahe, a semi-adult leopard beastman, is the only one of the three semi-adult leopard beastmen in the clan who has not joined the hunting or gathering teams.
Upon hearing Lan's question, Yan Dahe snapped out of his reverie and replied, "Yes, Lan."
She was originally a warrior seed, and after this snow season, she would be able to shed her semi-adult form and become an adult orc, with combat power in no way inferior to the members of the hunting party. However, for some reason, when she actually faced her prey, the strength she displayed was far less than what she showed in training.
Her fighting ability against prey was too unstable, so Iwatoyu did not choose her to join the hunting team.
However, this time they would be facing orcs of another race, so Yan Duoyu naturally agreed to let her come. Her strength had never diminished when fighting her own people. Yan Duoyu didn't understand why this was the case, but she knew that she was only suited to fighting orcs, not hunting prey.
After some time, Jiang Yunlan and her group arrived at the habitat of an unfamiliar clan.
The orc with ram horns stared blankly for a few seconds as the golden leopard approached before realizing that they were the clan that had arrived on the plains a few days earlier.
As they drew closer, the sheep-orc hurriedly pushed his companion to tell the chieftain to come quickly, while he rushed forward to greet the clan that could hunt large animals, fearing that the new clan might take advantage of his people if they were unhappy.
Upon receiving the news, the sheep-beastman chieftain, Ling Xiaocao, rushed over in a hurry, leaving her tribesmen who had come to summon her behind.
She felt uneasy, worried that this unfamiliar carnivorous orc clan had come to plunder her clan, and couldn't help but think of the Hati clan in the distance.
Unfortunately, her clan was too far from the Hati clan, and it was too late to seek the protection of the wolf-beastmen. She could only file a complaint afterward.
Thinking of this, the anxious Ling Xiaocao calmed down immediately. At worst, she could hand over the items she had prepared for the Hati clan to the unfamiliar clan before her. She would save her own family members first, and then go and cry to Hati.
In any case, it was definitely not her clan that was at fault. They were weak, pitiful, and helpless sheep-beastmen; how could they possibly stand up to the predatory beastmen's plunder?
Her people were injured while protecting the items given to the Hatti clan.
Ling Xiaocao rehearsed what she was going to say in her mind, slowed down and waited for the tribesmen behind her to catch up. She carefully instructed him to quickly lead the other tribesmen to prepare the tribe's supplies.
Watching her people prepare the items in an orderly manner, she couldn't help but sigh.
Hopefully, the Hatti clan can defeat the new clan; otherwise, her clan may face a difficult time, just like the Bear-orc clan did.
“Chief Antelope…” A sheep-beastman, whose horns and skin color resembled those of the antelope grass, stepped forward and looked at her with concern.
She turned to look at this fellow tribesman who had escaped from the rocky region, and patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, "Chief Cotton, don't worry, calm down. I will handle this."
Mian Gaoya nodded, turned around, and together with his people, helped the grassland sheep-beastmen move their belongings.
Seeing his simple and obedient reaction, Ling Xiaocao sighed again, as if she was both disappointed and relieved.
Ling Xiaocao strode towards the strange beastman, her calm expression vanishing completely, replaced by a cowardly reaction, looking exactly like someone who could be kicked by anyone who passed by.
Because they are too cowardly, it is difficult to arouse the fighting spirit of carnivorous orcs.
When Ling Xiaocao saw that the unfamiliar clan of beastmen were all standing behind a squirrel-beastman cub with obedient and docile expressions, her expression became blank.
Looking at her relaxed tribesmen, and then at the strange humanoid beastmen, she inexplicably felt as if she had actually been knocked unconscious by a wild beast. Otherwise, how could she have seen a group of leopard beastmen listening to the squirrel beastman cubs?
Aren't carnivorous orcs all proud and arrogant? How could they possibly listen to the orders of orcs weaker than themselves?
Ling Xiaocao was so shocked when she saw Jiang Yunlan calmly calling out the names of the leopard beastmen and asking them to show her tribesmen the contents of the vine baskets. She stopped in her tracks.
As the sheep-beastman and Jiang Yunlan were talking, the first to notice the clan leader appearing in their field of vision called out to the clan leader, seemingly shy yet somewhat happy, "Come over quickly."
Through conversation, Jiang Yunlan roughly figured out what items the sheep-beastman clan lacked. With this information in mind, she looked more calmly at the approaching Antelope Grass.
Grassland sheep-beastmen are generally shorter than argali sheep-beastmen, and naturally shorter than leopard-beastmen, but they are still a height that squirrel-beastmen and lemming-beastmen have to look up to.
"Hello, Chieftain of the Grassland Sheep-Beastman Clan. I am Jiang Yunlan, Chieftain of the Xia Clan." Jiang Yunlan introduced herself first.
Ling Xiaocao naturally squatted down, revealing a very harmless and innocent smile, "Hello, my name is Ling Xiaocao."
"You've come to our clan to...?" She seemed a little reserved, her hands tucked into her knees, looking timidly at Jiang Yunlan.
She dared not underestimate a chieftain who could control carnivorous beastmen, and still exuded an aura of "I am harmless".
Seeing their clan leader start acting, the group of sheep-beastmen continued to perform with equal enthusiasm, their eyes full of innocent guile. They were practically the embodiment of "I'm weak and naive, and I'm really easy to fool."
Jiang Yunlan failed to see through the sheep-beastmen's lifelong acting skills under the oppression of carnivorous beastmen, and believed the sheep-beastmen's pretense. She couldn't help but worry whether they were often bullied by the surrounding clans.
She softened her gaze and tone, speaking patiently, "Relax, we won't hurt you. Here's what happened..."
She explained her part-time job situation.
Ling Xiaocao was stunned, her blank expression turning into surprise and joy, but then a hint of worry quickly appeared: "Such a good job, there must be other clans involved, right? Can my clansmen really handle this job?"
She lowered her eyes, her brows furrowed slightly, as if she really wanted to bring her people over but worried that they weren't qualified. However, what she was really thinking was that she had just made a brief slip-up, but thankfully she had covered it up.
She really needed to be more careful with the Xia clan patriarch in front of her. She almost believed that such a good thing could happen, and she believed Jiang Yunlan...
"Of course," Jiang Yunlan said, revealing that the wolf-beastmen were also working.
The sheep-beastmen were a bit timid, so she had to prepare them mentally beforehand, lest they be too scared to come back to work when they saw Hati and the others at the clan's later job fair.
Hearing her explanation and words of comfort, Ling Xiaocao's heart sank. The Hati clan was the most powerful clan on the grassland, and even they had been subdued by the Xia clan. It seemed that her clan had no choice but to comply.
After explaining that the wolf-beastmen were also working, Jiang Yunlan immediately assured them that her clan would never allow the sheep-beastmen who came to work to suffer any harm.
She worried that the "naive and easily deceived" sheep-orcs might be tricked out of their meals by some orcs without realizing it, so she added, "If any orcs try to negotiate with you and ask to eat the food you have, you don't need to pay them any attention."
She ordered food from those greedy wolf-orcs. She had set a rule forbidding them from stealing food from other orcs, but those wolf-orcs were so cunning that they always managed to find ways to get their tribesmen and other wolf-orcs to give away the food.
They've mastered all sorts of tricks, from competitions and feigning pain to betting.
Hearing this, Ling Xiaocao understood that the working beastmen's food would be stolen. What a clever "negotiation"!
"How many of my people should go?" she asked, her lowered eyes growing even colder. Just how many of my people does the Xia clan want to take? They say they're going to work, but it's clearly to make them slaves.
Just like what those bear-orc clans did. Their polite words now are just to appease us, to lure my people away, lock them up, and then torture them so much that they dare not escape and can only stay and work.
"Of course, the more the better," Jiang Yunlan said.
Ling Xiaocao gritted her teeth, telling herself to stay calm, not to get angry, and not to let the Xia clan see any weakness. If she wanted to lead her people to escape tonight, she had to persuade the Xia clan to return.
“But your clan must have a lot to do, so it’s okay if only one or two orcs come.” Jiang Yunlan remembered the scene she saw when Yan Duoyu and the others changed clothes in the sheep orc’s burrow.
The sheep-orcs' houses are earthen caves dug from the ground, and there are only a dozen or so of them, which obviously require several orcs to squeeze together to sleep.
But the two earthen caves that Yan Duoyu and Yan Lin had entered were empty, without even a piece of animal hide. Their clan didn't even have enough animal hides for clothing; several of the goat-orcs were only wearing grass skirts. Clearly, they weren't skilled warriors, and obtaining enough food for the entire clan to survive the winter on the plains would be extremely difficult.
Jiang Yunlan knew they were timid. If she were to be a little strict, the entire clan might come over, and then none of them would go hungry.
But she didn't want that. She wanted them to have a choice, instead of being forced to accept the only option by her clan, which was more powerful than them.
The Xia clan treats the sheep-orcs who come to work well enough that other sheep-orcs, seeing the benefits, will naturally come to work as well, and in the end, they won't go hungry either. Since the outcome is the same, it's better to give the sheep-orc clans more choice and courage.
"Oh, right, this is what I brought for you. There's food inside, and a few other things you might need..." Jiang Yunlan said, then suddenly remembered something and said seriously, "Do you have any fire right now? If not, I'll give you a kindling."
Ling Xiaocao had never seen a beastman like Jiang Yunlan before. She subconsciously looked up and happened to see Jiang Yunlan's worried expression with her brows furrowed.
"No, no," Ling Xiaocao whispered.
The Xia clan seems different from the Bear-Beastman clan. Perhaps we should observe them further to see if they are willing to offer fire.
She took the two small vine baskets from Jiang Yunlan, her pupils dilating in shock as she looked at their contents. Wait, are we really getting all this good stuff just like that?!
This...this seems a bit too much to refuse; it's just too much.
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Author's Note: The little angel "Nan Shige" cast 20 beast-repelling agents, and Lan successfully led her people to the sheep-beastman clan without encountering any wild beasts along the way.
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