The orcs who returned to the mountains and belonged to the earth would flock to the Xia clan...
The route Jiang Yunlan and her group took back to their habitat from the mushroom forest would not pass through the area that Sveta wanted to go to.
Sveta had anticipated this and felt no disappointment. It stayed in Lan's pocket, often talking to Lan and the creatures around her. Therefore, wherever Xia passed, occasional bursts of lively laughter would emanate.
With its help, Jiang Yunlan obtained new energy stones in the forest before leaving. The food supply for the Zelans and the dragons was now secured.
Xia's group, pushing the two extra carts of energy stones, along with the food, fresh water, and other supplies they had replenished in the forest, happily left the forest and headed towards a new area. They still had a long way to go before reaching the mountains and returning to the grasslands.
The scorching sun hangs in the sky; the hot season has been here for many days.
Jiang Yunlan, dressed in short sleeves and shorts, sat in a cart with a wooden canopy, practicing ice condensation. Unfortunately, the weather was too hot, and having just received a blessing from Freya, she found it difficult to clearly perceive the location of the faintly visible ice elements in the air, let alone summon ice elements to condense ice blocks.
She could sense the water element, but without the blessing of the water spirit, she didn't have the "key" to summon it.
"Lan, that's enough for today. It's almost noon, we'll practice again tonight," Graysien said, looking at the sun in the sky through the wooden shed.
Freya responded with an agreement.
Since Lan received a "life force" from Sveta, it no longer slept as usual, but instead guided Lan together with the dragon.
“Is it almost noon?” Jiang Yunlan came to her senses and glanced at the sky. “Then I’ll practice again in the evening. Let’s stop and have lunch.”
During the hottest part of the season, they had already returned to that sparsely vegetated area near the mountains.
There are few plants here, so it's not easy to find a shady spot. The beastmen of summer didn't waste any extra time looking for shade; they simply built several sheds on the spot using long logs and animal skin blankets, and then set up pots, lit fires, and cooked.
It was too hot, so the meat for lunch was frozen chunks of animal flesh. Some of the broken pieces of ice were piled up in the four corners of the shed, and the heat-sensitive orcs would linger in the icy corners, exclaiming, "I'm alive again!"
Jiang Yunlan had seen this scene before, but she still couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The ice cubes emitted a cool breeze, and she felt a refreshing coolness rarely seen in the hot season, making her even more eager for them to freeze. She wanted to eat smoothies, ice cream, and icy-cold fruit...
Full of anticipation for the ice, she received her food. Greysien and Dawn also took out their energy stones and sat down next to her to gnaw on them, making "crunch crunch" sounds, somewhat like they were chewing ice cubes.
The food in her hand was steaming hot. Jiang Yunlan picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and held it in mid-air, waiting for the meat to cool down.
Beside her, the two little ones, who didn't need hot food, happily munched away. She waited for them to finish the energy stones before asking the question that had always bothered her, "Can only dragons and Zelan eat energy stones?"
“Miman is fine, but other orcs can’t eat it. They’ll die, even orcs who have obtained the power of nature.” Greysien, having eaten his fill, rubbed his eyes sleepily and sprawled on the ground like a flattened pancake.
Chaoxia leaned down next to him, her eyes closed, as if she were asleep.
Upon hearing the explanation, Jiang Yunlan looked melancholy as she ate the food that had cooled down in her hand while glancing at the two little ones on the ground.
She clearly saw other elements, unusable to them, emerging from within Greysien and Dawn. This was a sight she could only see after receiving Freya's blessing. Unfortunately, she couldn't consume energy stones, thus losing a direct pathway to obtaining natural power.
This wasn't the first time Jiang Yunlan had witnessed the dragon and Zelan channeling natural energy outwards, and she still found the scene quite magical.
Generally, blessed orcs extract usable natural elements from the air to store energy. However, when dragons and Zeran consume energy stones, they act like elves, providing energy to the world.
She strongly suspected that the special nature of the dragon, Zelan, and Miman originated from the three spirits of the sky, the earth, and the sea.
They resembled both orcs and elves, a kind of half-elf race somewhere between orcs and elves.
Listening to Long and Zhaoxia's breathing, Jiang Yunlan knew they were still awake, so she asked again, "You gain natural power after eating the energy stones, so why can't the lack of natural power in those mountains be solved with energy stones?"
If the problem could be solved directly with energy stones, then when Greysien left the mountains, he wouldn't have asked Little Bird to guard them.
Hearing Lan's confusion, Greysien opened one eye and looked at Lan with his vertical pupil, explaining, "Energy stones are items formed from the excess natural forces that plants, soil, and river water suddenly encounter and cannot digest in a short time."
"Even if you cut the energy stone into pieces and put it in the river, it will take dozens of snow seasons for the river water to decompose some of the natural power inside the energy stone."
Jiang Yunlan suddenly understood. The energy stone was compressed natural power; ordinary orcs couldn't digest that much energy, so they would die.
As expected, the ability of Long, Zelan, and Miman to digest energy stones was a special gift from the elves.
Her doubts were all answered, and she didn't bring up any new topics, focusing instead on her meal.
After Jiang Yunlan finished lunch, she looked up and saw Ah Bai and Hei Tu leading a group of unfamiliar orcs over.
She looked at the orcs from different clans without revealing her surprise. Those who had arrived in Xia at this hour were most likely new acquaintances, and from a new place at that.
It seems that while she was away from the habitat, Maple and the others developed it very well.
“Lan, Ah Bai spotted them while patrolling the area. They’re orcs who came to work for our clan. Shall we give them a ride?” Black Earth said, his expressionless face fixed on the unfamiliar orcs, gesturing for them to come closer.
Upon hearing the name "Lan," the previously reserved beastmen all boldly cast their gazes at the beastman named Lan, their eyes filled with curiosity. They all knew that Lan was the chieftain of Xia.
Jiang Yunlan smiled at them when she saw them looking over. Without much hesitation, she quickly agreed to let them follow the group.
The Xia clan beastmen who stayed in the grasslands and mountains had no idea that the beastmen who came to work in the clan would see Lan return even faster than they did.
Therefore, when Jiang Yunlan arrived at the mountains and brought her people to the second habitat that Xia had built in the mountains, the beastmen who saw Lan, such as Gray Creek and Green Branch Crow, all thought that the beastmen who were with Lan were new members of her tribe.
Green-Branched Crow took out a pen and paper and subconsciously spoke to the beastmen who had come to work in their tribe's language: "Since you're back, let's register you. What are your names? Tell us one by one."
The group of orc workers looked bewildered as he spoke in Chinese.
Jiang Yunlan was asking Hui Xiaoxi about the situation in the mountains when she suddenly heard the language he used. She took a moment to reply, "Qingzhi, they are beastmen who came to work. They haven't learned Chinese yet. Speak to them in the language of the grasslands."
Gray Creek and Green Branch Crow were stunned. When Lan returned, she even brought back new working beastmen. As expected of Lan!
“Our new tribespeople haven’t had time to learn Chinese either, so you’ll need to communicate with them in the language of the grasslands,” Jiang Yunlan added.
The beastmen, including the Green-Branched Crow, obediently responded and switched back to the language of the grasslands.
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