"Thank you. I need to go to the Beast King; I need to know what happened..."
She gave Su Shiwei a grateful look and was about to walk out of the cave.
But as soon as he took a step, his legs gave way and he almost fell over.
"I'll take you there." Upon seeing this, Su Shiwei picked her up without saying a word, transformed into his beast form, skillfully tossed her onto his back, and caught her steadily.
Knowing that her limbs were extremely weak, Lin Shanyue did not struggle.
He lay on Su Shiwei's back, taking deep breaths, trying to calm his trembling chest and hands.
Soon the two and the orc who delivered the message arrived at another stone cave.
The orc gestured for them to proceed, then stopped approaching.
The two went inside and saw Hu Shen, Su Tang, and a group of beastmen.
"What happened? Why haven't they come back?" Lin Shanyue asked anxiously.
"How dare you ask!" Ying Jie glared angrily at Lin Shanyue.
"Tell me, did your human race ambush Niu Li? Otherwise, how could they all have disappeared? You must have colluded with the human race to deliberately lure us to the grasslands!"
The thought of Niu Li, who was full of energy when he left, now being left in a state of uncertainty, made Ying Jie furious.
Su Shiwei stepped forward with a stern face, shielding Lin Shanyue behind her. "Ying Jie, explain yourself clearly."
"Yingjie, come back," Hu Shen commanded coldly.
Yingjie reluctantly retreated to Hushen's side.
Everyone knew that Yingjie and Niuli were close friends and had gone through life and death together several times. Seeing Yingjie so agitated, they all fell silent.
"I didn't. I escaped from being chased by the Tianshui tribe. How could I possibly collude with them to harm you? If you don't believe me, you can kill me right now." Lin Shanyue had also calmed down by now and said with a firm expression.
If she loses the trust of the beastmen, she will be caught in a pincer movement.
Seeing Lin Shanyue's expression, Ying Jie was filled with anger, but had nowhere to vent it.
All I could do was angrily shake my hand.
Su Tang gave the two of them a reassuring look and said to Hu Ming, "Hu Ming, you tell them."
She only realized that something had happened to Niu Li and the others when she saw the five cubs who were supposed to be training in the forest suddenly return.
Upon hearing this, Hu Ming stepped forward, his usually gentle voice now tinged with seriousness, and raised his voice:
"Just now, one of the orcs who followed Niu Li to the human realm returned. He was seriously injured. All we know is that Niu Li and the others were ambushed and their whereabouts are currently unknown. The orc is unconscious due to his serious injuries, and we do not know the specific details."
"An ambush? How is that possible... How could the humans have known in advance that the beastmen would be there?" Lin Shanyue's face paled slightly. She shook her head, then raised her hand again.
"I swear on my life that neither I nor my people will ever inform other humans. If I lie, may my tribe be destroyed and cease to exist."
Seeing Lin Shanyue make such a solemn oath, the orcs present began to waver.
They initially leaned towards Yingjie's guess, since if it weren't for this human female, Niu Li wouldn't have traveled so far to the human realm, nor would he have disappeared.
But if that's the case, why did she stay?
Wouldn't it be better to just go back to the human realm with Niu Li?
Just as the beasts were wavering, Su Tang stepped forward and said, "I believe Shan Yue's words. Even if the human race knew the news in advance, the human race is weak, and Niu Li led strong beastmen. How could the human race possibly ambush Niu Li and his men?"
Upon hearing this, all the beasts were stunned.
Yingjie was also stunned for a moment.
"We'll have to wait until that orc wakes up to find out what really happened, but please believe me, Shan Yue has no intention of harming Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain."
Su Tang's words echoed in the ears of the beastmen, and the beastmen who were originally somewhat angry immediately came to their senses.
Hu Shen followed behind and said coldly, "The decision to go to the human race is a deal between the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain and the Divine Wood Tribe. The Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain wants to obtain the human race's salt sand. If something goes wrong along the way, we can only blame their incompetence."
Even the human race couldn't handle it. It was only because Ah Tang was here that he didn't punish them, not wanting to frighten her.
Ying Jie was filled with shame and bowed his head to apologize to Lin Shanyue: "I'm sorry, I acted impulsively just now. I was just... just worried that something might happen to them."
Lin Shanyue waved her hand. She had personally experienced the feeling of her clansmen and friends being in unknown danger, so how could she blame Ying Jie?
Seeing that everyone had calmed down, Su Tang also breathed a sigh of relief.
After Niu Li's accident, she knew that the beastmen of Wan Shou Shan would definitely have a problem with Lin Shan Yue, so she asked Hu Shen to call her over and ask her clearly in front of everyone, so that everyone would know her attitude.
Of course, part of the reason she did all this was for her brother.
"Your Majesty, he's awake! The orc has awakened!"
Just then, an orc ran in from outside the cave.
"Bring him here," Hu Shen ordered immediately.
Before long, a young orc covered in green herbs was carried in on a wooden board.
Upon seeing Hu Shen, the young orc would rise to greet him.
"Lie down and tell me what happened to you in the human realm, and where is Niu Li now?" Hu Shen waved his hand, telling the young orc to lie back down.
"Your Majesty, Lord Niu Li and the other orcs have been captured by the humans, and their fate is unknown. I... I was unable to rescue them and could only risk my life to escape back. Please punish me, Your Majesty!"
The young orc looked deeply ashamed.
So many powerful orcs actually encountered danger in human territory; if he hadn't experienced it firsthand, he certainly wouldn't have believed it.
But it happened anyway.
"It was really done by humans!" Yingjie's eyes widened, and he asked impatiently, "Are you sure it wasn't an orc hiding in the Great Wilderness Plains? It was a human."
“I’m sure those humans don’t have beast forms, and they’re small and easily identifiable,” the young orc said with certainty.
Su Tang frowned upon hearing this, "Is that because there are a lot of them? How did they manage to capture Niu Li and the others?"
The young orc shook his head. "Not many. They outnumbered us by less than half. We camped by the lake one night and woke up the next day to find ourselves captured."
"You were arrested as soon as you woke up?"
"Yes, we suspect that the humans poisoned the lake. After we were captured, all the orcs lost their strength and could only be tortured by the humans."
"They nailed wood and animal bones into our bodies, poured a pungent-smelling water on us, and set us on fire, burning us alive. Sometimes they would let us leave, and as soon as we left, the ground would explode. Humans tortured and killed many orcs like this..."
The young orc's eyes reddened, and he trembled involuntarily as he spoke of his experiences among humans.
The orcs present felt their eyes blaze with fury upon hearing this.
"How dare the humans!" Yingjie was furious and hurriedly asked him, "What about Niu Li? How is Niu Li now? Do you know who the humans who attacked you were?"
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