Jiuying immediately replied, "Yes, Master."
He usually didn't address Shen Miao as "master," but rather by her name. However, in this situation, he wanted to create a strong presence for Shen Miao.
Shen Miao glanced at him but said nothing.
Jiuying made a move to walk out.
The Bloodworm leader hurriedly shouted, "Halt!"
Jiuying ignored him and took even bigger steps.
"Tell him to stop right now! I'll agree! It's just a beast contract, I'll agree!" the Bloodworm Clan leader shouted at Shen Miao.
Shen Miao then spoke, calling Jiu Ying back, but Jiu Ying still had a displeased expression, as if he was ready to kill someone at any moment.
The Bloodworm leader looked aggrieved. "I'll sign a beast contract with you."
But after seeing the contents of the beast contract, he couldn't help but exclaim, "What is this? Why can't we touch anything around you? Not even when we're hunting?"
“No!” Shen Miao said resolutely.
"This is too harsh," the Bloodworm leader said indignantly.
The content of the beast contract is roughly that, during Shen Miao's lifetime, the Bloodworm Clan shall not infringe upon anything within a thousand square meters centered on her.
In the orc world where hunting is the primary activity, territory is of utmost importance. Without territory, there is no way to hunt. Shen Miao's beast contract is equivalent to demarcating territory, which the Bloodworm Clan leader naturally cannot tolerate.
For Shen Miao, this beast contract was not considered harsh; she made these rules simply to maintain the stability of the tribe.
"So you don't want to sign?" Shen Miao squinted.
The Bloodworm leader shuddered at the memory of her methods and signed the beast contract in humiliation.
Shen Miao took the beast contract and ordered someone to untie the ropes binding the Bloodworm Clan leader's feet. The latter angrily turned to leave, but Shen Miao called out to him, "Wait."
"Is there anything else? I've already signed the beast contract with you!"
Shen Miao ignored him, and simply had several Bloodworm Clan beastmen brought out, saying indifferently, "These are the beastmen you infiltrated our tribe, we're returning them to you."
These orcs were trapped inside the defensive line, like headless flies. When Shen Miao sent someone to check the pool, they brought them over.
The leader of the Bloodworm Clan left with his subordinates.
With the tribal crisis resolved, all the orcs emerged from their homes—the old, the young, the frail females, and the disabled males—each with a joyful expression on their faces.
When they heard the male beasts in their household talk about how powerful Shen Miao was, they all cheered and expressed their great admiration for Shen Miao.
At this moment, Shen Miao was seeing off the white-horned beast. The white-horned beast had been a great help this time; without its assistance, the tribe would not have been able to defeat the Bloodworm Clan.
She pleaded with the white-horned beast to stay: "The tribe will be having a victory feast today. You and your companions, stay and eat before you go."
The white-horned beast shook its head.
Helpless, Shen Miao could only reluctantly send it away, feeling that she could never repay such a great debt of gratitude.
"How do you know about strange beasts?" A deep voice suddenly sounded in my ear.
Shen Miao turned around and saw Qing Chen standing behind her.
He was very tall, though not as robust as the leader of the Bloodworm Clan, but well-proportioned. His hair was slightly disheveled, and because he had just come down from the battlefield, there was a bit of blood on one side of his face. He held a stone spear that was almost as tall as him, and his dark black eyes were incredibly deep. He was like a sword drawn from its sheath.
Shen Miao was slightly dazed. At this moment, she seemed to see a handsome and incomparably beautiful god who had emerged from the ancient wilderness.
She, infatuated with him, immediately revealed a knowing, maternal smile.
Qingchen frowned slightly.
What did he say that made the female animal suddenly start laughing?
Seeing Qingchen's impatient expression, Shen Miao finally came to her senses. She coughed lightly and said, "I saved it once."
Then, she told Qingchen what had happened on the mountain.
Qingchen looked at him with complicated emotions, his eyes revealing no clues. Shenmiao unconsciously moved closer to him, and just as she was about to reach Qingchen, the cat-beastman's loud voice suddenly came, "Qingchen, Shenmiao, what's wrong with you two? Come here quickly, everyone is waiting for you."
Qingchen spun around and took the lead in walking forward.
Shen Miao clicked her tongue in regret. This cat-beastman really came at the worst possible time. She almost had a close encounter with the main villain.
In the center of the tribe's square, a huge bonfire burned, and the orcs had all come out, dancing wildly around it. Every now and then, someone would whistle, creating a lively and noisy atmosphere.
Shen Miao didn't join them. Instead, she sat on the hillside eating roasted meat, watching the beastmen singing and dancing below, a faint smile on her lips.
"Chen Miao, why is your meat so delicious?" The bird-beastman held up a huge skewer of roasted meat, his mouth dripping with oil as he ate.
The Bloodworms had besieged the tribe for so long that the orcs had almost finished eating all the food they had stockpiled. Today's victory feast featured a lot of meat that had been hunted on short notice, and some of it was provided by Shen Miao.
Upon hearing the bird-beastman's words, Shen Miao smiled but remained silent.
The meat from her family tasted different, of course, because she marinated it with various seasonings before grilling it. For most of the orcs in the tribe who had never eaten seasonings before, the taste of the grilled meat was simply amazing.
After a night of revelry, all the orcs slept until late morning the next day.
After dinner, everyone went to Shen Miao's house to discuss how to deal with Lü Zhu. That's right, Lü Zhu was still being held in Shen Miao's cellar.
The orcs were all furious that Green Pearl had betrayed the tribe and secretly contacted the Bloodworm Clan.
“I think she should be executed. Betraying the tribe is a serious crime, and she deserves to die.”
“I also think she should be executed, but if she dies, there will be no one to take care of her baby. Ya Ling is really pitiful.”
"With so many orcs in the tribe, how could they not take care of one cub? Anyway, I don't agree with letting her go so easily; it's too lenient on her."
The orcs were in a frenzy, discussing the matter at length without coming to any conclusion.
Some orcs advocated for her execution, while others felt that Green Pearl did not deserve to die, and that if Green Pearl died, Ya Ling would also be pitied.
The situation remained deadlocked.
The cat-beastman asked Qingchen and Shen Miao, who had been silent, "What do you two think?"
According to Shen Miao, such acts of betrayal should be strictly prohibited and severely punished. However, since Qing Chen was here, she did not speak, but only looked at Qing Chen.
Qingchen said calmly, "I follow the wishes of the majority of the orcs."
The cat-beastman watched the beastmen arguing incessantly, and it was really hard to tell what their true intentions were in recruiting people.
He thought for a moment and said, "I have an idea."
The cat-beastmen's solution was to build a separate stone house, lock Green Pearl inside, and forbid her from leaving until she died.
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