Chapter 200: Preparations Before the Great War
The Gray Stone Tribe was a cacophony of roars, the Beastman Warriors of the Seven Great Tribes all busy building their new home.
Su An’an stood on a high platform built from Gang Vines. Her jet-black hair was casually tied up, a few stray strands brushing against her porcelain-pink cheeks.
The two fox ears on her head twitched slightly, their downy fur glowing with a warm, pink light. Her black combat suit outlined her graceful curves.
Seville stood silently by her side, his black and white Wings folded behind him, his amber eyes scanning the area with indifference.
His gaze finally settled on a chubby little figure in the distance.
"Attention! At ease!"
Qiuqiu puffed out his round, chubby belly, gripped a miniature Little Bone Knife, and stood majestically on a rock.
Pallas’s cat, gray wolf, spider, and leopard cubs lined up in a crooked queue.
They tilted their little faces up, looking at him with sparkling eyes.
"Today’s training exercise: tail biting!"
At Qiuqiu’s command,
the gray wolf cub immediately let out a yelp and pounced on the Pallas’s cat cub’s short tail.
The Pallas’s cat cub’s fur instantly stood on end, and it swatted the gray wolf on the tip of its nose.
"No fighting!"
Qiuqiu jumped down from the rock with a THUMP.
His chubby little hands shot out, one grabbing the scruff of the gray wolf cub’s neck, the other holding down the Pallas’s cat cub’s head.
He forcefully separated the two little ones who were wrestling in a tangled heap.
Puffing out his round belly, he spoke in a childish voice that nonetheless held an undeniable authority:
"You have to learn to cooperate like Aunty Jin Zhu and Aunty Xiong Guo! Do you hear me?"
The gray wolf cub’s ears drooped, and the Pallas’s cat cub shrank back.
The two little ones nodded obediently. "We heard you."
Not far away, Jin Zhu’s tall, black-furred body was shrouded in the shadow of the Gang Vine Divine Tree.
Her pretty, porcelain-white face was tense, her brow furrowed in concentration, her hands pressed firmly against a thick vine.
Green light flickered between her ten fingers like fireflies, and the ground beneath her feet trembled in response.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
The earth churned, and countless vines erupted from the ground like slumbering pythons suddenly awakened, aggressively weaving and climbing higher.
In the blink of an eye, a three-meter-high Gang Vine wall shot up from the ground, its leaves layered densely like vigilant guards.
It would automatically close upon sensing any disturbance, forming an impenetrable natural barrier.
"Jin Zhu! Add another layer over here!"
Lu Ming, with his sharp eyes, spotted a gap in the Gang Vine wall and quickly pressed his palm against it.
Jin Zhu let out a low cry, and the green light in her palm flared.
Vines shot out like Spiritual Snakes to block the gap, then crawled to the top of the wall, transforming into sharp, gleaming barbs.
Any enemy who coveted the tribe would be torn to shreds by this Gang Vine wall.
"Jin Zhu only had a few meals of Crystal Meat stew, and her innate abilities have already improved so much."
Su An’an mused as she gazed at Jin Zhu’s tall figure in the distance:
"And have you noticed? Among the Seven Great Tribes, she’s the only chimpanzee Beastman."
Seville’s gaze flickered, the imposing face of the Federation’s female president, King Jin Hai, flashing through his mind.
The iron-fisted leader who had ruled the Federation for fifteen years was, in fact, a female chimpanzee.
"Perhaps females of this type are naturally suited to stand at the peak," he replied coolly.
"The females here are all very powerful, and Xiong Guo is improving quickly, too."
Su An’an’s gaze shifted to Xiong Guo below the Gang Vine wall.
She sat cross-legged, her fingertips dancing nimbly, transforming Gang Vine fibers into flexible threads in her hands.
The other females sat in a circle around her, weaving the Gang Vine fibers into armor that was both lightweight and indestructible.
Below the wall, the Rhino Warriors of the Tumu Tribe shouldered massive, bowl-thick logs and methodically reinforced the foundation.
In the corners of the wall’s shadow, members of the Chameleon Clan lurked like ghosts, checking every potential blind spot.
In the sky, the Hawk Clan patrolled with their Wings spread, their sharp eyes not missing the slightest disturbance for miles around.
"The acid rain season begins tomorrow, and our food reserves are still short by thirty percent."
Su An’an looked toward the swamp, her expression grave.
The murky river water churned with black, toxic patches, like festering wounds on the earth.
Seville spread his Wings, his voice as cold and sharp as shattering glaciers:
"The hunt and the clearing of the hunting grounds must be completed today."
The chieftains of the Seven Great Tribes were already standing silently below the high platform, holding their breath. Seeing that the two had finished their conversation, they all knelt on one knee in unison.
Their Gang Vine-woven armor clinked with a crisp, uniform sound:
"Divine Lady, Lord Divine Envoy, the Hunting Team is assembled and ready to depart at any time."
The Rhino Warriors of the Tumu Tribe shouldered Giant Bone Hammers.
The Chameleon Clan warriors of the Giant Stone Tribe’s scales glowed with the scarlet of battle.
The Hawk Clan warriors from the Black Wood Tribe spread their three-meter-long Wings.
Seville stood on the high platform, his silver-violet hair blowing in the morning wind, his black and white Wings fully extended.
He raised a hand and gestured, his voice piercing the clouds. "Move out."
The Hunting Team surged toward the perilous hunting grounds like a black torrent.
Seville landed, holding Su An’an, on a large tree at the edge of the Two-headed Toad swamp.
Deep in the swamp, countless toad bodies covered in fleshy warts were crammed together in a writhing mass.
Their vertical, scarlet pupils glowed with vicious light. Severed limbs were mixed in the mud, a testament to the brutal battle for a new king.
"You don’t need to get involved in this fight. Just stay back."
Seville’s tone was unquestionable, but a wisp of Golden Light shot from his fingertip and silently wrapped around her slender wrist.
It was the Guardian Light Seal of the Swan Clan, capable of absorbing some of the damage she might take in a moment of crisis.
"No. If I freeze them, we won’t have to worry about their poison glands bursting and contaminating the Crystal Meat."
Su An’an looked at the mass of Two-headed Toads, and a soft, pink Divine Light bloomed from her palm.
Frost swept across the ground like a blue tide, and in the blink of an eye, it froze the seething swamp into a mirror-like surface.
The Two-headed Toads were frozen in mid-lunge, their poison glands turning a strange bluish-purple in the low temperature.
Bubbles were suspended beneath the ice, as if time itself had stopped.
"Are you all right?"
Seville glanced at her lips, pale from overexertion, and his hand firmly steadied her slightly trembling shoulders.
"I’m fine. It just used up some Divine Power."
Su An’an suddenly stood on her tiptoes and placed a light kiss on his tense jaw:
"There. Now it’s replenished."
The tips of Seville’s ears instantly flushed red, and his grip on her shoulders tightened. "Nonsense."
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and the Golden Light at the edge of his Wings flickered uncontrollably.
Su An’an gave a sly smile and pointed to the ice, which was beginning to melt:
"You’d better act fast, or my masterpiece will go to waste."
"Finish this quickly!"
He gave the order through gritted teeth. As he turned, his Wings snapped open with a SWOOSH, the resulting gust of wind tousling Su An’an’s hair.
A flash of cold, black light shot out. A Two-headed Toad the size of a small hill gushed blood from its neck, and its two grotesque heads rolled into a crevice in the ice.
A mutated Dragon Beastman caught the heads in mid-air. His sharp claws gouged open the flesh, but upon finding no Crystal Meat, he tossed them back into the swamp with disgust.
The Rhino Warriors took the opportunity to let out a roar and shatter the ice. Their Bone Spears struck sparks against the toads’ tough hides.
The enraged swarm of toads collectively swelled their poison glands. Corrosive slime rained down, instantly eating honeycomb-like pits into the ice.
Pink light flowed from Su An’an’s fingertips, and new layers of ice precisely filled every gap, creating footholds for the warriors.
In his peripheral vision, Seville saw her tense profile and noticed a thin layer of sweat beading at her temples.
When the Crystal Meat had been extracted from the last toad,
Seville folded his wings and landed. He raised a hand and gruffly wiped her sweaty cheek with his thumb. "Stop pushing yourself."