The earth trembled faintly, and the dense sound of waves seemed to sweep in swiftly from the north. Sitting on a tree trunk and looking south, one could see that in the originally dense and lush forest, as the sound of the waves approached, many trees began to fall haphazardly!
Chen Daolin's heart quivered, but the long-legged girl, Xiao Lan, gently grabbed his arm. Chen Daolin glanced at the girl, and seeing the comforting look in her beautiful silver eyes, he felt a bit ashamed.
The dense roar grew closer, and suddenly a line of black shadows appeared in the forest, surging like a tide, rising and falling.
The surging beast tide finally came into view, like a mountain flood or a tidal wave breaking through a dike!
A black mass swept in from the forest, and countless beast heads could be seen, including various wolves, tigers, leopards, cattle, horses, and other animals, large and small, innumerable.
In the first instant, Chen Daolin suddenly thought of an episode of the National Geographic Magazine he had once seen about the great animal migration in Africa. He had been impressed by the migration of the wildebeest herds, with thousands of beasts galloping across the African savanna...
Now he was witnessing an even more astonishing scene!
The thundering herd of beasts came swiftly from the north. When they were still hundreds of meters away from the tree where Chen Daolin was, the ground was already shaking, making him dizzy.
The beast tide was about hundreds of meters wide, with thousands of beasts running. Among them, Chen Daolin saw some of the peculiar magic wolves he had encountered the night before. There were also other more bizarre beasts, such as leopards running swiftly, silver-white rhinos, and some creatures that looked like crocodiles but were covered in scales, resembling earth dragons.
All these beasts were entangled together. Those that ran slower were instantly trampled into meat paste...
Just as Chen Daolin was mesmerized, a series of sharp and short whistles came from behind the beast tide.
Dozens of black shadows quickly darted out from the sides and rear of the beast tide, running swiftly through the forest, agile and swift.
As they got closer, Chen Daolin was surprised to see their appearance clearly.
They were clearly... the wolf riders he had only seen in some fantasy movies!
Each was a wolf-headed warrior in armor, with fierce faces and fangs. Some held curved swords, others wielded whips, and all had a peculiar metal whistle in their mouths. Their mounts were giant wolves, as large as horses, running through the forest with lightning speed, leaping and bounding.
As these dozens of wolf riders circled around the sides of the beast tide, they continuously signaled to each other with whistles. The whistles seemed to have a peculiar effect, and the beasts in the tide seemed to fear them. Under the command of the whistles, the dozens of wolf riders, wielding whips, drove the beast tide southward.
The beast tide quickly passed under the tree where Chen Daolin and Xiao Lan were. Fortunately, the tree Xiao Lan had chosen was extremely sturdy, and while many trees around it had fallen, this one remained standing.
Driven by the dozens of wolf riders, the beast tide headed directly toward the Great Round Lake. At the lakeside, the tide turned and continued south along the shore.
The forest was left in ruins, with dust flying everywhere. Chen Daolin coughed repeatedly on the tree trunk, while the long-legged girl, Xiao Lan, looked grim, watching the beast tide and the wolf riders, muttering to herself.
"Cough, cough, cough! Is... is this over?" Chen Daolin coughed a few times and sneezed hard.
"..." Xiao Lan was silent but suddenly her eyes lit up. She climbed up the tree trunk quickly, and in a moment, she had leaped to the top of the tree!
She grabbed the treetop with one hand and shielded her eyes with the other, looking south, and suddenly exclaimed, "Ah! It's the elves, they've taken action!"
As she spoke, a burst of light suddenly shot up from the forest along the shore of the Great Round Lake!
Like fireworks, it shot into the sky and suddenly burst open! Various colors of light spread through the forest!
The dozens of largest and most powerful magical beasts at the front of the surging tide were instantly knocked down as they entered the multicolored light.
The subsequent tide was tripped by the fallen beasts, causing a chain reaction, and hundreds of beasts were brought down.
When such a large herd of beasts is running at full speed, if some fall, they immediately become obstacles for those behind. This chain reaction eventually slowed the tide, and the beasts began to block each other in the forest.
The surrounding wolf riders quickly leaped up, some still blowing their whistles, others howling sharply, raising their curved swords, the bright blades flashing dazzlingly!
Chen Daolin's position was much lower than the long-legged girl's. Hearing her shout, he looked south and saw the beast tide, like a dam, suddenly stop.
Beasts were scattered everywhere, and the wolf riders were shouting and rushing forward.
At this moment, deep in the forest, a hundred golden figures suddenly appeared, flying out of the forest and forming a dense cluster in the air...
Chen Daolin felt this scene was very much like a beehive he had overturned as a child.
From the distance, he could only vaguely see that the hundred figures flying in the forest were like human silhouettes, enveloped in golden light, but he could only see the dozens of flying figures circling around, while the wolf riders on the ground were howling in anger and pain.
They were utterly defeated!
The dozens of wolf riders were defeated in a single encounter, with more than half of them and their mounts falling.
The remaining wolf riders immediately shouted and fled north, while a small group of the flying golden figures pursued them.
They soon caught up to within a hundred meters of Chen Daolin, and he finally saw clearly what these flying figures were!
They... were indeed humans!
Just their figures were more slender and delicate than ordinary humans. Each wore green clothing made of what seemed to be leaves, carried small shortbows, and had quivers full of arrows. Most astonishingly, they had translucent wings like dragonflies on their backs!
Of course, there were also the slender, pointed ears protruding from their hair on the sides of their heads—something humans could never have.
The long-legged girl had already jumped down from the treetop and landed beside Chen Daolin, pulling him back into the dense foliage. She covered his mouth tightly, and the sounds of the wolf riders' pain and anger, even screams, could be heard all around.
The flying golden figures occasionally flew past the tree, causing the long-legged girl to tense up.
Fortunately, the two were hidden in the tree, and the dense foliage shielded them.
After a while, the sounds outside gradually faded.
Chen Daolin felt the long-legged girl's hand on his mouth loosen, and he took a deep breath, peering out of the tree.
Not far away, the wolf riders had been completely captured. Dozens of wolf riders, now without their mounts and unarmed, had their hands tied and were being led north, strung together like skewers.
A few flying golden figures were circling around, holding shortbows and constantly pointing them at the captives on the ground.
Chen Daolin opened his mouth, and the long-legged girl whispered, "Those flying... are a tribe of the elf race."
"Elves?" Chen Daolin asked.
Elves... weren't they the eternal supporting characters and fantasy races in all穿越 stories?
The two stayed in the tree for a long time until the elves had taken all the captured wolf riders away, and the beast tide, driven by the elves, gradually left the forest... It was already dark when they finally dared to jump down from the tree.
The once beautiful forest was now in ruins.
"Hmph, these barbaric beastmen, a race that only knows destruction!" the long-legged girl muttered angrily.
Chen Daolin looked around. The once beautiful and peaceful forest had indeed been devastated by the beast tide, and he couldn't help but feel a bit melancholic. He accompanied the long-legged girl to the lakeside, found a clean spot to sit, and she whispered, "We need to leave here as soon as possible... The beastmen came here to graze the beast tide, and now that the elves have disrupted it, the beastmen won't give up. They will come back, and there will likely be a conflict here soon."
"Those wolf riders are beastmen? And those flying little things... are elves?"
The long-legged girl looked at Chen Daolin, "The wolf riders are from the wolf tribe of the beastmen. As for the flying elves... they are the wood elves, a lower tribe in the elf race. Yes, this area near the lake is the territory of the wood elves, which is why the beastmen dared to come here. If it were the territory of the high elves, the beastmen wouldn't dare to offend them even if they had a hundred lives."
"High elves? Different from these flying wood elves?"
"High elves are the royal tribe of the elf race, the most numerous, and possess powerful magical and racial talents, as well as innate martial skills. They are naturally skilled in both magic and combat. The high elves look similar to humans... only... they are more beautiful."
The long-legged girl added, "The rulers of the elf race have always come from the high elves. The current elf king is a high elf, and it is said that his power is extraordinary, even the leader of the beastmen would bow to him... It is said that when these races united to attack humans, the leader of the alliance was the king of the elf race. This shows the status of the elf race among these races."
"Then why do these beastmen still dare to come here and cause trouble?" Chen Daolin asked, opening his mouth in surprise.
"Only the high elves have such high status. The other smaller tribes of elves may not be taken seriously by the beastmen. Moreover... the beastmen have their own reasons. Beastmen have a strong reproductive ability and a large appetite. They have built their kingdom on the northern plains of the continent, but over the centuries, their population has grown, and the land's output can no longer meet their food needs.
Moreover, among the beastmen, except for the hoof tribe, the wolf and tiger tribes need meat, so they need large areas of land to graze livestock and wild beasts. With insufficient land, they have no choice but to turn their attention to the Icebound Forest... This forest is vast, as large as four provinces of the empire! In such a vast forest, countless beasts thrive, providing food for the carnivorous tribes of the beastmen. So... for food, they have no choice but to risk offending the elves and secretly enter the Icebound Forest to graze their herds every year."
Chen Daolin nodded silently.
The long-legged girl then ran into the forest and found a deer-like beast that had been trampled to death in the chaos of the beast tide. Despite her delicate appearance, she carried the beast, which looked to weigh at least two hundred pounds, back.
"A phantasmal deer," the long-legged girl said calmly. "A low-level magical beast, it has a scent gland that emits a hallucinogenic aroma, causing illusions, and it can mimic the calls of other beasts, making it hard to distinguish, to disguise itself and avoid predators."
"Can mimic anything? Do you think you're Wang Zulan?"
Chen Daolin looked at the poor creature that had been trampled to death and silently rolled his eyes.
[Vote! Young men! Collect!腐女! The next chapter will feature an important character!]