The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 196 Los Angeles Rattlesnake
Su Weihua had no doubt about Ling Chengen's investigative abilities. Although he had spent very little time alone with Ling Chengen, he was aware of her perception that surpassed most beastmen, as well as her extremely special abilities.

Therefore, after Ling Chengen reminded him, he immediately raised his hand to signal the team to slow down and be on guard.

The previously noisy queue instantly fell silent.

"Yuan Ran, go and scout around, but don't make contact with them."

Su Weihua immediately made arrangements.

One of the orcs in the group, who looked rather thin but was agile, immediately left the group. With a light leap, he jumped onto a horizontal branch, transformed into a black gibbon with white eyebrows in mid-air, and disappeared after tumbling through the forest a few times.

Su Weihua did not let the team stay in place, but continued forward at the original pace. At the same time, he exchanged information with Ling Chengen and internally assessed which force the team following them belonged to.

Ling Chengen glanced at the dimly lit woods ahead, kicked away a green grasshopper that was at least ten centimeters long that tried to jump onto him, and said to Su Weihua, "There are about eight people following us."

"They were all male orcs, agile and fast. They were quiet from beginning to end, and I didn't notice them collecting supplies. They seemed very familiar with the area."

The other party seemed to know the route they had taken before, as well as the traps they had encountered along the way, and avoided them all.

Su Weihua said with a solemn expression, "If they know the exact location of the trap in the mountains, it is most likely not a force outside Luolu Mountain, but a group of wandering orcs who have lived in the mountains for a long time."

The group hadn't walked far ahead, about twenty minutes, when Yuan Ran returned to the group.

He jumped down from the height, hanging on the tree trunk with one arm, and said to Ling Chengen and Su Weihua below, "There are eight people in total. They must have followed the tracks we left behind. Judging from their appearance, they should be wandering beastmen from the mountains."

"Judging from their eyes and breath, they probably haven't eaten people, but the visitors seem to have ill intentions."

"Speed ​​up, let's get out of this forest and fight over there. We'll have a better chance of winning." Su Weihua transformed into her beast form and led the way.

Ling Chengen was curious about how Yuan Ran determined whether a beastman had eaten one of his own kind.

But it was clearly not the right time to ask questions, so she didn't speak and quietly stayed at the back of the line to make sure no one fell behind.

This forest is indeed not suitable for fighting. If the orcs who followed their tracks were from the mountains, then the other side would have an advantage in terms of terrain utilization.

Although they had just passed the most difficult part of the woodland swamp, they were still not out of the woodland swamp area.

The ground in this forest still hides countless small swamps that look no different from the plains. Some look like small mud pits, only two or three square meters in size, but if you step into one, it is very difficult to climb out on your own.

No one knows exactly how deep these swamps are.

But along the way they encountered small animals that had fallen into the swamp, which were completely swallowed up by the bottomless mud within minutes.

Therefore, Su Weihua led her team not on the ground, but entirely by air, using the crisscrossing branches of ancient trees in the primeval forest to find the safest route.

However, the dangers in this forest are not limited to forest crocodiles and hornbills.

As Zhilu slipped and fell off the moss-covered tree trunk for the seventh time, she couldn't help but curse under her breath when someone caught her from behind.

Walking behind her was Diya, who knelt on one knee on the tree trunk, grabbed her wrist with his left hand, and lifted her up from below with one arm, saying with a wry smile, "Your luck isn't so good today."

Zhilu knelt on the tree trunk, looking at the moss that she had scratched, the veins on her forehead throbbed a few times. After thanking her in a mix of anger and helplessness, she resignedly stood up again, yanked off the fat leech that had burrowed into the skin of her calf, and threw it directly under the tree.

"Watch out for the moss on the tree trunk, try to keep your balance, and don't fall."

"Also, don't stare at the leeches on your legs. They'll come back up in no time. Once we're out of the woods, roast them over a fire or salt them, and they'll come down quickly," Dia kindly reminded her.

Zhilu walked forward cautiously, gritting her teeth as she said, "You make it sound so easy, but you know how disgusting these bloodsucking leeches are."

If left unchecked, these damned leeches, half-animals, can suck her until she's dizzy and nauseous.

Wu Zhuo and Bai Qingyu stayed in the middle of the group, mainly to accompany the flight, in case someone was not caught or was not caught in time by the people behind them and fell into the forest swamp below.

The moss and leeches forced the group to slow down.

Su Weihua was a little anxious, but she also knew that there was no point in rushing things at this stage.

The more you rush, the more likely you are to make mistakes. If someone falls into the swamp below, it will only take more time to pull them out.

"Those people are catching up," Wu Zhuo warned.

This time, without him saying a word, the others also noticed the commotion behind them.

You could hear different birdsong in the woods at first, but gradually... the birdsong disappeared.

Ling Chengen asked, "How far is it from the edge of the woodland swamp?"

Su Weihua turned around and said, "There should still be three or four hundred meters left."

"Then let's hurry."

Ling Chengen thought for a moment, then transformed into beast form and had Zhilu jump onto her back. Several beastmen who were prone to slipping were allowed to ride on Wu Zhuo and Bai Qingyu's backs respectively, while the rest had to speed up their journey on their own.

Before the orcs could catch up, the group hurried on and finally made it out of the man-eating swamp forest.

As soon as they landed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Weihua let out a silent sigh of relief. This was his first time leading a team in the Stone Forest. If things went wrong... his future situation would probably not be easy.

"This area and the area in front are normal woodlands, with many rabbits and other animals, including large wild beasts. Although it is not as dangerous as the woodland swamp or the territory of the bull-demon spider, we still cannot let our guard down."

Zhilu climbed off Ling Chengen and bent down to pull the three bloodsucking leeches off her legs. She threw the leeches into the fireball of her team's fire-type warrior. The broken wounds bled profusely, and the blood flowed down her calves and ankles, all falling onto the ground covered with withered branches and leaves.

Diya sat on a thick tree root, looking down and pulling at the leeches on her leg, frowning as she said, "I never want to go to the woodland swamp again in my life."

These leeches alone were enough to make him remember this horrible place vividly.

He took out a stone medicine bottle from the animal skin bag at his waist, sprinkled the powder inside on the wound, and the bleeding, which had been flowing uncontrollably, quickly stopped.

Almost everyone else in the team did the same thing.

Besides several ape-like beastmen who are very good at climbing, there are also two people who can fly.

Bai Qingyu kept watch behind her, while Wu Zhuo squatted down in front of Ling Chengen, looking at the wound on her leg, and couldn't help but grimace and say, "It looks so painful."

Ling Chengen reached out and pushed his face away, saying speechlessly, "It's me who's in pain, not you."

"If you can't watch it, then don't. Go help Bai Qingyu."

Although Wu Zhuo said he was scared, he still took out a medicine bottle from his waist and applied the medicine powder to her left leg.

Ling Chengen was treating the wound on his right leg.

These bloodsucking leeches don't cause much harm, but they look extremely disgusting.

If left untreated, it will eventually drain a person's blood.

Even if you remove the leeches, the mucus they secrete at the wound will cause it to bleed continuously, so you definitely can't do without using hemostatic powder.

Just as the powder was applied, the people who had been chasing them finally showed themselves.

Actually, these people had arrived long ago, but for some reason, they didn't attack them. Instead, they watched from afar as the men sat on the ground tending to their wounds. Ling Chengen was a little unsure of their intentions, but the fact that they weren't attacking for the time being was a good thing for them.

After wrapping the wound on my leg with strips of cloud-patterned cloth.

Ling Chengen put the medicine bottle away and looked up at a birch tree.

The leaves on the trees are only slightly turning yellow; it's not yet time for them to all fall, so the numerous branches and leaves provide excellent cover, making it a perfect hiding place.

Without saying a word, Ling Chengen drew his bow and arrow, nocked the arrow that Zhilu had picked up, and aimed at a certain spot on the tree.

She didn't fire an arrow, but her meaning was clear.

After a moment, the other party probably realized that they could no longer hide and jumped down from the tree.

The person landed without making a sound.

But Ling Chengen observed the man's physique and found that he was definitely over two meters tall, like a black tower. There was a long scar from his brow bone to his ear, which looked like the claw mark of some kind of ferocious beast. If the scar had been a centimeter lower, he might have lost his right eye.

This person must be the leader of their small gang.

Ling Chengen glanced at the other spots in the tree. Some orcs had peeked out, while others remained hidden. They were all carrying weapons and had many animal skin bags hanging from their bodies, so they seemed to be well-prepared.

Su Weihua pulled Zhilu behind Diya, telling her not to stand in the front row.

Zhilu has good attack power, but lacks combat experience. If the two sides clash, and the opponent launches a sneak attack from the shadows, she, standing in the front row, will definitely be among the first to fall.

Su Weihua turned her head and said to Ling Chengen beside her, "This man is called Lin Ying. He is the leader of the Rattlesnake Wanderer Beastman Gang and has more than 30 men under his command. Their hunting range is usually in the Luoshan area, and they generally do not cross the woodlands and swamps."

"I don't quite understand why he dared to chase after us with only a few people this time."

"Although Lin Ying's gang is called Rattlesnake, he is not a Rattlesnake Beastman, but a mutated Viper Beastman."

Ling Chengen asked curiously, "Who's stronger, him or Chang Tianchen?"

Su Weihua paused for a few seconds, then said in a low voice, "There's no comparison. There shouldn't be any snake-clan beastmen in the Northern Wilderness who are stronger than Chang Tianchen."

The Northern Wilderness is not actually suitable for the snake-kin beastmen to live in due to its climate. Before and after the cold season, the snake-kin beastmen become weak, and their combat power is greatly reduced, especially during the cold season.

Therefore, the most powerful snake warriors generally come from the Southern Beast Plains.

Even Chang Tianchen, he was originally from the Southern Beast and had awakened the Heavenly Python bloodline.

This bloodline is overwhelmingly superior to other snake-like beastmen.

Su Weihua didn't want to mention Chang Tianchen at this time, so she whispered to Ling Chengen, "Lin Ying is an eleventh-level warrior, but I don't know what kind of ability she has."

"He is very skilled at using poison and also very good at controlling snakes."

"So we still need to be careful."

Lin Ying had been observing them closely, and she also carried a bow and arrow on her back, which looked no worse than the one in Ling Chengen's hand.

He carried a very long bone blade at his waist, which was extremely white and had a sharp, beautiful look. It looked even more powerful than Ling Chengen's bone blade.

Ling Chengen glanced at his weapon and felt as if he had lost.

To think that she, the young clan leader of Shilin, was not as well-equipped as the leader of a small gang of thirty people in a remote mountain village.

She was actually a little vulnerable.

But she couldn't tell.

The two sides remained deadlocked for a long time. Ling Chengen couldn't stand the strange atmosphere of mutual scrutiny and was about to speak when Lin Ying beat her to it and asked, "Are you a hunting team from the Stone Forest Tribe?"

Ling Chengen, his face expressionless, said, "Yes, what advice do you have for me?"

Lin Ying listened to her words, paused for two seconds, and turned to look at Bai Qingyu on the other side: "You are the leader, right? I've seen you before, the young chief of the Hanshan tribe. I heard that you married a female from Shilin and are now a member of the Shilin tribe."

Bai Qingyu found this person a bit strange, wondering how the topic had been turned to him.

“I was the young clan leader of Hanshan, but that was before.”

"We are indeed in the Stone Forest now, but I am not the leader."

Lin Ying looked at Su Weihua with disbelief and said, "You're more capable than him, so why would you listen to him?"

Ling Chengen was so angry he laughed. Too lazy to play along anymore, he asked, "Whom our team listens to is none of your business. You've been chasing us all this way, what exactly do you want?"

Lin Ying looked at Bai Qingyu, who had stopped speaking, and Su Weihua, who was also silent, and finally her gaze fell on Ling Chengen.

"You must be Ling Chengen?"

"Ah."

Lin Ying hesitated for a few seconds before asking, "Does your tribe still accept wandering orcs?"

Ling Chengen didn't expect him to say this. He stared at him for a few moments and nodded.

"I and my men are willing to join your Stone Forest."

Ling Chengen pointed to the seven people hiding in the surrounding trees: "Eight people?"

Lin Ying nodded, her face open and honest, "Yes, eight."

"Don't you Rattlesnakes have more than thirty orcs?"

Lin Ying's face darkened slightly, and then she said in a somewhat stiff tone, "There are only eight now."

"Just give us a straight answer: will you accept us or not?"

Ling Chengen turned his head and exchanged a glance with Su Weihua, then nodded and said, "Shilin accepts wandering beastmen, but I need to find out about your situation. You know what kind of reputation the wandering beastmen of the Lolu Mountains have. We in Shilin absolutely do not tolerate beastmen who torture or even eat their own kind."

Lin Ying breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing her words, lowered her hand from the bone blade, and gradually relaxed.

"Don't worry about this."

"None of my seven brothers, including myself, have ever eaten their own kind."

"You can verify it anytime."

Su Weihua observed Ling Chengen's expression and guessed that she probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so she simply continued the conversation.

"We can discuss the verification later."

"You've chased us all the way here, and you've brought almost all the equipment, so it's probably not a spur-of-the-moment decision."

"Rattlesnake's original thirty-odd people have dwindled to eight. There's definitely more to it than meets the eye. Our hunting team only has thirty-odd people. You need to explain what kind of trouble you've gotten into before we can decide whether you can join us."