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

Chapter 197 Waiting for the rabbit
Lin Ying stared at Su Weihua in silence for a long time, then finally took a deep breath and said, "This is a long story. Are you sure you want to wait here for me to explain?"

Su Weihua estimated the time; they had spent more time in the woodland and swamp than expected, leaving little time for hunting. If they continued to delay, they might go hungry that night.

"Is someone tracking you?" Su Weihua asked.

Lin Ying shook her head and said, "No."

“We’re going to hunt.” Su Weihua looked Lin Ying up and down and asked, “We haven’t accepted you yet, so you’ll be responsible for your own prey for dinner.”

Lin Ying was more familiar with this area than Su Weihua, and asked, "What are you planning to hunt? Wild boar? Or deer?"

“We are quite familiar with this area. Some of our prey have fixed habitats, so we can guide you.”

Su Weihua glanced at Ling Chengen, who simply raised two fingers and bent them down. Su Weihua quickly understood and said, "We need to hunt rabbits first."

"rabbit?"

Lin Ying looked puzzled, not understanding how so many of them could hunt a rabbit that weighed only a few pounds.

But it seemed that none of the people in front of him thought there was a problem with the decision, so he didn't really know what to say.

Lin Ying simply waved towards the tree, then twisted her body backward, instantly transforming into a thick, yellowish-green viper, its tail tip hooked with its equipment, and swung it in a certain direction.

A massive black panther, with graceful and light movements and not a single stray hair on its body, opened its mouth and snatched the equipment covered by animal skin. Its bright yellow eyes gave Ling Chengen and the others a cold glance, then it leaped into the tall bushes and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Lin Ying glanced back at Su Weihua and Ling Chengen, tilted her head, and said, "Follow me."

Watching the viper with two short horns on its head disappear into the shadows of the forest, Ling Chengen waved to the people behind him and quickly caught up with Lin Ying, who was leading the way.

"Is the path he led us on the right one?" Ling Chengen used his mental power to connect with Su Weihua.

When Su Weihua heard her voice, she was only surprised for a moment, and then nodded slightly to her.

Only after receiving his affirmation did Ling Chengen finally feel at ease.

The people of the Stone Forest Tribe don't often come to the Luolu Mountains to hunt, especially their hunting team. Each of the beastmen is quite young and they are unfamiliar with the area. It was only because Su Weihua was leading the way that she dared to lead the team to try out the area first.

The group trekked through the mountains and finally arrived at a good hunting spot half an hour later.

Lin Ying's shrunken body hung from a tree branch, positioned directly above Su Weihua and Ling Chengen's heads. After lowering her head, she habitually flicked her tongue and whispered, "See that patch of grass up ahead that's quite lush?"

Ling Chengen squatted behind the bushes, flicked away the small crawling insects that had climbed onto his leg, and pointed to the higher slope: "Is that it? Rabbit holes are usually dug in slightly higher places so that they are less likely to be flooded, and the surrounding vegetation makes it easier to hide the entrance."

Lin Ying tilted her head and stared at Ling Chengen's profile for a while, her attitude becoming much more serious than before: "You're quite experienced."

Ling Chengen said coldly, "This is common sense."

Lin Ying slid down from the tree and stood next to Su Weihua, saying seriously, "Catching these Luoshan rabbits won't be easy."

“These rabbits are incredibly clever. The burrows of the Los Angeles rabbits are exceptionally deep and interconnected. They have exceptionally sharp ears and are incredibly fast runners, making them very difficult to hunt.”

"Besides, rabbit meat is scarce, and the nomadic beastmen in the mountains generally don't hunt rabbits much, unless it's during the cold season when food is particularly scarce..."

"You can control snakes?" Ling Chengen suddenly interrupted him and asked softly.

Lin Ying's eyelids twitched, and she nodded, saying, "Yes, why are you asking this?"

"Do me a favor."

Lin Ying had a bad feeling. Looking at the young female in front of him, his first impression was... cunning.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, countless small snakes gathered from all directions and slithered toward the earthen slope where countless rabbit holes were hidden.

In just a few minutes, Lin Ying had gathered the information that Ling Chengen wanted.

The location of all the rabbit burrows on this earthen slope.

Without Ling Chengen saying anything more, Su Weihua and Bai Qingyu had already guessed her intentions. They each led their men to guard the rabbit holes. Seeing this, Lin Ying also sent her men to help guard the holes, while she followed behind Ling Chengen, wanting to see what she was up to.

A few minutes later, thick smoke rose from several rabbit holes. Ling Chengen told Lin Ying to take a large leaf and fan the air into the holes, blowing all the smoke into the caves.

Bai Qingyu squatted at the entrance of a rabbit hole and glanced at Wu Zhuo beside him: "Is the net ready?"

Wu Zhuo patted his chest and said confidently, "Absolutely! Sister En's method is brilliant. We only need to guard the entrance of the hole to catch these cunning rabbits."

"We think we can wipe out all the rabbits here this time!"

Bai Qingyu wasn't as confident as him. She shook her head and said with a smile, "These rabbit burrows are interconnected, and it's very likely that some of the entrances are located elsewhere, not on this slope. So, it's unlikely that we can catch them all at once, but we should be able to capture quite a few."

"After the rabbits are caught, remember to knock them unconscious as soon as possible, otherwise these nets won't be able to hold them. Given time, these Los Angeles rabbits will probably be able to bite through the nets."

"clear."

This time, Wu Zhuo didn't grin and joke; instead, he responded seriously.

Su Weihua was on the other side, quite far from Ling Chengen and Bai Qingyu, with the long-armed ape beastman Yuan Ran beside him. Yuan Ran and he each held one end of the vine net, while Zhilu held a whittled wooden stick in both hands, staring intently at the cave entrance.

Su Weihua leaned closer to the ground, and her ear near the cave entrance suddenly twitched. She mouthed to Yuan Ran and Zhi Lü, "Out—"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a gray afterimage darted out of the hole and crashed directly into the vine net.

Zhilu didn't even get a clear look at the rabbit that had been caught in the net. Instinctively, she swung the wooden stick in her hand and struck the gray shadow stuck at the bottom of the net.

With just one strike, the very fat rabbit was completely wriggling.

Zhilu moved the stick away from her hand, looked down at the unconscious gray rabbit, and exclaimed in shock, "It's actually quite useful."

"Don't talk." Su Weihua raised her index finger at her, signaling her to be quiet.

The Los Angeles rabbit is very alert; if it senses something, it may give up coming out of this hole.

Zhilu immediately covered her mouth, and the next second, another gray rabbit rushed out.

However, the rabbit, in its panic, almost managed to squeeze through the edge of the vine net, but was caught by Wu Zhuo and thrown directly into the net.

Before Zhilu could even swing his bat, two more figures darted out of the cave entrance...

In just one hour, the hunting team had achieved a great harvest on the first day.

Lin Ying was squatting near Ling Chengen, but he couldn't see a single rabbit. Instead, cheers were constantly coming from the other rabbit burrows, making him incredibly eager to see them. Ling Chengen took Ye Zi himself and waved his hand dismissively, "Go if you want. It's a good opportunity to see how many you've caught."

Lin Ying walked over to Black Panther and looked at the pile of rabbits beside him, exclaiming in shock, "You caught so many?"

Black Panther Xuan Yan raised his paw and knocked out the rabbit that came out of the hole, and then calmly answered his question: "These rabbits are dizzy from the thick smoke and are stupidly running into our hands. It's not difficult to catch them."

"This is the first time I've felt that hunting is so simple."

Looking at the dozens of plump Luoshan rabbits around him, Lin Ying suddenly felt that things were taking a somewhat fantastical turn.

Although they usually look down on the small amount of meat on the Luoshan rabbits, they can't resist the large number they catch at once; all these rabbits are equivalent to several wild boars.

Catching wild boars is very dangerous; someone could get injured if you're not careful. But catching these rabbits... getting injured is absolutely impossible.

Most of the orcs present were at the top of the food chain, and if they were attacked by a rabbit, they could easily kill it.

As fewer and fewer rabbits emerged from their burrows and the waiting time grew longer, Ling Chengen extinguished the smoky haystacks and had a water-type warrior thoroughly drench the embers with water to prevent them from reigniting and causing a wildfire.

Ling Chengen did a final count and found that they had caught about 260 rabbits in the hour or so they had been busy.

Although the Los Angeles rabbit is not as large as other large animals, it is not as worthless as Lin Ying said.

In the past, an adult meat rabbit typically weighed only six to ten pounds.

An adult Luoshan rabbit weighs about 20 kilograms.

The largest one they caught weighed 41 kilograms, about the size of a medium-sized dog.

Ling Chengen selected some live rabbits that were clearly still cubs and put them into several cages. He then sealed the cage openings with vines. The remaining rabbits were sorted and tied up by the hunting team. They planned to find a suitable place to camp and rest before processing the prey.

Lin Ying helped carry the two cages, puzzled, "Why pack these rabbits separately? They'll be killed and skinned anyway, so why waste the time? It's not very convenient to carry them around."

Ling Chengen glanced at him and chuckled, "Who said I was going to kill these little rabbits too?"

"You want to keep them as pets? Females do like to keep useless things, but aren't you going to lead a hunting party? Where would you find a place to keep rabbits? And if you're going to keep them, one or two would be enough. These twenty-odd little rabbits... it would be too much trouble to keep them all."

Ling Chengen glanced behind him and asked, "Among the people you brought, is there an orc whose beast form is an eagle?"

Lin Ying turned around and looked at a young man with short brown hair sticking up behind his head. He was talking to a taciturn black panther beastman beside him.

Lin Ying withdrew her gaze, nodded, and said, "There is one; its beast form is a ferry eagle."

Ling Chengen did not meet with Du Ying, but this did not hinder her next plan.

"what is his name?"

"Du Qi." Although Lin Ying didn't know what Ling Chengen wanted to do, her previous display of skill had made him put aside his previous contempt. She spoke gently about Du Qi's situation, "He originally didn't have a name."

"When Duqi's mother laid seven eggs in one litter, he was the youngest. He couldn't compete with his brothers from birth, so he was abandoned when the cold season came."

“When my brother was migrating north with me, he happened to find him. Although we didn’t have a good life, we were still able to feed another person. So Duqi has been with me since he was a child, but he is not an adult yet. He is only seventeen years old this year.”

"Does he know where our Stone Forest tribe is located?"

Lin Ying hesitated for a few seconds, then shook her head and said, "I don't know."

"I want him to run an errand for me," Ling Chengen said with a smile.

Lin Ying pondered for a few seconds: "You want him to help you take these little rabbits back to the Stone Forest?"

"Have the females in your tribe raise them for you?"

Ling Chengen nodded: "Yes."

"He's your man. Whether you help him or not is up to you."

Lin Ying didn't hesitate much this time and said directly, "I can't decide for him. I'll go ask him and give you a definite answer in a bit."

Lin Ying quickly brought Du Qi to Ling Chengen and said with a stern face, "He knows the route and is willing to make this trip for you."

Ling Chengen nodded: "You can set off again after we find a place to stay."

“The Stone Forest isn’t far from the Luolu Mountains. You’re faster than us traveling by land, so the round trip should take less than two beast hours.”

"When you come back, I'll treat you to something nice."

Du Qi wasn't particularly interested in the food, but instead asked, "If I run errands for you, will you let us join the Stone Forest Tribe?"

"I'll talk to your boss about it in a bit, but I can't give you a definite answer right now."

Du Qi was somewhat disappointed with the result. Seeing this, Ling Chengen said, "If you don't want to run, I can have Wu Zhuo run it for you."

The reason she didn't let Wu Zhuo and Bai Qingyu go back was because they had been busy all day, not only rescuing people but also patrolling and guarding. They would be mentally exhausted, so she wanted to give them more time to rest.

Du Qi immediately said, "Okay, I won't go back on what we agreed on before."

"Then could you please pass on a message to the people in the tribe for me?"

Du Qi stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Ling Chengen took out a pretty little yellow leaf from the animal skin bag at his waist: "Could you give this leaf to a beastman named Yuheng in the Stone Forest tribe? He is my beast husband."

"Tell him to have the tribesmen help me raise these rabbits, feed them as much hay as possible since rabbits are afraid of water. Have the earth-element warriors help repair the area where the rabbits are kept, and it would be best to reinforce the ground to prevent the rabbits from digging holes and escaping."

Du Qi raised an eyebrow: "That's all?"

Ling Chengen nodded: "Also, you need to bring these little rabbits with you."

Du Qi curled his lip and said, "I thought you had something important to say. Fine, I'll definitely pass on these words to you. As for whether these rabbits will be scared to death in mid-air... I don't care."

Ling Chengen nodded: "Well, this matter doesn't count against you, but don't mess with these rabbits. I'm keeping them for later use."

Having witnessed Ling Chengen's abilities, Du Qi dared not show any contempt for this female who might become his leader in the future. His face remained expressionless, but he took the cage from her hands.

"Understood, I'll hold it for you."

"Go and do your thing."