Chapter 262: Joining the Battle

"What are you doing out here? You've never fought anyone before, have you?"

Gong Mei saw Yun Li appear behind them at some unknown moment, was startled for a second, then frowned and walked over.

"If you haven't fought anyone, you still have to come, otherwise you'd let those teenage young beastmen of the Tribe go here to die?"

Yun Li said, and pulled the arrow that was lodged in the corpse.

The three cold arrows that suddenly appeared when she came to assist were shot by her; regarding face‑to‑face combat strength, she admits she's indeed not as strong as Gong Mei and the others, but since she can be here, she'll naturally fulfill her expected role.

Gong Mei didn't know how to rebut her, because despite the Tribe's large numbers—already fifteen to sixteen hundred members.

But among them, four to five hundred are helpless cubs and old beastmen who cannot fight, and of the remaining over a thousand, after removing the injured beastmen, the Witch Doctors who tend the sick, those whose bodies cannot cultivate, and those who have cultivated but are stuck at the Red or Orange stages, only a little over five hundred beastmen are at the Yellow stage or above.

And from those five hundred plus, after excluding some whose actual combat power doesn't match their stage, or those who cultivate to better serve other roles like artisans, as well as those strong enough but too young and impulsive to be suitable in such life‑or‑death contests, the ones truly able to protect the Tribe number just over three hundred.

After also subtracting the beastmen taken away by Ji Xuan and Hao and their group, and those staying behind in the Tribe, the Tribe can now field at most one hundred seventy‑eight beastmen.

Under these circumstances, even if Yun Li doesn't ask to come along, in a few days she and Leng Xiao and his group will have to take turns replacing the more seriously injured Patrol Team beastmen to support Gong Mei's operations.

"Even so, why aren't you with your Beast Husband?"

Gong Mei, having trained alongside Yun Li, knows her true strength is considerably lower than many Patrol Team beastmen, so even though she knows the Tribe is short of people, she worries Yun Li might get into trouble here.

"If I stay with him, would he still have the mind to deal with those foreign beastmen?"

Yun Li looked at Gong Mei with amusement, "Alright, don't worry, I won't be a hindrance to you."

She just wants to observe the scene directly, to see whether her ideas can actually help everyone, since hearing others is far less real than experiencing it herself.

Everyone's here, what else could Gong Mei say? She sighed and said, "Then follow behind me; I'll protect you."

Hearing that, Yun Li twisted her eyebrows; seeing Gong Mei's expression, she realized she hadn't agreed, and guessed Gong Mei would still stay by her side, and a pang of apology flashed in her heart.

"Alright, I understand, I'll stay behind you."

Gong Mei's complexion improved slightly, and a group of beastmen gave the area a quick clean, then rushed toward the next 'battlefield'.

……

"A Li, what did you and Shan Ye just do?"

Just as the ferocious beast that was about to catch up to them stumbled badly, the foreign beastmen riding it also fell off violently.

Gong Mei, clutching her bleeding shoulder, looked at Yun Li who had come over to give her a makeshift bandage.

Yun Li lowered her head, her hands moving swiftly, "It's nothing, I just pulled a vine over there; when you came, I lifted it. That beast ran fast, so we didn't see anything on the ground, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get out."

It wasn't just about escaping; they could also launch a counterattack with that chance.

But unfortunately the other side reacted swiftly; in the end they couldn't take away many people, and even their counterattack required them to withdraw after a single strike, otherwise if they kept entangling, with the enemy's beasts assisting and deliberately choosing the dimming evening to target them, their final outcome would be only one—being left here forever.

But when leaving, Gong Mei was about to stand and rejoin the group, when she saw Yun Li revert to beast form, assume a low crouch, and with her body faster than her mind, she lifted a foot and rode up.

The party, using their knowledge of the terrain, quickly hid in the temporary shelter that Yun Li had previously had people construct.

Upon arriving, Gong Mei was helped by Yun Li, who had turned back into human form, into the depths of the cave.

"Is there any wound medicine here? I've almost used up the medicine I carried."

Although Yun Li is usually busy with various Tribe affairs and often overlooked by other beastmen, she still serves as a Witch Doctor who heals, and she herself remembers.

So when others finally got a chance to catch their breath, she still, with a tense expression, went to retrieve the supplies stored in the cave.

"It's fine, don't look for it; there's no wound medicine here anyway, and our minor injuries will be fine after a night's rest."

A beastman, seeing that Yun Li still hadn't relaxed upon arriving, couldn't help but advise.

Gong Mei also called out to Yun Li, "A Li, rest a bit first; it's your first time out, don't be too nervous."

"I'm not nervous."

Yun Li searched around, found that indeed there was none, frowned slightly, sat back beside Gong Mei, and whispered, "Did you forget I spent a while out there before? I've been through this before, too."

"Then why is it the same."

Gong Mei only said that, probably not wanting to continue the gloomy talk, and then she changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, how did you think of pulling a vine to help us break the encirclement back then? If we had known we could deal with them that way, we wouldn't have been in such a mess."

Those ferocious beasts brought by the foreign beastmen are truly troublesome; every time we try to kill a foreign beastman, we first have to bring down that beast.

If not for that, the Tribe wouldn't have suffered such heavy casualties now.

Yun Li couldn't just say that she thought to try it the moment she saw the beast, because it's not only Gong Mei here; Gong Mei can understand why she didn't voice her idea immediately, but the other beastmen would inevitably have doubts.

So she just said, "At that time, it was just me and Shan Ye who had free time to help you, and we had no other options. I saw that beast going berserk fighting you, and thought maybe if something could trip it as it charged, you'd be saved."

Fortunately, vines are the easiest to find in the forest, so Shan Ye and I made a small trap with them. Luckily the method didn't go wrong, otherwise we'd have been left here to answer for it.

"Pah, pah, pah! Yun Li, what nonsense are you spouting! We wouldn't be left here to answer."

Another female, hearing that, immediately interjected, "Even without your vine back then, we would have fought our way out."

"Then we'd still have to lose a person or two."

Gong Mei said pragmatically, "Anyway, this method works; we should use it whenever we get the chance."