Chapter 17

Ancient Fia steppe, shofar tribe.

On the snowy field, the ground is covered with a layer of snow, which looks white, and the reflected light is even a little dazzling after a long time. A low hill is not obvious in the snow. .

Because it is located in the north, every cold winter season is also the most difficult time. The grain output on the grassland is not much, and most of it is only pasture. In winter, the snow-covered earth can rely on accumulated grain to survive.

Since the orcs were driven here a long time ago, they have mostly lived on animal husbandry, but in the eyes of humans this is actually a slightly strange thing.

For example, the Niutou family raises cattle, and the Sheephorn family raises sheep. The herdsmen and their livestock are somewhat similar. Occasionally, businessmen or tourists who come to trade here will also ask curiously, do your livestock husbandry consider these animals to be of the same kind? Would you have the heart to kill it?

The answer is that they don't have any special feelings. Just like raising chickens and dogs, some orcs are annoyed by the question, and they will ask back, do you humans think that you are the same as monkeys? The answer is of course no.

Rather than saying that orcs resemble animals, they are actually closer to humans, and some scholars even say that humans are a branch of orcs. It's just that this statement has been rejected by many people, and historical research has also proved that in the era of the orc empire, there were indeed no human tribes. Humans seem to have evolved or degenerated from another direction.

The snow-covered hills look normal from the north, but when you turn your eyes to the south, you get a different view.

The north side of the hill blocks the constant cold winds and air currents, while the south side is a basin about the size of 10 football fields. The basin is surrounded by fences, and the part of the basin under the basin is surrounded by large tents. Occasionally, cooking smoke rises from the cylinder in the middle of the tent. Outside the tent is a large fence, which is divided into several pieces. In the center are sheep that are tightly packed together.

They swarmed for warmth, used their thick fleece to keep out the cold, and occasionally blew, like a swarm of cotton, and some of the cashmere was so thick that it even looked a little yellow.

Days are extraordinarily short in winter, the sun is shining but hardly warm, and the air gets colder as it sinks into the horizon.

A young girl walks on the snow-covered wilderness, wearing a leather jacket and hood, with a tightly tied neckline and cuffs, so that no cold wind can get in. Only part of her cheeks and the corners of her eyes are exposed to the air and are blown by the wind. Like a knife cutting, the shoes made a slight noise on the snow, and then exposed the black soil and grass below.

Sparse starlight dotted the sky, the snow-covered ground, and a trail snaked into the distance.

beep-

In front of the fence gate outside the basin, the girl shook the two copper pieces hanging on it, collided with each other, making bursts of clear sound, and several dog barks began to come out in the dark night, echoing each other, making people wonder which direction it was.

"coming."

An old voice came from a small wooden hut not far from the fence, and then the wooden door opened, and an old man came over with a lamp. He had a goatee and was a little thin.

"Is Nia back?"

"Yes, Grandpa Ketan, are you alone?"

As the fence door opened, the girl walked in and said hello.

"Yes, everyone went out during the day to get some food, and they were all tired. I'll be here tonight."

"Is there still not enough food?" Niya shook the snow on her body and asked.

"Yeah. In previous years, caravans from the south would come here, but this year's civil strife in the west has broken many paths. If it really doesn't work, we can only kill sheep."

"But it's a pity to kill those sheep that produce wool, and eating meat is too extravagant." Niya seemed to sigh a little too.

They have a small population of sheephorns, only a few thousand people, and their strength is weak. The biggest income of the year is from the trade of wool and a small amount of goat milk. Killing sheep to sell meat is actually not cost-effective. Because of the mutton taste of mutton, human nobles are rich. People don't like it, and civilians can't pay high prices, which is very embarrassing.

"Well, everyone knows it, but there's no way, we can't let people starve to death." The old man also seemed to sigh.

"Everyone used to say that those human businessmen were greedy, but now it's hard for us to live without them. It's really helpless."

"By the way, Niya, you went to the Hundred Clan Competition, what was the result there?"

As a result, Niya touched the scar on her body, and she still has lingering fears. If the axe light was stronger, she might not be able to come back.

Seeing that Niya didn't answer, the old man thought it was about her sadness, so he comforted him.

"It's okay, it's good to come back alive, and everyone won't blame you. After all, no one in our family has been elected for nearly a hundred years."

"I chose."

"Okay, no...what, have you chosen?" the old man asked again in surprise.

"Well, yes. Although the process was a bit thrilling, I still chose it." Niya nodded, and a smile appeared on her blushing face.

"Okay, okay, okay." The old man's voice trembled with excitement.

"Our family finally has a student of Emenas."

"Tomorrow, I'll tell everyone. No, just tonight. I'll tell everyone the good news tonight."

After speaking, the gray-haired old man pulled the shofar girl and walked inside, through the clearing of hay and debris, through the corral full of sheep, and approached the group of tents.

"Everyone is up, our village, no, our clan is prosperous"

Hands as rough as old bark hold Ni tightly

Ya's wrist was covered with a dull and old blue-purple color, and her loud voice was like a gong in the dark night, spreading far and wide.

"Niya, Niya, she was chosen, she can go to Emenas"

The excited voice even had some crying voices at the end. Over the years, the regrets and long-cherished wishes of many generations have finally come true today.

"what?"

"Really?"

"Sister Nya is amazing!"

"What are you going to sleep for? Get up and make something to eat. Let's congratulate our future heroes."

"That's it."

The originally silent tent group suddenly became lively, one by one clansmen ran to tell each other, some old people burst into tears after listening to it, crying and laughing, the young children didn't know what this meant, but just followed the adults to be happy, because it was like this. You can eat delicious food.

In the tall tent, Niya stood in the middle, the hood on her head had been taken off, revealing two small spiral horns, her tender face was a bit cute, elders and crowd gathered in the tent, looking at them one by one. She held her hand excitedly and said some words of blessing and celebration.

A pair of eyes are full of hope and expectation. Those hands are very rough and calloused, but they are extra strong and heavy when they are held.