I woke up to find myself transmigrated into a disabled child.

Chapter 13 Encounter with the Treant Clan

Unaware that the young man was secretly criticizing him, the furball was focused entirely on being on guard, while Lezhi slept peacefully behind it, oblivious to the turmoil in the hearts of the people outside.

"Leman, go into the woods and send a signal to tell Leshan and the others to gather here. The rest of you, disperse and keep watch."

The young man suppressed his sudden doubts and made arrangements methodically. There was still some time before dawn; they would figure out how to bring the cub back safely after dawn when it woke up.

"Yes, patriarch."

The people who were assigned tasks responded quietly, and then dispersed to do their work.

Time passed slowly, and even though it was only half the night, the young man was counting down the seconds. His eyes never left the cave for a moment, fearing that something might happen to the cub sleeping soundly inside.

Thinking about why the cub had to go through all this, the young man gritted his teeth, feeling extremely guilty.

Lost in thought, time seemed to fly by. As the first rays of sunlight touched the earth, nocturnal creatures hibernated, and the sounds of wind and animals awakened the forest in the early morning, as well as awakening Lezhi.

"Um..."

Lezhi stretched lazily with both hands above her head, blinked to clear her dry eyes, and greeted the furball in front of her cheerfully, "Good morning, furball, did you sleep well last night?"

Lezhi stood up and stretched a bit, but didn't hear a response from Maoqiu, so she looked at Maoqiu in surprise.

At this moment, Maoqiu realized that there were more and more uninvited guests outside the cave and that its territory was being invaded. Maoqiu was furious and its fur stood on end. Now that Lezhi was awake, it no longer needed to worry about waking Lezhi and rushed straight out of the cave to fight.

Seeing that the fur ball had only given her a brief "chirp" before rushing towards the cave entrance, Lezhi's heart sank, knowing that something must have happened outside the cave.

There's never a day of peace!

Lezhi sighed inwardly, took out the flint and held it in his hand, and followed Maoqiu out of the cave.

The situation outside the cave was completely unexpected for Lezhi. The creature confronting Maoqiu outside the cave was not the insect he had just thought it was, but a human with a similar appearance to him.

Upon realizing this fact, Lezhi immediately paused, hesitant, unsure whether to retreat or advance.

In the days since he regained consciousness, he had indeed wondered more than once whether there were intelligent beings like himself in this world. He had also thought about making contact with civilized society at the right time, but he never expected that this opportunity would come so suddenly, catching Lezhi completely off guard.

Given the current situation, rather than immediately facing humans like himself, Lezhi would prefer to encounter insects or large birds.

As a fellow intelligent being, Lezhi was acutely aware that the complexity of intelligent beings far surpassed that of creatures living in the jungle; a glimpse into this could be seen by looking at his previous world.

It wasn't that Lezhi had any prejudice against the intelligent beings here; he was just unsure about their attitude and didn't know how they would treat him, an outsider.

With a hint of unease on her face, Lezhi stopped at the edge of the cave, looking at the people confronting Maoqiu, unsure of how to react.

Meanwhile, those outside the cave, seeing the cub the chieftain had mentioned finally emerge from the cave, displayed a variety of excited and joyful expressions. Some impulsively tried to rush forward to greet the cub, but were all blocked by the furry ball and could not make an inch.

The atmosphere froze instantly, leaving only the furry ball's incessant roar from its chest.

Seeing this, the young man in the lead decided to break the deadlock. He stepped forward, ignoring the furry ball's threat, and gently raised his hand to indicate his harmlessness, "Hello, can we talk?"

The young man said this while looking at Lezhi. His eyes were gentle and his tone was tender as he tried to express his goodwill to Lezhi.

Suddenly, the young man spoke. The language he spoke was not any of the languages ​​that Lezhi knew in his previous life, but inexplicably, Lezhi instantly understood the meaning of his words, as if he had been born with this language.

"Okay, okay." After living like a savage for several days, Lezhi was momentarily stunned when he suddenly encountered someone of his kind with whom he could communicate. After regaining his senses, he did not delve into the language issue, but instead chose to extend goodwill.

In any case, everything that had happened these past few days had been so miraculous that he was no longer surprised. Without waiting for the other party to speak, Lezhi asked first, "So... may I ask who you are?"

Upon hearing the cub's response, a smile flashed in the young man's eyes. He wanted to step forward, but was stopped by the sudden sharp, threatening sound from the furry ball, which still wouldn't allow these people to get close.

Helpless, the young man could only continue to stand at a distance and shout to Lezhi, "We are from the Lingyu Clan, and we came here to find you."

"Find me?"

Catching the key words in the young man's words, Lezhi frowned slightly. He also felt that talking like this was tiring, so he stepped closer to them. Although it was supposed to be a conversation, Lezhi did not completely let his guard down. He stopped when he was still some distance away from Maoqiu.

"Yes, I'm looking for you. My name is Le Chu, and I am the patriarch of the Lingyu Clan. Everyone here is a member of our clan, and you are the newborn cub of our Lingyu Clan this year."

Seeing Lezhi come out, the young man, Lechu, lowered his voice and explained to Lezhi slowly and clearly.

"Cub? You mean me?"

Somewhat disbelieving of the words of the person in front of her who called himself Lechu, Lezhi felt as if she were shrouded in immense doubt.

He recalled the image he had seen in the eyes of insects and in the reflection of the stream, and remembered that his body did indeed look somewhat youthful.

But cubs? Isn't that a bit too outrageous!

Lezhi found it hard to accept.

He looked up at the young men of varying statures in front of him. Compared to these so-called tribesmen, he was indeed somewhat underdeveloped, but to call him a cub based on that was a bit far-fetched. Shouldn't a cub refer to those three-headed, soft little guys? Someone like him could at most be considered a teenager.

Seeing the confusion in Lezhi's eyes, Lechu quickly explained gently, "Yes, thanks to the protection of the mother tree, the cubs of our tree spirit clan grow rapidly from birth to cope with external threats. Although we are long-lived species, our cub period is very short. Once you grow a little older, you will enter the sub-adolescent stage."

Tree spirits...? Hearing the young man's explanation, Lezhi felt even more confused. It turned out that he had been expelled from the human race after this transmigration. He had thought that his talent was a cheat code he had always had. Now it seemed that it was a talent that all tree spirits had. After all, the name of the race had a kind of bug-like atmosphere.

Pessimistically concluding that he was mediocre, Lezhi pouted, dejectedly walked slowly forward to Maoqiu's side, squatted down and gently stroked Maoqiu's ruffled body.

If what Le Chu said is true, then these people aren't here to cause trouble. In that case, he'd better appease Mao Qiu and avoid conflict with them, otherwise, it wouldn't be good if something irreversible happened.

The furry ball, which had been on high alert, did not launch a direct attack because the newcomer and the two-legged creature appeared to be of the same race.

Now the two-legged creature it was protecting ran over to comfort it, and the furry ball also keenly sensed that the newcomer did not seem to have any ill intentions towards its two-legged creature. Since that was the case, there was no need to attack for the time being.

The simple-minded furball assessed the situation and, after reaching this conclusion in its mind, its attitude visibly softened. It nestled obediently in the arms of the two-legged creatures, enjoying the stroking, but its beady eyes still stared curiously at its fellow two-legged creatures.

"Okay, sorry, the furball didn't mean any harm, it just wanted to protect me."

After thinking for a long time, Lezhi felt that these people had no reason to lie to him. Most importantly, he did feel a long-lost sense of familiarity and blood connection with these people. Lezhi didn't know why he knew this, but just like his perception of plants, it appeared in his mind so naturally. He guessed that this was a talent of the tree spirit race.

“We understand that it must have been very difficult for you to be born alone in the jungle. Has it been taking care of you all along?”

Seeing that Lezhi's attitude softened, Lechu guessed that Lezhi must have sensed the blood connection between them and their kin, just like them, which was why she accepted them so quickly.

"Yes, Maoqiu is amazing. Several times when we were attacked by bugs, Maoqiu saved me."

Nodding, Yuezhi thought of something and asked, "By the way, Chief Yuechu, do you know what a fur ball is?"