Beastfolk

Biodata

Territory and Organization

The Beastfolk live across the Spirit Resonance River from Yin City and have a government in the Lingyun River Rainforest. A giant brown bear who confronted the West District chief referred to a Beastfolk lord 8 10 11.

• Meifeng County lies on the Human–Beastfolk boundary. Its unclear jurisdiction makes it a meeting place for merchants, spies, criminals, and underground fighting businesses 12.
• Ten-Thousand-Blade region: Beastfolk are one of the three races that remained around the plateau after a long struggle for settlement 37 39.
• Hierarchy: Beastfolk society has a hierarchy, though it is described as less strict than the Demon Race’s 40.
• Branches and kinds: Beastfolk organize themselves into kinds and regional branches, including the Myriad-Blade and Lingyun River Rainforest branches. Members of the same kind can have closer or more distant ties depending on their branch 57.
• Main lineage: The Beastfolk’s main branch maintained territory and a military base on Lantiao Continent. Its Beast King spent long periods unconscious or suppressed, with personal guards awaiting his orders 244 278 335.
• Spirit Resonance settlement: The settlement was governed by a management committee headed by an elderly chairman. Its houses were largely built among living trees, while a cleared central area held the committee building 258.
• Intelligence: The Beastfolk maintained covert posts and agents in other races’ territories, including an underground intelligence transit station in Qiongfang City and agents within the Demon Race 51 374.
• Later survivors: After the loss of the Beast King, Beastfolk who fled the Lantiao main settlement and some from the Myriad-Blade Rainforest lived in an underground Insect Hive on southern Moonfall Continent under Barton’s leadership 372.

Characteristics and Combat

Beastfolk include animal-like peoples and lower-intelligence tribes. Documented examples include bears, wolves, rhinoceroses, vultures, apes, and Ironhoof Horned Horses 10 12 26 29 34 39. Intelligent Beastfolk possess complex cognition, civilization, and technology; lesser Beastfolk are distinct from intelligent species and can be bred and domesticated 131 258.

• Psychic Energy: A giant brown bear demonstrated enough mastery to make the surrounding Psychic Energy resonate with it 10.
• Beast tides: Beastfolk directed low-intelligence creatures to pursue and kill examinees. The creatures could follow simple orders, though they fled when confronted by Lou Shisui 27 29.
• Aerial attacks: Flying Beastfolk used night vision to locate targets, then attacked with Psychic Energy or swooped down on them 27.
• Cultivation: The force entering the Unified Exam Secret Realm consisted mostly of Third Realm Beastfolk, with a smaller number in the early and middle stages of the Fourth Realm 26.
• Military: The Moonfall Rainforest branch emphasized troop quality while balancing against Human and Demon Race armies. Beastfolk land forces were strong, but their reliance on the Insect Race’s naval forces left many local branches without a navy 241 271 327.
• Insect Hive communications: Some troops used implanted Insect Hive Threads to transmit orders securely despite chaotic battlefield Psychic Energy. Production was limited, and forced implantation could cause fatal rejection 242.
• Forbidden-Class Weapons: The Spirit Resonance branch possessed Forbidden-Class Weapons, including the Eye of Madness. Shisui learned that the Eye had a contagious, plague-like form and a transplantable paired-eyeball form 264 265 267.
• Experimentation: Beastfolk researchers sought the Demon Race’s biological modification technology. They also pursued Chi An, an Eye of Madness test subject, using a soldier to pressure him into further growth 244 295.

History

Treaties and border relations

More than 150 years before the story, the Beastfolk, Human Race, and Demon Race signed the Wunu River Treaty, ending their regional fighting over the Ten-Thousand-Blade Plateau 39.

A separate peaceful coexistence agreement established the Spirit Resonance River as the Human–Beastfolk boundary and forbade awakened individuals above the Fifth Realm from crossing it. When Lou Shisui fled there with stolen Awakening Stones, a human pursuit squad crossed, but further troops were told to wait for Beastfolk permission 8 9.

A Beastfolk brown bear subsequently challenged the West District chief’s presence in the rainforest. Despite this initial confrontation, the Yin City and Beastfolk governments announced a joint search for Eight-Tailed Owl 10 11.

Bloody Unified Exam

Human aristocratic scions planned to kill unaffiliated examinees and blame the Beastfolk. Meanwhile, the Beastfolk had taken Zhang Guangzong’s father hostage. Zhang used his life force to open a spatial wormhole, through which Third and Fourth Realm Beastfolk entered the examination secret realm 25 26.

The invaders unleashed a beast tide against the examinees. Lou Shisui attacked the tide to absorb Psychic Energy; by the following morning, nearly half of it had been killed and most of the remainder had scattered. Surviving Beastfolk continued hunting examinees 27 28 29.

The incident report recorded 85,575 dead and one missing examinee, attributing the disaster preliminarily to a Beastfolk invasion. Human leaders also heard accusations that aristocratic families had colluded with the Beastfolk. The council subsequently approved an expedition against the Spirit Resonance Rainforest Beastfolk, led by Fan Yuxin’s Southern Kaiyang Garrison 34 35 36.

Qiongfang City and the Sea Race invasion

Shisui raided a Beastfolk intelligence stronghold in Qiongfang City, stole Radiant Feathers, and left evidence implicating the Demon Race’s Red Crane Orchid. The deception intensified conflict among the races. During the subsequent exchange competition, five Fourth Realm Peak Beastfolk from the Myriad-Blade Rainforest faced Jiang Hongyan’s Human Race team; their opening exchange ended in a draw 51 57.

Sea beasts later attacked both banks of the Spirit Resonance River, destroying rainforest and forcing hidden Beastfolk troops into the open. Chief of Staff Hua Guangqi ordered the local Insect Mother to deploy twenty Hive-Nest Species and eliminate witnesses. Shisui subsequently killed that Insect Mother and devastated forces near Meifeng County 165 166 172.

Hua Yixuan infiltrated the Sea Race and delivered documents warning Yuan Rong that the final trial was a sacrifice. He retained information concerning the Dragon Palace’s Imperial Medical Academy, intending to stir turmoil and impede further Sea Race invasions 189.

Moonwhite Shoal and the Spirit Resonance settlement

A Beastfolk army attacked Moonwhite Shoal, seeking its mineral veins and opposing the nearby Human Race army. Shisui’s Feather Powder and Radiant Feathers helped drive the troops into a frenzy, and they began killing indiscriminately, including one another 242 243.

Meanwhile, the Spirit Resonance settlement’s leadership failed to contact Hua Yixuan. The chairman decided that Hua Guangqi should die rather than be sent to Lantiao and instructed Song Xinrong to steer him toward suicide 258.

Shisui attacked the Spirit Resonance settlement, bombarding it and sealing the area with fog and spatial lockdown. Beastfolk and Insect Race defenders were unable to call for reinforcements. He killed the settlement’s Insect Mother and searched the brains of Hua Guangqi and the chairman for information about the Eye of Madness. The Spirit Resonance branch was left in ruins 263 267 270.

War and the fall of the Beast King

A Demon Race investigation team encountered Beastfolk forces near the ruined settlement and destroyed a Beastfolk fleet and its three Heaven Realm defenders. The Demon Race and Beastfolk leaderships then declared all-out war. Beastfolk and Insect Race forces launched an offensive against Shahai City, where Shisui later attacked both armies and destroyed the city’s eastern wall 271 272 278.

Shisui also turned ten thousand Beastfolk soldiers into puppets with Rc Cells and Bone-Deep Rot, sending them back toward Beastfolk territory as a diversion. They attacked a main-lineage settlement and caused tens of thousands of casualties. Later, Shisui framed the Beastfolk for an attack on the Human Race, undermining the possibility of cooperation between them 302 303 328.

Shisui provoked Long-Life Elder into attacking Beastfolk territory by making him believe the Beastfolk were connected to the loss of a Tree Spirit Heart. The Beast King intercepted the strike, and the two fought 339. Shisui later battled and killed the Beast King on Lantiao Continent 345 346.

Refuge in the Insect Hive

After the Beast King’s death, surviving Beastfolk took shelter in the Insect Race’s underground hive. Barton led them as they relied on the Insect Race for protection. The Insect Mother summoned them under the pretext of another relocation, but secretly intended to harvest their flesh and blood to replenish her forces 372.

The assembly was brought forward, and the Insect Mother began slaughtering the gathered Beastfolk. Barton pleaded for some of their bloodline to be spared and offered access to Demon Race flesh and blood through surviving Beastfolk agents. The Insect Mother temporarily halted the slaughter and agreed to his proposal 374.

Relations with Other Races

• Human Race — A treaty-bound neighbor and trading partner, but also an adversary after the unified exam invasion. Humans and Beastfolk mingle in the Meifeng County border region 8 12 36. Later prospects of cooperation were damaged by Shisui’s staged attack and framing of the Beastfolk 328.
• Demon Race — A fellow signatory of the Wunu River Treaty. The Demon Race’s hierarchy is described as stricter than the Beastfolk’s 39 40. The races harbored longstanding grievances, including Demon resentment over past Beastfolk enslavement and suppression, before declaring all-out war 51 271.
• Insect Race — A concealed ally and vassal whose forces had previously helped save the Beastfolk. The two races later fought together, and the Insect Race sheltered survivors after the Beast King’s death; the Insect Mother subsequently turned on those refugees 166 167 272 372 374.
• Sea Race — An invading enemy whose sea beasts attacked Beastfolk territory along the Spirit Resonance River. Beastfolk agents also sought to destabilize the Sea Race from within 166 189.
• Tree Spirit Species — Their territory was separated from Beastfolk territory by a river. Shisui’s manipulation caused Long-Life Elder to attack the Beastfolk settlement 339.