The Real Grassland

After leaving the family settlement, Li Qi flew while studying the communicator.

Once he had familiarized himself with its functions, he opened the map.

This was Zhaoguang City's map for managing the grassland, marking the grazing ranges of every tribe around its outskirts.

If one wanted to know how strong a tribe was, they only needed to look at the size of its grazing land on the map.

Powerful tribes occupied enormous pastures, located close to the grassland's inner regions where demonic beasts were numerous. They formed the first line of defense against demonic beast incursions.

Compared to the major tribes on the front line resisting demonic beast incursions, the smaller tribes faced far fewer threats from demonic beasts on the outskirts of the grassland, and their pastures were much smaller.

Some tribes' pastures even had to be specially outlined, or their boundaries could not be properly shown.

Studying the tribes marked on the map, Li Qi pondered, "There are quite a few tribes along the route from the family toward Zhaoguang City.

"But judging by the distance, only nine tribes are suited to seek refuge at the family settlement. Another four tribes are closer to other shelters."

Shelters had emerged because of beast tides, and beast tides were periods when demonic beasts ran rampant.

During these periods, planetary-level demonic beasts that usually roamed the grassland's inner regions would lead groups of apprentice-level demonic beasts into the outskirts.

Occasionally, a small number of stellar-level demonic beasts would join them as well!

Before a beast tide arrived, powerful tribes would gather their scattered clansmen and withdraw into their settlements to defend themselves, minimizing losses.

As the major tribes on the front line pulled back their forces, demonic beasts that normally found it difficult to enter the grassland's outskirts could easily do so during this period.

The tribes grazing on the outskirts were too weak to fight the large numbers of demonic beasts, so they had no choice but to temporarily relocate to major tribes for protection.

Over time, shelters came into being.

"First, I'll notify the nine tribes that are suited to seek refuge at the family settlement and see whether they choose to migrate alone or gather together and move as one.

"After that, I'll contact the other patrol inspectors and see if they have informed the remaining four tribes."

After only a brief consideration, Li Qi settled on his plan.

About ten minutes into his flight, he reached the pasture of the first tribe.

Controlling the Bone Shield to hover in midair, Li Qi looked at the map and roughly estimated the distance.

"My full-speed flight on the Bone Shield should be around five to six hundred meters per second. I wasn't flying at full speed just now, but I was still moving at three to four hundred meters per second.

"Going by ten minutes of flight time, this place is roughly two hundred kilometers from the family pasture.

"Two hundred kilometers... At the migration speed of those weak tribes, I wonder if they can reach the family pasture within a day."

Li Qi carefully scanned the ground below for a long time before finally spotting signs of the pasture's owners.

There was a black dot on the distant grassland, with wisps of green smoke drifting above it.

"There."

Muttering softly, he controlled the Bone Shield and flew toward the rising smoke.

As he drew closer, Li Qi found it somewhat unbelievable. This weak tribe actually had quite a large population!

He made a rough count. The tribe had around one hundred and twenty tents. At four people per tent, that came to nearly five hundred people.

Five hundred people, yet not a single planetary-level warrior!

The Royce Family, where he lived, had fewer than a hundred people, yet six planetary-level warriors were permanently stationed there.

Hovering in the air, Li Qi lowered his head and fell silent.

The impact of what he saw before him was far beyond anything he had experienced during the beast tide two years ago.

During that beast tide, he had still been a seventh-rank apprentice-level psychic. He had seen people in their forties and fifties, much older than himself, who were only fourth- or fifth-rank apprentices, participating alongside him in their first beast tide trial.

Even then, he had found it deeply shocking.

But only now did he truly understand that not every tribe was called the Royce Family.

It was even more different from the peaceful and stable previous life lingering vaguely in his memories!

Seeing more and more people gathering below, Li Qi guided the Bone Shield down slowly.

Below, many young and middle-aged men held bows or spears as they warily watched the sky. Some had already nocked arrows to their bowstrings.

The elderly, women, and children had already hidden inside the tents, and pairs of eyes could still be seen peering out through gaps in some of them.

As Li Qi slowly descended and they saw that the newcomer was not a demonic beast but a member of the Human Race,

the wary young men let out sighs of relief and lowered their bows and spears. Some called the elderly, women, and children out of the tents.

Landing in an open area, Li Qi surveyed the people around him and found that most were fifth- or sixth-rank apprentices. Only some of those with clearly better weapons and equipment had reached the seventh or eighth apprentice rank.

Ninth-rank apprentices were pitifully scarce—there were only two!

After probing them with his psychic power, Li Qi sighed inwardly. Five hundred people, yet only two ninth-rank apprentices. This tribe is far too weak. No wonder it was rated as a weak tribe.

While Li Qi was observing the others, they were also observing him.

They were extremely curious about this person who had dared to come alone to another tribe.

But when they saw Li Qi's age and appearance, shock appeared on all their faces.

Because he was young!

Far too young!

In their tribe, someone Li Qi's age was not even qualified to undergo their first beast tide trial.

Yet he had dared to come alone to their tribe, so he was clearly very confident in his own strength. Ordinary apprentice-level demonic beasts were likely no match for him.

"I am the chief of this tribe. May I ask who you are?"

Before long, a tall and burly middle-aged man with ninth-rank apprentice strength came before Li Qi.

"Li Qi Royce, Eleven of the Royce Family. I currently serve as a patrol inspector."

As he spoke, Li Qi revealed the communicator on his wrist.

The burly man's face showed shock. "A patrol inspector? Could it be..."

He could not believe it. How long had it been since the last beast tide? Was a new one already coming?

"This is an email issued by Zhaoguang City."

Li Qi activated the projection and displayed the email bearing Zhaoguang City's seal before the burly man.

The burly man could read the universal language. After quickly reading the email, he had no choice but to believe that a new beast tide was about to arrive.

Once the burly man had finished reading the email, Li Qi put away his communicator. "Arrange for your clansmen to migrate to the Royce Family's shelter as soon as possible. Time is short, so I will be leaving first. There are other tribes that still do not know about the beast tide."

With that, he controlled the Bone Shield into the air and headed for the next tribe.

After Li Qi left, an eighth-rank apprentice youth came to the burly man's side. "Chief, he's a patrol inspector. Is he a planetary-level expert?"

"No." The burly man shook his head, his expression complicated as he watched Li Qi's departing figure.

Retracting his gaze, he said bitterly, "He is a ninth-rank apprentice psychic. In terms of strength, he is stronger than me!"

"At such a young age? And already stronger than you, Chief? As expected of someone from the Royce Family."

Watching Li Qi disappear into the sky, the youth greatly admired him, though beneath that admiration was even more envy.

After leaving the first tribe, Li Qi flew onward, notifying one tribe after another.

As night approached, he had visited every tribe suited to migrate to the Royce Family for refuge. He had also notified three tribes that were farther away, leaving only the last tribe unvisited.