Xi Lu chuckled softly and whispered to Nian Bing, "Brother, these are all elders from my clan. The one who just spoke is Uncle Xiu Rong, second only to my mother in seniority. After so many generations, all the clanspeople here are related. Now, there are only seven of us dwarves left. What were you and my mom talking about just now? It seemed like you had a passionate conversation."
Nian Bing glanced at Lada and smiled, "Nothing much, Aunt Lada was just telling me about the dwarves' exceptional skills in metallurgy." Hearing Xi Lu's words, he began to understand. Marrying within close kin was never a good thing. Although they had this mountain as a base, the dwarves had always intermarried to increase their numbers, which inevitably created problems. That's why their population continued to dwindle.