This was already her wildest imagination, and she was thinking as big as she could. After all, the emperor worm is still a legendary species at this stage, and the possibility of its existence is lower than that of the fire dragon because at least the latter has been seen by people and has been clearly recorded.
As for the emperor worm, everyone who has seen it has died.
It is said that there are feces and drilled tunnels that can indirectly prove it, but if you have never seen it, you have never seen it. Before this thing really pops up in their faces, there are still countless possible explanations.
Maybe the giant turd was just left behind by another creature.
Perhaps that terrible tunnel was formed by the lava spring itself because the underground soil could not withstand the impact of the magma.
So no matter how exaggerated her imagination was, the changes in the hive this time were either because the number of worms did not match and the reproduction rate of the worms had greatly increased... or Frick's patrol team might have discovered traces of the activities of the emperor worms.
And now they are very close to the truth.
Find out the location of the lava spring, bring Willensel down to survey the geology, dig/measure the size of the tunnel and the reason for its formation - wouldn't that basically be certain?
That was about the end of it—they had already accomplished their patrol's goal, so they could just have Hughes' men dig up some more red soil and bring it back, so why were they still not satisfied? What else did they want to confirm?
For a moment, she felt her heart trembling, because she had an even crazier idea.
The patrol team's goal of entering the red soil this time may not be to confirm whether the emperor worm exists, but to confirm the specific number of emperor worms.
Yes, it sounds crazy... a legendary species whose existence has not yet been proven, but they have already asserted that it is real. This time they came to find out how many of them there are...
But what's even crazier is the reality.
Faced with her questioning, both Smail and Frick fell silent, lowered their heads and dared not meet her gaze.
"...Why didn't you tell us at the beginning?" Xia Yibing quickly glanced at Hitzfeld, then looked at Frick and shook her head slowly: "And you...you pretended to be doing this for our own good, saying that you would also come with us..."
"So it was all a lie? Whose idea was this? Was it Smail? Walker? Or Padom? Does he know who he is scheming against? Tell me!"
"You're making it seem like there's an internal conflict!" Frick looked up.
"Isn't this an internal conflict?" Xia Yibing glared at him fiercely, "An internal conflict that started because of deception!"
"You talk as if we are doomed to die on this journey!" Frick couldn't stand it anymore. "I want to tell you, but you were not in the confidential sequence from the beginning! You suddenly dropped in from Wayne! Do you understand?"
"You are not in Wengsay's defense system, and there is not enough time for Wengsay to trust you. Do you think Wengsay is such a place? Oh! As long as there is a letter of introduction from His Majesty, you should support it unconditionally?"
Frick wanted to continue, but was interrupted by Smail with a wave of his hand.
"Alright, alright, this isn't the right attitude to treat your companions."
"The other two, please understand this 'temporary concealment'... After all, the rules are here. We really can't reveal the mission objectives to anyone before leaving the fortress. Not to mention you, even if the ministers come here, they will be treated the same way."
"Then the best thing you should do is to hint that we shouldn't have come." Xia Yibing was still unwilling to give up, "If I had known it was so dangerous..."
"You have used this sentence on others before." Smail interrupted her, "I did hint to you, and I asked Frick to take you to the cemetery, just to let you guess that this trip is not simple."
"Of course you are all very smart... You did guess it, but you may feel that this difficulty is still within your ability to handle. Then tell me what we should do next? We cannot leak the secret. If we forcibly reject you, will you give up on entering the red soil?"
Of course not.
Hitzfeld, who was listening, immediately responded in his mind.
The most likely possibility is that after being rejected, they will still find a way to enter the red clay... This may seem like a risky move at best at the time, but now it seems no less than courting death.
A red soil plain where there will be no insect swarm riot for the time being, and a red soil plain where there will be no insect swarm riot for the time being but emperor worms do exist.
The nature of these two is different.
So we are back to square one: for now, it seems that going into the red soil with the patrol is the best option.
At the very least, Padom didn't send this team here to kill them.
Even if they were in real danger, she had no doubt...these knights would die to protect them.
"summer."
Raising his hand to signal Xia Yibing not to worry about it anymore, Hitzfeld squatted down and reached out to pinch the slender knuckles of a fire lizard.
The silver-gray ponytail swayed behind her head, and the others gradually focused their attention on her.
"You haven't answered her original question yet."
A girl's voice came from under the brim of the hat.
"What exactly is the hive movement, and... why are you sure that the emperor worm really exists."
“Someone saw it,” Frick said.
"Who?"
"Bilith," Smail answered, "A quasi-gold... He has already comprehended the golden secrets, but has not yet been officially promoted."
"I guess he died." Hitzfeld raised his head a little, "and told you he saw it before he died."
The atmosphere in the cave was somewhat suffocating.
The other knights couldn't help but swallow.
"That's about right," Frick sighed.
"But not 'it'."
"It's 'they'."
……
The night is getting darker.
There were many simple tents set up on the camping ground, and the knights and caravan members were crowded together. As for Willensel and Leah, they were lucky enough to have the carriage to themselves.
The seats in the carriage are detachable, and after being dismantled, there is enough space to set up two beds, which is more adaptable than sleeping in the open air.
The new big director Kak got up in the middle of the night to relieve his bladder. When he passed by a campfire, he suddenly found a man sitting on the edge of a cliff.
There seemed to be a faint spark in the darkness, indicating that the person was smoking.
Comparing the positions of the people in the tent when he got up, Kak thought for a moment, walked over and asked him, "Can't sleep?"
He recognized the man as Darent.
"I remembered some things from the past."
Darent didn't look at him, his eyes passed through the swirling smoke and into the darkness ahead.
"It must be dangerous to do your job." Kak patted him on the shoulder with understanding, and without going back, he sat down next to him.
"It seems that Knight Smail and your companions haven't come up yet. Don't you plan to go over and take a look?"
"I believe in them. Compared to the possibility of them getting into trouble, I would rather stay here and help keep watch for them."
"So you're not going to sleep tonight?"
"If nothing unexpected happens..." Darent smiled and suddenly turned his head to look at Kak: "You have a great daughter."
"Is that so?" Kak also laughed. "Everyone who has met Lusa doesn't dislike her... She likes you too, right? She keeps talking about 'Uncle Monkey Who Can Play the Violin'!"
"She called me that behind my back?"
"Hmm? Then what did she yell to my face?"
"'The tall and versatile uncle'."
"Hahahaha—she is indeed better at talking than me…"
The topic piqued Kak's interest, and the two chatted for an unknown amount of time.
Suddenly, Kak's ears moved.
"Did you hear that?"
He frowned slightly and tilted his ear towards the darkness.
"It seems like there is the sound of a musical instrument..."
Chapter 42: A Stunning Shadow
“You heard it right.” Darent’s expression suddenly tightened, and he jumped up as if he was on a spring.
"Maps?"
"Go wake everyone up." Darent pulled him up, paused, took out a dagger with a leather sheath from his arms and handed it to him: "...We are lucky tonight!"
Kak ran back with a confused look on his face, and shouted loudly to wake people up as he was told. He watched the knights quickly get up and draw their guns and weapons, and then stood by the fire alone, in a daze.
Musical instruments…Why did Mapus react so violently to the sound of musical instruments?
He was a very courageous man. He was not afraid of even the most unruly horse. He remained calm even when worms emerged during the day. Why would he be afraid of the sound of musical instruments?
Musical instruments... Musical instruments...
By the way, why are there sounds of musical instruments for no reason?
After all, this is not in Onsaiyin, nor is it in the wilderness of the outback.
But on the red soil plain, theoretically there shouldn't be any humans other than them.
woo-
woo-
Just before he turned the corner, the sound of the instrument became clearer.
It sounded a bit like a flute, and a bit like a bagpipe. It floated towards this side in gusts in the wind, and all the Flintstone Knights who heard the sound changed their expressions without exception.
"Everyone be on alert!" Kak heard them howling at the top of their lungs.
"Put on armor! Put on armor!"
"The Creepers are coming!"
Ah!
He suddenly realized that he had heard some rumors that the most dangerous thing on the plains was not the worms, but the crawlers.
Those caped crusaders who can ride on the backs of worms!
The Creepers are coming.
Along with the rapid sound of bagpipes, a strange rustling noise came from the darkness.
The patrol knights, holding torches and firearms, stood on the stone platform of the camp and formed a circle, surrounding the non-combatants including Kak.
Everyone stared at the darkness nervously. Gradually, with the help of the spreading firelight, they could finally vaguely see the strange shadow wriggling in the distance.
There were several shadows that looked like shrimp arches.
They were bent and trembling, and what was even more surprising was that there was a human figure sitting on the back of the shadow.
A red earth worm, even bigger than the one seen during the day, slowly raised its head out of the ground with a rustling sound. It was still living in red earth - the area covered by the camp was not very large. If the red earth was compared to the ocean, all the broken rock layers were just isolated islands on the sea.
"What's going on? Are there crawlers outside the red soil?"
Smail, Frick and Hitzfeld ran up urgently, each with a look of confusion and surprise on their faces.
If the appearance of lava springs in the outer area of the red soil plains was not unprecedented, then the appearance of creepers in this location was something that had never happened before.
They shouldn't have run so far.
Just as humans are afraid of them, they should also be afraid of Wengsayin, afraid of that gloomy fortress that is bathed in countless insect blood every year.
Is this the Creeper?
Hitzfeld didn't say anything, but just stared silently at the giant insect that was gradually coming into time.
There's nothing much to say about this thing. It might only look different from the one she had during the day, but she obviously couldn't recognize it. She just felt that it was thicker, bigger, and more difficult to deal with.
Her focus was on the thing sitting on the giant insect's back.
It was a tuft of rotting cape.
The black rags were full of holes, and the hems were torn into rags... When the night wind blew, their shadows would dance on the ground, and from a distance they looked like wriggling tentacles.
Under the cloak were a pair of dry yet moist hands.
It's a very contradictory description... but it's true. Dry refers to its slenderness. They look several times thinner than Darent's hands, but there seems to be some kind of liquid flowing under the skin. Even if you just look at them trembling in the air, anyone will have such an association -
Isn't that all the corpse fluid in there?
And that's basically all that can be observed about the Creepers.
Because of the light, Hitzfeld couldn't see more details. She couldn't confirm whether it really had humanoid limbs - she couldn't see its legs, and she wasn't sure whether the thing holding up the hood of the cloak was a head.
The only thing she could really see was what it held.
