The terrain in the distance is slightly flat, and a towering city wall can be vaguely seen at the farthest end of the horizon.
The top of the city wall is where all the muscles and membranes gather most densely. There is a huge irregular sphere like a heart, which is constantly expanding and contracting while also radiating red light outwards.
But that wasn't what surprised her the most.
But under that section of the city wall...she saw a lot of small black dots gathered together.
They are building a camp.
Stones, tents, and even fire smoke.
If there's nothing wrong with her eyes.
Those little black dots are Worm Knights.
Chapter 60 Abnormal
“So many…” Several people exclaimed nearby, “Almost equivalent to a village… No, it’s even the size of a small town!”
A village-level settlement would generally have hundreds to thousands of people, and a town-level settlement would have at least three to four thousand people.
"Lord Frick, shall we go back?" the sloppy knight named Bruce asked in a low voice.
Frick took out his pocket watch and checked the time. There were still about twenty minutes left, and it would be six hours since they had been out.
This was a very dangerous threshold, because although the agreed time was twelve hours, the return trip would also take time. If the round trip was halved, their maximum exploration distance would be "six hours" - of course, this was calculated to ensure adequate rest.
If there were no major discoveries, Flick would definitely leave early. But now... the reason why he set aside a 40-minute break in the first half of the journey was to deal with this situation.
"Everyone check the water and dry food you brought." He reminded the team.
Hitzfeld was lying on the other side of the cliff. Hearing this, he turned over and checked his waist bag. There was still a water bag hanging there, and there were also five wheat cakes in the waist bag.
The same goes for Xia Yibing. The amount of supplies they carried was probably enough for them to survive for a few days if their supplies were cut off. This was also a special treatment from Smail to the exploration team.
"Pull your head back," Frick said. "Take out the food and water and eat something."
Hitzfeld glanced at him and realized that he didn't intend to go back immediately.
There were still eighteen minutes left to complete the six-hour journey, which was not even enough time for them to get close to the wall ahead. But if they took some rest time out of the six hours of the return journey, their spare time would immediately increase to more than forty minutes.
But the prerequisite is that they can return safely after the investigation and do not encounter any other accidents on the way.
After all, he is someone who can pass the gold trial. This guy is not lacking in the so-called adventurous spirit...
Hitzfeld's impression of Frick has changed slightly.
She agreed with him.
On the surface, this seems like a suicidal act, but you have to know that they have no other choice.
Behind the city wall might be the Soth Fortress that Willensel mentioned, which was their only hope to check and balance the Emperor Worm. If they didn't collect as much intelligence as possible on this trip, they would have to send another exploration team to explore further.
That would be a waste of too much time.
Twelve hours in this situation can change a lot of things, including some minor injuries turning into serious injuries, some people falling ill and losing strength, the seriously injured not being able to hold on and rushing into the arms of death, and of course the most precious water consumption.
So if it can be solved once, then solve it once.
At this time, time is roughly equal to life.
But then again, the eating process is not enjoyable.
Freshly baked wheat cakes are both soft and crispy. After drying and hardening, this food is surprisingly strong and requires a long time to chew before swallowing if eaten dry.
Hitzfeld took a sip of water after taking a bite of the wheat cake. She knew that she couldn't be particular now because what they were going to do later would require a lot of physical energy.
She can automatically recover her physical strength after being exhausted, but that comes at the cost of draining her vitality... If possible, she would certainly prefer to use something else as an alternative.
"Eat more." Xia Yibing had quickly finished a wheat cake. Seeing Hitzfeld stuffing half of the cake into her mouth quickly, her cheeks bulged from choking, she couldn't help but pick up the water bag to feed her water.
Hitzfeld naturally raised his head and drank.
Neither of them paid attention until the girl finished feeding and swallowed the food, then they suddenly realized what was happening - they remembered the breastfeeding experience.
Their faces looked a little darker in the backlight, but Hitzfeld was 100% sure that the woman's face was red, because hers might be even redder.
"Are you done eating?" Frick's voice came from the other side.
The golden knight's face was tense and his hands were folded tightly together. Hitzfeld noticed that they were pressed very hard against each other, as if to suppress some kind of pain.
"Once you're done eating, let's move!" Frick noticed her gaze and put his hand down. "We need to go around the side and at least determine their size and their approximate combat power."
After a rough discussion, Frick divided the team into two groups.
He and the two knights made a group of three.
Hitzfeld, Xia Yibing, Darent, Leah, and the knight Bruce make up a group of five people.
He wasn't wearing armor, so it seemed like the second group was more powerful.
According to his plan, if one of them was discovered, the other group would be responsible for creating some noise to distract the pursuers.
"But they will catch up with us eventually," said Darent.
"That's right." Frick nodded, "But as long as we achieve our goal, it's fine. I left a gunpowder bag at the river behind, mixed with silver flint powder... I took it out from the armor."
"You want to blow up that river?"
"It's enough to stop them a little."
"Does it have to be done?"
"...It would be best if we could avoid being discovered."
"I don't think blasting the river will do much."
"Leah mentioned on the way that there is a strong magnetic field underground," Hitzfeld interrupted. "If that's true, then the ground beneath our feet must be even denser. Its strength may not be something that ordinary worms can drill through."
The plan was crude, but it was the best decision that could be made in a short period of time.
Hitzfeld followed Xia Yibing and began to circle around from the right side - there were still many tall stone pillars on the flat terrain ahead, and they could use the stone pillars to cover themselves and move closer.
It’s definitely walking a tightrope.
She felt her heart beating rapidly.
Why didn't I go against Frick.
She was confused.
I have found sufficient reasons to explain my risky behavior, but in fact I can still turn back - I know they won't refuse me.
So it's actually because... I really hope 'they' are still alive?
The seven-eyed carving on the giant insect's fangs...
The Myth of the Seven Days of the Sun King...
The mystery of the Hitzfeld family's destruction spanning two worlds...
I always fantasized about finding the truth behind these things in the red earth plains.
Gradually, perhaps because her body absorbed energy, her posture became more stable, and every step she took was like that of a cat, silent and light.
Xia Yibing had been observing her. Seeing this, she breathed a sigh of relief and focused most of her attention on the creeper camp ahead.
The camp is not big enough to accommodate so many people.
Well...if creepers can still be considered human beings...
The result of preliminary visual observation is that there are at least 2000 crawlers stationed in the camp. They have clear division of labor and cooperate and communicate with each other. This can be called a primitive civilization.
Of course, considering that they were originally a more advanced species, this seemed like a degeneration to Xia Yibing.
"They don't all live outside..."
Knight Bruce said softly.
He was wearing leather armor, holding the edge of the stone pillar with one hand and holding a sharp dagger in the other.
"The camp outside is newly built. It can't accommodate so many people. They must have lived behind the city wall before."
"Doesn't that actually mean there could be far more than just these?"
Leah's mouth dropped open, the speculation really frightening her.
She didn't know much about red soil, but at least she knew some common sense, including that crawlers were far rarer than worms.
Otherwise, why do all those legends and stories seem to show a single creeper commanding a swarm of insects?
Now, we see thousands of crawlers alone.
Coupled with the information that there are multiple emperor worms, the little girl's eyes turned black and she almost lost hope of returning home safely.
"How strange..." Darent narrowed his eyes and stared at the scene.
The others looked over, and he said softly, "This doesn't match what's recorded."
"Indeed."
Xia Yibing said coldly.
"Creepers... this isn't the life you should be living."
In all the records she had read and watched, the speculation about the life of crawlers was nothing more than "living in damp and dark insect holes, associating with worms, in a daze and without self."
But now?
The group of crawlers who were building their new home did indeed use pig- and sheep-sized worms to transport goods, but this was far from all the descriptions.
They look...well off.
Very comfortable?
After all, he is not the villain I imagined...
Chapter 61: Captured
"Maybe we have wronged them?" Darent's tone rose slightly. "Didn't a strange guy chase us away before? Maybe he did it for our own good... He didn't want us to be eaten by that beast."
"Then how do you explain why they attack us every once in a while?" Knight Bruce immediately asked sternly, "'The corrupter who drives the insect swarm with musical instruments', 'the rebel of civilization'...are these titles given to us wrongly?"
"Don't get excited." Darent lazily picked his ears. "I just proposed a possibility."
"This is impossible!" Bruce's face still looked grim. "We are enemies! Mortal enemies!!"
Hitzfeld gave Darent a light kick on the butt.
These people don't usually hang out in Wengsayn, so they don't feel this aspect very clearly.
But for the knights stationed in the fortress all year round, they have experienced many insect swarms and may have lost many people they cared about in these battles.
This is an irreconcilable contradiction.
We cannot comment on this contradiction in an indifferent tone, as that would be disrespectful to both the living and the dead.
"Okay, mortal enemy, mortal enemy..." Darent was scared and raised his hands in surrender. "Then what? Should we continue to get closer?"
"We've seen almost everything we can see from this distance." Bruce nodded and glanced back, "Almost... What is that!?"
His voice was a little out of control, because he actually saw the gate of the city wall opened - a number of crawlers riding on giant python-like worms pulled a huge object out of it, and that thing looked a bit like -
"A statue?" Xia Yibing narrowed her eyes. "Is it a statue?"
"It's a statue." Hitzfeld confirmed. "Convert the proportions... the length, no, the height should be 18-20 meters. They laid it down, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to pass through the city gate."
It was a huge, majestic stone sculpture.
The Creeper Tribe obviously cared a lot about this thing. When it came out, all the Creepers who were doing other things dropped their work and ran over, clapping and cheering loudly while watching it being dragged out.
"Nothing could be more disgusting than this..." Darent said with disgust, "Has anyone told them that this sound is unpleasant?"
"Come closer!" Bruce frowned, "This thing... may be related to the evil god."
Darent stopped laughing.
Xia Yibing frowned tightly.
Hitzfeld held his hair expressionlessly.
Leah's face turned paler.
Evil God...
