Chapter 84 - 66: Rapid Reinforcements
Chapter 84: Chapter 66: Rapid Reinforcements
The battlefield fell silent. The goblins began to form ranks, preparing to return to their nest.
Just then, another zombie appeared in the clearing. Calling it a zombie was a bit of a stretch—it actually looked more like a normal human. It had a handsome face, wore a suit of armor, and had a greatsword hanging from its waist. If it hadn’t opened its mouth to reveal sharp canine teeth, Lin Kong would have mistaken it for some powerful Human Lord.
Seeing this zombie appear, the Minotaur in the goblin army immediately went up to meet it.
The two sides approached, exchanged a few words, and then went their separate ways.
Afterward, the goblin army headed back the way it came. Along the route, goblins continuously broke off from the main force, heading in other directions until the army had completely dispersed.
With the clamor of the goblin army and the roars of the zombies gone, the area around the clearing was silent. The only sound was the gentle rustle of leaves occasionally drifting to the ground.
Lin Kong and the members of the exploration team regrouped in the woods beside the clearing, keeping their distance.
"Captain Yuan, what’s our move?" Lin Kong was excited. If they could just eliminate those zombies, he could confirm whether or not this was a Catastrophe Camp.
If the new Catastrophe Camp for this month turned out to be the zombie clan, then the number one spot on the leaderboards this month would be his for the taking.
’With a Death Devourer on my side, any undead that shows up is screwed.’
"What do you think we should do?" Yuan Xiaobo asked in return.
"Forget my ideas for a second. If I weren’t here, what would your standard procedure be?"
"Under normal procedure, we would send someone to probe them. After gathering some information, we’d act accordingly. If we could handle it, we’d clear them out ourselves. If we weren’t confident, we’d report back and wait for reinforcements."
"Now, thanks to the battle between the goblins and the zombies, we have a pretty good grasp on both of their capabilities. We don’t need to probe them anymore."
"My thinking is we should wait here and request backup."
"Why request backup? We have Rose. There’s nothing to be afraid of!"
"Here’s the thing: we can’t be sure what level or grade the camp’s supreme commander is. If it’s a legendary-grade hero, that’s one thing. With Rose’s support, I’m confident I could hold them off."
"But if the Zombie Commander is a mythic-grade hero, I’d be helpless. It would most likely be a total party wipe. Even if Rose isn’t afraid of Death Energy attacks, a mythic-grade hero could kill him with sheer physical strength alone."
"I am not afraid of death!" Rose said in a deep, booming voice.
"It’s not a question of whether you’re afraid or not. It’s that it’s unnecessary."
"This is the first suspected Catastrophe Camp we’ve found. No one knows what the commander of the camp is like. We just need to wait one night. When our commander arrives tomorrow to hold the line, we can tackle it without worry."
Yuan Xiaobo explained patiently to the group.
After listening, Lin Kong said no more, tacitly agreeing with Yuan Xiaobo’s approach.
He wasn’t afraid to die, and neither were the other members of the squad, but just as Yuan Xiaobo had said, it was best to avoid unnecessary casualties.
However, to avoid any unexpected complications from waiting, he decided to use his own special ability to communicate remotely with his original body and have Phantom come help directly.
This would save Yuan Xiaobo the trouble of sending someone back to report, getting approval, and wasting all that time on the round trip.
Back in the territory, Lin Yu was fast asleep.
In his dream, he was leading the territory’s army on a campaign of conquest. His forces were full of countless elite soldiers and powerful generals, beating the enemy into a steady retreat. Just as he was about to press his advantage, a corpse lying beside him suddenly sat up and shouted repeatedly, "Original body, original body, wake up!"
"What the hell!"
Lin Yu was startled awake, and the entire dreamscape vanished.
He then realized it was his clone, calling him through their unique connection.
"What is it? Waking me up in the middle of the night."
"Seriously? I’ve been running around all night for the safety of the territory while you’re sound asleep, and you have the nerve to blame me for waking you up? Fine, I won’t go out anymore. Strictly speaking, I’m a lord of this territory, too."
"Just kidding, just kidding! What’s so important that you had to contact me this late?" ’He’s my clone, alright. And he’s got quite a temper.’
"Well, it’s like this..."
Lin Kong recounted the night’s events to Lin Yu, who was overjoyed to hear them.
"Nice work! I thought it would take a few days of exploring to find a lead, but you’ve already found one."
"You want me to send Phantom, right? I’ll go arrange it right now."
Lin Yu jumped out of bed, dashed to the main hall of the Lord’s Mansion, and projected his consciousness into the territory’s core, looking toward Phantom’s home.
Phantom’s home was a multi-room wooden house in a residential area near the World Tree. The interior design was similar to that of the Lord’s Mansion.
However, aside from a bed in the master bedroom, the other rooms were bare.
This was because, in his family, only he and his wife, Moon Shadow, had successfully passed the Celestial Tribulation and gained humanoid forms. His children were all still in their beast forms.
Moreover, their adult children had all moved out, leaving only a litter of wolf cubs that had been born this year.
Moon Shadow had undergone her tribulation while pregnant. It was a close call, but she made it through safely. After the cubs were born, they displayed extraordinary talent and physiques far superior to those of ordinary Forest Wolves.
Lin Yu had heard about this. Since these were the first children in the territory to endure a Celestial Tribulation along with their mother, he had arranged for fresh meat to be delivered to Phantom’s house every day. Of course, the supply of Hundred Flavors Meat Fruit was unlimited.
When Lin Yu’s consciousness arrived at Phantom’s house, the couple was lying naked in bed, wrapped in each other’s arms and sleeping peacefully. However, judging by the disheveled state of the bedding, they must have gone through an intense battle of their own.
"Phantom, time to get up!"
Lin Yu only glanced for a moment before looking away, sending his voice directly into Phantom’s mind.
Phantom startled awake, shaking his head. Hearing Lin Yu’s voice in his mind again, he immediately got out of bed, casually pulled the blanket over Moon Shadow, and walked out of the room.
"My Lord, what is it?"
"It’s like this: the exploration team has found a suspected Catastrophe Camp. They suspect a mythic-grade hero might be present, so to prevent any unforeseen problems, they want you to go and provide support."
"Understood, my Lord. I’ll set out at once."
Although Phantom was a little puzzled as to why the Lord himself was relaying a message from the exploration team, he didn’t dwell on it and readily agreed.
After receiving the location information Lin Yu sent to his mind, Phantom went back inside to leave a note for Moon Shadow, put on his gear, and hurried out the door.
Just as the sky began to lighten at dawn, Phantom arrived at the woods next to the clearing.
At that moment, Lin Kong’s group was perched in a large tree near a burial mound, anxiously watching a decaying tree stump in the clearing.
The stump was moving slowly across the clearing. Every so often, a zombie would poke its head out from beside the stump to check for any disturbances. At these times, the stump would become completely still. Even when a zombie crawled out and kicked it over, it showed no reaction, just like a real piece of wood.
That was the Death Devourer, Rose. While waiting for backup, Rose couldn’t suppress his craving for the deathly aura on the zombies and had snuck to the edge of the clearing.
To ensure he could devour the maximum amount of deathly aura, he had secretly moved toward the center of the clearing by himself.
After concealing his presence, even when zombies detected a disturbance and crawled out to investigate, they merely dismissed him as an ordinary stump.