Chapter 879: Thrown Into A Dilemma
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“It’s amazing.” Napier sighed with emotion. Although he had seen it many times in the past two days, he had always been staying in Mu Zi’s death aura and seeing other creatures ignoring him. Now that he experienced it for himself, it was kind of inexplicably strange.
Everything seemed tranquil and silent, but Napier widened his eyes and continued to stare forward. Anyway, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to see Mu Zi’s movements, so he decided to glue his eyes to Hyde and Noraba using the telescope. After about seven to eight minutes, Noraba, who was bound to the iron pillar, suddenly opened his eyes. He seemed shocked, but following that, his shock turned into surprise. Although he was barely breathing, he began to nod with excitement. Immediately after that, Noraba vanished from the iron pillar, and the ‘iron pillar’ that he was bound to seemed to sway slightly. Immediately afterward, he saw that the dummy modified by him had replaced Noraba’s position on the iron pillar.
“It’s done!” Napier was very excited. Mu Zi was indeed a G.o.d! He could actually accomplish such an incredible feat.
w.a.n.g Zhong, who was next to him, also heaved a sigh of relief. Saving Noraba signified that this trip was worth it, and to be honest, the three of them did not expect the security of Shadow Moon Fortress to be so tight before they came. It was definitely not easy to infiltrate this fortress. If they could learn about the conditions inside the fortress, as well as information about the captives from Noraba and Hyde, that would be the most practical way to gather intel.
After saving the first one, the second one was much easier. Mu Zi obviously grew more familiar with the sensitivity and sense of smell, etc., of the Giant Abyss Monster. Previously when he rescued Noraba, he caused the ‘iron pillar’ to shake slightly, and the monster seemed to have noticed the abnormality. However, when it came to saving Hyde, everything remained completely silent.
Napier was still staring into the telescope and monitoring the movements around the city walls when he heard a voice speak into his ear. “Let’s go!”
Obviously, this wasn’t the right place for them to talk. At the same time Mu Zi’s voice sounded, his death aura shrouded the area, covering w.a.n.g Zhong and Napier at the same time. The two understood the plan right away and began to move.
Although the wilderness was mostly flat ground, there were still several hills and rocks there. After coming out of the swamp, there was a huge forest and a mountain that stretched across another boundary. Everyone had already observed the terrain thoroughly when they came out of the swamp. At this time, they retreated into a well-concealed cave in the mountain forest. Outside, everything remained calm and peaceful. It seemed that no one at the Shadow Moon Fortress managed to notice that their bait had been swapped.
w.a.n.g Zhong and Mu Zi, who were carrying Hyde and Noraba on their backs, immediately put them down to check on them. The two of them were already on the verge of death when they were tied to those iron pillars. Although they had a momentary spurt of energy when Mu Zi woke them up, after being carried across an extremely b.u.mpy road, they seemed to have pa.s.sed out. However, fortunately, they were not dead yet.
From a distance, their injuries didn’t seem that serious, but at such a near distance, they were horrifying. Their lips were cracked and extremely dry, and their bodies were severely dehydrated. It was obvious that they had been tied up for many days. Also, the flesh on many parts of their bodies had split open, clearly a result of being whipped; even their bones could be seen. Not only that, their Soul Power aura was extremely weak, and their internal organs also seemed to be messed up. Obviously, they had suffered many other injuries besides external trauma. Seeing how weak they were and upon closer inspection of their internal injuries, it was obvious they didn’t just get beaten.
Napier took out all kinds of medicines from the s.p.a.ce crystal. Thanks to seizing all the items which belonged to the one-eyed man’s team yesterday, they were definitely not lacking in such things. They applied several special medicines to their wounds and poured the contents of an energy tube into each of their mouths. w.a.n.g Zhong then used his Soul Power to guide the energy into their Soul Seas. After waiting for about ten minutes, both of them finally regained consciousness.
“w.a.n.g—w.a.n.g Zhong!” Noraba was a little agitated. Their experience the past few days as a captive was definitely beyond their imagination. Even death was considered a luxury for them. Their team, the Blue Ray Squadron, was the last team to carry out a rescue operation. Based on the situation in the Exploration Team Department, Noraba no longer expected any other team to be willing to accept the mission to rescue them. Their only hope was that the Vasilyevich Family would dispatch some experts to rescue Vladimir and rescue all of them along the way. However, the chances were extremely slim. It had to be noted that the Vasilyevich Family was one of the 10 Great Families that had decided to sit on the sidelines in the Holy Battle. They did not even send a single Heavenly Soul Expert to partic.i.p.ate in this Holy Battle. Both Noraba and Vladimir had no longer held out any hope. Unexpectedly, w.a.n.g Zhong came for them.
“Bro, you’re truly a stand-up guy…” Noraba’s voice was still very weak. After speaking a few words and getting a little agitated, he immediately began to feel dizzy again.
“Thank you.” Hyde seemed a lot more calm. He only said two words, but it was already extremely difficult for him to do so, and he had to speak slowly.
“What happened? Why were you two tied up there?”
Hyde and Noraba looked at each other, and their pale faces turned paler than before. Obviously, they had recalled some horrible memories, and they sighed heavily.
“Those Octopus people are really sick in their minds!” Noraba had to muster up all his strength to speak. “How could we have a.s.sumed that they are natives who don’t understand anything? They’re doing live experiments on our people!”
“They’re in a hurry to grasp all the information they can about humans. They want to understand our level of adaptability and endurance to various environments, climates, and toxicity. They conducted high-temperature experiments, low-temperature experiments, and toxicity tests, including directly throwing us into a room filled with toxins! In order to understand our Soul Sea and our cultivation methods, they would use various methods to stimulate our Soul Sea. We watched several brothers die in front of us from their Soul Sea explosions. They also wanted to understand the structure of the human body. Many of our brothers were cut open by them on the operating table while they were still alive!”
As Noraba spoke, he was constantly gritting his teeth. His lips trembled slightly, seemingly trying to suppress the anger he felt. As a member of the Vasilyevich Family, Noraba was definitely a tough guy. The living conditions of the Federation’s north district were actually extremely terrible, and he had seen his own fair share of cruelty. However, it only took a few days with the Octopus people to subvert Noraba’s world view. He felt that those cruel mutant creatures that could stop children from crying at night in the north district could be considered cute SpongeBobs compared to the Octopus people.
Perhaps in the eyes of the Octopus people, they were no different from food. This was the price they had to pay for starting a war. Although they were prepared, they would eventually realize that the downside would always be beyond one’s imagination. Also, the Octopus people were definitely well-prepared for this. They had been waiting for the Holy Land to attack.
The atmosphere in the cave grew heavy, and w.a.n.g Zhong’s brows were deeply furrowed. He knew the cruelty of war. Death was not terrifying to him, and he didn’t think that death was the worst thing that could happen to a soldier. However, if they were tortured by such means, it was truly…
After speaking for a while, it seemed that Noraba couldn’t bear to continue anymore. After a few minutes of silence in the cave, Hyde asked: “w.a.n.g Zhong, are you guys just the vanguard? How many people did you guys bring this time? Many of my comrades are still inside.”
“Vladimir too.” Noraba seemed to have lightened up, and he looked at w.a.n.g Zhong with antic.i.p.ating eyes.
“It’s just the three of us.”
“Three…” Hyde was instantly stunned.
It had only been under special circ.u.mstances that the two of them were rescued… Hyde, who was trapped in the Shadow Moon Fortress for more than half a month, was all too clear about how strong the fortress’s defenses were and how much manpower they had. Three people were definitely not enough to rescue everyone. In fact, when he walked into this cave and saw no one else, Hyde had already realized something. It was just that he had a glimmer of hope that the military would send troops to rescue them, or that several exploration teams would join forces to do so, and that w.a.n.g Zhong and the other two were just the vanguard, but now…
In Shadow Moon Fortress, there were more than a hundred people who had been captured. In addition to the 60-70 members of the Seekers who were captured at the start, there were about five other teams who were captured. Not to mention Hyde’s dimensional brothers who were connected to him by blood, those other captives from other exploration teams also sacrificed a lot for this Holy Battle. Furthermore, they were only captured when they tried to rescue them. Many people had already been tortured to death, but there were at least 70-80 survivors.
“Brother w.a.n.g Zhong, there is a Warlock Saint here. It is impossible for us to save everyone.” Hyde then took a deep breath and grabbed w.a.n.g Zhong’s arm. “Please go back to request for backup. Don’t get ordinary exploration teams to come anymore. No matter how many teams come, they are not equipped to handle the Warlock Saint! It’s best to get the military to deploy some troops or a powerful Great Teacher!”
The three of them looked at each other. A Warlock Saint… This was big news. No wonder it was useless to send exploration teams. The power of a Warlock Saint was even more terrifying than that of Sword Saints and Great Teachers.
“How about you?”
“I’ll stay here to monitor the situation! Firstly, we will know if they suddenly transfer the captives, and secondly…” He gestured to his body; needless to say, with his current physical condition, it would be impossible to return to the base with w.a.n.g Zhong and the others at top speed. He would only become a burden.
“I’ll stay here too.” Noraba also shared the same sentiments. “Vladimir is still here. I can’t leave him. F*ck! Fortunately, Pomo was feeling unwell and didn’t come, or else, it would have been the end of the Vasilyevich Family line this time. Hehe, lucky for us, one of us is safe! ”
Napier couldn’t help but interrupt, “I’m afraid we won’t be able to get backup from the base. You guys don’t know what is happening in the Exploration Team Department now. The exploration teams had already kicked up a big fuss over this matter, but the higher-ups don’t seem to have the intention of deploying troops. Also, the mission they a.s.signed to us is only to collect intelligence. There is no follow-up arrangement or plans for rescue. I don’t think we will be able to get any help from them.”
Noraba sighed. The Blue Ray Squadron was the last team to come, and they were clear of the Exploration Team Department and the military’s intentions. If they really wanted to rescue the captives, they would have taken action long ago. Several teams had already been lost in this place, yet they only released the rescue operation in the form of team missions. The northern battlefield seemed to be entering a stalemate, and the recent reinforcements were also deployed to the southern battlefield. The northern base definitely did not have excess troops to handle this kind of thing, not to mention Great Teachers. Before the departure of the Blue Ray Squadron, there was a Great Teacher who got ambushed and died in the southern battlefield. Now the entire Holy City Army had become cautious. It was impossible that the military would let a Great Teacher take such a huge risk just to rescue them.
However, Hyde continued, “I know that the base generally will not change its strategic deployment just to save a few dozen people, and it is unlikely that there will be a Great Teacher willing to take such a huge risk for us. But the situation here is special. Brother w.a.n.g Zhong, if you can explain the situation in detail, the military will definitely consider it when they are arriving at a decision!”
Noraba nodded his head furiously in agreement. Napier also began to rub his chin, seemingly considering the possibility of convincing the military.
Hyde looked at w.a.n.g Zhong. His speech could only convince someone as simple as Noraba. He knew that the possibility of convincing the military to change strategy was very low, but they still had to try! Also, Hyde could sense that w.a.n.g Zhong was a smart person. w.a.n.g Zhong was merely an insignificant person in the Tyrants, yet he could yield unusually brilliant results during the Holy Disciple Challenge, as well as kill a Sword Saint. Regardless of whether he picked up someone else’s kill, at least Hyde believed that such a person was bound to have extraordinary wisdom and had the ability to convince the base to deploy troops to rescue everyone. Even though there was only a one percent chance, this was the only way.
However, w.a.n.g Zhong shook his head. “From here, it will take at least three to four days to return to the base even at our fastest speed. Even if the base is willing to send troops, they would not merely send a few mini teams to come over. It will take them a day or two just to complete the various preparations, and maybe they will have to deploy staff from other stations, not to mention that it will cause the army to advance even more slowly… Are you sure that the rest of the people in the fortress can survive till then? Also, apart from the Black Boulder sentry post, the Mizobadapi people’s sphere of influence still covers about hundreds of miles around here. A small team like us may be able to conceal our whereabouts, but will a huge army be able to? I am afraid that when the military comes over, the Shadow Moon Fortress would long be empty by then.”
With every sentence w.a.n.g Zhong said, Hyde’s heart sank a little deeper. “If we try to get a Great Teacher to help…”