Chapter 438 – Defending the Black Wasteland
The third day after Zhao Hai and the others arrived at Flower City, a.s.sa.s.sins started appearing on the Black Wasteland. These people brought various antidotes for poison as they investigated everything inside.[1]
However, they soon discovered that they were mistaken. Even if they drank some antidotes so that they wouldn’t be poisoned temporarily, they didn’t expect to get besieged by a large number of undead. Moreover, these undead were very powerful, and since they’re undead, they didn’t need eyes to see the intruders. This meant that stealth techniques were utterly useless. All of their methods of stealth were not effective in dealing with the undead.
It was already known in the continent that the most headache inducing enemies that an a.s.sa.s.sin could face were undead creatures. This was because most of their methods aren’t very effective against the undead. Hidden weapons were useless, poisons were useless, and a.s.sa.s.sinations were useless. In the minds of the a.s.sa.s.sins, the undead were a huge pain in the a.s.s.
For the a.s.sa.s.sins, to have headaches is when dealing with ordinary undead. They had no other fate than to die under Zhao Hai’s undead.
Zhao Hai didn’t make his undead deal with the a.s.sa.s.sins by using their instincts. Instead, he grouped up a thousand undead and gave them to an Advanced Undead to command. When the a.s.sa.s.sins enter the Black Wasteland, they didn’t immediately attack them since it would be very troublesome. When those people penetrated deeply into the area, they will surround them and then kill them in one go.
When Zhao Hai heard that the first a.s.sa.s.sins had arrived in the Black Wasteland, he cared about it. He already knew that this day would arrive. As long as these people enter the Black Wasteland, then they wouldn’t be able to come back. After that, people would be too scared to enter his territory.
At the current time, the other powers wouldn’t be sending in 9th rank experts to enter the Black Wasteland. 9th rank experts weren’t as common as cabbages, they cannot just dispatch them casually.
Common 9th ranks weren’t very willing to be dispatched easily, especially into the Black Wasteland. The Black Wasteland was too close to the Carrion Swamp. All of them knew that the 9th rank Magic Beasts inside the swamp were very strong. Most 9th ranks in the continent weren’t their opponents.
More importantly, in the last few months, the poisonous mist from the Carrion Swamp has begun to spread to the Black Wasteland. All who entered barely managed to get out. Even if they did get out, the poison that they got from the fog eventually killed them.
This poison was the same as those that proliferated in the Carrion Swamp. Because of this, ordinary people didn’t dare to enter the Black Wasteland.
Naturally, this development was Zhao Hai’s arrangement. Zhao Hai wanted to instill the idea that the Black Wasteland has become the second Carrion Swamp.
Zhao Hai’s plan was very effective. In the beginning, when the Seven-colored poisonous mist started to spread to the Black Wasteland, some people started to examine what happened inside. Upon seeing n.o.body inside, they declared that the Black Wasteland has become a place full of beasts and poisonous mist.
This development naturally made the people of the Purcell Duchy very restless. They neighbored the Black Wasteland, if the Seven-colored poisonous mist continued to spread, they would be the first people to experience bad luck. This made the people from the Purcell Duchy attach great importance to the Black Wasteland.
Fortunately for them, when the poisonous mist spread to the whole Black Wasteland, it didn’t go any further. Instead, the mist engulfing the Black Wasteland became thicker and thicker. People may be able to survive entering the place in the beginning, but now, n.o.body managed to survive.
But ever since Zhao Hai revealed the Buda Clan’s Banner, there were a lot of people who entered the Black Wasteland. These people were a.s.sa.s.sins sent by various nations. They also made sufficient preparations, they brought all kinds of detoxification potions as well as protective masks. But all of these were useless, these people wouldn’t survive. If the only thing present in the Black Wasteland was the poisonous mist, then they might have a chance to survive. But unfortunately for them, in the Black Wasteland, the poisonous mist wasn’t the only thing they need to look out for.
These a.s.sa.s.sins entering the Black Wasteland was like a pebble entering the ocean. This fact made the Great powers feel suprise. They didn’t think that the Black Wasteland would become this terrifying.
But to Zhao Hai’s disappointment, they didn’t send out 9th rank experts to do their investigations. Just as what Zhao Hai thought before, 9th ranks weren’t as common as cabbage, they couldn’t just be casually deployed, especially to such a dangerous place. This made the powers hesitate in sending them over.
Although the great powers were somewhat wary of the Buda Clan, they weren’t afraid of them. After all, the Buda Clan was just another ent.i.ty in the vast continent. Except for Boris who has a huge enmity with the Clan, most people didn’t take the Buda Clan too seriously.
Even if Zhao Hai had a lot of good things in his possession, those wouldn’t’ be able to drastically affect the continent’s economy. For a lot of n.o.bles, only when you touch their sources of income would they seriously come and deal with you.
In simple words, Zhao Hai didn’t pose a threat to their interests, so they didn’t go and intentionally provoke Zhao Hai. Naturally, the Radiant Church and Boris were different, their enmity with Zhao Hai was deep, there was no resolving it.
Zhao Hai didn’t care about any of these, as long as the continent didn’t send in 9th ranks, he can carry on his plans in the Carrion Swamp.
At this time, undead filled the ground of the Black Wasteland while Blood Hawks filled the skies. The defense of the land was already very solid. Even if a 9th rank came in, Zhao Hai can still deal with it. Thus, Zhao Hai didn’t really worry about anything.
After playing around in Flower City for three days, Zhao Hai was already ready to carry out his plan. But before carrying out his operation, Zhao Hai did another thing, it was to absorb parts of the carrion swamp into the s.p.a.ce, whether it be the mud or the plants in the swamp.
Zhao Hai chose a place in the swamp and absorbed a chunk of it into the s.p.a.ce. Taking in small insects, plants, and the mud. Then he took another island sized chunk into the s.p.a.ce.
These two absorptions made the s.p.a.ce’s farm reach level 45. He could now cultivate most of the plants. But it was a pity that the Ranch didn’t get upgraded, so Zhao Hai didn’t know what happens when the Ranch and Farm reaches level 30 and 40, respectively.
After completing all of these, Zhao Hai began to deal with the Carrion Swamp’s 9th rank Magic Beasts. For other people, dealing with those 9th rank beasts was difficult. But for Zhao Hai, it was much easier, he already had Zhao Wen and Cai’er,
After Zhao Hai asked Cai’er about the positions of the 9th ranks, they started to plan their course of action. One must know that dealing with 9th ranks wasn’t an easy thing. If they made the 9th rank escape, then it would certainly alert the other 9th ranks in the swamp, and eventually the entire Flower Protection Alliance. By that time, Zhao Hai’s losses would be great, so he needs to be careful.
For the first target, Zhao Hai must choose someone who wasn’t very strong and was someone who didn’t get into contact with the others too much. This type of target would have the most chance of succeeding.
After Cai’er and Zhao Wen discussed for a long time, they finally decided on their first 9th rank target. This Magic beast was a flying type 9th rank Magic beast. It’s form was a Skylark, it flies quickly, has poison magic, and is very cowardly. This made it choose to not get in contact with other Magic Beasts often. His strength in the swamp was quite common, not the same as Zhao Wen. So Zhao Hai decided on this target as well.
Because of the Skylark’s personality, its territory was placed in an odd and remote location, ensuring that it would be the least attacked place. Adding this to the other reasons, this made Zhao Hai choose him.
But Zhao Hai was still very careful, no matter what, this was a 9th rank expert, someone not easily dealt with. Otherwise, 9th ranks wouldn’t be treated like nuclear weapons.
Flower City didn’t undergo a change since Zhao Hai and the others directly appeared their using the s.p.a.ce. Therefore, the 9th ranks defending Flower City didn’t take note of the differences happening inside.
Since Cai’er and Zhao Wen spent these past several months inside the s.p.a.ce, there shouldn’t be any huge change that happened inside Flower City. Therefore, the positions of the 9th ranks shouldn’t have changed as well.
Time didn’t have any meaning to 9th ranks. For them, what they needed to do was to comprehend the heavens and hopefully achieve supreme existence.
Ninth rank experts would generally close up for several years at a time. Therefore, when Zhao Hai enter the swamp in the past, even if he let out a small disturbance, the 9th ranks didn’t give it much attention.
Having decided on their target, Zhao Hai began their operation. Zhao Hai opened the monitor and released Zhao Wen, who was holding the Ghost Staff, on the northwest side of Flower City.
This was the direction towards the Skylark’s territory. But before arriving there, they needed to pa.s.s through the territory of another 9th rank Magic Beast, one having the form of a Platypus.
Platypuses were also present on the other parts of the continent. Moreover, its impression on the people was that of a very docile Magic Beast. If you don’t attack it, then it wouldn’t attack you.
But the Platypus inside the Carrion Swamp was different. It was because the Platypus’ defensive measure was poison. Adding on to the environment inside the Carrion Swamp, this made the Platypus on the other parts of the continent very different from the ones inside the Carrion Swamp.
As far as Zhao Wen knows, this 9th rank Platypus was one of the more terrifying existences in the swamp. It has tremendous strength as well as defensive power. The most important thing about this Platypus was that it was the most powerful poison expert in the entire swamp. This made him part of the top existences in this place.
1. Dead soldiers -> a.s.sa.s.sins,.. I was really hoping that they would be some special profession before. But it seems like they weren’t