Once that Ndipaya elder had acquired adequate casting time, he started unleas.h.i.+ng his terribly deadly parasite blowgun! The contestants were served with an arduously bitter predicament, as Incessant projections of incomparably vile parasite worms wriggled in like hair.
This outrageous ability, known as ‘Parasite Hairs’, was an exceedingly queer existence. It could be categorized as witchcraft but also categorized as living organisms. Once lodged in a person’s body, it would unleash unceasing damages. Not only that, after harvesting sufficient vitality from one’s body, those ‘Parasite Hairs’ would morph into summoned creatures; thereby drilling deeper into their host body and stirring up havoc within…...
Therefore, once it struck someone, it must be immediately extracted out. Otherwise, the consequence would be absolutely dire! Just think of having miniature lifeforms living in one’s own body...
As a result, the contestants lost another two of Reef’s servants in battle. Sheyan even had to grit his teeth and utilize the party ability, ‘Gloryheal’, and also had to consume a free honorary medicine he had. Eventually, he managed to withstand the indiscriminate witchcraft bombing of the other masked elder.
After slaying the Ndipaya elder he was tangled with, he instantly fled with Reef at top speed! It was at this point, where Reef’s two servants were left behind and became casualties.
After escaping from battle, Sheyan and Reef both had to carve out numerous cuts on each other’s bodies; a process practically more miserable than the ancient china’s death of a thousand cuts.
After 2 hours had elapsed, when both Reef and Sheyan had healed up and calmed down, they returned with a whirling storm of dust.
The next battle became much easier. Without a Ndipaya elder freely bombarding from behind, being capable of resisting the majority of pestilence viruses, the two contestants once again fled after eliminating that final Ndipaya elder.
Right now, Reef had acquired and equipped shoes that could somewhat offset the speed decline of the marsh terrain. With his valiant ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’ to further reduce his opponent"s’ speed, those Ndipaya barbarians weren’t able to chase up even if they wished to.
It was only during the duo’s third skirmish, that they finally annihilated the Ndipaya barbarians. Though they were like a flock of courageous dragons, without a chief, those Ndipaya barbarians had plunged into a predicament of each fighting their personal battles.
As such, both contestants finally managed to clean up the outer reaches of the Ndipaya tribe and thereby occupying this core village.
This a.s.sembly of Ndipaya barbarians was situated on a chunk of hard ground within the marshland, which was approximately the size of a school’s sports field.
Identical wooden huts were distributed within this s.p.a.ce, along with three watchtowers that were constructed in a tripod style. Lastly, there was even a primitive looking hall where the villages congregated for a.s.semblies.
After rummaging through the village, Sheyan pleasantly discovered two large treasure chests and consecutively obtained a huge harvest.
They acquired a total of 6 sacks of Golden Sand, a Silver Beetle that was placed in a prominent location, and a crudely processed Golden Brick.
It seemed like the Ndipaya barbarians also knew the term saving for rainy days, as they had stored their wealth in the most heavily guarded village. Alas, they didn’t realize they would still fall to Sheyan’s siege.
After searching around, Sheyan finally acquired the final stone slab. Yet after a.s.sembling the four stone slabs together, nothing unusual happened. Furthermore, there wasn’t a single hint or trace of the rumoured underground pa.s.sageway at all.
If they carefully foraged through the place and flipped every wood and stone here, they would certainly be able to find the hidden mechanism. Yet this method would waste a good deal of time.
Hence, Sheyan straightforwardly requested Mbenga, inquiring if had any method up his sleeves.
After pondering, Mbenga bent down to sample the blood of one of the dead Ndipaya elder. Then, he shut his eyes and proceeded to sniff about prudently, before leading Sheyan and the others towards the east.
Under Mbenga’s guidance, they entered a broad hut.
At the front of this hut, was an empty s.p.a.ce where a stone strip had been pulled out. The hut was segregated into three rooms. The main entrance led to the main room, which housed a fire d.y.k.e with flames that wouldn’t extinguish all year round. This was the place where the Ndipaya aborigines received visitors or treated illnesses.
The left room was the master bedroom, while the right was probably used to store hunting loots and also a place to cultivate dark magic. Speckles of purplish black bloodstains filled that room, painting a depiction of frequent bloodshed in this room.
The main entrance didn’t appear rigidly locked, where a tiny strip of a black gap was exposed; appearing like a menacing and brutal beast mouth, greedily welcoming the arrival of any hunted prey.
Pressing his hand on its surface, Mbenga gave a light push against the door.
Creak! A dull and coa.r.s.e creak resounded as the door swung inwards. The creak continued echoing throughout the deathly stillness and the far ends of the night.
Sheyan then tugged Mbenga and warned.
"Careful."
Meanwhile, Sheyan and the others paused for a while by the doorway.
At present, it was already night time.
Due to the absence of the sun, water vapour mist no longer lingered in the air, but the skydome still remained hazy.
Sheyan lifted his head to gaze at the sky. Unbeknownst why, the moon had shrunk to half its size. It was like a strip of white velvet, hazy and indistinct; resembling white hair that sprouted from decaying corpses, or the white veil of a demonic ghost.
Sheyan abruptly asked Reef.
"Have you noticed this? Ever since the start till now, the age demographic of those Ndipaya barbarians we slew is rather odd."
Reef reflected a little before replying.
"You’re right. They seem to be above the age of forty. Moreover, of the barbarians we killed, there wasn’t a single woman, child or youth."
Sheyan frowned and continued.
"Most ecologies of the natural world are identical. If we link this oddity with those Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles, what can you decipher?"
Reef became momentarily vacant.
"Those Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles failed to compete within the core reaches of the Kijuju Marshland, and were chased out…..what you’re implying is, could it be those Ndipaya barbarians that we’ve slain, are merely washed out weaklings? Being exiled to the outer reaches?"
Sheyan earnestly nodded and predicted.
"That is very possible.....therefore, the true horrors, start from here!"
Reef took in a deep breath as he nodded. Tightly clenching his s.h.i.+eld, he trudged into the hut.
The room was completely silent, as though a certain nefarious thing was ruling here. One could even distinctively hear their own heartbeat. A chilling sensation of evil was borne within the blood coursing through their veins.
Upon entering this hut, one could whiff a foul stench lingering in the air; as though dead fish had been rotting for an excruciatingly long time, or a gigantic beast had been contentedly belching after having a sumptuous meal. A repulsive nauseating feeling would well up after smelling this stench for long.
Amidst this vile environment, the two contestants composedly stood still as they awaited their eyes to become accustomed to the darkness of the room. Fortunately, the flickering torches outside the room were faintly illuminating its interior.
There was a hole in the ceiling, allowing the gloomy moonlight to faintly permeate through.
Quickly and gradually, the rough outline of the hut’s interior became fully displayed.
All of a sudden, a peculiar sound rang within Sheyan’s ear!
This was a drawn out sound, as though a sharp object was sc.r.a.ping against the dark floor. A sound that contained endless anguish and vengeance, as though an infernal devil was sobbing!
It was truly bizarre. The hut was enclosed by walls on all four sides, yet Sheyan could still feel the chilling wind curling around. Different from the cold winds of nature, this chilling wind directly permeated into his bone marrow; seemingly attempting to squeeze into his very soul!
Even though he and Reef were powerful contestants, being frightened was still a human instinct especially towards excessively weird circ.u.mstances. A relis.h.i.+ng chill crept up his back, as the hair on his arm stood erect.
Instead at this moment, Mbenga revealed a delighted countenance as he shut his eyes, and reached out with his thick palm.
After feeling the wind’s direction, he strode towards the right side of this hut. After carefully rummaging through the ground, he proceeded to hug a large pottery nearby.
This time, he didn’t smash the pottery but exerted strength to slowly rotate it.
Soon, everyone could feel the slight tremors vibrating through the ground, which only ceased after a long while.
After scouring briefly around the hut, Sheyan and Reef couldn’t discover any changes. Instead, Mbenga sprinted out of the house.
Looking at the entrance of the hut now, an astounding broad underground pa.s.sageway had emerged.
A flight of stairs leaned down into the pa.s.sageway and appeared to be artificially constructed of stone. Without the triggering of the mechanism, this flight of stairs would be straightened upwards; forming into a flat ground. It could be described as seamless.
Unanimously walking to the underground opening, Sheyan and Reef could perceive this should be the pa.s.sageway to the core reaches of the Ndipaya tribe.
A rich odour reeking of blood and rot a.s.sailed their nostrils, inducing them to retch. The atmosphere here had seemingly transformed into viscous water blended with ice, a cold sensation that felt like dead fingers caressing one’s face.
Stone slabs were piled up on both sides of this underground pa.s.sage, probably used to prevent this underground cave from collapsing. Basin sized black holes appeared at intervals of metres into the underground tunnel and were unfathomably deep.
Using the irradiation of a torch, Sheyan realized that they were created by something burrowing in and out. The holes were exceedingly smooth and offered traces of dried mucus.
Advancing several steps forward again, an incredibly ma.s.sive and profound gate emerged before their eyes. 5-6 white coc.o.o.n shaped things could be seen placed on the sides of this gate.
After approaching nearer, they noticed that those coc.o.o.ns were twinkling with dull moss green, even amidst this abstruse darkness. Every time they twinkled, a furtive shade of ghastly white would follow. It mimicked the rhythm of a heartbeat, and also resembled a worm nibbling through the interior of the coc.o.o.n.
And right by the side of one of the white coc.o.o.n, to his horror, Sheyan shockingly sighted a splendid golden rifle b.u.t.t!
The signature weapon of Brother Black.