26: Chapter 26 Shifting the Blame East

Inside the Oasis woodland.

The Undead Minotaur swung its bone hammer, smashing it against a tree trunk.

Snap!

The one-meter-thick trunk snapped instantly.

Snap! Snap!

The sound of splintering wood echoed everywhere.

As the trees fell, the Undead Sand Jackals followed.

They extended their sharp bone claws.

With a sweep of their five claws—

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The logs were instantly cut into segments.

With thousands of troops logging together, the efficiency was surprisingly high.

Fifteen minutes later.

The first transport vehicle was filled.

Tian Ming ordered the second vehicle forward.

Continue logging!

But just at that moment.

Three Skeleton Vultures scattered around the perimeter of the Oasis simultaneously transmitted a warning.

To the northeast of the Oasis.

About eight hundred meters from the army.

Unknown creatures were approaching at high speed.

Tian Ming raised its skull to look.

At the same time, the Skeleton Sand Rats also transmitted information via underground sensing.

This intelligence was more specific.

The approaching unknown creatures were divided into two groups.

The first group consisted of twelve, moving very fast.

But their formation was chaotic, their footsteps uneven; they were clearly fleeing.

The group behind consisted of thirty, moving even faster.

But their military formation was orderly.

Preliminary judgment: the latter group was hunting the former.

Tian Ming's soul fire flickered.

It remembered the rule Xu Qin gave before they left:

"Remember, if you encounter creatures you haven't seen before, no matter what they are, don't touch them. Mark the coordinates and turn around."

Tian Ming tapped its bone staff against the ground.

"Stop!"

Over a thousand Undead simultaneously ceased their logging.

"Retreat!"

The army obeyed and began to withdraw in an orderly fashion.

The transport vehicles were pushed to the center of the formation,

and the Undead Minotaurs automatically moved to the rear guard position.

But the speed of the newcomers was simply too fast.

From the moment the Skeleton Vultures sent the warning to the moment Tian Ming ordered the retreat,

not even thirty seconds had passed.

However, those two groups of creatures

had already closed the distance from eight hundred meters to within five hundred meters.

Especially the ones in the front running the fastest; they had changed from weaving back and forth to charging in a straight line.

One could even see their silhouettes.

Tian Ming ignored them.

It continued to lead the army in retreat.

The army's footsteps did not falter, and their formation did not break.

Sure enough, the army had not retreated for even a minute.

"Help! Help!!"

A hoarse male voice came from the darkness.

Immediately after, twelve figures burst out from the bushes.

Running at the very front was a tall, thin young man.

He looked to be in his early twenties, panic-stricken, his face covered in sweat.

Following behind him were eleven Elven Archers.

This was the first wave of the army.

And chasing them was a group of creatures that had never appeared around Xu Qin's territory.

The build of these creatures was between that of a Sand Jackal and a Minotaur.

Their bodies were covered in deep brown scales, and they ran extremely fast.

[Desert Scaled Lizard Beast (Elite)]

Level: 8

Attack: 38 (Physical - Bite/Assault)

Defense: 16

HP: 350/350

Traits:

Lethal Bite: Leaves a lacerated wound on the target, lasting 6 seconds. Increases damage taken by the target by 15%; stacks up to 2 times on the same target.

Scaly Armor: When receiving physical attacks, damage is reduced by 10%.

Tian Ming finished reading the monster's information.

So, it was thirty elite monsters.

With its current force of over a thousand,

fighting thirty Level 8 elites,

it could certainly win.

But Xu Qin had a rule.

If you haven't seen it, don't touch it.

Thus, Tian Ming continued to withdraw.

"Buddy! Brother! For the sake of us both being lords, save me!!"

Behind it, the male voice became clearer and clearer.

Clearly, he was running for his life toward Tian Ming's army.

The reason he dared to charge over so fearlessly was because he had heard the sound of logging.

To be precise, he had heard it when he was less than six or seven hundred meters away.

Five minutes ago.

This young man was leading the Elven Archers in the woodland, hunting a lone Sand Lizard.

As soon as they shot the Sand Lizard dead, thirty large, deep-brown lizards suddenly surged out from behind the bushes.

Good lord, it was just one encounter.

Half of the twenty-three Elven Archers were wiped out instantly.

The speed of those Desert Scaled Lizard Beasts was simply too fast;

the Archers couldn't even fully draw their bows in time.

By the time the arrows were fired,

the young man realized the scales were ridiculously hard; a single arrow only caused a dozen or so points of damage.

Yet with one bite from a Desert Scaled Lizard Beast, an Elven Archer was left near death.

Two bites were enough to kill one.

The young man was scared out of his wits on the spot and decisively ordered a retreat.

After running three hundred meters,

he heard the "snap, snap" sounds coming from afar.

It was the sound of wood splintering.

In the middle of the night,

how could wood make such a harsh sound?

There was only one answer.

Someone was logging here!

Who the hell would be out logging in the middle of the night?

Of course, there was one type of person,

and that was a lord like him!

To dare to run to the edge of this desert in the middle of the night to log,

and to recklessly make such a loud noise,

meant the other party had a considerable force.

Their strength would definitely not be too weak.

The young man realized this instantly.

But he didn't intend to avoid them.

Instead, he intended to divert the disaster.

Because, right now, he and the other party were both within the newbie protection period.

Lords within the protection period were in a state of truce and could not attack each other.

But monsters could attack.

Therefore, he decided to lure this group of Desert Scaled Lizard Beasts into that lord's army.

Let the Desert Scaled Lizard Beasts bite that lord's troops, and he would slip away in the chaos.

The other party suffered a loss?

What the hell did that have to do with him?

It would be better if they all died.

Maybe he could even take this opportunity to have the elite monsters kill that lord, thereby eliminating a potential competitor.

It could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.

The young man made up his mind and ran even faster.

And then...

He saw Tian Ming's army.

To be precise, he saw over a thousand clusters of purple soul fire.

In the darkness, the firelight was extremely conspicuous.

"Holy crap! Torches? This guy is actually burning wood to make torches for marching? That's too luxurious, right? No! That's not right!"

The young man thought as he ran,

"Torches are red or orange; this color doesn't look like that..."

The young man's footsteps paused subconsciously.

But the sound of the Desert Scaled Lizard Beasts' footsteps behind him wouldn't allow him to stop and observe.

Forget it, don't think about it, save your life first!

When the distance closed to fifty meters, he finally saw the full picture of that army.

It was over a thousand skeletons.

White bones, eerie and cold.

Purple soul fire flickered in the eye sockets of every skeleton.

"Ahhh!!!"

The moment the young man saw clearly, he let out a scream.

His legs almost went soft.

They were all skeletons!!!

All of them were skeletons!!!

Over a thousand of them!!!

How the hell did so many skeletons spawn in the newbie zone!!!

I'm screwed!

But he was running too fast and couldn't stop at all.

Inertia carried him forward a few more steps.

And it was these few steps

that allowed the young man, who thought he had misjudged and run into a pile of monsters' mouths, to see the pop-up panel.

It was the panel information of an Undead Minotaur responsible for the rear guard.

In front of the unit name, there were two characters.

[No-War · Undead Minotaur].

No-War...

Undead?

It really was a lord!

And a lord who chose the Undead Race?!

"Big brother! Big brother, help me!!"

The young man couldn't care about anything else now.

He brought the eleven Elven Archers and stuck close to them.

Since it was a lord, the plan didn't need to change.

Get close first, run around this army, let the Desert Scaled Lizard Beasts crash into them,

and then he would slip away in the chaos.

Undead, fine, as long as they could be a human shield.

Then he ran for a dozen steps.

He ran for another dozen steps.

Huh?

Why haven't I circled around yet?

This army... is it too damn long?