Chapter 106: Turning Point

Behind the hill camp, six ropes had already been lowered. These ropes made from sisal fiber were as thick as an egg, incredibly sturdy.

It was not the women and children who first made use of the hemp ropes to descend, but dozens of sturdy young men. The rear slope of the hill camp was nearly seventy or eighty meters high and extremely steep. If no one below held the ropes, the women and children would likely fall to their deaths with their weak strength. Although these young men had withdrawn from the camp first, they still needed to catch the descending people on the ground and remain vigilant to any movement around them.

According to the alchemy crows' scouting, Victor had designed an escape route for the withdrawing villagers. After they reached the ground, they were to head south, then east, circle around a large arc, and turn north toward Blackfort Town. As long as they could reach Blackfort Town, they would be safe. The thirty-meter-high city walls there could never be breached by these ants. Victor had given them two suggestions: divide into groups and avoid monsters. If anyone still tried to flee in a cluster, it would be certain death. If someone wanted to escort the women and children, of course that would be best. Choosing to flee alone was also acceptable. As for what would happen on the road, Victor could not concern himself with that. In times of disaster, the weak were always the first to be eliminated. Even on Earth, the saying “women and children first” was merely a legend.

No one knew yet that ants held no interest in weaklings without any resistance. Eradicating the enemy’s fighting strength was the ants’ mission. Had the hill camp not attacked first, nothing would have happened.

Under the organization of several village heads, the efficiency of the withdrawal was shockingly high. These natives’ composure in the face of monsters left Victor amazed. In less than an hour, half the people had reached the ground and begun fleeing down the mountain ravine.

Two hundred soldiers on the brick wall continued to fight valiantly, but as more people withdrew, their morale was inevitably affected. Especially the ants below kept stubbornly tossing wet soil into the trench. The flames had already become much smaller. To prevent the fire wall from extinguishing, Barrett had poured the last few buckets of oil into the trench. Everyone understood that the flames would go out eventually. When that happened, breaching the fence would be a matter of mere ten minutes. Fortunately, Victor patrolled back and forth on the city wall, his calm demeanor allowing the soldiers to grit their teeth and hold on.

Victor raised his hand and shot a ant carrying soil dead, acting as if nothing had happened, which drew cheers from the Bear mercenaries. Victor knew these fellows were merely hyping him up. He only shot occasionally now, as he needed to conserve his strength for the escape.

Even in the final retreat, Victor was confident he could escape smoothly. But if these soldiers did not withdraw quickly, they would likely face disaster. Watching the flames grow smaller, Victor felt secretly anxious. Seven months of getting along had built deep affection between him and these people, especially the Bear mercenaries, who truly supported him. Victor could not bear to see them die. Victor roughly estimated that in at most thirty minutes the flames would be extinguished by the ants. That time was insufficient for all the soldiers to escape, and the Bear mercenaries would definitely be the last to leave.

How to create an escape opportunity for these people? Victor had been pondering this problem. If it were an ordinary lord, he would prioritize preserving the old soldiers. Even if the army was destroyed, as long as the veterans remained, a new army could be rebuilt quickly. But Victor’s problem was that most of the soldiers on the brick wall were militiamen. Without the encouragement of the Bear mercenaries, they would have collapsed long ago.

Victor's expression remained calm on the surface, but his heart was restless. He raised his crossbow and shot an ant in the head. The ant caught the bolt aimed at its head with its hand, then let out a sharp hiss toward Victor, seeming to challenge him and declaring that it had targeted this godlike archer who had slain over a hundred ants!

Victor was shaken. Up to this point, he had never seen a creature that could catch the bolt from his crossbow! The crossbow bolts were made of refined iron, short and hard. Although their range was shorter than that of a bow, the bolts flew at 230 meters per second, with twice the penetration power of arrows. Yet this ant had easily caught the bolt that was difficult for the naked eye to discern!

“Lord!” Barrett growled lowly toward Victor. He had noticed the scene immediately. This ant must be the commander! Now all he needed was for Victor to shoot it dead and see what would happen.

Victor raised his hand to signal Barrett to stay calm, though his heart was filled with terror.

Body 30, Spirit 523, Perception 20, Life 30.

This ant’s attributes were the highest Victor had ever seen, especially its Spirit attribute of 523 points! What did 523 Spirit points mean? Victor did not know. But he had seen the highest Body attribute was Bruce’s 27 points. During his fight with the ogre, even the aftermath had wrecked the ground like a bombardment. Such inhuman combat power had left Victor envious for a long time. Therefore, this ant was definitely the strongest creature Victor had ever seen!

Whether or not this ant was the commander, Victor had to kill it. Once the flames went out, no one could escape its pursuit.

“Crossbow!” Victor said softly.

The silver heavy crossbow was handed to Victor, immediately drawing everyone’s attention. This giant crossbow was blue-white and emitted a faint cold light, like a metal artwork full of cold, hard beauty. A one-meter silver bolt was sharp and heavy; even steel armor could be easily pierced.

With the silver heavy crossbow in hand, Victor felt a surge of supremacy over the world. He was certain that with this big killer, he could kill that ant.

Super Limit enabled, Super Senses enabled, No Gap enabled. Victor entered the Celestial Enlightenment state. Everything in his perception slowed down, giving him a sense of absolute control. The ant’s head enlarged constantly in Victor’s field of vision. He could even see the sharp cold light of the silver bolt in the ant’s compound eyes. The wind surrounded Victor and attached itself happily to the bolt. Victor pulled the trigger of the heavy crossbow. The silver bolt, thick as a pigeon egg, shot toward the ant at 727 meters per second, flashing like a streak of light to the ant’s face.

However, the ant dodged with a flash, and the lightning-fast bolt missed! The bolt shot straight through the bodies of three ordinary ants behind it, spraying out a large amount of green fluid, and finally embedded deeply into the trunk of a large tree.

That ant let out an angry roar. The speed at which the other ants filled the trench immediately increased. The soldiers around Victor all turned deathly pale. Victor was the strongest archer they had ever seen and had never missed, but today Victor had missed! This was a huge blow to everyone’s morale.

Victor’s face was ashen. This ant’s perception attribute was similar to his, but its Spirit attribute was dozens of times higher. The ant had not dodged the silver bolt; it had clearly observed Victor’s movements and begun evading the instant he pulled the trigger.

“Lord, another arrow!” Barrett looked hopefully at Victor. Killing this ant might be the turning point of the battle; they could not give up no matter what.

Victor took the silver heavy crossbow and looked at the ant, finding it indeed staring fixedly at him. Obviously the silver heavy crossbow could deal a fatal blow, but Victor understood that he could not hit it while it was watching.

Raindrops kept falling on Victor. Water beads slid down his head and face, rolling all the way to his neck, soaking his shirt inside the leather armor and sticking uncomfortably to his skin. Victor looked up at the sky and had an idea.

“Black Feather!”

Under Victor’s command, the alchemy crow Black Feather cawed and flew to a height of over a hundred meters above the ant. It circled in a tiny orbit directly above the ant and continued to emit loud, clear calls.

Victor ducked down and hid under the fence. At this point he could no longer see the ant, and the ant could not see Victor disappearing behind the fence.

The wind surrounded Victor. He ducked low, propped his hand on the brick wall, and silently slid down more than ten meters. Propping again, he had moved a full twenty-plus meters from his previous position. Victor leaned against the fence, squatted on the brick wall, and slowly closed his eyes, adjusting his breathing according to the method of the Gold Toad Secret. His breathing was faint and weak, his heartbeat slow and soft. His entire being merged with the environment, as if lifeless. This was the hiding method from the Gold Toad Secret. The hiding method in the Gold Toad Secret was meant to help practitioners eliminate distractions, comprehend nature, and reach the mysterious state of “using heart to reflect scenery.” Unfortunately, no practitioners on Earth could enter this strange state. But in this world with strange laws, Victor, having trained in the Gold Toad Hiding Method, had triggered the Blind Sense talent. Now entering the hiding state again, his perception became increasingly sharp.

X-3 blocked all sounds and signals on the battlefield, leaving only the sound of Black Feather circling and calling. 374 meters was the distance from Black Feather to Victor. Victor also knew that more than a hundred meters below Black Feather was the position of that ant. Victor re-entered the Celestial Enlightenment state. Hearing instantly increased dozens of times. Following Black Feather’s position, Victor captured many raindrops falling downward. These raindrops made slight “puff, puff” sounds as they landed on the ant’s body. At this moment, Victor locked onto his target from among hundreds of ants!

Countless raindrops fell from the sky, dripping on the ants with various light sounds. These sound signals formed a clear and three-dimensional image in Victor’s mind. Victor “saw” this ant constantly scanning the situation on the fence, searching for his position.

When Victor hid under the fence, the ant could not see him and he could not see it. Yet Victor could hear it! Black Feather provided a rough position for Victor, and the rain helped him identify the target from hundreds of ants. Now this ant had nowhere to hide!

Right now! When the ant’s gaze turned to the side, Victor sprang up, turned, and fired. The silver bolt, wrapped in wind, was as fast as lightning. It instantly shot through the ant’s head.

The bolt entered from the compound eyes and exited from the back of the head. A one-meter silver bolt pierced through the ant’s head, making it sway unsteadily like a drunkard. Its ferocious mandibles emitted sharp hisses. After struggling for a long while, this monster with 30 Body points finally fell dead.

The moment the monster died, the hundreds of ants below underwent an amazing change. Their orderly formation instantly became chaotic and disorderly. The ants dropped the soil in their hands, let out eerie hisses, and fiercely fought each other. Their sharp, claw-like mandibles viciously cut into their companions’ bodies. Many ants clumped together and rolled into the fire pit, causing the gradually weakening flames to burn fiercely once more.

Victor and the soldiers looked at each other. After a moment, the soldiers let out a cheer. They embraced their comrades and patted each other on the shoulders. The desperate and suppressed atmosphere was swept away.

“Lord, these monsters indeed rely on the commander’s control. However, we cannot be too happy yet. We can only say that it has temporarily delayed the extinguishing of the fire wall.” Barrett said solemnly to Victor.

Barrett’s view was one Victor agreed with deeply. Even if the ants did not extinguish the flames, the oil would eventually run out, and there were still thousands of ants. But this change did indeed buy the soldiers more time for retreat.

Victor had a deeper understanding of the ants’ changes. After that ant was shot dead, the Spirit attributes of the other ordinary ants also changed, from the original 1 point to 2 points. After that, they began attacking their own kind at random.

Victor guessed that the commander ant’s over 500 Spirit attribute was used to control these ordinary ants. The method of control was to extract one unit of soul fire from each ant. When the commander ant died, these soul fires returned to the ant’s soul, and the uncontrolled ordinary ants began to fight each other. In another sense, these hundreds of ants were actually just one unit! This also meant that there were at least hundreds of commander ants with abnormal attributes!

“Do not be careless. The ants behind probably still need to come up and extinguish the flames.” Victor said solemnly.

Before he finished speaking, a large group of ants surged up and began slaughtering the chaotic comrades. Soon, the out-of-control ants were wiped out. But these ants did not continue to extinguish the flames; instead, they retreated again.

Seeing this scene, everyone relaxed. But Victor remained thoughtful.

“It seems the commander ant’s control over ordinary ants has a certain distance limit. Obviously they do not want to expose themselves within the strike range of the silver heavy crossbow.” Victor thought to himself.

Without ant interference, the time for the oil to burn increased greatly. After the people in the camp had all withdrawn, it was finally the soldiers’ turn to retreat.

Every twenty minutes, fifty soldiers successfully descended from the hill camp. When the flames diminished, the Bear mercenaries also began to retreat.

“Lord! You retreat first! Let us attract the ants’ attention here.” Barrett said earnestly to Victor.

Victor shot an ant that had climbed up dead, then turned to Barrett and smiled: “Do not hold me back here. Do you not know my strength? Or do you think you can match Renzo and them?”

Victor’s words made Barrett both moved and frustrated. He vaguely knew that the lord had a secret force in his hands. Now these people stood on the brick wall. Besides Renzo, there were also over twenty elite soldiers with strong strength. Barrett knew some of them and not others, but he had to admit that these people were stronger than the Bear mercenaries. These elite soldiers would accompany Victor to fight to the end and buy time for their retreat.

Besides the alchemy militiamen, Victor had 18 alchemy auxiliary soldiers. These auxiliary soldiers had attributes comparable to the elite soldiers. Particularly, Victor had equipped them with the Monkey Secret Form and Remote Weapon Mastery. Their combat power absolutely exceeded most of the Bear mercenaries. The only unknown was whether these auxiliary soldiers could escape smoothly from the upper camp. There was a full two hundred-plus meters of height.

Victor made a gesture to the sky. Two alchemy crows immediately landed on his shoulders. Victor said to Barrett: “These two kestrels will help you avoid the ants. I hope we can meet alive again.”

After simply teaching Barrett how to identify the information transmitted by the kestrels, Victor said: “Withdraw quickly!”

These old soldiers were ordinary people, but Victor very much hoped they could survive. In a certain sense, they were even more precious than the alchemy militiamen.

“Lord! You are a real knight!” The mercenaries saluted Victor one after another, then resolutely descended from the brick wall.

After Barrett took the mercenaries away, Victor also jumped down from the brick wall. He needed to hurry to ask the king what exactly had happened.

Victor walked into the alchemy tower and immediately connected to the tower spirit in his consciousness. Before he could ask the king a question, the king sent a message first.

“Lord! Fifty points were added to the upper limit of the alchemy tower’s soul fire seventy-one minutes ago, and twenty-three thousand eight hundred ninety-five gold coins were added to the reserves!”