Shadow High Tower

The day passed quickly.

Soren mobilized three large ships to transport these native Slave back. Fearing resistance from the captives, they could only transport them in batches, about a hundred at a time. This involved several round trips, and the final count of captives was 1,056. These captives were very useful; if they could be controlled, Soren's construction progress would be greatly accelerated, and the hassle of transporting captives from the Port Tyler would be eliminated.

People were transported back in batches.

By the time Soren finished his work, it was already dark. The camp had suddenly gained over a thousand people, making both space and food scarce. Fortunately, the native tribe still had a considerable amount of food, enough to sustain Soren for about two or three months. Because of the large number of native prisoners, Soren had to order his men to keep a close watch on them. All the prisoners were divided into three groups, with fifty or sixty men taking turns keeping watch in each area.

Even the Drow Warrior were assigned to guard the captured Native Warrior.

These are tough nuts to crack!

If we can subdue him, that would be best. If we can't subdue Soren, we'll prepare to slaughter him all. We can still get tens of thousands of Slaughter Experience.

Human resources were truly crucial in times of relative scarcity!

Logically speaking, with such strict arrangements by Soren, there shouldn't be any problems.

Because he himself had barely slept that night, only managing to doze off for about three hours with his eyes closed. The camp only had a little over three hundred pirates and about thirty Drow Warrior, but the number of Slave prisoners reached over thirteen hundred. Under these circumstances, it was difficult for Soren to rest peacefully; he was even prepared to use Cruelty methods to suppress the prisoners' rebellion. However, the real problem was not the native prisoners, nor the Slave they had brought.

Instead, they were Soren's own men!

His men have disappeared.

The number of missing persons wasn't limited to just one; three men suddenly vanished in the middle of the night. The pirate on night watch at the fence tower patted his chest and assured them that no one had entered or left the area that night, nor had anyone approached the fenced perimeter. Yet, even so, three of Soren's men disappeared without a trace, vanishing completely inexplicably. The pirate henchman who took over their shift said that the three men disappeared entirely from the camp in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

"How is that possible?"

Soren sat in the hall in the early hours of the morning, frowning as he listened to the one-eyed One-Eyed's report. He muttered, "How could three perfectly healthy people just suddenly disappear like that!"

These are all pirates who have experienced many battles; they are at least at the Tier 2 of strength.

Their disappearance was so bizarre!

This is probably something that cannot be accomplished through conventional means.

"Keep searching!"

Soren glanced at his men and said in a deep voice, "Search the entire camp. I refuse to believe that three grown men would simply vanish without a trace!"

The One-Eyed below nodded in agreement, and then the pirates lit torches.

Groups of men began circling the camp, causing some commotion among the prisoners, but no one dared to make a move. The subservience of the lower-class natives was still quite high. One by one, the pirate henchmen dispersed to various parts of the camp, while others searched outside the fence, but still found no trace. Half an hour quickly passed. Many had returned to their original positions, but found no trace of them. There were no footprints leading outwards.

As for the footprints inside the camp, they were too messy to be traced at all!

Time passed little by little.

Since he couldn't find anyone, Soren naturally had to let his men rest, but he felt as if something was weighing on his mind, and he kept feeling uneasy.

Soren naturally couldn't sleep under these circumstances.

So he sat in the hall until a faint glimmer of light appeared on the horizon. But just then, Soren suddenly heard a commotion and noise outside, followed by shouts and screams. He, who had been sitting in his chair, opened his eyes almost instantly, and then saw Soren's figure transform into a blur, rushing towards the source of the commotion at astonishing speed. Before him was a patrolling group of pirates, who were clumsily holding onto someone, with their henchmen shouting and brandishing swords in front, as if trying to stop something from getting closer.

The smell of blood!

Soren frowned, leaped forward, his toes barely touching the wall of the house before he soared through the air like an eagle, landing in front of the pirate henchmen. What Soren saw made him shudder, and a cold blade of light appeared in his palm. Without hesitation, he slashed at the blurry, indistinct figure before him.

--"Distorted Shadow!"

The space before Soren seemed like a distorted image. In the shadow of the house was a gray crack, through which three or five twisted shadows and two mangled corpses could be seen. Based on their features, scars, clothing, and so on, it was almost certain that these corpses were pirates under Soren's command.

Shadow Rift!

These spatial channels connecting to the Shadow Plane, appearing for some reason, possess supernatural Spatial Ability and can potentially suck nearby individuals directly into the Shadow Plane. These Shadow Rift mostly appear where there is a strong connection to the Material Plane, and are maintained by supernatural forces. They typically appear at specific times and gradually disappear when energy Shadow Rift are disrupted.

"Back off!"

Soren shouted at his men, then leaped through the Shadow Rift.

--"Sword Momentum: Whirlwind Dance!"

His Scimitar flashed with cold light, dodging the distorted shadows nearby, before he kicked the corpses of two pirate henchmen, sending them flying from the Shadow Plane back to the Material Plane.

Bang!

Two bodies fell to the ground.

The space of the Shadow Rift seemed to be gradually closing as the sky began to brighten. A piece of data appeared in Soren's eyes, but he no longer had the energy to examine it. What appeared before him at this moment had already shaken him to his core, and he was almost stunned for a moment before he came to his senses. He stomped his foot and rushed back to the Material Plane through the gradually closing rift in the Shadow Plane.

As he returned to the Material Plane, Soren gazed intently at what lay ahead.

That was a towering pagoda that pierced the clouds!

A nearly intact Wizard Tower, with gray stone walls, is located no more than three kilometers away, in a location and direction similar to the place where Soren remembered discovering the Mutated Plant.

The only difference is!

The Material Plane is a wasteland, while the Shadow Plane is a complete Wizard Tower!

...(To be continued~^~)