The Jackals Made an Empiricist's Mistake

"Now this is a well-dug tunnel!"

The brothers of the Big Bird Squad moved quickly through the tunnel more than ten meters underground. Calling it a tunnel was almost an understatement. In places where the height and width allowed, they could even ride their horses through it.

Sanwudou reached out and patted the tunnel's cylindrical wall, then turned to Meow Brother.

"The dwarves really are experts at digging. Look at this—they didn't just dig the tunnel, they even smoothed the walls. All that's missing is a coat of plaster."

"You idiot. The earth priests did this. They dug it with psionic power."

Jie Chong snarked beside them.

"If they'd used shovels, they'd still be at it until the end of time. Hey, there's a ventilation shaft up ahead. Want to climb up and take a look?"

He pointed toward a bend in the tunnel, where a row of rough, magically formed steps led up a shaft to the surface.

Meow Brother had been about to tell the others to keep their hands to themselves. Completing their flanking mission on time was the priority. But after checking the time and realizing they were moving quickly enough to reach Point A before the deadline, he nodded.

After more than an hour walking through the winding tunnel, even he was starting to feel bored and stifled.

A few minutes later, they climbed the shaft to the surface. It opened beside a huge boulder and had been expertly camouflaged. They quietly moved aside the dirt-covered wooden hatch, and Qu Ge poked his head through the square opening like a groundhog.

What he saw nearly made him fall back down.

"Shh! There's a squad of gnolls a hundred meters away!"

Qu Ge frantically gestured to the people below, signaling them to get back down. His