Patrick immediately summoned Taelan to heal the messenger from head to toe, then learned the details from the messenger.
The sand around Cenarion Hold had subsided, revealing three Silithid Hives. Large numbers of flying Qiraji and sandworms had appeared from every direction, almost completely surrounding Cenarion Hold.
Meanwhile, Fandral Staghelm Point in the rear had also suffered a surprise attack from Twilight Cultists hiding along Twilight Path. The entire garrison had been forced to retreat to the outpost high in the mountains, while all the other areas had fallen under the Twilight Cultists' control.
As it turned out, Hive'Ashi, Hive'Regal, and Hive'Zora had been there all along. The Qiraji had certainly gone to great lengths to devise this scheme.
In fact, the Qiraji had infiltrated Silithus long ago, and they had always known that once the seal on the Ahn'Qiraj Empire was broken, the Cenarion Circle's army would surely follow. A major war was inevitable.
So the Qiraji had simply made the entire Silithus Great Desert appear peaceful. Everything had seemed calm on the surface, without even a single Silithid Hive in sight, but beneath it, undercurrents were already stirring, and the Qiraji underground were already itching to move.
The Qiraji had laid this trap. As long as they could defeat the allied forces before them, the rise of the Ahn'Qiraj Empire would be unstoppable. Once they established a firm foothold in the Silithus Great Desert and slowly allowed C'Thun to recover his strength, all that remained was to wait for C'Thun to emerge and rule the world.
As Old Gods, even the Titans had only managed to seal them away by taking advantage of their infighting. Once the Old Gods regained their strength, mortals-even the Dragon Aspects-would be absolutely no match for them.
"So we're already surrounded by the