The moonlight was very faint, mostly covered by clouds, leaving only a gray shadow on the ground.
Dongping Village is indeed very quiet. It is unusually quiet - there are no dogs barking, no insects chirping, and even the sound of the wind blowing through the eaves seems a bit deliberate.
Nuoleila stood at the entrance of the village and glanced at the row of dark houses. There was no light in the windows and there were no seals on the doors, but he knew that the people living here were not villagers.
"Brother, do you want to keep walking?"
Nuoleila didn't look back, he just raised his hand and made a "quiet" gesture.
He looked down at the toes of his boots, ground them on the dirt, then raised his head and shouted into the silent darkness.
"We are here, come out!"
The sound spread out through the empty village entrance, hit the far wall, bounced back, and turned into a series of vague echoes.
No one responded.
After waiting for about ten breaths, a shadow deep in the village entrance began to squirm.
It was not an illusion. The shadow seemed to be stretched out from the inside by something. The black cloth was peeled off from the corners of the wall, the door opening, and the darkness of the roof, and gathered together, finally condensing into the outline of five human figures.
Black robe.
Their robes were not ordinary black, but a deep black that could absorb light. Under the moonlight, they looked like several hollows cut into human shapes.
When their hoods are slightly raised, they can see the blurry outlines and eyes that vaguely reflect light.
The man in black robes at the head was the tallest, with a strong jaw line under the hood and a short beard.
His eyes swept from Nuoleila, then moved to the dozen or so people behind him, one by one.
"You guys," his voice was low, with a coldness that deliberately subdued his emotions, "It seems that no one is here."
Nuoleila felt that the breathing of the brothers behind him became rapid. His expression remained unchanged, and the corners of his mouth even curled up slightly, as if he were smiling.
"Several family members are sick and are taking care of them at home." His tone was casual, as if he was chatting with neighbors. "I will take their share on my behalf."
"Okay."
The man in black robe finally spoke, and then waved behind him.
There was the sound of wheels rolling over the soil in the darkness.
It was a cart pulled by two horses. The wooden boards on the cart were worn black and gave off a strange smell mixed with rust and decay.
There were two cubic boxes on the cart, each about two meters square, covered with black oilcloth and tied tightly with ropes at the four corners.
The cart stopped about ten steps away from Nuoleila. The horse snorted and scraped its hooves on the ground twice, as if it was uneasy.
"The reward has been placed above," the man in black robe said, his expression invisible in the shadow under the hood, "Come and get it."
Nuoleila looked at the two boxes.
His pupils shrank slightly.
The size of the box is wrong - if it is gold coins or supplies, there is no need to use such a large box.
Moreover, the ruts of the cart were so deep that the horses' hooves left imprints four fingers deep on the mud.
Two boxes, weighing at least a thousand kilograms.
Damn.
He cursed in his mind.
These bitches were more direct than he thought. This was not about giving up rewards, they were about to kill them directly.
According to their prior agreement, Nuoleila should now send a signal to Nuoyaji who is hiding in the dark.
He waved his hand.
Without making much movement, he raised his left hand from his waist to his chest, as if dusting off his clothes, and then put it down again.
Then, Stargazers's brothers followed, their footsteps making a messy sound on the muddy ground.
Nuoleila looked around, there were three Fourth Tier and one Fifth Tier.
He locked the Fifth Tier man in black robe as the leader - the one who just spoke.
Fifth Tier, in this remote stronghold, it is already a crushing level of combat power.
Stargazers is the only one here who is Fourth Tier. The others are all at level one or two, so they will definitely not be able to beat him head-on.
But...
Nuoleila remembered that strange guy named "Godzilla".
He has a tall figure, a black windbreaker, and his face is completely covered by a hood, and his whole body exudes an indescribable sense of oppression.
The guy walked without a sound and breathed without a rhythm, just like... like a moving stone.
If it's that guy, as long as he doesn't trick me - he should be able to deal with it.
Nuoleila sighed in his heart, suppressed the thought, then raised his head, pretending to look at the two boxes with curiosity.
"Speaking of which, man, you usually transport so many things, what on earth are they?"
He asked the question very casually, like an ordinary person who really just came to collect his reward and asked a few random questions.
The man in black robe's voice turned cold.
"If you shouldn't ask, don't ask."
"Haha... don't be angry." Nuoleila laughed, looking away from the man in black robes and focusing on the cart.
He quickened his pace and jumped onto the cart in one step.
The wooden plank made a dull sound under his feet. His figure was very stable - Fourth Tier's strong sense of balance allowed him to remain motionless even when standing on a bumpy carriage.
He knelt down and reached out to lift a corner of the oilcloth.
The moment his fingers touched the oilcloth, a thought flashed through his mind.
There is something in the box.
He felt it - the iron sheet of the box was vibrating slightly, as if something was breathing inside.
Nuoleila's expression did not change, but his hand paused for a moment.
Then he slowly lifted a corner of the oilcloth.
Underneath the oilcloth is an iron fence, with thumb-thick iron bars welded into a mesh with meshes about three fingers wide.
Through the iron fence, he saw what was inside--
First there is a fishy smell.
The smell gushed out from the gap in the oilcloth, covering Nuoleila's mouth and nose like an invisible hand.
He held his breath and looked down.
There is something in the iron cage.
It was a black shadow huddled in the corner, with rough fur and strong muscles, and its limbs were tied by chains to the four corners of the cage.
Its body rises and falls slightly with its breathing, and each rise and fall is accompanied by the slight clanking sound of the iron chains.
Nuoleila's pupils shrank suddenly.
"This is..."
He didn't finish his words because the thing raised its head.
Three pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness.
Nuoleila's face changed.
He suddenly let go of the oilcloth and jumped off the cart. When he landed, he stumbled and almost lost his balance.
"You--"
There was a hint of anger in his voice.
"Don't be nervous."
The voice of the man in black robe came from behind, with a strange calmness.
"That's our product--Chimera Monster."
Nuoleila turned around and looked at the man in black robe.
Under the moonlight, the hood of the man in black robe was blown open a little by the wind, revealing half of his pale face and a pair of deep-set eyes.
There was no emotion in those eyes, as if they were looking at a stone or a corpse.
"Chimera..." Nuoleila repeated the word.
He looked back at the cart.
Although the moonlight was very faint, as a strong Fourth Tier, his night vision ability was enough for him to see clearly the monster standing up slowly from the iron cage.
The subject is a lion.
A male lion that was as big as an adult bull, with a thick mane, knotted muscles, and two huge sarcomas bulging out from the shoulder blades - they were the roots of the wings.
Bat-like wings spread out from the sarcoma, the membrane wings showed a sickly gray-white color in the moonlight, and the blood vessels were clearly visible under the membrane.
The lion's head turned around, its amber vertical pupils stared at Nuoleila, its mouth opened slightly, revealing two rows of fangs stained with saliva.
Then, the snake's head on the left also raised.
It was a snake about the thickness of an adult's arm, with dark green scales. It grew from the lion's left shoulder, as if it had been grafted from the body.
The sheep's head on the right - Nuoleila almost didn't recognize it as a sheep's head, because its horns were so big that they curled and extended backwards, almost blending into the lion's mane.
The sheep's eyes are dark red with horizontal pupils, which look weirder than the other two heads.
The tail was thrown out from behind the lion, and the scorpion's tail hook was raised high, and the tail needle glowed with a faint blue luster in the moonlight.
Nuoleila's throat moved.
He has seen many monsters, but he has never seen anything like this--
This doesn't happen naturally.
This is "made".
"They're valuable."
The voice of the man in black robes sounded again, as if he was introducing a product.
"Through fusion technology, several low-level monsters can have combat power comparable to Fourth Tier. One of them can be sold for thousands of gold coins on the black market."
He paused for a moment, and the corners of his mouth under the hood seemed to be slightly raised.
"Moreover, they are very loyal and can understand their master's words."
Nuoleila heard the sound of the iron cage opening.
Click.
The cage door hit the wooden railing of the cart, making a dull sound.
Then, Chimera jumped out.
Its movements were much faster than Nuoleila expected - for such a big body, it made almost no sound when jumping off the cart.
The four paws landed on the muddy ground, making only a slight pop sound, and then stood firmly.
The lion's head was lowered, and its amber vertical pupils stared at Nuoleila.
The voice of the man in black robes came from behind. It was no longer the cold and deliberately suppressed tone, but had an almost pious heat.
"So--everyone, please stay."
His magic burst out at this moment - Fifth Tier's momentum was released without reservation. The air waves blew his black robes loudly, and the hood was lifted off, revealing a pale and thin face and a pair of eyes burning with fanatical flames.
"Join us."
His voice echoed in the night air, carrying an unquestionable certainty.
"Join... the glorious --'New World'."
The moment he finished speaking, his left arm disappeared.
Two inches from the shoulder, the incision is incredibly neat, and you can even see the blood spurting out of the artery forming a dark red flower in mid-air.
The man in black robe was stunned.
His eyes moved from his shoulder to the still twitching arm on the ground, and then from the arm back to his shoulder, looking back and forth twice, as if his brain hadn't been able to process the information.
Then, the pain came.
"Ah--!!"