Two cracks of the whip were followed by two screams, and the onlookers immediately scattered to both sides.
The crowd dispersed, and the priests watched helplessly as the man reached the edge of town; if they didn't chase him, he would disappear into the woods!
This enraged the crowd even more, and they began to run wildly towards the man.
As legitimate clergy members of the Tree Worship Church, they are generally between thirty and forty years old.
For a normal human being, physical strength begins to decline at this age.
However, for members of the Tree Worship Church, the younger ones lack sufficient control over the Symbiotic Tree, while the older ones are beginning to decline physically.
In your thirties, you're at the prime of your life, still able to fight and run!
The one in the lead, [ Easily Soluble in Water ], looked back almost every five steps, afraid of running too fast and leaving the priests behind.
But he soon realized he was completely overthinking things!
Those patrol priests ran even faster than him!
Fortunately, for the sake of the team, the players gave this special task to the player with the highest agility and constitution.
Otherwise, some unlucky guy might already be pinned to the ground, getting hit six times in a second.
[ Easily Soluble in Water ] He wandered through the dense forest north of White Wax Town, and the hard or flexible branches around him left wounds and bloodstains on his body.
Fortunately, he had set his [Pain Perception] and [Fatigue Perception] to the lowest level. At this moment, he was completely immersed in the art of running, completely disregarding his own life and the lives of the people behind him.
Behind him, the patrol captain also felt a sense of confusion—
Although this person looks slow, he is actually impossible to catch up with; the distance between them is always just a little bit.
What's going on? Is he trying to lure us?
Wait, seduction?
The priest's brand-new, unopened brain began to work unusually well at this moment. He involuntarily slowed his pace, pondering the possibility that the other party was luring him into a trap.
But his teammates behind him didn't realize this and crashed into their captain.
The group of people who bumped into each other and tripped over each other rolled forward twice, only to find that the surrounding trees and other plants seemed to have become unusually sparse.
This seems to be a rare little clearing in the forest.
The patrol captain quickly stood up and saw the strange-looking person, whose gender was unclear, standing next to a large tree at the end of the open space ahead.
The man made a face sticking out his tongue, then darted behind a large tree.
The priests quickly rose to give chase, but at that moment they heard a somewhat inappropriate voice.
"Da, da, da."
The clear sound of hooves mingled with the metallic clang of armor as Cyril, a knight in silver armor and lance Xilǐ'er, slowly emerged from behind a large tree on his powerful steed.
A long spear was positioned between the priests and [ Easily Soluble in Water ], its snow-white blade reflecting the black observation window of the armor on one side, and revealing the throats of several priests on the other...
The fact that it is " Easily Soluble in Water " did not only attract the attention of one small team, but the nearest patrol team chose to give chase. After hearing the news, the other priests who rushed to the scene immediately sent people to the church after getting information from the onlookers.
Yiden quickly learned the news, and the old man, leaning on his wooden cane, immediately revealed a triumphant smile:
"See? By flanking him from the outside in, we can easily force him out."
He turned his head and looked disdainfully at the priest who had lost an arm, saying:
"If we followed your method, that person would probably have run away long ago."
The priest, who had been unjustly mocked, now appeared meek and submissive. He quickly changed the subject and asked:
"Your Grace, the suspect's escape route has been determined. Should we send reinforcements?"
Yiden shook his head confidently and said:
"No need. The fact that she can run away shows she lacks confidence. How could she fail to catch one out of five? Not everyone is as timid as you."
After being repeatedly mocked, the man lowered his head in shame, standing rooted to the spot like a statue, not daring to move an inch.
Yiden stopped looking at him and said to the priests who had come to deliver the news:
"Have the patrol withdraw and maintain order around the church to prevent that man from having accomplices!"
"Yes!"
The priests who were in charge of relaying the message turned and left, while Yiden, inside the church, stroked his old, root-like beard with a smug grin.
"You guys, step back and don't get hit by the falling rocks."
Beneath the church, reminded by the [ Dark Archmage ] vines, Tiya and her roommate obediently curled up in a corner near the log fence.
A few dozen seconds after the vine retracted into the wall, a sound of Shattered rock suddenly came from the hole, which was originally only the size of a finger. Some stones, no bigger than a finger, flew everywhere and hit the heads of several test subjects with a thud.
When they covered their heads and looked at the stone wall again, they saw that the hole had become about the thickness of a wrist.
A hand covered in mud and blood emerged from the cave, gave everyone a powerful thumbs-up, and then withdrew itself.
The children's cheers were about to come out, but they forced themselves to swallow them back down.
The rescue operation has reached its final stage, and we absolutely cannot afford to fail here.
Once you've dug a hole in a cave, expanding it is actually quite quick.
After confirming that the straight line was complete, [ Zhongde ] and his partners began to exert their strength again. With clanging and banging, the hole in the wall was getting bigger and bigger.
After about twenty minutes, the opening had become about the thickness of a normal human waist. Although it was no longer wide enough for two or three people to stand sideways like the mud tunnel in front, it was big enough for a person to stick their head out.
As the first player to come into contact with the test subjects, [ Dark Archmage ] volunteered to crawl through the hole.
The other players handed her several saw blades, and soon two of the log prison fences were cut.
With the children's unanimous consent, Tiya's critically injured father was the first to be taken across the cave.
The Dark Archmage handed the saw blade to the children who were still trapped, letting them cut through the log fence. She then picked up Tiya and her roommate, helping them into the cave in the wall in a manner reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption.
On the other side of the stone wall, the players who had been waiting for a long time had already bandaged up the innkeeper's disfigured body with Vine Bandage Pack.
When the two girls emerged from the cave, they danced with joy.
Over the next twenty minutes, the [ Dark Archmage ] in the dungeon sawed through the logs of all the cells and rescued all the children.
Because most of the experimental subjects were missing limbs, she repeatedly helped more than thirty children lift their bodies and adjust their posture to enter the cave.
At 9:05 a. m., all 39 people were successfully rescued, and the dungeon was cleared.
With an barely suppressed smile, the [ Dark Archmage ] glanced around the empty cell, then turned to crawl back into the tunnel.
Just as she was about to stick her head in, she discovered another pair of eyes on the other side.
[ Zhongde ] and [ the Dark Archmage ] faced each other on opposite sides of the stone wall.
"What are you going to do?" ×2