Gray frowned. Was there an ambush?
Although the probability is low, if the nomads are prepared for long-distance migration, they might indeed be willing to make a "one-off deal" with me.
He wasn't unfamiliar with such barbarians, but the outcome was obvious—he could still trade here, while those unknown fellows had turned to dust.
Gray fine-tuned the power output of the two hearts, preparing for any possible unforeseen circumstances.
As a businessman with some martial arts skills, his fighting ability is not low as long as he stays in his small fortress.
So instead of acting rashly like a low-IQ NPC in a suspense film, he manipulated the lever to adjust the fortress's direction of advance.
However, he then realized that the lever in his hand seemed to be losing its control.
He trusted the old man's skills, which were those of his martial arts uncle, and considering the previous signs, Gray had some guesses.
Perhaps the intensity of the Demonic Tide in this area has increased, causing those sensitive and Fragility junk components inside the power unit to become even more restless.
Fortunately, I had already undergone the modification, and my lifeless mechanical body made the effects of the regular Alienation Demonic Tide on me very slow.
Gray maneuvered the fortress to begin circling the settlement in a wide arc. This was not out of deliberate risk, but because the merchants of the Graycast Corridor had a responsibility to record changes in settlements along the way. Despite his reluctance, Gray still wanted to see what was happening here.
The fortress quickly completed its encirclement and returned to its starting position, but nothing unusual occurred.
Just then, Gray noticed that the tent flap not far ahead moved slightly, as if a hand was grabbing the edge of the tent and trying to pull itself out.
Grabbing a single-through telescope from his side, Gray adjusted it as he looked over:
Although the arm belonged to a human, it had an eerie pale color, with bluish-black blood vessels running densely like a spider web, becoming more prominent closer to the extremities. The fingernails were completely blackened and exhibited an unusual sharpness.
"Clatter."
Gray's binoculars fell onto the workbench in front of him, and he instinctively took off his top hat.
He understood what was inside the tent, and he also understood why the settlement was devoid of Vitality.
No wonder those guys didn't come out of their tents.
No wonder the Vine Sheep were so quiet under the sunlight.
No wonder its power components were so excited.
This is hardly a regional Demonic Tide.
It's a damn Blood Corpse!
Unfortunately, he realized it too late; just moments ago, the last rays of sunlight had disappeared on the horizon.
Night fell, and his nightmare Descent.
As the direct sunlight disappeared, hands emerged from the entrances, bottom edges, and even the tops of the tents.
Without the terrifying sunlight, those hands grabbed at anything they could reach, trying to pull their bodies out of the shade.
The humanoid monsters were on all fours, their heads twisted as they looked at Gray diagonally above them. Their mouths first opened up and down, then split into four parts, with murky saliva flowing down from the corners of their mouths.
Despite having a beard that didn't match his actual age, Gray still couldn't keep his composure.
As Gray pulled the accelerator lever all the way down, he began to regret his decision to circle around and observe, cursing the fortress in his heart for not running faster.
The acceleration command was transmitted layer by layer through the mechanical components to the bottom, and finally acted on the feet of the power components.
The power component Gray mentioned was also Blood Corpse.
So why... would Blood Corpse appear here?!
Gray, fleeing in panic, couldn't help but wonder—
" Blood Corpse " is a term known to everyone in the Graycast Corridor and the Eternal Domain.
Gray's childhood textbooks clearly stated that before the Demonic Tide, Blood Corpse were a narrow concept, referring to servants raised by vampires to provide them with blood.
Although those people could still speak and think, they were practically no different from being dead.
Therefore, although the vampires, who are strictly hierarchical, call them Blood Servant or Blood Slave, humans refer to them collectively as Blood Corpse.
But that was a hundred years ago; everything changed after the Demonic Tide broke out.
It is well known that demons are generally less rational and have weaker thinking abilities than humans and elves.
The Demonic Tide is precisely a force capable of causing chaos.
So naturally, at the moment the Demonic Tide completely erupted, almost all the vampires went mad.
When a high-ranking vampire falls into madness, his retinue and the lower-ranking monsters connected to him by blood lose the possibility of maintaining their sanity.
The Blood Servant and Blood Slave, who were originally able to communicate with each other and thought they had gained long life, have truly and completely become " Blood Corpse," with only the instinct to devour and assimilate remaining.
As a cataclysmic event that swept across the world, the Demonic Tide left every race struggling to survive after its outbreak.
In this situation, naturally no human would care, or rather, no one would be aware of the terrible changes taking place within the demon race.
More than a decade later, the Twin Kings established the Eternal Domain, and the Grand Foundry Master established the Graycast Corridor. Together, the two forces once again blocked the demons on one side of the continent, and people discovered that the entire demon race had almost been reduced to vampires.
The term "vampire" has evolved from referring to a single race into a general term encompassing a wide variety of Aberration creatures.
Before the Demonic Tide broke out, the Demon Realm was said to be a vibrant place where all kinds of Vitality lived and thrived—all sorts of monsters stayed in their habitats, doing what they liked, waiting to be stabbed to death by a hero sent by the kingdom or empire and become experience points and ATMs.
The arrival of the Demonic Tide broke this tradition. Many races were wiped out before they were attacked by other races because of their intolerance to chaotic magic or Chaos Psionic Energy. The survivors all became prisoners of vampires.
When they possess reason, vampires are very serious about choosing their servants, and they also prefer those who can provide them with assistance or delicious blood.
Due to their similar appearances, the highest -High Tier vampires have a habit of seeking their companions among humans.
But once they descended into madness, they became indiscriminate, turning any animal within sight into part of their menu, and the vampires' own racial abilities were fully unleashed amidst the chaos brought about by the Demonic Tide.
The old rules no longer apply. The green Goblin of yesteryear have become short, Blood Corpse; the towering ogres have become gigantic Blood Corpse; the orcs with their strange limbs have become orcish Blood Corpse; even the terrifying demons have become a subspecies of Blood Corpse...