Quiet and secluded.
Shen Heng sat on the ground, silently gazing at the towering statue in front of him.
If he could, he certainly wouldn't want to stay under these circumstances, but the course of events forced him to remain.
Current situation, timeline, possible solutions...
If they give up on this path too, then they might truly be beyond saving.
The rustling wind suddenly changed direction, chasing after the direction Qin Yu and the others had left.
Shen Heng let out a soft breath, his gaze lowered to the two Black Rat lying in front of him.
If that Fifth Tier Black Rat had managed to get there, he would have had no choice but to sacrifice those two Black Rat before it arrived, hoping it would leave.
Fortunately, the situation did not get any worse.
Now, all we need to do is take advantage of the extra time and try out all the other methods!
However, firstly...
Shen Heng stared at the statue in front of him, paused, and then lowered his head...
"Black..."
After a moment, he slowly raised his gaze and looked at the statue.
"So, even losing one doesn't work?!"
Not feeling too disappointed, he lowered his eyes again.
Soft prayers echoed intermittently in the empty temple.
The content of the prayer has been changed from directly teleporting to the outside of the valley to teleporting to the summit, upper part, and halfway up the mountain that surrounds Black Stone Valley.
There were no further modifications after that.
While it still has some use going further down the chain, its usefulness is quite limited.
In that short time, it would be difficult for them to cross the ring of mountains before the Black Rat discovered them and arrived.
Therefore, the content of the prayer was changed accordingly.
The mode of exit has changed; a path has been cleared through mountains; Black Rat have been repositioned; external threats have emerged...
I don't know when it happened.
"... Night... Portal..."
The words had barely left his mouth.
Shen Heng, as before, lay prostrate on the ground waiting.
There was no movement, but the closed eyes seemed to brighten for a moment.
Shen Heng paused for a moment, then slowly raised his gaze.
A faint light shimmered within the cave, and a large character for "Calamity Beast " floated in mid-air.
The font existed for a very short time; it disappeared completely in just a moment.
"Did it succeed?"
Shen Heng silently watched the characters disappear into the air, but his face did not show much joy.
The words of my prayer echoed in my mind.
Night, forest, along...
I don't know how much time passed.
The once quiet temple became lively again, with Black Rat moving about outside their burrows.
After a moment, the two largest Black Rat emerged from the cave.
Then, he sat down.
Black Spine glanced at the nearby remnants of the battle, then looked towards the distant forest.
Which direction did you chase after them in this morning?
"There!" The Lame Claw pointed westward.
Black Spine looked over. "And then, you didn't catch up?"
"Yeah, I don't know how those guys got away. At first, we could find some traces, but when we chased after them, we couldn't find them anymore!" Lame Claw explained, his lips twitching slightly.
"I guess they probably anticipated being chased, so they prepared hiding places like burrows."
Without rebuttal or agreement, Black Spine stared calmly into the woods to the west.
Just then, a Black Rat came running over quickly.
"Lord Black Spine, Lord Lame Claw, no other beasts of our race were found nearby, only signs of battle, bloodstains, and some limbs."
"Are there any limbs from other Calamity Beast?" Lame Claw asked in a deep voice. If so, they could use that to find the corresponding Calamity Beast.
"No," the Black Rat replied.
Seeing this, Lame Claw nodded somewhat irritably.
"But..."
"But what?" the Lame Claw looked over.
Black Spine, standing nearby, also looked over.
"I... we saw some marks of blood whips at the scene of the battle," the Black Rat said hesitantly.
"Blood Whip?!"
"Um."
Without asking any further questions, the Lame Claw tilted his head.
Blood Whips are only equipped by tribesmen stationed in a few mines and enclosures because of their limited quantity; they are not equipped by those stationed at the temple.
Now...
"Heh, so that's how those guys killed Black Whiskers and the others, is it?" Lame Claw grinned with a sinister smile.
Don't be fooled by the fact that only twenty or thirty Black Rat are guarding the temple.
However, relying solely on the Calamity Beast within the valley, it would be impossible to kill them unless there were a sufficient number.
Now, the answer is clear.
The Lame Claw turned to look at Black Spine and said,
"Let's go back now and drag those guys out!"
"It's no use!" Black Spine said in a deep voice.
"It's... useless?!" The Lame Claw's lips twitched, his eyes full of confusion.
"Hmm, they only acted close to dawn. Do you think that's enough time for them to get back to the nearest mine?" Black Spine asked in a deep voice.
"You mean they're in the forest now?" Lame Claw's eyes grew even more ferocious.
"Hmm," Black Spine responded in a deep voice.
"Then let's take advantage of this time, gather our people, and search the forest to dig them out!" Lame Claw said immediately.
"It's no use!" Black Spine retorted again.
"Huh? Why?" The Lame Claw looked over, increasingly annoyed and confused.
"Those guys managed to escape from our previous surveillance. Do you think this kind of search will be effective against them?" Black Spine said gravely. "Besides..."
"What else?" the Lame Claw asked, suppressing his anger.
"They," Black Spine turned his head to look at the temple behind him, "Have probably already gotten what they wanted!"
Without uttering a word, Lame Claw also looked back at the temple.
When it came over there, it already sensed that there was no connection between the offering and the unfulfilled prayer.
In other words, making a wish completes a full process!
But when it arrived, the other party was fleeing, which means...
"What do you think those guys are praying for?"
"Who knows?!" Black Spine said in a deep voice. It wasn't that it was speaking in riddles; it genuinely didn't know.
The only thing we know is that it's definitely related to how they escaped!
"So what do we do now? We can't just sit here and watch them go out, can we?!" Lame Claw asked, his voice suppressed but still conveying a sense of savagery.
This brutality stemmed not only from the appearance of those individuals, but also from the deaths of their clansmen in the surrounding area, and from the current situation where, for reasons that were hard to fathom, the only recourse was Net search of the past.
There was no response; Black Spine remained calm.
If there's a way, then that's all that matters.
But what about a group of creatures that managed to escape despite their tight defenses, and who likely still know how to get out...?
It glanced at the Lame Claw beside it, paused, and then looked behind it.