"Hmm? Wouldn't it be good if things went smoothly?"
Zhou Xuan, sitting to the side, looked up in surprise.
"That's not what I meant," Han Ling shook her head slightly, "It's just that, judging from the strength of the Calamity Beast, we seem to have had a relatively smooth run so far, apart from the initial beast tide attack on the base!"
"Hmm..." Zhou Xuan stroked his chin and nodded in response.
"But this is all because of the captain, isn't it? If you had just replaced him with someone else, things would be different now. Come out, find your target, and get to work!"
Qin Yu and Zheng Guomin nodded in agreement.
Although Shen Heng had been warning them to be careful of other situations even when he was around, they had never encountered such a situation since they formed the team.
When and where to encounter the Calamity Beast Calamity Beast —everything Shen Heng said was accurate.
"Maybe!" Han Ling nodded slightly.
Shen Heng glanced at everyone, then lowered his eyes to look at the flickering flames, and slowly said, "Actually, it's not entirely because of that."
"Hmm? What's the reason for that?"
Zhou Xuan and the others instinctively looked over.
Han Ling also turned her head slightly, looking at Shen Heng.
Shen Heng looked at the campfire and calmly said:
"The mission was able to proceed smoothly because the Calamity Beast had too many places to protect."
"The number of Calamity Beast that can enter the Erosion Zone is limited. With more areas being guarded, the number of Calamity Beast in each area will naturally decrease."
At this point, Shen Heng paused, then looked up at everyone:
You should know about the ancient Xiongnu, right?
Everyone nodded. They had been taught about it when they were in school, and even though they had forgotten most of it, they knew that the Xiongnu mainly referred to the nomadic peoples of the north.
Shen Heng continued:
"We are now like the ancient Xiongnu."
"They have no fixed abode, living wherever there is water and grass; they have no fixed cities to guard, and they can fight or leave whenever they want."
"The only base that needs protection, and the Calamity Beast dare not attack it with all their might because they are afraid of harming it."
"And the Calamity Beast, just like us in ancient times, have too vast a territory and too many cities and passes to defend, which is why we are in this situation now."
"In most places, the guardians of the Calamity Beast are not very strong."
"Even though the Calamity Beast are far stronger than us overall, this is how they are performing locally."
"I see!"
The group nodded thoughtfully.
This analysis does seem to be closer to the essence.
On his kneecap, Zhou Xuan's lips curled into a slight smile.
Who would have thought that one day he would become a ' Xiongnu '?
No, given our circumstances, even in ancient times we would Xiongnu... no, wait, we'd be Southern Barbarians!
"But Anchor Point should be considered quite important, right? Why are there still so few Calamity Beast?" Zheng Guomin asked in a deep voice from the side.
"What you've seen isn't much; it's only on low-level Calamity Beast," Shen Heng said, looking at Zheng Guomin. "On 5th Tier Calamity Beast, the number here at the Anchor Point is actually quite high, even far exceeding many other places."
"Why is that?" Zheng Guomin frowned slightly.
"Open the map and take a look," Shen Heng said.
Zheng Guomin wasn't entirely sure, but he still opened the map as Shen Heng had instructed.
Everyone instinctively looked over and saw the familiar oval map, the familiar hundreds of bright spots, and the familiar notes next to the bright spots.
Shen Heng raised his hand and pointed to one of the pale gray dots of light.
"You'll find that, except for three of them, these pale gray specks are mainly low-level Calamity Beast, supplemented by a very small number of Fourth Tier Calamity Beast."
"Why is that?" Zhou Xuan asked.
"Do you remember what I said during our previous exploration, what were these gray-dot Calamity Beast basically doing?" Shen Heng asked.
"Uh... gathering resources?" Zhou Xuan thought for a moment.
"Hmm," Shen Heng said calmly, gazing at the map.
"The differences in functionality directly led to different configurations of the Calamity Beast in different locations."
"In areas with different resources, the main inhabitants are low-level Calamity Beast, supplemented by a very small number of Fourth Tier Calamity Beast."
"But in places like Anchor Point, a large number of low-level Calamity Beast are actually of little use."
"If one of us reaches the Middle Fifth Tier, he could even take care of this Anchor Point by himself."
"Therefore, in places like Anchor Point, you'll find that they are basically composed of a small number of low-tier Calamity Beast, paired with a relatively large number of 5th Tier Calamity Beast."
"I see!" Zhou Xuan looked at the map, slightly realizing.
The others also silently gazed at the map.
As for these three...
Shen Heng's gaze fell on three of the darker gray dots.
"These three locations, because they provide the Anchor Point points, will have far more low-level Calamity Beast and higher-level (4th and 5th Tier ) Calamity Beast than other places!"
"Then the situation of the Calamity Beast paired with these Anchor Point is basically the same, so we can definitely destroy them all, right?" Zhou Xuan glanced at the red dots on the map.
"Hmm," Shen Heng nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on the red dots on the map, and added, "That is, before the Calamity Beast can react!"
Nearly half a month later.
Dozens of figures were scattered across the hills composed of Black Stone.
Shen Heng stood behind one of the huge Black Stone, silently gazing at the slightly swaying beast shadow in the far distance.
Over the course of the past two weeks, they maintained a rhythm of traveling during the day, launching raids at night, and then resting, destroying ten Anchor Point in succession.
Of the twelve Anchor Point that have been explored, only this one remains, along with the last one more than 300 kilometers away.
These two Anchor Point are quite far from the other Anchor Point.
They had traveled for two days to reach this point from the previous Anchor Point.
Theoretically, we should be happy at this point, since only these two Anchor Point remain, but...
Shen Heng frowned, his gaze fixed on the distant Anchor Point.
In my perception, the number of Calamity Beast is not significantly different from what I sensed during my last exploration of the entire Erosion Zone.
However, this is also in theory.
Half a month is more than enough time for Fourth Tier Calamity Beast to travel, report the news, and arrange for the appropriate Calamity Beast to arrive.
We don't even need to wait for this Anchor Point.
According to Shen Heng's estimate, starting from the time of their initial attack on the first Anchor Point, by the time they reached the previous Anchor Point, there would have been roughly enough time for the Calamity Beast to defend themselves.
But in reality, the strength of the Calamity Beast guardians at the previous Anchor Point point remained unchanged?
Why?
Do the Calamity Beast actually not value these Anchor Point?
Or perhaps other Calamity Beast failed to guard their Anchor Point and therefore dared not report it?
If it were only one or two, it wouldn't be so bad, but given that they didn't engage and allowed many of the Calamity Beast to escape successfully, this seems unlikely.
Then... why is that?