Chapter 246

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Chapter 246: Luo Yang Besieged
By the time Zhang Mu and the others returned to the outskirts of Luo Yang City, it was already half a month later. He attempted to go back to the place where the nightmare bugs attacked them to see if there were any other nightmare bugs present, the temptation of the Soul Crystal was just too strong.
After all the trouble Zhang Mu went through, the only thing he gained was a spiritual-type beast core of a white fox, which was already given to Yuan Rui. The rest were traded with Long Qi for beast cores of other types, and there were no more left in stock.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. Despite searching everywhere, Zhang Mu couldn’t find a trace of any other nightmare bugs. When he only briefly searched the surroundings before, now expanding the search area was still in vain. It turned out that the last time it was the entire clan of nightmare bugs that attacked, not expecting to encounter Zhang Mu and the Obsidian Beetle, who were tough nuts to crack, everything was settled here.
Zhang Mu suddenly felt something was wrong as they approached Luo Yang City. Surprisingly, there were no humans near the city, which was not normal. Typically, there would be signs of human activity, not everyone lived inside Luo Yang City. Zhang Mu had seen many scattered humans before when he left because they hadn’t realized the importance of Era City yet and simply wanted to protect their own land.
When Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui passed by, they also tried not to disturb or interact.
However, when they passed those small villages again, they couldn’t see any humans at all. Had something drastic happened inside Luo Yang City? Or had Wang Liang and his group taken over all the settlement forces inside Luo Yang City and started gathering all the population resources within a radius of a hundred miles into Luo Yang City?
Though Zhang Mu was confused, he did not slow down, being careful and maintaining their original speed as they moved forward.
A hundred miles was just a short distance for Zhang Mu and the group, but as they approached within twenty miles, Zhang Mu slowed down because the Obsidian Beetle and mutated wolfhound were acting strangely.
“There are a large number of beasts here, possibly reaching the same scale as in Jin Zhong City.” The Obsidian Beetle and mutated wolfhound communicated with each other, informing Zhang Mu of this unexpected information.
Beast Tide besieging the city?
This was the first thought that popped into Zhang Mu’s mind.
If the numbers were the same as in Jin Zhong City, wouldn’t that be nearly five thousand beasts? Compared to Jin Zhong City, Luo Yang City was much smaller. If five thousand mutated beasts surrounded them, they could easily control all major directions of the city.
In the current situation, Zhang Mu was completely puzzled. He could understand the group from Jin Zhong City before – one was protecting valuable resources, and the other was evolving. They had gathered their people for a reason.
But why were these new mutated animals here now?
Obsidian Beetle said, “If we get within five miles, we might encounter mutated beasts. If the wind is not in our favor, they could smell us within two or three miles. I don’t know their strength, but even if there are five thousand first-stage mutated beasts, we won’t be able to handle them together.”
After a moment of careful thought, Zhang Mu considered having Obsidian Beetle use their flying advantage to enter Luo Yang City. However, he dismissed the idea because he was unsure if there were any mutated beasts with wind abilities that could fly on the other side.
Last time in Jin Zhong City, they were lucky not to encounter a flying wind-type mutated beast, maybe due to pure luck or the old white fox’s intuition. This time, however, the situation was uncertain, and Zhang Mu didn’t want to take any risks.
But now they couldn’t enter or leave Luo Yang City. What should they do?
Just as Zhang Mu was worrying, Obsidian Beetle suddenly suggested, “Don’t forget about that old dead dog. Let it dig a deep tunnel underground, and we can pass through that way.”
Zhang Mu frowned, considering the feasibility of this plan. He turned to the mutated wolfhound and asked, “It’s about thirty miles to Luo Yang City from here. How long would it take to dig a two-meter hole ten meters underground to get there?”
The mutated wolfhound seemed to be contemplating this as well. After a while, it barked softly at Zhang Mu with a serious look.
But the Obsidian Beetle didn’t give a translation in time, so Zhang Mu couldn’t help but ask through their soul connection, “How long will it take to get to Luo Yang City?”
After a while, the Obsidian Beetle reluctantly responded to Zhang Mu, “It just said that it has never tried tunneling before, so it doesn’t know.”
Zhang Mu almost fainted, feeling frustrated that the Obsidian Beetle didn’t have an answer despite acting so serious for a long time.
The mutated wolfhound was also feeling down, as it had been thinking for a long time but couldn’t figure out what to do.
Without saying much, it glanced towards Luo Yang City and started digging a hole. Although its digging motion was not very graceful, with dirt splashing everywhere, thanks to its connection with the earth element, it quickly created a hole big enough for the mutated wolfhound to go down. Zhang Mu and the others quickly moved back to avoid the flying dirt. Zhang Mu guessed that the Obsidian Beetle must be feeling really annoyed after getting dirt all over itself, probably wanting to scold the dog. However, since the mutated wolfhound was the main worker, the Obsidian Beetle suppressed its anger, quietly stepping aside with a new earthy smell on its body, and watching silently.