Chapter 294: Current Situation in the Claw Valley Mountains

"Something's up, Tally, Selena."

Rod pointed toward the direction of the uninvited guests.

"Okay~"

The succubus coquettishly replied, then quickly vanished into the shadows.

The zombie girl cast a flight spell, took the sky position first, and slowly headed that way,

while the tiefling Cici on the side straightened her expression, watching Rod closely.

Her eyes went mad, expressing her desire to go along as well.

Rod couldn't help but laugh.

"I never said you couldn't go."

The girl scratched her head awkwardly.

"In the past, whenever something came up, Master Farshad would scout alone first, only letting us approach once he confirmed there was no major threat. I thought..."

Rod didn't want to interfere with how others taught their disciples.

He shrugged without saying more and took her along to rush over.

Meanwhile, some people still busy arranging rituals in the fields saw this scene, didn't dare follow, and instead watched their backs, silently weeping in their hearts.

No choice.

That damn forest warden had a terrifying record of a sixth-tier force cutting through a seventh-tier, and enjoyed quite a good reputation in Shi Ying Town.

No one wanted to provoke him.

Because they had to accommodate the tiefling girl's speed, by the time the two arrived, Selena had already trapped the newcomers in an amber stone coffin.

Inside the semi-transparent stone coffin, three 'humans' wearing ordinary duck-green coarse cloth garments were bound together by shadow ribbons.

Their bodies were covered in gray-black, thick, long beast fur; their eyes were dim yellow, and black veins bulged on their faces.

As they bared their teeth, rows of yellowed, jagged fangs were visible.

Their arms reached past their knees, their backs slightly curved, and their wet clothes were stretched somewhat ill-fitting.

"So it really is lycanthropy?"

Rod's brows knitted tightly.

These three lycanthropes were obviously ordinary farmers originally.

They possessed little combat power, so Selena controlled them very easily.

This stuff isn't much trouble for high-tiers, especially mages.

But their infectivity is particularly deadly and troublesome for melee spiritual warriors and ordinary people.

A few days ago, when Rat Girl Number Thirteen was locked up for digging holes randomly, it made Rod wary of the south.

He had wanted to ask Miss Xiao Ke, the half-deer person, to prophesy, but unfortunately she had gone out these past few days and hasn't returned yet.

Although she is socially anxious, Miss Xiao Ke still has one or two childhood playmates.

Just these past two days, one playmate moved from Silver Hoof Deer Valley to a forest near Windstorm City and invited her to visit the new home.

Recently, the Twilight Hills have stabilized somewhat, so Rod didn't stop her.

He also felt she needed to relax, so he assigned the female orc Amy to act as her guard and have her report safety every night via the 【Chain of Far Speech】.

"You didn't get their blood on you, did you?"

Selena didn't come down from the sky; he was mainly asking Tally.

The cute rural freckled girl tilted her head: "Of course. How could I let any man other than my master touch me?"

The tiefling girl's expression also turned ugly; she had observed more closely.

"This duck-green dye... is the style of the Mishu people from the Koshi Plains. Why would it appear here? The possibility of lycanthropes with lowered intelligence crossing the Claw Valley Mountains is very small..."

"It can only mean the situation in the Koshi Plains is extremely bad, with so many lycanthropes that low-probability events can occur."

Rod shook his head.

One wave subsides, another rises.

The time bomb of Coral Bay is still waiting; now a zombie crisis is coming.

Civilian-level lycanthropes are fine; if ten or so mages come, they can probably solve it.

What he fears is that some capable spiritual warriors get infected.

Those are just mad dogs crawling out of a dung pit; utterly disgusting.

Modern mages are very powerful; a global collapse and civilization decline like in zombie movies from his past life shouldn't happen.

It's just that Aethelorn is currently too busy to handle its own affairs.

The Snow Hill Evening News has reduced from daily to every three days due to the strange disease spreading in Windstorm City; the paper from just three days ago mentioned the victory in the recapture of Twilight City, at the cost of one hundred seventy-two seventh-tier spiritual warriors, twenty-one eighth-tier spiritual warriors, and over fifty arcane mages.

The bard in the newspaper furiously accused the Yige Sect Red Cardinal, the commander, claiming he reclaimed the city by filling it with human lives.

With such a battle situation, do they really have the capacity to handle the crisis on the far western frontier?

Presumably, they can't spare the attention.

Rod suddenly felt something in his heart.

He turned his head to look at the side.

In a short while, a mature, graceful figure walked out of the yellow haze.

It was the tooth fairy fae Rosalia.

Seeing the sealed lycanthropes, her face wore apology and guilt.

"Sorry everyone, it was our negligence. We didn't expect them to sneak in around us."

Behind her followed a wendigo wearing a deer skull, its body piled with bones, branches, and flesh.

Presumably, Dimia needed quiet recovery due to a magical outburst, so she lent her subordinates to her.

"Is the situation very bad?"

Rod asked.

"It is extremely dire. We used Claw Valley Mountain as a barrier between the Koshi Plains and Shi Ying Town, stationing heavy troops to guard it, but we never expected that many fifth-tier and sixth-tier Spiritual Warriors would become corrupted. Under the pressure, we could not keep up with the care required."

Rosalia shook her head, her face full of worry.

She then sighed.

"I thought we could handle it, but unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Although this will make our City Hall look incompetent, Mr. Rod, Shi Ying Town needs the help of your Forest Companions. At that time, we will certainly give you satisfactory compensation."

Rod nodded, indicating his agreement.

Even if Rosalia hadn't mentioned it, he would have come to help anyway.

The farm district here is not too far from the forest; he could not possibly allow a large number of Beast-Turned patients to wander into Shi Ying Town.

He notified everyone of this in the Forest Group Chat within 【The Chain of Far Speech】, then summoned the Ghoul Pan Ni, the Banshee Chris, and the Elf Lady Kali.

Pan Ni possesses the skill Undead Legion; the Beast-Turned disease has little effect on undead creatures, which are already lifeless. Chris is a spirit entity and thus cannot be infected by the Beast-Turned disease in the first place.

As for Lady Kali, as the mage with the most comprehensive knowledge in the forest, there is no doubt about finding her at a time like this.

As for the other girls, they can simply wait in the forest for now.

The Tooth Fairy Rosalia led the group toward the direction of Claw Valley Mountain.

The entire way was gray and hazy, with visibility less than ten meters.

On the open farmland, this appeared especially terrifying, with the constant feeling that countless shadows were circling around from the surroundings.

By the time they arrived at Claw Valley Mountain and stood with their backs against the ring of mountains blocking the wind and sand, everyone's vision became somewhat clearer.

It also allowed Rod and the others to see the tragic situation before them more clearly.

Right beneath the ring of mountains, Beast-Turned patients wandered along every mountain path.

Some held torches, others carried rusted machetes or pitchforks; without exception, they were all covered from head to toe in black-gray beast fur.

It was exactly like the zombie crisis seen in movies.

Rod merely made a rough estimate and felt there were several thousand people.

"Has the Koshi Plains fallen completely?"

(End of this chapter)