Chapter 294: Current State of Zhaogu Mountain Range

"There's a situation, Tally, Selina."

Luo De pointed toward the direction of the intruders.

"Got it~"

The succubus replied sweetly, then vanished swiftly into the shadows.

The zombie girl cast a flight spell, took position in the sky first, and slowly moved toward them.

On one side, the tiefling Lin Saixier's expression turned serious as she stared tightly at Luo De.

Her eyes screamed her desire to go along too.

Luo De couldn't help but laugh.

"I never said you couldn't come."

The girl scratched her head sheepishly.

"Back when we encountered situations, Master Falshad always scouted alone first, confirmed there was no major threat, then let us approach—I thought…"

Luo De had no intention of interfering in how others trained their disciples.

He shrugged, said nothing, and walked with her toward the scene.

Behind them, some people still working in the fields setting up rituals saw this and dared not follow, watching their backs with silent tears in their hearts.

There was nothing to be done.

That damned forest warden had a terrifying record of slaying seventh-rank foes with sixth-rank power, and enjoyed considerable reputation in Shi Ying Town.

No one wanted to provoke him.

Due to having to match the tiefling girl's pace, by the time they arrived, Selina had already trapped the intruders in an amber sarcophagus.

Inside the semi-transparent sarcophagus, three "humans" clad in plain duck-green coarse cloth were bound together by shadowy ribbons.

Their skin was covered in thick, long, gray-black animal fur, their eyes yellowed, and black veins bulged across their faces.

When they bared their teeth, their mouths revealed rows of yellow, jagged fangs.

Their arms hung past their knees, their backs slightly hunched, and their damp clothing stretched unnaturally tight.

"So it really is beast-mutation disease."

Luo De's brow tightened.

These three beast-mutants were clearly ordinary farmers.

With little combat power, they were easily subdued by Selina.

To high-rank individuals, this was no major trouble—especially for mages.

But their infectiousness was especially deadly and stubborn for melee spiritual warriors and ordinary people.

A few days ago, when the rat-girl No. 3 was locked up for digging tunnels recklessly, Luo De had grown wary of the south.

He'd planned to ask the half-deer girl Xiao Ke for a prophecy, but unfortunately, she'd been away these past few days and hadn't returned yet.

Though shy, Xiao Ke still had a couple of childhood friends.

One of them had recently moved from Silver Hoof Deer Valley to a forest near Windstorm City and invited her to visit the new home.

The Dusk Hills had stabilized lately, so Luo De didn't stop her.

He thought she needed a break, so he assigned the female orc Amy as her guard and instructed her to send daily safety reports via the 【Chain of Far Speech】.

"Didn't get any of their blood on you, right?"

Selina remained airborne; he was mainly asking Tally.

The cute rural freckled girl tilted her head: "Of course not—I'd never let any man besides my master touch me."

The tiefling girl's face darkened as she observed more closely.

"This duck-green dye… is the style of the Mishu people from the Ke's Plain. Why is it appearing here? Beast-mutants with reduced intelligence are unlikely to cross the Zhaogu Mountain Range…"

"It can only mean conditions on Ke's Plain are dire—there are so many beast-mutants that even low-probability events are now occurring."

Luo De shook his head.

One crisis hadn't settled before another arose.

The Coral Bay time bomb is still there, and now a zombie crisis is coming.

Ordinary-level beast-mutants aren't too bad—ten or so mages could probably handle them.

What's feared is if some capable spiritual warriors get infected.

Those are like rabid dogs crawling out of a cesspool—utterly disgusting.

Modern mages are powerful enough that a global collapse or civilizational decline like in zombie movies of his past life won't happen.

But Aitheron is overwhelmed right now.

The Snow Hill Evening News, due to the Windstorm City plague, reduced its publication from daily to every three days; just three days ago, the paper mentioned the victory in retaking Dusk City—at the cost of 172 seventh-rank spiritual warriors, 21 eighth-rank spiritual warriors, and over fifty arcane mages.

The newspaper's minstrels wildly accused the commanding officer, Cardinal Igo, claiming he had bought back the city with human lives.

With such a battle situation, can they possibly spare the strength to handle a crisis on the far western frontier?

They're surely too busy to care.

Luo De suddenly felt something.

He turned his head to the side.

Soon, a mature, graceful figure stepped out of the yellow haze.

It was the tooth fairy Rosalia.

She saw the sealed beast-mutants and wore an expression of apology and shame.

"I'm sorry, everyone—we were negligent. We never expected them to slip through."

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

Presumably, Dimia's magical outburst required rest, so she lent her subordinate to Rosalia.

"Is the situation that bad?"

Luo De asked.

"Extremely bad. We treated Zhaogu Mountain Range as a buffer between Ke's Plain and Shi Ying Town, stationing heavy forces—but we never expected numerous fifth- and sixth-rank spiritual warriors to be contaminated. Under pressure, we couldn't watch them all…"

Rosalia shook her head, her face filled with worry.

She sighed again.

"I thought we could handle it ourselves, but things didn't go as planned. Though this makes our city hall look incompetent, Mr. Luo De, Shi Ying Town needs your forest allies' help—we'll give you a satisfactory reward."

Luo De nodded, agreeing.

Even if Rosalia hadn't asked, he would've come to help anyway.

The farm area here isn't far from the forest—he couldn't allow large numbers of beast-mutants to wander into Shi Ying Town.

He notified the forest group chat via the 【Chain of Far Speech】, then summoned the ghoul Pan Ni, the banshee Krist, and the elf Kali Site.

Pan Ni possesses the skill Necrotic Legion—beast-mutation disease barely affects undead creatures. Krist, being a spirit, cannot be infected by beast-mutation disease.

As for Kali Site, as the forest's most knowledgeable mage, calling her now was the right choice.

The other girls could remain on standby in the forest for now.

The tooth fairy Rosalia led the group toward Zhaogu Mountain Range.

Along the way, everything was gray and hazy, visibility less than ten meters.

Across the open farmland, it felt especially terrifying—every shadow seemed to swirl around them.

When they reached Zhaogu Mountain Range and stood against the ring of hills blocking the sandstorms, their vision cleared somewhat.

And so did the horror before them.

Beneath the ring of hills, beast-mutants wandered along every mountain path.

Some carried torches, others rusted axes or pitchforks—all without exception covered head to toe in gray-black animal fur.

Exactly like the zombie crisis in the movies.

Luo De estimated at a glance and felt there were thousands of them.

"Has Ke's Plain been completely lost?"

(End of Chapter)