Chapter 59

The sky gradually grew dark.

From the forest thick with shrubs came continual chopping sounds.

Swish! Swish! Several ogre warriors brandished clubs studded with spikes, using brute force to hack a path forward.

Behind these three- to four-meter-tall ogre warriors followed hyena-people warriors wearing light leather armor and holding black curved blades.

Among the hyena-people warriors stood a tall, strong black-furred hyena-person, a head taller than the others.

It was also the only one wearing a full set of fine iron armor and wielding a great steel blade.

"Halt." Huoge called out to stop the troops that wanted to keep moving, looked around, and found the area open, suitable as a temporary campsite.

"Duanci, you few go clear away the branches and bushes blocking the view."

"Duyan, you lead your kin to chop wood and quickly build a temporary camp."

Duanci the hyena-person led five hyena-people warriors toward the surroundings, cutting down the bushes and branches with their curved blades.

Duyan the ogre warrior also nodded, said nothing, and together with the other ogre warriors went to the big trees, then took the short axes strapped to their backs and began chopping.

Tremendous force shook the trees; each axe blow left a deep notch in the thick trunks.

After a dozen or so blows, the trees crashed down.

Several ogre warriors stepped forward, lifted the trunks together, carried them a short distance, began trimming the branches, then split them into fresh lengths of suitable size and width.

They assembled these lengths into a simple yet stable tripod framework, then laid thick leaves on top, stuffed leaves, weeds, and dirt into the gaps, and pressed down firmly to compact it.

Soon a roughly built three-meter-high camp was erected.

However, such a triangular camp made of wet wood cannot last long; under rain, insects, etc., it will rot and eventually collapse.

But for temporary shelter from wind and rain, a midway rest, it is more than enough. The monsters are not as fragile as humans.

Meanwhile, Huoge had already led several hyena-people warriors through the forest to hunt tonight's dinner.

The steel blade fell, easily splitting the skull of an antelope, revealing the still‑twitching brain.

A thick furry hand grabbed the antelope's neck; Huoge ignored its still‑twitching body, leaned in, and sucked hard at the brain.

The tender brain slid into Huoge's mouth, and his fierce face showed satisfaction.

"This antelope's brain is still so soft and tasty." Huoge grinned, then released the carcass.

Hyena-people warriors behind respectfully took over the corpse.

After spending considerable time hunting again and catching several ordinary beasts, Huoge saw the amount was enough to feed the warriors and returned to the temporary camp.

He felt odd that game in these mountains had become so scarce; there had clearly been plenty before.

But this doubt flashed away—maybe it was just bad luck.

At the temporary camp, when Huoge and the hunting hyena-people warriors returned, three large triangular huts had already been added.

The resting ogre warriors and hyena-people were recovering the strength expended in building the camp.

Seeing Huoge the chieftain return, they eyed the beasts the warriors carried or dragged, lit up, and their hungry stomachs growled.

They butchered, lit a fire, roasted the meat, and sprinkled a bit of red powder on it.

This powder is made from dried, ground spicy fruit cultivated within the tribe, favored by warriors and residents alike.

They ate and drank their fill.

Night fell.

Aside from a few on‑watch hyena-people, including Huoge, the warriors closed their eyes to rest and restore energy under the faintly red moon.

Shush, shush—bony hands and skulls rose from beneath the soil.

Large amounts of eerie blue flames rose in the forest, the scene quite terrifying.

Small humanoid skeletons, beast skeletons, and various oddly shaped skeletons revived in the forest.

Within their hollow eye sockets, soul‑fire flickered, and the skeletons soon sensed nearby living beings.

They began moving purposefully toward the camp.

A on‑watch hyena-people sensed something amiss, twitched its nose, its keen smell detected the rotting odor in the air, plus faint cracking sounds from the surrounding darkness.

Without hesitation, the on‑watch hyena-people roared, "Prepare for battle!"

In an instant, the camp rang with clashes of weapons and armor; the ogre and hyena-people warriors all woke up.

Dozens of torches were quickly lit, bathing the camp in fiery red.

This let the Dark Scale Tribe warriors see clearly the enemy's appearance—undead.

Bang! The few on‑watch hyena-people warriors first engaged the skeleton undead; these elite hyena-people warriors slashed with their black curved blades, and the skeleton undead shattered like fragile straw.

Demon steel weapons.

Harder and sharper than hundred‑forged steel, and they also possess a certain anti‑magic effect.

The so‑called anti‑magic effect is the removal of elemental resistance; losing elemental resistance means losing various magical enhancements.

Take dragons, for example: their scales naturally have strong elemental resistance, and an adult dragon's scale resistance can even nullify low‑tier spell effects.

But once a powerful anti‑magic weapon strips the dragon's scale of its elemental resistance—or more precisely, makes that resistance temporarily ineffective—the once incredibly hard, magically enhanced scale becomes merely a somewhat harder material.

Consequently, battle energy, spells, and various destructive energies that could hardly harm dragon scales can now inflict either high or low damage on those scales when their elemental resistance is temporarily gone.

Therefore, dragon‑slayer squads, if able, will certainly prepare powerful anti‑magic weapons in advance; otherwise the dragon's extremely strong elemental resistance would give them a terrible headache.

The moment a demon steel curved blade touches the bones of a skeleton undead, it negates that foe's extremely weak elemental resistance.

The rotting bone, bereft of elemental‑resistance protection, is just a rotten bone; even a somewhat strong ordinary person could shatter it with a punch, let alone a hyena‑people warrior capable of smashing stone with a single blow.

Bang! When the last beast‑type skeleton undead was chopped into fragments by Huoge, its soul‑fire extinguished and the sky grew slightly brighter.

The hyena‑people and ogre warriors collapsed ungracefully on the ground, panting.

Aside from a few hyena‑people warriors with minor wounds, the others were exhausted from fighting skeletons all night.

"Have the Wailing Gray Land's tendrils reached here already?" Huoge frowned deeply.

More than two years ago, the master told it that the Dark Swamp War was about to begin, and let it and Diugus two be careful of the wailing ash-land undead.

The wood spirits, wild dwarves, mountain giants and other forces hostile to the Emerald Dream are far from Fish Spirit Marsh; only the undead in the nearby Wailing Ash Land can threaten the Darkscale Tribe.

But that is only a possible threat.

Because the Darkscale Tribe's position does not directly face the Wailing Ash Land, the latter would have to detour over a distance of more than a thousand kilometers, or directly cross most of Fish Spirit Marsh, to reach the Darkscale Tribe.

Moreover, relative to the inconspicuous and unknown Darkscale Tribe, the territory of the Green Dragon Three Brothers, which also comes from the Emerald Dream and is closer to the Wailing Ash Land, is much more conspicuous.

Friend's new book **Distant Myth** under the influence of the Earth Evil Dao Fruit manifests the human world as the Spirit Realm; only those who pass can begin the path of cultivation.

(End of chapter)