Chapter 230: Appointment, Destruction

Very quickly, Xia Duo handled the two wounded men. Both of them had penetrating wounds, one in the chest and one in the shoulder, though the wounds were not large.

Simply by channeling Positive Energy and relying on their own recovery, the wounds soon healed on their own.

However, Xia Duo also knew that the current healing was only on the surface; the muscles and bones underneath would not be so easy to recover.

They would need at least half a month of recuperation.

In other words, not only would they be unable to work for this half-month, but Xia Duo would also have to provide for them. At the thought of this, Xia Duo glared at Ximeng with resentment once again.

Although these two were not injured because of running away, if no one had run away, perhaps those two dead ghosts would not have died, and there would have been someone to do the work of these two unlucky fellows!

"Ximeng, lift your head."

"My Lord—" Ximeng lifted his head nervously. He did not dare to hope for no punishment; what he feared most was being stripped of his position as temporary squad leader.

But Xia Duo was precisely planning to strip him of it. "Squad 1 is soldiers, and Squad 2 is also soldiers. You cannot let discipline slacken just because you are doing miscellaneous chores now."

Discipline, or rather order, was the most important part of training the territory's people. This aspect was handled by the priest Laidun, who specialized in it, but ultimately, the time for adjustment had been too short.

Hearing the Lord mention discipline, Ximeng's face turned pale. He thought of the days he spent receiving training in the port warehouse and slammed his head back onto the floor, not daring to speak.

"Like this, put aside the affairs of Squad 2 for now and properly recall what Priest Laidun taught you. Let Qiaoqi take over Squad 2 for a period of time." Xia Duo said indifferently, "That is all. Go out and call Qiaoqi in."

Ximeng did not dare to argue, nor did he even dare to look up at Xia Duo, slinking out dejectedly.

A moment later, Qiaoqi walked in with a look of joy, but upon seeing the expressionless Xia Duo, Qiaoqi immediately shrank his head and reined in his emotions.

"My Lord, you called for me?"

"Yes, you take charge of Squad 2 for now. You must remember at all times that you are soldiers of the Territory, no longer porters on the docks. Discipline must be kept in your hearts at all times!" By the end, Xia Duo's tone had become stern.

Qiaoqi's expression turned solemn. "Yes, my Lord!"

"Arrange for someone to come over to look after the wounded, and take a piece of dried meat from my share for them. Go out!"

"Yes."

As far as the current situation went, the only discipline for the territory's soldiers was to obey orders; everything else, whether it was fearlessness in the face of death or so-called loyal will, was extended from that.

Although there were two deserters during this crisis, Xia Duo was still very satisfied with the others, especially Jibu Squad. Their will to fight in the face of an irresistible enemy made Xia Duo want to keep them even more.

Soon, the person Qiaoqi arranged to look after the wounded arrived. Xia Duo gave some instructions before leaving.

Returning to his small tent, Xia Duo began to summarize the gains and losses of this battle.

First was the loss of personnel; not to mention the two dead ghosts who ran away, there were also two unlucky wounded men who would be unable to work for at least half a month.

Of course, besides losses, there were also gains. The appearance of the Troll would make others more vigilant; the forest was not a peaceful place that they could open up at will.

As for Xia Duo, he had gained some practical combat experience, which gave him more understanding of the 【Imprisonment Sphere】 and some ideas for subsequent improvements.

It would just take quite a bit of time to research and truly realize these ideas.

Other than that, there was probably the Troll, though it was a pity he hadn't managed to capture a live one.

For the next two days, Xia Duo did not go out again, and the Magic Alarm he had left at the site where the Troll was burned was never triggered until it dissipated.

Having stayed in the camp for two days, Xia Duo felt restless and prepared to go investigate again. After instructing Jibu to maintain vigilance, he set off with his Adamantine Sword and a shield.

Following the path where they had pursued the Troll, Xia Duo found the site of the Troll's incinerated remains. It seemed there was nothing unusual, but since the Troll had fled in this direction, there should have been something different.

However, comparing it with the map and searching the forest for a long time, he found nothing unusual.

"Could it be that I overthought it?" Xia Duo was somewhat puzzled.

But continuing to search might not necessarily lead to any discoveries, so Xia Duo decided to go to the treasure site to see if the sword marks he had deliberately left last time had recovered.

Walking in the forest, it was naturally impossible to always have smooth sailing. However, with 【Mage Armor】 inside and a shield outside, after slaying two forest wolves, one venomous snake, and countless branches, Xia Duo finally arrived at the treasure site again.

Finding the "grid" where he had deliberately left marks, Xia Duo's eyes narrowed, and he muttered to himself, "As expected!"

Two days ago, although he was in a hurry to return to the camp, he had left a few sword marks on the tree trunk before leaving, but now—

All the sword marks were gone!

Xia Duo reached out and pressed his hand against the bark of this unknown large tree, stroking it up and down while carefully observing the surrounding Magic Net environment with Magic Vision.

This tree did not look special in any way. Xia Duo was completely baffled; he could be certain that he had left sword marks on the trunk two days ago.

But the place where the original sword marks were had returned to its original state, which was definitely not normal.

Perhaps it was a reversal of time, or some kind of magical Huanyuan spell, or perhaps everything here was his hallucination, and he had fallen into an incredibly Reality-like illusion!

Otherwise, this abnormal phenomenon could not be explained.

He checked the surrounding "grids" again. Most of the "grids" had marks left by Xia Duo, whether they were sword marks on trees, stones that had been overturned, or turf that had been lifted.

But there were just those few "grids" that were not so normal!

Whether it was a time spell or a Huanyuan spell, Xia Duo could not verify for the moment, but whether it was an illusion was very easy to verify—

Xia Duo grabbed the Adamantine Sword and started chopping the tree, chopping the tree where the sword marks had inexplicably disappeared!

One, two, three, four! Xia Duo struck the trunk at knee-height with his sword; he had never thought that one day he would become a lumberjack.

And using a sword to chop a tree at that. Fortunately, it was an Adamantine Sword; if it had been his own sword, it probably would have gone dull after a few strikes.

But even with this Adamantine Sword of Jibu's, facing a large tree that required two people to embrace, it was still somewhat lacking; after all, it was only an Adamantine Sword with a blade containing Adamantine, not an Adamantine Sword forged entirely of Adamantine.

By the time he felled the tree, Xia Duo felt that the blue part on the edge of the Adamantine Sword seemed to have diminished somewhat.

Just chopping it down wasn't enough; Xia Duo also chopped off a branch as thick as a lower leg and carried it away. He wanted to see if this wood would disappear after being carried to the Territory area!

And if it didn't disappear, he wanted to see if the large tree here would still be missing a branch after it recovered!

Xia Duo suddenly had some mischievous thoughts; it seemed the branch hanging on his shoulder felt much lighter.

Carrying it for a while, dragging it for a while, and complaining about the terrain in the forest, Xia Duo was already drenched in sweat by the time he was halfway there, but he still insisted on carrying the wood back.

Boom—

Xia Duo threw this piece of wood into the Wolfburg River and jumped in himself. The cool river water instantly refreshed his spirit.

After getting the wood to the other side of the river, Xia Duo returned to the camp. Standing on this side, he could see the wood on the opposite bank. Now, all that was left was to wait.

However, Xia Duo was basically certain that the wood he had dragged back should be fine; it was real wood, but this only made him increasingly interested in the anomaly at the treasure site.