Chapter 477, Section 476: Underground
At noon, the sun was high in the sky, and the scorching sunlight baked the earth.
This is the most uncomfortable time of day for vampires, yet Vesalius's confidant Ern appears at the camp closest to Three Mountain City.
Ever since Fifteen broke through the defenses and infiltrated Sanshan City, this matter has been like a thorn in his heart.
Although His Highness the Prince has indicated that he has prepared a backup plan, Ern does not intend for his camp to have any mishaps that would give the humans an opportunity to exploit.
"Double the density of the Shadowbat patrols," Ern ordered his men behind him.
The adjutant looked troubled: "Sir, sending Shadowbats out at this time will result in a very high casualty rate..."
“It doesn’t matter if some die,” Ern interrupted coldly. “The number of Shadowbats in the army is enough to last until the end of this battle. I want them to take turns patrolling, and they must not miss any suspicious movements.”
Shadowbats are not easy to breed, and although his subordinates felt a little distressed, they had no choice but to comply since Ern had given the order.
The adjutant dared not say another word and quickly relayed the order.
Ern then turned his gaze to the outer perimeter of the camp: "Add Bloodthorn Traps on both sides of the camp, arranged in a triple pattern... and underground as well..."
Under his arrangement, there were corresponding defensive measures in the sky, on the ground, and underground.
If any human dares to launch a sneak attack outside the city, he will turn the attack into a decisive battle and annihilate the defenders' forces in one fell swoop!
Seeing that his orders had been carried out in sequence, Ern was satisfied and prepared to leave.
After confirming that all instructions were being strictly followed, Ern finally prepared to return to his shady tent. Just as he turned around, he glanced unintentionally in the direction of Three Mountain City, and his steps suddenly stopped.
He beckoned to the officer in charge of guard duty, pointed to the piles of corpses at the ruins of the outer city wall, and asked, "Have any humans come out to collect the corpses in the past two days?"
The officer looked in the direction he was looking and replied blankly, "There shouldn't be. There probably isn't even space for burial on Sanshan City. Look, aren't their soldiers' remains still mixed in with the piles of corpses?"
"Then why is the height of the pile of corpses... shorter than yesterday?" Ern frowned slightly.
"Really?" The officer squinted, scrutinizing the man closely. "I think it's always been like this..."
“Is that so…” Ern looked away with a hint of doubt.
He had only asked based on his intuition and wasn't really sure himself. After the officer said that, Ern also wondered if he was being too paranoid.
Just then, a blood descendant of Ern rushed to Ern and knelt on one knee: "Master, when we were strengthening the outer perimeter security as you ordered, we discovered something unusual on the east side of the camp."
Led by the soldiers, Ern arrived at an open space less than half a mile from the camp.
Several strong demon soldiers had dug a five-meter square pit here, and a deep tunnel was clearly visible at the bottom of the pit.
"What is this?" Ern squinted his blood-red eyes.
"I don't know its origin, but it's clearly not naturally formed." The vampire leader jumped down into the pit and patted the tunnel wall with his hand. "Look, it's been reinforced. It's rough, but it's very sturdy."
"A human secret passage?" Ern dismissed the idea as soon as he made it. "No, it's too narrow."
The passage is so large that it is impossible for a human to pass through it.
On the contrary, the goblin, the smallest of the demons, might be able to squeeze in.
Although we don't think it's a secret passage for humans, now that we've discovered this suspicious passage, we absolutely cannot ignore it.
Ern immediately ordered a few small, thin goblins to scout ahead under the command of a vampire in bat form.
Not long after the vampire led the team into the passage, they encountered the first fork in the road.
The pitch-black passage splits in two here, extending into the unknown darkness.
He hesitated for a moment, then sent two goblins to explore another passage.
However, after traveling for a short while, a second and third fork in the road appeared one after another.
Especially when they arrived at a wide intersection of five passages, the vampire realized that the underground was a huge maze. Continuing to split up the forces would only make the already thin team more scattered, so he decided to maintain the existing formation and continue forward.
And so, they wandered around underground like headless flies for a long time.
Just as the vampire was about to give up and return to report, the team finally discovered something different.
A fine mycelium clung to the tunnel wall, and a couple of mushrooms with a faint glow grew out of it. This was the first time they had seen any trace of life since entering the underground.
Following this fungus-covered passage, they arrived at a cave that sent chills down the spines of demons.
The cave ceiling was covered with dozens of entrances resembling the passageways they had entered through, while the cave floor was piled high with corpses.
The shattered corpses of demons and humans were intertwined and piled up, some already turned into bare bones, others being slowly decomposed by the mushrooms growing on their bodies.
It resembled the lair of some terrifying monster. Not only the vampires, but even the usually chattering goblins were too frightened to breathe by the scene before them.
Just as all the demons were too stunned to move by the sight before them, a crawling sound came from another passage overhead.
The first thing to fall was the severed tail of a lizardman, followed by broken limbs, and finally, a blood-soaked creature popped out with a "plop" and hung upside down from the cave ceiling.
Although Puji had no eyes, all the demons present felt as if they had been discovered.
"Retreat!" the vampire roared the order.
The goblins screamed and rushed back, but in the passage they had come from, they heard the same wriggling sounds coming from all directions.
Countless poops are swarming in from all the side roads, blocking all escape routes.
On the ground, Ern vaguely heard several muffled sounds coming from underground.
After waiting for a long time, only a few goblins emerged one after another.
They were all goblins who had been split up to explore the side paths earlier. After hearing the strange muffled sounds coming from the passage, they were frightened and took it upon themselves to return the way they came.
However, the vampires have never been able to get out of it.
Not coming out is also an answer.
Ern immediately mobilized more troops, not only reorganizing a larger exploration team, but also ordering a wide-ranging reconnaissance operation in the surrounding area.
As expected, within just half a day, three more similar hidden passages were discovered in different locations.
...
On the other hand, Lin Jun's act of kindly helping with the burial was discovered, and she had no choice but to start producing more combat Puji underground for defense, while also speeding up the laying of fungal carpet in the underground network tunnels.
The demons' almost blatant digging naturally attracted the attention of humans.
However, they were clearly unaware of what had happened on the demon side.
The underground of Three Mountain City is also protected by a defensive magic array. Even if the demons dig it up, it will only create another opening for attack, and there is no possibility of being ambushed.
Unable to understand the situation, the humans could only increase their vigilance against Ern.
(End of this chapter)
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