Chapter 222: The Pit Experiment |
Bai Mu withdrew his gaze, fixing his eyes on the giant bear looming before him.
The refugees slowly trickled back to the outskirts of the camp. Too terrified to approach, they could only gather at a safe distance and watch the ferocious monster.
Most of the remaining survivors were the elderly, the weak, and the injured. A portion of the able-bodied men had already fled with the musketeers.
Like the musketeers, they likely believed there was no hope in staying with this group. To them, the vulnerable were nothing more than dead weight, and abandoning these burdens was the only way to increase their own chances of survival.
Bai Mu glanced at their meager food supplies, then swept his gaze over the pairs of eyes staring back at him with a mix of anxiety and awe.
He had to admit one harsh truth: at this stage of the Script, these people had indeed become a massive liability.
If not for them, he would never have run into this black bear in the first place.
Had it just been him, Adai, Ashi, and his core team, they would have crossed this mountain long ago and reached an entirely new area.
Although the shrinking safe zone meant he would be surrounded eventually, moving on his own would have allowed him to face the impending crisis in peak condition. Instead, he had been forced to waste another random magic spell here.
A wave of helplessness washed over Bai Mu. It felt as though all his previous efforts had been in vain. Just as the musketeers had said, these people were destined to die sooner or later. Take the man with the broken leg, for example—without his wife, he could not even walk. How was he supposed to survive in such a harsh environment? Bai Mu might have dealt with one black bear today, but what about a few days from now?
In a few days, it might not just be a single black bear. Heaven only knew how many more Mountain Evil Gods were tracking them from behind, not to mention the virtually invincible final boss waiting ahead.
When that time came, he would barely be able to fend for himself. How could he possibly spare the energy to look after these refugees?
In the end, he would have no choice but to leave them behind.
Even the people who had followed him from the very beginning would eventually become dead weight.
The difficulty of this Script was truly staggering. In terms of pure danger, it was the deadliest one he had experienced so far.
He could already foresee that during the final ten days, he would almost certainly be caught in a deadly pincer attack. Yet, he did not allow a single trace of this anxiety to show on his face.
Worrying would not solve their current predicament; it would only bring unnecessary distress.
He simply needed to make a firm decision, rather than second-guessing himself with endless hesitation.
The most pressing issue at hand was how to deal with the giant bear lying before them.
Bai Mu recalled the giant wolves he had killed during the early stages of the Script. A lingering question still remained in his mind: how exactly did those wolves die? Why had it taken a full five days for the system to give him the kill notification?
They clearly had not been crushed to death by the collapsing mountain. If they had, Bai Mu would have received the notification immediately. But if they had suffocated, five days seemed far too long for that to happen.
Over the past few days, Bai Mu had formulated numerous theories, but he remained unsure which one was correct. Looking at the giant bear, he decided to use it as a test subject. It was an experiment he could not perform alone; he needed the help of the others. If the results aligned with his hypothesis, there might still be a glimmer of hope for the refugees. If not, he would have no choice but to abandon them.
Bai Mu ordered everyone to pitch in and help bury the bear alive. Doing so required digging an enormous pit. Since the creature bore a "curse," they could not touch it directly. With no valleys or ravines nearby, their only option was to dig right where they stood. He used the Book of the Witch to synthesize several shovels, distributing them to anyone capable of moving. Nobody questioned his orders; the refugees were utterly obedient.
In truth, many of the refugees harbored deep gratitude toward him. While leading them to safety, Bai Mu would often receive small tokens of appreciation. He had been given various bracelets and gemstones—nothing truly priceless, but items that might have fetched a decent price in peacetime. It was no exaggeration to say these were the only objects of value these people had left.
With no other way to repay him, they offered him the most precious things they owned.
Although they had no idea what Bai Mu's goal was, they each picked up a shovel and stepped forward to dig.
Even the man with the broken leg gritted his teeth and clawed at the dirt. Everyone gathered around the giant bear, tossing shovelful after shovelful of soil out of the growing hole. No one knew when the next Mountain Evil God might appear, so time was of the essence. Bai Mu's instructions were simple: once the creature thawed out, it must not be able to dig its way free.
Despite their empty stomachs, the refugees worked tirelessly. Adai, Ashi, and the others dug with equal fervor, loyally carrying out the orders of their "Divine Envoy." Bai Mu did not remain idle either, grabbing a shovel to help excavate the earth.
While working, he conducted a few additional tests. He plucked fresh leaves from a nearby tree and scattered them over the giant bear. Unsurprisingly, the moment the leaves touched the beast's body, they instantly withered.
As they dug, he attempted something else: he buried the bear's head in a thick mound of soil to see if it would suffocate.
To prevent the creature from thawing prematurely, Bai Mu had Xiao Wei continuously cast Frost Arrow on it, prolonging its frozen state. While Frost Arrow lacked the raw power of Fang of Frost, the consecutive strikes reinforced the ice, doing more than enough to keep the giant bear's body temperature at rock bottom.
Fortunately, it was spring rather than summer, and the cool evening air prevented the frost on the beast's body from melting too rapidly. As mounds of loose earth were shoveled over the giant bear's snarling head, Bai Mu stepped directly onto the pile, stomping it down tightly to ensure an airtight seal. Throughout the entire excavation process, he never received a notification for the giant bear's death. This proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the creature could not suffocate. It was an undead abomination akin to a zombie; it didn't need to breathe in the first place.
That eliminated one incorrect hypothesis. Suffocation alone was not enough to kill a Mountain Evil God.
Fundamentally, whether a Mountain Evil God took the form of a bear or a wolf, they were all the same type of monster and shared the exact same traits.
Those wolves had clearly not suffocated to death. Presently, there was only one proven way to kill these creatures. That first method was to unleash a high-intensity attack—like the relentless lightning storm from before—to physically obliterate their bodies.
The second method was exactly what Bai Mu was currently experimenting with.
The group continued to dig. After a long, grueling effort, they finally managed to plunge the beast entirely into the earth.
Its head was left exposed above the surface, while the rest of its body was buried beneath several meters of packed soil. Bai Mu chopped down a cluster of trees from the hillside, rolling the heavy trunks down to pin the creature in place. To prevent the beast from relying on its brute strength to tear its way free, he ordered the others to continue piling heavy rocks and mounds of dirt on top of it.