Chapter 55: It Plays With Wood |
"Leader Luo, please accept my condolences. The urgent matter now is to see if anyone is still alive. From what we can see outside, there are only five or six hundred people here. There might still be survivors inside, and that Wood Puppet Abomination might not have left yet!"
Xia Hong only stood for a moment before noticing some people from Rogge Camp had already lost their minds, frantically searching through the scattered remains on the ground for their loved ones. He quickly stepped forward and first called out to Luo Ming to snap him out of it.
It wasn't that he didn't want to give Luo Ming time to process everything before his eyes.
Mainly because there were more pressing matters at hand.
While speaking to Luo Ming, he solemnly pointed toward the large wooden house at the innermost part of the camp.
When they had first entered, he had already noticed the five large wooden houses in the camp—four of them had collapsed, clearly destroyed by brute force from the outside. Only the one at the very center remained relatively intact.
Hearing his words, Luo Ming immediately regained his composure, giving Xia Hong a grateful look before suppressing the grief on his face. He shouted to the people still searching on the ground, "Everyone, get up! Stop searching for now. Let's check the main house—there might still be survivors inside!"
Rogge Camp had a total population of over 1,300. Although the scattered remains outside were horrifying, the number was far from that count.
The others quickly realized this as well. Those who hadn't found their loved ones yet immediately showed signs of hope on their faces and followed Luo Ming and Xia Hong as they quickly moved toward the main house.
Xia Hong glanced at the house, then turned to survey the more than fifty people who had already gathered behind him. His brow furrowed slightly.
"Leader Luo, the situation inside is unclear, and that Wood Puppet Abomination is extremely cunning. I think it's best not to have so many people enter at once. How about just the three of them, you, and me—five people total—go in first to assess the situation before informing the others?"
As he spoke, Xia Hong pointed at the three men standing behind Luo Ming.
Luo Ming immediately understood—the Wood Puppet Abomination was skilled at disguising itself as others. He nodded and said, "Shang Ping, Li Baihe, Xu Kang, you three come with me. The rest of you wait outside."
The three men Xia Hong had pointed out were around the same age as Luo Ming—they were the three Digging Realm experts Luo Ming had brought with him on this trip.
The five of them approached the wooden house together. Although the front door wasn't closed, it was currently nighttime, and their vision wasn't very clear. The faint glow of the fireplace inside only revealed an empty hallway.
Luo Ming turned and signaled to Shang Ping and the other two. Without hesitation, they rushed forward first, stepping into the wooden house.
Upon entering, Xia Hong immediately grasped the interior layout.
The center of the house was a main hall with a fireplace at its core, while the sides were partitioned into small rooms with wooden boards.
The five of them had already reached the center of the main hall. Seeing the weak flames of the fireplace, confusion filled their faces. Shang Ping, who was at the front, turned to Luo Ming and spoke:
"There are signs of a struggle, but no smell of blood... and no people either?"
Many coals were scattered around the fireplace, several chairs in the main hall were broken, and the ground bore obvious signs of a struggle. But how could there be no one here? Not even a single sound?
Could they be in the side rooms?
Realizing this was the only possibility, Luo Ming frowned slightly.
It wasn't that he had ignored the small rooms on either side—when they first entered, he hadn't suspected them for two reasons.
First, the horrific scene outside proved the Wood Puppet Abomination's methods were extremely brutal. If there really were people in those small rooms, they wouldn't be this quiet.
Second, all five of them were Digging Realm experts. At such close range, they could sense even a mosquito, let alone five or six hundred people.
Lastly, most of these rooms were open, with only a few closed. The open rooms appeared completely normal—no bodies, no scent of blood. Out of habit, they naturally didn't suspect the closed rooms either.
"Open it and check!"
Time was of the essence, so Luo Ming didn't dare hesitate too long. He quickly pointed at the first room and instructed Shang Ping to open it.
Shang Ping nodded and walked toward the first closed door.
"Don't go near it! Run!"
Just as he reached out to open the door, Xia Hong, who stood beside Luo Ming, suddenly paled and shouted urgently to stop him.
Unlike Luo Ming and the other three, Xia Hong had kept his attention fixed on the small rooms from the moment they entered.
It was true that some rooms were open and others closed. The open ones seemed normal, and the closed ones showed no movement—but that was precisely what made it so abnormal.
There had been no activity outside Rogge Camp, and the area was flanked by two tall mountains. It was impossible for five or six hundred people to have grown wings and flown away.
Xia Hong had already noticed that there were ten partitioned rooms on each side—twenty in total. Each room was about four to five meters wide and could hold thirty to forty people at most. Only five rooms were open; the other fifteen were all closed.
Fifteen rooms, each holding thirty to forty people—that would account for roughly five or six hundred people.
Regardless of what method the Wood Puppet Abomination had used to stuff so many people into those fifteen rooms without them noticing, the numbers at least matched up. And that was enough for Xia Hong to sound the alarm.
By the time he shouted "Run!", Xia Hong was already sprinting toward the exit. Though Luo Ming hadn't yet grasped the reason, Xia Hong's earlier actions had earned his unconditional trust.
"Shang Ping, retreat!"
Without hesitation, Luo Ming called out to Shang Ping and, along with the other two Digging Realm experts, followed Xia Hong in retreating.
Shang Ping, who had been about to search the room, reacted swiftly, quickly falling back to follow Luo Ming as they fled toward the exit.
Unfortunately, he had been standing too close to the room.
BANG—
The door he had been about to open was suddenly smashed to splinters by a tremendous force from inside. A broadsword shot through the wooden debris, its sharp blade slicing through the air as it aimed straight for Shang Ping, who was lagging behind.
Though Shang Ping was focused on fleeing, at such close range, he couldn't possibly fail to sense the attack. But with his back to the blade, it was already too late to turn and defend himself.
The sound of the blade behind him made despair flash in Shang Ping's eyes.
WHOOSH—CLANG!
"Run!"
It was Li Baihe.
The man following Luo Ming had drawn his curved bow from his back, aimed at the broadsword, and loosed an arrow. His archery skills were superb—the arrow struck the incoming blade with perfect accuracy.
By now, Xia Hong was only two or three meters from the door. Seeing Shang Ping had been saved, he let out a sigh of relief. When he looked up and saw Xia Chuan and the others outside preparing to charge in, he quickly shouted, "Don't come in! Everyone, get out!"
Even now, he still didn't fully understand what was happening inside the wooden house. More people entering would only complicate things. Besides, they were so close to the exit—they were about to make it out.
But as if fate were playing a cruel joke, Xia Hong's thoughts were instantly rendered meaningless when the wooden doors suddenly slammed shut.
When they had entered, the doors had been missing.
Yet now, the wooden house seemed to have come alive.
Right before Xia Hong's eyes, the doorframes on both sides abruptly closed together.
"The Wood Puppet Abomination—it plays with wood! We're in trouble now!"
The name of the abomination suddenly struck him like a bolt of realization.
"This house is made of golden frost trees! I can chop through it!"
Hearing Luo Ming's words from behind, Xia Hong felt a flicker of relief and quickly stepped aside.
Luo Ming raised his broadsword and brought it down with full force against the closed doors.
CRACK—