Black clouds covered the entire sky, a large wave struck a reef and smashed into pieces.
A torrential downpour of rain darkened the horizon and made visibility low. Anything outside of fifty steps seemed to merge with the sky.
Zhen Jin’s group did not travel in the rain, rather they left the beach and hid in the nearby rainforest.
Although Zhen Jin and Zong Ge were not afraid of moving through the rain, the group was mostly composed of ordinary people. Even if Lan Zao and Xi Suo were at the bronze level, their bodies have not reached a qualitative change.
As far as those people were concerned, braving the rainstorm while dragging critical supplies was very dangerous.
Strenuously exercising while being drenched at the same time made illness very likely.
After going through the recent sickness ordeal, Zhen Jin and the others would never actively seek out this trouble.
The rainforest this time became everyone’s natural shelter.
The lush foliage and thick vegetation made it easy to find places of shelter, and combined with the tents, they could even have a warm and dry spot to stay in.
Hearing the vast rainfall outside his tent, Zhen Jin’s heart was peaceful.
He was constantly using ultrasound to examine everything in his surroundings.
He found, although ultrasound could not penetrate the rain, it was reflected back well. However in a rainstorm with concentrated raindrops and water vapor filling the air, the range of ultrasound was greatly weakened and the results it gave became more indistinct.
Despite that, the ultrasound still enveloped the entire camp, Zhen Jin would immediately detect any sudden outbursts.
According to the ultrasound, beside the brave guards outside in the rain and the rest in the tents, there was nothing restless or jittery.
“The will of the people is currently stable.”
“The contributions of those dozen bottles of cheap rum cannot go unnoticed.”
“The rain stopped……”
Zhen Jin had expectations.
However, those expectations had to be postponed for several days.
As the rainstorm continued, everyone became twitchy and worried. However whenever Zhen Jin appeared in front of them, without Zhen Jin needing to speak, everyone’s twitching, and worry were greatly slowed.
Zhen Jin’s influence had a real impact on the people.
Food was quickly consumed, and contrary to expectations, their water reserves were at their limit.
The twitchiest of them all was the boat craftsman.
He came to Zhen Jin alone and reported: “This situation is troublesome my Lord. If the rain is incessant, we will have to build a dock. But this small one isn’t an engineer; I am worried the lumber we prepared for the ship isn’t enough.
“Even if we made a dock entirely out of rainforest wood, it would consume a great amount of manpower.
“In the original plan, there were many parts we could make outside. However if the current downpour is unending, all of the work would have to be done in a dock. If that happens, we would need to expand the dock many times over!”
Zhen Jin could only console the boat craftsman: “Among us, you are the one most studied in ship building. I don’t have any good ideas, but even if we make a dock, doesn’t it only take some time and effort, right?”
“As long as we succeed in building a ship and leave this place, everything we invested would be worth it, don’t you say?”
The boat craftsman stared blankly, but soon submitted cheerfully: “My Lord, an ordinary person would find it difficult to reach your perseverance and patience. After hearing your opinion, I feel much better.”
Eventually the rain diminished.
Sometimes it was a rainstorm, sometimes it was a light drizzle, and sometimes the sky was cloudy with a bone-chilling sea breeze.
During times of no rain or drizzle, the group continued forward.
When the rain seemed to increase, they would stop to rest.
“This wretched rain!” Hei Juan cursed, if there was no rain, according to their distance traveled, they should have arrived at the base camp on the island.
“We must protect the wood. Especially the wood used to make the keel!” The fourth boat craftsman was very worried about that and had always paid a high degree of attention to it.
When night descended, Zi Di secretly came to Zhen Jin’s tent: “My Lord, this is a potion I made, it was made from a poisonous mushroom. The potion has a slight toxin that can raise one’s vigor, most of all, it can expel the cold and increase one’s senses.”
This was a small useful thing.
Hearing this, Zhen Jin’s eyes shined: “Can you make more? Can you give it to everyone?”
Zi Di shook her head: “Only those with strong bodies can ignore the toxin. They must have at least an iron level life level.
“Thank you Zi Di.” Zhen Jin tenderly said.
Zi Di answered by smiling sweetly.
The rainstorms grew fewer, and the drizzles became longer, sometimes lasting for an entire day.
The group bathed in the drizzle as they continued forward.
“Very strange.” Xi Suo spoke to Zhen Jin, “According to the time, the rainy season hasn’t arrived. But for many weeks, it has always been rainy weather.”
Cang Xu gave a guess: “Perhaps, the island’s weather is not natural. The island master is likely controlling the weather where, as a result, the island has the ability to divide itself into all kinds of distinct landforms. These landforms have different climates and even as time goes one, the landforms are kept constant.”
Zi Di raised a new question: “Then why has the rainforest’s climate suddenly changed? Does this imply the island master’s methods of controlling the weather have failed?”
Cang Xu shook his head: “Unknown. We have not been on this island for long, rainforests having this kind of rainfall is actually very normal. But if the desert, forest, or volcano areas had this kind of rainfall, it would be abnormal.”
Unfortunately, no one had a way of knowing what was going on currently in the desert, forest, and volcano areas.
Zhen Jin’s ultrasound also could not reach that far.
That afternoon, it was still drizzling, and dark clouds enveloped the sky, the sun could not be seen.
A half elf scout returned: “I saw it, the base camp is that way!”
Everyone stared, then they cheered all together.
After trudging for so long, experiencing hardships, and braving many dangerous lifeforms, they finally returned to base camp.
Zhen Jin was not surprised; he had found the base camp long ago with ultrasound.
“But……why is the camp devoid of people?” Zhen Jin’s heart was heavy.
The scout returning with good news led to morale surging, and everyone unconsciously sped up.
Zhen Jin sensed this, thus he immediately ordered everyone to return to their original speed, at the same time, he sent a scouting group ahead to communicate with the people in the base camp.
This prudent and dependable way of handling things gained Zong Ge’s secret admiration.
The half beastman volunteered to go to the base camp first.
Zhen Jin gave his consent and kept an eye on everything.
Zong Ge actually could not wait, originally when he pursued Xi Suo and the boat craftsman, he anxiously ran away with a large quantity of battle combatants. He only left behind a surrogate leader and eight combatants.
“Is the camp well?”
Zong Ge led a number of people towards the base camp.
No one greeted them, there weren’t even any guards.
The silent camp made Zong Ge feel discouraged as he cautiously entered the camp to investigate.
After leading the scouting group around the entire place for a short while, his tight brows loosened a bit.
Converging with the larger group, Zong Ge then gave a letter to Zhen Jin.
Zhen Jin glanced at it and understood the whole story.
At first, the base camp began to suffer the attacks of a murderous and mysterious beast. Because of this, Zong Ge personally patrolled the camp and for a while, he prevented the mysterious killings.
But following Zong Ge’s pursuit of Xi Suo, the murders began to happen again and more frequently.
The people in the base camp were anxious, they had no one that could find the murderer or anyone that could protect their lives. As the situation progressed into a later stage, almost every day, someone would die.
Even the surrogate leader Zong Ge left behind was killed.
The people’s state of mind collapsed, they believed the base camp was cursed and that the devil was snatching away their comrades’ lives.
Everyone left the base camp and were now residing in a small ravine within the rainforest.
When Zong Ge or the first exploration team returned to the base camp, the paper left behind would indicate the ravine’s exact location.
Understanding the situation allowed Zhen Jin to relax his breathing, he then ordered, on the spot, a group to go find those lost in the ravine.
A small ravine.
A panic-stricken group had gathered together.
“Dead, another one disappeared!”
“It was here, it was there!”
“The devil didn’t stay in the base camp, it followed us. Without us dead, it was never going to let us go!”
Everyone shouted, their frantic mood propagated and made everyone even more anxious.
It was a group that lacked a leader.
The surrogate leader died, and the mysterious beast’s murders became more frightening——previously it left a corpse, but now all of the bodies vanished.
“I don’t think it's a devil, rather it’s a magic beast. It came from underground, in every mysterious disappearance, there is a hole at the scene of the crime. There were normal tunnels and sometimes holes in the mountain walls. There were also some crime scenes near water, we didn’t see a hole there, but I believe it is very possible river water or vegetation covered them up.” A distinctly feminine voice came through.
Everyone was stunned, countless eyes focused in on the voice.
The one speaking was Que Shan
She wore a dark green cheongsam, had black hair that reached her hips, and was delicate and pretty, but her green eyes, perfectly round chest, and fiery stature made her look like a hybrid of both the Eastern and Western people of the empire.
With many people suddenly watching her, Que Shan appeared somewhat cramped and nervous, but she still continued: “We must unite, we have to counterattack, if not that mysterious subterranean magic beast will pick us off one by one!”
Que Shan’s analysis was rational and in accordance with what they knew, with it, she had unmasked a part of the mysterious beast’s veil.
However, everyone was very hesitant on her proposal of counterattacking.
“What can we do to deal with it?”
“Is it really a magic beast?”
“Many people have died, even the surrogate leader died. What can we do to it?”
“Xi Suo and the others ran away scared. Zong Ge and his people were not necessarily at fault, but is it still the truth that they pursued after Xi Suo and the other?
“I think, counterattacking is actively throwing away our lives, it would be better to separate. Xi Suo, Zong Ge, and the rest did that.”
“Utter rubbish!!!” Suddenly, a resonant voice rang out.
Besides his left arm, a half beastman, with full steel armor, strode from the undergrowth and appeared in front of everyone.
It was Zong Ge.
Everyone was stunned but turned ecstatic shortly after.
“Zong Ge, it’s Lord Zong Ge!”
“You finally returned.”
“Goodness gracious, am I hallucinating?”
Everyone looked at Zong Ge, but Zong Ge took a step back and made way for someone else.
At that moment, a young knight slowly walked in.
Notes
Oh hey another worm, but this time on the beach. I can’t wait for
Battle for Divinity
to start playing when that happens, goodness knows it fits the setting well enough. Also, introducing the second named female character of the book. Congrats Zi Di, you are no longer the only named female character in this entire book (at least in present times/flashbacks don’t count). It only took 136 chapters to get there.