Moments earlier, from Dila's back, Li Ban had also seen the battle unfolding on the ground.
The black dragon hadn't flown directly over the battlefield. The warring factions might have spotted Dila, but given the distance, neither side sent anyone to investigate.
Shu Yu bit her lip. "Are the people from Bell Tower Camp fighting us?"
Guo Kao glanced back at her, his expression stern. "Not us. They're fighting Red Fruit Camp."
Shu Yu opened her mouth to reply, then silently closed it.
She was no longer a member of Red Fruit Camp.
Not unless she wanted to draw her sword on Guo Kao right now and die on the spot.
In the end, she said nothing, quietly stepping back.
Guo Kao put his smile back on and pointed out a new direction for the group. "We'll detour around the other side of the hill."
Tail muttered, "I thought you'd go help your allies."
Guo Kao beamed. "I have a much more important mission right now."
Taking Li Ban to the camp?
Tail pouted, silently cursing him as a bootlicker.
She had no real fondness for either Bell Tower or Red Fruit Camp anyway, so she couldn't care less about the battle ahead.
If anything, she somewhat hoped that Red Fruit Camp would get a new master.
Back then, her small camp had suffered a massive poisoning incident.
Many people had unknowingly eaten the flesh of their own kind, and as a result, began showing signs of turning into monsters.
The camp leader had immediately rushed to Red Fruit Camp for help.
But Red Fruit Camp was only willing to sell them twenty red fruits.
And their small camp had over two hundred people.
When the camp leader returned in despair with just over a dozen red fruits, some people transformed into monsters out of sheer rage, some ended their own lives early, and others slaughtered each other for the remaining fruit.
In the end, that small camp was utterly reduced to just another pile of fresh scraps in the Recycling Station.
They skirted behind a small hill to bypass Bell Tower Camp. Unexpectedly, yet completely unsurprisingly, they found people from Bell Tower Camp perched atop the slope.
"Who's there? Don't come any closer, or we'll shoot!" Half a head popped up from behind a bunker of stone and dirt.
Dila's massive body was impossible to hide. The moment they drew near, they were spotted and warned off.
Guo Kao stepped forward, raising both hands, and shouted, "It's me, Guo Kao! We're returning to Black Beast Camp to report in."
"Guo Kao? Where are the rest of your men? Why are you the only one here from Black Beast Camp?"
The people from Bell Tower Camp didn't relax their guard just because Guo Kao had shown his face.
This was especially true when they realized they didn't recognize a single other person in his group.
Guo Kao shouted back, "Thread Bridge is covered by fog from the White Strait! I'm escorting a captive, and to get back to Black Beast Camp as quickly as possible, I hitched a ride on my friends' flying spirit beast!"
Just then, another voice rang out. "How can you prove you aren't the captive?"
Guo Kao flared up. "I don't need to prove anything to you! We aren't going near Bell Tower Camp; we're just avoiding the battle and detouring through here. If you dare loose your arrows at us, prepare to face the wrath of Black Beast Camp!"
Li Ban chuckled softly. "It seems your camps have a wonderful relationship."
Guo Kao smiled awkwardly. "Let's move a bit further out. As long as we don't assault the high ground, they won't actually dare shoot."
Traveling on the ground and approaching from the sky were two entirely different matters.
Bell Tower Camp was also afraid that, while locked in a frontal confrontation with Red Fruit Camp, the other two camps might betray and ambush them.
Sure enough, after they detoured another hundred meters away, the people on the hillside merely watched them go without launching an attack.
"How many people are in your camp?" Ming Kai suddenly asked once they were far from the hill.
"Bell Tower has over a thousand. We don't know the exact number. Black Beast Camp has over two thousand one hundred people. And that doesn't even include the spirit beasts we raise."
Guo Kao smiled, looking quite proud.
"Thousands of people." Li Ban thought about how Cliffside Camp only had five hundred. There truly was a massive disparity between the camps on either side of the White Strait.
Once they passed Bell Tower Camp and entered the wilderness, the monsters grew noticeably more numerous.
Li Ban walked at the very front. The moment his foot stepped onto a patch of perfectly normal-looking dirt, the ground beneath him trembled, and two dark green things shaped like bear traps snapped shut.
But Li Ban was faster. He swiftly lifted his foot, waited for it to click shut, and violently stomped back down, crushing the closed trap into mush.
The instant the first trap was crushed, a continuous tremor shuddered through the ground behind him. One trap after another burst from the earth, abandoning stealth.
They attacked Li Ban from all sides.
The others were over ten meters behind him, well out of the traps' hunting range.
They moved to step forward and help him, but Li Ban raised his hand, signaling them to stay back and remain on high alert.
Sure enough, as Li Ban easily dealt with the dozen or so traps, other monsters lunged from the brush on both sides to attack Zhu Yao and the rest.
Zhu Yao didn't use her spiritual rhinoceros. Instead, she drew her wooden spear and swept it horizontally, batting away the monster leaping at her.
Carrying the momentum forward, she thrust her spear out, skewering another monster lunging from a different direction straight through the chest.
These monsters looked like slender black monkeys, except their necks were soft and thin. When they attacked, their heads dangled behind their backs to avoid taking damage.
But Zhu Yao's piercing spear strike tore right through the monster's chest, simultaneously puncturing the head dangling behind it.
Cat Girl, who was protecting Dila on the other side, was even faster.
She also saw the monsters' dangling heads, but she didn't fixate on them. Instead, she extended her claws and swung her arms in a blur, using her agile form to leap above the monsters and slash through all their soft, fragile necks.
Headless, the bodies immediately lost their mobility, flailing about haphazardly.
Ed took the opportunity to charge forward, using the back of his axe to smash the fallen monster heads to pieces like watermelons.
On the other flank, Ming Kai and Guo Kao fought in a much more standard fashion. Though they were in no immediate danger, their killing efficiency was noticeably slower than the others.
Shu Yu, currently occupying a frail body without combat abilities, hid beside the giant dragon Dila. Gripping a long saber, she kept vigilant watch for any stragglers slipping through the cracks.
Although her current body was just that of a frail girl, she still possessed excellent combat instincts.
The only exception was the massive black dragon, Dila, who had never been in a fight before. He gripped his cheeks with his tiny, short arms—because he couldn't reach his head—and shivered uncontrollably.
Li Ban quickly finished off the traps attacking him. He grabbed four or five root stems from beneath one trap with one hand, and three more with the other. Leaping backward, he gave a violent heave, ripping the rest of the man-eating plant straight out of the ground.
Then he twisted his waist, forcefully smashing the massive root system into the dirt.
'Do monsters born from plants also have brains?'
Just as this doubt crossed his mind, Li Ban spotted a lumpy, uneven mass in the center of the roots.
The mass was covered in soil, yet it softly writhed. With every twitch, it shook off large clumps of dirt.
Li Ban raised his hand, and a crossbow bolt shot from his forearm, piercing straight through the mass tangled within the complex roots.
Pinned to the ground, the mass quickly stopped moving.
The man-eating plant traps struggling in Li Ban's hands, along with the other stems thrashing wildly in the air, instantly went limp.
He tossed aside the dead traps and turned back to help the others, only to see that their battle was already drawing to a close.
He had to admit, their squad didn't have many members, but every single one of them was a capable fighter.
'If the number of monsters were any higher, or their formations any denser, these people wouldn't be enough, and Zhu Yao would definitely have to cast spells.' Li Ban thought about it, then shook his head. 'I didn't recruit them to be cannon fodder in battles. I need them to collect data and waste elements. Quality over quantity. As for gathering intelligence, I can accomplish that by cooperating with other factions.'
This was the deeper reason why Li Ban had agreed to visit Black Beast Camp.
He hadn't been in this world for very long.
His squad spent most of their time operating on the continent's borders.
Truly useful and timely intelligence still needed to be sourced from the major local factions.
Guo Kao jogged over. "Li Ban, there's corrosive liquid inside these traps. It isn't as terrifying as the nest's acid, but it can still be used to craft traps and weapons. Do you want to collect it?"
Li Ban shook his head.
He had already noticed the liquid inside the traps, but upon observation, he found it didn't deal much damage. It was nothing like the nest's acid, which could rapidly corrode anything. It was of little use to him.
Furthermore, neither he nor Zhu Yao had much room left in their Cubic Space, so they couldn't waste it on such ordinary items.
Dila's carrying capacity was also limited. Considering they might add more team members in the future, Li Ban had no intention of burdening him with too much luggage.
Realizing Li Ban had no interest in the traps, Guo Kao quickly smiled and asked, "Then can I take them?"
Li Ban nodded, but just as Guo Kao was about to run over, he raised an arm to block him. "Trade for it with black rye."
Even though it was loot he had no use for, he wasn't about to just give it to Guo Kao for free. A trade was only natural.
"Understood. If there's any loot you don't need on the rest of our journey, I'd gladly trade black rye for it," Guo Kao said with a chuckle.
Over the rest of their journey, Li Ban's group encountered three more waves of monsters.
Every time, the monsters acted in packs, launching attacks from multiple directions.
This sheer number and frequency far exceeded what they faced at the camps on the other side of the White Strait.
No wonder Cliffside Camp and the others had been unwilling to relocate until the very last moment.
The safety levels on either side of the White Strait were on entirely different planes.
On the other side of the strait, you almost never met large hordes of monsters attacking travelers on the road. They mostly gathered in densely covered areas like the Building Graveyard and the Swing Forest.
But on this side, monsters could erupt even from beneath hard-packed dirt.
Once they were safely past Bell Tower Camp's ranged attack perimeter, the group mounted Dila once more and flew at low altitude.
Halfway there, they ran into a flock of Rib Birds.
Because Dila was so large and vulnerable to injury from the Rib Birds, Li Ban held nothing back and directly cast his Rending Technique.
Whoosh!
The flock of Rib Birds was instantly reduced to a rain of falling carcasses.
After repeatedly casting the Rending Technique, Li Ban was now capable of unleashing multiple tears at once.
The technique had evolved from a single-target attack into an area-of-effect strike, vastly improving his efficiency.
This sight utterly stupefied Guo Kao and Shu Yu. Even Ming Kai, who already knew a bit of the inside story, subconsciously clutched his chest.
Tail rested her chin in her hands, staring enviously at Li Ban's hands.
'With just a gentle wave of his hand, he unleashes such terrifying killing intent. Priests really are powerful. If only I had known about the existence of Priests back when I was in the Wizard World, how great would that have been? I could have asked them how to join the profession; it has way more of a future than being an assassin.'
As she pondered this, Tail turned her head to look at Zhu Yao. "How come I never see you use any spells?"
Zhu Yao froze for a moment, then silently turned her head away. "Frugality is a beautiful virtue."
At first, Zhu Yao had assumed Li Ban's Cubic Space was packed full of Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits.
But she soon discovered that he had actually filled his space with waste elements.
'Could it be that Li Ban can absorb the tiny traces of spiritual rhinoceros inside the waste elements?'
'But no Priest has ever successfully utilized waste elements. Even the Great Wizard never ordered us to collect them, meaning they're either completely unusable, or the cost-to-benefit ratio is just too low. So how is Li Ban doing it?'
Zhu Yao pondered this silently for a long time but never arrived at an answer. However, she could tell that Li Ban didn't want to explain it for the time being, so she naturally wouldn't take the initiative to ask. Doing so would only make things awkward and create a rift between them.
While Zhu Yao was lost in thought, the black dragon Dila began a slow descent.
Black Beast Camp was right before their eyes.
It wasn't proper to land right at their front gates, as it might make the other party think an enemy was launching an assault.
With a few landings under his belt, Dila was now able to touch down steadily, even if he was a bit slow.
It was clear he was growing increasingly accustomed to his new body.
"I'll go over and verify our identities. Please keep an eye on Shu Yu for me," Guo Kao said to Li Ban with a smile.
Li Ban nodded.
Shu Yu muttered softly behind them, "I'm already here, so how could I possibly run?"
Her luggage, her clothes, and even her body—aside from her head—had all been provided by Guo Kao. She lacked both the strength to resist and the ability to flee.
Ignoring Shu Yu entirely, Guo Kao jogged straight toward Black Beast Camp's main gate.
While they were still in the sky, Li Ban had noticed that the entirety of Black Beast Camp was built inside a massive zoo.
It had ready-made cages, sturdy walls, and distinct structures like a greenhouse-style tropical rainforest pavilion.
Since Black Beast Camp was famous for raising spirit beasts and other ferocious animals, it was only natural that they would make use of every available facility the zoo had to offer.
A short while later, Guo Kao returned with a squad of people to welcome them.
Standing beside him was a tall male warrior with a hawk perched on his shoulder.
The hawk turned its head to look at Li Ban and the others. Its gaze felt incredibly human.
Li Ban narrowed his eyes, suddenly struck by a distinct feeling.
That hawk was a human.
His mood suddenly grew complicated, inexplicably reminding him of the twin girls at Underwoods Camp who had their bodies forcibly stitched together just to entertain guests.
He knew that the human body actually held no particular advantage in cruel, unforgiving nature.
And with most of the energy sources in the Recycling Station lying dormant, raw, primal slaughter had become the combat power they valued most.
The man with the hawk perched on his shoulder was the first to nod in greeting to Li Ban. "Hello, Priest Li Ban. I am Yao Fang, the external defense captain of Black Beast Camp."
"Hello."
Yao Fang proceeded to greet the others as well, explicitly skipping Shu Yu.
"Guo Kao has already filled me in. Thank you so much for bringing him along the way. Our allies are in desperate need of corrosive liquid right now."
"I will provide you with the complete map and continental intelligence that Guo Kao promised. But beyond that, I have a presumptuous request."
He looked at Li Ban, his gaze sincere and his posture exceedingly humble.
"The battle against Red Fruit Camp has entered its final stage, but their counterattacks are fierce. We'd like to ask a powerful Priest like yourself to help us breach Red Fruit Camp's central defenses."