Chapter 16 The Collapsed Tunnel

Time continued to flow rapidly. Another two full days passed, bringing the siege of Windstone Heights to its eighth day. During these forty-eight hours, seventeen more members of the Mosak tribe had managed to escape. They were undoubtedly very fortunate, because as the tribe's numbers dwindled and the powerful chieftain Qieluoke'e increased his vigilance, most of the tribesmen who tried to escape during these forty-eight hours were killed. Their bodies were stored as food, even including a legendary creature knight.

After receiving this intelligence, Fang Senyan began to concentrate his forces, using eight hundred Swift Beasts as a reserve team to defend the outer perimeter. The remaining one thousand Swift Beasts were divided into five teams of two hundred each (more would be unable to maneuver in the narrow terrain and would only be sent to their deaths). Every twenty minutes, they launched an assault on the Mosak tribe's buildings.

Even if each team of Swift Beasts was completely annihilated within twenty minutes, a full one hundred minutes would have passed after all one thousand Swift Beasts had finished their assault. During these one hundred minutes, the Blackthorn Zerg's triangular beachhead base could replenish at least six hundred Swift Beasts. Adding the reserve team of eight hundred Swift Beasts, Fang Senyan had one thousand four hundred mobile troops in his hands, so he was not worried about the Mosak tribe launching a counterattack.

More importantly, even if these one thousand Swift Beasts were completely killed or injured, the time it would take for Fang Senyan to accumulate another one thousand Swift Beasts would be about half an hour after the battle ended. He would continue to use this crazy war of attrition, continuously maintaining an uninterrupted offensive with two hundred Swift Beasts! This piecemeal tactic of exhausting the enemy was very cruel and very effective, but it also had a very serious impact on the morale of one's own forces.

Fortunately, the Zerg's morale only depended on the mood of their Overmind, and the Blackthorn Overmind was currently facing a large number of Pandora energy crystals, which made it as happy as a miser lying on a mountain of gold.

The cruel war of attrition lasted for less than a day before the remaining Mosak tribesmen couldn't hold on any longer. Fang Senyan calculated the cumulative casualties of the Swift Beasts, which actually exceeded ten thousand. The difficulty of the Gold Branch mission was evident. However, Fang Senyan was doing this with the mindset of not caring about the spoils, but only wanting the final mission reward. Without a doubt, the resistance he encountered was much smaller.

When the siege of Windstone Heights reached nine o'clock on the morning of the tenth day, the Mosak tribe's landmark sanctuary, the sacrificial pyramid, was captured. Surprisingly, this magnificent and towering giant pyramid was hollow. After moving a few sliding boulders, a very hidden secret passage led to the underground. Fang Senyan had come and gone in a hurry that day, so he had not been able to discover this mechanism.

However, what was gratifying was that the end of this secret passage should also be a dead end and a desperate situation, otherwise, the Mosak tribe would have escaped along the end of the secret passage long ago, so why would they hold on until now?

Fang Senyan was not in a hurry here either. He first called over a former Mosak tribesman who had now joined the Riding Tribe and had him count and identify the corpses in order.

The final conclusion was that, apart from those who had died in battle and those who had escaped, there were basically only twenty or thirty people remaining in the Mosak tribe. There was almost no possibility of turning the tables. With this mindset, Fang Senyan thought for a while and then sent thirty Swift Beasts into the secret passage to explore the way.

The secret passage was full of traps. The thirty Swift Beasts could be said to have died cleanly. However, those traps that could easily kill Fang Senyan and the others were also mostly destroyed. After sacrificing nearly a hundred Swift Beasts, the road ahead was basically cleared.

However, after thinking carefully, Fang Senyan realized that, based on the age of the construction of this secret passage, the imaginary enemies of the builders who set up the traps were definitely not humans and Swift Beasts, but their own tribesmen. There must still be hidden dangers.

In a flash, Fang Senyan was not polite with Old Mullbo and simply gestured with his mouth. Old Mullbo also unleashed the yin power and domineering aura of the patriarch at this time, ordering the rest of the people to enter with the Swift Beasts.

After entering, a few more traps were indeed triggered, but because most of the traps had been broken before, the Riding Tribe warriors were very agile and there were no casualties. It took a full half an hour to walk back and forth through the secret passage twice, and only after confirming that there was no danger did they notify Fang Senyan and the others to come in.

According to the description of the Riding Tribe members, the space below was extremely wide and there were no abnormalities at all.

It was already dusk, and the setting sun was like blood, smearing a layer of soft afterglow on the buildings of the entire Mosak tribe, but the coldness of the night had already emerged, and it felt as if the sun was silently retreating in the face of the darkness.

Fang Senyan looked at the dark entrance of the secret passage and was about to step in, but he suddenly took a deep breath, his heart was full of vigilance, and for a moment he was a little hesitant. After all, he had faced the powerful Qieluoke'e directly and personally felt its mysterious, brutal, and bloody nature!

At this time, Mogansha and Jiao Shi also saw Fang Senyan's hesitation. Jiao Shi couldn't help but say at this time: "Boss, we are doing a Gold Branch mission after all! We can't be careless."

These words immediately startled Fang Senyan into alertness. He took a deep breath and slapped his cheeks with both hands, making a "pa" sound, and said: "You are right. Our progress in attacking the Mosak tribe has indeed been too smooth, so we would rather delay some more time to seek stability and try to avoid risks as much as possible."

Mogansha nodded and said: "That's right, Boss, you want to end the mission here quickly, and then take advantage of the fact that you currently control the Zerg to go to the rda base to see if there are any branch missions to do, right? There's really no need to do that. It's already an unexpected gain for us to be able to complete this Gold Branch mission well! Haste makes waste, and it's better not to be too greedy!"

After the three reached an agreement, they abandoned the plan to enter the cave. They would rather spend more time, but they had to avoid risks as much as possible. After discussing it, they still directly dispatched Swift Beasts to mo every corner, no matter how large the space inside was. As a result, they directly sent five hundred Swift Beasts in, and they still couldn't explore the environment clearly until dark.

It turned out that the underground space was surprisingly large. It was estimated that the top of the entire Windstone Heights was just a layer of shell that was not thick enough. This kind of geographical environment was almost impossible to appear on Earth, but for this planet rich in Pandora ore, mountains floating in the air were everywhere, so it was not surprising that such a strange geographical structure was formed.

Gradually, according to the further detailed exploration data of the underground cave, after carefully drawing and studying it for a while, the three of Fang Senyan suddenly looked at each other and realized that the entire so-called Windstone Heights was probably a dormant volcano that had been silent for who knows how long!

As mentioned earlier, the shape of Windstone Heights was like a stump that had been cut off and magnified a thousand times. It looked very flat on top. However, this flatness was actually an illusion. The thinnest part of the upper surface of Windstone Heights was only about ten meters thick, just like a bulging meng skin, covering the recessed huge crater.

Of course, many dense natural pillars were formed under the crater as support, as if to conceal the secrets in the crater. It would not be an exaggeration to describe such an environment as a work of nature, but Fang Senyan captured something very important in his mind: the fallen Na'vi, the divine magic similar to the Earth Goddess Eywa and even more powerful, the strange geographical environment that was too coincidental and even seemed to be concealing something, the Tree of Souls growing in the water... These fragments flashed through Fang Senyan's mind one by one, and it seemed that only one clue was missing to connect them. However, just as he was thinking, he suddenly felt a tremor coming from underground. Fang Senyan's first reaction was an earthquake, and then he heard continuous rumbling and collapsing sounds in his ears. Soon, Old Mullbo ran over in exasperation and shouted: "Damn it! That damn secret passage has collapsed! My five tribesmen are still exploring inside!!"

The three of Fang Senyan looked at each other, and a cold sweat broke out on their backs at the same time. Their hearts were filled with a burst of relief after the disaster. The previous caution was indeed not in vain! How could there be such a coincidence that the secret passage collapsed now rather than earlier? Most likely, Qieluoke'e, who had escaped inside, had the ability to control the traps in the secret passage!

It was estimated that he was already feeling overwhelmed by the five hundred Swift Beasts at this time.

Therefore, in order to see that Fang Senyan and the others were not fooled, but only sent in cannon fodder creatures, he was forced to use his trump card, closing the passage to buy time.

At this time, Old Mullbo had already begun to frown and sigh, because his nephew was buried inside the collapse. According to his estimation, it would take at least half a month to dig open the collapsed area. By that time, even if his nephew had not died in the collapse, he would have starved to death.

Of course, the most terrifying ending was being eaten by the hungry Qieluoke'e.

Fang Senyan, however, breathed a sigh of relief. It should be known that the secret passage was not only the advance route for Fang Senyan and the others, but also most likely the only passage for Qieluoke'e to escape. He was forced to destroy even his own path to survival, which showed that he had indeed reached the end of his rope.

As for the collapse, Fang Senyan was even less worried. Although he currently lacked the heavy construction tools of those humans, he could easily mobilize dozens of Zerg worker bees at his side!