Chapter 1异样的地底摩擦声

"Gulu… Gulu… Gulu…"

These strange underground friction sounds came from all over the town, as if some giant burrowing creatures were rapidly excavating tunnels beneath the earth. The townspeople and soldiers, caught completely unprepared, could only look around blankly when they heard such sounds coming from beneath their feet.

Then, with a thunderous crash, the heavy stone slab pavement on the streets burst apart, sending rubble and soil flying as huge tentacles pierced out from underground!

This scene was playing out in every corner of the town. Countless enormous underground tentacles seemed to sense that the mortals here were preparing to flee, and launched a sudden attack on the town. The earth, which should have been solid and firm, cracked everywhere, and terrifying black monsters emerged from the cracks with a roar. The resistance of most ordinary people was nothing more than an itch to them. Throughout Leyton Town, the shouts of people fleeing in all directions and the cries of the injured echoed. Intermingled with these sounds was the continuous cracking of the earth and the thunderous collapse of buildings. The sturdy stone houses and walls had been designed to withstand heretical cultists, but in the face of the oldest and most powerful creatures on this planet, they were as fragile as paper. As more and more underground tentacles surged out, a large number of houses began to collapse, and even the town's walls were crumbling in the violent shaking. Many tentacles, after extending out of the ground, "cleverly" found the nearest buildings. They didn't attack the humans, but instead wrapped around the outer walls and pillars of the buildings, shaking and piercing them wildly, as if they knew that killing the people inside the houses was more efficient than attacking isolated individuals on the streets.

Or perhaps they were simply attacking the closest targets – to these (this) angry ancient creatures, everything man-made deserved to die!

Hao Ren and Aufra had just dealt with a group of tentacles when they heard the sounds of buildings collapsing, the earth cracking, and people running everywhere in the town. Immediately, Becky's face changed: "The town can't be defended!"

"It was never possible to defend it, but I didn't expect it to come so quickly," Aufra said, remaining calm even in this situation. She didn't regret not discovering the tentacles' movements in advance, but instead immediately assigned subsequent rescue measures. "Jefferson, evacuate the civilians in the jurisdiction. Notify Gordon's team to set off immediately. Take as many supplies as you can, and burn whatever you can't take on the spot, using the flames to block the tentacles. Everyone, retreat towards the Dragonspine Mountains. Woken, take your men to deal with the tentacles in the town..."

Aufra quickly assigned each person's responsibilities. As she spoke, a house about a hundred meters away from them suddenly collapsed, and several black tentacles shot out from the smoke and dust. Aufra didn't even look at them, but with a wave of her longsword in the direction of the tentacles, the latter immediately burst into a ball of silver flames out of thin air and turned to ashes before they could even rush out a few meters.

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows, thinking that she was indeed the strongest warrior in the entire Holleta Kingdom – he wondered what level of demon hunter she would be equivalent to in the surface world.

While Leyton Town was in chaos, a powerful purple beam suddenly rose from the town's church. A large number of tentacles under the light immediately withered, and at the same time, the cracks in the ground all over the town healed at a speed visible to the naked eye – Gelton had activated the final settings of the divine magic array at a critical moment. Although it was only a temporary measure, the disaster was temporarily contained!

The Royal Knights and the Church Knights knew that the opportunity was fleeting, and immediately led the assembled evacuees out of the town and onto the road leading to the Dragonspine Mountains. At the same time, the soldiers who remained in the town began to seize the time to eliminate those temporarily incapacitated tentacles. Although this elimination was only a drop in the bucket for the entire Twisted Woodland, it could at least buy a few more minutes of evacuation time after the divine magic array's energy was exhausted!

The main body of the tentacles seemed to sense the mortals' desperate resistance. Hao Ren heard a muffled roar from deep underground that sounded like an angry bellow. Waves of vibration came from under his feet, as if more tentacles were gathering towards this place.

"It looks like it's waking up faster and faster," the data terminal said, unusually adding a hint of tension to its tone. "The sheer size of this creature allows it to wake up gradually in sections. Its core should still be dormant, but the outer tentacles are waking up in droves!"

Aufra frowned. "And these tentacles are obviously thinking… They're doing everything they can to prevent anyone from escaping from here… Not good!"

Everyone understood the meaning of Aufra's "Not good." The underground part of the Twisted Woodland stretched extremely wide. The entire area west of the Dragonspine Mountains all the way to the center of Blood Lake was within the Twisted Woodland's growth range. It could be said that the entire Beinz Diocese was built on the "branches" of this ancient plant. Now that this plant had awakened, evacuating the townspeople from the town was not safe at all!

Sure enough, not long after Aufra finished speaking, a mage suddenly flew over from a distance, reporting loudly in the air: "Marshal! There are monsters on the road too! The magical creatures in the Twisted Woodland are also going crazy!"

"Send more knights to escort each team, abandon all supplies and spare weapons. If we can't escape this time, we won't need those things anyway!" Aufra ordered loudly, then turned to look at Hao Ren and his group. "You..."

"We'll go help on the road!" Hao Ren didn't wait for Aufra to finish speaking before taking the lead and rushing towards the road outside the town. Aufra was stunned for a moment, then smiled and followed closely behind.

The situation outside the town was indeed equally grim. Outside the range of the divine magic array's influence, a large number of tentacles were bursting out of cracks in the road and attacking in all directions. The bizarre magical creatures in the Twisted Woodland also seemed to have gone mad, breaking through the blockade and beginning to attack humans. These distorted monsters with poisonous blood reminded Hao Ren of the messages he had seen in the underground cave before. He had previously thought that these monsters were simply mutated creatures, but now he suddenly realized the true identity of these monsters: they were very likely the descendants of the "Third Son" mentioned in the messages, those fleeting, chaotic monsters born from the aftermath of the Tide of Blood! Although they had gone extinct in most places in the world, in the special environment of the Twisted Woodland, these monsters had survived to this day by relying on the "First Son's" nourishment and protection!

Becky drew her longsword, gritted her teeth, and transformed into a whirlwind, rushing towards the monsters that were running towards the road from the wilderness. Compared to the tentacles with their limited attack range, these chaotic dire beasts were the biggest threat to the civilians!

"I'll help you!" Lily shouted behind Becky, waving her ice and fire double blades and joining the battle. She still remembered the Sword Dance taught to her by Becky, so two world-destroying whirlwinds swept into the monster horde like runaway propellers. Aufra was amazed to see that both mercenaries were so powerful in combat. "The power of a two-person routine is terrifying!"

Hao Ren: "..."

The tentacles on the road were being confronted by the guard knights, while the reinforcements led by Aufra and Hao Ren quickly joined the fight against the dire beasts. However, the monsters pouring out of the Twisted Woodland were endless, and it was impossible for so few people to completely defend the entire road!

Becky returned after only a few minutes of spinning, feeling dizzy and disoriented. She needed at least a three-minute cooldown before she could continue the two-person routine with Lily. Lily, alone in the midst of the monster horde, was also struggling, so she had to retreat back to the main force.

The old werewolf Elson beside Aufra had now fully transformed into a werewolf. This brave old man's muscles bulged all over his body, his hands were enlarged and elongated like a beast's, and the muscles on his face were even faintly distorted into the shape of a wolf's head. Beside him were four or five knights who were also werewolves, both male and female, Aufra's most powerful werewolf warriors. These warriors, each capable of holding off a hundred enemies, repelled the attack of the dire beasts in front of them. One of them let out a long howl as he looked at the monsters that were still pouring out of the Twisted Woodland, then looked at Aufra: "Marshal! We must fully transform to resist these things!"

Aufra shook off a bit of black blood from her longsword. "There's no moonlight now, can you do it?"

"We're not ordinary werewolves!" Elson grinned, revealing his sharp fangs. "Everyone else, step back! Don't be accidentally injured by the transformed werewolves!"

Hao Ren and Aufra retreated in a hurry, and they saw that Elson and the other high-ranking werewolves' bodies had begun to transform rapidly. They quickly shed their human appearance, and the fur on their bodies covered them at a speed visible to the naked eye. When Hao Ren saw this, he immediately looked at Lily with a feeling in his heart. As expected, he found this girl holding a large bag of spicy sticks and stuffing them into her mouth like she was emptying a dump truck. While stuffing them in, she waved at several senior werewolves, her mouth full of unclear words: "You wait… you wait for me! I can transform too!"

At that moment, Hao Ren felt that something might be very wrong…
Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi