Serial Player
Chapter 1028 - 680: Arriving at the Bottom Nest

Chapter 1028: Chapter 680: Arriving at the Bottom Nest

Luckily, Li Changhe was unaware of what the armored warriors were thinking, otherwise, he would be enforcing military law right now.

He didn’t know that, since his appearance as a general of the Great Tang, the misunderstanding had spread far and wide.

After all, thanks to the promotions of a certain surrogate father, the rumor that General Li Ba feared his wife had widely circulated among the armored warriors.

Even Fang Xuanling, upon hearing this, empathetically nodded in approval.

As a result, the first thought among the warriors of the armored battalion was that to solicit General Li Ba’s help, it was a good choice to first ingratiate themselves with the ladies of the generals.

This later made Li Changhe very embarrassed.

Of course, he knew nothing about it for now and was contemplating the current situation in his mind.

That leader of the Thousand Cattle Guard, Wu Jie, was walking beside Li Changhe and asked in a low voice, "General, after the insect god is eliminated, how do you plan to deal with the traitors?"

Wait, so the premise is that the insect god is eliminated?

Li Changhe felt like making a retort.

Wu Jie, however, thought differently; he believed that the Expeditionary Army led by General Li Ba was sure to eradicate the insect god.

The important part was how to deal with those two traitors.

Wu Jie never hid his enmity towards Hou Junji and Zhang Liang, directly referring to them as traitors.

After all, the events that happened thirty years ago were too coincidental—so much so that they aroused suspicion.

Hou Junji and Zhang Liang were clearly the biggest beneficiaries.

It led one to doubt whether the great fire of those years, or even the spatial rift of the Teleportation Gate, was their doing.

This was the greatest suspicion that those opponents held against the two men.

Some even suspected that they had turned to Chaos. Of course, the likelihood of that was very low; otherwise, the soldiers of the second empire would have been corrupted long ago. What would be the need for Li Changhe to come here then?

"Let’s deal with the insect god first, then we can consider the following actions," Li Changhe replied to Wu Jie: "I know what you’re worried about. Rest assured, I have slain a few of those God’s Chosen."

Li Changhe was now deservedly a slayer of the God’s Chosen, with the psychic storm of Big Lead.

He could rapidly cut off any divine link in the void.

To block the God’s Chosen from receiving the Evil God’s divine support. If lucky, the God’s Chosen might directly lose control of their Divinity.

"Moreover, your generals’ wives are also very powerful. The warm water you just felt was actually her protection," he added.

"Thank the General’s lady!" the soldiers bowed their fists as they paid respect towards the river.

"Alright, alright, that’s enough. She can’t protect you from this distance," Li Changhe waved his hand.

The team, after a brief rest, continued to advance into the depths of the cave.

Following the recent charge of the Immortal Cavalry, more than a dozen lurking water ghosts were wiped out. Their terrifying forms were dismembered by the Immortal Cavalry.

Li Changhe glanced over the remains of these so-called water ghosts and asked, "Do you have any idea about the origin of these creatures?"

"Our initial knowledge of these water ghosts came from the rumors among the residents of the outer city of Xuan City," replied Yang Ming, who was leading the way: "Many residents of the outer city spoke of divine creatures in the lake that protect Xuan City from the ravages of war. We originally thought this was just an unsubstantiated rumor, as no one had actually seen them until our scouts encountered the water ghosts here..."

"Probably related to the insect god, then. Do you still have scouts inside Xuan City?" Li Changhe asked.

"Not anymore. There were supposed to be a few settled in the outer city, but they have yet to contact us at the inn. They’re likely met with misfortune," Yang Ming responded: "However, they left behind plenty of information, enough for us to trace our way here. To trace down what they call the Bottom Nest."

Li Changhe pondered and passed the information to Xiao Nan and others through [Friends].

"I didn’t see any children or elderly in the outer city, do you have any clues in this regard?" Li Changhe continued to inquire.

"We have investigated this matter as well. It is said that every newborn, regardless of gender, is taken in by the inner city for what they call baptism and education. They do not leave until they are about five years old. Some of them become residents of the inner city, serving the queen and barely able to meet with their birth parents again. The rest are sent back to the outer city or the peripheral villages," Yang Ming said, "This is actually a form of class ascension, the only path for people from the peripheral villages to become people of the outer or inner city. As for the elderly of the Xuan City outer city, after reaching a certain age, they are taken into the inner city to spend the rest of their days serving the lord of Xuan City. They are only seen during the grand ceremonies of Xuan City."

"Do you also feel that there is something wrong here?" Yang Ming asked.

"Hmm, it’s hard not to be suspicious," Li Changhe responded while examining the corpse of the water ghost, "Especially after learning about the connection between Xuan City and the insect god, the suspicion has intensified."

By then, the team had been moving forward for quite some time. There were no waterways on either side anymore.

And at this place, they stumbled upon several human corpses.

They were dressed in night clothes and their flesh was dry and shriveled. They seemed to have undergone an internal strife, maniacally stabbing their weapons into each other’s chests. In the end, all had fallen together in mutual destruction.

Among them were even two dead armored warriors.

One had his chest caved in, a small hole chiseled open, clearly a method to counter a bolt shot.

The other one, without his helmet, had been struck from behind with an axe that shattered his skull. Probably, he never imagined that he would die by the blade of a comrade.

"General, they are... our compatriots who found out about the Bottom Nest," Yang Ming quietly responded, "Upon discovering the Bottom Nest, they immediately retreated, planning to pass on the information to Chenhai. However, they encountered a disaster upon leaving. Several female compatriots suddenly went mad, attacking their teammates frenziedly, ending in this tragedy."

Back then, the Chenhai Empire, in order not to draw attention in Xuan City, which was populous with women, specially gathered the empire’s female experts.

This was a sound decision. After all, spies can’t be noticed the moment they step out, right?

In other places, it might not matter, but in Xuan City where women account for over 70% of the population, only female spies would not be easily noticed.

Therefore, the Chenhai scouting party included many female experts.

The result was that after finding the Bottom Nest, some power affected the team. All the female experts in the team went mad...

The few surviving scouts did not leave Xuan City after sending out the information. Instead, they continued to lurk in Xuan City until now, when all contact was lost.

Looking at their corpses, Li Changhe let out a deep sigh, then said, "Regardless of whether the insect god is in the Bottom Nest, and whether we can defeat the insect god, they are undoubtedly heroes! Tell Hou Junji and Zhang Liang to treat their friends and families well. Otherwise, I will make them feel my anger."

If someone else had said this, it might have been dismissed with a laugh. But the deterrent effect of Li Changhe saying it himself was very real.

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers responded in unison.

Li Changhe then reached out to lift their corpses, placing them safely into his backpack.

The previous teams had been unable to take away their corpses, but Li Changhe could, and he had no intention of leaving the bodies in such a cursed place.

The team continued to move forward, and the walls on both sides became narrower and narrower. The bigger armored warriors could only pass through one by one.

Because the sole source of light came from the luminescent minerals within the team, the black hawks that Li Changhe released continued to collide with the walls in the darkness.

Fortunately, after a few minutes passed.

Li Changhe’s strong physique allowed him to faintly hear that there seemed to be voices coming from deep within the cave. The voices were chaotic, and it was unclear what was being said.

The team also lowered their voices at this moment.

The armored warriors reduced the efficiency of the steam engines, and the auxiliary troops bent down, moving slowly and quietly, keeping their sound to a minimum.

Soon, the team arrived at a rock wall with a crack as thick as a little finger. The voices and a faint light leaked through this thin crack.

Li Changhe quietly walked up to the rock wall, leaning down to look through the crack.

From his angle, he couldn’t see very far, but he could see a crudely built structure not far from the wall. Although the building was roughly made, a luminous mineral still hung on the wall, similar to the glowing minerals of the Chenhai Empire, yet dimmer.

Li Changhe noticed beneath that light source was a young woman in tattered clothes, gnawing on a raw fish.

She was quite a pretty woman. After all, it was Xuan City, where the concentration of beauties was high.

Of course... if there hadn’t been an extra eye on her left cheek and an extra arm growing from her side, she would have been even more beautiful...