It smelled pretty bad inside.
Thick layers of bat feces covered the ground, and it seemed to have been piled up for years. The upper layer was a little bit fresher, which indicated that the giant bats come here almost every day. It’s only that they haven’t seen them right now. Perhaps they would come later when it becomes dark at night.
On the walls of the pit, there were a lot of big cracks with diameters that varied from one meter to a few meters. Some sounds came out of the crevices, which were the origins of the sound that they heard earlier. The screams of bats could be heard by almost everybody. However, some of the sounds exceeded the hearing abilities of junior totem warriors. Only intermediate warrior like Mai could capture them. Perhaps, there were some noises that even Mai and the other intermediate warriors couldn’t hear.
The sound of airflow rapidly flowing by was always there, and it rang every now and then in a very rhythmic way. Shao Xuan was the only one that could hear it.
Although the sounds of bats came out from those wide crevices, it still sounded from afar. Just because of that, Mai and Cheng allowed the other warriors to climb down the pit. Still, they warned them to be extra careful so they don’t make any noise.
There were claw marks around the crevices, which were similar with the ones they found on the rock near the water spot. Those hook-like sharp claws of the giant bats enabled them to hold on the crevices of the rocks tight and move easily.
“Ah-Cheng!” Cha whispered.
Cha found a stone sword near the big crevices, and it was from one of the missing warriors.
“It seems that they indeed had been brought in here, and got dragged into those cracks.” Cheng glared at the wide big crevices with hateful eyes. He wanted to slaughter those things and kill them all. However, now it was not a good time. They had too few men, while the bats were too large in quantities.
There were a lot of crevices spread all over the walls, which reminded Cha of the holes they found when they were tracking the bats down. Perhaps the holes in the hill were all connected with the crevices in here.
None of them had any idea of how long the crevices were, or where they extended to. All they could do was speculate. However, those things had similar abnormal behaviors, so at least half of their speculations were true.
Shao Xuan kept staring at the ground under his feet. In the meantime, he carefully experienced the direction of the totem flames in his mind.
Unlike when he was outside of the pit, now the flames on his totem had no specific direction. They were just rolling and dancing in a fierce way.
More or less, the others might also have sensed it, but they had no clear and obvious feelings as Shao Xuan was experiencing. They assumed that it was because they were in a dangerous place, and they were too nervous, being alert of potential dangers, which could appear at any time. Nobody thought about the totem.
Shao Xuan lifted his foot slowly, and walked forward.
He was not walking fast. Instead, every step that he took was very careful. The others thought that Shao Xuan was doing that in case he made any noise. But aside from that, Shao Xuan was feeling the changes when he made every step.
Something was influencing the totem. According to the totem’s reaction, it felt like some object from the Shaman’s Volumes that he read in the Shaman’s place. It could be embedded on the walls, or buried under his feet. There was more than just one of them.
However, the giant pit was too large. It was impossible for him to carefully check every inch of it since he also had to prevent all the possible crises at any time. All he could do was to feel it roughly, to see if he could locate a general spot.
One step…two steps…ten steps…
Suddenly, Shao Xuan stopped.
It was in here!
Shao Xuan squatted down, and wiped off the layer of bat droppings on the surface with his stone knife. There revealed the ground in the bottom of the pit.
The ground down there was very hard, a lot harder than normal stones. No wonder there were not too many plants in this area. There were only a few grasses and plants here and there. They were all tenacious grasses and plants that they grew in this place.
The rock-like ground was very hard. Shao Xuan tried the rigidity and found that his tooth sword was able to prise off the surface.
Shao Xuan did not mind the filthy feces around, but placed his palm on the ground to feel the origin that aroused the totem in his mind.
It was not buried deep. It was just under his palm. He sensed that he might be able to grasp it in his hand as long as he digs a little. However, that would make too much noise.
Just at that time, Shao Xuan heard Caesar roaring in a deep voice above.
“Uncle Mai! Something’s coming from the sky!” Said Shao Xuan.
Just after Caesar gave them a warning, Shao Xuan promptly rolled over to hide under the leaves of the vines, so that the thing from the sky won’t spot him easily.
“Hide!”
Mai and Cheng both called their warriors to hide themselves.
The others did not say much, but all made quick reactions. They hid behind vines and other plants.
Thirty warriors quickly found their own shelter, and it was very difficult for anything to notice their existence from above.
Not long after that, there appeared some noises from the sky.
Shao Xuan looked through the gaps of the leaves, and realized that a few jet black giant bats were flying down to the pit from the sky. They were all very large, and the smallest of them had the wingspan of no less than five meters.
They were in groups of two, holding giant-antler deers. It seemed that they attacked a herd of giant-antler deers.
Earlier, they heard that the giant-antler herd had already migrated from this place. They were not sure whether the bats attacked another giant-antler deer herd, or they directly went after the one that had already migrated.
Flying down from above, the bats came to a wide crevice, and flew inside with their prey, one after another, until they disappeared in the dark crack. However, during this process, a dark-brown bat with thicker fur remained outside, with its eyes staring at the pit.
Compared with their visual ability, their sense of smell and hearing were actually a lot shaper. It had not seen any abnormal signs, but it smelled something different.
It opened its mouth wide and revealed the knife-like sharp teeth. With a slight move of its specialized nose, it said something that was beyond most people’s sense of hearing. Immediately after that, it suddenly pedaled the wall hard, spread its wings, and flew towards some spot like a gust of wind.
Someone was hiding there, and he was the closest to the bat!
They were spotted!!
The one hiding there had to pick up his long spear to defend himself, which meant that hiding was no longer an option, and they needed to leave as soon as possible. The bats here outnumbered them by hundreds of times.
“Go!!” Cheng shouted out to tell everybody to retreat. Once those things find people, they would call on their companions, and more of them would fly to this spot quickly. Now, they had too few people, they had to leave as soon as possible.
Shao Xuan rushed towards the spot that he felt something. In a few seconds, he put all the strength on his arms to stab the tooth knife. Sparks flickered from the knife as he constantly stabbed down on the ground.
Bang, bang, bang!
Stone chips splashed.
The thing beneath the surface got dug out.
Without attending to anything else, Shao Xuan held the thing in his hand tightly, and pedaled on the ground hard to retreat in the fastest speed. He had no time to care about how much bat feces was glued on his pants, but rushed towards the giant vines to climb up along the vines like a handy monkey.
When Shao Xuan was digging on the ground, Mai glimpsed at him, for he heard something. That glimpse angered him so much that his head almost sent out smoke!
What the hell was wrong with this lad?! Even if that was some rare plant, how could it be more precious than his own life? How could he care for things instead of running for his life!!
Fortunately, Shao Xuan’s moves were quick. It took him less than a breath from digging to running towards the vines. He was not falling behind.
After they came out of the pit, Cheng led the others to run towards the first location.
“Get the fuck out of here, now!”
Some sharp voice came from the giant pit, which was heard by everybody. Looking back, their scalps tingled.
In the sky above the giant pit, numerous huge bats fluttered their wings, and more bats joined the crew.
They sped up to run for survival.
This time, people did not choose to escape from the mountaintop. There were not many trees on the mountain, and it would be better for them to run through the woods at the mountain foot, where they might encounter one ferocious beast or two to help them stall the bats. Compared with the bat army, they felt that the ferocious beasts in the woods were a lot more adorable.
Of course, it depended on the species of ferocious beast. If the ferocious beast they pulled out did not cause the bats any trouble, but blocked their escape route, they would be asking for death themselves.
The army of bats chased after them for some time. However, warriors hid while attracting different ferocious beasts to block the bats. Finally, the bats gave up on following them.
Even though the army of bats did not chase after them for long, people did not stop running. They only slowed down their paces until they reached their familiar hunting area.
Here, they took a little break to make sure that the bats were not on their tails. Or it would be bigger trouble if the bats followed them to their first hideout.
“How’s it?” Mai looked at Cheng and Cha, that were checking the surroundings.
“They didn’t follow.” Answered Cheng.
They looked at Caesar again. Judging from the wolf’s behavior, it looked like they were not in trouble or something.
Then the crowd was finally relieved.
Mai eased a little when he counted the numbers and confirmed they did not lose anyone. However, when he looked at Shao Xuan, he was infuriated again.
Mai walked towards Shao Xuan in big steps and clenched on his animal skin top, “Do you have a death wish?! What kind of things are worth your life?! Do you know that you almost became their dessert?! I should have just kept you away from the pit!!”
He was outraged, which was a rare thing. He treated Shao Xuan like a kid from his own family. Last year, when Shao Xuan had the accident, he often blamed himself for not paying more attention to him. Luckily, Shao Xuan turned out to be fine in the end. However today, Shao Xuan committed such a big mistake, although he was always doing good and obeyed orders. What was worth the risk of losing his life in such an emergency?!
Cha breathed heavily as he sat on the ground. He shook his head and talked to himself in his mind, “It’s good that he’s not from our group, or first thing first, I would beat him up myself.”
Shao Xuan was a little stunned as he got lifted up by his collar by Mai. Ever since he joined the hunting team, he had never seen Mai being so furious. However, he knew that Mai was doing that for his good. It was not just blame, it was out of care and love.
Lang Ga wanted to ease things up, but as he made only one step forward, he was glared at by Mai. Lang Ga smiled in embarrassment, and did not step forward further.
“What was so precious that’s worth your life? Take it out! Whatever you dug up!” If they weren’t in the current situation, Mai would have probably roared.
“I’m sorry. I was not thinking. Indeed, that was impulsive.” Shao Xuan knew that he was a little too eager. Next time, he needed to be calm.
As he said, Shao Xuan reached out his fist, palms up. Shao Xuan slowly unclenched his fingers in front of Mai and revealed the thing he was holding.
“It’s just a…” Seeing the thing in Shao Xuan’s palm, Mai suddenly thought about something. Before he could finish his sentence, he froze there, like he was being strangled by the neck. His face turned red, and for a moment, he could barely breath, as if he did not believe what he saw.
Cha wanted to get closer to see, but to his surprise, before he could get up on his feet, he was pushed away by Cheng, who was stepping up fast.
Cheng pushed away Cha in front of him, and stared at the red crystal in Shao Xuan’s hand. Like Mai, he had red eyes. Perhaps it was out of excitement, or their eyes were reflecting the small crystal.
“The Fire Crystal…”
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