Chapter 8: The Third Escape Begins

“Speak.” Kymela cried out in pain, unable to close either of his two mouths.

“I’m asking you,” Li Bin said, gripping the sheep muzzle in the center of Kymela’s face. “How did the forces under your command come to be?”

“This is only Nature-path advanced biological synthesis,” Kymela replied quickly. “Any Nature-line player reaching advanced level has a chance to learn it. Once learned, you can gather your own materials and use the city’s dedicated synthesizer to create it yourself.”

“Your own special skill had nothing to do with it?”

“Of course it did. My special skill, Kymela’s Resolve, gives a ten percent success bonus when synthesizing lion, sheep, and serpent creatures.”

Hearing this, Li Bin understood that this bizarre method had nothing to do with the power he wielded. He tossed Kymela away. “You may go. No messages, just go back.”

Kymela understood that Li Bin wanted time; he said nothing more and slowly returned to the headquarters of the Greenleaf Great Alliance with his men.
When he told everything there, they finally grasped that the one causing trouble in their territory was no minor nuisance but a true threat. Yet their forces were still being held up by Dissya, and they could not send a major force against Li Bin.

After some discussion, one of the elders at headquarters asked, “Kymela, what’s your read on that man’s strength?”

“Most are seventh-tier troops. He also has some Death Knights and Bone Dragons—no more than four squads in total—but…” Kymela hesitated.

“But what?” the elder pressed.

“It seemed to me there were Nature-line troops under him.”

“That’s normal. When a domain has more than two cities, mixed-line troops appearing together is quite possible.”

“But they looked like Phantom Archers.”

“What are you saying? Are they really Phantom Archers, and how many?” several elders asked anxiously.

“Many. I recognized them by the arrowstorm attack unique to Phantom Archers,” Kymela said with certainty.

After more discussion, one elder—clearly a hero-tier NPC—said slowly, “Send Shadow. Tell him if he can bring back the people from that city, headquarters will not question how he trained the Phantom Archers.”

“Wait.” another elder called out to Kymela as he was about to carry out the order. “Send Ent with him too. I’m uneasy about that fellow Shadow.”

Kymela looked questioningly at the elder who had spoken first. He sighed. “Take the second elder’s advice. Send Ent as well.”

Only then did Kymela leave. By the time he delivered the order to both Shadow and Ent, it was already well past midnight.
Shadow and Ent both knew there was no longer any time to waste, so they quickly organized their forces and moved toward that Spirit-Mechanic Village. Yet the forest nearby was so dense that many shortcuts were impassable. By the time they reached the place, it was already noon the next day.

By then Li Bin and the others had prepared everything and left underground. All that remained for Shadow and Ent was an empty city, a desolate population, and one huge pit left uncovered.

Ent stood by the edge of the great pit and said slowly, “They have a ground base over thirty meters in diameter, with a speed of at least one hundred kilometers a day. Its initial direction was east…”

But Shadow seemed to hear nothing. He kept looking carefully at an arrow broken in half until Ent had to shake him awake.

“What were you saying?” Shadow asked, glaring at Ent.

“I was asking what you intend to do now.” Ent looked at him with a predatory glance.

“You can decide,” Shadow said, as if his mind had not yet returned from that broken arrow.

“It’s your responsibility for this mission now.” Ent said in a hard voice.

“And what of that? I never said it had to be completed,” Shadow replied indifferently.

“You’re overstepping. This task was assigned by the Elder Council.” Ent shouted.

“And what of that? The Elder Council cannot command me.” Shadow answered.

“Shadow, don’t think that because you possess the Phantom-Archer training technique the Elder Council has long wanted, they’ll just bend to you. You should know that this time the elders—”

“I know,” Shadow cut him off. “You were sent to watch me. If I show any sign of irregularity, kill me at once. Now you can act. Afterward, hurry and chase those people, or your Elder Council will lose even the last chance to get the Phantom Archers.”

At the same time, inside Bai Lingyu’s Jiaolong Long Carriage, Li Bin regretted for the first time why he had brought so many troops on this sortie. The carriage’s narrow compartment was packed solid with his men.

All the Death Knights had dismounted, clutching their longswords and crouching beneath the horses. In the space occupied by the skeleton Dragon frames lying on the ground, even two squads of skeleton soldiers were crammed together, stacked atop one another and filling the room like a warehouse, just as they had been piled when they were ordinary corpses.

Li Bin and his hero lieutenants were packed into a room of less than ten square meters. Almu was squeezed in with them, and it was clear his motive for being there was not to coordinate the situation with Li Bin but to try his luck with the female heroes among Li Bin’s men.

Just as Li Bin considered whether to beat Almu and throw him out, a mechanical engineer from the carriage came in. The tiny fifty-centimeter man said politely, “Mr. Li Bin, Mr. Almu, my master is asking for you.”

Li Bin had not answered; Almu spoke first. “What’s there to discuss? He just wants to decide where to run. Go tell him that since we’re all fleeing, the farther the better.”

Li Bin quickly cut him off. “No. I’ll speak with Mr. Bai Lingyu myself. Ted, if there’s anything wrong, handle it yourself.”

Ted nodded, one hand toying with his heavy maul, and sized Almu up from head to toe. The fierce glint in his eyes made Almu shudder.

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