mesbooks Chapter 595 Barbarian Camp
Chapter 595 Barbarian Camp
"If I were to fight you, I wouldn't even need to sharpen my knife," Fang Ping said.
As he spoke, he tucked the unsheathed sword in his hand into his belt, his tone carrying three parts teasing and seven parts sincerity—he really hadn't touched a weapon in the battle just now, following Lin Tian's movements the whole time, while the monster itself was knocked down by various skills.
In the distance, a very deep horn sound suddenly came from the direction of the orcs' main camp.
The sound pierced the night sky, echoing across the entire wasteland, vibrating the eardrums wave after wave.
Fang Ping subconsciously shrank his neck. The sound of the horn felt like a giant hand pressing directly on his chest, making it hard to breathe.
The frequency of the horn and the timing of the collapse of the three bone pillars matched perfectly—the main camp already knew the ceremony had been disrupted.
"Withdraw," Lin Tian said.
No further words were needed.
The five people quickly retreated along the route they had come from, their footsteps making soft sounds as they stepped on the gravel and scorched earth, but these sounds were drowned out by the noise behind them.
Behind them, the fires in the Blackrock Tribe's main camp grew brighter and brighter, countless torches were lit, and the howls of the wolf riders rose and fell.
The firelight illuminated half the sky, and even from this distance, you could see the torches moving rapidly through the camp, like a swarm of ants whose nest had been disturbed.
But they couldn't catch up—Lin Tian's sensory coverage allowed them to precisely avoid all pursuit routes, and every turn they made just barely bypassed a wave of scouts sent out to search.
Fang Ping followed behind Lin Tian and suddenly turned around to look at the bright firelight in the distance.
He recalled the horn he had just heard—it wasn't an ordinary alarm, but the highest-level assembly call of the Blackrock Tribe.
I read in a coalition intelligence briefing before that the waveform characteristics of that horn sound corresponded to "tribal mobilization," meaning that the tribe would abandon all non-combat missions and mobilize all those who could take up arms.
As he backed away, he glanced once more in the direction of the fleeing shaman high priest—the level 86 shaman high priest had vanished without a trace.
They were standing in the firelight just a moment ago, and then they were gone in the blink of an eye, without even leaving a trace.
Fang Ping felt that the shaman's expression before he ran away was very strange. It didn't seem like anger after being defeated, but more like a kind of confirmation—like he had found what he had been looking for.
He had seen that look before; it was the same expression the scouts had when they retreated after locking onto a target back in the old unit.
Fang Ping opened his mouth as if to say something, but two more horn calls came from behind him—more muffled and longer than before.
The sound seemed to come from underground, causing the pebbles underfoot to vibrate slightly.
That wasn't the order to pursue; it was a signal that all the Orc forces were beginning to retreat northward as a whole.
Fang Ping swallowed back the words he was about to say; now was not the time to discuss this.
......
A message came back from the watchtower on the east side of Juxia City: traces of the Icefield Barbarians have been discovered on the frozen ground to the east.
They were not scattered reconnaissance teams, but organized camps.
The sentry used Eagle Eye Technique in conjunction with binoculars to observe for half an hour, confirming that the camp was large enough to accommodate at least several thousand people, and that there were barbarian-style ice crystal watchtowers standing on the periphery.
According to the sentries, the ice crystal watchtowers emit a pale blue glow at night, and when viewed from the city wall to the east, they look like a string of cold flames embedded in the frozen ground.
Since the founding of Juxia City, the barbarians have never pushed their camp to such a close location.
Qin Zhi convened an emergency military intelligence meeting in the council hall. Colin stood on one side of the long table, Fang Ping leaned against the door, and several garrison captains surrounded the map projection.
Everyone looked grim; with threats coming from two directions simultaneously, it wouldn't be easy for anyone.
"The remnants of the orcs in the north are still regrouping, while the barbarians in the east have set up camp on the frozen border."
Qin Zhi tapped the projection twice, enlarging the marked area indicating the frozen soil boundary.
"If these two countries get together, the problem facing the northern defenses won't just be defending a single city—the entire canyon entrance will be attacked from both sides, and supply lines will be cut off. At that point, forget about fighting; the city won't even last three days' worth of food."
"The barbarians had never crossed the permafrost boundary before."
Colin stared at the area marked "unknown" on the eastern side of the map, his brow furrowed deeply.
"Their activity range has been fixed to the depths of the ice plains, a range that hasn't changed for two hundred years. Now, it's suddenly shifted eighty miles westward; there must be a reason. Either something has happened internally, or someone is pushing them from behind."
"Whatever the reason, we need to confirm one thing first—whether the barbarians and the orcs have formed a formal alliance."
Qin Zhi turned off the projector and looked at Lin Tian, who was standing next to Colin.
The light in the council chamber dimmed, and her expression appeared particularly serious in the shadows.
"Your reconnaissance range is the widest, and your speed is the fastest. Go and scout around the barbarian camp to confirm if there are any orc envoys or shamans inside. If there are, the situation is more urgent than we realize."
"Understood," Lin Tian said. His tone was calm, as if he were accepting a routine task.
"Don't initiate combat. This is a reconnaissance mission; return with intelligence," Qin Zhi added, then paused, "but if we're discovered—"
"We'll see how it goes," Lin Tian said.
Qin Zhi's lips twitched almost imperceptibly, which could be considered as tacit consent.
She knew what Lin Tian meant by "it depends," but there was no more suitable candidate at the moment.
noon.
Lin Tian left the city alone. He didn't bring anyone else with him; the fewer people on a reconnaissance mission, the better.
The permafrost landscape on the east side is completely different from that on the north side.
The northern route is a scorched earth area riddled with craters, repeatedly plowed by catapults and magic. The ground is covered with scorch marks and rubble, making it difficult to walk without sinking deep into the mud.
To the east lies a pure ice field—not the thin ice that forms on the surface, but old ice that has been frozen for hundreds of years and is harder than rock, making almost no sound when you step on it.
The ice surface is covered with towering ice ridges and mounds, their sharp edges, carved by the freezing wind, reflecting a cold light in the sunlight.
The wind was strong, carrying tiny ice crystals that lashed against my face, like someone was rubbing my face with fine sandpaper.
Lin Tian narrowed his eyes, maximizing his perception range.
After passing through an area of ice hills, a row of fixed light spots appeared within the perception range.
The level is between 70 and 73, with four light spots distributed in a fan shape and evenly spaced. It is a sentry tower.
The outer watchtowers of the barbarian camp were not built of wood, but of ice.
Each ice crystal watchtower is about five meters tall, and its body is made of large blocks of ice bricks, with light blue runes inlaid between the bricks.
Lin Tian carefully observed the arrangement of the runes—they weren't randomly carved; the runes on each ice brick were connected to those on the other bricks to form a complete loop.