The valley was filled with such a heavy fog that even the sunlight couldn’t penetrate through.
Hum!
All of a sudden, all the fog seemed to be attracted to something and concentrated in the same direction.
In the end, it all entered a black and red gourd.
As a result, the sight was much clearer in this area now that the fog was gone.
“Let’s go!”
Ji Ye put back the Miasma Gourd in his hand.
As an Extraordinary Rank-2 Superior artifact from the plane of cultivators, this gourd was better at absorbing fog than any items from the science civilizations.
The only problem was that it was only Extraordinary Rank-2 and contained limited power, so it couldn’t absorb all the fog in the valley.
However, it was already good enough that the gourd could absorb some fog.
That was because of the three scouts, Ji Ye had excellent eyesight, Li Qing had a Combat Ability Detector, and Wu Song could sense enemies with his Tiger Soul Saber too.
So, they went straight into the Sludge Monsters’ Territory without stop.
It was worth mentioning that, after executing the Commander of the Sludge Monsters and receiving abundant credit and experience, Wu Song advanced into Extraordinary Rank-3 in the morning.
A Perfect Hero had a profound understanding of their arts. If they had enough experience, they could advance very fast.
Of course, the fast advancement was partly due to the strengthening resources in the Twin Dragon Mount too.
For example, Wu Song had been given one of the Vermilion Fruits (Pseudo) of the advanced Red Pip Tree!
At the same time, Li Qing had already reached Elite Rank-5 and was rated as an Elite.
It was both because he practiced Wu Song’s techniques on inner strength and because he fought the aliens many times during his exploration in the past days.
Life-and-death battles were the easiest opportunities for one to make advancements!
Since all the three of them were Extraordinary experts, they could totally retreat safely even if they encountered any Sludge Monsters.
“Huh, did you hear that? There’s the sound of battle up ahead!”
In the territory of the Sludge Monsters, Wu Song’s ears suddenly pricked after they moved a hundred meters.
“Something splashed. Also, it sounds like a heavy item was just thrown out and crashed to the ground?”
Ji Ye calmed down and listened carefully, which allowed him to hear the details.
“Could it be…”
The three of them looked at each other and pressed on faster.
As they moved on, they discovered, to their surprise, that the fog gradually dwindled.
By the time they moved about a kilometer in the valley, the fog ahead of them was almost completely gone.
Thanks to the afterglow of the setting sun, they were able to see what was going on.
What they saw first was a large “lake”.
Or rather, it was a reservoir of seawater that had filled the valley during the tide.
On this reservoir, some rather splendid battles were going on!
Boom, boom, boom…
Many Sludge Monsters were floating on the surface of the water.
They fetched all kinds of stone cannonballs from underwater.
Then, they readjusted themselves on the surface of the body into mud cannons, before they launched the cannonballs to the water on the side of the sea.
When those cannonballs crashed the surface of the water, pillars dozens of meters tall were raised, and waves were raging.
Boom! Boom!
Also, they were clearly mixed with certain cannonballs that carried special qualities!
For example, some yellow stones exploded when they hit the water, turning the temperature in the area high. Smoke popped up while the creatures in the water were killed.
Some black stones, upon reaching the water, stained the area like ink. Even the sunlight that touched the water was absorbed too.
There were also red stones that didn’t sink after the crash. Instead, they rolled crazily, leaving burning trails behind them.
Clearly, they were the resources that the Sludge Monsters controlled or the spoils after they cleared the monsters on their territory.
They could very likely be Extraordinary items!
However, probably because of their pitiful lack of wisdom, they didn’t carry such special cannonballs during their two encounters with human beings.
That might not have been their fault. After all, this species really had a unique body structure. They could hardly carry ammunitions on a trip like human beings!
Those items could only be used to defend their settlement.
The targets that the Sludge Monsters were attacking were quite shocking too.
In the areas where cannonballs were falling nonstop, more Sludge Monsters were rising and sinking. They were even fetching cannonballs and firing back at the enemy.
“Is this an internal fight among the Sludge Monsters?”
This was the three men’s first reaction after they found a hideout and observed the situation.
“There are so many more Sludge Monsters!”
That was their second reaction.
Counting the Sludge Monsters on both sides, there were more than 150 Sludge Monsters in the water.
It must be noted that those Sludge Monsters were of a higher rank than human beings, even though they were less intelligent and developed.
After twenty of them were killed, according to the principle of balance, there shouldn’t have been more than eighty of them left. How could there be so many?
“Wait! Something isn’t right!”
“The Sludge Monsters must be fighting another alien group.”
“This other alien group must be capable of creating illusions.”
“Look carefully. The cannonballs from the opposite side will disperse into steam after they fly for some distance. Clearly, they aren’t real Sludge Monsters, and the cannonballs are fake.”
Without the blockage of the fog, Ji Ye took advantage of his excellent eyesight and noticed something was wrong.
Creating illusions was definitely a useful ability.
The illusions that this alien group created, in particular, were lifelike and almost identical to the real Sludge Monsters.
At least, human beings would be caught in great trouble if they were faced with such opponents.
Boom, boom, boom…
However, the illusions of this alien tribe didn’t seem to work very well on the Sludge Monsters.
That was because the cannonballs the Sludge Monsters launched weren’t aimed at the fake Sludge Monsters at all but mostly on the empty parts on the surface of the water.
Pew!
The cannonballs seemed to have missed their targets, but after an explosion, one of the fake Sludge Monsters disappeared from the water that was boiling because of the yellow stones.
Next, the body of a soft creature which was about one meter in diameter and had a bright white shell popped up nearby.
“This is a creature named the Mirage Monster. It’s an Extraordinary Rank-7 Elite!”
This dead alien happened to be within the range of Li Qing’s Combat Ability Detector.
After a flash of red light, he learned the target’s race and strength!
“The Mirage Monster?”
“They can create illusions, and they look like enlarged oysters. That’s a befitting name!” observed Ji Ye.
This new alien tribe had a much more befitting name than the Sludge Monster that he came up with.
It was because Mirage, as the name of a creature, had been described as giant oysters in ancient folklores. They were said to be capable of causing mirages.
It was said that the air that a Mirage breathed out could create a city on the sea so vividly that few people could tell that it was fake!
Of course, the giant oyster was just one of Mirage’s images. In other legends, Mirage was described as a type of dragon.
Speaking of which, although many aliens beyond the knowledge of human beings had appeared on the Land of Inheritance, some of them were a lot similar to the creatures in the ancient legends and myth across the world.
For example, according to Elder Meng, the Eagle Men looked a lot like Garuda from Indian myths. They had human bodies and eagle faces and legs. They were almost identical to the mythical creature except for their lack of wings.
Regarding the reason for that, many people speculated that the Land of Inheritance had been opened more than once during the development of human civilization, so the creatures and demons from certain myths could actually be aliens.
Of course, that was a problem that the specialists and the governments should be more concerned with. For the Twin Dragon Mount, the biggest problem was how they should deal with the new situation.
“This is clearly an opportunity!”
“Now that they’re attacking each other, we can take the greatest advantage of both of them!”
Under the red glasses of the Combat Ability Detector, Li Qing’s eyes were glittering.
During the war between the Twin Dragon Mount and the Soul race, the Sludge Monsters had tried to take advantage. They failed and suffered a heavy loss, but they did stab human beings from the back.
Now that the Sludge Monsters were fighting the new Mirage Monsters, wouldn’t it be an opportunity for human beings to get back at them?
