Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 736 Harassment
After leaving the gathering place, the three executive captains led the team and traveled deep into the forest under the guidance of several guides from the gathering place.

Because there were so many of them, they would occasionally alarm the creatures here when they were traveling here, causing them to slow down and leave a lot of traces. However, this time, they did not encounter any danger along the way, and occasionally some minor problems could be easily solved.

The speed was several times faster than usual, and they even had the leisure to clean up the traces around them.

This is the result of having a good guide. If they had these people's help a few days earlier, they might have found the lost items.

But despite this, the three captains remained vigilant towards the people in these gathering places, but they also analyzed that even if there was something wrong with these people, it could only be because of the lost objects, so it was basically safe until the lost objects were found.

After walking for half a day, several guides looked at a river ahead and seemed to have noticed something. After discussing with each other, they suggested resting on the spot. Although the team had the physical strength to sustain it, the guides must have a reason for doing so. Captain Hai immediately asked the team to stop and rest.

Captain Hai took a sip of water and glanced at Captain Lu who was sitting there with a frown on his face. "Captain Lu, are you still worried about Captain Xu? I don't think you need to worry."

Captain Lu looked surprised.

Captain Hai took another sip of water, slowly tightened the kettle, and said after putting it away: "Captain Xu is very capable and always cautious. If we have problems, he may not have any problems."

Captain Lu frowned and said, "No matter how good Lao Xu is at fighting, he is only one man."

Captain Hai said, "We haven't received any news in so many days. The Ministry of Defense will not just sit there and watch. I think they will probably send some reinforcements."

Captain Lu thought about it, but he was not optimistic about it. Now the main force of the Defense Department is all at the gap in the World Ring. Although there are strong people left in the central city, they are all protecting politicians. How can they spare any manpower? However...

At this moment, he suddenly thought of someone, but even if this person came to support, there might be many powerful enemies chasing them this time, and it might be difficult to rescue them even if he came, not to mention it would not be easy to find them accurately.

But having hope is better than having no hope.

He let out a breath and said, "I hope so."

Captain Hai did not persuade him any further. He believed that Captain Lu could handle the situation himself. However, his thoughts at this time were different from Captain Lu's. He said, "Captain Lu, Captain Hu, let's try our best to find the things so that Old Xu can feel more relaxed."

Both Lu and Hu nodded. They had already agreed in advance that once the thing was found, they would immediately fire flares and leave secret codes at key locations to notify Xu Chan, so in theory, the sooner they found the thing, the safer Xu Chan would be.

The last time I felt the resonance of the traces left by lost objects was four days ago. At that time, I followed the traces to search forward, but the process was intermittent.

They have been able to determine that the relic should have been swallowed by a certain creature, so in addition to relying on the resonance of the relic, they also need to track the traces left by certain creatures. The role of the guide here is undoubtedly greater, because only the natives here can tell what kind of creature it is.

At this moment, there was a rumbling sound of footsteps coming from the front, and then countless four-legged creatures the size of horses were seen running past the river bank in front. Although they were not particularly large, their bodies felt extremely heavy. They stepped out deep pits on the ground, and even the stones on the road were crushed to pieces.

After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, these creatures left, but even the terrain in front of us seemed to have changed a little, with large areas of fallen trees on both sides of the river.

At this time, everyone realized that this was the reason why the guide asked them to stop. If they had gone over just now, they would have run into this group of things directly, and few of them would have survived.

The guide then signaled that it was time to set off. Captain Hai went up to talk to him and after confirming the situation, he did not let the team leave immediately. Instead, he walked out of the woods alone, went to the other side, and looked back and forth.

However, at this moment, he suddenly felt a slight vibration in his arms. He immediately stopped and turned a few times. With his excellent sensing ability, he immediately determined one of the directions. He moved forward a dozen steps, and the feeling still existed and did not disappear.

He looked in the direction he was facing and his eyes lit up. That's right, it was here. After a few days of intermittent search, they once again found traces of abandoned items.

After Chen Chuan stayed in the joint camp for another night, he set off again at dawn. This time, without a two-wheeled motor vehicle, he had to rely entirely on walking.

However, when he was running normally, his speed was not much slower than that of a two-wheeled vehicle. Even if he consumed some energy in the process, he could replenish it by stopping and eating a few nutritional pastes.

On the contrary, it took more effort to identify the traces around him, but he soon discovered that the deeper he went, the clearer the traces became, indicating that he was getting closer to these people.

Almost a morning later, he found the third camp along the way.

This time, he unexpectedly discovered that there were actually people stationed here, about seven or eight armed men, who seemed to be waiting for someone, because they spent most of their time observing from behind. Of course, they could also be on guard against enemies coming from behind, but this possibility was relatively small, otherwise they wouldn't be so obvious, and they should be trying to hide.

After observing for a while, he put down the bag he was carrying, picked up the Xuejun Knife and walked towards the camp. The sound of gunfire from the sentry in the camp soon rang out, but it died down after just a moment.

In just half a minute, he cleared out all the armed personnel in the entire camp.

He checked and confirmed through some simple records that the camps and traces of actions along the way were left intentionally by the other party, just to facilitate the people behind to come and join them. The people behind should have been informed in advance and knew how to avoid the guarding creatures in the camps.

And reaching this point means that we are already quite close to the main force of the alliance.

Because it was still early, he did not stay here for long. He drank some water and continued on his journey. At around three or four in the afternoon, he found another camp, which was also guarded by several armed men. After easily dealing with these people, he discovered new situations here.

After leaving the camp, the team split into two and went in different directions.

He guessed that the people from the Union and the Linax Federation were advancing together before, but separated here. After all, the two forces are not one and the same, and searching separately is undoubtedly more efficient, so it is understandable that they did so.

Based on the confessions of the captured armed personnel and the traces on the ground, he confirmed that the enemy was only two or three days away from him. So if they went faster and there were no unexpected twists and turns along the way, they might be able to catch up in just one or two days.

After clarifying the direction of the consortium, he decided to follow this route tomorrow.

Because according to intelligence, most of the powerful fighters this time mainly come from the Federation. As long as these people are dealt with, half of the problem will be solved.

Outside the gathering camp, half a day after Captain Hai and others left, the vanguard troops of the joint force responsible for tracking also found this place, but it was empty and everyone had already evacuated in advance.

After inspecting the camp, the most experienced action leader of the team led his men to personally investigate outside, but found that there were several traces that could be tracked, and he was not sure which one was the target they needed to track.

As they were preparing to conduct a further investigation, they suddenly heard an explosion coming from the direction of the camp behind them. The team leader immediately rushed back and found that the explosion did not come from inside the camp, but outside. They went to the location of the explosion and found that it was a remotely controlled explosive, but fortunately, it did not cause any casualties.

However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw light brown fragments on the ground and was shocked.

This is... a beehive?!

A beehive is not a real bee nest. It usually refers to the nests of most flying insects that live in groups in the Fusion Land. Judging from the fragments, the destroyed nest is surprisingly large.

He shouted nervously and hurriedly: "Quick, light bonfires around us, the more the better, quick, quick, act immediately!"

Under his urging in a slightly anxious voice, the team members around him immediately realized something and quickly built a simple bonfire.

Sure enough, not long after, I heard countless buzzing sounds of wings, and saw dense swarms of insects flying in from somewhere. It was like a group of dark clouds covering the sky, and could be seen clearly even from several kilometers away.

The active plants and various creatures in the forest seemed to come alive and began to prey on the passing insects. The insects quickly fought back, but the swarm was so large that under the impact, the active plants on the road only lasted a moment before being eaten clean.

The swarm of insects, like a sandstorm, rushed out of the campfire in a short while, but the newly lit campfire and black smoke were suppressed. It was like a gap was opened, and a lot of insects poured in.

When everyone was about to be submerged, Heros, who had been standing still, took a step forward. Light overflowed from his blue eyes, and suddenly an invisible force burst out from around him. In an instant, the swarm of insects within three or four hundred meters around him fell down like rain.

However, this impact was indiscriminate. Except for the powerful third-level fighters, the rest of the people present, even if they were wearing protective gear, those who were slightly weaker all fell to the ground.

……

……

(End of this chapter)