55: Chapter 55 It’s Just Playing with Wood 55: Chapter 55 It’s Just Playing with Wood “Leader Luo, please restrain your grief.
The most urgent thing now is to see if anyone is still alive.
There are only about five or six hundred people here, and there might be survivors inside.
Also, that Wood Puppet Monster might not have left yet!”
Xia Hong stood for a moment and saw some people from Rogel Camp, already losing their minds, searching through the remains on the ground for their loved ones.
He hurriedly stepped forward and woke up Luo Ming first.
It’s not that he wasn’t giving Luo Ming time to process everything in front of him.
The key thing now is that there is something more important.
As he spoke to Luo Ming, he extended his hand with a grave expression, pointing to the large wooden house at the innermost part.
Upon entering, he noticed the five large wooden houses inside the camp, four of which had already collapsed.
It was obvious they had been forcefully destroyed from the outside.
The one left standing was still relatively intact.
Upon hearing his words, Luo Ming suddenly became clear-headed, giving Xia Hong a grateful look.
He immediately put away his sadness and shouted to those still searching on the ground, “Everyone get up, stop searching for now, and check the main house.
There might be survivors over there.”
The total population of Rogel Camp was over thirteen hundred.
The dismembered corpses and remains outside were appalling but far from reaching that number.
Others also reacted at this point.
Those who hadn’t found their relatives yet showed hopeful expressions and followed Luo Ming and Xia Hong, quickly approaching the direction of the main house.
The wooden house was quite large, with sides over fifty meters long, potentially accommodating hundreds of people inside without any issue.
Xia Hong looked at the wooden house, turned back to glance at the more than fifty people who had gathered behind him, and frowned deeply.
“Leader Luo, the situation inside is unclear, and the Wood Puppet Monster is incredibly cunning.
I don’t think we should all go in.
How about you, these three, and I go in first to check the situation, then notify the others?”
As he spoke, Xia Hong pointed at the three people following behind Luo Ming.
Luo Ming immediately understood.
Knowing that the Wood Puppet Monster was adept at impersonating others, he nodded and said, “Shang Ping, Li Baihe, Xu Kang, you come with me.
Everyone else, wait outside first.”
The three people Xia Hong pointed at were around the same age as Luo Ming; they were the three Earth-digging Realm experts Luo Ming had brought back on this mission.
The five of them together approached the wooden house.
Although the main door of the house was not closed, it was pitch dark outside, and no one could see clearly.
They could only see the empty corridor through the faint campfire inside.
Luo Ming turned to signal Shang Ping and the others.
Without hesitating, the three dashed forward and stepped into the wooden house.
Upon entering, Xia Hong immediately understood the internal structure.
The central area of the wooden house was a hall centered around a campfire, with small rooms partitioned by wooden boards on both sides.
The five had already reached the middle of the hall.
Seeing the dim campfire, they were all puzzled.
Shang Ping, who was at the front, turned back to Luo Ming:
“There are signs of a struggle, but no smell of blood, and…
Scattered around the campfire were many pieces of coal stone.
Several chairs had broken in the hall, and there were clear signs of a struggle on the ground.
So how could there be no people, nor any sound at all?
Could they be in the side rooms?
Realizing this was the only possibility, Luo Ming frowned slightly.
It wasn’t that he ignored the small rooms on both sides of the wooden house.
Just after entering, he didn’t consider those rooms because:
First, the horrific scene outside proved that the Wood Puppet Monster’s ways of killing were extremely brutal; if there were people in those small rooms, they couldn’t possibly be so quiet.
Second, all five of them were Earth-digging Realm experts.
At such a close distance, they could detect even the smallest insect, let alone five or six hundred people.
Lastly, most of these rooms were open, with only a few closed.
The ones with open doors looked quite normal, with no bodies or smell of blood.
Out of habit, they naturally didn’t suspect the closed rooms.
After all, time meant lives.
Luo Ming dared not hesitate.
He quickly pointed to the first room, still letting Shang Ping open it.
Shang Ping nodded and walked toward the first closed door.
“Don’t go in, run quickly!”
Just as he reached out to open the door, Xia Hong, standing beside Luo Ming, suddenly shouted, his face changing drastically, stopping him.
Unlike the others, from the moment he entered the wooden house, Xia Hong focused his attention on the small rooms on both sides.
Those rooms seemed normal; the open rooms were indeed ordinary.
But it was this peculiarity that was most abnormal.
There was no sound outside Rogel Camp, bordered by two mountains.
It was impossible for five or six hundred people to grow wings and fly away.
Xia Hong had noted earlier that the ten rooms on either side made twenty in total.
Each was about four or five meters wide, accommodating thirty to forty people at most.
Only five rooms were open; the other fifteen were closed.
Fifteen rooms, each with thirty to forty people, matched the five to six hundred people.
No matter what tricks the Wood Puppet Monster used to cram people into those fifteen rooms undetected, this number corresponded exactly, and that was enough for Xia Hong to issue a warning.
As soon as he shouted “Run quickly,” Xia Hong had already started dashing outside.
Although Luo Ming hadn’t understood the reason, Xia Hong’s prior behavior had already earned his unconditional trust.
“Shang Ping, retreat!”
Without hesitating, he called out to Shang Ping, leading the other two Earth-digging Realm experts in retreating alongside Xia Hong.
Originally intending to search the rooms, Shang Ping reacted quickly, swiftly retreating to follow Luo Ming outside.
But unfortunately, he was too close to the room.
The door he had been about to open was suddenly shattered by a massive force from within, and a transverse knife sliced through the wooden debris, its sharp blade cutting through the air directly toward the trailing Shang Ping.
Although Shang Ping was fleeing with all his heart, being so close made it impossible not to sense it.
Yet he was back to the blade, leaving him too little time to turn and defend.
The sound of the blade behind him made despair flash in Shang Ping’s eyes.
Trailing behind Luo Ming, Li Baihe drew his curved bow and aimed at the large blade, releasing an arrow.
His marksmanship was impressive, hitting the blade’s flash that swung toward Shang Ping without missing.
At this point, Xia Hong was just two or three meters from the wooden door.
Seeing Shang Ping rescued, he sighed in relief, then looked up to see Xia Chuan and others preparing to rush in.
He quickly shouted, “Don’t come in, all of you get out!”
Until now, he didn’t know the specific situation inside the wooden house.
The more people there were coming in, the more complicated it would become.
Furthermore, they were only steps from the door, nearly outside.
However, as if fate played a cruel joke, Xia Hong’s thoughts became a joke when the wooden house door suddenly slammed shut.
When they first came in, the wooden house door was wide open.
But at that moment, the wooden house seemed to come alive.
The door frames on both sides directly sealed the entrance right in front of Xia Hong’s eyes.
“The Wood Puppet Monster, it manipulates wood, and now we’re in trouble!”
Suddenly recalling the monster’s name, Xia Hong’s heart trembled.
“The wooden house is made of Golden Frost Tree; I can break through it!”
Hearing Luo Ming from behind, Xia Hong relaxed slightly and quickly made way.
Luo Ming wielded the sword, slashing directly at the closed door.