"Judging by the look of their corpses, they must have been ambushed before the enemies killed them.
However, I only see a few dozen of them. That must mean that this isn't the place where they were
ambushed." Rocky determined after stepping onto the battlefield and analyzing the situation. After all,
he was familiar with those types of things. He had risked his life on the battlefield many times in the
past.
"Captain Basil, how did you make such a detailed analysis? It doesn't look like you are a green hand!"
Kye said in a sarcastic voice.
"That's funny. I don't recall mentioning I was a green hand," Rocky replied, raising his eyebrows and
smiling.
"Aren't you a green hand?" Kye asked.
"So far, I have killed more people on the battlefield than the total amount of people you all have killed.
There are some things that can't be seen from the surface and that only limits your thinking on the
battlefield. In fact, there are clues left behind by Deputy Commander Ma and the others on these
corpses, which I'm sure you haven't even noticed..." Rocky said meaningfully, glancing down at the
bodies.
A look of shock plastered onto Kye's face as he heard that. He and the other team members bent over
and looked at the corpses carefully, but they couldn't see anything of importance.
"Don't waste your time looking for the clues. You won't be able to decipher them. After all, if you were
all able to find the clues, the enemies could too..." As soon as Rocky finished speaking, he walked over
to one of the corpses and ripped off a piece of his clothing.
"We can't find the clues using our eyes. We have to smell them. Unfortunately, these corpses' clothing
smells of grass and leaves, which indicates that they have been somewhere with this kind of vegetation
for a long time. It would take longer to remove the smell," Rocky explained.
Every team member but Kye looked at Rocky with admiration. None of them had thought that Rocky
was so experienced.
"So what if we know how these leaves smelled? We didn't bring any special beasts for searching. Are
you going to search for it on your own?" Kye said sarcastically.
"I will not. And no ordinary beast will be good enough. We need to use my Kohen." Not stopping to
argue with Kye, Rocky summoned Kohen from the Magic Spiritual Space.
Kye's and the other team members' eyes opened wide when a beast the size of a squirrel appeared
before their eyes. What was most unusual about it was its strong aura. It was powerful for its size.
Next, Rocky handed the clothes he held to Kohen and let it smell them. Kohen immediately turned to
face one direction.
"This way!" Rocky said to Kye and others.
Then, the team moved forward.
While they followed Kohen, Rocky and his companions saw some human soldier corpses from time to
time. However, apart from the human corpses, they didn't see any spiritual solider corpses. Logically
speaking, when two armies fought, there must be casualties on both sides. It was impossible for only
the human soldiers to have died. None of them could understand it.
After walking for about half a day, they passed through a vine forest and stumbled upon a mountain of
corpses. There were at least a thousand of them and they all belonged to human soldiers. In fact, some
of them were spirit warriors.
"It's true. They were under the command of Deputy Commander Ma..." one of the spirit warriors said,
still staring at the corpses with melancholy swimming in his eyes.
"This must be the place where they were ambushed." As Rocky looked around, he continued, "How
many soldiers did Deputy Commander Ma take to the patrol this time?"
"About two thousand of them."
"Well, it looks like the ambush killed or injured over half of them. And there were more casualties when
they tried to resist the enemies. I'm afraid there will only be a few that are still alive." Rocky frowned.
"But why are there no enemy corpses here?" Kye asked immediately.
"That's the crux of the matter. Perhaps Deputy Commander Ma didn't encounter any enemies. Maybe
he met something more terrible," Rocky said as he crouched over several corpses and noticed that
they hadn't been pierced by sharp blades. Their wounds resembled an injury that could be inflicted by a
spiritual beast.
However, in order to kill so many human soldiers at once, the spiritual beast couldn't be an ordinary
one.
Eunice was a part of Deputy Commander Ma's patrol team. With her strength, she could resist a high-
level spiritual beast.
Generally speaking, if they had encountered a spiritual beast, there would be traces left on the ground,
but none of them had found anything along the way.
At the moment, all kinds of doubts were hovering in Rocky's mind.
"You guys need to separate and look for the survivors. I'll focus on finding out which direction they
retreated in..." Rocky figured out where to start and then traipsed around the place where the corpses
were. Soon, he discovered that Deputy Commander Ma and the others might have retreated to the
southwest because he came across a mark that Eunice had left.
"I think Eunice is still alive," Rocky said, breathing out a sigh of relief.
Soon after, Kye and the other team members returned to Rocky and gathered all around him. They
reported that they hadn't found any survivors.
"Let's go!" Rocky ordered. Then, he led his team southwest.
Another nightfall came around and Rocky and the others had been tracking for over miles. They still
had not found Deputy Commander Ma or his team members. The smell that could be used to trace
them had also faded, which indicated that they had departed from the place where the ambush had
happened for three or four days.
And now that they were in the Crescent Gorge, it was too dark to track any further. So Rocky led his
team until they found an area with a wide view where they could easily perceive everything around
them. After that was done, they set up their camp.
"We've been looking for them for such a long time, but we still can't find them. Maybe they have left the
Crescent Gorge," a spirit warrior said as the bonfire rose.
"Maybe they have returned to the Tiger Whisker Pass," another spirit warrior guessed.
"The matter may not be as simple as you think. If they could get back to the Tiger Whisker Pass, they
would have already returned. I'm afraid they might be trapped somewhere in the Crescent Gorge..."
Kye speculated about the matter.
"That makes sense, but why were they trapped? And what exactly trapped them?" Rocky asked,
nodding slightly in deep concentration.
Kye and the other team members exchanged looks and shook their heads. If they knew the answers to
those questions, they would have found them by now.
"It looks like we have to be mentally prepared for anything!" Rocky exclaimed. Deep down, he had a
hunch that they might encounter unexpected trouble on the road ahead.
And the premonition happened to come true not long after he and the others had set out.
The next morning, they continued to track the clues left by Deputy Commander Ma and his
companions. However, after they moved for a few miles around the Crescent Gorge, several black
figures appeared in front of them and stared at them with hostility brimming in their eyes.
Rocky examined them carefully and saw that they were not humans. They resembled the members
from the spiritual race more.
"They are from the spiritual race!" Kye shouted, spinning to face the others.
In no time, all the spirit warriors were in battle stances.
"Don't act rashly!" Rocky warned them. He could sense the power the figures
possessed.
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