"It's getting late today. You guys have a day off and head to the ninth area early tomorrow morning." Wei Wen, the young man in green shirt, said this and turned around to leave.
"Okay, you guys have a good rest today and recharge your batteries. We will start patrolling tomorrow morning. This place is located on the border of our forces. We may encounter enemies at any time. We need to be very alert."
After Wei Wen left, Shi Mu turned around and said to the others.
The others nodded and went back to their rooms to rest.
A night of silence.
Early the next morning, Shi Mu's team assembled the team early, left the stronghold, and headed towards the ninth area.
The nine areas near the stronghold are not only limited to the fragments of the planet's continent, but also a large area of star space near the fragments.
However, the ninth area that Shi Mu and others are responsible for is on top of this fragment of the continent.
Half an hour later, the group arrived at the ninth area.
In front of you is a muddy swamp, dotted with pools of different sizes, lush aquatic plants sprouting from the water, and occasionally a solitary tree standing in it.
A series of bubbles occasionally appeared in the water, and the air was filled with the rotten smell unique to the swamp.
After a brief observation, Shi Mu turned over his hand and took out a blue triangle token. This is something that activates the illusion formation around the stronghold. Of course, it also has other functions.
He injected infuriating energy, and a green light lit up on the token, "buzzing" and flashing for a while.
Soon, a small team emerged from the distant sky and flew towards here.
This team has a smaller number of people than Shi Mu's team, with only nine people including the captain, who is a Heavenly Disciple of the Lichen Sect.
Shi Mu briefly handed over to the other team leader, and the team left. According to the leader, there was nothing unusual in the past month.
"Okay, let's start patrolling. Every two people should line up in a row. The distance between each other should not be more than ten miles." Shi Mu said.
The others nodded after hearing this, dispersed, released their spiritual consciousness, and tentatively flew forward.
The group of people quickly flew into the swamp and disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, a few days later, Shi Mu and others also inspected the ninth area and roughly understood the situation here.
The ninth area is very large. In addition to the vast swamps in that area, there are other places. One-third of the planet's fragments are in the ninth area.
Nothing unusual has happened in the past few days, but the vegetation here is lush, and there are many strange poisonous insects and beasts among them, which has brought some trouble to everyone.
However, everyone has a high level of cultivation, so this little trouble is nothing.
Now that he has grasped the situation in the ninth area, Shi Mu has no intention of continuing to patrol with everyone. After all, the ninth area is too large, and if they patrol together, it will not be effective at all.
After a careful discussion, the group dispersed and dispersed throughout the ninth area.
The purple-armored man at the stronghold also arranged it this way.
Although doing so would greatly increase the risk, this is a battlefield and there is nothing to worry about.
In the swamp, a very faint shadow flew slowly over the ground.
This shadow is of course Shi Mu, who has put on that invisibility cloak.
As the captain, he naturally patrols the most dangerous areas.
After flying for a while, Shi Mu landed in a relatively clean place in the swamp and took a short rest.
He did not take off his cloak and looked towards the depths of the sea of stars.
In the sky at the end of the field of vision, a black cloud can be vaguely seen, where is the space passage connecting the black demon space.
After looking at it for a moment, Shi Mu sighed and looked away.
Although he has only been on the front line for a few days, he has already learned a lot about the situation.
The three major holy land alliances don't seem to have made any big moves, nor do they have the feeling of gathering all their strength for a decisive battle with the Black Demon clan.
The Black Demon Clan doesn't seem to be in a hurry to expand. The two sides are fighting a protracted war. I really don't know when this war will end.
Shi Mu shook his head and stopped thinking about this.
He moved and was about to continue his patrol.
At this moment, his expression changed slightly, and he suddenly turned around and looked in one direction. Then without saying a word, his figure swayed and turned into a shadow, flying towards that direction silently.
In the swamp dozens of miles away, a strange beast slowly came towards the swamp.
This beast's body is pitch black, and its body looks like a fierce tiger. However, its head is much more ferocious than ordinary tigers. Its neck is covered with pitch black bone spurs. Its eyes are red with black, and it looks around warily.
The black monster gave out a strange aura, and the surrounding poisonous insects stayed away from the beast and did not dare to approach it.
The beast moved extremely carefully, moving its limbs and crossing a small stream.
But at this moment, a spear made of blue water appeared silently and stabbed the black monster in the neck like lightning.
This water gun was actually tougher than iron and extremely sharp. With a pop, it poked its head out from the other end of the black monster's neck and nailed the black monster to the ground.
The black monster let out a roar, and clawed at the ground with its four hooves, making a big hole in the blink of an eye.
But the blue water gun did not relax at all, and a large amount of dark liquid gushed out from the black monster's wound, which seemed to be the monster's blood.
Soon, the monster's movements slowed down and stopped moving.
The flowing water spear collapsed with a crash, and a figure appeared next to the black monster. It was naturally Shi Mu.
"This is... a magical beast..." He looked at the black monster on the ground and murmured.
Although he has not been on the front line for a long time, he has also heard about many magical powers of the Black Demon clan, one of which is raising various magical beasts for use in combat, exploration, finding objects, etc.
Shi Mu looked around and at the same time released his spiritual consciousness, covering a radius of dozens of miles.
He frowned, but found nothing unusual within the scope of his consciousness.
He pondered for a moment, took out the golden token, and sent a message to Wei Wen, telling him about the black beast.
"No problem, I heard you say that the black beast looks like a lion roaring beast. This beast is a monster used for exploration. The black demon clan often releases this kind of monster into our territory." After a while, Wei Wen returned.
A message.
Seeing this, Shi Mu breathed a sigh of relief, waved his hand and fired two fireballs, turning the black beast's body into ashes, and then continued his inspection.
Time passed quickly, and a month passed in the blink of an eye. Shi Mu's team was also transferred from the ninth area to the eighth area.
The eighth area is another continental fragment, covering an area of thousands of miles. The topography is very different from that of the ninth area. There are countless lakes scattered on it, and the water vapor is extremely rich.
Shi Mu stood above a large lake, looking at the environment in front of him. Others stood behind him.
During this month, Shi Mu either experienced it personally or asked for advice from Wei Wen and others. He learned a lot about the frontline and the Black Demon clan, and gained a lot of knowledge.
In the past month, the area around the stronghold has been relatively peaceful, and nothing major has happened.
"Same as before, let's explore the area together and then separately," Shi Mu said.
The rest of the team agreed, lined up and flew forward.
…
In the fifth area, a small team is patrolling. The leader is a young man in white, a heavenly monk of Zhuyun Sword Sect.
The fifth area is full of undulating mountains, and the stones are black and I don’t know what they are made of.
A group of people flew near a black mountain peak. At this moment, the ground at the bottom of the mountain cracked open with a rumble, and countless black energy surged out from it, condensing into a big black hand, and overwhelmingly grabbed the group of people.
"Demon energy! It's the black demon clan!" The group was shocked and scattered.
The young man in white clothes who led the team let out a loud roar, a white light flashed in his hand, and a long white jade sword appeared. He swung out a huge sword energy, and cut the big black hand into a huge wound, almost cutting it in half.
Before the young man in white could be happy, the big black hand suddenly bulged, and then burst open, turning into black air that filled the sky, instantly covering more than a dozen people inside.
A dozen blood-red shadows emerged from the black, and each shadow pounced on one person in the team. The speed was extremely fast, like a poisonous snake spitting a message, and wrapped around these people like lightning. Even the young man in white was not spared.
The red shadow flashed directly through the protective light of these people and disappeared into their bodies.
The bodies of the group suddenly became stiff, their eyes showed fear, and the next moment their bodies shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The young man in white had the highest level of cultivation. A burst of bright white light appeared on his body. He resisted for several breaths, but was still swallowed by the red shadow.
He tilted his head and dropped a token in his hand.
…
In the room on the top floor of the stronghold, the big man in purple armor was dealing with various matters as usual.
At this moment, the door was pushed open, and Wei Wen walked in with a panicked expression.
"Chief, something bad is happening!"
"What happened to make you so panicked?" the purple-armored man asked with a frown.
"Just now, all the teams in the fifth area lost contact!" Wei Wen said.
"What!" The purple-armored man was shocked and stood up suddenly.
"Do you know what happened?" he asked quickly.
"I don't know. I only received a distress message from the captain of the fifth area team, and then there was no news. The message didn't say what happened." Wei Wen said.
When the purple-armored man heard this, he frowned and pondered.
"Chief, what should we do now? Do we want to send the team currently resting at the stronghold to explore the fifth area?" Wei Wen asked.
"Okay, do this immediately. At the same time, send the two teams from the ninth and eighth areas to make sure to find out what happened in the fifth area." The purple-armored man said in a deep voice.
Wei Wen immediately agreed, turned around and quickly made arrangements.
…
In the eighth area, Shi Mu's team was patrolling the entire area, flying over a lake.
At this moment, Shi Mu flipped over with one hand, and a golden token appeared in his hand with a flash of light, and a line of small words appeared on it.
He just glanced over and his expression suddenly changed.
"Captain, what happened?"
"Something happened in the fifth area. All the teams patrolling there suddenly disappeared. The leader sent us and two other teams to investigate the situation." Shi Mu said.
After hearing this, everyone in the team looked at each other.
"Why did he suddenly disappear? Even if he encounters a strong enemy and is defeated and killed, at least one person in the team should have time to send a message and explain the situation." Guo Shen said. (To be continued.)