Desperate shouts rang out from the surrounding Mu family soldiers. Mu Yuan clenched the hilt of the sword at his waist, his face terrifyingly grim.
Mu Yuan drew his sword and shouted again at the panicked Mu family army:
"Vice-General Li, take groups A and B and stay here to deal with the sea rats! Groups C and D, follow me! The rest who haven't been named, follow Hou San to the east. The rock-devouring monster is slow, stall it for as long as you can!"
Although three types of alien beasts attacked at the same time, the officers and soldiers of the Mu family army were well-trained.
Mu Yuan's words calmed the people. The crowd that had just been nervously whispering immediately fell silent.
The Mu family army, following Mu Yuan's deployment, split into three groups and quickly took their positions.
Li Qiu led two small teams, twenty men, straight to the southern gate.
Snowgate Island was located at the southernmost tip of the Xingling Kingdom, and its southern part faced the sea, from where the sea rats invaded.
Therefore, since Mu Yuan had led the Mu family army to assist the King's army in guarding Snowgate Island, their primary task had always been to lead the King's army in reinforcing the southern gate.
Li Qiu arrived at the southern gate. High stone ramparts rose around the gate, but one could still see numerous impact marks on the massive gate, and there was a noticeable breach in the left half of the gate.
This was what Li Qiu had just mentioned—the gate had not yet been fully repaired.
The gloomy sky began to drizzle, and the heavy clouds pressed down, making it difficult to breathe.
"Vice-General Li!" A fully armed, burly young man saw Li Qiu leading the Mu family army brothers to the gate and immediately came to greet him.
"Vice-General Chu! What's the situation?"
This young man was a vice-general of the King's army, named Chu Heng.
Chu Heng's expression was grave. He shook his head and said, "Not optimistic! There are at least a dozen of these sea rats, and they're coming fiercely. The gate hasn't been repaired yet. Brothers, prepare for a tough fight."
Li Qiu looked at the dense black waves and waved his hand at the Mu family soldiers behind him. His soldiers obeyed the order and quickly climbed to higher ground.
The arrows were coated with solidified pine resin. To prevent the fire on the arrowheads from extinguishing after being shot, everyone waited patiently to light them after the sea rats left the water and came ashore, then they would shoot quickly.
While Li Qiu led two teams to guard the south against the sea rats, Mu Yuan had already been entangled in battle with the upright ostrich-like spiky-scaled beast for quite some time.
A doubt had always lingered in Mu Yuan's mind.
According to the original owner's memories, these alien beasts did come in rotation each month, but this time they had all attacked together.
So, what was the reason?
For some reason, the original owner, who had been stationed on Snowgate Island for two years, had never considered the reason why Snowgate Island was plagued by alien beasts.
Since he had become Mu Yuan, he had been constantly thinking about this question.
There must be something on Snowgate Island that caused these alien beasts to come in batches and at fixed locations every month.
Thinking of this, Mu Yuan suddenly had a bold guess.
He made a gesture to the Mu family soldiers around him to retract their fists. The soldiers were all stunned, but then they followed the General's arrangement and quickly retreated.
The crowd moved away from the spiky-scaled beast, and Mu Yuan also stopped fighting, feigning escape.
Sure enough, the spiky-scaled beast's target wasn't to attack the crowd. Seeing no one around to interfere, it flapped its wings again and flew towards Mu Yuan's previous wooden house on the mountaintop.
Mu Yuan blinked.
Its target was actually the mountain?
"General! The rock-devouring monster is here! Ah! There seems to be someone on that rock-devouring monster!"
Hou San's voice was extremely penetrating. After clearly seeing the figure on the rock-devouring monster, he looked excited and shouted as he ran, "General! It's Brother Ling! The person on the rock-devouring monster is Brother Ling!"
Mu Yuan was just about to go up the mountain to chase the spiky-scaled beast when he saw a huge, barrel-shaped worm break through the snow from the pine forest in the east. Upon closer inspection, wasn't that Ling Yan rising and falling with the worm's movements on its back?
Ling Yan had gone to Qing Pine Ridge to investigate the cause of Mu Yuan's injury and to catch some small edible animals.
As a result, he had encountered one of the alien beasts that attacked Snowgate Island every month—the rock-devouring monster.
The rock-devouring monster lived up to its name, devouring rocks and soil. Its overall shape was barrel-like, and its entire body was earth-gray, resembling the color of a dead earthworm.
Its skin was rough and thick, with rings encircling it.
When this strange worm dragged its long and cumbersome body, pulling soil as it moved, towards Ling Yan, Ling Yan thought it was some powerful character arranged by the crazy system.
The price they would pay that it had threatened.
But after observing it, he found that this monster that could crush rocks and swallow soil was actually a simpleton.
Ling Yan jumped onto its back in a few moves, and it didn't react at all.
This strange worm seemed to have no eyes, but the direction it was heading seemed to be Snowgate Island.
Ling Yan thought that since he was going back anyway, he didn't stop it. He stayed on its back, wanting to see what it was going to do at Snowgate Island.
The rock-devouring monster's body was huge. When Ling Yan straddled it, he was about two to three meters off the ground.
With the movement of its body, it didn't take long before he saw the Mu family army camp on Snowgate Island. The first thing that came into view was that long-necked ostrich beast.
Ling Yan's brow furrowed several times.
Why was it here again?
Then he heard a cry like a chicken being strangled.
Without asking, he could tell it was Hou San.
The rock-devouring monster quickly arrived within the military camp and showed no signs of stopping. Ling Yan remained steadily seated on the strange worm's back.
Just now, he had seen from afar that Mu Yuan, who had been fighting the spiky-scaled beast, suddenly dispersed the Mu family soldiers, and Mu Yuan himself retreated instead of attacking, playing hide-and-seek with the spiky-scaled beast.
Ling Yan knew that Mu Yuan had the same idea as him.
There must be a special reason why Snowgate Island was attacked by alien beasts.
When the rock-devouring monster passed by Mu Yuan, Ling Yan reached out his hand and shouted:
"General, get on!"
Mu Yuan looked at Ling Yan's outstretched hand and grabbed it without hesitation.
Hou San's mouth gaped wide, his finger pointing at Ling Yan and Mu Yuan as they moved rapidly with the rock-devouring monster.
"This... General? Brother Ling?"
"Hou San, have Vice-General Li take over the military affairs! Mu Ling and I will be right back!"
Before Mu Yuan and Ling Yan's figures disappeared with the rock-devouring monster, Hou San heard his General's instructions.
Ling Yan pulled Mu Yuan onto the strange worm's body, placing him securely in front of him.
Mu Yuan glanced back at Ling Yan without saying a word.
Mu Yuan knew very well why Ling Yan had gone to Qing Pine Ridge. This captain of the star police team had never been one to obediently follow orders.
"Why did the General just let that spiky-scaled beast go?"
Mu Yuan snorted, knowing he was asking a question he already knew the answer to. But to avoid revealing any flaws, he replied truthfully:
"I want to see what their purpose is in constantly attacking us."
Ling Yan smirked, just as he had thought.
The rock-devouring monster, like the spiky-scaled beast just now, also went up the mountain. Just as this huge worm was huffing and puffing its way up, a shrill cry suddenly came from the south.
Mu Yuan and Ling Yan looked towards the gate together.
The south was ablaze with fire.
Li Qiu and Chu Heng led a group of soldiers, tightly guarding the gate, and flaming arrows flew towards the sea rats in unison.
However, the sea rats' bodies were slippery and their movement speed was extremely fast, making it difficult even for skilled archers to achieve a perfect hit.
Before long, the rats that had slipped through the arrows rushed towards the breach in the gate together.
Boom!
The gate cracked open, and the sea rats, without any obstruction, charged straight in.
Ling Yan had excellent eyesight. Counting carefully, there were a total of five. Their dense black fur was extremely glossy, reflecting light as their short legs pounded the ground.
The sea rats' target was clear. They advanced in unison, running madly towards the mountain where Ling Yan and Mu Yuan were.