"It's a 50-50 chance," Smail said, unwilling to give a definite answer. "This winding curve does look like them, but it's also possible that it's not, but something else."
"for example?"
"Sand lizards, rock snakes, things like that."
"Didn't you tell me before we set out that this was a campsite you had specially cleared?" Xia Yibing frowned, "This is not what you described!"
Not every rock protrusion like this can be called a campsite.
The so-called camping site must be a place that regularly clears nearby dangers and even leaves stored supplies for the next team to arrive.
Since Smail said this was a camping site, it meant that the nests of the poisonous insects and ferocious beasts nearby had been cleared out the last time the patrol team arrived.
Moreover, this is the nearest camping site to Ongsain, and the first supply point for the team heading west. Even if there are poisonous insects and beasts lurking in the middle, they shouldn't be salamanders, right?
Xia Yibing was very familiar with fire lizards. She knew that this kind of evil creature preferred dry and hot places and usually only appeared deep in the plains.
"I can't answer your question." Smail narrowed his eyes. "This is the Red Soil Plain... Although there is indeed a lot of 'common sense' that can be learned, don't forget the dangers here... I won't be surprised if anything happens."
"If we confirm that there are salamander nests here, what are you going to do?" Hitzfeld asked him softly, "Clean them up overnight?"
"This is the only way." Smail also looked very helpless.
The campsite was very important. Even without mentioning its significance, it was the only place where they could stay and rest tonight.
In a place like this, if there is a nest of poisonous insects lying underneath, he will definitely not be able to sleep unless he cleans out the nest.
"You don't have to follow us." Smail was afraid that she would want to come down with him. "This is our job. Don't feel bad about it... You can go back and wait for news. It shouldn't take much time."
"Then what's the point of you asking me to come along?"
"Of course..." Smail paused.
"You can come down and take a look after you've cleaned up the nest."
After saying this, he continued walking down with another knight.
Hitzfeld stood there and stared at them, watching them go deeper and deeper. The light from the torches cast cracks and holes on the rock wall, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously pursed.
They didn't go up, but just waited there.
She had to admire the patrol team's efficiency... She had only waited for less than three minutes before Frick came down with more than thirty people. After asking about the situation, he quickly followed her in.
After another ten minutes or so, she felt a slight vibration coming from the ground.
Turning to look at Xia Yibing, the woman nodded to her.
Just as he was about to speak, Hitzfeld saw a group of knights holding torches coming out of the cave at the bottom, each holding something in their hands. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be limb remains similar to a lizard's tail.
It really is a salamander...
Although he had guessed the answer from the vibration just now and the look in Xia's eyes, Hitzfeld had never seen a salamander before and was curious about the wreckage.
"Hitzfeld!"
Frick called to them from the bottom.
"come over!"
"You need to identify the following things."
Chapter 40: Salamander's Lair 3
"Adult salamanders should be about 2-3 meters long. If they raise their upper bodies, their height should be about the same as that of an adult man..."
"They are intelligent and know how to use stones and branches to make simple tools to dig nests and hunt. There is a saying that salamanders should not be called this name but lizardmen, but it has never been recognized..."
On the way down, Xia Yibing continued to explain to the girl in detail the detailed information of the salamander species.
"So this nest shouldn't be big." Hitzfeld said thoughtfully. She saw clearly that the body parts in the knights' hands were very small, unlike the adult lizards described by Xia.
That is the juvenile... If it is a juvenile, the nest below is likely to have been created by a small group of fire salamanders that migrated here recently.
The actual situation was pretty much the same as she had guessed. After going down into the cave, they were first frowned by the fishy smell. By the light of the torches, they could see a lot of leftover shell debris piled up on both sides of the road.
"Do they like to eat bugs so much?" Xia Yibing frowned. This was beyond her understanding.
The last time she came here by airship, she was with an elderly agent, who assured her solemnly that salamanders' favorite food was red antelope, and they would not touch most poisonous insects.
"We probably won't see many terrestrial species at this location, and the only things we can eat are probably insects." Frick looked back at them.
"This cave is very deep..." Hitzfeld kept looking up and around.
As she said, the cave is very deep, not only deep but also long and narrow. Every time you walk a distance, you can see many prismatic protrusions connected from top to bottom, a bit like deformed stalactite columns.
"Is there anything strange about that?" Frick didn't understand her sigh. "The faulted rock layer is a landform caused by the movement of the earth's crust. There is a high probability that there is groundwater here. It is normal for cavities to form after being squeezed."
"Oh... I'm not an archaeologist or geologist." Hitzfeld retracted his gaze, "Where is Smail?"
"It's just ahead." Frick pointed to the end of the road. "There's a fire at the corner. Do you see it? Just pass it."
Enduring the strange smell in the cave, the three of them walked around the corner and saw a larger open space ahead. Smail and several knights were standing there holding torches.
"I brought her here." Frick walked up to him and reported.
Smail nodded and moved slightly to reveal the scenery that was originally blocked by him.
It was a pile of lizard carcasses.
There were about seven or eight of them, all very tall. Even the smallest one was two meters long. They should be the adult lizards that Xia Yibing described earlier.
If you look closely, the body of the salamander looks a bit like a snake.
If you only look at the tail, they are no different from snakes. But the body gets thicker as it goes up, with two strong, rough arms with obvious muscle outlines extending from the middle, and ten dark green claws at the end, with very long knuckles, each more than ten centimeters long.
Hitzfeld couldn't help but look at the woman. She remembered that she had said that a self-destructing salamander was more difficult to deal with than a swarm of worms.
But it doesn't seem to be that troublesome now... Smellfrick brought dozens of people down and solved it in a short while. If she was not mistaken, the total time taken was less than half an hour.
"Don't look at me." Xia Yibing's face darkened. "Based on the information I know, these things are indeed difficult to deal with."
She glanced at the pile of evil corpses on the ground, then frowned and questioned Smail: "Why didn't any of them explode?"
"There is one." Smail nodded and picked up a half-shield that was covered in blood, had holes in it, and was completely deformed. "Fortunately, there is only one... Its body is a little further inside, if it can still be called a body."
"Is that the vibration we felt up there?"
"Yes, it collapsed a lot of stone pillars. That's why I didn't let you follow me from the beginning."
"Your words are not convincing at all!" Xia Yibing's eyes flashed coldly, "...There shouldn't be only one that will self-destruct!"
"You hope that we will suffer more casualties, right?" A young knight felt that this statement was unpleasant to hear.
Even though it's easy, we risked our lives after all. It's fine if you don't thank us, but you're making sarcastic remarks about us?
"I think what Xia meant is... if according to normal predictions, all the bodies piled here will explode before they die, then you won't win so easily, at least not so quickly."
Hitzfeld said softly.
"Oh... so that's why you called her down?" Frick looked at the white-haired knight with a hint of confusion on his face.
He couldn't understand it. After all, if it came to a competition of knowledge about red earth creatures, no one could compare to the patrol members. Although it was strange that only one of the many salamanders exploded, but what was the point of finding two detectives who were entering the red earth for the first time?
Most of the criminal investigation science is aimed at human society, so it is impossible to find any clues at this time.
“We don’t really know a lot about salamanders.”
As he spoke, Smail glared at him warningly, then turned his gaze to Hitzfeld.
"Because of the living environment of this creature, we rarely go to those places."
"But I know a little bit about the principle of their explosion... It should be the same as your gun, which is to absorb heat energy."
"So?" Hitzfeld tilted his head slightly.
"From the fact that most of the nests are young, they have been here for no more than half a month," Smail analyzed. "This is a new group of salamanders. There are two possibilities for their appearance here. One is that they lost in internal competition or were driven here by stronger predators. The other is that they discovered the potential of this place."
"Can you elaborate on what 'potential' means?"
"It's simple." Smail took a breath, "There might be heat brewing underground here that can make them cheer."
The atmosphere in the cave froze for a moment.
"Heat...?" Frick opened his mouth.
"Smail, you mean there will be an underground fire exit here..."
The exit of the underground fire is the lava spring.
This is also a special geographical phenomenon in the red soil plains, but it usually only appears deep in the plains. It is only possible when the temperature rises further and approaches the desert boundary.
"They have been hiding here, living deep in the caves, away from sunlight, and forced to feed on poisonous insects."
Smail's tone was very low.
"From what I can think of, the only thing that can make them pay so much is the lava spring."
"This also explains why only the strongest ones exploded. The heat they can absorb here is too little. If there is a lava spring here, it should not have erupted yet. It can only seep out extremely rare underground fire for them to absorb."
"And the one who can absorb this aura must be the strongest among them." Hitzfeld took over the conversation, "So you didn't ask me to come down so that we can help you analyze something. You just want to borrow that gun and use it as a detector to find the location of the underground fire."
Smail opened his mouth: "...That's it."
"So, Hitzfeld, can I ask you for a favor?"
"Yes, yes."
Hitzfeld had no objection to this. After all, he was trying to eliminate hidden dangers, and the reasons he gave were very sufficient.
But she thought further: "I would like to know why there is a lava spring here."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expression immediately turned very ugly, whether it was Smail, Frick... or the knights who stayed in the cave.
what's the situation.
Hitzfeld frowned slightly.
What did I say wrong?
Yes... Smail's attitude has been abnormal since he discovered the salamander's nest.
Of course, he should be cautious, but he was always on the lookout to pull himself down...had he guessed the existence of the lava spring from that time?
They acted so quickly probably because they didn't want to alert the people above. What does this thing mean?
"I have heard of some cases where lava springs appeared contrary to common sense..."
Xia Yibing suddenly spoke from the side.
"The most recent one was probably five or six years ago, when lava spring vents also appeared on the edge of the red soil."
"Indeed, this is very abnormal. At that time, the diocese and the Security Bureau sent people to investigate. The final conclusion was that this was due to a huge channel that appeared out of nowhere and penetrated the earth veins. It was this channel that led the lava spring over there."
"A huge passage?"
Hitzfeld repeated.
Suddenly, her brows jumped.
Something that can dig out this kind of tunnel out of thin air...
Well……
She felt that she might know what Smail was worried about.
Chapter 41: Ominous Sounds
"Emperor worm?"
Squinting at the white-haired knight, Hitzfeld uttered a phrase in clear tones.
Smail sighed as if he had been relieved of a heavy burden. Then he put one hand on his waist and held the hilt of the dagger with the other hand. He looked up at her while pursing his lips. The lines on both sides of his nose were particularly deep.
Although he didn't say a word, his gesture was equivalent to consent.
"Should we go back?"
In the brief silence, Xia Yibing suddenly asked, "Isn't this considered an accident of force majeure?"
"We can't go back." Smail lowered his head slightly and said in a deep voice, "I'm sorry to say this at this juncture, but every time the patrol team sets out, it's not just a simple patrol. We still have some things to confirm."
"We've discovered a lava spring here, is there anything else we need to confirm?" Xia Yibing frowned deeply and turned to look at Frick: "Wait...what exactly is the so-called hive movement?"
A second ago, her guess was: the ultimate mission of the patrol team entering the red soil is to confirm whether the monarch worm exists.
