Chapter 174: Time Goes By

Few days passed since the attack in Sur village. Because of the attack, the whole Sur village is more alert than before. Many hunting squads could be seen coming and going to the Sur village.

Learn from the previous attack, many guard and hunting squads patrolling the perimeter and nearby areas.

Besides that, the cleaning up process of the Plague Worm also takes a lot of time. The most difficult thing about Plague Worm is not the newborn worm, but its green mucus and corpse.

The Plague Worm body carries a dangerous disease pathogen that makes the cleaning up process very difficult. They could only burn the Pathogen at a high degree from a distance. This process needs a lot of manpower and effort for the whole Sur village.

Even Angus and Jayna decide to help them on the pretext of training their fire mastery. At first, the clan head Jade refuses them, but Angus and Jayna prove to have some fire mastery that could produce high-temperature fire. 

Furthermore, Jayna already merged with the fire phoenix. She could produce a high-temperature fire easily. Still, her control over them is very poor. So, this cleaning up also serves her as training to control her fire mana.

As for Angus, although he needs more mana to make a high-temperature fire, he could still train his fire mastery. Angus feels that his mastery over his fire element is still quite lacking.

While Angus and Jayna are doing some cleaning, the clan head Jade thoroughly investigates the intruder's identity. However, their investigation is becoming fruitless. All the captured intruders lay dead as a self-destruct rune in their body detonated.

The only surviving intruder is the grade four leader that Angus fought before. A grade four combatant has a strong body and resilience, especially the one with earth element mastery. Even if his self-destruct rune is active, there is a chance he withstands it and survives.

Unfortunately, the last surviving intruder gets his head damaged and turns into a coma for who knows how long. Then, it is decided that Gilford will take care of him. Hearing this news, Gilford becomes happy and has a creepy smile for a few days.

Despite his intelligence, Gilford is famous for having a weird habit. He likes to do some strange thing that he calls an experiment. Sometimes, he even tortured a monster for no reason, which made others distancing him.

Still, Gilford didn't care about that and continued what he was doing. As for the fate of the intruder, they could only hope he has a better life and fortune in the next life.

Their investigation was also forced to stop since they received a dead-end while tracking the Plague Worm's origin path.

They found that the green mucus track suddenly appeared out of nowhere before it moved towards the Sur Village direction.

This makes the whole village think that the preparator is using teleportation or coming from the sky. Still, no one could transport the giant Plague Worm from the sky easily. 

The only one that could do it is another beast or monster. But, they will never approach the sand turtle as the sand turtle itself keeps releasing a seventh-grade aura that is a deterrent towards all nearby creatures.

Besides being busy cleaning up, Angus also continues the clan head Jade medication. Each time the medication is done, the clan head Jade feels his body is getting stronger. Still, each process is excruciating, and sometimes he feels wants to stop the medication process.

However, he knows that he could reach that legendary realm that everyone could look up to but not reach if he could pass this process. The other village will also think twice to attack the Sur village from that point.

While everyone is busy doing their own business, another week has passed by. Suddenly, the sand turtle roared a loud sound. *GRROOOAAAA* The roar is so loud that it creates a huge shockwave nearby.

Then, everyone feels the ground descend rapidly. At this moment, Angus and Jayna are still in the middle of training and are also surprised at the sudden action of the sand turtle. Despite this, the Sur villagers keep their calm as this is a regular occurrence for them.

The only difference is they start to prepare packing their things. Some villagers even dismantle their tents.

Looking at this, "It seems that we have arrived." said Angus.

According to their uncle Jade, the next time a sand turtle stops and burying itself into the sand means they already arrive near the Ancestral Ruin. Ancestral Ruin is the place where they perform the upcoming age ceremony every year.

From the Jade explanation, the ancestral ruin is one of the mysterious places in the endless Battlefield that open once a year for a month. It is divided into two areas. The first area is the outer area and the second area is the inner area.

The outer area is where everyone gathers and stays. It has also become a sort of place where people from various backgrounds gather and exchange. Many of the surrounding groups and villages also drop by to do some trade ordeals during this time.

The Sur village also uses this opportunity to exchange for some supplies. Although the place is kind of a lawless place where everyone is trying to get an advantage over the others, it is quite a safe place than any other place inside the Endless Battlefield dimension.

All of this could happen because of the contract. Normally, people who have transactions here will not believe one with the others, so they always resort to having a contract for each deal.

In front of the contract, nobody will dare to do some underhanded tactic except they are complete newcomers who don't know anything about the contract. In this place, there is even a saying that never trusts anyone, even yourself but the contract.

Still, there is some hidden group that managed all this exchange. This hidden group is very powerful and the true lord of the Endless Battlefield dimension.

Rumor said that this hidden group consists of seven-grade combatants. As for why they still stay inside this treacherous land, nobody knows the real reason. No matter what it is, nobody dares to cause real trouble in this place.

If the outer area is sort of a trading hub, the inner area is where the true treasure trove for everyone. The inner area is a sort of independent space that is vastly filled with treasure. 

Inside this space, people could get some legacy, strange power, artifact, skills/spells formula, and many others.

However, there are also restrictions to this place. Only grade three below could enter, and they could only enter this inner area once. This place is unique since many people, even after more than a hundred years of being plundered. It is never truly empty.

This also piques curiosity in Angus and Jayna to venture over this inner area. Fortunately, there is no limit to how many people can enter the inner area. So, they also could participate in this event.

However, not everyone will get something precious from the inner area. Among Jade's children, only Gilford receives something significant. The others only get weapons, spells, or skills formulas.

Based on the rumor, Gilford is not a very strong person and talented among his siblings. When he is going through the upcoming age ceremony, he is barely reaching the first grade.

At that time, no one thought highly that he would get something significant from the ancestral ruin. However, by some sheer luck or fate, he comes out with his Colossus Alfredo and a few others battle golem.

At that time, the other village even bluntly attacked him to snatch his colossus. However, all of them were decimated in front of Alfredo's might.

Even till now, the villagers could still remember the scene where Alfredo took down more than a dozen high-grade people at once using its punch alone.

Fortunately, the conflict was finally resolved peacefully after one of the hidden group representatives came out.

Still, this means that the ancestral inner area never judges people's talent. However, people need at least combat capability to survive since many monsters infest the inner area.

After the sand turtle buries itself deep into the sandy ground and stops moving, the tremor ends. Angus and Jayna decide to go back to the village only to find that everyone is already packing their things.

Almost more than half of the Sur villagers will go this time. Only a dozen people choose to stay behind. While everyone is packing their things, Angus and Jayna go towards the clan head Jade.

"Uncle, when are we going?" asked Angus.

"We will go as soon as everyone is ready. According to our guide, the sand turtle this time stopped quite far from the ancestral ruin. It will take time to reach it." replied Jade.

Then, Angus and Jayna decide to wait for the others since all their belongings are already inside their space storage. Both of them are already ready to leave anytime. They even already recharge their rune magic card and are prepared to fight anytime.

Before long, all the other villagers are ready to depart with clan head Jade on the lead.