Chapter 68: Chapter 66: News of the Two-Headed Oxen (Part 1)
Shortly after Elder Yuan and his team arrived in the Damo Realm.
Shi Zehong, stationed in Chixian City, hurried back to the camp with a jade slip, looking anxious, and found Lin Li.
Along with this jade slip came explosive news:
The Wei Mansion discovered the trace of a group of twin-headed oxen!
To be precise, it’s a horde of demon beasts containing a large number of twin-headed oxen.
Upon hearing this.
Lin Li immediately gathered all the leaders together for a meeting.
"This news came at just the right time, just as we had finished receiving Elder Yuan and hadn’t yet dispersed. We all know that with the increase in camp duties, it’s not as easy for us to gather as it used to be."
Lin Li first lamented the difficulty of gathering before saying to Shi Zehong, "Director Shi, please introduce the situation of this group of demon beasts."
Shi Zehong nodded and handed the jade slip to Cao Yi, who came with him: "Comrade Cao Yi, could you please input a bit of spiritual energy into this jade slip? It can’t be opened without spiritual energy...."
"Alright."
Cao Yi carefully took the jade slip and attempted to channel a little spiritual energy into it.
After successfully channeling energy, Cao Yi gradually began to grasp a little of the use of spiritual energy, almost becoming a pseudo-cultivator.
With the input of spiritual energy.
Swish—
An image quickly appeared before everyone, somewhat like a virtual screen in a science fiction movie.
The center of the image was a mountain peak, lush with vegetation, and the mountain body covered a wide area.
The height of this mountain peak was about eight to nine hundred meters, surrounded by more than a dozen low peaks over a hundred meters high.
If you insist, it could be considered a small mountain range.
The recorder of the image was about five hundred meters away from the mountain peak, and in the image, a large number of demon beasts could be seen vaguely moving in the mountains.
There were the previously seen armored giant snakes, twin-headed oxen, and monsters, and some demon beasts resembling antelopes and tigers.
There were even some bird-type demon beasts circling and flying in the sky.
When the video ended, everyone turned to look at Shi Zehong.
Shi Zehong cleared his throat and said:
"The recorder of the image is a Foundation Establishment Ninth-Layer cultivator from a distant city.
As the video shows, the species of this group of demon beasts are very diverse, with at least over twenty types.
In fact, they were originally a main force from another beast tide.
After suffering a mutual defeat with Celestial Fate City, a thousand kilometers away, which has several Core Formation strengths, they missed the last opportunity to return through the passage.
So under the leadership of a few third-tier demon beasts, this group of demon beasts occupied a mountain to recuperate—according to our assessment, they are likely preparing to hold out here and await the next opening of the passage."
After hearing this, Yan Shaohua suddenly asked:
"Director Shi, how did these demon beasts escape into this mountain? Do the surrounding cities not pursue or organize forces to encircle them together?"
Shi Zehong shook his head and explained:
"The region we are in is very remote, and the largest city nearby is Celestial Fate City, which that group of demon beasts attacked, and the strongest is only at the Eighth-Layer Core Formation Realm.
Given that Celestial Fate City suffered heavy losses in the beast tide, with many cultivators seriously injured or killed, it’s basically impossible to organize manpower for an encirclement in the short term.
As for other cities... have you heard Martin Niemöller’s short poem?"
The command room fell into silence.
Only Ma Ning spoke slowly:
"When they came for the trade unionists, I didn’t speak out..."
After Ma Ning finished reciting the poem.
Shi Zehong sighed and continued:
"According to the Wei Mansion, due to the presence of third-tier demon beasts among the group.
The surrounding cities would need to at least pay the price of three Core Formation Realm and ten Foundation Establishment Realm lives to be enough for a siege.
Furthermore, the demon beasts absorbed enough vigor and energy when attacking the city, so they shouldn’t disturb other cities for a while.
Therefore... most city rulers are unwilling to take action."
Ma Ning and Dai Hongchao exchanged glances, the sociologists could see a trace of helplessness in each other’s eyes.
The cities in the Damo Realm essentially represent independent regimes, chaotic like the early Eastern Zhou, with even a piece of land enough to claim rulership.
In such situations, either they encounter a large-scale beast tide that forces everyone to help each other.
Or nearby families form small alliances through marital ties or other means.
So when they found out that the group of demon beasts had enough food supplies, most cities chose to play ostrich.
Those few well-meaning families could only helplessly shrug and curse their pig teammates before following suit.
This is common in divided regimes, and to be honest, similar examples in Huaxia history are not rare.
Phrased nicely, it’s a limited vision and insufficient depth, but to be blunt, it’s myopic idiocy.
Unlike Ma and Dai who focused on socio-political issues.
As a soldier, Lin Ziming approached it from a combat perspective:
"Director Shi, how far is that group of demon beasts from us? Is their locality near any other cities? And what are the numbers of each tier of demon beasts?"
Hearing this, Shi Zehong took and unfolded a map from his side onto the table.
Compared to the camp’s topographical map.
This map’s details were much more simplified, with just rough symbols depicting mountains and rivers.
"This map was provided by the Wei Family, its accuracy barely reaching a kilometer-level, although not highly precise, it’s sufficient for judging rough directions."
Shi Zehong explained the map’s origin, then pointed to a location on the map:
"The mountain is about one hundred and fifty kilometers in a straight line from the camp—roughly three hundred li, east by southeast.
This mountain is called Xiaolianzi Mountain, about six hundred meters high, with three to four small hills nearby, other information unknown.
Within fifty li around Xiaolianzi Mountain, there are no cities; extending to a hundred li radius, there are two cities, the highest battle strength roughly at the Foundation Establishment Eighth or Ninth Layer.
After all, that group of demon beasts is also in a recovery phase and would not choose a place near a city as a base.
In terms of numbers... the total number of demon beasts is about thirty thousand, with six to eight thousand twin-headed oxen.
The surviving second-tier demon beasts are about fifteen to twenty, and the third-tier are five, all early third-tier.
About one-third of them are seriously injured—after all, they just had a fierce fight with a big city.
But one thing to note is that among this group of demon beasts, there are over three hundred first-tier flying beasts and several second-tier flying beasts, plus one third-tier avian demon beast."
After Shi Zehong’s explanation, the expressions of those in the command room varied.
"A large number of second-tier and third-tier demon beasts, this seems like a tough battle....."
Lin Li stroked his chin, his expression uncertain.
The value of the twin-headed oxen is self-evident.
According to the analysis from the Plant Biology Laboratory.
The meat quality of various parts of the twin-headed oxen is of very high quality, offering hope for overcoming the rabbit’s beef import constraints.
If cultivated properly, they could even potentially be exported in the future, making the rabbits upstream merchants of the meat supply chain.
The bone spurs around the twin-headed oxen’s neck can be ground into medicine, with extremely significant curative effects on rheumatism.
The heart of the ox, due to its sufficient blood supply, is a post-operative recovery miracle for cardiovascular patients.
In addition.
Its ’that thing’ has a very strong tonic... nourishing effect.
Due to the absorption of earth energy, the manure from these oxen is rich in nutrients, considered highly potent fertilizer.
The oxhair can be made into talisman brushes,
And even the ox’s bones have an excellent positive impact on children’s growth.
Undoubtedly, it is a treasure species.
Once it reaches the slaughterhouse, it doesn’t even need to go to a crematorium.
Considering the frequency of the temporal passage appearances.
The group of twin-headed oxen found by the Wei Family is likely the only cluster that can be locked onto in the short term.
Given Xiaolianzi Mountain’s remote location, encountering such an opportunity again in the future would be extremely unlikely.
However....
This is only because external conditions are suitable.
Considering the demon beasts are holding Xiaolianzi Mountain defensively, and there are multiple Core Formation demon beasts, including a flying third-tier avian.....
This battle is not easy to win.
If the goal was merely to annihilate this group of demon beasts, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Using air-consuming weapons like fuel-air explosives and white phosphorus bombs, or several rounds of firepower clearing—if necessary, by bringing a big weapon within twenty kilometers and firing—it wouldn’t be difficult to annihilate this group of demon beasts, honestly.
But the problem is...
The rabbits want the twin-headed oxen alive!
The rabbits don’t have Elder Xudong’s ability to summon souls from the underworld, so a big strike that kills them would be genuinely dead, impossible to domesticate and breed.
And if close-quarters engagement with the demon beasts is chosen...
Then it becomes crucial to consider the individual combat strength of the enemy.