Chapter 1074: A Step Too Late
“Are they rat militia?” Meng Chao asked Ice Storm with his mouth.
“It doesn’t look like it. I’ve never seen such a skilled rat militia or seen such a fearless rat militia. At least, I’ve never seen them in the Blood Skull Arena.” Ice Storm shook her head with a solemn expression.
Meng Chao thought for a moment and suddenly jumped down from the broken wall. Before Ice Storm could stop him, he disappeared into the dust.
A moment later, he carried two things and sneaked back.
Ice Storm looked at the things he placed behind the broken wall.
They were two hooded bodies.
In order to break through the line of defense of the gladiators and temple guards, these hooded elite rats had suffered many casualties, leaving corpses everywhere.
After taking over the granary and armory, the rats were extremely excited.
In the process of swarming forward and snatching the weapons and mandala fruits, no one noticed that the two corpses had disappeared.
However, ice storm did not understand why Meng Chao would steal the corpses back?
“Sometimes, the corpses can reveal more information to us than the living. After all, if we encounter a living person with a strong will, even if we torture him, we might not be able to pry open his mouth.”
Meng Chao knelt on one knee and examined the two corpses carefully.
He first touched the muscles and bones of the two corpses inch by inch, not sparing a single joint from his elbow to his knee.
He even brushed away their thick hair to check the growth of the lice and fleas.
Then, he closed his eyes and carefully rubbed the calluses on the soles of the feet and palms of the corpses.
Finally, he opened his sparkling eyes, pried open the corpses’mouths, and carefully examined the corpses’oral health.
His attentive and even excited appearance reminded ice storm of his mother’s friends — the Wizards who secretly dug graves in order to study necromancy.
Ice Storm asked with a creepy tone, “So, did these two corpses tell you anything valuable?”
“Of course.”
Meng Chao folded the index and middle fingers of his right hand and pointed at different parts of the corpses, “First of all, from the appearance, these two corpses don’t look like clans. Instead, they have the characteristics of Liger, even-hoofed, and even reptilian beasts. This means that their bloodlines are very complex, and they are very typical rat people.
“However, the bones and joints of the two corpses are much thicker and harder than those of the ordinary orcs.
“This is the result of consuming high-energy food all year round and carrying out targeted training where spiritual energy seeps into the bone marrow and strengthens the bones.
“Similarly, their muscle fibers are much tougher than those of the ordinary orcs. Based on the condition of their tendons and bones, I think that they can easily swing a giant sword that weighs hundreds of kilograms and perform dazzling slashing movements — this is an extremely high standard even for the Tulan who are born with divine strength.
“Also, I noticed that the bones of the two corpses were covered with a lot of old fractures. The fractures were not too long or deep. They should not have been caused by fighting but by high-intensity training. However, the fractures and fractures were properly treated in time, which did not affect their combat ability.
“In the past month, when I was helping you choose your servants, I checked the bones and muscles of hundreds of rat subjects.
“Many rat subjects had suffered different degrees of injuries when they were harvesting mandala fruits or hunting wild beasts in their hometown. Most of the injuries were much lighter than the ones suffered by the two corpses. It was because of the lack of professional treatment that caused all kinds of sequelae.”
Hearing Meng Chao’s words, ice storm also started. She carefully searched the wrists, elbows, and shoulder blades of one of the corpses. She even used a sharp icicle to poke at the shoulder blades of the corpse, but she could not penetrate it.
She nodded thoughtfully and said, “Indeed. The bones in the arms of the guy are as hard as iron. They are not the standard that ordinary rat soldiers can reach.
“To be able to train such a strong soldier, there must be an experienced, well-equipped, and well-resourced team behind the guy
“That’s what I want to say.”
Meng Chao said, “Based on the calluses on the palms and soles of the two corpses, it can also be seen that they have received long-term, arduous, and professional training. Such training is definitely not something that a certain village of rats can or should provide.
“However, the more important evidence is their teeth.”
“Teeth?”The ice storm asked
“That’s right. After the flesh absorbs spiritual energy, the metabolism of the body will be accelerated. Many traces of the past will be erased in three to five months or even less. However, the traces left on the teeth can not be fooled.”
Meng Chao opened the mouths of the two corpses and motioned to icestorm. “Look. The upper and lower rows of the teeth of the two corpses are relatively neat, but both of them have quite serious cavities.”
Ice Storm looked down and found that it was indeed as Meng Chao had said.
But she did not understand. “So What?”
“The neat rows of teeth mean that they often chew bones and bite tough meat. In the process, they massage and squeeze the gums. As for dental caries, it means that they often enjoy sweet food and stimulating secret medicines.”
“You must know that, in the prosperous era, no matter how poor the life of the rat population was, there was always enough food.
“However, three meals a day, most of the time, the food of the rat population was the mandala fruit. Moreover, in order to save fuel, accessories, and spices, they were eaten raw and cold. At most, they were baked.
“The mandala fruit is soft and dense, and its nature is mild and not stimulating. No matter how much you eat it, it is difficult to cause cavities.
“For the ordinary rat population, whether it is the fried mandala fruit dipped in sour cream, or sweet things like honey stirring the mandala fruit puree, they are not easy to eat.
“As for the meat of wild beasts, needless to say, they are all good things that have to be offered to the city for the samurai lords to enjoy.
“There are also secret medicines refined by the witch doctors. Although they have the effect of activating the tendons and bones, strengthening the bloodline, and making it easier for the warriors of the clan to activate the power of totems, because the refining process is not up to standard, the finished products are often full of strong stimulation and even corrosiveness, and it is very easy to damage the tooth enamel of the users.
“Many careless warriors of the clan do not have the concept of protecting the oral hygiene at all. As time passes, it is not surprising that they grow a mouth full of rotten teeth!
“Here’s the problem. These two corpses look like standard rat subjects, but their oral conditions indicate that they used to eat a lot of high-energy food, Totem Beast Flesh, and secret medicines like Clan Warriors over the years. They ate better than many house rat soldiers and even low-level warriors in black horn city.
“Who exactly is supporting them from behind?”
After the death of her mother, who was a witch, she was able to escape from the night watchmen and escape from the land of holy light all the way to Tulanze. Moreover, she had hibernated almost perfectly in black horn city for two years. Naturally, ice storm was not stupid.
After Meng Chao’s advice, her mind was racing, she immediately understood. “You’re saying that the so-called ‘descent of the Rat God’is definitely man-made. And these elite rat people wearing hoods and cloaks are the tools that the mastermind meticulously created and sent to black horn city to stir up a rat tide?”
“That’s right. If we want to successfully escape the territory of the Bloody Hoofs clan, we can’t help but rely on the overwhelming power of the rat tide. Therefore, it’s very important for us to find out the truth about the descent of the Rat God.”
Meng Chao pondered, “The enemy’s goal is certainly not as simple as rescuing all the rat civilians in black-horn city. Since the enemy can train such elite rat soldiers, there’s no reason for them to rescue a motley crew and add a heavy burden to their logistical supplies.
“Unless…”
As Meng Chao said this, he suddenly realized something. He raised his eyes and looked in the direction of the armory and the granary.
After discovering that these elite rat civilians in hoods and cloaks were ridiculously powerful, Meng Chao locked onto the surviving “Hood cloaks”in his vision.
Even during the autopsy, he had asked the ice storm to keep an eye on their every move.
As expected, when most of the scrawny slave laborers threw themselves at the mountain of mandala fruits and the gleaming swords, Spears, and halberds.
However, a group of hooded capes quietly gathered together and left the granary and the armory in a hurry.
“Where are they going?”
Meng Chao’s curiosity was piqued.
“Could it be that their target is not just the granary and the Armory?”
He muttered to himself, “That’s right. What is stored in the granary and the armory are only the most ordinary mandala fruits and the crude weapons.
“These things can certainly make the rat slaves feel like they have found a treasure, but for the rat elites who have received professional training for a long time and eat the flesh of totem beasts as food, they are nothing.
“The mastermind behind them has gone to great lengths to create such a big commotion. Their goal is definitely not as simple as getting a few mandala fruits and a few ordinary weapons!”
Meng Chao and icestorm looked at each other.
The two silently retreated from the ruins and followed behind the hooded cloaks.
They saw these guys advancing in the blood skull arena with ease.
Other than encountering the ruins that had collapsed due to the explosion and stopping to observe for a moment, they were not disturbed by any side roads.
It seemed that they were quite familiar with the internal structure of the Blood Skull Arena, and their goal was very clear.
Along the way, there were also many hooded capes that came out of nowhere and joined their team.
Behind these hooded capes were bulging beast skin parcels.
From the size of the parcels, they didn’t seem like weapons. Instead, they looked like large tools with complicated structures.
Very quickly, this mysterious elite mouse citizen team arrived at their destination.
The familiar scene in front of them made Meng Chao and ice storm feel a sense of absurdity in their hearts.
These guys’destination was the bloody skull temple that they had just robbed!