Every day, the five teams would send people to the mountain where the giant pit was located to investigate the situation. However, there was still no news about the three people who had been captured.
The scouts had been observing from a distance, but they could not enter the bat cave. There were bats flying around the cave, much more than those around the giant pit.
Seven days had passed, and according to everyone's judgment, the chances of the three people still alive were very small. However, because it was related to the Fire Crystals, and now it was a joint effort of the five teams, they could not act rashly without preparation. In that case, they would lose not only three people, but also three teams.
"However, many prey were caught in the cave, but nothing was thrown out." A man who had just returned from his investigation said.
Those bats would not take away the prey they had eaten outside, nor would they finish it. Most of the time, they preferred fresh blood. Once the blood ran out, they would lose interest in the prey.
During these seven days, Shao Xuan went to the giant pit again, accompanied by the top warriors of the five teams. This time, he was more careful.
Shao Xuan carefully checked several places. Only one was close to the surface, and the other places needed to be dug deeper.
The Fire Crystals closest to the surface were dug out, and of course, those big bats in the stone crevices were alarmed, and chased for some distance.
But strangely, last time, they chased for a long distance. If the hunting team had not caused some trouble, they would not have been able to get rid of them. But this time, Shao Xuan found that those bats gave up earlier, and stopped chasing after a short distance. It seemed that for them, the hunting team was just a small matter, and they did not need to worry about it.
It was speculated that the bats had slowly gathered in the mountain where the giant pit was located, and all the bats in this area had gone there.
Fortunately, most of them were not very intelligent, and could only be regarded as fierce beasts.
Shao Xuan wanted to make some big nets to catch the bats, but he did not have suitable materials to make them, so he gave up. With those bats' sharp claws and razor-like teeth, they could easily break vines and grass nets.
In the end, the five leaders decided to smoke them out.
There were less than 200 people in the five small teams, but there were thousands of large bats in the mountain. Moreover, according to the information from the observers, there were still more bats joining in.
Fortunately, not every one of them was the same size as the ones they encountered in the sinkhole that day. Many of them were about the same size as the one that attacked Caesar.
He could deal with one by one, but if there were too many of them, it would still be troublesome.
Now, the goal of the hunting team was to dig out the fire crystals, find the missing people, and try their best to avoid direct confrontations with those bats. No matter which one it was, the bats had to be chased away first. Smoking was undoubtedly a good idea.
For the people in the hunting group, they would often use some smoky plants during hunting, for example, to get rid of insects, to repel wild beasts, and so on. This time, everyone decided to try using the smoke method first.
Smoke plants had to be carefully selected. If they didn't smoke the bats, they would smoke their own people to death. That would be bad for their teammates.
The five small team leaders compared several plants that were often used for smoking, and selected the one with the most obvious effect.
"Those things seem to hate the smell very much. I threw a small ball at them yesterday, and they ran away directly." Lang Ga said proudly.
Yesterday, Lang Ga encountered a few bats that were hunting. They were about to succeed, but Lang Ga threw a smoking ball of grass at them, and it fell right next to the prey. The prey had already lost its ability to move, and could not run away. Those bats, who were eager to enjoy the delicious meal, screamed and flapped their wings to leave after the smoke from the grass ball dispersed. They were very displeased with the smell of the grass ball.
"That's great. In this way, we have a higher chance of success." Mai said.
In addition to choosing the smoky plants, they also had to prepare some herbs, in case they were bitten and fainted, or got smoky. They didn't hate the smell of the smoky grass, but it was unbearable after a long time.
At Shao Xuan's suggestion, people in the hunting group weaved a kind of refreshing rattan grass into masks. They would wear the masks when they entered the cave. The refreshing smell of the rattan grass could make people more awake after being smothered by the smoke.
"Boss, when can we set off?" Someone in the cave asked. Now they had to fight for the food they ate every day from those bats. In the surrounding area, many wild animals and ferocious beasts had left, so it was difficult to find suitable food. They also had to guard against the bats.
"Soon." Cheng said.
Stone tools, herbs, and other necessary items were all prepared. It was time to start.
Shao Xuan sat on the side, listening to them talking about the upcoming action. He looked at his hand. In his hand, there was a small piece of red crystal, which was dug out when they went to the giant pit for the second time. There were two small pieces of Fire Crystal near the surface. One was taken away by Cheng for safekeeping, and the smaller one was kept by Shao Xuan.
This small piece of Fire Crystal was a little bigger than a grain of rice, and much smaller than the one they dug out the first time. Therefore, the other leaders didn't show any objection to Shao Xuan keeping this piece of Fire Crystal. In their opinion, the giant pit was the most important thing.
Feeling the warm current from his hand, Shao Xuan was very confused. Mai and the others had said that the energy in the Fire Crystal could only be absorbed after the fire seed was burned. However, since the first time he held the Fire Crystal, Shao Xuan had absorbed a little energy from it. It was not much, but it was obvious. This time, he wanted to keep one for himself, just to make sure.
In the sea of consciousness, he could see traces of red "lines" gathering on the totem, and merging with it. Even though this piece of Fire Crystal was small, the energy it contained was far beyond Shao Xuan's expectation.
If he used another vision ability in his body, Shao Xuan could see that the Fire Crystal in his hand was "burning", and the red energy released by the burning made a curve in the air, and then drilled into his palm, arm, or other parts of his body, and finally gathered in the totem.
-----
Two days later, the five hunting groups started to move.
The assigned work had been done, and everyone was in charge of their own duties.
Shao Xuan followed Mai and the others to a bat cave. At first, they planned to enter directly from the gap in the giant pit, but after some discussion, they decided against it. It was difficult to hide in the giant pit, and the bats were much larger there, so they could be easily discovered. Compared to that, the bat caves in other parts of the mountain were much easier to deal with. The bats there were easier to deal with, and there were places for them to hide.
"The gap in the mountain should be connected to the other caves. Let's go in from one of them first." Mai said to his men.
Everyone was wearing masks made of vines. It was not very comfortable, but it was useful. The cool smell of the vines calmed them down a lot.
Looking at the direction of the wind, Mai signaled everyone to start moving.
Some of them hid in the grass, and covered their bodies with grass. Others brought the smoke grass, and approached the cave.
They were holding some thin and long spears in their hands, all made of wood, with bundles of smoke grass tied to the spearheads.
They lit the fire, and when the fire was almost done, they put it out. Suddenly, thick smoke rose from the spearheads.
"Shoot!"
The thin and long spears were thrown out like arrows, flying towards the bat cave in front of them.
One by one, everyone had dozens of spears tied with smoke grass. Within a few breaths, all of them were accurately thrown into the bat cave.
Soon, the bat cave was filled with thick smoke.
Choosing the bat cave was also based on the direction of the wind, and the one in front of them was blowing into the cave.
A small part of the smoke in the cave was blown out, but most of it was blown into the deeper part of the cave.
Squeak, squeak, squeak —
Sharp sounds came from the cave, and Lang Ga and the others could hear them.
They saw the smoke coming out of the cave, which meant that the bats inside were flapping their wings towards the outside.
The people who threw the spears immediately got ready.
Whoosh, whoosh —
Bats flew out of the cave quickly, and hundreds of them came out in a blink of an eye.
The bats that were forced out of the cave were flying around outside, and some of them were screaming angrily. They looked around and saw a group of people standing there.
Squeak —
Sharp screams were heard, and a group of bats that were forced out of the cave flew towards the people who threw the spears.
"Run!"
The people who threw the spears were the fastest in the hunting team. They ran away as soon as they saw the bats coming.
In the direction they were running, there was a gray area. A former hunting group had been there once, and they knew that there was a group of giant spiders in the woods there. Plus, that gray area was not on their hunting route, so the hunting group would not go there on normal days. But now, they were going to use those giant spiders.
They would lure the bats there, and let the bats fight with the giant spiders!
When the bats left, the people hiding outside the cave came out and walked into the cave. They did not forget to throw some smoke grass at the entrance of the cave.
According to common sense, the bats should be hiding in the cave on a sunny day like today, when the sun was shining brightly. But it was not the case.
Some of the bats had gone out long ago. Some of them just went out, and some of them flew deeper into the cave. There were not many left in the cave.
These bats were not difficult to deal with. Mai and his men killed the bats one by one with torches. These bats had big eyes, but in this dark cave, they were not very useful. They relied more on their sensitive sense of smell and hearing.
The people in the hunting team were wearing thick leather shoes. Many of them were not used to wearing shoes, so they were forced to wear them before the mission.
The bat feces in the cave had accumulated into a thick layer, and there were some small insects crawling in the bat feces.
Puff!
Lang Ga stabbed a crawling insect in half with his spear, and frowned, "This place stinks."
Mai did not say anything. He took the torch and led his men deeper into the cave. While killing the bats, they also threw out some smoke grass.
The other four hunting teams, like Mai and his men, had also entered the cave. They had to hurry up, in case of any unexpected changes.
Everyone endured the stench in the cave and the smell of smoke grass, and quickly walked deeper into the cave. The inside of the cave was not flat. There were protruding rocks everywhere, and some of them were very sharp. If it were not for the light of the torches, they would not be able to move.
Before, everyone had guessed that the crevices in the mountain were connected to the other bat caves. But soon, the five hunting teams all heard the voices of others.
"Sure enough, it is connected."
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