"Are they the rat people's slave soldiers?" Meng Chao asked Ice Storm.
"They don't look like it. I've never seen a rat people's slave soldier who can cooperate so well, and I've never seen a rat people's slave soldier who are so fearless. At the very least, I've never seen them in the Blood Skull Coliseum." Ice Storm shook his head with a grave expression.
Meng Chao thought about it, then suddenly jumped off the broken wall. Before Ice Storm could stop him, he disappeared into the dust.
A moment later, he carried two items and returned stealthily.
Ice Storm fixed his eyes on the items he had placed behind the broken wall.
They were two corpses with hooded cloaks.
To break the defense line of the gladiators and temple guards, the elite rat people with hooded cloaks had suffered a lot of casualties. The ground was covered in corpses.
After they took over the granary and the armory, the rat people were very excited.
While they rushed forward to snatch the weapons and the Mandala Fruit, no one noticed that the two corpses had disappeared.
But Ice Storm did not understand why Meng Chao had stolen the corpses.
"Sometimes, corpses can reveal more information than living people. After all, if you run into a living person with a strong will, even if you torture them, you might not be able to make them talk."
Meng Chao knelt on one knee and examined the two corpses.
He first touched the muscles and bones of the two corpses inch by inch. He did not miss a single joint from the elbows to the knees.
He even pushed aside their thick hair to check the growth of lice and fleas.
Then, he closed his eyes and touched the soles of the corpses and the calluses on their palms.
Finally, he opened his sparkling eyes and pried open the corpses' mouths to check their oral health.
That look of concentration and excitement reminded Hailstorm of his mother's friends — those wizards who would dig up graves in order to study Necromancy.
Ice Storm felt a chill run down his spine. "So, did these two corpses tell you anything valuable?"
"Of course."
Meng Chao brought his right index and middle fingers together and pointed at different parts of the carcasses. "First of all, based on their appearances, the two carcasses don't show any obvious signs of a clan. Instead, they have the characteristics of lions, artiodactyls, reptiles, and other wild beasts. This means that their bloodlines are very complicated, and they're the typical rat people.
"But the bones and joints of these two corpses are much thicker and sturdier than those of normal orcs.
"This is the result of eating high-calorie food all year round and undergoing targeted training. Spirit energy seeped into their bones and strengthened their bones.
"Similarly, their muscle fibers are much tougher than ordinary orcs. Judging from the condition of their tendons and bones, I think they can easily swing a greatsword that weighs hundreds of kilograms and perform dazzling slashing movements. Even for the people of Turan who are born with divine strength, this is an extremely high standard.
"Also, I noticed that the bones of the two corpses were covered in a large number of old fractures. The cracks weren't too long or deep, so it shouldn't have been caused by fighting, but by high-intensity training. But after the fractures and fractures, they received proper treatment in time, so it didn't affect their combat power.
"In the past month, when I was helping you select slave soldiers, I also examined the bones and muscles of over a hundred rat men.
"Many of the Rat Folk suffered injuries of varying degrees when they were picking Devil's Snare Fruits or hunting wild beasts in their hometowns. Most of their injuries were much lighter than the injuries suffered by these two corpses, but because of the lack of professional treatment, they suffered all kinds of sequelae."
When he heard Meng Chao's words, Hailstorm also took action. He carefully felt a corpse's wrist, elbow, and shoulder blade. He even used a sharp icicle to poke the corpse's shoulder blade gently, but it could not pierce through.
She nodded with a contemplative expression and said, "Indeed, this person's arm bones are as tough as steel. It's not a standard that normal rat people can reach.
"To be able to train such a strong soldier, this person must have an experienced team behind him. They have all the facilities and resources!"
"That's what I'm trying to say," Meng Chao said.
"Based on the cocoon shells on the palms and feet of the two corpses, we can tell that they received a long, arduous, and professional training. This sort of training is definitely not something that a rat people village can provide, and neither is it something that should be provided.
"However, the most important evidence is their teeth."
"Teeth?" Ice Storm asked.
"That's right. After flesh and blood absorb spirit energy, their metabolism speed increases. Many of the traces of the past will be wiped away in three to five months or even less. But the traces left on the teeth can't lie."
Meng Chao opened the mouths of the two corpses and gestured to Ice Storm. "Look, the two rows of teeth on the two corpses are arranged in a relatively neat manner, but they have serious dental decay."
Ice Storm looked down and found that it was just as Meng Chao said.
But she did not understand. "So what?"
"If the teeth are arranged neatly, it means that they often chewed on bones and chewed on tough meat. Subconsciously, they massaged and squeezed their gums. As for dental decay, it means that they often enjoyed sweet food and stimulative medicine," Meng Chao said.
"You have to understand that during the prosperous era, no matter how poor the rat people's lives were, they never lacked food.
"But most of the time, the rat people ate Mandala Fruits for their three meals a day. Besides, to save on fuel, supplementary ingredients, and spices, they ate them raw, cold, or at most, roasted them.
"Mandala Fruits are soft and dense. They are gentle and not stimulating. No matter how much they eat, it's hard for them to get dental decay.
"To normal rat people, it doesn't matter whether it's deep-fried Mandala Fruits dipped in sour cream or honey mixed with Mandala Fruits, or other sweets, it's not easy for them to eat.
"As for wild beast meat, there's no need to even mention it. Those are good things that are offered to the city for the warriors to enjoy.
"There's also the medicine created by the witch doctors. Even though it has the effect of strengthening the muscles, strengthening the bloodline, and making it easier for the warriors to activate their totem power, since the craftsmanship during the creation of the medicine isn't up to standard, the end product is usually very stimulating and corrosive. It's easy for it to damage the teeth of the people who take it.
"Many of the careless warriors don't have the concept of protecting their oral hygiene. As time goes by, it's not surprising that they end up with rotting teeth!
"Here's the problem. These two corpses clearly look like standard rat folk, but the condition of their mouths shows that they ate large amounts of high-calorie food, totem beast flesh, and secret medicine for many years, just like clan warriors. They ate much better than many of the rat slave soldiers in Black Horn City, and even the low-level warriors.
"Just who is providing for them?"
After her mother, who was a witch, died, she escaped from the night watchers and fled from the Land of Holy Light to Turanze. Then, she hid in Black Horn City almost perfectly for two years. Naturally, Hailstorm was not an idiot.
Once she heard Meng Chao's words, her mind raced, and she immediately understood what he meant. "Are you saying that the Great Horned Rat God's descent is definitely controlled by someone, and these elite rat people in hooded cloaks are meticulously created by the mastermind and sent to Black Corner City to stir up the rat people rampage?"
"That's right. If we want to successfully escape from the Blood Hoof Clan's territory, we need to use the power of the rat people rampage. That's why it's important for us to understand the truth behind the Great Horned Rat God Descent.
"The other party's goal is definitely not as simple as saving all the rat people in Black Horn City. Since the other party could train such elite rat people warriors, there's no reason for them to save a bunch of nobodies. It'll just be a heavy burden for their own logistics.
"Unless …"
When Meng Chao said this, he suddenly realized something, and he looked in the direction of the armory and the granary.
Once he noticed that the elite rat people in hooded cloaks were ridiculously strong, Meng Chao locked his sights on the "hooded cloaks" who had survived.
Even during the autopsy just now, he had asked Hailstorm to keep an eye on their every move.
As expected, when most of the emaciated rat people slave workers threw themselves at the mountain of mandala fruits and the gleaming swords, spears, and halberds, without caring about anything else.
However, a group of hooded cloaks quietly gathered together and left the granary and the armory in a hurry.
"Where are they going?"
Meng Chao was curious.
"Could it be that their target isn't just the granaries and arsenals?"
He muttered to himself, "That's right, the granary and armory stored only the most common Datura fruits and crudely made weapons.
"These things might be treasures to the rat people slave workers, but to the elite rat people who have received professional training for a long period of time and eat totem beast flesh, they're nothing.
"The mastermind behind them went through a lot of trouble and caused such a ruckus. His goal is definitely not as simple as getting a few Datura fruits and normal weapons!"
Meng Chao and Hailstorm looked at each other.
The two of them quietly retreated from the broken walls and followed behind the hooded cloaks at a moderate distance.
These fellows advanced through the Blood Skull Gladiator Arena with ease.
Aside from stopping to observe the ruins caused by explosions, they were not interrupted by any forks in the road.
By the looks of it, they had a pretty good understanding of the internal structure of Blood Skull Coliseum, and their goal was very clear.
Along the way, quite a number of hooded cloaks appeared out of nowhere and joined their group.
These hooded cloaks all carried bulging beast skin bags on their backs.
Based on the size of the bags, they did not seem to be weapons. Instead, they seemed to be large tools with complicated structures.
Soon, the elite rat people squad of mysterious origins arrived at their destination.
The familiar scene in front of them made Meng Chao and the Ice Storm feel a sense of absurdity at the same time.
Their destination was none other than the Blood Skull Temple that they had just ransacked!
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