Hearing William's polite request to leave.
Bruce raised an eyebrow slightly, feeling even more curious.
After all, they were currently picking Crystal Fruits on Taylor Camp's territory.
Intruding into another camp's domain is no small matter at Redwood Ridge.
Barry had at least hinted at them.
However, William had not commented on their intrusion for picking Crystal Fruits on Taylor Territory from start to finish, as if he had turned a blind eye.
Bruce thought for a moment and did not immediately agree to let William leave; instead, he looked at the bag Barry carried, which was obviously filled with Crystal Fruits.
"Leader William, why are only the two of you out tonight?"
William's face stiffened slightly but quickly regained his composure, "Just picking some Crystal Fruits, no need for many people. Why, Leader Bruce, do you know the people from our camp's Axeheart team?"
Bruce kept a steady gaze on William while speaking.
Despite his opponent's excellent concealment, he still caught the brief stiffness in expression.
Nevertheless, Bruce only nodded with a faint smile, refraining from further comment.
"Since that's the case, Leader William, you may go back for now. We'll meet again another day."
"Alright, I'll take my leave first, Leader Bruce. Until we meet again."
It was clear that William was indeed in a hurry; seeing Bruce let them go, he immediately left with Barry almost on a run.
Bruce watched their departing figures, with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Leader, you just let them go without teaching them a lesson?"
Tony had always had a grudge against Taylor Camp.
Seeing Bruce stop the two, he thought they'd have a chance to teach them a lesson tonight, but they ended up being let go.
Bruce shook his head, "No need. This time, we picked so many Crystal Fruits on Taylor's side as retaliation for what happened before, and it seems Taylor Camp… has encountered some trouble."
Tony looked puzzled, his expression confused.
Clark, standing nearby, stepped forward and nodded, "Definitely something wrong. Taylor has over ten Axeheart Realm combatants.
Picking Crystal Fruits doesn't require their leader to step out personally, especially after we cleared out almost all the Crystal Fruits here. Those Crystal Fruits on their backs weren't picked on their own territory."
Bruce gave an approving smile to Clark; among the camp's Axeheart Realm, Clark, being the oldest, observed and considered matters more thoroughly than others.
William must have lied, but Bruce couldn't be sure what exactly happened at Taylor Camp.
He wanted to ask earlier but held back the words that reached his lips.
Camps are very wary of probing into each other's affairs.
Like last time when Thomas and the Axeheart team were wiped out, Bruce was also worried about encountering people from other camps.
Later, when they ran into Wang Ming's group, he pretended that Thomas and his team were still around.
If he rashly asked, not only would William not respond, but he would also be more guarded against him.
"Alright, let's ignore them. Tonight, these picks will suffice, let's go back. Robin, Orion, Elias, each of you will chop one tree tonight. The rest will cut two trees."
Having no further thoughts, Bruce turned to the group, smiling as he announced the remaining tasks for the night.
Since harvesting that Golden-eyed Demon Sheep and subsequent successful hunts, the camp had an abundance of Cold Beast Meat.
After the alarming incident of the Mimicking monster attacking Bruce, the enthusiasm for cultivation among the young camp members soared.
With ample Cold Beast Meat supply, the camp gained three new young Axeheart Realm combatants.
As expected, these three, like the previous eight, were offspring of the original Axeheart team members.
Worth mentioning, Robin was Peter's younger brother.
A month ago during the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep incident, Peter lost his right eye.
Although it didn't affect his cultivation and his wound almost healed, for safety's sake, Bruce minimized his excursions, keeping him in the camp.
Perhaps triggered by his brother's injury, Robin trained exceptionally hard afterwards, and was the first among the three to break through.
Within just a month, gaining three new Axeheart Realm combatants was quite a morale booster for the recently troubled camp.
Peter often joked that if he'd known one eye could exchange for three Axeheart Realms, he'd have given his left eye to the Cold Beast as well.
A joke indeed, but losing one thing and gaining another proves to be true.
The camp's Axeheart Realm combatants now totaled ten, plus Bruce as the Earthripper Realm leader, making Harper Camp's strength surpass that during Thomas's leadership.
The Iron Refining Furnace keeping them warm and safe from Mimicking monsters, along with small torches and everyone's growing prowess, heightened the camp's hunting capability.
Importantly, the Solidified Fire Oil allowed them to face Mimicking monsters even when venturing out.
In many aspects, the Harper Camp has improved significantly compared to before, and all these were just from the system's first building.
Bruce craved the remaining eight buildings immensely.
Sadly, there's no flour without grain.
The rest of the buildings, even the lowest required Iron resources to unlock, let alone those needing Gold and Silver resources.
So Bruce entrusted regular Axeheart and fruit-picking tasks to others while he, besides leading hunts, constantly searched Redwood Ridge and surrounding areas for coal and iron mines.
Unfortunately, after searching alone for more than half a month, he still found nothing.
He considered letting Charlie and others search, but lacking the Earthripper Realm, they couldn't even break the surface soil, let alone mountain rocks.
Thus, both searching and mining tasks would rely on him unless someone broke through to the Earthripper Realm.
"We have enough wood and Crystal Fruits, what we lack is Cold Beast Meat. We can't rush finding coal and iron; once more break into the Earthripper Realm, we can expand the search and will find them eventually."
Thinking this to himself, Bruce noticed as the others had mostly packed up, quickly joining them.
Approaching the group, Bruce saw Charlie seemed deep in thought, absent-mindedly.
Charlie, like Tony, had experienced the earlier Taylor Territory incident; Bruce noticed Charlie stayed silent when William was around.
Bruce assumed he was pondering that situation, so he patted his shoulder, asking, "Are you upset I let William and his companion go?"
However, Charlie shook his head, appearing slightly hesitant before saying:
"I was wondering how Barry recognized you at a glance earlier. The only ones we've had previous contact with were Henry's group of four.
Just from verbal descriptions, it shouldn't be possible to recognize you at the first meeting, especially among the ten of us. Barry recognizing you instantly feels off!"
Hearing this, Bruce froze, as if something in his mind was struck.
Right!
The first time he ventured out after breaking through to the Axeheart Realm, he hid in the dark, allowing him to recognize William and Barry; the second time out with Charlie and Tony, they only encountered Henry's Crystal Fruit-stealing group.
Neither William nor Barry had seen him before.
Suddenly, many things swirled in Bruce's mind…
The corpses of Henry's group seen on Harper Territory; The knife William had no time to clean up; The absence of both from Taylor Territory for some time;
The Crystal Fruits William and Barry carried from the north, without seeing any other Taylor's Axeheart Realm; Even William's facial expressions earlier...
Connecting these clues, Bruce's face turned drastically as he abruptly looked up:
"Something's wrong, follow up quickly, something's up with Barry!"
The corpses of Henry and the other three, along with the knife that hadn't had a chance to be taken away, all proved that the Taylor Camp previously must have encountered that Mimicking Monster.
Only finding four bodies doesn't mean that only four people died in the Taylor Camp.
After encountering the Mimicking Monster and suffering heavy losses, William definitely went to the north, to Ben, Samsung, or even to request aid from the Rogel Camp.
That's why they hadn't seen anyone from the Taylor Camp on this side of Redwood Ridge for a while.
But obviously, the request for aid didn't go smoothly.
Only William and another person returned, carrying only a bag of Crystal Fruit.
Given that the Mimicking Monster rarely shows itself directly and is cunning, it is very likely controlling the corpses from the Harper Axeheart Squad to attack William and the others.
It must be so, because that would explain why William showed such a look of despair when he was surrounded by us just now.
He must have seen the impostor Thomas and thought that the Harper Camp had already been destroyed.
Suddenly seeing Bruce and the eleven young members of the Axeheart Realm, William probably thought we were all Mimicking Monsters, which is why he was so desperate.
But when Barry revealed his identity, realizing that we were not Mimicking Monsters, William's despair immediately disappeared and turned to joy.
He even understood clearly that the Mimicking Monster could turn into others, further proving that William had indeed had dealings with the Mimicking Monster.
William's performance just now was normal from start to finish.
He didn't know us, so he mistook us for Mimicking Monsters.
But how did Barry recognize us?
Awoken by Charlie's words, Bruce suddenly realized that Barry's behavior from start to finish was too normal, unlike William, whose expressions changed repeatedly, which was exactly the most abnormal aspect.
More importantly, he voluntarily revealed his identity, obviously afraid of clashing with us and delaying his return to the camp with William.
"The real Barry is most likely dead, and the one William brought back to the camp is probably a fake."
While urgently chasing in the direction where William and the other person left, Bruce became more convinced of the hypothesis in his mind.
Unfortunately, William had been gone for a long time.
Despite leading the group in a frantic sprint, they still couldn't catch up and hadn't seen their backs even when they reached where they could barely see Tower Mountain, where the Taylor Camp was located.
Bruce kept accelerating, his expression growing increasingly grave: "I'm afraid the Taylor Camp is doomed!"
---
At the base of Tower Mountain, William and the other person went to the east side, skillfully found a vine, and quickly climbed to the top of the mountain using it.
The mountaintop was still covered in snow as when they left.
William walked straight to the middle, brushing aside the snow on top.
Under the snow was a five-meter-wide square wooden board.
Below the board was the station of the Taylor Camp.
Seeing no traces on the board, touching it and feeling a warm sensation, William confirmed that nothing unusual had happened at the camp and immediately relaxed.
He paid no attention to Barry, standing behind him, whose face showed a sinister smile the moment the board appeared.
William directly opened the board and jumped down through the three-meter-wide hole, with Barry following him and closing the board as they descended.
As soon as they landed, several people greeted them with joyful expressions.
"Leader, you're finally back!"
"The camp's Crystal Fruit is gone. If you didn't return, we were planning to organize people to go out tonight."
"Why are there only two of you?"
"What about the other three?"
Hearing everyone's words, William's face instantly showed a look of pain.
Just as he was about to tell everyone what happened at the Rogel Camp.
Whoosh...
The Barry behind him suddenly raised his hand and shot a nearly invisible white thread at him.
The white thread, like a thin needle, directly pierced through his scapula, and then, as if alive, weaved throughout his body.
Almost instantly, William was bound by the white thread.
Such a sudden change left William unable even to speak, and his body became immobile, tilting directly to the ground.
"Leader, what's wrong with you?"
"Barry, what did you do?"
The few people who had just come up were completely confused, with some trying to help William from the ground, while others questioned Barry about what had happened.