Half a month later, on the northern side of the Redwood Ridge's outskirts.
Bang…
A full-grown Golden-eyed Demon Sheep crashed to the ground.
More than a dozen sharp arrows were embedded in its back; a half-meter-wide animal trap was dragging on its right leg; a white silk thread was tightly wound around its neck; seven or eight deep cuts on its abdomen were gushing dark green blood.
Charlie, Aaron, and the three Reeves brothers were gathered around the Demon Sheep's corpse, breathing heavily, yet their expressions were excited, their eyes filled with exhilaration, showing no trace of fatigue.
Among the three Reeves brothers, Eric had the most impulsive personality.
As soon as the battle ended, he rushed to the Demon Sheep's body, pulled out the sharp arrows from its back, and upon discovering that the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep's eyes were intact, his expression became even more excited.
He turned to Charlie and the others:
"Just now, none of those arrows hit the Demon Sheep's golden eyes, so did the five of us slaughter the Demon Sheep head-on?"
Upon hearing this, the other four did not respond, but the excitement shown in their expressions was no less than Eric's.
The power of the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep was absolutely above that of the Snow Mane.
Especially before its eye on the back was mortally wounded.
Hiding in the trees and using arrows against the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep is indeed a tried and true method, but it doesn't always work; the Demon Sheep is not stupid and won't just stand still to be shot at.
Moreover, Cold Beasts can climb trees.
Without someone facing the Demon Sheep head-on on the ground, just a few archers have no real chance of hunting it, and remarkable archers are also affected by the environment, weather, wind direction, or even personal factors, which can affect their accuracy.
It just so happened that this Demon Sheep inhabited a Golden Frost Tree in a very open area tonight.
There were no other suitable large trees nearby for the other ten to hide in and set up bows, so they had no choice but to choose a farther position.
It's not that they didn't want to stand closer.
Tony and the other ten only had the strength of the Axeheart Realm; if they were too close and got targeted by Cold Beasts, they wouldn't even have time to run.
Charlie, Aaron, and the five Earthripper Realm fighters would then not only have to deal with the Cold Beasts but also worry about protecting the ten of them, which would be more trouble than it's worth.
Being further away, as expected, affected their accuracy.
Out of ten bows, not one arrow hit the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep's back eye.
In desperation, Charlie, Aaron, and the five had no choice but to face it head-on.
Who would have thought that the five of them working together really managed to strangle the Demon Sheep.
Snow Mane, Frost Wolf, and Demon Sheep, although all are lower-level Cold Beasts, in terms of size and strength, the Demon Sheep is by far the strongest.
The fact that the five could slaughter this Demon Sheep head-on not only proves their strength but also means they truly have the capability to take over the hunting team from Bruce.
This is why the five are so excited.
"Is the leader not here?"
"He left earlier on, probably went exploring on the inside again."
Such a symbolic moment and Bruce didn't witness it himself, leaving everyone somewhat disappointed.
However, after hearing Charlie's subsequent words, Aaron and the others became even more excited.
In recent days, Bruce had not been accompanying the hunting team but instead ventured beyond the 500-meter boundary on his own to explore the interior terrain of Redwood Ridge, in preparation for expanding the hunting range of the camp.
"Let's pack up and head back. Two pieces of prey tonight are more than enough."
Upon hearing Charlie's words, everyone nodded.
Earlier, they had already hunted a Frost Wolf, and with this Demon Sheep, without Bruce leading, managing to hunt two Cold Beasts in one night was already quite impressive.
When Bruce returns and learns of their success in slaughtering the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep head-on, he will surely be pleased, and he might even hand over the hunting duties to them earlier.
Everyone collected the animal trap and the Golden-eyed Demon Sheep from the ground and prepared to set off for home with excitement.
Only Aaron turned to look north, thought for a moment, and spoke to Charlie: "It's still early before dawn, and this place is close to the territory of Brocolli Camp, I'll go find John to discuss what the leader mentioned earlier, you all go back first!"
Hearing this, Charlie's eyes lit up, and he nodded immediately.
Aaron then left the team and swiftly headed north.
---
"If we still can't find them in Redwood Ridge tonight, we'll have to search the northern side of the mountain wall. This Brocolli Camp is really well hidden!"
On the northern side of Redwood Ridge, Aaron, who had entered the territory of Brocolli Camp, was frowning, but he couldn't help but marvel at how well the camp concealed itself.
Half a month ago, Bruce had asked him to find the Vegeta and Brocolli camps to discuss Harper taking them in.
Aaron gladly agreed.
He thought he would quickly find the whereabouts of the two camps, but unexpectedly, half a month passed, and after coming here three times, he hadn't even seen a trace of John.
When small camps choose their stations, concealment is the most important factor, because the better the concealment, the safer they are.
So, the first time Aaron came, he didn't expect to find the Brocolli Camp's station directly.
Instead, he chose to linger around the outskirts of Redwood Ridge to see if he could encounter the Brocolli Camp's logging team.
Small camps don't have hunting abilities, but timber and Crystal Fruit are necessities, so they surely have to come to the outskirts of Redwood Ridge.
In theory, his approach was not flawed, but whether it was due to bad luck or other reasons, after three visits, he hadn't run into John or anyone from the logging team.
This was becoming a bit strange.
It's no exaggeration to say that with the logging and harvesting capacity of a small camp, unless there's an unexpected situation, they must go out every night.
The strength of Brocolli Camp isn't particularly strong.
Even if they were lucky and had a large reserve of Crystal Fruit and timber, it wouldn't make sense for him to come three times over half a month and not meet anyone once!
If the first three times were just bad luck, then on this fourth occasion, after searching for two hours and still not seeing anyone, a bad suspicion began to form in Aaron's mind.
Especially after checking the two Ice Trees he had marked before and finding the Crystal Fruits on them identical to last time, clearly untouched, Aaron was almost certain his suspicions were correct.
"Over half a month without the logging team leaving the camp—impossible. Either Brocolli Camp has entirely moved, or there's trouble in their camp. The likelihood of the former is small, so it's almost certain there's trouble!"
Looking around the perimeter of Redwood Ridge, the only one capable of relocating Brocolli Camp would be the Harper, leaving almost no possibility for a move.
If there's trouble in the camp, then there could be many possibilities.
The logging team might have been wiped out; perhaps the Cold Beast found their station, and they've all met with disaster; or perhaps a new Deceitful Monster has appeared, and so on…
Aaron walked to the outskirts of Redwood Ridge, staring at the mountain on the east side, his mind abuzz with thoughts, his expression hesitant.
While he wasn't sure of the Brocolli Camp's exact location, he could ascertain it was north of Harper, more precisely on the slope extending from the mountain north of Harper Valley.
The valley Harper took over from Roge is already located in a crevice between two mountains.
The Tower Mountain where the Taylor Camp previously was, as well as the slope where Harper is located, all count as extensions from the southern mountain.
The sloping extension from the northern mountain stretches for several kilometers, and the Brocolli and Vegeta camps are along this slope.
Their stations are quite similar to the slope where Harper was previously located.
"Speculating here is useless. Let's go directly over and take a look. If there really is a problem and I can help, I will; if I can't, I'll return to inform the leader. With the camp's current strength, there should be no major issues!"
After pausing for a moment, the hesitation on Aaron's face gradually faded.
He then started to sneak cautiously toward the sloped mountain wall on the east.
In the worst case, everyone at Brocolli Camp has already met disaster; if luck is slightly better, only the logging team encountered trouble, and the rest are still there; or perhaps they're facing some difficulties that prevent them from going out…
No matter the situation, he had to check it out.
Otherwise, going back would leave him with no explanation to give to the leader.
Not knowing the specifics of Brocolli Camp's situation, Aaron didn't dare to act rashly when approaching.
Not only were his movements stealthy, but he also stopped every so often to ensure safety before continuing forward.
There were still four or five hours until dawn, so there was plenty of time, and he wasn't in a hurry.
It's only about seven or eight hundred meters from the outskirts of Redwood Ridge to the mountain wall.
Being extremely cautious, Aaron took more than half an hour to cover the distance.
Once he reached the mountain wall, he didn't rush to search but first carefully observed his surroundings.
On the north side of the Harper mountain, the highest point is directly above the valley.
The mountain wall slope extending here is just over a hundred meters at its peak.
After looking around beneath the mountain wall and finding no obvious cave traces, Aaron cautiously climbed up a steep wall to take a higher vantage point.
Small camps lack strong individuals from the Earthripper Realm, so they can only occupy natural caves.
Thus, it's unlikely for a station to be set up high.
But there's always an exception to every rule, and there may be natural caves high up some mountains, such as the Tower Mountain where Da Shi Camp initially was.
Having exerted a great deal of effort, Aaron finally managed to climb the slope.
After catching a slight breath, he gazed toward the northern side of the sloped mountain wall.
With one glance, his scalp immediately went numb, and his expression froze as if he had seen a ghost, his face filled with extreme terror and astonishment.
"This…"
What did Aaron see?
On the north slope of the mountain wall, a large group of densely packed silver creatures was sprawled out.
A rough estimate suggested at least several hundred of them.