"What thing is so huge?" Even with Xia Chuan's excellent eyesight, there was a limit.

After all, that area didn't have much light to begin with. Being able to see a silhouette was already quite good, anything more specific was simply impossible to make out. He glanced at Aegon, feeling that his ability to spot that bit of shadow in the distance under such dim light was indeed very keen.

In fact, judging from their brief interactions over the past two days, the sensory acuity and agility of these primitive inhabitants far surpassed that of ordinary people, without exception even for the elderly and children.

Shen Lan's ears twitched slightly. After frowning and listening for a moment, he said, "More than one."

Xia Chuan was startled. "More than one?"

"Yes." Shen Lan said, "The sound is too faint, I can't hear it very clearly either, but I can be certain it's not one, but a group."

Aegon was pointing in the direction of the tree shadows, rapidly saying something to everyone. Listening to Aegon's words, their faces gradually turned grim. They were all on high alert, their wariness mixed with a hint of lingering fear. Judging from their reactions, they had most likely encountered a similar scene before and suffered heavy losses.

However, this time they had gathered so swiftly that nearly the entire tribe was here. Naturally, they had much more confidence. So although there was fear, not a single person showed any intention of hiding or retreating. Laura and the few other women were a step behind the others, each holding a few wooden branches with one end lit.

They ran a circle along the base of the walls, distributing the branches to everyone. In an instant, firelight flickered on the walls. Together with the bonfire already burning on the watchtower, the night was illuminated quite a bit.

Under the glow of the encircling firelight, the silhouette of the dark shadows by the trees at the foot of the slope became much clearer. Those dark shadows also shook from the firelight, noticeably retreating back a bit behind the trees.

With this movement, Xia Chuan finally discovered that the huge dark shadow was indeed composed of several smaller dark shadows.

Just as Shen Lan said, it wasn't a single entity that came, but a small group.

The short section of wall where Xia Chuan and Shen Lan were located was right between the watchtower and the main gate.

To their left, Aegon gripped his stone arrows, his face taut, gaze fixed unwaveringly on that patch of dark shadows. When the dark shadows dispersed slightly, the expression on his face loosened a bit.

And to their right, Laura was tugging Allen, leaning against the edge of the gate looking outwards. After peering out a couple times, Laura raised her head towards Xia Chuan and the others, "Hey, they moved, they moved! Usually wild beasts are a bit afraid of fire. With so many torches held up, it seems like they're about to retreat."

Xia Chuan had originally thought the same. But as soon as Laura finished speaking, he noticed that the few dark shadows that had dispersed slightly gathered back towards the center again. After hesitating for a moment, not only did they not retreat, they actually took a few more steps forward.

"They didn't retreat." Xia Chuan furrowed his brows, also finding the situation a bit unexpected.

"Ah?" Hearing his words, Laura poked her head out from the edge of the gate again to take a look. Perplexed, she said, "How strange, they're not retreating even like this... Could it be they still want to charge up here? That can't be right..."

On her end, she was muttering to herself. The others also started discussing.

Xia Chuan saw that not only Aegon, but even the chief who climbed up the watchtower and stood beside Aegon had a somewhat shocked and doubtful expression. After pondering for a moment, he then said something brief but forceful to the crowd. Hearing it, everyone tightened their grips on their weapons, striking a pose ready to take action at any moment, staring tensely at the foot of the slope.

Even Shen Lan let out a hiss, also seemingly unable to figure out the motives of those dark shadows.

At this time, nearly the entire tribe was here ready for a fierce battle. Even if they were truly terrifying, the cost of attacking would definitely not be small, and was simply not worthwhile. Even if they couldn't calculate this, according to the habits of most wild beasts, they shouldn't have such an aggressive move.

But the fact was, that group of dark shadows walked back to the edge of the trees again, half-hidden in the shadows of the underbrush. Under the illumination of the firelight, several pairs of gleaming eyes could vaguely be seen. They just remained there like tigers watching their prey, confronting the people within the walls from afar.

Xia Chuan could even see a few of them slightly arch their bodies, striking an attacking pose.

The chief whistled and raised his right hand high in a fist. Seeing this gesture, everyone moved towards the center.

In the shortest time, they all gathered in the very middle, all weapons pointed at that patch of dark shadows. For a moment, it was as if a thread was pulled taut between the two sides. Any slight movement from either side would trigger the confrontation.

Just as Xia Chuan also bent his body, switching to the most suitable posture for attack, an older-looking man hurriedly ran over. With an anxious expression, he called out to Aegon, then said something while panting and gesturing with both hands.

He spoke extremely quickly. Xia Chuan felt that the surrounding people all looked a bit confused, not catching what he was saying.

But Aegon's face changed in an instant.

He asked the old man a question with a look of urgency. The old man raised his hand and pointed in some direction behind, then explained a couple more sentences.

From the looks of it, some accident must have occurred, and it was related to Aegon.

Just as Xia Chuan was observing the movements of that patch of dark shadows at the foot of the slope with the corner of his eye while keeping an eye on Aegon's situation, Shen Lan suddenly patted him on the shoulder and said, "Not good, let's go."

Xia Chuan frowned, "What's wrong?"

As he asked this, his body had already reflexively followed Shen Lan. Bracing against the edge of the wall, he leaped down, then extremely rapidly ran straight through the group of earth huts towards somewhere. The chief called after them a few times, and even Laura cried out in alarm, "Where are you going?"

Shen Lan didn't look back or respond at all, letting them shout. He just lowly answered Xia Chuan's question, "There's movement over here."

As he said this, the two had already run to the foot of a more remote section of the wall.

Shen Lan didn't even mind the sharp, angular stone shards still embedded in the wall. He directly grabbed the wall and flipped over in two motions, his body inconceivably agile.

Xia Chuan was a step behind him. Before vaulting over the wall, he clearly saw the special marks on the earthen wall.

Those were a few extremely obvious deep marks, clearly made by the claws of some kind of wild beast. Xia Chuan couldn't help but think of the claw marks he had seen on the edge of the storage room door the day the food went missing. He felt there was some similarity between the two, only this time they were larger and sharper, looking more threatening.

He followed Shen Lan over the wall and after sprinting a few dozen meters, he saw Shen Lan's back. He was entangled in a fight with three black figures half as tall as a man. Just as Xia Chuan arrived, a fourth black figure happened to pounce from the side.

Shen Lan seized a gap and kicked the black figure in the abdomen, throwing it squarely in front of Xia Chuan, not forgetting to say in his spare time, "Sending one for you to play with."

Xia Chuan said expressionlessly, "How thoughtful of you, I really must thank you."

That beast seemed to be a tough one. Being kicked and knocked over by Shen Lan, it only struggled slightly before immediately flipping over and leaping up, pouncing straight at Xia Chuan. Xia Chuan raised his hand and seized its two front paws, then kicked its softest spot in the abdomen, followed by a side throw, heavily slamming it to the ground.

At close range, Xia Chuan could clearly see what these wild beasts looked like. They looked a bit like wolves, but their fur was very different. Each hair was longer than a wolf's, and they were thick and stiff, standing up on their bodies one by one, making them look a size larger.

Their eyes glowed dimly in the deep night, and when they stared at people, they were full of coldness and killing intent, making one's spine chill. Their teeth were also exceptionally sharp, especially the upper teeth. The few in the front were extremely long. As they bared their teeth, they were exposed one by one, gleaming a frosty white.

Those teeth could penetrate all kinds of hard things, including the thick fur of animals, let alone human skin.

As soon as Xia Chuan slammed it to the ground, it raised its head fiercely following Xia Chuan's movement, its sharp four front teeth about to pierce straight into Xia Chuan's neck.

However, Xia Chuan's reaction speed was faster than its attack speed. He grabbed the beast's teeth with one hand, then exerted force, forcibly blocking it less than ten centimeters away. The tips of its teeth almost brushed past Xia Chuan's arm. A bit heavier and it could have directly cut open the flesh.

This strike looked extremely dangerous, seemingly dodged in a heart-stopping manner, but Xia Chuan had a calm expression, not showing any lingering fear at all. Instead, Shen Lan, who had kicked the beast over, frowned and raised his hand wanting to help. As a result, before he could free up his hand, he was hit back by a glare from Xia Chuan.

For Xia Chuan, although this beast was not a piece of cake with no danger, it also did not cause much trouble. So naturally Shen Lan could also handle his side.

Although the three swift-moving beasts were indeed a troublesome group, Shen Lan was holding back anger today. He had been getting intimate with Xia Chuan in the room, only to be disrupted by this group of beasts, leaving him with no place to vent his anger.

Now that he had caught three of them, he was simply radiating a vibe of "whoever provokes me dies". As he fiercely beat the three wild beasts, he complained along with his movements, "see the consequences of causing trouble."

Xia Chuan heard this and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The two almost simultaneously broke free, leaving the bodies of the beasts lying on the ground, and continued rushing forward.

"Any more?" Xia Chuan asked a sentence while following behind him. After all, he had swept his eyes around while running and had not seen any more running black figures.

"I saw them throw someone over just now." Shen Lan answered while stopping in his tracks, standing in place and sweeping his gaze around.

Because of his limited vision, he didn't see anything clearly with this sweep. Instead, when Xia Chuan heard his words, he looked at the ground around them.

With one glance, he saw a slightly raised black figure on the grass not far away. Because the light there was really very dark, let alone Shen Lan, even he himself was not very sure after looking. He stepped forward to confirm again.

Stepping forward, he saw clearly that the raised part on the ground was a half-grown child lying face down. Judging from the size, it looked to be about ten years old. The hair on the head was a bit long. Because the face was down, it was impossible to tell whether it was a girl or a boy.

Xia Chuan hurriedly stepped forward, squatted down, and turned the child over. He narrowed his eyes while feeling the child's heartbeat and quickly sweeping his eyes over the injuries on the child's body, but unfortunately, the light was too dim to see clearly.

Just then, a few slightly messy footsteps came from behind, sounding like a small team of people rushing over. They brought a few torches, immediately illuminating the child lying in front of Xia Chuan. It was a boy, with prominent brow bones, deep-set eye sockets, and high cheekbones.

Xia Chuan felt that this face looked slightly familiar. After thinking for a moment, he realized that the child looked seventy percent similar to Aegon, most likely Aegon's child.

The primitive people living here generally had much shorter lifespans than modern people, and their childbearing age was also much earlier. As a result, although Aegon looked to be not much different in age from Xia Chuan and the others, his child was already so big.

In this world where danger was everywhere and having enough food for the next meal was not guaranteed, the survival rate of children was always shockingly low. Being able to safely raise a child to this age was definitely not easy for Aegon. However, this child was now lying on the ground with no signs of life.

Under the illumination of the firelight, Xia Chuan finally saw clearly the wounds on his body. There were traces of wild beast fangs on his neck, chest, arms, and thighs, especially the deepest and most serious ones on his neck and chest. The child was covered in blood, and some was smeared on his chin, looking extremely frightening.

Aegon heard the old man's words and also came down from the watchtower, heading straight here. It's just that his leg was injured and walking was still not very convenient, somewhat limping. However, he was not far behind the others and quickly caught up, evidently using all his strength to run.

Xia Chuan pressed down hard on the wound on the child's neck, although the effect may have been minimal by now. Aegon pushed aside the people in front of him and saw his child lying on the ground, covered in blood.

He instantly went mad. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin turned pale in an instant, and his expression became dazed, as if the world was spinning and he couldn't even tell where he was. He called out the child's name a few times, which sounded similar to his own name, "Aeron".

His voice was extremely hoarse, sounding like sandpaper being scraped, squeezing out bit by bit mixed with blood from his throat.

Someone helped call the two women in the tribe responsible for treating injuries, and Laura also pulled Allen and hurried over. She had originally guessed that there might be injured people and wanted to come over to see if there was anything she could do to help. However, after looking at Aeron's injuries, she silently put down her hands.

Whether it was Xia Chuan, Shen Lan, or Laura, they all knew at a glance that Aeron was basically beyond saving.