But the night was not peaceful.

As Lion People Reed had said, within the Green Dragon Mountain Range lived the Night Lizard People, natural hunters who were light-averse creatures that rested during the day and hunted at night, lurking in underground caves during daylight and returning to the surface to hunt when night fell.

Their eyes were sensitive to light; even the sparse starlight enabled them to see for miles under the cover of night. The faint glow created by the Light Crystals in the Green Dragon Mountain Range was essentially their natural hunting ground.

After consulting with the others, Fang Hong had the Beast of Burden stop on a plateau several miles south of Emerald Pass, behind Greywind Ridge.

But what no one had expected was that they would be attacked by two groups of Night Lizard People overnight. The first group sneaked in around one or two in the morning under the cover of darkness, triggering the Alchemy traps Fang Hong had set up around the perimeter of the camp, and then launched an assault on the platform.

This group of Night Lizard People was about a dozen strong; being Level 14 creatures, their number did not pose a great threat to the team. However, the combat in the darkness caused significant trouble for everyone; although there were torches on the platform, their light did not reach far. The Night Lizard People's archery was surprisingly accurate in the darkness, and while the team initially tried to counter-shoot using the newly installed Crossbow Cannon on the platform, they were hit hard the moment they showed their faces.

The team could only retreat to the carriage, but having Lion People charge out with torches was not feasible. These monsters were natural light-averse hunters and had their ways of dealing with light sources; their accompanying Ritualist even had a Flame Extinguishing Technique, causing the Big Cat People's several charges to fail due to the torches being extinguished.

Eventually, it was only with the help of Fang Hong's Clockwork Fairy that they were able to spot the position of the Night Lizardman Ritualist in the darkness, then Fang Hong had Parker deal with the problem with an Explosive Shot.

Once the only Night Lizard People Ritualist died, the rest of the Lizardman seemed to realize that their position was hopeless and retreated back into the forest.

The second group of Night Lizard People seemed not to belong to the same clan as the first attackers; they arrived just before dawn and did not learn from their predecessors' mistakes, getting two of their Ritualists instantly defeated by Fang Hong using the same tactic.

The scale of this second wave of attackers was much larger than the first; under the glow of the Explosive Shot's flames, the forest was filled with these withered-looking, pale-eyed Lizardman hunters, resembling chunks of dead wood.

The opponents even brought a Night Lizard People Wizard; these cunning foes could use Magic Guided Conductors and nearly blew up the carriages of Parker, Reed, and Luo Yu with several Fireball Techniques.

The combat in the darkness was still unbearably harsh, and this time even the Clockwork Fairy was ineffective; after suffering a setback, the foes had evidently become more cautious. After the first wave of attacks, it took Fang Hong nearly two and a half Clockwork Fairies to locate the third Ritualist.

After that, there were no further achievements.

Of course, when he says two and a half Clockwork Fairies, it is because Fang Hong himself had given up control of one to avoid it being shot down, letting it fly directly into a tree hole.

He didn't know if it could still be found.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the attackers had arrived quite late, and the combat lasted for about half an hour before the sky brightened and the Golden Star appeared on the horizon.

Then the Night Lizard People withdrew en masse like the tide, disappearing into the forest as if they had never been there at all.

"Where on earth did these ghastly things come from!" Parker shouted angrily—he'd been shot in the buttocks during the fight and was still lying on the ground.

Fang Hong, looking at the still-smoldering, scorched platform, also shook his head.

The platform had only recently been repaired, and it looked like it was in need of major repairs again; although the Beast of Burden Platform was useful, its defensive capabilities were indeed too low.

He saw Atira descending from the first Saddle Bridge and couldn't help asking, "Mr. Greyrock, was he injured?"

Elf Miss shook her head, "We were lucky, just some minor external injuries; that's nothing for him. We'll just prepare some herbal remedies later."

Fang Hong then breathed a sigh of relief.

This was probably a blessing in disguise.

...

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