Chapter 291: Digging Graves in the Mountains
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The morning mist in Backlund was at its thickest, making the entire winter in Backlund feel gloomy and damp.
Thursday morning, Hobert rode in a rented carriage towards Order Square, his mood far from cheerful as he watched the people hurrying for a living in the mist, or the vagrants who looked like walking corpses.
This morning, after getting into the rented carriage, he remembered that he already had the ability to "Travel", so why bother with a carriage?
But he was already in the carriage, and considering how crowded Order Square was, using the Travel ability might be too conspicuous, so he had to take the carriage after all.
Recalling the astonishing idea from last night, Hobert was still a little afraid. What if injecting the power of the "Nation of Disorder" into the corpse of the Ancient Sun God revived the Ancient Sun God?
Perhaps this was the resurrection opportunity that the "Undying Bird" Gregrace was desperately waiting for?
Today, Hobert reconsidered this issue and felt that yesterday's idea was completely unnecessary. First of all, what he injected was the power of "Order", not the power of "Undying", which was "incompatible" with Gregrace's pathway.
Secondly, the power of Order did not have the ability to resurrect the dead, as depicted in a web novel Hobert had read.
At best, these powers could only recharge a lifeless object, allowing them to regain brief spirituality and vitality, but this was not life, only a loophole in death that would not produce intelligence.
It would not revive a certain Ancient God. On the contrary, the power of Order would also block some of the channels for that Ancient God to revive.
After all, it was normal for the "Black Emperor" to be resurrected through the loopholes in death found by the shadows of Order, but resurrections of other significance would not conform to the relevant order.
Hobert sighed, "Order is always so two-faced."
Lost in thought, he arrived at Order Square, where Austin and his six team members had already arrived.
In addition to Hobert, the new member, there was also a woman in her thirties named Lena joining the team. It was said that this lady, whose face looked as pale as a dead person, had rich experience in exploring ancient tombs, or rather, tomb raiding.
Hobert guessed that she should be a Beyonder of the "Death" pathway, but he couldn't tell her specific Sequence yet.
Once everyone was present, under Austin's command, they boarded two different carriages, and the group of nine officially set off.
There were many small Beyonder teams like this in Backlund. They were mainly divided into two categories: one was the mercenary team form, living a life of fighting and killing, or like Austin's team, searching for treasures of the Beyonder world.
The other was an organization of teachers and students, with a relatively loose organizational structure, more like a mutual aid society.
Hobert rode in the same carriage with Austin and Lena. Austin said, "Although this is the first day you two have joined our team, you are either retired officers or have inextricable connections with the military. I believe you know the importance of team discipline."
Hobert thought to himself, "Sure enough, he wants to establish the captain's authority first."
Lena nodded slowly beside him.
Austin continued, "I hope that in this operation, you can execute my orders without compromise. Many times, this may save our lives."
Hobert smiled, "That's no problem, but I also hope you can understand that respect is mutual."
The implication was: don't plan to use me as cannon fodder.
Austin frowned, but thought of Hobert's strength: "It's good that there's no problem." He didn't seem to hear Hobert's last words.
Next, Austin began to talk about some details of this operation.
According to the clues, they found the ancient tomb in the mountains northwest of Backlund, the specific location was almost in East Chester County.
Because there was no steam train directly to there, it was more convenient to travel by carriage, but it would take about 6 hours.
Hobert looked at his pocket watch. They set off around eight in the morning and would not reach their destination until two in the afternoon.
Then he sighed in his heart, in order not to expose his specific strength, he could only take the carriage with them.
It was nothing when he didn't have the "Travel" ability before, but now that he had the "Travel" ability, he couldn't use it, which made Hobert a little speechless.
After the carriage had been traveling for more than three hours, they began to enter the mountainous area, and the surrounding population gradually became sparse.
Around twelve o'clock, they stopped by the roadside for more than ten minutes and ate some dry food or simple meals.
The road gradually became desolate. At first, there was only withered grass on both sides of the road, and later the road surface also began to have grass. Because it was already winter, most of these grasses had withered, and a small part still stubbornly retained a touch of green.
According to Austin, this was the road of the forest farm. After winter, it was the time for the workers to cut wood. The cut wood would be transported out of the mountains in the spring of next year.
So the mountains were lively at this time, but there were few pedestrians and vehicles on the road.
Until they could no longer see any people, they needed to walk the remaining road. The two coachmen would camp here and guard the carriages.
Everyone carried some necessary equipment and food on their backs. There was almost no pause as they continued on their way. They were all Beyonders, and each person didn't feel burdened by a large package of equipment.
Soon, the group came to a hill. The view was good here, and they could clearly see a small basin in front of the hill.
This kind of terrain was very common in this hilly area. The surrounding peaks surrounded a basin that could be seen to the end at a glance. A small river flowed through the basin, but it was a seasonal river. Now the river was very small, and you could see a few small lakes or large puddles left by the river water on the riverbed.
Austin, who was walking at the front, said, "We can be sure that the ancient tomb is in this basin, but we have searched here carefully for more than a week and have not found any trace of the ancient tomb."
Hobert asked Lena, "If we communicate with the surrounding spirits, can we find clues to the ancient tomb?"
"The probability of getting clues is very low." Lena replied in a cold tone: "Most spirits don't care about these things. If it's a vengeful spirit in the ancient tomb, it probably won't need us to find him, he will come to us."
Hobert nodded and said to Austin, "I'll lead the way ahead."
As he spoke, he opened a black box and took out a bracelet with characteristics of the Southern Continent.
This was the Sealed Artifact that easily allowed the holder to encounter ancient tombs. If he didn't actively use it, it had two negative effects: it was easy to be hated by undead creatures; the wearer would increasingly like to tell ghost stories, and the plots in the ghost stories were easily encountered by the holder.
Hobert didn't care much about being hated by undead creatures, but he still wanted to avoid the point that the plots of ghost stories were easily encountered by the holder, so he would only wear it when it was most needed.
So Hobert led the team in front, and a team member reminded him: "The road you chose is very difficult to walk."
"That means we are on the right path!" Hobert said as he walked forward, hitting the obstructive withered grass with his cane.
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