Cave Refuge

"You should know that now, most families, including yours, basically live inside their Companion Spiritual Treasure while sleeping at night," said Zachary, "and those black snakes that emerge from the ground cracks seem to never approach the Companion Spiritual Treasure."

Hearing Dong Tianyu's explanation, Madeline murmured softly, "Those black snakes won't actively approach the Companion Spiritual Treasure, and I remember that the Companion Spiritual Treasure has the ability to disperse aquatic creatures, preventing attacks from those creatures in the sea. It turns out that this ability is not limited to dispersing aquatic creatures; it can also repel other living spirits."

As soon as Ye Liuyun figured this out, he immediately left the central position and walked straight to the edge of the fiercely contested city wall.

The surrounding Patrol Team members, though surprised by Ye Liuyun's sudden arrival, didn't say much. The reason was simple: they knew Ye Liuyun was not the type who liked to give foolish orders.

Moreover, while Ye Liuyun's fighting strength might not necessarily be stronger than theirs, he definitely had a strong ability to protect himself. After all, they were the crew members who had followed Ye Liuyun during the flood disaster, so they had some understanding of his capabilities.

Even when they saw Ye Liuyun approaching, they gave way to an attacking position, thinking Ye Liuyun had an itch to fight and wanted to personally test the actual combat ability of those black snakes.

Ye Liuyun, seeing the spot the Patrol Team members made for him, wasn't surprised. Instead, he quickly walked over, and under the puzzled gazes of the others, released his Companion Spiritual Treasure along the city wall's edge from his Sea of Consciousness.

Accompanied by a loud boom, the fully materialized Companion Spiritual Treasure heavily slammed onto the ground, instantly crushing all the snakes under it.

Others, seeing Ye Liuyun's move, thought it was a new combat method he had devised. After all, given the Companion Spiritual Treasure's sturdiness, even if it was repeatedly dropped like now, it wouldn't suffer any damage, yet each time it fell, it was able to crush a section of the densely packed black snake swarm.

Just as others thought Ye Liuyun would retract his Companion Spiritual Treasure and then release it again, no one expected that Ye Liuyun would actually leap out of the city wall and land on his newly summoned Companion Spiritual Treasure.

The Patrol Team members, seeing Ye Liuyun's rash move, though internally critical, quickly followed suit and jumped over, after all, in all honesty, while the patrol team was nominally there to protect the camp's safety, their fundamental duty was to ensure the personal safety of Ye Liuyun.

As several members chased after Ye Liuyun onto the Companion Spiritual Treasure, they saw him stand alone on the opposite side of the deck. Fearing that the black snakes would climb up the sides of the Companion Spiritual Treasure to attack Ye Liuyun, they hurriedly ran to his side.

At this moment, Ye Liuyun was looking down from the edge of the railing. The situation below the Companion Spiritual Treasure was just as Dong Tianyu had described over the phone.

The black snakes, which should have been attacking them, despite noticing him standing alone on the edge of the deck, were unlike their counterparts on the city wall, which were attacking ferociously; they wouldn't come near the Companion Spiritual Treasure.

There was even a vacuum zone between the bottom of the Companion Spiritual Treasure and those black snakes: even though they were layered and entangled, not a single black snake dared to cross the threshold.

When the several Patrol Team members ran to Ye Liuyun's side and also looked down to see the situation below, their faces showed surprised expressions. Fortunately, they quickly realized what was happening. One of them turned around and shouted to his teammates who were still fighting on the wall:

"Those black snakes won't come close to the Companion Spiritual Treasure, get on top of it now!"

Although they often joked with each other in normal times, everyone knew that on the battlefield, their teammates were absolutely reliable in life and death situations. So, upon hearing their teammates' call, the others didn't question it at all, and decisively began to slowly retract their original defensive line, then one by one they jumped onto the deck of the Companion Spiritual Treasure that Ye Liuyun had just summoned.

Once everyone had jumped onto the deck, they didn't all gather where Ye Liuyun was, but instead stayed in place, vigilant and just a step away from the walls.

Although they trusted that their teammates wouldn't deceive them in battle, they still needed to maintain a vigilant heart, so most people stayed put, always keeping an eye on the situation on the opposite wall.

As the Patrol Team members completely evacuated from the walls, the black snakes swiftly took over, the originally grey-white walls, as if draped in a black coat, instantly covered their own color.

However, what slightly reassured them was that even though the black snakes gathered at the edge of the wall opposite them, these snakes, at most, only hissed and growled at them from the wall, showing no intention to come over.

After a standoff that confirmed the black snakes on the walls wouldn't come near, the Patrol Team members finally breathed a sigh of relief, although in the recent battle, they had always been pressing down on the snakes, not giving them any chance to get close.

But during the continuous battle, though there were no casualties, the mental pressure didn't lessen at all; after all, facing a dense swarm of snakes, if their attention was even slightly lax, there would inevitably be a black snake finding a gap to attack them.

So even though they maintained absolute suppression from start to finish, they also knew that this casualty-free situation couldn't last long.

If the black snakes continued to swarm in this relentless manner, at most they'd hold out for over ten hours, beyond that time they surely couldn't maintain their unscathed state in combat.

Although they had confirmed after the standoff that the black snakes on the wall wouldn't suddenly jump over to attack them, they still very vigilantly arranged for a few people to start patrolling along the edge of the deck, to prevent the black snakes on the ground from climbing the hull and getting onto the deck.

Even after they began patrolling and had noticed the cleared ground, the Patrol Team members still continued their rounds as previously arranged.

After all, this concerned the lives and wellbeing of everyone, so even if it was cautious, no one else found it bothersome. Besides, even if someone was patrolling along the edge of the deck, they were still in a tense state at that moment, unable to relax at all.

Dong Tianyu, seeing the Companion Spiritual Treasure suddenly appearing by the wall's edge, knew that Ye Liuyun had trusted his warning and had summoned it specifically.

However, Ye Liuyun had been standing on top of the wall when summoning the Companion Spiritual Treasure, and on top of that, the summoned creature hadn't been made smaller, so when the Spiritual Treasure first appeared and hit the ground, it caused a significant disturbance.

If it hadn't been for the sudden shaking of the earth just before, other people, upon hearing this loud noise, would likely have been curious to find the source of the sound.

But having already experienced the shaking of the earth firsthand, and with the sudden appearance of those black snakes around them, when the others in the camp heard this loud noise, they thought it was a new natural disaster, so aside from those Patrol Team members on the deck and Dong Tianyu floating in the sky, everyone else in the camp became even more tense.

The loud noise caused those survivors like Father Dong and Mother Dong, who had been hiding in the Spiritual Treasure and hadn't come out, to immediately grab onto the handrails, thinking that this was the sound of a second earthquake descending.