166: No, he has to go see it.

There wasn't a single insect chirp here, and with so many mosquito and fly corpses in the grass, would those ants be...

Zhuang Sanming's heart sank, and he quickly rummaged through the grass.

No ant corpses, no ant corpses...

He searched through all the grass, finally collapsing onto the ground, exhausted.

Wiping the sweat from his arm, Zhuang Sanming let out a long sigh and muttered to himself, "It's a good thing those ants are all fine."

Zhuang Sanming sat there resting for a while, and after calming down, he began to ponder what these insect corpses truly signified.

The selection area was vast, yet it was "isolated from the world."

Around the selection area, there seemed to be only a desolate wasteland, barren on all sides, overgrown with weeds, and uninhabited.

Why build the Axe Gang's selection area in such a place?

The Axe Gang shouldn't be that shabby.

Zhuang Sanming lowered his head in thought, and suddenly, he remembered the dump he discovered yesterday.

No, he had to go see!

Seeing Zhuang Sanming suddenly run as fast as lightning, heading straight behind the tin shack, Tao Erbao's eyes went wide.

"Brother is indeed Brother, this speed... even if I had two more years, I couldn't compare."

Tao Erbao swallowed, muttering softly.

He didn't follow, because Brother told him to guard this place.

When Brother was done, he would come back to teach him.

Zhuang Sanming didn't know what Tao Erbao was thinking at the moment; he only knew that he had to quickly investigate that dump to see what clues it held.

He had a hunch that there might be a connection between that dump and the insect corpses in the grass.

Just as Zhuang Sanming ran to the vicinity of the dump to investigate, his other three subordinates woke up in the middle of the night to find that the two of them were not there, so they quickly came out to look and soon found Tao Erbao.

"Second Brother Tao, why are you here? Where did Brother go?"

Seeing that it was them, Tao Erbao quickly put a finger to his lips and whispered, "Shh, keep it down, Brother is busy. Let's wait here for a bit."

"Oh."

The others then dared not speak, waiting there with Tao Erbao.

At the dump, Zhuang Sanming used the moonlight to investigate. Although the door to the tin shack was locked, the dump was open-air and had no door.

After years of erosion, there wasn't much trash left in the dump; only some buried in the soil still poked out.

Zhuang Sanming found a branch nearby and dug up some soil.

At first, he only found some useless cardboard and plastic bags, and the information on them was incomplete, so no clues could be discerned.

But when he continued to dig deeper, he discovered some jumbled needles.

Zhuang Sanming immediately dug those needles out of the soil, but instead of examining them closely, he quickly put them into a small bag.

Time was short; he would look at them slowly when he had time later.

Besides this, he also found some broken small glass bottles, which seemed to have some writing on them, but it was too blurry to see clearly.

Never mind, just pack them all up for now.

He might not recognize these things, but if he could send them to Ximen Chuifeng with his ant army, there might be unexpected gains... Meanwhile, Outside the 97th Stronghold, at a certain base.

The enclosed space was dark and damp, the door was tightly shut, and the walls were all black. Apart from a narrow ventilation fan, there wasn't even a single window, making it as black as ink.

All the people captured by Person with bamboo hat were tied up here.

"Brother Ah Fan, I'm scared..."

Liu Ming's hands were bound by Martial Binding Ropes, and he couldn't break free no matter what. At this moment, he was leaning tightly against Liu XinFan, as if only this way could he feel a little safe.

"Don't be afraid, did you forget that the City Lord appeared that day? Someone will definitely come to save us."

Liu XinFan was also tied up, but he no longer tried to break free.

Because it was simply impossible to break free.

And even if he broke free from the Martial Binding Ropes on his body, what good would it do?

Before they were sent to this room and locked up, Liu XinFan had seen countless guards along the way. Their ranks might not be very high, but they were at least higher than all of them.

The strength of the Person with bamboo hat who captured them here was even more unfathomable.

Can a person be both a martial artist and a Beast Tamer?

Liu XinFan didn't know the answer to this question.

"Hey, let us out! Let us out quickly!"

Hua Shaoyu, also trapped here, had been shouting countless times from the beginning until now, yet no one obeyed his command.

Those people outside seemed to be deaf; no matter what they said inside, the people outside remained indifferent.

"Alright, what's the point of saying so much? We are captives now."

Wang Xingge, who was the Eldest Young Master of the Wang family, was relatively calm among these people, perhaps because he was confident in his own strength.

But Liu XinFan didn't think his meager strength would allow him to leave here unharmed.

Didn't he see that even the seventh-level Xiao Yue was almost captured here by Person with bamboo hat?

At that time, he didn't think Xiao Yue could be as composed as usual.

"Then what should we do? We can't just wait here to die, can we?"

Hua Shaoyu had grown up in luxury since childhood, never having suffered such grievances. "We've been locked in here for three days, with no food or drink, and we can only sleep leaning against the Wall... You can endure it, but I can't."

It wasn't a big deal for a martial artist to go hungry for a few meals, but they couldn't endure being hungry all the time.

"Alright, say less."

Hua Shaoyou knew that his younger brother was pampered by his family, always having things handed to him, and when problems arose, he wouldn't find solutions but only complain.

"Brother, do you have a way to get me out?"

Hua Shaoyu asked.

Hua Shaoyou fell silent.

Save Hua Shaoyu?

He couldn't even protect himself right now!

"Brother, if even you have no way, aren't we all really going to die here? I don't want to die, Brother, please save me, save me..."

Hua Shaoyu started crying as he spoke. People who were pampered since childhood feared death the most.

"Shut up! Do you think I don't want to get you out?"

Hua Shaoyou was annoyed and kicked Hua Shaoyu with his unbound foot.

Hua Shaoyu, however, was stunned, seemingly unable to believe that his doting brother would yell at him like that.

"Brother, you..."

"Alright, just shut up."

Hua Shaoyou didn't want to talk anymore. Was being captured here what he wanted?

He also wanted to escape quickly!

But who would save him?

Hua Shaoyu opened his mouth, but in the end, said nothing more.

Just then, an ear-piercing sound of an old iron door rubbing against rusty parts simultaneously rang in everyone's ears.

"Creak--"

The door opened.