Shadow Trails in Azeroth

Chapter 1026 122. The Cenarion Order feels a chill in its back - Happy Lantern Festival [33]

The endless Silithus Desert is no longer what it used to be.

After the Battle of Quicksand a thousand years ago, this desert where countless souls were buried was quiet for a while, but soon, the darkness hidden under the desert emerged.

At first, there were just some weird bugs digging passages in the desert to build insect nests. Then they emerged on a large scale and spent hundreds of years building three large "cities" of their own in the desert.

Anyone who has been to Silithus knows the names of these three large insect nests, Ash, Rhaegal, and Zora. They were all given to them by the elves stationed in Cenarion Fortress in the center of the desert.

Because bugs don't call their homes in Elvish.

These three major insect nests are located in the north, southeast and mid-west respectively. No one knows how many alien insects there are in the insect nests. They have different shapes and strange shapes, and it is difficult to find two identical insects.

However, unlike the Great Rift Hive in the Tanaris Desert, the Silithids in Silithus are more "tolerant" of visitors.

According to the experience of the local elf guards, as long as you do not make dangerous moves, the bugs will allow you to get close to the edge of the nest, and they will mind their own business and ignore you.

You are even allowed to stand on tiptoes and take a look at the insect nest that extends underground.

This behavior proved a terrible thing.

That is to say, the bugs of Silithus are not mindless beasts. According to the observations and conclusions of local druids for many years, these Qiraji from the Beetle Wall have certain intelligence and significant sociality.

Biologists believe that they can communicate, know how to maintain hierarchies, occasionally perform mysterious rituals, and even crawl out of messengers to conduct "trades" with neighboring insect nests.

Of course, outsiders are not allowed to observe their rituals.

If outsiders try to break this rule, those reckless guests will become "commodities" traded between the insect nests the next day.

This kind of thing has happened more than once in the Silithus Desert.

The only problem with the Qiraji, as well as the silithids living in other areas of Azeroth, is that they cannot speak. Except for some senior druids and high-level hunters, few people can communicate with them.

And successfully communicating with them is not a good thing. Basically, people who do this will end up badly.

Or crazy.

Or commit suicide.

Or maybe one night, with dull eyes and muttering words, he disappeared into the desert.

Therefore, a long time ago, the Cenarion Order strictly prohibited druids from using natural magic to communicate with silithid insects.

This coercion is for protection.

Unfortunately, if someone wants to figure out the secrets of the bugs, or try to use the bugs to enter the interior of the Beetle Wall that has been sealed for a thousand years, they must break this rule.

Unfortunately, the price for breaking the rules is always high.

Such as now

Blake was smiling and sitting under the umbrella in a majestic posture, with idiot Finna and Little Star standing behind him like guardians on the left and right.

There is also a black dragon lady in pirate costume next to her who serves tea and water.

It's actually a bronze dragon.

Although he already has an entity, Sephiel still maintains the habits he had when he was a ghost and is not very willing to come into contact with the sun.

"I may have exerted a little force just now. Does it hurt you?"

The smelly pirate asked gently.

Emeril Shadow Guard, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him, covered his face and shook his head.

"I hope you understand that although my actions are a little rough, my heart is good. I really want to help you. My chief retainer doesn't want to see you die miserably in the insect nest, so I complied with her request.

I didn't send you back to World Tree first, and then I helped you 'cure' your illness. You can't say that I don't respect women.

Although I am a heinous pirate, I also have my own bottom line. I will not do such a thing as hitting a woman.

It's just that if I don't save you, your end will be very miserable. For the sake of your life, I have to break my rules, which makes me very painful.

Can you understand my dilemma? "

Blake took a glass of wine from the plate held by Sephiel, shook it in his hand, and asked again.

Emeril in front of him nodded silently.

"Very good. It seems that you are a sensible woman, so I'm relieved."

Blake laughed, took a sip of wine and said:

"So, let's get into the Q\u0026A session. My first question is, why do you think your hunting knowledge is enough to help you conquer the Qiraji?

You have also participated in the Battle of Quicksand. As a top hunter, you should know that conquering the will of the swarm has never been done before. "

"No! I've heard of you! I have a lot of energy in my life!"

Emeril raised his head and retorted.

But the originally beautiful and aloof elf girl's cheeks were as swollen as big buns, and her speech was a bit leaky. Fortunately, the "change of tone" in Salas language was not difficult to understand.

It's just that the way Emeril speaks now is really bad, and it's a bit funny.

This made the group of villains around Blake burst into laughter.

This laughter made the leader of the secret passage very embarrassed, but you can't expect a group of smelly pirates to be very stylish, right? What's more, they were the ones who saved Emeril, who should have fallen into corruption.

People must be grateful, and elves also take this as a virtue.

So the embarrassed elf could only choose to grit his teeth and remain silent. But her words made Blake and Windrunner's mother, who had a bandage around her waist, look at each other.

The little fishman also lay beside his bucket in confusion, looking at the embarrassed elf with a swollen face.

These three people are the only three hunters present. The meaning revealed in Emeril's words is especially important to the hunters, because it means that the alien insects protected by the will of the huge insect swarm can also be tamed by the hunters!

To understand the value of this information, you must first understand the special concept of "the will of the swarm."

Humanoid creatures, including elves, trolls, and tauren, all have independent wills. They only share a population at the level of civilization.

But the alien bugs are different. All alien bugs in Azeroth originated from the servants of the ancient gods in the Dark Empire era. They drew power from the void and evolved a very special civilization form.

To put it simply, although the alien insects can be regarded as independent lives in terms of form, their will is unified. Each insect nest will have a swarm consciousness, which is the "master brain" of countless alien insects fused together.

Each insect nest can be regarded as a special life form, with the main brain giving orders, and each individual mutant insect is a "sibling".

They serve as individuals for the common will of the swarm.

This is the reason why Qiraji worms appear to have a certain strict social nature to outsiders.

Hunters cannot tame the alien bugs, no matter how powerful the hunter is, because no matter how strong the will of a living body is, it cannot resist the mastermind formed by the wills of countless bugs.

This is a truth among the high-level hunters in Azeroth.

And now, the famous saying "Truth is meant to be broken" has once again demonstrated its power in front of pirates.

"No wonder I made a casual joke before, and you actually risked your life to tame the Silikens in an attempt to find the secret passage to the Beetle Wall."

Windrunner's mother stood up, walked to Blake, and looked at Emeril Shadowguard, who was rubbing his face and twitching in front of her, and said seriously:

"You didn't run to die because of my words! You saw someone taming the silithid before, so you decided to replicate the miracle of that year, you bad girl!

Makes me feel uneasy thinking that I almost killed you.

Let me guess, the hunter who tamed the mutilin back then was your mentor, my friend Namulia Linge? Is there any secret behind her death in the Battle of Quicksand? "

"Um."

Emeril Shadowguard lowered her head. She didn't know whether it was because she was ashamed of concealing the truth, or because her face was swollen and she was too embarrassed to see anyone. She said in her own leaky way of speaking:

"Nuodanglian is in Niu Sajie Jianni"

"Okay, okay, if you say so we have to guess next year."

Blake reached out and interrupted the Shadow Guard's painful way of speaking.

He took the paper and pen from Sephiel's hand and handed it to Shadow Guard, who let out a sigh of relief, lowered his head and wrote quickly, and then handed the paper written in Salas language to Blake.

He also emphasized:

"Jie Jian Department of Phytogenic Enzyme Shilanen! Nian Dailan De Green Stone Save the Streets!"

"We understand, don't worry."

Blake took the paper and assured Emeril, who was looking at him:

"You are not someone who can't tell the difference between seriousness and seriousness. Since you have kept this secret for a thousand years, I have reason to think it is very dangerous. Don't worry, I will protect this secret from now on."

After saying that, the pirate and Windrunner's mother turned around to read the words on the paper. The little fishman also jumped out of the bucket with his head swung, jumped on Blake's shoulder, and crawled there with his head bent to read.

It’s not a lot of information on paper, but it’s crucial.

In the Battle of Quicksand a thousand years ago, the Sentinel General and the founder of the Secret Path, Ms. Namulia Ringe, commanded the Sentinel Legion to join the battle.

She realized during the cruel war that it was impossible for the elves to completely defeat the Qiraji, and they had to find another way.

So in addition to her busy military duties, Ms. Lin Ge began to use her knowledge as a hunter to study the characteristics of the Zerg. At that time, the priests of the Sisterhood of Elune had confirmed the existence of the will of the Zerg, but Lin Ge was not discouraged.

The veteran who had fought in the War of the Ancients and the War of Satyr, and had guarded Kaldorei for more than nine thousand years, even used some forbidden knowledge. One day, she successfully tamed a silithid bug and obtained it from herself. The pets learned about the existence of the "Queen" of Qiraji.

Lin Ge realized that the queen was the source of the Qiraji worms and the master of the will of all swarms.

As long as he can assassinate the Queen, the swarm consciousnesses scattered in various insect nests will immediately lose their leaders and fight on their own in chaos, and the army of destruction that the Qiraji Empire is proud of will instantly fall apart.

But at the same time that Lin Ge discovered the Queen, the Queen also discovered her through the connection of the Qiraji's swarm consciousness.

Time was running out. Facing the hunters sent by the Queen, Ms. Lin Ge did not choose to escape but faced the terrifying opponent head-on.

Before she left, she told her discovery to her only disciple, Emeril Shadowguard, whom she treated like a daughter.

Lin Ge told her that if she failed and failed to return from the Qiraji's dark temple, she should hide the news.

She didn't want to see other hunters die because of it.

As for the method of taming the Qiraji, Lin Ge recorded it in his handbook, but the handbook had been permanently left somewhere deep in the Qiraji Empire with the end of the Quicksand War.

"I'm just saying, no matter how rebellious a disciple is, he can't let his mentor's body be exposed in the wilderness for a thousand years."

After Blake read the information on the paper and exchanged glances with Windrunner's mother, he said:

"It turns out there really is a secret here. To be honest, I didn't plan to fight the Qiraji to the death, but now that I have this information in hand, I have to take a tour of the Qiraji Empire."

"really."

Windrunner’s mother nodded and said:

"If the valuable knowledge left by Lin Ge is still there, we hunters will have a terrifying opportunity to strengthen our power. If we can also tame the powerful Qiraji."

"Teacher, I have to criticize you now. You are so unimaginative!"

Blake shook his head. He leaned close to Windrunner's mother's ear and whispered:

"You can tame the alien bugs, why are you still thinking about just taming those ordinary bugs? Why not just tame the 'Queen'?

The bugs have their own empire.

They command the Qiraji invincibly, but their power can also become ours, as long as we find the right way, and now, this way has been sent to us by fate. "

Windrunner's mother was stunned by this arrogant suggestion.

But she soon realized that her disciple's fantastic ideas were not impossible.

In fact, it was very maneuverable, and the risks and benefits of this plan were so crazy that as an undead, she felt short of breath at this moment.

"This is something only hunters can accomplish, not even druids."

Windrunner's mother whispered, while Blake patted his mentor on the shoulder and said in a low and arrogant tone:

"As long as our vote is made, Druids? Bah! They are nothing! From now on, only hunters are worthy of calling themselves children of nature.

Think about it, mentor.

There is a better opportunity than becoming a ranger general to be remembered forever. The Windrunner family will rise again, and this time, it is Quel'Thalas' turn to be proud of the Windrunners. "

"I am your retainer, Your Highness."

General Lilesa didn't hesitate much, she said:

"I obey your orders!"

"Very well, then let me take some time to plan."

Blake let out a deep laugh, and ignited a ball of void fire, burning the paper in his hand. He turned back, and reached out his hand to touch Emeril's swollen face in a friendly manner, so that the swelling would disappear.

He said to the Huntress:

"Go and rest. The secret has connected you and me. Now we are on the same boat. I will help you, but the price is that you have to call me captain!"