The mutated evil spirit's power spread throughout the Kawa Great Forest like a plague virus, and all the Beastman Tribes and even the living creatures caught up in it turned into living corpses, completely reduced to puppet slaves.
At the same time, wherever the living corpses swept through, the land also became contaminated and spread, turning into a rotten wasteland.
Large expanses of forest meadows vanished, and the surviving vegetation seemed to have been cursed in the most dreadful way, becoming hideous and twisted, as if haunted by ghosts trapped within. At nightfall, it became a dead land of the underworld upon their arrival. Follow current novels on ɴovᴇl(ꜰ)ir(e).nᴇt
By the time the major Beastman Tribes reacted, the unknown mutated evil spirit had already grown to a significant scale.
Conflicts naturally ensued. To suppress the evil spirit's expansion, several major Beastman Tribes united for multiple purges, but the result was constant defeat. The fallen comrades on the battlefield quickly became enemies.
After several major defeats, under immense pressure, the major Beastman Tribes began to unite, forming a Tribe Alliance, preparing to break through the defenses of the Bloody Border and enter the Human World to escape the disaster brought by the mutated evil spirit.
At the same time, when attacking the Bloody Border, to prevent the evil spirit's army from striking from behind, the Beastman Alliance decided to establish Beastman strongholds in various directions, hoping to delay and resist the evil spirit's army while serving as a warning line to probe the range of the evil spirit army's spread.
The Blood Claw Tribe Branch was one of those numerous outposts.
Each of the Beastman Alliance's outposts received substantial support from the tribes, with supplies of food and goods continuously pouring in. After establishing the outpost, the task was to prepare for war and to assimilate nearby Beastman Tribes, consolidating them into the outpost to enhance its military strength.
However, from the very beginning, these branch outposts were destined to be sacrificial pawns.
The Beastmen dispatched to develop these outposts were kept in the dark, sent to become cannon fodder to resist the evil spirit army!
In previous wars with the evil spirit army, the Alliance Beastmen were virtually wiped out in each conflict, so very few, only the upper echelons, were aware of the evil spirit's matters.
And those Beastmen sent to the outposts were teams completely ignorant of the evil spirit.
Except for the leader, they were entirely unaware of their mission.
It was precisely because of this that when Austin broke through the Blood Claw Division, he did not obtain any information from the subordinate Beastmen.
The rapid dispatch from the central tribe headquarters to investigate the Blood Claw Division's destruction was largely due to the fear that the evil spirit army had already spread nearby, posing a near-fatal crisis for the Tribe Alliance yet to breach the Bloody Defense Line.
"No wonder the previous reports mentioned turmoil around the perimeter of the Kawa Great Forest. So that was the reason..."
Austin fell silent for a moment, overwhelmed by all the information.
Combining the various prior pieces of information, everything became clear.
The appearance of the mutated evil spirit led to the birth of numerous zombie creatures, bringing catastrophic effects to the Kawa Great Forest. Masses of creatures fled and migrated, while the Beastmen who received the news first launched massive attacks on nearby weaker Beastman Tribes. Under the leadership of several super-large tribes, they established an alliance, planning to break through the Bloody Great Wall into the Human World and escape the dangers of the Kawa Great Forest.
"But can they really escape? Mutated evil spirit, zombies..."
Facing the current situation, Austin was deeply troubled.
Rather than being infected by the evil spirit's wicked energy, these living corpses resembled the result of a Zombie Virus from fantasy novel worlds of a past life, transformed through magic modification.
Bloodthirsty, hungry, feeding on the living, with immense strength, the only weakness being their heads... Even if the zombie army broke through the Bloody Great Wall into the Central Earth World, what then? Would the zombie army not follow close behind?
But right now, Austin did not have the power to change any of this. Even in the context of the vast Kawa Great Forest spanning tens of thousands of square kilometers, Austin was merely a small ripple on a vast ocean, one misstep and he might not even be able to protect himself.
"It seems necessary to prepare an exit plan. So far, signs of the zombie army have only been found in the southwestern direction, and nowhere else, so it might be worth exploring..."
Previously, Rodney and other Dragon Nest teams had explored west, but without a compass, they constantly drifted south. As it stands, their direction is in the southwest. For now, it is only in the southwest that Austin discovered the zombie army's existence.
Combining the location and the information obtained from the Blood Claw Beastmen, Austin roughly sketched out the current situation in the Kawa Great Forest in his mind.
Perhaps, only the west and south suffered the zombie army's sweep, with other directions still safe.
Though terrifying, the zombie army under the command of the mutated evil spirit couldn't possibly be invincible across the Kawa Great Forest's vastness. No one could claim complete understanding of this enormous forest; the zombie army might not overwhelm it effortlessly.
In vast jungle areas with complex topographies and expansive woodlands, who knows where a Legendary Lord of Magical Beasts or Giant Dragon might dwell? In the presence of such Legendary Domain entities, the zombie army can hardly act ferociously.
For this reason, even though Austin had reached the quasi-Gold level, he seldom ventured beyond a hundred kilometers from the Dragon Nest Tribe's territory, mostly staying within to build the Dragon Nest Legion, lacking any eagerness to explore the world beyond.
If he inadvertently intruded into some powerful being's domain, wouldn't it be a case of a wolf falling into a tiger's den? Caution was paramount; upon reaching the Legendary level, he could venture wherever he wished.
For now, the presence of the zombie army has only been detected in the southwest, indicating other directions might have mighty beings holding fort, or various reasons blocking the spread.
With this in mind, perhaps there isn't a need to head north beyond the Bloody Border into the Human world; migrating eastward or northeast might also be feasible.
Austin was privately contemplating his withdrawal plans, spending considerable effort finalizing them. However, he did not act immediately but temporarily set the plan aside.
Given the current circumstances, it wasn't yet dangerous enough to necessitate immediate relocation and retreat. At least, the zombie army was still more than two hundred kilometers away from his tribe, with mountainous obstacles in between. Considering the slow spread of zombies and wastelands, it would take at least a year or two for them to even approach the Dragon Nest Tribe.
Moreover, even if he intended to withdraw, the surrounding situation needed thorough investigation before making any hasty decisions.