The mountain forest outside the city was noticeably quieter today.

Standing on the official road and looking up, the distant road was silent. There wasn't a single trace of even the usual merchant caravans, let alone people.

All this weighed heavily on Zhao Ya's heart.

You have to know that the main import and export of the Commandery are through these two gates, with this official road running through the city, connecting them together.

The West Gate faces Wuxiang City and Wanshou County, while the East Gate faces the Great Yan Capital City.

Although there are roads at the South and North gates, they only lead into the mountains and forests, so they don't count.

Currently, Zhao Ya was standing outside the East Gate.

On usual days, merchants came and went here constantly, making it very lively.

But today, it was a scene of lifeless silence.

No need to ask; it must be the ambush left by that beastly horde that had blocked the trade route.

"Everyone must be careful, don't touch unknown objects randomly," Zhao Ya advised in a deep voice.

Everyone behind him agreed, and then Zhao Ya led them to the woods they had cut down yesterday.

Everyone was much more stable today, not recklessly chopping down trees with their fists and feet like yesterday.

In their hands were distributed axes and saws as tools.

With the help of these tools, a tree after another was taken down quickly; the speed of progression was remarkable.

Zhao Ya didn't work, he kept moving through the forest, carefully observing ahead for any possible dangers.

At this moment, after felling a tree, someone suddenly exclaimed.

"Whoa, what is this?"

Zhao Ya immediately rushed over.

He saw a black bug was trying to drill into a martial artist's cloth armor frantically.

But the Zhu Family's cloth armors were made with three layers of thick kudzu cloth and lining, extremely tough.

The bug just couldn't get in.

When the martial artist realized, he reached out to grab it.

But this larva was extremely alert, sensing danger coming, it arched its body, then leapt towards another martial artist's face.

However, just as it was in mid-air, Zhao Ya arrived.

He moved like lightning, grabbing the larva in mid-air.

Even through his gloves, Zhao Ya could feel it struggling with great force, and someone inattentive could very well let it escape.

Zhao Ya was prepared for this; he took an iron box from his waist, opened the lid, and threw the larva inside.

It tried to resist, but the box was filled with medical powder. As soon as it touched the powder, the larva became limp like a deflated balloon, unable to move anymore.

Zhao Ya closed the lid and said to the still terrified martial artist, "It's all right now, this should be the same black bee larva we encountered yesterday."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Honestly, even with cloth armor on, many felt nervous, afraid of encountering that bizarre black bee like yesterday.

But this incident proved that the cloth armor could indeed defend against these exotic insects, giving everyone peace of mind.

The felling continued.

This time, the speed noticeably increased. Though they encountered another seven or eight black bee larvae, none breached the defense of the cloth armor and were easily handled by Zhao Ya.

By around noon, everyone had cleared all trees within a one-mile radius outside the city.

At this point, someone from the city brought lunch, including wine and meat, a rather decent meal.

The people were famished, so they sat down on the ground and indulged heartily.

Zhao Ya, however, wasn't so leisurely.

He was in the forest carefully identifying tracks on the ground.

From dung and smells, Zhao Ya could roughly deduce the types of exotic beasts that had been lurking in this forest last night.

Not only that, he had also caught another four or five black bee larvae. Adding the eight or nine they found while cutting trees, Zhao Ya's little box was nearly full.

Yet Zhao Ya didn't feel happy at all about this.

Because there were so many black bee larvae in the forest just a mile from the city, it showed how much ambush these exotic beasts had set.

And this was just one city gate on the east side; counting the other three city gates, the number must be even more terrifying.

Isolated city!

Clearly, this group of exotic beasts intended to turn the Commandery into an isolated city.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ya's expression grew increasingly stern.

In the afternoon, Zhao Ya returned once, putting all the black bee larvae into the box of the exotic insect he was cultivating.

The usually languid queen became spirited upon seeing these black bee larvae and immediately swallowed one.

Seeing this, Zhao Ya felt slightly pleased.

His intention not to kill these dangerous black bee larvae was to see if the queen he was raising would eat them.

After all, both are exotic insects, and these larvae should be extremely tasty bait for the queen.

It turned out as he expected; the queen devoured the dozen or so black bee larvae without pause, as if consuming some supreme delicacy.

After finishing, the queen's entire body size expanded significantly, then it lay on the box and began to sleep soundly.

Zhao Ya didn't rush back but went to the flowerbed beside a fish tank, scooped out several jars carefully from the water, packed them well, and returned outside the city.

By then, the work of clearing the forest was near completion.

With everyone's concerted efforts, all trees within a two-mile radius from the city were completely cleared.

When Zhao Ya came back with these jars, many people curiously gathered around.

"Zhao, what are these?"

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