"Let's talk while we walk!" Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the team members and took the lead, stepping forward. "Someone keep track of time. Before the next five minutes are up, we need to play wooden statues again. And whoever's responsible for mapping the route, give your report quickly."
Only after issuing these concise orders did he explain, "The Spirit Realm mentioned that the evil cultivator's power has permeated the trial. As long as we figure out which class that evil cultivator belongs to, we can deduce the source of danger and come up with the right countermeasure."
World Returns to Fire had a sudden realization. "A Mist Lord!"
"A Mist Lord..." Long Live the White Tiger seemed to remember something, his eyes lighting up. "Back in the outer layer, I gathered some of those brightly colored fungi and fruits. I always thought the markings on them looked familiar. Now I get it—those were the patterns of the Eye of Bewitchment!"
This caught Zhang Yuanqing off guard, making him realize why the patterns on the mushrooms had struck him as familiar before.
*When it comes to observation skills, Scouts really are second to none.* Zhang Yuanqing said, "Exactly. The evil cultivator mentioned in the side quest description is a Bewitching Demon, and those mushrooms in the outer layer were actually a hint. If we had pieced that together earlier, we wouldn't have had to lose anyone.
"The best way to deal with a Mist Lord is to stand completely still so it can't detect us."
Hearing this, the official walkers finally understood everything.
"As expected of you, Yuanshi Tianzun! You're a natural at conquering trials! From now on, if you tell me to go east, I'll never go west," a Fire Master declared heartily, thumping his chest.
"You're incredible! Such a complicated situation, yet you figured it all out in such a short time. That's practically godlike wisdom!" Jiang Jingwei's eyes sparkled with worship.
*That's a bit much, but being flattered like this definitely doesn't feel bad.* Zhang Yuanqing patted Jiang Jingwei's head, suddenly understanding why Fu Qingyang held him in such high regard.
In truth, as long as one identified the root cause of the fog, this hurdle wasn't difficult. It was just that under normal circumstances, it was hard to associate ordinary-looking mist with a Mist Lord's ability.
He had only been a step ahead of everyone else because his past trauma had made him particularly sensitive to it.
*Godlike wisdom? Isn't that laying it on a bit thick?* Smiles broke out on the surrounding members' faces, and the atmosphere grew strangely relaxed.
Once again, they felt that comforting sense of ease that came from having an elite carry the squad.
With so many people pooling their intellect, skills, and experience, losing one person every five minutes meant they likely would have deciphered the root cause of the mist and worked out a countermeasure before suffering a total wipeout anyway.
However, that would have cost many lives.
Now, without even having to rack their brains, Yuanshi Tianzun had resolved the crisis. That was the beauty of following a heavyweight through a trial.
Free carry!
"Four minutes..." Guan Ya reminded everyone.
She was reliable as always.
The chatter ceased instantly. The team halted in their tracks, their bodies stiffening as they stood motionless like wooden carvings.
Zhang Yuanqing stopped in his tracks, activated Astral Travel, and sent his spirit out of his body. Gathering a fallen leaf from the ground, he suspended it in midair.
Seconds ticked by, and the five-minute mark arrived swiftly. Zhang Yuanqing's astral projection, silently counting the seconds, flicked the fallen leaf outward, sending it spinning away to stir the veil of dense fog.
*Snap!*
The brittle, withered yellow leaf suddenly shattered to pieces.
In that split second, Zhang Yuanqing saw it with crystal clarity: a thread barely discernible to the naked eye dropped from the tree canopy, ensnaring the leaf and tearing it to shreds.
*The attacker kills using silk threads? No wonder it can decapitate people without a sound...* Zhang Yuanqing's spirit ascended abruptly, drifting toward the canopy.
This time, he caught sight of the attacker. It was a spider the size of a washbasin, with a rounded abdomen, eight legs, and red eyes. Formed entirely from condensed mist, the markings twisting across its back were the distinctive curse runes of a Bewitching Demon.
It was not clinging to the canopy, but perched within the dense fog itself. The gossamer mist served as its woven web, allowing it to crawl freely through the haze.
Zhang Yuanqing swelled his psychokinesis and reached toward the bewitching spider, attempting to seize it using his spirit's telekinetic grasp.
Yet the instant he made contact, the basin-sized form shattered abruptly, dissolving into a patch of disturbed mist.
*No physical body?* Zhang Yuanqing frowned. After glancing around, his spirit sank back down and returned to his physical body.
Over the time that followed, the group advanced safely by walking for four minutes and freezing for one.
Roughly half an hour later, the sky-obscuring fog grew increasingly thin. The silhouettes of the surrounding trees and the outlines of their companions became visible; they seemed to be exiting the dense mist's reach.
After walking for a few more minutes, the group broke entirely free of the thick fog. Looking back, they saw an expanse of motionless haze lingering like a sheer veil between the tree trunks, drifting lazily only once in a while.
A quest notification chimed in Zhang Yuanqing's ear:
[Ding! You have successfully left Mist Spider Territory. Rewarded 10 points. Obtained consumable item: Mist Spider's Reward.]
*There's even a reward?*
He opened his inventory and indeed found an inert spider occupying one of the slots. Its body was formed of mist, while its eyes were crimson.
Zhang Yuanqing retrieved the spider, set it on his palm, and inspected its item attributes:
[Name: Mist Spider's Reward]
[Type: Consumable]
[Function: Ambush, Dense Mist]
[Description: A monster born from a Mist Lord's resentment fused with a spider. Possessing both a spider's strangulation capability and certain traits of a Mist Lord, it is a terrifying hunter of the forest.]
[Remark 1: Blow its body apart to generate a dense fog covering a hundred-meter radius for five minutes. The mist spider will kill one person every minute.]
[Remark 2: As a consumable, it carries no backlash.]
Zhang Yuanqing looked at it with a mix of surprise and delight. He was delighted because the rewarded consumable was exceptionally potent, but shocked because it meant the team fight atop the mountain would likely be brutally fierce and perilous.
If they could receive rewards, the evil classes could as well.
The silver lining was that the orthodox faction had three teams, while the evil classes had only one.
*Still, that would throw the combat balance between both sides out of whack...* Pondering this, Zhang Yuanqing looked back at his teammates. "Did you guys get any consumable rewards?"
"No, just ten points." His colleagues shook their heads one after another.
*It seems the reward is only granted to whoever clears the challenge...* Zhang Yuanqing gave a slight nod.
Just then, he heard the dirt-streaked Asano Ryo exclaim, "*Sugoi~* The evil faction's points on the leaderboard are so high!"
Everyone hurried to open the points leaderboard to check.
[1: A-Yi, Witch Doctor, Level 3, 170 pts]
[2: I Alone Am Supreme, Water Ghost, Level 3, 165 pts]
[3: Taboo-Free, Bewitching Demon, Level 3, 155 pts]
[4: Yuanshi Tianzun, Night Wanderer, Level 3, 150 pts]
[5: Dropout Fish, Scout, Level 3, 130 pts]
[6: Treading the Firmament, Witch Doctor, Level 3, 120 pts]
[7: Zhao Chenghuang, Night Wanderer, Level 3, 100 pts]
[8: Sun Miaomiao, Night Wanderer, Level 3, 93 pts]
[9: Jiang Jingwei, Fire Master, Level 3, 80 pts]
[10: My Fate Is Mine Not the Heavens, Illusionist, Level 3, 78 pts]
The leaderboard had undergone a complete upheaval. Yuanshi Tianzun had tumbled from first to fourth, while Zhao Chenghuang and Sun Miaomiao had dropped out of the top five. Out of the top ten, official members only held four spots.
The remaining six were split between the evil faction and rogue walkers.
Worse still, the top twenty-four had also shifted drastically: the evil faction occupied two-thirds of the list, with the remaining third divided between official members and orthodox rogue walkers.
Several official walkers previously in the top twenty-four had fallen out of the Saint stage advancement quota.
World Returns to Fire remarked gravely, "The evil faction took down the Tree King and the Monkey King."
Clearly, the evil faction's explosive point surge had to be from slaying the two bosses in the outer layer. High risk came with high return.
Her hair tied up in a bun, Niulanshan Little Fairy frowned. "We have to catch up in points—or even surpass them—in the second stage. Otherwise, once they hunt down a certain number of orthodox rogue walkers, turning the tables will be nearly impossible."
Figures like Yuanshi Tianzun could at least secure a spot in the top ten no matter what, but people like them might lose all hope.
Guan Ya knitted her brows. "Have you noticed? The orthodox faction took heavy casualties in the second stage."
Currently, the leaderboard showed seventy-five people remaining, whereas eighty-three had entered the second stage.
All eight fallen walkers belonged to the orthodox faction.
This indicated that the other two teams were not faring well, and by the time they finished navigating the labyrinth, many more would likely perish.
If this continued, the numerical advantage the orthodox faction had over the evil faction would shrink drastically.
In terms of individual combat prowess, evil walkers outmatched orthodox ones.
Zhang Yuanqing swept his eyes across his teammates and frowned. "At the very beginning, I wasn't even in the top ten. And now? Don't let temporary point rankings mess with your mindset. Until the very end, the leaderboard means nothing.
"The evil faction are just paper tigers. Once we reach the summit, I'll make sure every one of you gets into the top twenty."
As a leader, painting a grand vision was an essential skill; it was remarkably effective for boosting morale.
Sure enough, the team members' expressions relaxed, and their fighting spirit returned.
***
After knocking out the last teammate, Zhao Chenghuang stepped past the sprawled bodies and walked straight to the base of the tree where the corpse hung suspended. Raising his sharp claws, he made a gentle swipe.
With a wet thud, the corpse fell, shattering to pieces and snapping its brittle bones.
Having already decomposed extensively, the body was exceedingly fragile.
Zhao Chenghuang stood beside the corpse, examined it briefly, and then crouched down. Using his razor-sharp claws, he dug out the two crimson eyeballs from its eye sockets.
[Ding! You have resolved the 'Resentment-Enshrouded Corpse'. Rewarded consumable item: Eyes of the Bewitching Demon.]
After reviewing the item information, Zhao Chenghuang stored it in his inventory without any change of expression, then turned toward Yuan Ting. "Report our casualties."
"Two dead, four critically injured. The rest have minor injuries, nothing serious." Yuan Ting reported the results of his recent inspection.
Zhao Chenghuang pondered briefly before asking, "Among the critically injured, are any from the Five Elements Alliance?"
"Two!"
Zhao Chenghuang produced a vial of diluted Life Essence. "Inject half a vial into each of them."
As for the other two critically injured rogue walkers, he abandoned them by default. In a killing trial, he had no obligation to look out for rogue walkers.
Once Yuan Ting finished administering the Life Essence, Zhao Chenghuang glanced at Sun Miaomiao and the others. "The evil faction will enter the second stage soon. We need to quicken our pace. Even if it costs more lives, we cannot let the evil faction reach the summit before us."
Otherwise, defeat was certain.
Having monitored the leaderboard constantly, he had already noticed the shifting ranks.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a Spirit Realm prompt chimed in Sun Miaomiao's and the others' ears:
[Ding! The Mountain Ghost faction has successfully reached the Labyrinth Forest. Positioning feature enabled. Please monitor the opposing faction's progress at all times and reach the Mountain God Temple as soon as possible.]
***
"So fast?"
Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback. Following the prompt's instructions, he willed the interface open, bringing up a map visible only to him, just like the leaderboard.
The map was an aerial view of a vast forest traversed by an intricate web of paths.
Currently, three green markers were distributed across the left, middle, and right sectors of the Labyrinth Forest, representing the three orthodox teams taking different routes.
Meanwhile, a red marker had appeared at the entrance of the central mountain path. Without needing any label, Zhang Yuanqing could tell it represented the evil faction.
To make matters worse, that central mountain path was the very trail his team was walking.
In other words, the evil faction was right behind them.
"They picked the same path as us."
"Are they trying to overtake us? Hah, the attackers in the mist will teach them a lesson."
"Let's get moving quickly so those bastards don't catch up."
Having viewed the map, the teammates broke into chatter.
Guan Ya raised a brow. "Is there an opportunity for an ambush?"
Her implication was that since both sides had chosen the same path, they might as well lie in wait, spring a trap, and wipe out the evil faction in one fell swoop.
"There's live positioning!" Zhang Yuanqing retorted exasperatedly. "How the hell are we supposed to ambush them?"
Chapter 255