Torchlight twisted their shadows as Zhao Chenghuang led his team in silence through the maze. After surviving the crisis of hanged corpses dangling from tree branches, they had encountered another terrifying pack of treants. These were of the same lineage as the outer treants, but far more frenzied and bloodthirsty.
Only after losing two members did they manage to slay the treants blocking their path and clear that perilous zone.
Now, they entered an area dubbed the Forest of Stone Giants. True to its name, the enemies in this stage would presumably be stone giants.
As of yet, they had not run into one.
They had lost two members and suffered two critical injuries in the first stage. Once inside the treants' territory, those two critically injured companions inevitably perished as well, leaving the squad with only nineteen survivors.
*At most, we can only lose one more member. We can't afford any more deaths. The Mountain Ghost faction suffered virtually zero casualties, only losing three people to Yuanshi Tianzun, and their spirit walkers' overall caliber is higher than ours...* Zhao Chenghuang felt a heavy weight pressing on his chest.
The Mountain Ghost faction was composed of evil classes as well as powerful rogue walkers like Only I Am Supreme and Dropout Fish. Though they were fewer in number than the Mountain God faction, their overall combat prowess was formidable.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard Yuan Ting speak from behind him in a voice trembling with sheer panic:
"What's going on?! Yuanshi Tianzun and the others suddenly went back to the labyrinth forest..."
Sun Miaomiao, Crossing-River Pawn, Maoshan Daoist, and the others felt their hearts sink, hurriedly opening their maps to check.
At a glance, everyone lost all control over their facial expressions.
On the central path, the green icon representing the Five Elements Alliance team—which had already been nearing the summit—had somehow been thrown back into the labyrinth forest.
Meanwhile, the evil classes of the Mountain Ghost faction had reached the summit.
"How could this happen?"
"Just a few minutes ago, I saw them reach the peak! This... this..."
"Damn it! If the Mountain Ghost faction gets that staff, we're as good as dead!"
This discovery sent a chill running through every member of Zhao Chenghuang's team.
Piecing this together with the fact that the Mountain Ghost faction had cleared the labyrinth forest almost unscathed, Sun Miaomiao instantly understood. Her expression darkened as she said, "It seems the mole hidden in the Five Elements Alliance succeeded."
Zhao Chenghuang nodded grimly. "By tailing Yuanshi Tianzun's squad, they could not only exploit Yuanshi Tianzun and World Returns to Fire's dungeon-clearing abilities to pass with minimal cost, but also hunt down Yuanshi Tianzun once they caught up.
"Killing multiple birds with one stone. What a shrewd calculation!"
Maoshan Daoist and Yuan Ting exchanged looks. Instinctively, Yuan Ting pressed, "What are you two talking about?"
Sun Miaomiao promptly shared the intel about Dark Night Rose surfacing at the summit conference.
Yuan Ting was flabbergasted. "How come I didn't know about this?! Damn it, being cooped up in the training camp left me out of the loop. And why didn't you say anything sooner?"
*Because I'm not like you, blabbing everything to the world.* Sun Miaomiao was in no mood to roast him and merely let out a heavy sigh.
That piece of intelligence had been relayed from the Songhai branch to the Taiyi Sect, and the higher-ups had only disclosed it to Sun Miaomiao and Zhao Chenghuang.
Both of them were direct descendants of sect elders, thoroughly vetted and pure of lineage, groomed as reserve candidates for future deacons and elders in the Taiyi Sect. The scrutiny placed on them was far stricter than on ordinary members.
Therefore, the Taiyi Sect leadership had only cautioned them, instructing them to closely monitor the actions of the six accompanying Night Wanderers to preempt any potential mole.
Even so, Sun Miaomiao felt that among the eight Night Wanderers entering this killing trial, the likelihood of Maoshan Daoist or Yuan Ting being the mole was extremely low.
Especially the latter—Dark Night Rose would have to be completely out of their minds to recruit someone like Yuan Ting as a spy.
"Wait, someone went back! Someone from the Five Elements Alliance returned to the summit!" a lawful independent walker suddenly cried out in joy.
The dispirited crowd perked up, immediately opening their maps again. Sure enough, on the edge of the large cluster of red markers, two faint points of green light had appeared.
Meanwhile, the rest of the green markers were racing rapidly back toward the summit.
Inexplicably, the same thought flashed through the minds of Sun Miaomiao, Zhao Chenghuang, Crossing-River Pawn, and the others:
*Yuanshi Tianzun!*
One of those two dots was definitely Yuanshi Tianzun.
Without any concrete proof, purely by intuition, they knew it had to be him.
Only those who had faced him in the arena tournament knew how difficult and how cunning Yuanshi Tianzun truly was. A man like him would never be brought down by simple trickery; even if he suffered a setback in the gutter, he would thrash around furiously and splatter his enemies with filth.
Zhao Chenghuang felt a rare surge of mixed emotions—both thrilled and tense. He shouted, "Clear this stage at all costs! Yuanshi Tianzun won't be able to hold out for long!"
Before his voice faded, heavy footsteps echoed from the darkness ahead. A figure nearly three meters tall slowly strode into view.
It was light brown all over, seemingly assembled from stone blocks. The round boulder serving as its head had no distinct facial features, and every step it took caused the ground to tremble faintly.
Sun Miaomiao shouted, "Everyone, we're in a race against time! Don't hold back—go all out, take it down, and reinforce Yuanshi Tianzun! If the Mountain Ghost faction gets the staff, we lose!"
"Understood!"
The surrounding Five Elements Alliance members and lawful independent walkers displayed astonishing unity and resolve, roaring their agreement in unison.
***
"Yuanshi Tianzun?!"
Tone-Deaf's expression by the temple entrance froze instantly. A somewhat shrill question burst from his lips: "How did you get back?! How did you return?!"
He had never underestimated Yuanshi Tianzun, but based on their clash during the arena tournament, he was certain Yuanshi Tianzun possessed no such method. In fact, he had never even seen any ability resembling instantaneous teleportation.
It was completely beyond his frame of reference.
The members of the Mountain Ghost faction were equally stunned. Halting their steps, they squared off against Guan Ya and Yuanshi Tianzun by the bluestone.
Simultaneously, they cautiously scanned their surroundings to verify whether the rest of the Five Elements Alliance squad had returned with them.
Taking in the enemies' expressions, Zhang Yuanqing ignored their stares. Instead, he turned his head toward Tone-Deaf and bared his teeth in a grin. "So you're the mole. To be honest, I really didn't expect it.
"But that didn't stop me from keeping a card up my sleeve."
Tone-Deaf reached into the empty air beside him, pulling out a jet-black bamboo flute. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Aside from World Returns to Fire and The Little Match Boy, did you suspect someone else?"
If not, Yuanshi Tianzun wouldn't have prepared a contingency after both suspects had already been restrained.
Seeing that the Mountain Ghost faction was staring at him and had not rushed to attack right away, Zhang Yuanqing was more than happy to stall for time. He explained, "World Returns to Fire's words reminded me. After I gathered everyone, I didn't spot any suspicious movements. Furthermore, his method for breaking the spatial shifting was only conceived after we regrouped—well, and before you rejoined the team.
"So how did the Mountain Ghost faction clear the forest without a scratch? A possibility occurred to me then: could someone have figured out the trick ahead of time? Could someone have even exited the Moving Forest before the rest of us, which is why none of us received a bonus item upon emerging? If that person were a mole, it would explain both why they refused to hand over the bonus item and why the Mountain Ghost faction traversed the forest swiftly without being impeded by the spatial shifts.
"Then I wondered: why didn't the mole just hand over the item? He could have stayed under cover and waited for the right moment to deal me a fatal blow, rather than exacerbating tensions prematurely and forcing me to lay my cards on the table.
"The only explanation was that he believed his chance for a fatal blow was right in front of him. Combine that with the nature of the Moving Forest—heh, every single reward is tied to the hazard we face.
"It wasn't hard to deduce that the item the mole obtained had to be something related to spatial shifting. From there, it was easy to guess what he planned to do."
Standing by the temple gate, Tone-Deaf gave a cold snort. "So you relied on that teleportation-like ability just now to wait for me to make my move? Hmph, but did you forget? If I can teleport you away once, I can do it a second time."
With that, he looked across the clearing toward Nothing Is Taboo and shouted, "The gear on that woman is a set equipment! Don't waste time—teleport them away right now!"
He was worried the evil classes would lose their heads and try to kill Yuanshi Tianzun on the spot.
Although they had superior numbers, the set equipment on that woman was nothing to scoff at. Add to that Yuanshi Tianzun being a Night Wanderer with stealth—an unmatched survival skill—and killing them wouldn't be easy.
The priority was securing the staff. Once they possessed it, the Mountain Ghost faction would hold an overwhelming advantage. Why worry about lacking chances to kill Yuanshi Tianzun then?
On the other side, Nothing Is Taboo opened his palm, clicking his tongue in admiration. "Clever. Worthy of being hailed by the officials as a dungeon-clearing genius. Truly a terrifying opponent!"
As he spoke, green light gathered in his palm, manifesting a miniature sandbox of the forest, which he activated without hesitation.
The sandbox collapsed into speckles of light, enveloping Guan Ya and Yuanshi Tianzun over a dozen meters away. Yet their figures did not vanish; instead, they shattered like illusions.
Witnessing this, Tone-Deaf by the temple doors and the gathered evil classes felt their hearts tighten.
A split second later, a chilling sneer sounded from behind Tone-Deaf:
"I'm inside the temple."
Before he could react, his vision spun wildly. The sky, the ground, and the stone temple flashed past his eyes like a spinning wheel. Finally, he saw his own headless body standing erect by the temple entrance.
The neck was bare, and a fountain of blood erupted from a wound the width of a bowl.
Behind the corpse stood Yuanshi Tianzun, wielding a snow-bright willow-leaf blade, glancing down sideways with a sneer dripping with mockery.
"Save... save..."
As his severed head rolled down the stone steps, Tone-Deaf's mouth twitched slightly, then froze. The light in his eyes flickered out.
*Ambushing a Musician is child's play.* Zhang Yuanqing kicked the headless body down the steps. Holding his blade, he looked at A-Yi and the others, sneering, "Can you teleport me again?"
Nothing Is Taboo, the chubby youth, and the others frowned, both wary of his trickiness and irritated by his arrogance.
From the very beginning, Zhang Yuanqing's intended teleportation destination had been inside the Mountain God Temple. The two figures out in the open were not their real bodies, but an illusion cast through the Ghost Bride's Charm Art.
The Ghost Bride's Charm Art could deceive Illusionists, a fact already proven during the previous ambush.
Zhang Yuanqing had staged that ruse precisely to bait out the enemy's trump card.
He had banked on the enemy choosing to use their teleportation item, knowing there was no shortage of rational, intelligent minds among these evil classes.
Just like Zhuge Liang's Empty Fort Strategy—the moment it was deployed, it relied on Sima Yi falling for it.
If the commander across the field had been Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang certainly wouldn't have dared flaunt his wits.
By the same token, if he had been facing a pack of hotheaded Fire Wardens, Zhang Yuanqing wouldn't have bothered with Charm Art; he would have simply unfurled the Yin-Yang Array directly.
Once the Yin-Yang Array was cast, everyone would be trapped inside for five minutes, rendering any spatial item utterly useless.
Truth be told, if he could have held out alone, Zhang Yuanqing would have preferred to keep one teleportation jade talisman in reserve.
Unfortunately, facing so many enemies, he had no choice but to share one of his only two talismans with Guan Ya. The experienced beauty's close-quarters combat was invincible, and backed by her set equipment and devastating sniper rifle, her overall combat power was formidable.
Only by bringing her along did Zhang Yuanqing feel confident they could hold this ground.
Only I Am Supreme took several strides forward. "Yuanshi Tianzun, you have plenty of petty tricks, but relying on just you and the woman behind you won't be enough to stop us."
By now, the twenty-two spirit walkers of the Mountain Ghost faction had confirmed that the only ones who had returned were Yuanshi Tianzun and that mixed-race woman in the set gear.
Zhang Yuanqing appraised the strongest independent walker on the roster, asking point-blank, "Are you with Dark Night Rose?"
Only I Am Supreme nodded.
Dropout Fish, clutching a pair of sabers, grinned as well. "Me too!
"All of us who chose to stay in the Mountain Ghost faction were cultivated by Dark Night Rose.
"The organization ordered us to kill you. I like this assignment—fighting a powerhouse like you is going to be fun."
Wielding his dual sabers, he launched the first strike.
Dropout Fish sprinted a few strides, then leaped high into the air, hurtling toward Yuanshi Tianzun as the latter descended the stone steps toward the bluestone.
For an instant, his airborne silhouette overlapped with the full moon, looking like the Grim Reaper descending from the dark night.
*Bang!*
A muffled, thunderous gunshot roared from the entrance of the stone temple, accompanied by a fleeting flash of muzzle fire.
Dropout Fish, mid-pounce toward Yuanshi Tianzun, abruptly whipped his dual blades around to slash ahead.
*Clang!*
Sparks flared. The hurtling bullet was cleaved cleanly in two, whistling into the woods behind the crowd with two dull thuds, embedding deep into tree trunks.
Dropout Fish landed immediately. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers split open, blood dripping down the backs of his hands.
Rifle in hand, Guan Ya stepped to the temple entrance. Her lustrous hair was tied into a crisp, spirited ponytail, and her limpid, autumn-water eyes brimmed with lethal intent.
Even as mortal enemies facing life-and-death combat, the assembled crowd couldn't help but feel a flicker of awe at the sight of such an exquisite beauty.
By then, Zhang Yuanqing had reached the Houtu Boots and slipped them on. Looking at the foes of the Mountain Ghost faction, he said:
"With just my personal strength, naturally I couldn't stop you all. That's why I left these boots here in advance."
With that, a dense, foggy yellow glow filled his pupils. His aura surged upward tier by tier, bursting through the Transcendent stage and pressing straight toward the realm of a Saint.
*Houtu Boots—Mountain God!*
This Saint-tier item possessed a portion of the "Mountain God" skill, allowing the wearer to refine an area and become the "god" of that domain. The deeper and older the forest, the greater the power granted to the wearer upon refining.
The price of activating this ability was time!
Refining an area required time.
That was why the moment Zhang Yuanqing reached the summit, he had secretly left this item in the clearing, buying it the necessary time to refine the surroundings.
Right now, he was no longer a Transcendent walker, but a Saint of the lower fourth rank.
Chapter 261