Chapter 85: He Played Us All for Fools!!

Just as the man with the silver gun was about to pull the trigger, Xie Quan—who had held back until now—suddenly spoke up. "Wait! Something isn't right here."

The man with the silver gun sneered. "What? Did you go soft just because the two of you are from the same company?"

"Don't you find it strange?" Xie Quan asked, his expression grave. "Su Mu is incredibly powerful. If he wanted Tie Feng dead, he could crush him with a flick of his finger. Yet he hasn't made a single move, and..."

"Given Mr. Su's status, why would he need to personally deal with a nobody like this?" the man with the silver gun snapped. "Get out of the way right now, or I'll kill you too!"

"Hold your fire! I need to examine Tie Feng's wound again!" Xie Quan insisted, still frantically trying to block him.

But the man with the silver gun had already lost his patience and moved to pull the trigger.

Xie Quan's eyes flashed with cold intent. Countless brown feathers sprouted across his diminutive frame in an instant, and his hands morphed into razor-sharp talons. Slash!

"Ahhh!" The man's arm was severed instantly by the talons, blood spraying like a fountain.

"I'll kill you!" the one-armed man roared, opening his mouth to unleash a sonic attack. But Xie Quan never gave him the chance. The feathers on his body rapidly shifted into monkey fur, and his frame shrank, growing even leaner and more wiry.

He dropped to all fours and lunged. Moving with the sheer agility of a monkey, Xie Quan instantly closed the distance to appear right behind the man. Before the gunner could react, two fur-covered hands shot out like lightning, grabbed his head, and gave a vicious twist. Crack!

The man's neck snapped instantly, and his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.

"Xie Quan, you..." Tie Feng stared in shock. He had never realized their relationship was solid enough for the other man to risk his life for him.

"I told you, I want to examine his wound again!" Xie Quan growled, his fur-covered face radiating murderous intent. For a moment, the rest of the group hesitated.

"What else is there to check? Seeing is believing! He's an Angel Believer!" the man controlling the Blazing Sun Chains said warily. "If you ask me, you clearly just want to save him!"

Xie Quan looked at him coldly. "If he and I joined forces, do you really think the few of you could stop us? I may only be at Bronze 1, but my Bronze Law, Hundred Beasts Mimicry, is ranked at Sequence 102. I shouldn't need to explain what that means."

The group's expressions drastically changed at those words. Even Yang Dongqing, a novice to the Transcendent Tier, was stunned. He had reviewed the files Murong Mengli gave him, and while he hadn't memorized the entire Bronze Sequence list, he still understood exactly what Sequence 102 meant.

Sequence 99 was a major threshold. Any sequence passing the one-hundred mark was classified as a high sequence, representing a complete qualitative leap in power over the lower ranks. Under the right conditions, a single high-sequence user could even kill a low-sequence user at Bronze Tier 2.

He thought back to the file on Hundred Beasts Mimicry. While he couldn't recall the exact wording, he remembered the core ability: it allowed the user to mimic the forms of countless beasts. This Bronze Law might lack overwhelming offensive power, but it was incredibly versatile. It enabled the user to fight seamlessly across land, sea, and air, making it more than sufficient to handle most threats.

Seeing that he had thoroughly intimidated the group, Xie Quan morphed his hands back into talons. His razor-sharp nails glinted with cold light under the sun. Slash!

With a vicious swipe of his hand, he shredded Tie Feng's tight vest, exposing his robust, metallic-sheened muscles.

"Turn around," Xie Quan ordered.

Tie Feng didn't hesitate. He knew full well that he couldn't defeat the entire group if they joined forces. If Xie Quan had wanted to hurt him, he wouldn't have bothered killing the gunner first.

The charred, blackened wound was once again exposed for everyone to see.

"Xie Quan! How much longer are you going to argue?" the man controlling the Blazing Sun Chains roared. "The proof is staring us right in the face!"

Xie Quan ignored him. Instead, he morphed his nose into a canine snout and took a deep sniff. A cold sneer flashed across his face.

He leaned in, dug his fingers directly into the burn, and violently ripped away a chunk of rotting flesh!

The rest of the group recoiled in shock.

"What... what the hell is going on!?" someone shouted. "Wasn't it a burn? Why is the flesh rotting?"

Xie Quan smiled coldly and turned his gaze toward the distance, where Su Mu was casually leaning against a stone pillar.

As if sensing his gaze, Su Mu smiled faintly and gave a small nod in return.

"We've all been played! That bastard Su is the real Angel Believer!" Xie Quan snarled, the killing intent in his eyes burning hotter than ever. He couldn't stand being played for a clown.

"Stop talking nonsense," Jun Wushang shot back, completely refusing to believe him. "If Mr. Su is an Angel Believer, how do you explain his own rotting flesh? Don't forget, he was the one who pointed out we had an Angel Believer among us, and he was the one who requested that everyone be checked."

The man wielding the Blazing Sun Chains also looked deeply skeptical. But Yang Dongqing, the person who knew Su Mu the best out of anyone there, felt his heart skip a beat.

Oh no! This is exactly the kind of thing he would do.

"If I'm right, Su Mu's abilities have to do with Illusion Technique. He used an illusion to alter the appearance of Tie Feng's wound and direct everyone's anger toward the strongest fighter here, hoping to use our combined strength to eliminate him first. Believe me, the second Tie Feng dies, another one of us will automatically switch sides and become a new Angel Believer!

"It's a pity he underestimated my nose. The visual appearance of the wound might have changed, but the smell of charred flesh and rotting flesh are completely different!" Xie Quan finished coldly.

Jun Wushang was still shaking his head. "Are you joking? With Brother Su's strength, why would he ever need to resort to cheap tricks like this? If he were an Angel Believer, we'd all be dead by now! Why would he waste time putting on an act with us?"

Tie Feng finally came to his senses, his expression turning incredibly grim. "Maybe he isn't that powerful at all. Maybe his previous attack was an illusion, too!"

"Exactly," Xie Quan sneered. "I've been suspicious for a while now. How could an attack powerful enough to alter the weather itself produce absolutely no sound? Thanks to my Hundred Beasts Mimicry, my five senses are far beyond a normal human's. I can simultaneously use the eyes of an eagle, the nose of a hound, and the ears of a cat. So even though we were far away at the time, I still noticed that something was wrong.

"When those dark clouds appeared, the humidity in the air didn't change at all. That massive falling sword didn't disturb the airflow in the slightest. Aside from what our naked eyes saw, every other physical phenomenon that should have accompanied an attack of that scale was completely missing. It defied all common sense.

"There's only one logical conclusion. Su Mu possesses some kind of Illusion Technique that manipulates our vision!

"He played us all for fools!!"

The chains of molten lava shattered. Dragging his injured body, Tie Feng struggled to his feet, his eyes burning with unimaginable fury. The humiliation of being played like this was worse than death. Especially when he remembered how he had shamelessly fawned over Su Mu and flattered him earlier, his rage spiked so hard his heart felt like it would explode.

"I should have realized it sooner," Tie Feng snarled. "If he really possessed that kind of strength, why would he be just like the rest of us—chased into the Land of Sacrifice by The Unrememberable?"