Chapter 75: Revealed

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Revealed

"You...!"

Rhodes’s eyes bulged in utter bewilderment. He never expected to die so tragically at the hands of his own comrade. Before a curse could even escape his lips, hundreds of highly toxic needles plunged into his body. Rhodes convulsed violently and died instantly, his wide, glaring eyes cracking open to seep trails of pitch-black, toxic blood.

Witnessing this brutal slaughter of their own kind, the remaining Beastmen shuddered and fell dead silent. However, behind them, the Nightmare Demon had fully awakened; if they didn’t run, they would all be buried right there.

100 meters... 50 meters... 30 meters.

As the frantic Beastmen closed in on the narrow passage, the explosive magic Phoenix had been channeling all this time finally took form.

"Shatter!"

A violent torrent of magic power crashed down like a flood. In the blink of an eye, a blood-red light swallowed the entire cave entrance. Massive, thick boulders were pulverized into fine dust, and flying debris tore through the air. Instantly, the tunnel’s entrance completely collapsed, forming a chaotic wall of rubble that cut off any chance of survival.

Simultaneously, Evelyn swiftly formed hand seals. The rain of arrows she had shot into the ground earlier instantly transformed into giant, magical vines that frantically intertwined, sealing off the very last gaps in the rubble.

Just as every escape route was severed, the massive shadow of the Nightmare Demon loomed over them from behind...

Thick dust billowed suffocatingly. Pitch-black blood and severed chunks of flesh splattered wildly, slapping against the vine shield. Through a tiny, unsealed gap, Jeremy could clearly see the resentful, utterly despairing eyes of Ailinda and her accomplices right before the monster’s tentacles crushed them.

From less than ten meters away, Jeremy smirked. He elegantly tossed them an incredibly thoughtful farewell: "In your next life, remember to live a little kinder and cut back on the dirty tricks. We shall never meet again."

With that, Jeremy unhesitatingly threw the second magic tool. A highly toxic, green mucus erupted, clinging tightly to the vines. It completely sealed the final layer of defense, turning the space outside into an inescapable tomb.

"AAAAAA...!"

Agonizing, resentful screams echoed through the rock walls, sending chills down the spine.

Yet, the expressions of the five youths standing on this side of the ruined wall remained entirely unfazed. They had simply reaped what they sowed; they brought this upon themselves.

Jeremy dusted off his hands. Just as he was about to tell everyone to fall back, an incredibly subtle tremor of magic power suddenly brushed down his spine. He froze.

Without waiting for Jeremy to speak, Leon also noticed the anomaly. Leon’s eyes darkened, and the Crescent Blades in his hand instantly materialized. With a swift swing, Leon launched a fatal strike toward the seemingly empty space in the corner of the tunnel behind them.

"Ugh!"

A muffled, choked grunt rang out.

That sound instantly drew the entire team’s attention.

Who was it? Driven into such a dead end, and yet someone still managed to escape?

Jeremy immediately spun around, his dagger-sharp gaze locking onto the source of the noise.

Under the immense pressure from the Crescent Blades’ strike, the space twisted. A strangely gaunt, pale-faced youth clad in a black cloak was forced to reveal his true form. The black feathers clinging to his temples and between his brows clearly exposed his identity—the Crow Beastman.

"Ah, tsk... To think I was actually discovered." Seeing five pairs of murderous eyes glaring at him, the Crow Beastman, Los, bent down to dust off the hem of his cloak, which had been shredded by the Crescent Blades, and suddenly burst into a soft chuckle.

His laugh was hoarse and grating, exuding sheer madness and cruelty. Los jutted his chin, his cold gaze sweeping over the five youths standing defensively in front of the rubble. Using a mocking, condescending tone, he judged, "I commend you, you’re smarter than I imagined. Not quite as brain-dead as the trash lying out there."

That leisurely, arrogant demeanor was entirely unlike someone who had just narrowly escaped death and was struggling to flee.

Leon sneered, his murderous intent erupting, "Even if you’re a birdbrain who likes to chirp trash, you should at least install a brain before you bark..."

Without bothering to spew another word of trash, Leon kicked off the wall, his figure launching forward like a hunting leopard. The Crescent Blades in his hands spun rapidly, unleashing a barrage of vicious slashes aimed straight at the enemy’s throat.

Los hadn’t expected this human brat to act so recklessly and without a shred of reason. The Beastman’s gloomy brows furrowed slightly. With a flick of his hand, a stark white bone fan materialized. A light sweep of the fan neatly neutralized Leon’s entire explosive onslaught.

Seeing this, Evelyn and Phoenix immediately charged forward to assist.

Faced with this encirclement, Los didn’t panic in the slightest. He licked his lips, the smile on his face growing even more wickedly twisted. "Truly just brats who don’t know their own limits."

His voice suddenly dropped, hissing through gritted teeth, "Since you’re so eager to die, I’ll gladly grant your wish!"

Magic power erupted as Los swung his fan, unleashing a large-scale dark magic attack. Countless pitch-black feather blades, sharp as razors, poured out like a torrential storm.

"Clang! Clang!"

The twin blades in Jeremy’s hands swung upward, slashing out a brilliant cross-shaped sword aura that deflected the feather blades aiming at the team’s blind spots.

In Jeremy’s mind, thousands of thoughts were spinning at a frantic pace.

The Crow Beastman tribe inherently possessed talents in instant teleportation and invisibility. The fact that Los could tear through the encirclement of the magic tools and the Nightmare Demon to escape at the very last second was not difficult to understand. However, judging by the oppressive concentration of magic power radiating from him, this guy’s cultivation realm had to be at least Tier Two, Six-Star.

Among the five of them currently, the highest had only just reached the threshold of Tier One. Under such absolute realm suppression, even fighting five against one would be an incredibly grueling struggle.

Behind them, the pile of rubble was being continuously battered, emitting series of deafening tremors. Perhaps the Nightmare Demon was going berserk trying to break through the wall, or perhaps Ailinda’s group hadn’t breathed their last yet and were still struggling for a way out. Fortunately, they hadn’t escaped alongside this crow; otherwise, the tables would have likely been completely turned.

In short, if this battle dragged on, this entire tunnel area would collapse. Jeremy’s magic tools were nearly depleted, and the majority of what remained were large-scale explosive weapons. If he used any more and the stone cave collapsed, they would all be buried alive, resulting in mutual destruction.

Yet, if he didn’t use his magic tools and relied purely on martial prowess to take down an enemy with such a massive gap in realms, their odds of winning were extremely slim.

Wait a minute...

Jeremy’s pupils contracted slightly as he suddenly realized a massive, glaring flaw.

Earlier, all five of them were wearing invisibility cloaks, perfectly concealing their auras. Even if one argued that leaking magic power allowed this Beastman, much like Ailinda, to vaguely sense their positions, the way Los was fighting right now completely shattered that hypothesis.

This was absolutely not the defensive style of someone fighting blind. In the face of vicious, multi-directional attacks from Leon and Evelyn, Los’s reflexes were excessively precise, moving about as leisurely as if taking a stroll.

At this thought, Jeremy felt the surrounding temperature plummet, a bone-chilling draft running down his spine.

Could it be... from the moment they set foot inside the stone door, Los’s every action had been a facade?

Masquerading as a completely oblivious accomplice. Intentionally turning a blind eye to let Jeremy’s group turn the tables and trap Ailinda’s squad, thereby whittling down the vigilance and magic power of Jeremy’s team, only so that he could ultimately seize the entire chessboard single-handedly?

Jeremy narrowed his eyes, sharply turning his head to look at the rubble behind them. Under the reinforcement of the vines and the deadly poison, the wall remained sturdy, showing no signs of being breached. The crashing noises and the screaming from the other side had died down; all that lingered was the faint, foul stench of blood and... the sickening, wet sounds of the monster chewing and swallowing.

Ailinda and her squad were truly dead.

Jeremy’s suspended heart finally settled a beat. Now that it had a full meal to vent its rage on, the Nightmare Demon definitely wouldn’t smash through the wall anytime soon.

The "trash" that Los had just spat at... it seemed he was cursing his very own accomplices who had just been eaten alive. If Los had bothered to utter a single word of warning, or had taken even one person with him when teleporting, those Beastmen wouldn’t have perished so easily.

If this wasn’t a trap laid by Ailinda’s entire squad, then was all of this solely the scheme of this single crow?

At this thought, an invisible pressure weighed heavily on Jeremy’s chest. Linking it to the conversation he had eavesdropped on earlier, a chilling speculation flashed through his mind.

The one who played the role of the prophet pointing the way in that squad was Los. What if, from the very beginning, Los had devised a plan to use someone else’s hands to kill off his comrades and monopolize the entire map to the ruin?

What if it was all for the sake of claiming the ruin exclusively for himself?

Assuming this line of thought was correct.

Then Los’s enemies weren’t just the five humans; they also included his own Beastmen comrades.

By pretending to fall into the trap, Los could both use a borrowed blade to eliminate those Beastmen and, after their deaths, rely on his superior cultivation realm to slaughter outsiders like Jeremy’s group in a one-on-five battle.

In the end... just as their earlier conversation revealed, he would turn both the humans and his former Beastmen allies into sacrifices, pushing the Nightmare Demon to evolve.

Once the dust settled, Los would be the fisherman reaping all the spoils.