Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Everybody had just formed the circular defense formation, when the charged up and ready-to-go Green Pythons pounced. With wafts of stench coming from their open mouths, streaks of blood appearing in their shiny green eyes and blood-red tongues, the Green Pythons looked exceptionally ferocious!

“Ready your bows and release!”

Faced with the fast approaching pythons, Yang Ling solemnly gave the command. Armed with Pear Blossom Crossbows, the elven archers ruthlessly pulled the triggers and sharp crossbow arrows shot out like rain drops from the sky. To increase damage, every arrow had been smeared with the terrifying Corpse Rotting Water.

Although there were only 30 elven archers, which were not many, their volley fire power was astounding. One Pear Blossom Crossbow was able to shoot a hundred arrows at once. With 30 elven archers firing simultaneously, 3000 sharp crossbow arrows were released in a blink of an eye!

Under the Wind Acceleration Spell Formation, the crossbow arrows flew like lightning. The fast advancing Green Pythons were unable to avoid the arrows and were shot full of holes like a beehive.

Hiss…

The gravely injured Green Pythons writhed their bodies, while hissing in pain.

If the crossbow arrows caused the pythons great agony from pain, the Corpse Rotting Water on the arrows caused them to suffer a fate worse than death! After getting shot by an arrow, broad bean-sized blood blisters would appear near the wound. The blisters would get bigger and bigger, quickly bursting one by one. The flesh would then rot rapidly, dissolving into blood that would drip onto the ground. Waves of numbing ache and prickling pain would be felt in the bones, as if they too, were going to dissolve into a pool of blood!

After being dealt a head-on blow, the remaining Green Pythons did not retreat. Instead, they became even more savage, charging forward ferociously. They moved fast, but the elven archers were faster!

Remove the cartridges. Reload the crossbow with preloaded cartridges. Press the trigger…

The elven archers were lightning fast, moving in a synchronized manner without unnecessary movements. Due to the sheer numbers of the advancing Green Pythons and the huge attack range of the Pear Blossom Crossbows, the archers did not need to aim. Once released, the crossbow arrows felled hordes of Green Pythons like harvesting swathes of wheat.

At this critical moment, the performance of the Pear Blossom Crossbows was terrifyingly brilliant!

Hiss…

Faced with Ling Yang’s awaiting formidable army, the continuous barrage of crossbow arrows, and suffering from heavy casualties, the remaining Green Pythons retreated like a receding wave. Alas, it was too late!

It was not known when it happened, but hordes of Horned Bee Beasts, Evil Eyes, Spiders, Bats and other beasts appeared in the dark. The densely packed beasts covered a large area, blocking off access to all nearby paths. Without waiting for the retreating Green Pythons to react to the situation, the beasts swarmed towards the pythons, attacking like a furious storm.

With the cooperative attack by the army of beasts and the coordination of everyone, the attacking Green Pythons were annihilated before long.

“Orlando, quickly collect the corpses of the Green Pythons. We can extract the Essence Crystals when we go back to Wissen Castle. Goode, lead a team to sweep the battlefield. Retrieve all the crossbow arrows. Don’t waste them. Move quickly!” Yang Ling loudly commanded, after the victorious battle.

The Green Python was a level 4 Magical Beast. Though the quality of its Essence Crystal was not high, the rarity of it meant that it could still fetch a good number of Crystal Coins in big human cities, such as Montson and Bavaria. The tough python skin was not bad, too. In many small towns where there was a human majority, many of the upper middle class dream of having a pair of cooling Green Python leather shoes on a hot Summer’s day!

While the corpses of the Green Python must not be missed, the released crossbow arrows also cannot be wasted. The arrows can be collected and reused.

To prevent corrosion from the Corpse Rotting Water, and increase the hardness of the crossbow arrow tips, much valuable Star Metal was added during the crafting of the crossbow arrows. To ensure good flight balance and reduce air resistance, the crossbow arrow shafts were made of durable Arrow Bamboos. As such, each crossbow arrow cost a few hundred Black Crystal Coins. They burnt through so much money to finance each battle that naturally, nothing should be wasted lightly.

After a short rest and reorganization, they finished sweeping the battlefield and everyone continued on the journey. This time round, to prevent an ambush from any other Magical Beasts, Yang Ling sent forth more scouts and Horned Bee Beasts to pave the way.

Along the way, more forks in the road appeared. Once in a while, they would see a few Troops lying unmoving on the ground. A few times, they even saw troopers who were severely injured and writhing on the ground. From the wounds on their bodies, it seemed that apart from marks left by Magical Beasts, there were also knife and sword wounds, and even marks left by spell attacks.

“My Lord, take a look, what is that?”

After turning a corner, Orlando, who had a sensitive nose, suddenly shouted, pointing at a dark corner a short distance away. Led by Orlando, the people chanced upon an area full of ash, seemingly left behind by burning wood. Yet, a great stench lingered in the air.

Hunter Orlando led a few guards and took big strides closer to the area, without needing Yang Ling to instruct him to do so. However, he only circled outside the ashy area a few times, before stretching out his hand and pinching a bit of the ash with his fingers. After smelling the ash on his fingers, his face suddenly turned pale. He then abruptly backed away from the area as if he had seen a ghost. “My Lord, this is Human Oil. It’s left behind when humans are burnt alive at high temperatures!”

Human Oil?

Surprised, Yang Ling leaned forward to take a closer look, quickly discovering many suspicious clues.

Scattered around the ashes, were partially burnt bones and hair. He even found a few crystal-embedded teeth.

These weren’t ashes from burnt wood, these were traces left behind by a group of people who were burnt alive in blazing flames!

After understanding what was going on and smelling the air of lingering stench that refused to dissipate, many elves threw up in disgust. Yuna’s face was pale and she hugged Yang Ling tightly, afraid to lift her head up again to look at the piles of still-warm ashes.

Fighting the urge to throw up, Orlando searched the area and, in a corner, discovered a badly burnt and twisted coat of arms bearing a cross. Coming to a sudden realization, Orlando strode towards Yang Ling and stood in front of him. “My Lord, only the Church’s Holy Flames can burn a human body so completely. If I’m not wrong, this should be the work of the Church!”

This was done by the Church?

Yang Ling took the badly burnt and misshapen coat of arms with a cross from Orlando. After inspecting it, he was full of doubts. Every powerful faction walked on their own path. Why would the skilled masters of the Church come here suddenly? What was even more puzzling was; why would they commit mass killing, using a potent spell to reduce dozens of Troops to ashes?

The stench from the ashes was so bad that Yang Ling rapidly led everyone away from the area after being unable to find more valuable clues. Along the way they saw more corpses of those who died in strange ways. There were corpses which were frozen like ice sculptures, corpses which were badly decomposed, even corpses which were dehydrated like mummies, laying across the road.

Those who died included Troops, lone adventurers, Church Spellcasters dressed in white robes, Orcs with boar heads and human bodies, etc… Unfortunately, Goode personally identified Parrot’s intelligence officers who were sent ahead, to be among the casualties. No wonder there had been no news for quite some time. It looked like many of them might have already met with misfortune.

Perhaps all the paths merged into these two paths running parallel to each other, and the teams from different factions who got lost, met here by chance and fought?

Yang Ling shook his head doubtfully. It felt like the events have unfolded beyond his understanding. As he was deep in thought, he unknowingly led the people past a tragic sight of a pile of corpses.

Having seen the same sight many times, it naturally seemed to be nothing unusual anymore.

Just as they were about to hurry past the sight, Yang Ling suddenly heard a weak cry for help. Although the voice was faint and came in weak bursts, Yang Ling found it very familiar. As if he heard it somewhere before!

Orlando, quick, move the bodies away!”

Concentrating on the source of the voice, Yang Ling quickly discovered that the voice came from beneath the pile of bodies. After instructing the people to move away the top layer of corpses, he immediately discovered a man of slim build. It wasn’t a stranger, but Arkas, who had recently joined the Hunter Association.

With Goode’s aid, Arkas, who was covered in blood, slowly regained consciousness. He rubbed his eyes and struggled to crawl to Yang Ling. “Chief Elder, Kristoff and Daniel… They’re all dead!”

All dead?

Looking at Arkas with his bloodshot eyes and chattering teeth, Yang Ling’s heart sank. Although he was worried about the many Parrots who left ahead of the group, Yang Ling did not show it. Instead, he motioned for Arkas to continue speaking. With Arkas’ explanation, Yang Ling slowly gained an understanding of what happened.

As it happened, even though Goode made an announcement within the Hunter Association, Arkas, after hearing about the treasures to be found in the cave, was tempted by a few of his brothers-in-arms. They then joined a team of a few dozen Hunters who were headed for the cave.

In the beginning, the Troops did not take any action. But as they saw more top- quality crystals, precious gems and treasures along the way, many of them, out of envy and greed, started grabbing the treasures.

The first to be killed were the Hunters who slipped in among the Troops, hacked to death by the knives of many troops. Gravely injured, Arkas suddenly thought of a brilliant idea. He took advantage of the chaos to hide under a pile of corpses. Otherwise, he would have long been hacked into pieces.

“After killing our team of a few dozen Hunters, the Troops started killing each other before long, frantically snatching each other’s crystals or treasures.”

Arkas then took a deep breath, looked fearfully around, and continued speaking. “After a while, many powerful beings came to the path one after the other. They killed each other on sight and seized the treasures from the Troops. There were big groups of Church Knights and Spellcasters, hordes of Zombies and monsters with beast heads and human bodies, and so on…”

Recalling the many expressionless Church warriors, the hordes of Zombies that tore living people into pieces, the expressions of the many troopers who were burnt into ashes alive, Arkas trembled uncontrollably, deep fear leaking from his eyes.