Chapter 106: He Really Came
"The next wave of attacks could arrive at any moment. If the Guide insists on waiting here, I have no objection, but please don’t make me stay and die with you!"
Yun Sheng looked at the Guide. Her voice was quiet, but her tone was cold.
The Guide opened his mouth to speak, his gaze faltering for an instant.
But only for a brief moment.
"I’m in charge of this operation, and my duty is to guarantee everyone’s safety!" His voice rose, tinged with the anger of being defied. "You can’t just leave the team. Get back with the group, now!"
Yun Sheng said nothing more.
She turned, slipping past the Guide’s rigid shoulders, and walked toward a cluster of rocks to the southeast.
"Yun Sheng!"
The Guide’s voice rumbled like muffled thunder in his throat, thick with suppressed fury, but it did nothing to stop Yun Sheng’s steps.
"Is she crazy? Ignoring command, ignoring the Guide... Who does she think she is?"
"Fine, let her go. When something happens to her, she can’t blame anyone for not trying to stop her."
The hushed murmurs followed her from behind, but Yun Sheng neither looked back nor paused.
Just as she was about to leave the edge of the group, an urgent voice called out from behind her.
"Wait for me!"
It was Cheng Nian, the female trainee Yun Sheng had pulled back from the worm’s maw.
Clutching her gear bag, her face still pale, she started walking toward Yun Sheng.
"Xiao Nian, have you lost your mind?" Another female trainee ran up behind her and grabbed her by the wrist. "She’s all alone, and she’s just an F-level! Are you following her to your death? The Guide told us to stay put!"
Cheng Nian stumbled from the pull, but her gaze was exceptionally determined.
She looked down and slowly, deliberately, pulled her wrist from her friend’s grasp.
"When that worm was coming for me, she wasn’t the closest one. She didn’t have to jump in and save me. She saved me, so I trust her!"
With that, she didn’t spare her friend another glance and jogged to catch up to Yun Sheng.
"I... I’ll come with you," she said softly, not daring to meet Yun Sheng’s eyes.
After all, she hadn’t spoken up for Yun Sheng when the others had questioned her.
Yun Sheng didn’t say anything, but she didn’t stop her from coming along either.
The two of them quickly reached the gray-black rocks to the southeast and took cover behind them.
She had just set her gear bag on the ground when her eyes snapped up. She looked past the cold edge of the rock, toward the gray mist to the southwest that was now churning violently.
"They’re here," she said softly.
"WOOOO..."
A cacophony of screeches rose and fell, rippling out from the depths of the gray mist like an ominous tide.
At the edge of the gray mist, the first row of dark figures squeezed through.
Not corrosive worms.
They were Split Ridge Lizards—large, reptilian pollutants that walked on all fours, with barbed spines on their backs and everted mouthparts.
D-level Peak pollutants. They had tough hides and thick flesh. What made them even trickier was their extremely high resistance to purely physical attacks.
The only way to kill one was to use spiritual power to attack the gland an inch below its throat, tear through its surface defenses, and then widen the assault.
Three.
Five.
Eight.
Behind them followed a dense swarm of corrosive worms and Bone-piercing Vines, like a herd of driven sheep.
"Everyone, on guard!!"
The Guide’s voice cracked with strain.
His sharp cry snapped the trainees out of their stupor. Screams and the frantic shuffle of feet filled the air.
Some raised their guns, not knowing where to aim. Others cowered on the ground, trembling with their heads in their hands. A few simply collapsed, all strength to run gone.
"Focus! Use your spiritual power to tear open the spot an inch below its throat, then attack! Quickly!"
The Guide shouted, simultaneously unleashing his spiritual power and slamming it into the foremost Split Ridge Lizard.
The massive beast faltered, a small fissure tearing through the scales on its throat.
The assistant guide seized the opportunity to land a finishing shot, and the first beast collapsed.
But more and more Split Ridge Lizards, corrosive worms, and Bone-piercing Vines swarmed from behind, charging wave after wave into the exposed clearing.
"Aaaah!" Another bloodcurdling scream.
A male trainee’s ankle was ensnared by a Bone-piercing Vine. Its sharp tip pierced his calf, splattering blood onto the dry, gravelly ground.
He struggled desperately but was dragged to the ground.
"Help! Save me!"
Someone nearby tried to pull him free, but another vine immediately coiled around their arm.
"There are too many... There are just too many!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
It’s unclear who turned first, but then, like a dam breaking, seven or eight trainees turned and fled, screaming as they ran for the cluster of rocks where Yun Sheng was hiding.
Cheng Nian pressed herself flat against the rock face, watching their faces draw nearer.
Fear, despair, and the raw instinct for survival had washed away every last trace of pride from their eyes.
Out on the clearing, the Guide was unleashing one spiritual power attack after another. The assistant guide’s left arm was splashed by a worm’s corrosive slime; his combat suit burned through, charring the flesh beneath. He let out a strangled grunt and fell to one knee, but his gun never stopped firing.
But the number of pollutants just kept growing.
A Split Ridge Lizard broke through the line of fire, lunging for the Guide’s back.
"Watch out!"
A thin needle of Yun Sheng’s spiritual power shot out, barely piercing the massive beast’s gland and making it falter for a moment.
The Guide spun around and fired a shot, but his face was ashen. Veins bulged on his temples; the overexertion of his spiritual power left him swaying on his feet.
"Yun Sheng..." Cheng Nian’s voice was choked with tears as she looked at Yun Sheng. "Are... are we all going to die here?"
Yun Sheng didn’t answer, her gaze flicking to her terminal.
’The five minutes are almost up. White Tiger will come, right?’
’Can he fight off this horde of D-level Peak pollutants?’
"Everyone!" she yelled, gritting her teeth. "To me! Use these rocks for cover and form a defensive circle! Guide, you and your assistant, get over here now!"
The other scattered trainees snapped out of their daze, scrambling and crawling toward the rocks. The Guide staggered as he hauled his fallen assistant to his feet, and the two of them stumbled toward the rock cluster.
Behind them, three Split Ridge Lizards gave chase. The closest one was less than two meters from the Guide’s back.
"Hurry! Hurry up!"
Cheng Nian screamed and pulled the trigger. The energy beam went wide by three inches, only leaving a scorch mark on the beast’s flank.
Beside her, a boy with glasses was shaking like a leaf, unable to aim his weapon.
Three meters.
One meter.
The Split Ridge Lizard’s maw was open, the gland in its throat vibrating intensely as it hissed. In the next second, it would snap the Guide’s spine.
Then.
It stopped.
Not on its own.
Instead, a Spiritual Blade—so condensed it was almost corporeal—shot out from the edge of the withered woods twenty meters away, like a bolt of lightning tearing through the night sky!
It pierced precisely through the skull of the first Split Ridge Lizard.
Without losing momentum.
It then punched through the throat gland of the second.
Then the third.
The three massive beasts crashed to the ground. A shower of blood rained down, drenching the Guide from head to toe.
He froze in place. Everyone seemed to be frozen solid.
For a moment, a brief, eerie silence fell over the battlefield.
A gap appeared in the charging horde of pollutants.
The corrosive worms milled about in place. The Bone-piercing Vines seemed to have lost their sense of direction. For the first time, the remaining Split Ridge Lizards didn’t immediately rush forward to fill the gap left by their fallen comrades.
They seemed to be hesitating.
Yun Sheng’s gaze traveled past the fallen beasts, landing on the edge of the withered forest across the clearing.
A figure in dark gray was stepping slowly out of the shadows.
His pace was unhurried, but the powerful, cold, and utterly overwhelming pressure of a High-level Sentinel emanated from him, washing over the area like an invisible tidal wave.
A mask concealed most of his face, revealing only a pair of deep, cold eyes.
His gaze swept past everyone—human and pollutant alike—and landed directly on the edge of the rock where Yun Sheng was hiding.
Their eyes met.
At that moment, Yun Sheng’s breath caught in her throat.
She saw it.
The silver White Tiger Badge on his chest glinted coldly in the dim light.
White Tiger.
He really came!