Thud thud thud!

The heavy footsteps of the Giant Warrior echoed through the forest. Li Rui finally reached the southernmost point of Wangze State. He could already see the Demon Race guards at the checkpoint.

"Stop! Who goes there?"

A winged, unidentified member of the Demon Race blocked their path. Before he could ask more questions, a tall woman with slightly dark skin ran out from behind.

"Li Rui?! You’re finally back!"

Yu Xin was naturally thrilled to see the figure 0109, "Hurry up, everyone is waiting for you; something big has happened."

"Hmm, Duan Ling has already informed me, don’t rush. I’ll head to the command center first." Li Rui called the Giant Warrior to follow.

"I’ll take you there."

Yu Xin nodded towards Cheng Mingyue in the back.

Li Rui instructed the Giant Warrior to rest first, having traveled at full effort for so long, the Giant Ape was already exhausted.

He picked up Yuan Erliang, jogged a few steps to catch up with Yu Xin, and headed towards the command center.

The morale of both the Human Race and Demon Race here was visibly low, and when people spoke, it was only in hushed whispers.

Li Rui asked, "Did we lose personnel?"

Previously, Duan Ling only told him that the blade-wielding man with the hat had appeared. At that time, there had been no losses on the Dragon Country side, but it was clear something unfavorable had happened now.

Yu Xin, with a sullen face, said, "Yes, that world’s NPC is like a lunatic, specifically targeting powerful individuals, and many have already fallen victim to him."

Cheng Mingyue asked, "Who?"

"Conductor Kong, Conductor Wang, and Conductor Cheng."

"..."

Even Li Rui was left speechless, hardly able to believe the few real power figures at the command center had been wiped out: "Really?"

"Do you think I’d joke about something like this?" Yu Xin said loudly.

Li Rui and Cheng Mingyue exchanged glances, their hearts sinking.

They had discussed this on the way, but hadn’t anticipated the situation would turn out this bad.

After all, they initially received intel that the Polar Alliance and Western Kingdom had encountered difficulties and were requesting aid, who would have thought it would be themselves suffering heavy losses instead?

"Did they go to the NPC’s challenge and get wiped out?" Cheng Mingyue asked, somewhat confused.

In her mind, even if Cheng Wen made a decision, there would certainly be a comprehensive strategy, and wouldn’t be something done in haste.

Sure enough, Yu Xin explained, "No, that lunatic is an Assassin, but has a physique stronger than a Berserker. I heard from them; the officers were all suddenly ambushed and assassinated."

Li Rui scratched his head, "Hey, who is in command now?"

"Director Deng, and also Chen....."

"Don’t tell me it’s our Prophet."

"That’s right." Yu Xin chuckled dryly.

Li Rui shrugged, "Fine, I’ll go see what’s going on. Guan Gui and Dong Sanchuan are here too, right?"

"Yes, they are."

When Li Rui and Cheng Mingyue reached the command center, they could hear heated debates from outside the door.

"We can’t fight him, we just can’t. That guy kills a few and runs off, and we can’t even catch him."

"Encircle him! Surround him tightly. What about his Escape Technique? Can he escape a hundred miles in one go?"

"No, but not many can threaten him either, so how do you surround him? Once spread out, he can’t be found."

"So what do we do, retreat? Run north?"

"Running is futile, but since that person isn’t Zuo Qiutian, getting killed by him only means leaving the Secret Realm, not direct death. We can change tactics."

"Get to the point."

"The point is, we team up to harvest the loot, endure his assassinations, and gather as much as we can to minimize losses."

"... Isn’t that just admitting defeat! I disagree. Moreover, once he kills most high-risk individuals, the rest won’t hold for long."

"Then what do you say we do? If we insist on killing him, what if we fail?"

"If nothing else works, we’ll clash with the Polar Alliance and Western Kingdom. We give up the loot, and they won’t get it either."

Thud thud thud.

Knocking interrupted their argument.

"Hello, everyone, what’s the situation?"

Seeing Li Rui and Cheng Mingyue return, the crowd was naturally pleased.

"Hey, you guys are finally back."

Chen Cheng was no longer in his previous lethargic state. He had been slacking because someone else was holding things together, but with the crucial figures gone, he had to take responsibility.

"Where is Guan Gui?" Cheng Mingyue scanned the room but didn’t find those figures.

"On patrol, right now all our stations are on edge."

Advisor Deng said, "We asked cave-dwelling Demon Race for some signal arrows. Once that world’s NPC is spotted, we signal."

Li Rui glanced at the crowd caught up in indecision and directly offered his suggestion, "We need to kill him."

Upon hearing this, the militant faction’s eyes lit up.

"Exactly! Running and scavenging loot is simply unworkable, a lot will be wasted."

The escape faction wanted to object, but Li Rui strongly stopped them.

"Don’t waste time now. Time is of the essence; how long since the first of our people died?"

"Four and a half days."

"If we delay any further..."

Li Rui looked at the crowd, "The Polar Alliance and Western Kingdom will soon react and step in to ’help’."

Since his arrival, for some reason, the situation seemed to come under control immediately.

Of course, this was intentional by Li Rui, who indeed believed that Song Yuanhua needed to be killed; otherwise, future loot wouldn’t be attained peacefully, and the other two factions would definitely intervene, which would create uncertainty. Without commanders like Cheng Wen and Bearded One, they couldn’t hope for much.

The escape faction’s Advisor Deng said, "That’s the reasoning indeed, but the problem is, how do we kill him?"

Li Rui knew he first needed to stabilize everyone’s confidence, so he directly said, "To be honest, I received the ultimate reward on this Secret Realm battlefield—a three-slot Legendary Level weapon, with two exclusive insets, all affixes usable."

!!!

Everyone gasped; they understood the value of such a thing.

Typically, such details wouldn’t be disclosed to others, but to gain trust, he had to reveal it.

Besides Chen Cheng, everyone present understood the rarity of this gear with three slots and two exclusive insets, knowing the power it meant.

In short, under mythical level, nothing better exists.

Seeing the escape faction fall silent, Li Rui seized the opportunity and said, "Now I have the ability to kill that world’s NPC, but I need everyone’s cooperation and mobilization of a large number of people. If we can coordinate well, I believe we can resolve the crisis."

"If I fail, I will certainly become the top target for that guy. At that point, you should abandon me, follow the other plan, and just focus on the loot, okay?"

Upon hearing this, others had complicated expressions, seemingly wanting to speak but holding back, and almost wanting to laugh but restraining.

Cheng Mingyue asked, "What?"

Chen Cheng spread his hands, "We haven’t told you yet; that world’s NPC has long made you his prime target, asking everyone he meets: Do you know where Li Rui is?"

"....."

Li Rui rolled his eyes, "He’s already on the path to destruction!"