Chapter 114: Chapter 111: Little Mouse, I Finally Caught You! -1

Near the intense battle zone between the blood-faced black-robed figure and the gray-clothed old woman, white fog churned rapidly under the ferocious wind, at times thick as to obscure fingers, and at times thin as gossamer.

Within the fog, the faint outlines of countless figures could be glimpsed.

Lin Yue hugged her shoulders, her disarrayed clothes stained by mud, sweat, and blood. Her once tender and soft face was now strewn with terror.

"Are we going to die here today...?"

"No... Isn’t the black-robed figure in the sky being held down...?"

Ling Biao attempted to console.

"But... But the one on the ground..."

Murmuring, Lin Yue’s gaze involuntarily shifted to a human corpse not far away, her pupils trembling, the tender flesh on her cheeks instinctively shivering.

Shang Jie—This scout who had a Tooth Beetle as his Contracted Spirit, after being by their side for six days, was dead - dead on the night of the sixth day!

Lin Yue’s head felt like it was filled with lead-weighted water, it was so heavy and stifling that she couldn’t speak a word.

Ling Biao, who had been trying to soothe her, was silenced as well, his lips trembling and his terrified eyes echoing the same fear.

It was nothing but self-deception. How many of their fellow students could survive this night?

Or perhaps, all of them... were going to die?

"This is the Four Ghosts Mercenary Group. The Blood-hand Sparrow is infamous."

"And its master is that blood-faced black robe, known as ’Ghost Hand’, a ruthless assassin who would do anything for rewards. An assistant from Canghai Pavilion was brutally killed by him once..."

Wei Hongying squatted down, her expression intensely grave as it could be.

She was fully alert to a figure in the fog that was consistently moving and jumping around. With her voice lowered, she strived to remind the students behind her:

"I suspect... their target may be Miss Xinfei."

"The entire trial field is not worth the Four Ghosts Mercenary Group’s exploration. They wouldn’t kill people out of boredom."

"The only one that makes sense to be their target here is Miss Xinfei."

"Even, they may have tricked Branch Conductor away, which explains this approximately fifteen minutes gap where they suddenly appear and initiate precise killings."

Upon saying this, Wei Hongying gritted her teeth with fiery eyes.

As an assistant, she had to watch her own students die one by one before her eyes.

This feeling of powerlessness, this sense of humiliation... It is unbearable!

"You all must hold on, the Branch Conductor surely has noticed something is wrong and is on his way back."

"Plus, there is a 3rd Order powerhouse stationed in the training base to the east. As long as they get here, the Four Ghosts Mercenary Group can’t do anything, they will have to escape."

"But... how do we hold on..."

"It’s as if we’re lambs waiting to be slaughtered, if not for Assistant Wei desperately protecting us, we would have all been dissected long ago..."

A member of Team Li Jingming who clutched at his severed arm had a face as white as snow.

His face, distorted from intense fear, was hysterically deranged.

"Calm down. Do not easily give up until the final moment."

Li Jingming applied an emergency medicine to his bleeding stump, a determination in his eyes but no resentment.

"Grandma Mo Xuan.... Has she been by my side the whole time, protecting my safety?"

"Their target... is me?"

"Why? Just because I am a descendent of the Wang Family? Can they take revenge on the Wang Family by killing me?"

Hazy and lost, Wang Xinfei, who was riding an armored horse, asked herself these questions.

"You also need to calm down, even if you are the target, we can’t possibly hand you over."

Li Jingming’s voice was as gentle as ever, containing a bit of calming strength.

The Ghost-Faced Moth resting on his shoulder gently flapped its wings, seemingly echoing its master’s sentiments.

"Struggle then, continue to struggle!"

"It’s true, our target is indeed the little miss of Wang Family. It doesn’t matter, we can boldly tell you."

"And then what? What can you do?"

"You can only struggle agonizingly, and this helpless expression of yours is indeed pleasing to the eyes..."

The brazen and sickly voice echoed in the midst of the fog.

With a swish, a large white toad covered in pores and carrying chimneys on its back suddenly leaped down from a tree branch towards the ground.

Its aim was the armored horse, and if it managed to sit down, the majestic and proud warhorse would either be dead or crippled.

"Scram!"

Wei Hongying turned around lightning fast, pulling the bowstring in her hand and swiftly firing a poisonous arrow.

At the same time, her Contracted Spirit, the ’Bouncing Wood Demon’, leaped up from the ground. The flat wooden head of the creature grew sharp wooden spikes aiming at the Chimney Frog.

"Croak!!"

The Chimney Frog exhaled a large amount of smoke. The smoke lifted it, changed its direction, and abruptly crushed another student who had been hiding in the corner.

Before Wei Hongying’s second fury-filled arrow could be shot, the Chimney Frog beneath Ghost Hunt bound away, once again disappearing into the fog.

"Another... Another one’s dead..."

"It seems like... it’s from Li Jingming’s team... the hunter..."

The sound of swallowed saliva resonated continuously.

Glancing at the horrified faces around him, Li Jingming took a deep breath, trying to suppress some turbulent emotion.

The hands hidden beneath the blue satin were slowly and uncontrollably clenching into fists.

"Haha, I advise you to cooperate. Hand over the little miss of the Wang Family to us actively."

"Don’t worry, we won’t kill her. She’s a walking and breathing ransom. She’s only valuable to us alive... Eh?!"

There was a loud bang, and the Chimney Frog showed its true form, escaping awkwardly to one side.

Behind it, the Ghost Panther suddenly attacked, fiercely biting a chunk of flesh from its back, causing it to cry out in pain.

"Your opponent...is me!"

Ghost Hand, riding the Blood-hand Sparrow, followed suit. The Hand of Evil Blood reached out, capturing the neck of the Ghost Panther.

Just as the Ghost Panther was about to vanish, Ghost Hand sneered. He suddenly channeled all his malice into the body of the Blood-hand Sparrow.

Active Ability—Bloodlust Infusion!

For a moment, a hazy, bloody-black aura appeared around the already murderous body of the Blood-hand Sparrow.

The madness in its eyes intensified, and its speed surged. The Hand of Evil Blood clenched into a fist and swung.

With a thud, the Ghost Panther, which had disintegrated into shattered shadows and reformed its body, revealed its original form in another direction.

The old woman on its back, her mouth dripping with blood, fixed her icy gaze on the Blood-hand Sparrow.

"Dare to provoke our Wang Family, your Four Ghosts Mercenary Group, will be exterminated..."

"Heh, scared yet."

"The most powerful member of your family is just the 4th Order Wang Lutai, right?"

Ghost Hand showed a nonchalant smile, about to say something.

Suddenly, he saw the old woman turn and run, riding the Ghost Panther, and head straight toward Wang Xinfei on the ground.

"Miss, quickly take back your armored horse, and let’s leave."

"If you escape, wouldn’t I have been hanging around all these years for nothing?"

Ghost Hand revealed a cruel smile. The Blood-hand Sparrow beneath him emitted dense bloody threads that stretched hundreds of meters and tightly entwined the body of the Ghost Panther.

"Ghost Hunt, stop dawdling, grab the girl."

"Zhi Zhengqing will be back soon, if you don’t want to be killed by him, take the girl away before he gets back."

"Yes!"

Ghost Hunt glanced at the bloody, mangled back of the Chimney Frog, his eyes filled with cold light.

...

Five hundred meters away, hidden in the twilight, Ye Hanjun held his breath and kept still, not daring to make any movement.

Due to the fog and trees blocking his sight, he couldn’t see the whole scene.

However, the shouting echoed in his ears, every single word clear.

Indeed... Wang Xinfei was a huge trouble!

She didn’t even have to do anything, just being herself drew the covetous eyes of those with ulterior motives.

So, what should he do?

The main combat strength is anchored in the Jade Infant fetus, and the secondary combat strength is also the Rainbow Light fetus.

With his current strength, it would be difficult to intervene and change the one-sided, dire situation that was full of slaughter.

Perhaps in the end, the old woman could escape.

But the chances of Wang Xinfei escaping were less than thirty percent...

The probability of all the other students dying at the hands of the Chimney frog... is close to ninety percent.

Even Wei Hongying, her strength is far inferior to Ghost Hunt. She can barely hold on and buy time simply because the Chimney Frog’s talents aren’t fully focused on attacking and she possesses some protective tools.

Waiting for Zhi Zhengqing to come for reinforcement... this is also unrealistic.

The leader of the Four Ghosts Mercenary Group, that man called Ghost Hand, could even effortlessly defeat Dong Xuan.

Zhi Zhengqing, who was significantly weaker than Dong Xuan, would likely meet his doom when he returned.

The only thing one could rely on was probably the other powerhouses stationed at the training base.

But by the time they discovered the situation here and rushed over, it would take at least 20 minutes...

Ye Hanjun’s mind was racing, and his heart sank deeper and deeper.

—This situation, it seemed, was impossible to solve!

The Four Ghosts Mercenary Group was clearly prepared. In addition to their already powerful strength, they also used tactics to gain every possible time advantage.

They even might have anticipated earlier that there would be bodyguards around Wang Xinfei.

Under these circumstances, this trial will likely turn into an inferno, burying all students, assistants, and mentors...

Ye Hanjun’s temples throbbed.

He quickly cut off his stray thoughts and turned around to look at the slowly approaching figure not far away.

It was a robed man wearing a gray mask.

His body was extraordinarily large, two point four meters tall.

The upper half of his body was particularly tense, his muscular contours clearly visible, like a beast in human form.

His mask was half broken.

The exposed half of his face bore a deep claw mark visible to the bone.

But he had applied medicine and stopped the bleeding preliminarily.

At his side was a grey dog as tall as his chest, covered in rotting flesh, as if it had just undergone a rebirth ritual from a pile of corpses.

It also had many claw marks on its body, as if it had just ended a brutal fight in severe distress.

"Woof..."

The gray dog’s white eyes were directed at the smoke-like Ye Hanjun.

Ghost Tooth, showing his half-exposed face, revealed a creepy smile.

"Little mouse..."

"...Finally caught you!"