Chapter 58 Assassin in the Dark Night
A night breeze brushed past, stirring up a few withered leaves that swirled around the dead, silent area of the rockery.
He Ting’s senses were like a tightened bowstring; the surrounding stillness did little to put her at ease, instead intensifying the ominous premonition growing within her heart.
She could even vaguely "hear" that the withered vines and lifeless bushes were all silently transmitting a faint fear born from sheer instinct.
"Captain," He Ting’s voice carried a trace of suppressed, slight trembling. She swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty, "It’s... too quiet here. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Yeah." Liu Ye swallowed a mouthful of saliva as a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. Cautiously glancing around, he too felt the atmosphere here was somewhat bizarre—eerily, unnaturally quiet.
On the other side, Wang Quan was already on edge due to this eerie silence, and He Ting’s words made his hair stand on end.
Putting on a bold front, he flailed his arms and cursed toward the distant, pitch-black rockery:
"Playing God, you cowardly beasts! If you've got the guts, get the hell out here! See if I don't chop you into mincemeat!"
The dark night infinitely magnified the fear in a person's heart, and he was using this method to bolster his courage.
Liu Ye tightened his grip on the alloy staff, his palms already slick with sweat.
Striving to maintain a captain's composure, he said in a deep voice, "Shut up, Wang Quan! He Ting, keep scanning. Maintain our formation and advance with caution!" Despite these words, the fine beads of sweat seeping from his temples betrayed his inner turmoil.
After all, he was merely an ordinary esper, and this was his first time encountering such a situation. He had no idea who the enemy was, yet two of his teammates were already dead.
"Anyway, let's stay away from the darkness, stick to open ground as much as possible, and stop scaring ourselves."
……
In the shadows, Xia Tong was like a sculpture blended into the thick night. Her cold, glazed cat-like pupils precisely locked onto the three approaching figures through the sparse gaps in the withered brushwood branches.
Step by step, they were drawing closer to death.
Her mind rapidly simulated the impending battle. It was imperative to strike swiftly and decisively, preferably seizing the initiative to sow panic first.
That woman called He Ting possessed plant-based perception that posed a considerable threat to her; she had to be eliminated as a top priority, or at least rendered temporarily incapable of judgment. Xia Tong waited patiently for the optimal flaw that would guarantee a kill with a single strike.
As for the abilities of the other two, the "Source Core" provided simple information prompts at the very first moment:
[Liu Ye, Earth Manipulation Attribute, Tier 1, Three-Star]
[Wang Quan, Arm Mutation Attribute, Tier 1, Three-Star]
……
……
Right at that moment, a sudden change occurred!
Because of his internal fear and impatience, Wang Quan’s attention was somewhat divided, and his foot accidentally stepped on a section of dead branch half-buried under the fallen leaves.
*Crack!* A crisp snap exploded like thunder in the dead silence, clearly reaching everyone's ears.
"What was that sound?!" Wang Quan himself was startled and abruptly looked down.
The opportunity had arrived—right now!
Xia Tong’s glazed cat-like pupils flared brightly!
At the very instant Wang Quan lowered his head, distracted, and the formation loosened slightly, a thread of deep blue water—so faint it was almost imperceptible, mixed with a trace of extremely pale gray flowing light—shot out silently from the shadows of the withered bushes like a long-dormant viper!
Its target was none other than Wang Quan, the most emotionally unstable member of the team who had just made a mistake. Xia Tong chose to disable his mobility first to generate a greater sense of panic.
In a critical one-versus-many battle, unknown terror would introduce greater variables, favoring her next wave of attacks.
"Ah!"
The water thread struck with absolute precision!
Wang Quan felt a piercing chill in his right calf, as if it had instantly frozen solid. Immediately following that, an inexpressible, violent pain swept over him like a tidal wave. He couldn't help letting out a shrill scream, his body stumbling and nearly collapsing.
The wound pierced straight through his shinbone, gushing forth crimson blood.
The next second, a bizarre scene unfolded!
The moment the blood gushed out, the flesh at the edge of the wound began to slowly lose its normal color, rapidly turning ashen and withered—just like decayed wood exposed to the scorching sun for days. It was as if all vitality and moisture had been instantly sucked away by an invisible force, emitting a faint, nauseating aura of decay!
"My leg! What's wrong with my leg?!" Wang Quan looked down in terror at the bizarre wound on his calf, his voice warped by extreme fear.
"Wang Quan!" Liu Ye and He Ting turned pale with shock simultaneously and rushed to look at him.
An earthen-yellow energy shield instantly rose around them, wrapping the group tightly inside. He Ting waved both hands, and countless emerald light motes materialized, swarming into Wang Quan’s bleeding wound. Fortunately, the injury at the site was slowly repairing itself, and the decay was being continually suppressed.
"Hiss..." Taking in the gruesome state of Wang Quan and that bizarre wound made the entire team's scalps tingle instantly.
He Ting instinctively pushed her plant perception to its absolute limit, attempting to locate the source of the attack. However, the exact moment her sensory tendrils spread outward, Xia Tong made her move.
She deliberately stirred the surrounding botanical aura, cleverly blending it with her own wood-attribute energy. It was like throwing countless chaotic noises and false signals into He Ting’s sensory network, rendering the information she gathered杂驳 and completely chaotic, making it utterly impossible to accurately determine the attacker's position.
"Who on earth is it?" Their psychological defenses were marching toward collapse step by step.
"Damn it! What kind of monster is this?"
Witnessing the horrifying transformation of Wang Quan's wound, an unprecedented and intense sense of crisis washed over Liu Ye like freezing water. He let out a furious roar and, paying no heed to helping Wang Quan, indiscriminately unleashed an attack toward the direction of the bushes where Wang Quan had made a sound earlier.
Several earthy-yellow energy bullets whistled through the air, slamming heavily into the rockery. With a deafening boom, shattered stones flew in all directions and dust filled the air, yet they hadn't managed to scratch a single hair on Xia Tong.
Taking advantage of the chaotic attacks, Xia Tong swiftly navigated through the darkness on her jet-black paws. Like an assassin walking in the dead of night, she instantly relocated to another towering tree trunk.
Her next target was the team's "eyes"—He Ting! She could not afford to give her enough time to adapt to this interference, nor could she allow her the opportunity to lock onto her precise location.
Amidst the heavy chaos, the formation had gradually scattered; they were not only strung tight with tension, but also had to face potential attacks coming from all directions.
……
"Did you detect anything?" Liu Ye pressed his hands against the ground, a faint earthy-yellow glow flickering as he erected a tall stone barricade on the spot.
Xia Tong raised her eyebrows slightly...
It's useless. I'm right above your heads.
"Not yet..."
At that moment, He Ting was frowning deeply, exerting all her focus to sort through the messy, fluctuating sensory signals in her mind, trying to filter out useful information. Little did she know her back was completely exposed along Xia Tong's line of attack.
Her cold, glazed cat-like pupils remained utterly devoid of fluctuation, the whiskers at the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. A deep-blue water arrow—far more condensed than the one used against Wang Quan—began to assemble silently in the air before shooting precisely toward He Ting, who had her back turned!
This time, she aimed straight for He Ting’s vital heart!
*Thud!*
A muffled sound, so faint it was almost negligible.