An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 73 So they're distinguished guests!
A monster with a large number of unknown attributes!

After the initial panic, the trial participants quickly recovered and surrounded the monster, taking turns attacking. Meanwhile, Chai San skillfully moved around the monster, making full use of his defensive advantages to provide cover for his teammates.

The people who came to participate in the trial were basically battle-hardened veterans. Although the monster was strange, it could not scare them. As everyone worked together, the speed at which the monster's flesh grew could not keep up with the speed at which it was injured. Before long, its deformed body collapsed.

But what chilled everyone to the bone was that even as he died, the boy's face, which was no longer recognizable, still wore a strange smile.

"Damn it! This is a trap! Those damn bastards!" Zhou Juncai cursed angrily.

The others also had a cold glint in their eyes.

“So why don’t we strike first and kill all these villagers to end it all?” Wu Xiujie walked over from a distance, holding a long knife in his hand, his face smeared with monster blood, which made his already cold temperament even more ferocious. “Anyway, judging from the previous ritual, even if these villagers are not followers of some evil god, they are most likely involved!”

"Instead of constantly guarding against their ambushes, we might as well slaughter the entire village! We can also use that to extract the information we want!"

A cruel smile spread across his face: "I don't believe everyone here is so stubborn!"

"Are you animals?!" Chai San roared. "You started a killing spree without even understanding the situation. How are you any different from animals?"

"Indecisive!" Zhou Juncai's eyes flashed with intense killing intent. "If you don't act now, tell me how you plan to obtain information about the ritual? Kneel down and beg them? Remember Jiang Xue's words? The closer you get to the mission deadline, the harder it is to complete! If you just wait any longer, it's a total wipeout!"

"Moreover, that boy turned into this monster after being burned. Can you guarantee that the other villagers won't turn into one? There are thousands of villagers here. If they all turn into similar monsters, even ten lives wouldn't be enough for us to die!"

"What if there are innocent people among them?"

"Who has time to care about this? Kill them all!"

"I disagree!"

The two argued fiercely, and the group of trial participants quickly split into three factions, with some supporting and others opposing, while most remained undecided.

They were certainly aware of the danger, but they couldn't bring themselves to immediately slaughter over a thousand people!
Just when neither group could convince the other, a weak voice suddenly rang out: "B-Everyone, I feel like something's not right."

The voice stopped the two sides arguing. They looked in the direction of the sound and found that the speaker was the trial participant whose arm had been grabbed by the charred corpse at the beginning.

With the powerful physique of a Level 9 Awakener, ordinary burns are usually not considered serious injuries. However, this person was pale and was clutching his arm tightly, as if he was enduring some kind of pain.

On his burned arm, blisters appeared, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to be moving, as if insects were crawling inside his arm!
"Yes, there's something!" the man cried out in terror. "It's coming out!"

With a heart-wrenching scream, to everyone's astonishment, the skin on the trial participant's arm suddenly ripped open, and countless pieces of flesh and blood gushed out! In the blink of an eye, the flesh and blood grew to three or four meters long, like tentacles made of flesh and blood!

"what!!!"

This horrific scene completely broke the trial participant. He screamed and frantically waved his arms, while countless tiny protrusions could be seen crawling up his arms and down to his neck from under his skin!
"Hey, calm down!" Chai San roared.

But that person had completely lost his mind, and the flesh and blood that grew out seemed to have its own will, surging towards the other trial participants!
Even more terrifying is that at the moment this person underwent mutation, the progress of the ritual, which had remained stagnant, began to accelerate wildly!
[Current Ceremony Progress: 12%]

[Current Ceremony Progress: 13%]

[Current ceremony progress: 15%!]

At that moment, an arrow shot out and pierced his head with precision.

The trial participant swayed, then collapsed heavily to the ground, lifeless. It was Wu Xiujie who had made his move; the powerful attack of the Heavy Archer (B) instantly took the trial participant's life.

"You..." Chai San opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything more.

He had already discovered that the series of anomalies had pushed the nerves of the trial participants to their limit, and any slight movement would trigger their attack.

Just when everyone was on edge, Chu Xiu's calm voice rang out: "There's something wrong with that flame."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's faces turned grim.

That mutated monster was not only powerful, but anyone touched by its flames would also undergo a mutation!
This requires them to do more than just defeat their opponents in battle; they must fight without taking any damage!

This is just a bit too much, isn't it?

Thinking of the terrifying appearance of the dead trial participants, everyone's expression was quite grim.

"The clueless clues and the village where everyone is hostile are bad enough, but every monster that appears is a level 9 elite, and we are forced to complete it without taking any damage! What's even more outrageous is that they even planted a traitor among us!"

Chu Xiu had been observing for a while, but he couldn't figure out anything strange about anyone, which gave him a real headache.

"And the most infuriating thing is..."

As the trial participants underwent mutation, the ritual progress began to accelerate rapidly.

In other words, Chu Xiu not only had to protect himself, but also had to worry about the lives of others!

This gave him a huge headache.

As we all know, protecting ordinary people is the most troublesome task, as they are vulnerable and prone to causing trouble.

"In this situation, we have to break with conventional thinking."

"We must strike first!"

Just as Chu Xiu was pondering, he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps.

He looked up and saw that the villagers who had been hiding in the house had come out and were approaching him in a surrounding manner.

Their eyes were strange, filled with greed and longing, as if they were looking at some kind of mouthwatering food rather than at a person.

"Crash."

Suddenly, the crowd parted to make way for the black-armored man who had presided over the ceremony, who strode in with a group of guards.

He glanced at the corpses of the trial participants, a look of surprise and eagerness spreading across his face.

"Oh, so you're distinguished guests! Why didn't you say so sooner?"

(End of this chapter)