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This battle came quickly and went quickly.

A cold wind, carrying a strong smell of blood, swirled and swept across the forest clearing, swirling up a few blood-stained, withered leaves.

Fang Cheng stepped on the crushed stone chips, which made a slight crunching sound.

A faint golden luster was faintly visible deep within those deep pupils.

Despite his seemingly slender figure, standing amidst the gray mist, he exuded a suffocating sense of oppression.

The tall, thin man was drenched in cold sweat, his camouflage uniform soaked through.

He quickly took half a step back, the soles of his military boots rubbing against the mud, trying to create a tiny, negligible safe distance.

Betraying the organization's core secrets and letting the news leak out will definitely lead to certain death if you go back.

but……

His peripheral vision swept across the distance, landing on the large locust tree that had been snapped in half.

If you stubbornly pretend to be a hero now, the pile of broken bones and mangled flesh belonging to your comrades lying on the ground will immediately become your fate.

Either way, I'm going to die, so dying later is better than being punched into mincemeat right away.

Even a fool knows what to choose now!
Thinking of this, the tall, thin man gritted his teeth inwardly.

Anyway, as long as he gets out of this military restricted area alive, he can go far away, hide in anonymity abroad, and perhaps he can still find a way to survive.

Have you thought it through?

Fang Cheng didn't give him much time to weigh the pros and cons. His gaze was fixed on the other person as if it were a tangible object, and he said in a calm tone:
"Tell me your identity and background first, and then I'll consider whether or not to leave you a whole corpse."

This extremely contemptuous remark was the exact word the tall, thin man had used to provoke him.

At this moment, Fang Cheng returned it intact, like a heavy hammer blow, making the hearts of these vicious thugs jump.

"I've thought it through! I've thought it through!"

The tall, thin man, his forehead covered in cold sweat, hurriedly answered:
"Brothers in the underworld are kind enough to call me 'Grey Eagle,' but you can also just call me Little Grey."

To demonstrate his innocence, he swallowed hard and began rattling off a string of words at breakneck speed:
“We are actually independent mercenaries who take jobs on the black market. We usually do things like clearing roads and scouting locations for others. We are not very familiar with each other.”

"This time, someone offered an exorbitant price to force us together and send us to the Xishan examination hall to do their bidding."

"I swear, we really didn't target you on purpose, nor did we intend to kill those candidates. We were just outsourced errand runners who were paid to do the job."

As he spoke, he quickly dropped the blood-stained military dagger from his hand and obediently let his hands hang at his sides.

He was terrified of causing any misunderstanding with this humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex and bringing about his death.

Fang Cheng looked at him calmly, then asked:

"What you're tasked with is finding the entrance to the ancient civilization ruins in Xishan?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Gray Eagle nodded repeatedly, forcing a fawning smile, and bowed almost at a ninety-degree angle.
"As you just heard, the real purpose of our group going to great lengths to sneak into the examination hall is not to establish a special search team, but to find the entrance to the ruins hidden in Xishan."

"You think you can pinpoint the location of the ruins just by wandering around the woods with a few of you?"

Hou Peng, clutching the dagger, his eyes flickered slightly, and couldn't help but interject.

"I'm not just wandering around aimlessly."

Seeing that Fang Cheng and the others seemed to know something about the secrets of Xishan, Gray Eagle dared not hide anything and quickly told the truth:

"The magnetic field in Xishan has been extremely turbulent recently, resulting in several weak points in the space barrier."

"The special search team detected the anomaly and launched a thorough search, eventually narrowing the search area down to the hinterland of Xishan, which is the test site area for this physical fitness test."

“After our employers received the definite information, they tried every means to get us in, intending to find the new spatial rift before the special search team.”

At this point, Gray Eagle swallowed hard, a greedy gleam gleaming uncontrollably in his eyes:

"As you know, the military tightly controls the entrance to the old ruins, keeping it strictly closed to the outside world, making it a monopoly."

"If we are fortunate enough to find a new entrance, enter that mysterious and vast new world, and bring out some ancient technology or rare treasures that can alter genes... the rewards would be unimaginable!"

"Money is the least important thing. As long as we have the resources in the ruins, we can master extraordinary power and become truly superior beings!"

"Pooh!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Donghe snorted coldly and mocked without any mercy:

"Why don't you take a piss and look at yourselves in the mirror? You bunch of scum, you think you can get your hands on meat right under the noses of the military and the special investigation team? Aren't you afraid of breaking your own teeth?!"

Gray Eagle's face twitched from the scolding, but when he met Fang Cheng's calm eyes, he immediately swallowed his anger.

His spine curved even lower as he tentatively suggested:
"Brothers, since we all share the same goal—to participate in the special search team's exam for that ancient civilization ruin—why don't we join forces..."

"Join forces?"

Fang Cheng interrupted him, his tone remaining calm:
"Can you make that decision? Why don't you contact the person behind you and have him come out and talk to me?"

"This...I..."

Upon hearing this, Gray Eagle's lips trembled slightly, and his gaze darted around, quickly sweeping across the dark forest around him.

He appeared unusually nervous, stammering and unable to utter a single complete word for a long time.

Seeing his guilty look, Ma Donghe took a heavy step forward.

The massive, bear-like body pressed down, and its large, fan-like hand clenched tightly, the knuckles cracking.

"Still trying to play dumb? If you don't confess honestly, I'll give you a punch the size of a sandbag—have you ever tasted one before?"

"Injustice!"

The gray eagle was so frightened that its legs went weak and it almost knelt down in the mud.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you, I really don't know!"

“The employer and we have always communicated through a single, encrypted channel. The only time we met, he was not only wearing a mask, but his voice was also altered using a voice changer.”

"We've never seen his face. You can ask them if you don't believe me!"

As he spoke, he hurriedly pointed to the six assassins standing behind him.

"Yeah yeah!"

Upon hearing this, the group of people all nodded in alarm, as if pounding garlic.

"By the way, the organization that recruited us is called 'Black Tide,' and it's said to be very powerful in Xia Country."

In order to save his life, Gray Eagle racked his brains and hurriedly came up with a name.

Kuroshio?

Fang Cheng's eyes flickered slightly as he silently recited the name in his mind, but he had no memory of it.

Ma Donghe and Hou Peng behind him exchanged a glance and shook their heads as well, clearly having never heard of it before.

A brief silence fell over the surroundings, broken only by the rustling of leaves in the cold wind.

Fang Cheng stared at the gray eagle for a full five seconds.

That gaze was incredibly penetrating, as if it wanted to peel away the layers of the other person's lies.

He only spoke again, posing a question, after staring at Gray Eagle until Gray Eagle felt a chill run down his spine and his legs trembled:
Why did Kuroshio choose you to handle this matter?

Seeing that Fang Cheng was no longer pressing for details about who his superior was, Gray Eagle's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and he truthfully confessed:

"To be honest, the reason I can become the leader of this team, besides my skills, is mainly because I have a special physique."

"I am extremely sensitive to higher-dimensional energy and spatial fluctuations. As long as I get within one kilometer of a spatial rift, my blood will flow faster and I can hear a piercing buzzing sound in my head, similar to an electric current."

"It was precisely because of this natural radar intuition that Kuroshio chose me."

“And this…” he said, reaching into his camouflage uniform and unzipping the vest beneath, carefully pulling out a palm-sized black device that emitted a faint red glow.
"Once I can find the general area by intuition and confirm it with this specially designed nuclear radiation detector, I can pinpoint the exact coordinates of the entrance."

Fang Cheng looked at the instrument, his eyes turning cold:
"So, why did you kill those examinees?"

Gray Eagle's face turned deathly pale in an instant, and he waved his hands repeatedly to explain:

"The murders... were actually all done at that person's behest!"

"He taught me a summoning array beforehand, saying it would allow me to establish a connection with the world where the ancient civilization ruins are located."

"However, this formation requires high-intensity life energy as a catalyst."

Meeting Fang Cheng's icy gaze, Gray Eagle could only grit his teeth and continue speaking:

"The police academy students and martial artists who come to participate in the assessment have much more vigorous blood and energy than ordinary people. As long as enough people are killed, the array drawn with their flowing blood will resonate strongly with the energy of the nearby ruins."

"That way, I can perceive it more clearly and find a more precise entrance location."

Upon hearing these remarks, Ma Donghe and Hou Peng felt a chill run from the soles of their feet to the back of their heads.

The three police academy students, including the man with the buzz cut, who were not far away, had bloodshot eyes and gripped their daggers tightly, wishing they could rush up and cut these bastards into a thousand pieces.

Using living human lives to draw arrays and serve as pointers for treasure hunting, these guys are even more inhuman than mutated beasts.

"It sounds quite like a Western blood sacrifice ritual to summon demons."

Fang Cheng gave a noncommittal comment, then narrowed his eyes slightly, focusing on the most crucial question:
"Now that you even have a way to find the entrance to the ruins, how do you get in?"

Gray Eagle wiped the cold sweat from his forehead:

"I don't know the specific method of entry, but that person made a guarantee that as long as we provide the exact coordinates of the location, he will personally come forward and lead us through the spatial barrier into that new world."

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng raised an eyebrow slightly:
"Is he in the line of test takers?"

Gray Eagle nodded repeatedly, swallowing more frequently, clearly extremely nervous.

He glanced instinctively into the thick fog around him.

It was as if the masked mastermind was standing in the shadows not far away, watching their every move.

"It's definitely there..."

Gray Hawk's voice trembled slightly:

"Since he's waiting for us to send out his coordinates and provide his location, he's definitely hiding somewhere in this area."

Fang Cheng keenly sensed that Gray Eagle seemed to still have some reservations on key issues.

They were preparing to press for further questioning.

Suddenly, a chilling scream interrupted their conversation.

"Ughhhhhh—"

The sound came from behind the gray eagle.

Everyone was startled and looked in the direction of the sound.

One of the Gray Eagles was writhing in pain in the mud.

He gripped his throat tightly with both hands, and due to the excessive force, his fingernails broke, causing blood to gush out.

To everyone's horror, his body began to twist in a bizarre manner.

With the cracking sound of bones breaking and reforming, his limbs stretched unnaturally, and his training uniform was torn inch by inch.

Large patches of purplish-black spots appeared on the skin's surface, and the fingernails on all ten fingers regrowed and hardened at a visible speed, turning into jet-black claws like those of a wild beast.

Fang Cheng narrowed his eyes slightly, a golden light flashing in his pupils.

This person was the first assassin to complete the mission and return to the team.

However, the faint black aura that had been emanating from the man's neck had now thickened to the point of being as dark as ink.

Countless tiny black threads, like clinging leeches, frantically burrowed into his blood vessels and muscles, seemingly taking complete control of his body.

"Old Dog, what's wrong with you?"

Gray Eagle cried out in surprise and uncertainty.

The old dog on the ground stopped rolling around and slowly raised its head.

In the darkness, everyone stared intently.

The face was completely distorted and deformed.

His jawbone was dislocated and elongated in an exaggerated manner, his mouth stretched all the way to his ears, and thick saliva dripped down his sharp fangs.

Those eyes, which originally belonged to humans, were now just pale whites filled with crimson blood vessels.

Gray Eagle was startled at first, then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he suddenly realized something.

He stared at the old dog's mutated body, and the fear in his eyes was replaced by a look of wild joy:
"He has been deeply infected by higher-dimensional energy! This means that the rift at the entrance to the ruins is nearby!"

"We found it! Haha, we finally found it!"

However, before Grayhawk could fully express his elation...

The laughter stopped abruptly.

The old dog let out a ferocious roar, its four limbs slamming into the ground like a hungry beast, instantly pouncing on the nearest companion.

"Ah! Get away!"

The assassin was caught off guard and was tackled to the ground by the old dog.

The old dog opened its blood-red maw and bit down hard on its companion's neck.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering all over the old dog's face.

He sucked greedily, making chilling swallowing sounds from his throat.

"Help! Boss, save me!"

The bitten killer screamed in agony, desperately pounding the old dog's back with both hands.

Seeing this, the other two assassins rushed forward and grabbed the old dog's arms from both sides, trying to pull it away.

But the old dog's strength after its mutation was astonishing. With a sudden swing of its arms, it sent its two companions flying more than ten meters away.

Hearing his subordinates' increasingly faint screams, Gray Eagle's face turned ashen, and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

"He's become a monster! Kill him!"

The remaining two assassins, gripping their military daggers, stared at their "comrade" whose mouth was full of blood, their legs trembling, and neither dared to step forward.

"A bunch of useless trash!"

Gray Eagle cursed loudly.

He knew that if they dragged this out any longer, the monster would be full of blood, and they would be the next to die.

So he picked up the triangular bayonet that had been lying on the ground, quickly circled behind the old dog, aimed at his back, and stabbed him hard with all his might.

puff!
The bayonet pierced the camouflage uniform, but made an extremely dull thud.

The blade pierced less than half a centimeter before being firmly stopped by the incredibly tough muscles on the monster's back, preventing it from advancing any further.

The old dog stopped sucking blood.

Then, he slowly released his dead prey, turned his head 180 degrees around, his face contorted with blood.

Looking at Gray Eagle, who was gripping his bayonet tightly and sweating profusely, he suddenly grinned and let out a chilling laugh. (End of Chapter)