Inside The Black Mist

The figure rolled on the ground, immediately took aim, and started shooting. Blue beams pierced through the wanderer\'s chest, illuminating the face of Yan Bing in his helmet.

After killing the wanderer, Yan Bing fired a sweeping shot that turned the two monsters crushing Tianyang into a bloody mess. They could no longer withstand the beam fire and lifted a claw to defend.

The pressure on Tianyang eased slightly, and the young man immediately counterattacked.

First, he kicked away one wanderer, then raised his hand to press the Death Knell\'s barrel against another\'s chest and pulled the trigger.

The thunderous gunfire echoed through the mountain\'s cavern, causing several stone pillars to shake. The wanderer\'s chest was blown open, leaving a gaping hole the size of a human head, and its will cage turned to ashes!

Tianyang stood up and joined Yan Bing. At this moment, they were surrounded by more than a dozen enhanced wanderers. These distorted figures glowing with yellow light, like demons risen from hell, were drawn by the blood and flesh scent of humans and charged with evil, terrifying howls.

The blade of the Crimson Moon Warblade glowed with a crimson light, and Yan Bing raised his assault rifle high. Both he and Tianyang roared and charged at the enemy.

Unexpectedly, the monsters that were howling like madmen suddenly went silent. Their movements halted simultaneously, and one by one, they collapsed to the ground while running.

The yellow light in the blood vessels on their bodies dimmed rapidly, and their mutated forms began to dissolve, turning into a puddle of mud in no time.

This left Tianyang and Yan Bing momentarily stunned until they heard a sharp whistling sound coming from the direction of the pool.

Over there, Xiaoniao was sheathing her sword and retreating. The woman embedded in the Dead Tree’s trunk was covered with crisscrossing gray-white frost lines, which Xiaoniao seemed to have sliced through dozens of times in an instant.

The frost lines cracked, and the woman’s will cage disintegrated with a crash. Scarlet light, like fresh blood, floated up and gradually vanished into the air.

After a piercing howl came from the tree trunk of the Dead Tree, its branches began to droop, and the roots started to disperse from the ends.

In an instant, the entire Dead Tree was reduced in height, its outer layer peeling away and turning into decayed black mud.

At this moment, something rolled out from the tree trunk’s depths. Xiaoniao approached it and found it was a still-beating heart! It was surrounded by some fine black roots that seemed to be floating and moving as if held by an invisible hand.

Even though the heart was slowly crystallizing, the roots showed no signs of stopping, which was quite eerie.

Xiaoniao took out a recovery vessel and put the Dead Tree’s dropped material into it.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

While Tianyang was resting, Xie Miao\'s voice came. The shameless man who had fled without fighting had now arrived with other Ascenders, applauding as he walked.

Xie Miao wore a completely insincere smile. "You’ve worked hard, well done. When we get back, I’ll give a good report to the command center. Considering how tough it was to take down the Dead Tree, our ranking on the battle leaderboard should rise a bit."

"We?"

Yan Bing looked furious. They had taken down the Dead Tree with their combined effort, and what did Xie Miao have to do with it? This jerk hadn\'t helped earlier and now was jumping out to claim credit—how shameless!

Tianyang stood up expressionlessly. "Why didn’t you help earlier?"

Xie Miao seemed prepared and replied nonchalantly, "It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help. I was just waiting for the right opportunity. Believe me, I actually wanted to come to your aid but couldn’t find the chance."

"But, you didn’t really need my help. It was just a Dead Tree; you guys managed fine. As you can see, the Dead Tree was indeed taken down by you, proving my foresight..."

Xie Miao’s vision suddenly blurred, and he looked up to see the cavern\'s ceiling darkening.

What was going on?

He staggered back a few steps, feeling a sharp pain in his face, and then realized.

He had been punched!

Looking over, Tianyang had turned into a blur and then took another punch to the stomach.

"Dammit..." Before Xie Miao could finish swearing, he received an elbow strike to his nose. He hurriedly covered his face, his palms filled with warm blood from his nose!

After taking three hits, he finally had a chance to shout, "Bastard, how dare you hit me! I’m the commander, I’m a lieutenant! This is insubordination; arrest him!"

Several Ascenders exchanged glances, hesitating as they drew their weapons. Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and Xiaoniao rushed to Tianyang’s side.

With her slender sword in hand, she pointed at the Ascenders and said in a stern voice. "Put away your weapons!"

Yan Bing gritted his teeth and came over, guarding Tianyang from the other side and pointing his gun at one of the battle gods.

The atmosphere in the cavern grew tense as the two teams faced off with drawn weapons.

Seeing the Ascenders hesitant to act, Xie Miao yelled and reached for his sword.

A cold sensation suddenly hit his forehead—he was being held at gunpoint by the Death Knell.

The young man holding the gun drew his battle blade, the Crimson Moon Warblade resting on Xie Miao\'s sword hilt. Tianyang looked at him with a deep voice. "If you hadn\'t fled in battle, they wouldn\'t have had to die."

They, of course, referred to the soldiers from the vanguard team.

"Just some cannon fodder; they can die. There are plenty more in the training camp if needed!" Xie Miao roared, "Right now, you should worry about yourself! Assaulting a commander and turning weapons on comrades—every one of these is a serious crime!"

"I’ll report you to the command center! Just wait..."

Bang!

Tianyang struck Xie Miao on the temple with the butt of his gun, causing Xie Miao to scream and collapse to the ground, clutching his head. Tianyang then kicked him and said, "Someone like you, who does nothing and abandons your team, has no right to be a commander!"

"As for the rest, I don’t care. From now on, I will act independently and no longer follow anyone’s orders. The fact is, entrusting your life to a cowardly leader is a serious mistake."

"I won’t make the same mistake twice."

Tianyang sheathed his knife, and the Death Knell was still aimed at Xie Miao as he stepped back.

Xiaoniao and Yan Bing followed, having already decided to stick with Tianyang and not remain to serve Xie Miao any longer.

Fuming, Xie Miao didn’t dare to act rashly, given that he had just seen the power of the Death Knell. He didn’t want his head blown off by that exaggerated weapon.

Helpless, he could only endure. Once Tianyang and the others\' figures disappeared into the darkness of the mountain\'s depths, Xie Miao got up.

Clutching his head, he roared at the Ascenders. "Useless! Can’t you be even more cowardly? There are only three of them! And none of you dared to move!"

Anger flared in the eyes of the Ascenders. One of them spoke in a deep voice, "Xie Miao, you’re just a temporary commander, not our captain! You have no right to scold us!"

"Besides, wasn’t the situation we faced just now caused by your poor command?" another Ascender added.

Others nodded in agreement, and Xie Miao was startled, realizing he had lost his composure earlier. He quickly tried to remedy the situation. "I didn’t order support because I was thinking of everyone’s safety. The battle situation was unclear at that time. I planned to understand the Dead Tree’s actions better before going to rescue."

"But I didn’t expect the Dead Tree to be taken down so easily. So, if my command was flawed, it was only in not providing timely support."

"Regardless, my rank here..."

"I want to leave," said one of the dissatisfied Ascenders. "I don’t want to be the one abandoned next time."

"Me too."

"I’m coming with you."

Immediately, the team scattered, with several Ascenders forming their own groups and heading back the way they came.

Xie Miao was surprised that they didn’t regard him at all and just dispersed. He shouted at their retreating figures, "Do whatever you want! You bunch of useless fools, I can’t even be bothered to lead you!"

"Damn it, it’s all that white-haired kid’s fault! It’s you who made me look bad. I’ll deal with you!"

In the underground space, both time and distance became quite vague.

After leaving the Dead Tree’s cavern, Tianyang used the air flow to determine the direction and led Xiaoniao and Yan Bing through what seemed like endless tunnel passages.

After walking for three hours, the group stopped to rest.

Tianyang and Xiaoniao took out high-energy rations to replenish their strength, while Yan Bing packed a portion of survival supplies into the extractor. After eating, Tianyang looked apologetically at the two of them.

"After we get back, it might lead to some punishment for you."

Xiaoniao shrugged it off. "We didn’t do anything wrong, so why worry? Even if you hadn’t beaten that bastard, I would have wanted to cut him a few times myself. He left us behind, and such a shameless person deserves military discipline!"

Yan Bing added, "Sir, if the command center asks, just report the truth. We can all testify. That way, the command center shouldn’t make things difficult for us."

Tianyang nodded. "I hope so, but if the command center insists on pursuing it, you can place the responsibility on me. Since it started because of me, I should bear the consequences."

"Don’t worry, General Fei Mei... Cough General Fei Mei is very fair; she won’t favor someone like Xie Miao," Xiaoniao said confidently.

She then took out the container holding the Dead Tree’s materials and handed it to Tianyang. "This is for you. It’s the material from the monster tree."

Tianyang pushed it back. "No, the Dead Tree was your kill, so the material should belong to you."

Xiaoniao firmly pushed it into Tianyang’s belt pouch. "If I say it’s yours, it’s yours. If you hadn’t pointed out that the woman on the tree was the Dead Tree’s will cage, I wouldn’t have known if I could have taken it down."

"By the way, Tianyang, how did you know that the Dead Tree’s will cage was that woman?"

Tianyang cleared his throat. "Instinct, a soldier’s instinct."

He couldn’t reveal his ability to sense weaknesses, and just then, Tianyang suddenly picked up an unusual sound.

Initially thought to be the wind, but when he focused, he vaguely heard a dog barking.

In the depths of the underground, where did a dog come from?