CHAPTER 81: SCENT OF DEATH

Chapter 81: Scent of Death

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The afternoon sun was high in the sky, shining brightly and casting its light down upon the land.

In the forest near the mine, a skinny looking man dressed in simple black robes leaped from tree to tree, heading straight toward the mine’s entrance.

He was one of the sentries from the mercenary group, assigned to keep an eye on the place to avoid any surprises during the day of the expedition.

He had been stationed there for almost a week, and only this morning had he left briefly to deal with a beast that had wandered too close to the area.

He was bored, so he decided to play with it a bit, and now that he was done, he was heading back.

To someone of his status, standing guard here felt beneath him, far too trivial a task,

but orders were orders, and there was little he could do about it.

He kept leaping from one tree to the next until he was finally close to the mine.

As he came to a stop to find a spot to settle in for his watch again,

something caught his attention, and he jumped down, landing at the base of a nearby tree.

He hadn’t been able to see clearly from up there, so he assumed it was just another beast roaming the area.

But unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the case.

His eyes widened as he saw something sticking slightly out from a bush near the tree roots.

It was a foot, a human foot.

Alarmed, he approached carefully and soon realized something was odd about this group of bushes, there were too many in one spot, piled unnaturally.

It was obvious someone had moved them, likely to hide whatever was behind.

He had a bad feeling and, with a serious look on his face, brushed the bushes aside with ease, only to find two people slumped behind them.

His expression shifted to confusion, but also alarm, he could tell they weren’t dead, just unconscious.

But that didn’t matter.

What did matter was that these people weren’t from his group, and as far as he knew, no one should’ve been anywhere near this place, let alone hidden and passed out.

Realizing something was wrong, he searched their bodies for anything to identify them,

but he found nothing.

No badge of affiliation, no recognition talisman, nothing at all.

It was far too strange, and though there was no solid reason yet to jump to extreme conclusions, he didn’t want to take any risks.

"I need to report this to the boss immediately," he muttered, pulling something out from his dimensional ring and injecting his spiritual Qi into it.

It was a communication talisman, capable of sending messages to the person linked to it.

As the runes on it began to glow, he opened his mouth and began recording the message.

"Boss, I think we’ve got a problem."

Unaware of any of this, the battle inside the underground mine raged on, and soon the massive swarm of beasts began to retreat as their numbers were thinned by the second.

The push caused by Yun Hao’s suppression of the giant centipede had reignited everyone’s fighting spirit, and coupled with the confusion among the beasts after their leader’s fall, the tide of battle quickly shifted.

As this happened, the guardian beast of the place glared at the man before it, eyes filled with ferocity, while he slowly approached,

dragging his greatsword along the stone floor, its blade screeching with an eerie, sharp sound that seemed to foretell its victim’s grim fate.

Seeing the beast’s furious expression, Yun Hao sneered as he prepared to end its life.

"You can only blame yourself for getting in my way," he said, as the aura around the greatsword’s blade began to swell.

He was just a few steps away now.

Gripping the hilt tighter, he raised his sword to deliver the finishing blow.

Sensing the cold grasp of death approaching, the beast began to struggle in vain, letting out a ferocious roar with the last of its remaining strength.

but neither the human nor the serpentine shadow behind him seemed to care.

In fact, seeing the beast struggle so helplessly only made Yun Hao laugh louder.

Raising the sword high, he grinned.

"Hahaha, look at you, finally acting like the insect you are."

He brought the sword down with force,

But at that very moment, like a bolt of lightning crashing through everyone’s mind, everything stopped.

Then, a terrifying pressure erupted across the area, making the very air tremble.

Everything, beasts and humans alike, froze in place.

No one dared to move, as if a blade had been pressed against each of their necks, ready to strike at the slightest twitch.

The sensation lasted only a second before vanishing just as suddenly as it appeared, but no one moved.

No one dared to.

Everyone stood stunned, their minds racing to make sense of what had just happened, but they didn’t get the chance.

Because the next moment, the very beasts that had been ferociously attacking only seconds before suddenly stopped.

They turned and bolted, diving into the tunnels and cracks they had emerged from earlier.

Seeing this, even the cloaked men shook off their daze and exchanged confused, frightened glances.

"W-what was that?" Yun Hao muttered, his voice low and tinged with both seriousness and a slight tremor.

His body trembled involuntarily, as for a moment, he had genuinely felt like death was coming for him.

But the sensation passed quickly.

And just as he was recovering from the shock, the entire cave shuddered.

The ground beneath them began to crack.

It all happened too fast,

First, a massive crack split the entire floor in two, and then both halves began to crumble like shattered glass.

No one had time to react.

The floor gave way completely, swallowing everything above it into a deep, yawning abyss,

dragging down all who stood upon it.