Chapter 126: Who Is It?

Huang Kun and his group were stunned—simply stunned. In such a short span of time, they had no capacity to think of anything else. But those who had come prepared were different.

After Fenina’s Pandora transformation, her attack power tripled. The golden-quality sword in her hand erupted with a brilliant radiance, as if a bright moon had been plucked from the sky and slammed into the ground.

Yes, right into the ground. Being immune to attacks did not mean one was immune to flying sand and rocks. The power of that strike shattered the earth, sending mud and stones spraying outward and filling the air with billowing dust.

"Damn it, I can't see them!"

The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all.

As their invincibility wore off, a dragon’s roar echoed from the sky, followed by a fierce gust of wind that swept away both the dust and the confidence of the eight men. Zhao Nan rode on the back of Osiris, while Fenina, still clad in her Pandora armor, shone with a blinding brilliance under the sunlight, looking every bit like a Valkyrie.

Huang Kun and his men had swapped to their backup weapons—they had no choice! But with this back-and-forth, the duration of their Invincibility Potions was nearly spent, leaving them no time to even consider how to organize a counterattack.

Zhao Nan casually cast Rock Armor on Fenina. As the eight men frantically unleashed skills into the air three or four meters above, Fenina leaped from Osiris’s back, sword in hand, charging straight into their barrage of attacks.

Rumble!

The skills exploded against her, but they first depleted the health points of the Rock Armor. By the time she landed, the Rock Armor still had one-fifth of its health remaining. Given the defense boost from the Pandora transformation, the base defense of the Rock Armor was terrifyingly high.

It terrified Huang Kun and his group, too.

Twenty seconds had passed just like that, as if in a trance! The attack they had spent a massive amount of contribution points to plan had been wasted. Not only had they failed to deal a single point of damage, but they had even dropped a level due to the side effects of their potions! This was a heavy loss.

"Retreat!"

Without the effect of the Invincibility Potions, it was impossible to fight these two. Even if they were to fight, they would need at least two or three times as many people.

Zhao Nan frowned and said, "Do you think you can get away?"

He swept his Soul-Devouring Staff forward, and countless gray mists erupted from its tip, instantly shrouding the entire space within fifty meters. These mists transformed into spectral tendrils, wrapping around each and every one of them.

Soul Roar!

This unique skill innate to the staff could not be copied, but its range was more than sufficient. The Soul Roar struck directly at the minds of the eight men.

Their character levels were far below 25, so they took 100% of the mental damage! Their heads felt as if they had been trampled over and over by ten thousand stampeding beasts; the sheer pain forced them to clutch their heads and drop to their knees.

Taking advantage of the effects of the Soul Roar, Fenina, in her Pandora form, rushed toward the nearest person.

The attack power of a Sky Sword Saint was already high, but what reached such a level when tripled by the transformation?

The sword light blazed, instantly slashing toward a Dark Mage. The mage was clutching his forehead with both hands, but as he saw the light flash, a look of sheer terror crossed his face.

He was filled with regret! The sword struck, splitting him cleanly in two from his face down through his body. His health bar was emptied in an instant!

Before taking the Invincibility Potion, this mage had been level 20. Even with the potion's side effect dropping him a level, he was still level 19! A level 19 character had a decent amount of health, but even factoring in defense and other stats, he had been wiped out in a single strike.

What kind of terrifying attack power and skill potency was required to achieve this?

In an instant, the remaining seven felt suffocated, stumbling about in panic as they tried to flee.

Mud Trap x2!

The ground beneath them turned into a mire.

Fenina held her sword low, flipped backward, and landed in front of one of them. Without a second thought, she thrust her blade. With a single strike, the man bit his lips, unable to utter a word, and departed the world filled with terror and regret.

Ah!

At that moment, two massive dragon heads of fire dove from the sky. A wave of flames rolled across the ground, and a figure collapsed, scorched black!

It was too terrifying!

They were almost all being killed in one hit! Huang Kun began to tremble... back when they had fought the Mutant Soul-Devouring Python King together, he hadn't realized how terrifying these two were; he had just thought they had a bit more attack power and speed!

But now, engaging them personally, he realized they were from two different worlds! Yet, how could he have known the horror of Fenina’s Pandora transformation? And he certainly didn't know the power of the Dark Gold quality staff in Zhao Nan’s hands.

Three! Since the invincibility effect had vanished, three companions had died in mere seconds, leaving not even a final word.

Thorn Vines!

One man was instantly restrained. At the same time, eighteen sword lights exploded outward. Fenina’s Star Combo tore through another man’s defenses, piercing him like a sieve. Under his pleading gaze, she delivered a swift finishing blow.

Four dead, one captured!

Only three remained, all fleeing in different directions. Just then, the monsters that had been cleared out earlier began to respawn.

The area was densely packed with monsters. None of the three had the ability to clear them in one hit; as they tried to escape, they were forced to face the siege of three or more monsters. While they didn't fear the monsters, they were terrified of the two killing machines behind them!

"I surrender! Spare my life! I will never go against you again!" one man, besieged by five or six monsters, begged as he fended them off while watching Fenina rush toward him.

Zhao Nan said coldly, "Leave one alive for questioning."

Fenina did not hesitate, striking the man down with a single blow. Meanwhile, in the distance, Osiris bit another man to death.

Only the little Ice Phoenix remained, exhaling a breath of frost that froze the final man, Huang Kun, along with the surrounding monsters.

Zhao Nan waved his staff, summoning a Meteor Shower to continuously clear the monsters on the field.

Huang Kun, struck by the Meteor Shower, groaned in pain, his health dropping to near zero.

Osiris swooped down from the sky, pinning him to the ground so he couldn't struggle.

Zhao Nan walked over and said, "Alright, who told you about my whereabouts? ...Well, asking you is a waste of time, I’ll just make you answer honestly."

He reached out and placed his hand on Huang Kun’s forehead.

Lost!

Huang Kun’s eyes went vacant as his mind was controlled. He spoke woodenly, "Someone provided us with your itinerary."

Zhao Nan frowned. "Who?"

Huang Kun replied expressionlessly, "I don't know. It was just a physical letter."

Zhao Nan pondered for a moment. "Could you deduce who it was before this?"

Huang Kun shook his head.

Zhao Nan snorted coldly. Osiris lowered his head, opened his dragon maw, and crushed Huang Kun’s skull.

...

...

Zhao Nan watched the corpses melt into the earth. His brow furrowed. Fenina canceled her transformation and walked over, also frowning. "Any leads?"

Zhao Nan shook his head. "I didn't tell anyone before I left. Only we can see our own teleportation records... which means that from the moment we set out, we were being plotted against."

Fenina’s expression shifted. "Zhan Zhao and his wife... could it be them? They were the ones who delivered the mission scroll, so they were the only two who knew the location."

Zhao Nan sighed. "If it were just them, that would be fine. I'm afraid there might be someone else behind this... someone manipulating everything from the shadows. Judging by the situation, these two shouldn't be the masterminds. You see, if the ambush succeeded, that would be one thing, but if it failed, they would be the first suspects. It would be a huge risk... Of course, it's also possible this is a psychological game they’re playing..."

"Then, who could it be..." For a moment, Fenina was at a loss.

In Tingfeng City, the only person Zhao Nan could trust unconditionally was Fenina. Even Xiong You and Ya Nan were among his list of suspects, though the possibility was extremely low.

"Let’s continue with this mission," Zhao Nan said after a long silence.

Fenina disagreed. "But someone wants you dead; we should find out who as soon as possible! We can't let them go!"

There was a murderous glint in her eyes, and for a split second, a flash of black light seemed to pass through her jewel-like pupils. Zhao Nan didn't notice it and smiled, "The person hiding in the shadows won't be easily discovered. Searching for a needle in a haystack—who knows how long that would take? Instead of that, it's better to wait for them to show their hand."

Fenina said with pleasant surprise, "You’ve thought of a way?"

Zhao Nan replied, "Just a simple concept, not fully fleshed out yet. I'll decide on the specifics later, but the first step is to finish this mission."

Since Zhao Nan had a plan, Fenina stopped insisting. The two of them simply collected the bracelets dropped by the eight men. Although they had been ambushed, they had still gained something.

On the road ahead, Zhao Nan kept his detection skills, Wind of Listening and Wind of Agility, active, but by the time they reached their destination, they didn't encounter another player.

The location specified by the mission scroll was in a small lake within the valley.

Zhao Nan opened the scroll, and a golden light shot into the calm surface of the lake. Then, a series of mild tremors occurred, as if something was about to break through the water.