Chapter 251 – Little Woodpecker

“Cluck, cluck, cluck—”

The sound of rusted joints turning and colliding.

In the desolate square of corpses, it was eerily clear.

All five members of the team noticed it, and their bodies involuntarily stiffened.

They watched with wide eyes as a bizarre Crowman statue atop one of the five stone pillars started to come to life bit by bit. The creature had a humanoid appearance, but its arms were elongated past its knees, and its hands were clawed like those of a bird.

The statue, which had originally been facing the central stone pillar in a posture of worship, gradually lowered its body. Its head creaked as it twisted around.

Its eyes were wide open, with tiny scarlet pupils spinning rapidly, locking onto the entire five-person team.

Large amounts of black death energy gushed from every pore of the strange Crowman’s body, spreading an aura of evil, decay, and coldness.

The dark energy cascaded down the pitch-black stone pillars like a tide, enveloping and sweeping over the five of them in an instant.

“Evil energy wave…”

All five had activated their monitors for evil energy waves.

At that moment, the data in their eyes was plummeting like a waterfall, a predicted value frantically fluctuating.

Target evil energy wave level: Level B.. Level A… Level A+.. S… S+…

At last.

When the letters jumped to level SS, they finally stopped.

In an instant, an unprecedented sense of horror and dread surrounded the five of them.

Their hair stood on end, and their scalps tingled!

“Whoosh—”

A gust of black wind swept by, and the Crowman atop the stone pillar disappeared from their sight.

Immediately, the piles of corpses beneath the five stone pillars began to part to the sides.

In the black wind seemed to be hidden an invisible, extremely sharp scythe.

Wherever it passed, all the corpses were silently sliced in half.

Xie Jun stared intently at the advancing black wind, as alarming gashes formed on the white stone ground of the square.

His mind finally broke free from the immense terror and shock, driven by his duty as captain, he shouted loudly.

“Run!”

In an instant, the five figures broke free from their frozen state almost simultaneously, turning around to flee.

“Zzzap—”

A burst of blue electricity exploded from Xie Jun’s body, propelling him forward with a sudden leap.

The remaining four also had strong energy radiance erupting from their bodies, scrambling to escape.

Xie Jun was the fastest among them, propelled by the electromagnetic energy field within him, making him shoot forward like a cannonball.

But no matter how fast he ran, the sense of fear gripping his nerves didn’t diminish one bit, instead it grew heavier…

A thick shadow of death enveloped him.

“Swish—”

A slight, blade-like sound sliced through the air near the back of Xie Jun’s head.

Instinctively, Xie Jun turned his head for a quick glance.

What he saw—

A member of the Golden Bear team, who was trailing at the back of their fleeing team, had been caught by the Black Wind…

He showed no signs of struggle or pain.

His body, still in a running position, was silently sliced into pieces from head to toe, with crimson blood gushing out…

“Boom!”

A massive explosion rang out, and the heat wave pushed the remaining few even further forward.

Xie Jun didn’t know how long he had been running, but he just kept his head down and charged forward.

Until a massive wall of black death energy crystals blocked his path.

He finally stopped.

“Huff—huff—”

Xie Jun panted heavily, not so much from physical exhaustion, but more to calm his inner tension.

Once his emotions had slightly settled, he looked up to search for his companions.

Not far away, two equally disheveled figures met his gaze.

“Old Xu and Ouyang…”

“They’re dead.”

The woman with only half her hair left, her whole body emitting a faint red glow, said grimly, “I saw Old Xu being sliced into pieces by that Crowman, and then it took Ouyang’s head…”

Xie Jun couldn’t utter a single word, and the other person’s face was pale, their lips tightly pressed together.

Their team configuration was nearly the top among Yellow Bear and Golden Bear Level squads.

Each member had a capability of S-level or above, and they were somewhat renowned within the mystic deity group circles.

This time, they had come to explore the Wailing Ruins, and everything had been going smoothly.

Who would have thought that just a few minutes after entering this so-called “restricted area,” they would lose two members.

“No wonder even the Flying Bear General fell here. An SS-level crow deity emissary, and there’s not just one…”

Xie Jun’s face was grim, almost unable to speak.

“Shhh—”

A sound like a soft breeze blowing through.

The slight hint of sadness that had begun to creep into the trio’s hearts made them jump like startled birds.

Their eyes darted towards the source of the sound, and what they saw was—

In the distance, a tall, human-yet-crow-like Crowman monster was walking toward them slowly.

The Crowman monster had two crow’s claw-like arms hanging by its sides, its pitch-black scythe-like nails dragged along the ground, producing a “shush-ing” sound.

A bizarre and exaggerated grin was plastered on its face, the corners of its mouth nearly reaching its ears, with fresh blood still staining its edges.

Its cheeks moved, as if chewing something.

Seeing the Crowman’s figure, an icy chill once again gripped the hearts of Xie Jun and his two companions.

Their faces turned pale instantly, bodies trembling uncontrollably.

The Crowman, having awakened from its slumber and eaten, seemed to want a post-meal game.

It didn’t charge at them directly but smiled, step by step, slowly approaching.

And it was this behavior that made Xie Jun and his companions even more terrified.

The Crowman’s approaching figure, growing clearer, symbolized the encroaching shadow of death.

“Clang!”

The two superalloy electromagnetic longswords on Xie Jun’s back suddenly unsheathed, hovering aimlessly in the air.

“There’s a way out, there has to be…”

Xie Jun forced himself to calm down, big drops of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Just at that moment.

“Boom!” A loud noise rang out in his ears.

Xie Jun whipped his head around.

He saw the woman with half her hair left, her entire body radiating a red glow as she furiously attacked the black crystalline wall of death energy in front of her.

“That’s it!”

A flash of inspiration struck Xie Jun’s mind.

“Smash through this crystalline wall, and we can get out!”

“The distress signal has been sent; if we can hold out a little longer, we might survive this!”

With that thought, Xie Jun became invigorated. Electric light erupted from him as he swiftly grabbed the two electromagnetic flying swords hovering above his head.

With electricity coursing through them, the two swords turned into blazing white lights in his hands.

Xie Jun’s muscles bulged, veins popping, his expression turning fierce from the exertion.

“Open for me!!”

He channeled his entire electromagnetic power, crossing the two swords and slashing them forcefully at the crystalline wall.

“Boom!”

A massive burst of electric light splashed out.

“Pant… pant…”

Xie Jun, still holding the swords, looked at the spot he had just struck with great anticipation.

However, the hopeful expression on his face froze instantly.

The crystalline wall of death energy was as pristine as ever.

Even his full-power strike… hadn’t left so much as a scratch.

Could this crystalline wall really be so hard that not even a level S attack could break it?

All the strength drained from Xie Jun’s body, leaving him standing there in despair.

The Crowman was still closing in, step by step. A deep sense of hopelessness surged in Xie Jun’s heart.

But an impatient voice dragged him out of his despair.

“Stop standing there like an idiot, you two!”

The woman with half her hair, still frantically attacking the crystalline wall, turned and shouted at Xie Jun and the other man, her eyes gleaming with a strange light.

“Old Xie, it’s useless to hit there. Come help me here, this part of the wall is much thinner…”

Xie Jun was stunned, then he glanced at where she was pointing.

Sure enough, there was a large, spider-web-like crack forming on the crystalline wall in front of her.

Hope bloomed in his heart once again.

He and the other team member quickly rushed over to the woman’s side.

“Boom!”

The woman’s mechanical iron fist, glowing red, hammered the crystalline wall of death energy, but it didn’t budge.

However, immediately afterward, an even louder “boom” reverberated through the air.

Under this echo, the crystalline wall began to spider and crack, as though it might shatter at any moment.

“What’s happening?”

Xie Jun was taken aback, yet overjoyed.

The woman shook her head, “I don’t know. I only started trying to break the crystalline wall when I noticed this… It seems like some kind of special mechanism.”

Narrowing her eyes, she analyzed, “Perhaps this spot is an exit or a node of the crystalline wall. It feels like we’ve accidentally stumbled upon the right way to break through the crystalline wall…”

Xie Jun frowned, finding her theory somewhat far-fetched, but with the shadow of death creeping closer, they had no better options.

They had to pin all their hopes on this “way out” before them.

“Attack! With everything you’ve got!”

Xie Jun made a decisive call.

The three of them immediately threw all their power into assaulting the crystalline wall in front of them.

It seemed as if the woman’s guess was correct. As they joined in, the frequency of the resonating “booms” from within the wall increased significantly.

The cracks on the crystalline wall grew more numerous and dense.

Seeing the Crowman just tens of meters behind them, its decaying, icy, and malevolent aura crashing over their nerves in waves, the trio’s spirits and emotions peaked like never before.

Their desperation for survival pushed them to tap into unprecedented reserves of strength.

“Now! Together…”

Xie Jun’s veins popped as electricity coursed through his entire body. With a roar, he slashed at the crystalline wall with his twin swords.

“Smash it!”

The woman with half her hair and the other team member were equally frenzied, launching their strongest attacks alongside Xie Jun.

“Boom!”

Their three attacks collided with the crystalline wall, and with a resounding “crack,” a fissure appeared.

Instants later…

“Crack, crack, crack—”

A series of fine cracking sounds echoed as the fissures in the crystalline wall grew more numerous and dense.

Xie Jun and his two companions watched with their eyes gleaming, their expressions of anticipation intensifying with every passing second.

And then…

“Boom!” An unprecedentedly loud explosion shattered the crystalline wall before them.

But just as smiles began to form on their faces, their pupils contracted sharply in horror.

A massive, sweat-covered arm, flushed red with bulging veins and emanating intense heat, suddenly thrust through the broken crystalline wall.

With unstoppable momentum, a fist the size of a boulder rapidly expanded in their field of vision.

Finally… with a heavy “thud,” the fist landed squarely on the face of the woman with half her hair, who was standing closest to the wall.

Without even a grunt, she was launched like a cannonball, flying an indeterminate distance away.

“Crash—”

A towering figure, more than two meters tall, with wild black hair, forcibly squeezed through the broken crystalline wall and strode into view.

The tsunami-like pressure from the figure engulfed Xie Jun and his remaining companion, casting an enormous shadow over them.

Both stood frozen, their faces locked in expressions of shock, their bodies stiff.

Slowly lifting their heads, they stared blankly at the fierce face above them, which still bore faint traces of its former handsomeness.

The figure leaned down slightly, looking down at them with a mix of surprise and realization, speaking in a deep, gruff voice, “So it was you making all that noise… I was wondering where the little woodpeckers came from…”