73: Chapter 73 The Fourth Team! Punishment for Not Searching?

The Fourth Team!

The footage from the [flying bird drone] was transmitted onto the visor.

Chu Hong's expression was both astonished and grim.

As it turned out, the direction from which the explosion came was none other than the southern cliffside, the location of the descent point.

A fully-manned five-person team clad in pitch-black attire, whose outfits and style clearly stood out in stark contrast to the rest of the Pioneer Squads on the map, was unilaterally suppressing another squad on the southern cliffside with terrifying combat coordination.

Along with the Lizardman Warriors rushing over from the outpost.

"Brother Hong, what's wrong?"

Seeing Chu Hong's grim expression, Wang Suming couldn't help but grow nervous as well.

Chu Hong didn't speak. Instead, he raised his hand, and a light screen rose from his arm armor, beginning to broadcast the external perspective of the [flying bird drone] in real-time.

In less than a minute, casualties had already appeared within that Pioneer Squad on the southern cliffside.

A woman in black unleashed a skill that actually allowed her to control dense swarms of black flying insects.

In an instant, they completely enveloped a Pioneer from the opposing side.

In the blink of an eye, amidst a series of shrill, miserable wails, the flying insects dispersed, and the latter had already turned into a corpse riddled with holes.

"Hiss! What the fuck! Th-this, what kind of method is this?"

Wang Suming sucked in a breath of cold air.

Song Jiaojiao, however, was the first to realize that something was wrong with the situation: "How could a fourth team pop up out of nowhere?"

The [flying bird drone] hovered high in the air.

And the three of Chu Hong watched with their own eyes as, in just a few minutes, that team of people in black successfully killed the other full five-person team in a near-crushing manner.

Then… they severed the heads and stashed them into their backpacks.

Wang Suming turned pale as he watched: "Th-they, what do they want people's heads for?"

Chu Hong and Song Jiaojiao didn't speak. However, when the two exchanged glances, they completely saw the solemnity and coldness in each other's eyes.

"These guys aren't here to explore the mystic realm and collect items at all…"

Within the footage of the [flying bird drone].

As if sensing something, a masked man wearing a bamboo hat among the five-person team suddenly raised his head.

Immediately after, a pitch-black dart suddenly magnified in Chu Hong and the others' perspective.

"Pfft!"

The screen went pitch black.

The [flying bird drone] had been destroyed!

Chu Hong's gaze flickered: "Judging from the final footage, this team's next target isn't entering the core area, but rather… the other team at the river valley entrance!"

"The Black Hole Council!" Song Jiaojiao squeezed out a few words with difficulty from between her teeth.

"I heard my dad say that those guys from the Black Hole Council have a way to enter the mystic realms they want to go to from other places, without needing to come to the entrance at the mystic realm point."

"…"

The atmosphere instantly turned heavy.

The three looked at each other in dismay. In the footage just now, the combat power displayed by this Pioneer Squad of people in black was at least around the seventh or eighth stage of the Qiyuan Realm.

Moreover, unlike the Cleaver Squad that Chu Hong and the others had dealt with previously.

This bunch of people's equipment and combat literacy could completely crush the Cleaver Squad.

"Brother Hong, you're the captain. Do we fight or retreat? You make the call!"

Holding a large shield, Wang Suming gazed intently at Chu Hong with burning eyes.

Beside him, Song Jiaojiao was also looking at him.

"Right now, if we retreat along this secret passage and take the northern cliffside, we can directly evacuate…"

Leave?

Being watched by the two, Chu Hong almost immediately rejected this thought in his heart.

Right now was the most critical and perilous juncture for Huangshan Base City.

Wang Suming and Song Jiaojiao might not know the horror within the mystic realm [Cliffside Epidemic Hospital], but Chu Hong was well aware of it!

Chu Hong asked himself that he was by no means any sort of hero.

But… to let him sit by and watch as Huangshan Base City fell out of control at the [Cliffside Epidemic Hospital] due to the deliberate sabotage of this bunch of stinky rats in the gutter, leading to the destruction of the city and the death of its people.

Chu Hong couldn't do it!

Besides… they were by no means completely powerless to fight.

Chu Hong gave a deep look at Song Jiaojiao, who was also gazing intently at him in front of him.

Just as he was about to say something, he was resolutely interrupted by Song Jiaojiao.

"If you're a man, swallow that nagging bullshit back down! I'm your teammate now, so don't expect to spout any ghost talk about letting us evacuate first!"

Chu Hong was choked up quite a bit by Song Jiaojiao's profanity, which was extremely inconsistent with her image and temperament.

However, a trace of a smile immediately appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Alright! Since you've already said so… Fatty, do you dare to give it our all?"

Wang Suming chuckled: "Brother Hong, asking that is totally redundant! Fuck those bastards!"

"Alright!"

Chu Hong slapped his thigh.

Amidst the puzzled gazes of the two, four emerald-green medicine syringe tubes suddenly appeared in his hand.

"Don't ask where these things came from, and you aren't allowed to leak it after we go out either. I only have one request… when the fight starts, go all out and fight without holding back! The moment your Source Energy consumption is about to fail to keep up, use it immediately! Don't hesitate!"

Song Jiaojiao took them. Seeing the attributes and effects of the two [omega venom stimulant]s among them, her pupils trembled violently.

Golden quality!

And it was a consumable that could instantly restore all Source Energy!

Where did Chu Hong get this from?

This thing was obviously produced in a sci-fi style mystic realm, but aside from the [Thunder-Horned Lizardman Tribe] mystic realm, what other sci-fi style mystic realms had Chu Hong been to?

Although her heart was churning with stormy seas, Song Jiaojiao still nodded solemnly.

Suppressing all the doubts in her heart.

"Brother Hong, tell us, how do we do this?"

Wang Suming put away the stimulants. Not only could not a shred of fear be seen on his face, but he even wore an eager, ready-to-try expression instead.

Chu Hong smiled slightly.

"Although it's unclear how they entered the mystic realm, since they appeared at the descent point, then when they evacuate, they will inevitably have to go to the evacuation point!"

"From the very beginning, we didn't cause any commotion on the northern cliff, and the northern Lizardman outpost is also completely normal. Therefore… they won't know that in this game, a team actually descended on the northern cliff as well!"

Instantly.

Wang Suming and Song Jiaojiao's eyes lit up immediately.

Waiting in ambush!

Camping the evacuation point!

…

"What kind of people are you? We'll just cede the core area to you, why must you drive us to extinction!"

"Quick, we're almost at the evacuation point! Hold on a bit longer!"

"Bastards! I've remembered what you look like. Once we get out of the mystic realm, we will definitely report this to the Pioneers Guild…"

Above the southern cliffside.

A man in black was holding a sniper rifle with an exaggerated design.

His expression was calm and icy.

Source energy surged in his hand, channeling into the sniper rifle he held. Through the earpiece, his cold and composed words, which seemed to have been repeated countless times, were transmitted into the ears of his companions who were currently hunting down their targets at the bottom of the cliff.

"Prepare to shoot, target number three."

As soon as his voice fell.

Down at the bottom of the cliff, the man in black who was brandishing a broadsword and conjuring an airtight curtain of blade light in front of him suddenly yanked a step back.

The Pioneer, who was fiercely and viciously hacking back and forth with the opponent, was taken aback.

Immediately following that.

"Bang!"

A bowl-sized bloody hole abruptly burst open at that person's chest under everyone's unprepared circumstances.

The remaining four Pioneers, all covered in injuries, instantly turned even paler one by one.

"Old Jiang!"

"Brother Jiang!"

Above the cliffside, the sniper rifle's scope emitted a cold reflective light.

However, under the gaze of that ghastly white light, the man hit in the vital spot by a single shot could only fall backward onto the ground in resentment and fear.

At this moment, the scope had already re-acquired the next target.

"Prepare to shoot, target number four!"

As the words fell, without any hesitation, the black-robed magician—who was wielding a magic wand and controlling the fine, tender grass on the ground to turn into dense green ropes in an attempt to restrict the opponent—instantly retreated.

"Bang!"

It was still the location of the heart.

However.

This time, this Pioneer did not drop dead instantly like Old Jiang before him.

Source energy bloomed upon the longsword in his hand, and under circumstances that the few people by his side never expected at all, he suddenly slashed toward his own people.

"Ah——"