118: Chapter 118 Blood and Ashes of Slaughter

In the dense forest, Jiang Ruoxue leaned against a broken ancient tree as a chill suddenly permeated the air around her.

Knowing she could no longer continue to circle and fight, she drank her last bottle of recovery potion, forcibly driving the remaining meager amount of mana in her body to unleash her trump card secret technique— [Eternal Frost Coffin].

The biting ice spread rapidly from her as the center, condensing into a thick, translucent crystal barrier that protected her firmly in the middle, like a square coffin.

She did not use this secret technique this time to counterattack or kill enemies, but merely to struggle for a moment of life, leaving herself a sliver of breathing room.

However, her mana consumption was too severe, and she was suffering from internal injuries, making it impossible to maintain the secret technique for long.

Fine spiderweb cracks spread across the surface of the ice coffin, the cold air dissipated rapidly, and the strength of the barrier continued to decay, on the verge of shattering completely.

On the periphery, four members of the Hunting Squad stood in a surrounding formation, staring coldly at the withered Jiang Ruoxue inside the ice coffin.

The captain glanced at the joint operation timer panel; 3 minutes remained. The safety time limit was still sufficient, and they could finish the job leisurely.

"She won't be able to hold on much longer; there's no need to continue wasting time."

The captain slowly raised his palm, his cold voice echoing through the forest:

"Prepare, one combined strike, and end this farce."

As the words fell, the other three focused their energy simultaneously.

The archer condensed spiritual power into an arrow, the heavy blade user charged up explosive power, and the mage brewed a high-level fire spell. Four distinct beams of energy intertwined and lit up the forest, locking tightly onto the tottering Eternal Frost Coffin.

The four killing moves were fully charged, rushing toward the ice barrier with the power to crush everything.

Just as the attacks were about to touch the ice coffin, the moment Jiang Ruoxue closed her eyes, prepared to be eliminated—

Boom!!

[Blood Ember Burning Kill]

A crimson, blinding blade aura broke through the air from afar, crossing hundreds of meters of forest space, crashing down with majestic and domineering power!

The extremely sharp blade aura swept horizontally, forcibly cleaving the four fully charged lethal attacks in half.

The violent energy collision kicked up rolling waves of air, the entire forest shook violently, broken branches and dead leaves flew everywhere, and the attacks the four had concentrated for so long disintegrated instantly.

The four members of the Hunting Squad were startled, subconsciously withdrawing their moves and retreating, looking vigilantly in the direction the blade aura came from.

The dust slowly cleared, and a tall, straight figure stepped over the chaotic fallen leaves, walking unhurriedly into the center of the battlefield. Faint blood-colored baleful aura lingered around him; it was Lin Yan, who had arrived at full speed after receiving the location signal.

His gaze swept faintly over the scene, his eyes finally landing on the injured and weak Jiang Ruoxue inside the ice barrier, his expression sinking slightly.

The cracks on the ice coffin continued to expand. Jiang Ruoxue opened her eyes with difficulty, and after seeing who it was, her tightly strung nerves suddenly relaxed, and her tense body nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

The four members of the Hunting Squad, however, had completely changed their expressions. Looking Lin Yan up and down, seeing he was alone, they didn't recognize his identity at first.

Especially the captain; he stared intently at Lin Yan, finding him more and more familiar the longer he looked.

Suddenly, his pupils constricted sharply.

"Wait..."

"You..."

"You are the eighth on the leaderboard..."

"Lin Yan?!"

The other three stiffened at these words.

The ease on their faces completely vanished, replaced by shock.

Just a short while ago, the leaderboard had just refreshed.

That name, Han Zhiyuan, fourth on the elimination points leaderboard, whose points had soared by 1.1 million.

The entire battlefield knew of it.

And now, the owner of that name was actually standing before them.

For a moment, cold sweat seeped from the foreheads of all four.

The captain suppressed the shock in his heart and said in a deep voice:

"Don't panic!"

"It's four against one!"

"Even if he is eighth, we may not be without a chance!"

The other three looked at each other and nodded one after another.

But their hands gripping their weapons had already begun to tremble slightly.

The captain's eyes were cold, calculating secretly; greedy thoughts were still at work in his heart.

Now that the four of them were working together, four against one, they had the numerical advantage.

If they could kill the eighth-ranked prodigy, the point gains would be incredibly rich.

He gritted his teeth, holding onto a wishful mentality of fighting to the death, and ordered in a deep voice:

"Even if he is strong, two fists are no match for four hands. If the four of us coordinate well, we might be able to take him down. Attack together!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the burly man took the lead, brandishing his heavy blade and charging forward, a violent blade wind slashing toward Lin Yan's head, intending to suppress him with brute force first.

Facing the incoming attack, Lin Yan stood motionless, merely raising his right fist casually and punching forward simply.

A dull, explosive sound suddenly rang out.

The seemingly plain punch contained the terrifying power accumulated from the monsters he had casually killed on his way here, combined with his Physical-Magic Dual Cultivation. The heavy blade in the burly man's hand shattered instantly, and before his body could even let out a scream, it was pierced through by the fist energy and transformed into white light on the spot, eliminated from the field.

In just one move, the most ferocious close-combat fighter of the squad had fallen.

The remaining three witnessed this crushing scene with their own eyes; the lingering wishful thinking they had was instantly torn apart by fear, and they couldn't help but tremble all over.

They had originally thought to use their numbers to test the opponent, but only now did they realize that the gap in combat power between them was not on the same dimension.

The young archer was terrified out of his wits, no longer daring to have any will to fight, turning around and fleeing frantically into the depths of the dense forest; the mage and the captain also felt the urge to retreat, running for their lives in different directions, hoping only to save their own lives.

Unfortunately, they were too slow...

Three slashes, and the battle was over.

Lin Yan moved toward the crumbling Eternal Frost Coffin; the ice, having lost external pressure, shattered into pieces and dissipated completely.

He looked at the scarred and blood-depleted Jiang Ruoxue and asked: "How are your injuries?"

Jiang Ruoxue struggled to stand firm; the chill of the ice barrier still lingered on her, and the blood in her chest was still churning uncontrollably.

She raised her eyes, looking at the calm and indifferent figure before her who had just crushed her desperate situation, a complex, indescribable emotion flashing in her eyes.

Pride, unwillingness, embarrassment, relief... all intertwined together.

She shook her head gently, her voice somewhat weak, yet still carrying the stubbornness in her bones as she explained:

"It's nothing, just superficial wounds. I encountered a mana depletion rule earlier, and my mana was completely drained, then I was ambushed by them."

Though she claimed it was nothing, her slightly pale lips and inability to steady her breathing had already exposed her condition completely.

Lin Yan glanced at the wounds on her shoulder, arm, and abdomen.

"The external injuries aren't serious, recover first."

As he said this, he took two bottles of recovery potion from his storage space and handed them over.

"Thank you."

After slowly drinking the potion, her pale complexion finally regained a bit of color.

The two did not speak for a while, and the forest returned to silence.

After a moment, Jiang Ruoxue suddenly spoke softly.

"That item... I ended up using it."

She lowered her head, her tone somewhat complex.

"I'm sorry."

Lin Yan looked at her with some confusion.

"Why apologize?"

Jiang Ruoxue was stunned for a moment.

"Because... before, I always thought I wouldn't need to use it."

"And I didn't want to rely on others."

Lin Yan said calmly:

"It's not shameful to ask for help when encountering danger."

"Since you have it, you should make good use of it and maximize its effect; that is the correct approach."

"The competition cannot achieve complete fairness and justice; it can only be said to be relative. Before we even entered the Dungeon, many people had already obtained data on most of the contestants to target them."

"And although this Dungeon has restrictions on teaming up, it is not completely prohibited."

Hearing these words, Jiang Ruoxue slowly raised her head.

She realized that Lin Yan did not have any contempt for her because she had asked for help.

Nor did he think she was weak; he was just stating a very ordinary fact.

The last bit of awkwardness in her heart gradually dissipated.

She nodded gently.

"Mm."

"I understand."

After a moment of silence, she suddenly looked at Lin Yan earnestly.

"This time..."

"Consider it that I owe you one."

Lin Yan shook his head.

"Before entering the Dungeon, I promised the Jiang Family that I would look after you within my capabilities."

"Let's go, the circle shrinkage is about to begin again."

...

And at this moment, at the canyon ruins.

Wen Xiaoyou stared blankly in the direction Lin Yan had sped off in, chasing after him and shouting:

"I haven't caught up yet! I haven't caught up yet!"