154: Chapter 153 They're ungrateful! They slaughtered dozens of them all.

Lin Feng looked at Johnson, his eyes as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

Johnson's lips were trembling, and his legs were shaking. He wanted to speak, but his throat felt as if it were being squeezed by something, and no sound came out.

Of those lying on the ground, some were groaning, some were struggling, and some were already motionless.

Blood stained the sand red, and the air was thick with the smell of gore.

Lin Feng withdrew his gaze and put away the dragon slaying sword and the azure thunder sword.

He turned around and began walking into the distance.

His pace was neither rushed nor slow; his boots made dull thuds as they stepped on the sand.

After a few steps, he stopped, his back turned to the group.

“I'll let you off easy today. If I see you again, none will be left alive.”

After saying that, he continued walking.

His figure grew more distant and smaller, like a grain of sand merging into the desert.

Johnson stood there, watching Lin Feng's silhouette disappear over the horizon.

His face changed from deathly pale to ashen, and then from ashen to a flushed red.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Behind him, the others crawled up from the ground. Some clutched their wounds, some picked up their weapons, and some wiped away blood.

They looked at Johnson, waiting for him to speak.

Johnson said nothing.

He stared in the direction Lin Feng had vanished, his gaze growing colder and more ruthless.

“We can't let him leave,” he finally spoke, his voice raspy, like sandpaper rubbing against wood.

“He took everything. We got nothing. How are we supposed to explain this when we get back?”

No one answered.

Williams held his gun, his hands still shaking.

Anderson lowered her head, looking at the blood on her hands.

Dupont leaned against a rock, his face pale, his cane propped against the ground to support his body.

Schneider sat on the ground, hands on her knees, her fingers still twitching.

Beltini squatted to the side, fiddling with a dagger. The blade spun between his fingertips, but it moved very slowly.

Park Jeong-hwan leaned against a wall, gripping his sword hilt. Blood dripped from the web of his thumb onto the sand.

Lee Soo-min stood beside him, her twin blades already sheathed. She looked down, her thoughts unknown.

Sato Ichiro sat on the ground. His glasses were broken and tossed aside as he squinted into the distance.

Yamamoto Taro squatted next to him, his tachi thrust into the ground before him, both hands resting on the hilt.

The others stood up as well.

Some were bandaging wounds, some were drinking water, and some were smoking.

Over twenty people were scattered across the clearing, like a group of defeated stragglers.

Johnson looked at them, his eyes filled with anger, resentment, and shame.

“There are over twenty of us against just one of him, yet we were beaten like dogs.”

He paused. “If word of this gets out, how can we ever show our faces again?”

Dupont looked up at him. “Then what do you want to do?”

Johnson looked at him and said each word deliberately. “Kill him.”

Dupont was silent for a few seconds. “How?”

Johnson pulled something out from his robe.

It was a bead the size of a fist, pitch-black all over. Its surface was covered in red patterns that looked like blood vessels, tree roots, or lightning.

The bead rotated slowly in his palm, emitting an eerie glow.

Dupont's pupils contracted as he looked at the bead. “This is...”

“The Destruction Bead,” Johnson said. “An S-rank consumable item. Once detonated, everything within a fifty-meter radius will be destroyed. Its power is equivalent to the full-strength strike of a Level 100 powerhouse.”

Dupont fell silent.

He looked at the bead, then back toward the direction Lin Feng had disappeared. “He's gone far by now.”

Johnson smiled. “He can't go far. There is only one path in this desert. The one he took leads deeper into the Secret Realm. At the end, there is a gate that takes half an hour to open. He'll be waiting there.”

Dupont looked at him. “How do you know?”

“Because we just came from that direction,” Johnson said as he put away the bead. “We couldn't open that gate. He won't be able to either. He'll wait there for it to open. We can wait for him there.”

Dupont thought for a moment and nodded. “Fine.”

The others gathered around as well.

The twenty-odd people stood in a circle.

Johnson stood in the middle and explained the plan.

Wait until Lin Feng reached the gate, wait for him to stop, and wait for him to lower his guard.

Then, strike from behind.

A certain-kill blow.

Use every means, every item, and every skill.

Give him no chance to react.

Park Jeong-hwan hesitated. “Doing this... isn't it a bit too...”

Johnson looked at him. “Too what? Too despicable? He took everything for himself while we got nothing. How will you explain that back home? When the higher-ups ask, what will you say? That over twenty of us were chased off by a single man?”

Park Jeong-hwan fell silent.

He lowered his head and spoke no more.

Sato Ichiro tried to push up his glasses—but they were broken, and his hand met empty air.

He lowered his hand and squinted. “I agree.”

Yamamoto Taro nodded. “Agreed.”

The others followed suit, nodding one after another.

Of the twenty-plus people, not a single one opposed the plan.

Johnson put away the bead. “Let's go. Don't keep him waiting too long.”

The group of over twenty people headed toward where Lin Feng had disappeared.

Their footsteps were light, like a clowder of cats walking.

No one spoke, no one coughed, and no one smoked.

There was only the wind—a dusty wind blowing from the west to the east.

Meanwhile, Lin Feng had already reached the end of the desert.

There was a gate there.

It wasn't a stone gate, but a Light Gate.

It was pale gold, like the light of dusk or waves of autumn wheat.

The Light Gate hovered in mid-air, half a meter off the ground. Its frame was made of stone—thick, ancient, and carved with runes.

The runes glowed faintly and softly, like a steady breath.

Behind the gate was pitch black; nothing could be seen.

It was the entrance to the deeper parts of the Secret Realm.

It would take time to open.

Lin Feng stood before the Light Gate, observing the runes.

The yin-yang fish jade pendant on his chest was rotating, the black and white fish tracing a circle against his chest.

The runes became clear in his eyes; they weren't just squiggly lines, but words, rules, and the traces of time.

The gate would still take a while to open.

He sat cross-legged to rest and focus his mind.

The wind blew from behind, carrying grains of sand and the smell of blood.

The scent of blood was faint, but he smelled it.

It wasn't his own; it belonged to others.

He opened his eyes but did not turn around.

He just listened quietly.

The footsteps were very light, but he heard them.

It wasn't just one person's footsteps, but many.

They thought he couldn't hear them, but he did.

From a distance, bit by bit, they approached.

He sighed. “I gave you a chance.”

He stood up and turned around.

The twenty-odd people were standing behind him, less than fifty meters away.

They were startled for a moment when they saw him turn around.

But it was only for a moment before they all attacked simultaneously.

Johnson was the first; he pulled out the black bead and crushed it with force.

A terrifying energy erupted from the bead, transforming into a pillar of black light that shot toward Lin Feng.

The pillar was as thick as a water barrel and as black as ink; wherever it passed, the air burned and the ground melted.

Williams fired his gun.

It wasn't the blue beam from before, but a red one, thick as an arm and searing with heat like lava.

Anderson also fired her gun—a blue beam as thin as a finger but much faster, like a bolt of lightning.

Dupont raised his cane. The sapphire at its tip lit up, firing a blue pillar of light that intertwined with Johnson's black light.

Schneider formed hand seals, and a white net of light shot from her fingertips, larger and denser than the previous one.

Beltini threw his daggers. They transformed into two black shadows in the air, like two venomous snakes lunging at Lin Feng from both sides.

Park Jeong-hwan thrust his sword, and a silver-white Sword Qi shot from the tip, aimed straight for Lin Feng's chest.

Lee Soo-min crossed her twin blades, sending a cross-shaped Saber Qi toward Lin Feng's waist.

Sato Ichiro and Yamamoto Taro struck at the same time, two tachi Saber Qi arcs slashing toward Lin Feng's shoulders from the left and right.

The others attacked as well.

Explorers from Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia...

Over twenty people, over twenty kinds of skills and weapons, all converged on Lin Feng at once.

The attacks came from all directions, overwhelming like a tsunami, an avalanche, or as if the entire sky were collapsing.

Lin Feng stood in the center of the onslaught, watching them surge toward him.

He didn't dodge, nor could he.

He took a deep breath and brought his hands together in a hollow clasp before his chest.

Eight colors of light began to converge—gold, crimson, azure, cyan, earthy yellow, purple, silver-white, and pitch black.

The eight colors rotated, intertwined, and merged in his palms, turning into a ball of Chaos-colored light.

The light was a murky gray, like the sky before dawn, clouds before a storm, or the first light at the beginning of Chaos.

He pushed his hands outward.

The Chaos-colored light expanded outward from him as the center.

It wasn't an explosion, but an expansion.

Like ripples on water, like the rays of the sun, like the expansion of the Universe.

When the attacks touched the Chaos-colored light, they vanished.

The black pillar of light vanished.

The red beam of light vanished.

The blue lightning vanished.

The white light net shattered.

The black daggers dissolved.

The silver-white Sword Qi dissipated.

The cross-shaped Saber Qi disappeared.

The tachi Saber Qi evaporated.

Before the Chaos-colored light, all attacks, skills, and items were like snow meeting fire, paper meeting scissors, or darkness meeting the dawn.

Everything was gone.

The desert fell silent.

The twenty-plus people stood fifty meters away, looking at Lin Feng as if he were a monster.

Their faces were deathly pale, their lips were trembling, and their legs were shaking.

Some wanted to run, but their legs wouldn't obey.

Some wanted to fight, but their hands shook so much they couldn't even hold their weapons steady.

Some wanted to scream, but their throats felt constricted, and no sound came out.

Lin Feng stood there, his hands hanging at his sides.

The dragon slaying sword and azure thunder sword were still at his waist, unsheathed.

He looked at them with a calm gaze, as if looking at a group of dead men.

“You all seem to have a death wish.”

His voice wasn't loud, but in the silent desert, everyone could hear it clearly.

Those words were like blades stabbing into everyone's hearts.

Johnson's face turned from pale to a deathly ashen gray.

He knew he wouldn't survive today.

It wasn't a possibility; it was a certainty.

He closed his eyes, waiting for that sword strike.

But the sword didn't come immediately.

Lin Feng drew the dragon slaying sword.

The golden patterns on the blade lit up, illuminating the entire desert.

He raised the sword, pointing the tip toward the sky.

Then, he moved.

He didn't walk toward them; he charged.

His speed was incredible, like a golden bolt of lightning.

Johnson only saw a flash of golden light, and then he knew no more.

[Killed American Explorer ×1]

Williams saw Johnson fall, his eyes widening in shock.

He wanted to run, but his legs were paralyzed with fear.

A golden flash passed, and he too fell.

[Killed American Explorer ×2]

Anderson didn't run.

She stood there, watching Lin Feng charge toward her, and raised her gun to pull the trigger.

A blue beam shot toward Lin Feng, but he didn't dodge. With a tilt of his blade, the beam was deflected.

Then the golden light flashed, and she fell as well.

[Killed American Explorer ×3]

Dupont turned and ran.

He ran faster than anyone else.

But Lin Feng's sword was faster.

A golden flash passed, and Dupont fell face-first into the sand.

[Killed French Explorer ×1]