106: Chapter 106 The source of all tragedy is you.

The air instantly fell silent.

Xia Qing scratched his head, looking completely bewildered.

"Wait... my head is a bit of a mess. You're saying she's from this era? As in, she's about the same age as us?"

"But... but didn't the Ferocious Beasts appear a hundred years ago?"

Xia Qing gestured with his hands, his logic fraying as he spoke.

"If she's a person from now, then who created the Ferocious Beasts a hundred years ago? It's not like she traveled back in time... holy crap?"

As he said this, Xia Qing seemed to suddenly realize something, his eyes widening like copper bells.

Shen Ye felt an even greater shock ripple through his body.

An extremely terrifying and absurd yet logically consistent hypothesis instantly forced its way into his mind.

He whipped his head around, staring fixedly at Black-Robed Shen Ye.

"You are a Time-Space Traveler..."

Shen Ye's voice was incredibly dry.

"And you... you came back from thirty years in the future."

"Could it be..."

Black-Robed Shen Ye sighed helplessly. He looked at his younger self and slowly nodded.

"It seems you've already guessed it."

"That's right."

"In the original timeline—or rather, in the future that is about to happen."

"The you from thirty years later, which is the current me... will find this woman."

"Then, I will take her and tear through the river of time."

Black-Robed Shen Ye pointed to the ground beneath them, his voice echoing in the empty forest.

"I will take her back to one hundred and thirty years ago—to that peaceful era before the Ferocious Beasts appeared."

"And there, in that past history..."

"I will personally assist her... in creating the very first Ferocious Beast."

"Starting this... century-long cycle of the apocalypse."

"So, Shen Ye."

Black-Robed Shen Ye looked at his completely petrified younger self and spoke one word at a time.

"The murderer who killed our parents, the source of all this tragedy..."

"It isn't just her."

"It's also... ourselves."

...

Jiangcheng University, Trial Grounds area.

What was once an ivory tower where students honed their skills and verified their strength had instantly descended into a Shura Hell.

Thick black smoke billowed from the purplish-red meteorite crater. The pungent smell of sulfur mixed with a heavy stench of blood, assaulting everyone's nerves.

"Roar—!!"

A Flame Lizard lunged out from a deep pit not far from Chen Xi and the others.

Its target was very clear: it pounced directly toward the nearest five-person student squad.

The squad's composition was standard: one tank, one healer, and three damage dealers.

Faced with the sudden attack, the shield warrior in heavy armor was terrified, but the muscle memory built from years of running dungeons allowed him to react subconsciously.

"Form up! Healer, watch my health bar! Everyone else, deal damage!"

The shield warrior roared, holding his shield with both hands as an earthy yellow battle qi erupted around him. He used a standard Immovable as a Mountain to take the front.

In his understanding, although Flame Lizards were monsters with high attack and defense, as long as he activated his damage reduction skills, holding out against the first wave of impact would be no problem at all.

That was how they fought in dungeons: the monster hits once, the healer restores some health, and they slowly grind it down.

However, in the next second, reality gave him a bloody lesson.

Boom!!

The Flame Lizard's claws, wreathed in purple fire, slammed heavily against the thick tower shield with the force of a thousand tons.

There was no expected sound of a successful block, nor were there numbers floating up showing only a minor deduction in health.

There was only the tooth-grinding sound of metal tearing.

Crack—!

That tower shield was actually pierced through by the claws in an instant before the violent physical strength of the wild Ferocious Beast!

"What?!"

The shield warrior's pupils shrank.

Before he could react, the scale-covered claw maintained its momentum after piercing the shield and swept across viciously.

Splatter!

Blood sprayed everywhere.

"Aaaaaah!!"

A heart-wrenching scream tore from his mouth.

The shield warrior's left arm, still holding the shield, had actually been severed at the root!

The severed arm flew through the air as blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining the grass beneath his feet red.

Intense pain caused the shield warrior's face to twist and deform. He stumbled to the ground, rolling and wailing in agony.

"My hand! My hand is gone! Help! Healer, heal me!!"

The priestess behind him was already dumbfounded by this cruel scene. The magic staff in her hand was shaking, and her incantations were intermittent; she couldn't cast a single skill.

"Roar!"

Having tasted blood, the Flame Lizard became even more excited.

The vertical pupils in its eyes flashed with a cruel light. It gave the shield warrior no chance to catch his breath, raising that blood-dripping claw high again to smash it down onto the shield warrior's head!

If this strike landed, it would surely result in brains splattering everywhere.

"It's over..."

The shield warrior looked at the rapidly enlarging claw, his eyes full of despair.

Just at this critical moment.

Clang—

A low, sorrowful zither note suddenly rang out.

Sorrowful Elegy!

An invisible sound wave instantly enveloped the Flame Lizard.

The Ferocious Beast, which had been moving as fast as lightning, suddenly stiffened as if it had fallen into an endless swamp. Its clawing motion became extremely slow.

"What are you standing there for! Run!"

Chen Xi's roar sounded like a clap of thunder.

The shield warrior was jolted by the roar. Survival instinct made him scramble back several meters, narrowly avoiding that fatal strike.

"Xiao Xiao!"

Chen Xi barked.

"Understood!"

A flash of lightning flickered as Su Xiaoxiao's figure appeared beside the Flame Lizard as if teleporting.

Her face was cold as frost, and a heart-palpitating icy sword qi condensed at the tip of her magic staff.

Sword Prison!

Swish swish swish!

Dozens of longswords flew out from behind Su Xiaoxiao.

In just one second.

Dozens of emotionless sword qis crisscrossed, instantly slicing the massive creature into countless pieces of shredded meat.

Splatter.

The Flame Lizard didn't even have time to scream before it turned into a pile of foul-smelling flesh scattered on the ground.

Ugh...

Looking at the organs and shredded meat all over the ground, Li Murou's face turned pale. She covered her mouth, nearly vomiting.

Although she had killed many monsters in dungeons, the data stream that vanished into white light was a completely different concept from the real, bloody, and even warm chunks of a corpse before her.

She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and asked tremblingly:

"Cap... Captain Chen, what's going on? Is this really the school? Where are the teachers?"

Su Xiaoxiao also put away her magic staff, looking around vigilantly with a deep frown.

"Yeah, with such a huge commotion, why hasn't there even been a broadcast yet?"

Chen Xi glanced at the shield warrior still clutching his severed arm on the ground, then at the chaotic battlefield around them. His heart sank to the bottom.

"It was too sudden."

He looked up, his gaze sweeping across the entire Trial Grounds.

At this moment, the field was already a purgatory.

The corpses of several student Professionals lay scattered on the ground; some were burned to char, while others were incomplete.

Even more students were still struggling to hold on.

Faced with these wild Ferocious Beasts that knew no pain and only slaughter, they were already paralyzed by fear in terms of morale.

Fear made their movements clumsy and caused their incantations to be interrupted.

"Help! My Fireball doesn't even faze it!"

"Don't come over! Stay away!"