74: Chapter 74 But We Are Different!

A few kilometers away, beneath a leeward sand dune, the members of the Shenfeng Battle Team were resting under the cover of some rocks.

"They're here."

Zhang Xinyu, the priest who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them and extended her fair palm.

A transparent owl descended slowly, landing on her fingertips before transforming into a streak of light that drilled into the space between her eyebrows.

A massive influx of information flooded her mind, and Zhang Xinyu's previously rosy complexion turned deathly pale in an instant.

Her large, alluring eyes were now filled with terror and disbelief.

She clutched her chest, gasping for air.

"H-how is it?"

Captain Lin, standing nearby, felt his heart skip a beat. He hurriedly leaned forward and asked, "What's the situation in the canyon? Did Zhou Tianren and his group make a move? Has Chen Xi already been crippled?"

In his view, with Zhou Tianren gathering four teams and utilizing the natural terrain of the Echo Gobi, taking care of those three people would be as easy as pie.

However, Zhang Xinyu seemed not to hear him. She was trembling uncontrollably, her voice sharp and distorted:

"It… it was terrifying!"

"Captain Lin, it's over… it's all over!"

"Young Master Zhou and the others… they've been completely wiped out!!"

"What?!?"

This exclamation was shouted by Captain Lin and Fang Yue, who was standing next to him, at the same time.

Captain Lin's eyes widened, and he grabbed Zhang Xinyu by the shoulders, roaring in disbelief:

"Speak clearly! What do you mean by completely wiped out?!?"

"Zhou Tianren brought over twenty people! How could they possibly be completely wiped out?!?"

"Even if Chen Xi and the others were devious, in that terrain, even if they won, it should have been a pyrrhic victory, right? What's their situation now? Aren't they badly injured? Have they lost their combat effectiveness?"

A hopeful light flickered in Captain Lin's eyes; he desperately wanted to hear news of Chen Xi being severely injured.

But judging by Zhang Xinyu's expression, it seemed unlikely he would get his wish.

Soon, Zhang Xinyu shook her head in despair:

"N-no…"

"Chen Xi and the others… are completely unscathed."

"W-what?"

Captain Lin was completely stunned.

Zhang Xinyu swallowed, struggling to calm herself as she pieced together the fragments of the images the owl had brought back:

"It was the same old routine…"

"That Li Murou forcibly played her instrument in this Echo Gobi, controlling everyone!"

"That's impossible, right? Doesn't the Echo Gobi reflect sound waves? Wouldn't they have been controlled themselves?"

"Y-you, let me finish."

Zhang Xinyu interrupted Captain Lin and continued:

"That Su Xiaoxiao can transform! She was able to teleport with her teammates, running faster than the sound waves!"

"So… Li Murou's sound waves didn't backlash onto them. But they successfully controlled everyone else!"

"And then… and then that Su Xiaoxiao…"

"She only used two skills to take everyone down!"

"Young Master Zhou ended up crushing his teleportation stone to escape. The rest of them… are all lying in that canyon now, their fate unknown!"

"The power of the skills that Su Xiaoxiao displayed… it was completely beyond what a normal First-Year University Student should be capable of!"

After finishing, Zhang Xinyu swallowed hard, still caught in immense shock.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Captain Lin hadn't yet recovered from his shock.

Yan Zidong, who had just finished clearing a wave of monsters and was resting on the side, spoke up instead.

His voice carried a hint of surprise and excitement.

There was no fear in his narrow eyes; instead, a burning fighting spirit was ignited.

Yan Zidong stood up straight and looked at Zhang Xinyu:

"Xiao Xiao… has become that strong?"

As the former twin stars of Night Curtain, Yan Zidong and Su Xiaoxiao were once known by the outside world as the "Ice and Fire Twin Guns."

In that team filled with powerhouses, although everyone followed Shen Ye's lead, the two of them actually had very similar roles—both were high-damage output positions.

As the saying goes, one mountain cannot hold two tigers.

On the surface, they were teammates with tacit understanding, but deep in Yan Zidong's heart, he had always been holding back, wanting to compete with Su Xiaoxiao to see who was better.

He had always firmly believed that his fire-type burst damage was the strongest, and that he was the undisputed strongest output of the First-Year University Student cohort!

As for Su Xiaoxiao, she had only garnered so much attention because of her cold goddess appearance.

But now…

Hearing Zhang Xinyu's description, the blood in Yan Zidong's body boiled with a long-lost fervor.

He stood up slowly, stretched his neck, and the fire magic on his body stirred faintly:

"Interesting…"

"It seems she hasn't been idle since leaving Night Curtain."

"Perfect. This time, I'll personally test whether her ice-lightning is stronger, or if my explosive flames are superior!"

Watching Yan Zidong's eager demeanor, Captain Lin was broken out in a cold sweat.

He wiped his forehead, patting his chest with lingering fear:

"Good thing… good thing!"

"It's a good thing we didn't foolishly follow them to join in the fun just now. Otherwise, we'd probably be adding ourselves to the pile in that canyon!"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Zhang Xinyu, his eyes filled with relief:

"Thanks to your [Ghost Owl] reconnaissance."

Hearing this, Zhang Xinyu smoothed the stray hair by her ear, a look of smugness appearing on her face.

Her tone, however, became somewhat sarcastic:

"Oh my, Captain Lin, don't say that~"

She raised her wrist, showing a card emitting a faint ghostly light embedded on the inside of her wrist:

"Speaking of which, we have to thank Brother Xi for this~"

"This was a talent attached to the core card he specifically made for me when he was still in the team."

"Tsk tsk tsk…"

Hearing this, the expression on Captain Lin's face became extremely vivid, filled with sarcasm and disdain:

"That's right, we have to thank that idiot Chen Xi!"

"He went to such lengths to make these core cards for us back then; he must have been trying to curry favor with us and hoping to cling to the team, right?"

"And the result?"

Captain Lin sneered, his eyes filled with malicious satisfaction:

"Now, these cards have instead become the sharp weapons we use to deal with him!"

"I really can't wait to see the look on his face when he realizes he's been defeated by the very core cards he crafted with his own hands… How wonderful! How pathetic!"

This pleasure of using the opponent's own things to attack them gave Captain Lin immense psychological satisfaction.

Yan Zidong interrupted Captain Lin's self-indulgence and cast his gaze into the distance:

"Looking at their movements, they're heading straight for the central area, right?"

"Hmm."

Zhang Xinyu nodded:

"It looks like they want to go grab the final BOSS and use its points to turn the tables."

Captain Lin immediately opened his points bracelet and glanced at the current leaderboard.

"The current first place is still that Five Rings Team, and their points are almost at a thousand."

Captain Lin frowned, somewhat puzzled:

"What's going on with these five brothers? From the beginning until now, they don't seem interested in the BOSS at all, just farming those elite monsters in the first ring area?"

"That's because they're smart, and also because they're cowards."

Fang Yue analyzed:

"That team of theirs, the five of them share a single mind, and their monster-farming efficiency is extremely high. For them, playing it safe by farming small monsters for points is the most secure method."

"After all, the final ownership of the BOSS can only belong to one team. If they fight for half a day only to have it snatched by someone else, it would be all for nothing—the loss would outweigh the gain."

"Indeed."

Captain Lin nodded in agreement.

Subsequently, his expression gradually became sinister:

"The Five Rings Team seeks stability; that's their business. But Chen Xi and the others are different."

"Their points were zero before, and now they're lagging too far behind! If they want to take first place, they have no choice but to kill the BOSS!"

Captain Lin paced back and forth, his brain working at high speed, and soon he constructed a plan:

"The reason Zhou Tianren and his group failed was that they were too confident, too high-profile, and insisted on a direct confrontation!"

"But we are different!"