Chapter 74: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Jeremy jutted his chin, signaling for everyone to gather around: "Our plan is to beat them at their own game. First..."

He lowered his voice, clearly explaining every step in the upcoming game of chess.

Once having actively stepped onto the chessboard, no matter how high the risk ratio was, one was obligated to play to the very end.

From a distance echoed very faint footsteps. Evelyn spoke in a low voice: "They’re tailing us."

"It’s fine, just keep your auras tightly suppressed."

Jeremy immediately downed a recovery potion, his hands forming seals. He activated a skill to create five clones, used illusion magic to transform them into the exact appearance of the team, and then used his mind to control these five soulless shells to swagger forward.

The life-and-death game truly began right at this moment...

From the darkness, the Bear Beastman Rhodes, while stealthily scouting the way, spoke anxiously: "Boss, what if those humans go crazy and actually kill the Nightmare Demon?"

Ailinda snorted in contempt: "Is your brain waterlogged? Thinking they can kill a Nightmare Demon relying solely on a few brats who just touched the threshold of Tier One?"

Rhodes scratched the back of his neck and grumbled: "True... My bad, stupid question."

Ailinda couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to him, turning to glare at the Crow Beastman Los: "Are you certain that the Nightmare Demon only needs to devour exactly one hundred hearts combined with the power of the Curse Resentment Orb to evolve? If we fail this time, all the team’s efforts will be thrown down the drain!"

Being repeatedly interrogated, Los also grew irritable, his tone sharp: "I said I’m sure, so I’m sure! The living beings it has devoured over this past half-year are already more than enough. The flesh, blood, and life force of those five brats will be the perfect final catalyst.

Once the Nightmare Demon finishes devouring, you guys coordinate with me to force the Curse Resentment Orb straight into its body. Wait for the Curse Resentment Orb to drain the life marrow of the monster, and it will automatically point out the direction of the ruin. If we don’t succeed then, I’ll slit my own throat with a knife to apologize to you guys, alright?!"

Ailinda gave a cold snort: "It’s good that you have that realization."

"Alright, keep it down." The Snake Beastman sniffed the air, raising a hand to signal a stop: "Those humans are right at the corner ahead."

The Fox Beastman narrowed his eyes: "Walking so slowly? They haven’t discovered something, have they?"

The tail of Ailinda’s eyebrow twitched. Her light brown pupils instantly flared with a viscous, blood-colored light. Piercing through the thick stone wall, her gaze locked onto the five figures moving slowly in the distance.

Nothing abnormal; they were just struggling to deal with a few pesky low-tier magical beasts blocking the way.

Ailinda retracted her visual magic, coldly issuing an order: "Hide well. Wait until they step into the Nightmare Demon’s territory, then immediately strike and send the whole lot to the underworld."

The five accomplices simultaneously nodded with sinister smiles.

"Understood."

"Don’t worry, I’ll tear them to pieces."

Standing hidden in a dark, narrow crevice, Jeremy was as silent as a ghost, coldly watching the Beastmen slither past his position to close in on the fake clones.

Through the conversation just now, it was evident they hadn’t accidentally wandered in here. They had been rooted in this area for a solid half-year; the number of lives that had died tragically at their hands didn’t just stop at a dozen, but reached into the hundreds.

One of the cult’s most brutal forbidden arts was precisely using flesh, blood, and life force as sacrifices, borrowing the evil power of the Curse Resentment Orb to absorb resentful energy, thereby executing a divination spell to find a guiding object.

If their target was an ancient ruin, then it was indeed worth expending such schemes. In this torn, apocalyptic wasteland, an unexplored ruin was an invaluable gold mine, a chance to change one’s life for anyone.

Jeremy glanced slightly at his watch. Eleven in the morning. It was still a long time before sunset. The plan to flip the table and counter-kill these Beastmen could easily be executed now.

The corners of his lips curled into a sly smile, as sharp as a razor blade. His pale golden pupils flashed a dangerous glint amidst the gloomy stone cave.

After waiting for the Beastmen to widen a safe distance, Jeremy jutted his chin and dashed out to trail them. The four teammates behind him followed closely on his heels like ghosts, without making a single sound.

Compared to the dense forest above, the amount of magical beasts in this underground world was significantly sparser. Along the way, Jeremy only encountered a few weak, low-tier monsters. It seemed these Beastmen had previously swept through and cleared the path clean to serve their plan.

Having to divide his attention to control the clones to fight while maintaining the invisibility magic, the amount of magic power in Jeremy’s body plummeted rapidly. If it weren’t for the pile of recovery potions backing him up, he feared he would have exposed an opening long ago.

Fortunately, the distance to the Nightmare Demon’s location wasn’t as far as he thought. After about forty minutes of weaving through dark, narrow paths, the terrain abruptly widened, leading to a pitch-black, fathomless underground lake. Massive, sharp stalactites hung suspended overhead. Along the lake’s edge, venomous insects crawled in swarms.

And submerged beneath the murky black lake surface, was a massive, motionless dark mass.

It was sound asleep.

Just as Jeremy was about to control the clones to turn around and flee to bait the Beastmen in the dark out into the open, those animals couldn’t suppress their impatience and struck first.

Ailinda lunged out of her hiding spot. The broken wooden bow from earlier had been replaced by a dark bow radiating a billowing, blackish-red aura of demonic energy. She stood on the shore, drew the bowstring taut, and decisively shot an arrow imbued with dark magic straight down at the giant dark mass in the lake.

At the same time, the remaining five Beastmen roared simultaneously, activating magic and lunging straight toward Jeremy’s five clones. They didn’t intend to attack the monster, but wanted to cripple the human group to act as bait.

Jeremy immediately understood their despicable intent. He manipulated the clones to dodge the fatal physical attacks.

"BOOM!"

Ailinda’s dark arrow exploded right on the monster’s back, directly shattering its sleep.

"-- ROAARRR!"

An infuriated roar tore through eardrums, carrying a sky-high murderous intent that shook the entire stone cave. The lake surface burst open, and a deformed monster the size of a two-story building surfaced. Its body was a disgusting combination of venomous snakes and octopus tentacles. Its entire body was pitch-black, with toxic pustules swollen everywhere. Even more horrifying, firmly attached to its slimy skin were countless swollen lumps of flesh shaped like human faces - the aftermath of devouring hundreds of living beings.

The moment the illusion of the five clones was torn into mists by the Beastmen’s attacks, Ailinda’s expression contorted.

"Damn it! We fell for a trap! Fall back quickly!" Her voice shrieked ear-piercingly, broken by extreme panic.

As if there was still a chance.

Jeremy pulled off his hood, his sharp, cold eyes locking onto the targets, and threw his hand in a signal: "Kill!"

Leon and Lucius standing behind immediately placed their hands on Evelyn’s and Phoenix’s shoulders, frantically pouring a massive amount of magic power into them. Receiving the formidable assistance, the magic power of the two erupted fiercely.

Evelyn drew her bow; five arrows of light shrieked as they tore through the wind, continuously duplicating in mid-air to form a dense rain of arrows, raining straight down on the Beastman formation, forcing them unable to retreat toward the narrow passage.

Ailinda glared at the invisible void where the rain of arrows shot out, grinding her teeth so hard they bled. She realized that from the very second they met, she had been led by the nose and spun around!

"YOU’RE SEEKING DEATH!"

Ailinda roared frantically, summoning a sturdy defensive shield to envelop herself and her accomplices. Immediately, she activated her Beast Transformation skill. Her human skin tore open, and from her slender fingertips grew curved claws, as sharp as scalpels. She transformed into a blur, charging madly toward the manifesting source of magic power.

The remaining Beastmen also growled, throwing all sorts of magic in a barrage.

Jeremy sneered coldly. With a flip of his hand, he pulled out two explosive magic tool orbs - the hot goods he had just exchanged using a bunch of Demon Soul Crystals. He didn’t hesitate to throw them straight into the middle of the lunging Beastman formation.

"BANG! BANG!"

Dark purple toxic gas exploded, bringing with it tens of thousands of highly venomous needles shooting out relentlessly like a downpour.

The destructive power of the magic tools was too strong. The Snake Beastman, inherently an expert on poisons, recognized it as the Nine Gu deadly poison the moment he smelled the stench of death - a poison that sent you to heaven upon contact. His pupils contracted violently.

Without time to think, he immediately grabbed the Bear Beastman Rhodes, who had the weakest strength beside him, and violently hoisted him forward to act as a meat shield.