My Apocalypse Territory-Chapter 409 - 388: What is the Value of a Human Head?

Crescent Mountain on the other side.

Green Shadow and their group moved at a pace neither fast nor slow.

As long as the Doomsday Cult hadn’t preemptively evacuated, there wasn’t much difference between discovering them early or late... at least Tang Yu didn’t believe any Sanctuary could eliminate the cult’s headquarters before they arrived.

Not even Yang City.

Compared to speed, Tang Yu prioritized safety more.

Nancy, Eileen, and others always kept their perception stretched wide, making a sneak attack unlikely, but just in case the Doomsday Cult had set up some grand array inside Crescent Mountain, and they accidentally stumbled into it... that was something Tang Yu didn’t want to see.

From time to time,

he would activate "Insight Eye," scanning both far and near distances, finding neither lurking cult members nor any signs of Rune Arrays. Instead...

Tang Yu walked up to an inconspicuous, purple-leafed herb, stared at it with "Insight Eye" for a few seconds, and then said, "Collect this herb."

Immediately, an Awakener from the Investigation Corps, holding an exquisitely crafted wooden box designed for carrying herbs, approached the purple herb, knelt down, and carefully dug up the precious plant along with the surrounding soil before placing it in the wooden box.

Once back in the Territory, they would transplant it to the herb cultivation area.

This resulted in a delay of just over a minute.

Tang Yu was reluctant to admit that their slow progress was due to collecting herbs.

It was just for safety!

Swoosh!

In the distance, a red flare rose high into the sky and bloomed open.

Like a blood-colored firework.

"It’s an emergency signal flare!"

Turning his head to look, the flare had gone up not too far ahead.

It was Lindong’s team calling for help!

"Speed up the support!"

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

His figure turned into a blur, swiftly moving through the complex mountain terrain. A startled Demonized Beast charged at him, but Tang Yu didn’t draw his sword. Instead, with a finger like a blade, he struck with a fiery red sword light, incinerating the midair-leaping Demonized Beast into char.

Eileen, Nancy, and others closely followed behind him.

Awakeners from both the Investigation Corps and the Cavalry Corps sprinted at full speed.

After gulping down a Potion to recover Source Power, having already used up a third of his Source Power, Tang Yu tossed away the empty bottle and continued with his distant, unfocused gaze, a sign that "Insight Eye" was activated.

The cultists were likely just ahead; this was no time for carelessness.

Soon,

sounds of battle and explosions reached his ears.

As the view cleared, large areas of vegetation and rocks were destroyed, dust filled the air, and a super-fast figure had already broken into Lindong’s Army.

With one step, he covered hundreds of meters. A giant fireball hurled toward him was smashed with a punch. An Awakener wielding a large shield was kicked, the Rune Shield shattered into pieces, and the Awakener was sent flying dozens of meters back, crashing into a mountain wall embedded deep within it.

The dust was thick, and various colored energies and shadows flickered continuously, with thundering noises reverberating nonstop.

The figure within Lindong’s battle formation, though hard to see clearly, had an aura that Tang Yu could sense. Running "Insight Eye," he pierced through the layers of haze and finally saw clearly.

Over two meters tall, half-naked on the upper body, with gray-black skin and bulging muscles on the chest, but most striking were the four muscular arms on the black-skinned humanoid!

Two arms were empty, constantly swinging their fists, bursting the air.

The other two arms pulled back a bow, firing arrows that exploded on the ground, creating craters two to three meters in diameter!

At that moment, Zhou Zhenglei, wielding a Combat Saber with Thunder Light flashing over his body, having progressed to the Tenth Layer of Awakening, unleashed lightning power that could extend the sword light out ten to twenty meters.

With him in the lead, along with other top combatants from Lindong wearing C3 to B rank Rune Equipment, they managed to fend off the Four-Armed Black Demon’s attacks through their combined efforts, but they couldn’t trap the enemy. Within just a minute or two of fighting, numerous Awakeners from Lindong were either dead or injured.

Upon seeing Tang Yu, Zhou Zhenglei sighed in relief.

If not for the luck of being positioned next to Green Shadow, they had no idea when reinforcements would arrive, and if they had been farther away... perhaps on the opposite side where they couldn’t even see the signal flare, then that would have been...

He quickly shouted, "Director Tang, let’s take him down together; we absolutely can’t let him escape!"

"I’ll go."

Lorraine called out, not waiting for Tang Yu’s response, she used an Acceleration Combat Skill and sped forward with afterimages, "A twelfth layer for ten thousand Consuming Crystals!"

Tang Yu’s expression changed slightly, "Five thousand."

At the same time, he quickened his pace to a sprint.

"Eight thousand," Lorraine said.

As they closed in on the central battlefield, mere two to three kilometers remained, but during that time another ninth-layer peak expert from Lindong was severely injured and sadly withdrew from the battlefield.

Lorraine, leading the charge on horseback, had already switched her rifle modification while running. She clenched her teeth, "Five thousand then! No reneging!"

Tang Yu responded swiftly, "Deal... deduct it from your debt!"

Lorraine took several steps, leaping from the sharp rocks to a higher position, where she abruptly stopped.

She crouched down with her knees slightly bent and leaned back slightly, the two-meter-long rune sniper rifle in her hands aimed at the constantly shifting figure of a Four-Armed Black Demon in the distance, with almost no time to aim.

Boom!

The bullet, engraved with advanced armor-breaking and blast runes, spun out of the barrel. The air, as fragile as paper, was penetrated layer by layer, not even a ripple was caused.

A shot was fired.

Lorraine did not stop; source Qi surged within her, continuously flowing into the rune gun.

Bang, bang, bang—several bullets were fired in succession.

...

In the distance, having dodged the clutches of Lindong’s expert team, the Four-Armed Black Demon among the assault army’s face suddenly paled.

A bullet, spinning and piercing through the layers of air, magnified in his eyes.

Roar—

The Black Demon’s muscles tensed again, and, finding himself mid-air without anything to leverage, he kicked down violently, seemingly bursting through the air itself to shift his body several meters to the side. freēwēbnovel.com

Yet, the spinning bullet turned mid-air and continued to chase after him.

The Black Demon’s face changed color again, his twisting muscles bulged, and his palms turned harder than Transcendent Metal, smashing down with a palm, causing the air to tremble explosively!

The surrounding large rocks burst one after another.

Bang—!

Sss—!

The bullet pierced through the Black Demon’s palm but lost most of its kinetic energy and he easily dodged it.

The Black Demon had just sighed in relief, sensing the threat and contemplating retreat, when suddenly, his expression drastically changed again. Several bullets shot towards him from afar, one fiery red, one ice blue, one deep purple...

Like several brilliant beams of light, they penetrated the robust Four-Armed Black Demon from outside to inside, bursting him open.

Orange flames soared into the sky.

Frost formed on the ground.

And a layer of ominous purple spread out.

Lorraine retracted her sniper rifle, curling her lips, "Five hundred source crystals per bullet, feels like I’m at a loss again!"

As a full-time bartender and sharpshooter, Lorraine excelled in long-range killing.

She was also, apart from Tang Yu, the biggest crystal spender.

All of this happened in a mere second or two.

Zhou Zhenglei still held his weapon, a 14-meter-long thunder saber, raised halfway towards the sky, but was already frozen.

An ability user had conjured a fireball but forgot to throw it and it exploded beside him, covering him in black dirt.

Tang Yu led others into the somewhat broken formation of Lindong, looking at the injured and even dead Awakeners there, he silently sighed.

A few healing series ability users, floating off the ground, struggled to sustain the lives hanging in balance.

Winnie also stepped forward to help.

Occasionally, they could be seen twisting open recovery potions made by Green Shadow and pouring them into the mouths of the injured.

On the other side, Shuo Lake Sanctuary’s team, having seen Lindong’s distress signal flare, finally arrived and their healing series ability users went forward to assist.

Zhou Zhenglei and the other Lindong experts finally relaxed, their bodies wavering, barely able to stand.

Just as the injured were settled and prepared to continue forward,

Demon flames rose at the horizon’s end.

A grey-black skinned monster with eight arms appeared, walking in midair as if on flat ground.

A tremendous force bore down from above.

Everyone’s face turned pale!