Chapter 221 – A Rather Dire Situation

After several rounds of massive destruction, the underground area of these ruins had become completely dilapidated, with no intact terrain remaining.

Originally, the ground had at least been relatively solid, but now there were large pits every few steps, trenches every few meters, and even enormous cliffs and fractured rock walls had appeared, making movement extremely difficult.

In this state, the underground of these ruins had undoubtedly become a demon’s den—a high-risk zone that even adventurers would hesitate to enter, where the ground could collapse at any moment or massive rocks might fall from the ceiling.

The only silver lining was that the dome had also been damaged, allowing external light to stream in, finally dispelling the previous pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t even see their own hand.

Seeing this situation, Su Ming felt that if it were him now, he could easily take Wang Yihan and leave the underground, returning to the surface.

After all, unlike before, Su Ming had now undergone his Awakening and achieved Demonization. With the wings he grew after Demonization, he gained the ability to fly, allowing him to ascend through the breaches in the dome and return to the surface.

Once he confirmed this, Su Ming felt even more at ease.

At the very least, he no longer had to worry about being trapped here, unable to leave these ruins.

Thus, Su Ming brought Wang Yihan with him and headed toward the battlefield where Bai Ruxiang and the others were.

Of course, their progress was inevitably slow.

Due to the terrain’s condition and the fact that the scatterbrained Young Miss Wang Yihan couldn’t quite remember the direction or route, traveling was indeed challenging.

But this time, it wasn’t really Wang Yihan’s fault.

After all, she hadn’t properly walked to Su Ming’s side—instead, she’d been swept into the disaster and directly dropped near him.

Under such circumstances, it would be a miracle if she could remember the way back.

However, since Wang Yihan had been able to fly to Su Ming’s location, it proved that the battlefield wasn’t too far away.

With this in mind, and aided by his extraordinary Spirit Sense and detection-type Spirit Art reconnaissance, Su Ming finally located Bai Ruxiang and the others.

At that moment, their situation was far from ideal.

……

“Ugh…”

“Ah…”

On the devastated battlefield, pained groans echoed intermittently.

Hunters lay collapsed on the ground one after another, bearing injuries of varying severity—some on the brink of death, others moaning in agony—transforming the area into a hellscape of carnage.

These hunters were predominantly female hunters from the Bai Family.

They had been utterly defeated, clearly having lost all combat capability.

Bai Ruxiang was among them, leaning on her weapon as she watched the front with deep concern.

There, the Upper-Rank Professionals were still engaged in combat.

“Thud!”

In a dull impact, Gao Xu—wielding the Qilin Blade—was violently sent flying, crashing to the ground and tumbling away.

“Mr. Gao!”

Xu Yanyan cried out from a distance, trying to rise but failing after several attempts due to her severe injuries.

Lu Yang, Duan Xiaofei, Bai Xuefei, and the others were also present, but their conditions were even worse than Gao Xu’s.

They seemed to have been defeated before him—some kneeling on one knee, others leaning against rock walls, some lying motionless—all without exception covered in wounds and looking utterly disheveled.

“Damn it…”Bai Xuefei’s face was deathly pale, clearly filled with resentment.

“This is truly disastrous…”

Duan Xiaofei clutched his fractured arm, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

As for Lu Yang, he remained motionless on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Beside him lay a marmot—both human and rodent were barely breathing, making one wonder if they were already dead.

“Xuefei… everyone…”

Bai Ruxiang’s heart turned cold as she witnessed this scene.

To think that a group of Upper-Rank Professionals had been utterly defeated, reduced to such a miserable state—it was truly despair-inducing.

Of course, facing such opponents, the enemy side hadn’t fared well either.

Ahead of Bai Xuefei and the others, the group of Underground Professionals led by Scarface and Baldy also suffered heavy casualties, with many dead or injured.

Among them were several Upper-Rank Professionals from 『Sin』.

Gao Xu and his companions had clearly exerted tremendous effort and paid a significant price to defeat so many of the enemy’s Upper-Rank Professionals.

Unfortunately, in the end, Gao Xu’s group still lost.

The reason was simple: their opponents were Upper-Rank Professionals from 『Sin』.

“Such a tough fight,” Scarface spat out a mouthful of blood while gripping a steel saber. “They’re just Upper-Rank Professionals from some backwater Base City, yet they were unexpectedly difficult to deal with.”

As giants ruling the underground world, as mentioned before, the Upper-Rank Professionals belonging to 『Sin』 typically faced opponents from the super Base Cities in the continent’s heartland. Through such battles, they had honed considerable combat skills and wielded high-performance alchemical weapons.

Compared to Upper-Rank Professionals from a rural Base City like Longyao City, they held numerous advantages.

Most Upper-Rank Professionals in Longyao City might not even possess alchemical weapons, let alone compare to those from wealthy super Base Cities—especially when the latter also inherited older, higher-Rank combat techniques.

Having faced such powerful foes, Scarface and his comrades were naturally no weaklings. Their combat skills were tempered through life-and-death struggles, and they lacked neither alchemical weapons nor experience—far surpassing the “impoverished” Upper-Rank Professionals of Longyao City.

In Scarface’s view, dealing with Gao Xu and the others shouldn’t have been particularly difficult.

Yet reality defied their expectations entirely.

Gao Xu and his companions demonstrated far greater strength and capability than anticipated.

Take Gao Xu, for instance—he possessed Blade Art worthy of a Great Master and wielded the Qilin Blade. In terms of superior combat techniques and alchemical weapons, he was nearly on par with elites from super Base Cities. How could he lag far behind peers like Scarface?

Still, Gao Xu held the title 『Qilin Blade』, so his prowess, while surprising, wasn’t shocking.

What truly astonished them was that aside from Gao Xu, the others were equally remarkable.Bai Xuefei, despite being a young Upper-Rank Professional without Gao Xu’s mastery of Blade Art, inexplicably possessed an alchemical weapon superior in performance to the Qilin Blade. Her displayed combat prowess was nearly on par with Gao Xu’s.

Duan Xiaofei, the seemingly frivolous collateral family member, proved even more extraordinary than Bai Xuefei. His bizarre combat techniques were complemented by a high-performance alchemical weapon, making his strength completely comparable to Gao Xu’s.

Unlike Bai Xuefei and Duan Xiaofei, Lu Yang hadn’t concealed such hidden capabilities. Yet this Lu Family’s Upper-Rank Professional, driven by unknown motivations, fought with fearless desperation, ultimately perishing together with one of Sin’s Upper-Rank Professionals in mutual destruction.

Even the marmot lying beside Lu Yang – initially completely unnoticed – suddenly emerged from the earth nearby. Through unexpected ambushes, its sharp claws brutally killed two of Sin’s Upper-Rank Professionals before an enraged Baldy finally hammered it into critical condition with a single blow, leaving it incapacitated.

Thus, Scarface and his crew who had presumed certain victory now found themselves decimated – most dead, others wounded. The numerous gathered Upper-Rank and lower-rank Professionals were nearly wiped out, leaving only four survivors.

These four were Scarface, Baldy, and two other Upper-Rank Professionals who had arrived after hearing the commotion – one a lean, gloomy man and the other a seductive woman with phoenix eyes. The man exuded chilling gloominess while the woman wore provocatively revealing attire barely more substantial than a bikini.

These four represented Sin’s remaining Upper-Rank Professionals.

Among them, only Scarface maintained composure – the others clearly wore troubled expressions.

“What kind of cursed backwater Base City is this?” Baldy grumbled, hefting his twin hammers with fluctuating expressions. “First an terrifying mysterious expert, and now these remaining Upper-Rank Professionals all proving extraordinary? This is no remote countryside powerhouse!”

Baldy felt genuinely humbled, realizing his previous contempt and underestimation had been utterly foolish. The stinging slap of reality tasted particularly bitter.

The other two voiced their thoughts.

“After all, this is a place established by the Tomb Guardian clan – the location sealing our King. Some extraordinary aspects are to be expected,” the gloomy man murmured.

But the enchantress scoffed disdainfully.

“These few are probably this Base City’s most outstanding Four-Star Hunters! I refuse to believe all Four-Star Professionals here are so capable!” she retorted. “Look at the Wang Family – we overwhelmed them effortlessly, didn’t we?”

Indeed, the Wang Family assault hadn’t been nearly as convoluted.

With Wang Xiao contained by Sin’s Vice Captain and Lord Crow, and the Wang Family’s Five-Star elders eliminated by those two first, the remaining Four-Star Professionals had been straightforward to handle.

At the very least, the Wang Family’s Four-Star Hunters hadn’t possessed the exceptional quality of Gao Xu’s group – most lacked alchemical weapons and their combat techniques were nowhere as refined.Unlike this time, having Gao Xu was one thing, but the others had also kept their skills hidden, which was truly surprising.

However, Enchantress refused to believe that every Upper-Rank Professional in this Base City possessed such caliber.

She even harbored doubts about the information previously reported by Scarface and Baldy.

“To this day, I still find it hard to believe that Lord Crow would go after a Four-Star Professional and hasn’t returned until now,” Enchantress said with a skeptical look at Scarface and Baldy. “I find it even harder to believe that the large-scale destruction here, as you described, was all the doing of that Four-Star Professional.”

Not having witnessed Su Ming unleashing his Divine Might firsthand, Enchantress naturally wouldn’t easily accept this.

Not just her, but Gloomy felt the same way.

“Did that big oaf really get killed with one punch by that Four-Star Professional?” Gloomy glanced at Scarface and Baldy, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “You’re not pulling our legs, are you?”

At this, Scarface and Baldy both cast cold stares at their two companions.

“If you don’t believe us, go see for yourselves.”

“The big oaf’s body is still warm, and Lord Crow still hasn’t returned. Judging by the commotion earlier, the battle is clearly still ongoing. If you’re not afraid of dying, go witness it yourselves.”

Their tones had turned extremely unfriendly due to their foul moods.

Though Gloomy and Enchantress weren’t particularly intimidated, they didn’t want to provoke them further.

This wasn’t the time for arguments anyway.

“Since so many unexpected developments have occurred, we’d better focus on redeeming ourselves,” Gloomy said. “Otherwise, when the Vice Captain and Lord Crow return and learn that we couldn’t even handle a few Upper-Rank Professionals from a rural Base City, and even lost so many people, none of us will escape punishment.”

“And the sacrifice,” Enchantress snorted coldly. “The sacrifice has escaped again. If we don’t recapture her soon and the Vice Captain and Lord Crow hold us accountable, we’re definitely finished.”

Scarface and Baldy immediately fell silent.

After all, they were the ones who lost the person. If blame were to be assigned, they would bear the greatest responsibility.

Under these circumstances, it would be better to quickly clean up the mess here and recapture the sacrifice before Lord Crow returns.

Thinking this, Scarface even suggested:

“Then we’ll leave this place to you. We’ll go find the sacrifice.”

Scarface’s words were immediately met with vigorous nodding from Baldy.

But the response came from their enemies.

“Don’t even think about it…”

Gao Xu, holding the Qilin Blade, staggered to his feet.

Bai Xuefei and Duan Xiaofei did the same, gritting their teeth as they forced themselves to stand.

They had learned the whole story from Xu Yanyan and Bai Ruxiang – about the terrifying entity sealed beneath the Ruins, and about Wang Yihan’s crucial importance.

Therefore, they absolutely couldn’t allow the members of Sin to leave this place and go cause trouble for Wang Yihan.

“Mr. Gao…”

“Xuefei…”

Xu Yanyan and Bai Ruxiang gripped their weapons tightly, yet could offer no assistance.

Never before had they felt such hatred for their own powerlessness and weakness.

In contrast, their opponents viewed their efforts with utter contempt.”At this point, what are you still resisting for?”

Scarface was growing impatient.

“You’re just a bunch of Professionals barely surviving in this remote countryside. How could you possibly understand how cruel our world truly is?”

Baldy sneered contemptuously.

“Face reality. Soon our ‘King’ will awaken, and the world will become completely different from before.”

Gloomy also began to laugh.

“If you insist on resisting, we’ll make you understand what true despair means.”

Enchantress covered her mouth while giggling.

The four’s condescending attitudes made Gao Xu and his companions’ hearts sink completely.

Gao Xu questioned them in a low voice.

“Why do you want to awaken humanity’s greatest enemy? Do you wish to destroy all of mankind?”

This was the most perplexing question of all.

(End of Chapter)