Chapter 34: The Sudden Appearance of the Calamitous Flood

"Isn't Xue Dayong supposed to be following Brother Xu? How... how did he end up like this?"

"Could something have happened to Brother Xu?!"

"Impossible, Brother Xu is a Tier 4 Restricted!"

The group murmured in panic, their already timid spirits growing even more unsettled.

The sound of Xue Dayong’s footsteps drew closer. When he was only a few dozen meters away, whether he tripped or simply collapsed from exhaustion, he suddenly pitched forward, his face slamming into a rock.

*Crunch!*

A crisp sound of fracturing bone mixed with the sickening squelch of flesh followed. By the time Xue Dayong tremblingly pushed his upper body up, his face was a mangled, bloody mess.

Yet, within seconds, the injuries began to mend right before their eyes, leaving behind nothing but the bloodstains.

"Help... help me!" Xue Dayong reached out toward Zhang Tong, who stood at the front of the group.

Seeing this, Zhang Tong dashed forward and hauled him up. "Weren't you following Brother Xu? How did you end up like this? Where is he?"

After a moment to catch his breath, Xue Dayong recounted what had happened. However, only the first half was true; the rest was a complete fabrication by Li Chenqiu.

Indeed, the man posing as Xue Dayong was none other than Li Chenqiu himself.

"While the three of us were guarding the undergarments as Brother Xu instructed, that person who had been traveling with Li Chenqiu suddenly jumped down from the trees and attacked me without a word. He’s a Tier 2 Destiny-Wielder; the three of us together were no match for him. Later... later... I was the only one who managed to escape with my life."

As he spoke, Li Chenqiu hung his head in shame; after all, being a deserter was not exactly a glorious thing.

Hearing this, Zhang Tong angrily kicked Li Chenqiu to the ground. "You idiot! Don't you have a walkie-talkie and a signal flare?"

"I..." Li Chenqiu pointed at his clothes, looking aggrieved. "By the time I broke free from the fight... they were already broken. I had no choice but to run back for reinforcements."

"Lead the way! Everyone else, follow!" Zhang Tong bellowed. Seeing Li Chenqiu sitting on the ground motionless, he cursed, "What are you staring at? Lead the way!"

Li Chenqiu jumped as if startled, nodding frantically like a chicken pecking at grain. "Oh... oh... right, right! I'll lead the way!"

With that, he scrambled to his feet and began guiding the group.

***

The creek wasn't far, provided one walked in a straight line. Without Li Chenqiu's interference, it would have taken this group over three times as long to locate it.

This was something Li Chenqiu could not allow. He needed to eliminate them one by one before Xu Yuan noticed anything amiss, so he could awaken his third ability and have a fighting chance.

Under Li Chenqiu’s lead, the group soon arrived at the creek. Even though nearly twenty minutes had passed, the air still carried a faint scent of blood.

Zhang Tong walked to the edge of the creek and scanned the surroundings, a look of confusion in his eyes. "You said there was a fierce battle here. Why aren't there any signs of a fight?"

"I..."

Before Li Chenqiu could finish, a bead of water materialized out of thin air and pierced directly through his forehead with a sharp *whoosh*.

With a dull *thud*, Li Chenqiu’s eyes went wide as he collapsed face-down.

The sudden turn of events shocked everyone present, including Zhang Tong.

"Hey, what’s wrong with you?" Zhang Tong prodded Li Chenqiu with his foot, but there was no response.

A Reawakened stepped forward, pushed aside the hair on Li Chenqiu’s forehead, and discovered a small, clean hole. The Reawakened’s pupils constricted, and he looked up, stammering, "This... he seems to be dead?!"

"Dead?" Zhang Tong knelt down. When he saw the small hole in Li Chenqiu’s forehead, his pupils shrank to the size of needles.

To kill someone right in front of him without anyone noticing—how was this possible?

"Defensive formation, alert!" Zhang Tong shouted.

The fifty-some Reawakened immediately split into ten teams, each about fifteen meters apart—a distance that allowed for coordination while preventing total annihilation.

But for Li Chenqiu, this was useless. He didn't need close-quarters combat. He simply lay on the ground, condensing moisture from the air into water droplets and firing them. He could do the job while lying down.

The air grew heavy. The rustling of leaves in the wind was enough to make everyone’s nerves snap. Silence felt like the stillness of death; the longer it dragged on, the more panicked they became. Every second was an agonizing torture.

A minute later, someone finally broke. "Brother Zhang, maybe we should leave? It feels like there’s no one here!"

Zhang Tong hesitated, frowning, then nodded. "Fine. Let’s move out and continue searching as planned."

***

The moment those words were spoken, the group’s collective tension eased—and that was exactly when Li Chenqiu struck.

*Whoosh!*

An imperceptible whistling sound cut through the air, carrying away a few droplets of crimson.

Before the smiles could fade from the faces of several Reawakened, they collapsed onto the damp earth, forever unable to form another expression.

"Dead... someone else is dead..."

Before the man could finish his sentence, a rain of water droplets pelted the group. The sound of flesh being pierced echoed incessantly, and bright red blood sprayed into the night like ribbons.

Some tried to block the droplets with their arms, but it was futile; the water was relentless. Only Zhang Tong, a Tier 3, could deflect them with any ease.

"This attack pattern—it’s, it’s the High-Risk Hazard 096, 'Disaster Water'!!!"

"Brother Zhang, save me! Save me!"

"How is 'Disaster Water' here? Isn't he a Reawakened too?!"

"We’re done for! We can't withstand a High-Risk Hazard!"

Wails of agony filled the air as despair and terror spread through the crowd like a plague.

Watching his men fall one by one, Zhang Tong’s eyes burned with rage. Just as he reached for the signal flare in his coat, a half-meter-wide pillar of water surged from the creek like a giant dragon, slamming into him.

Caught off guard, he had no time to dodge. The impact sent him flying, and the signal flare and walkie-talkie on his person were crushed in the process.

"Damn it!!!" Zhang Tong roared in frustration. He scrambled up, intending to seize a signal flare from someone else, only to find that all the devices on the others had been destroyed by the water droplets as well.

A deep sense of powerlessness surged through him.

At that moment, only one question remained in Zhang Tong’s mind:

"Why—why is a High-Risk Hazard here, setting an ambush for us? Does this even make any sense?!"