I Am Your Natural Enemy

Chapter 571: Chapter 226: Awareness, Offending Too Many People (5k)_3

We fought here for half a day, only to have someone swoop in at the end like a mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

The young man leaning against the tree heard this and suddenly burst out laughing.

”Who says the strongest is guaranteed to laugh till the end? The strongest might be the very first to get eliminated.”

”Hm?”

”Wanna work together? My goal has never been to come in first—just want a spot to enter the warehouse, that’s all.”

”What did you mean by what you just said?” The guy hit by lightning looked uneasy, a bad premonition rising in his heart.

”Minister Cai said, to get the target item, only the first three people to step into the doors of the Yu State Scorching Sun Department count as winners.

If you don’t get the item, even if you’re the first to return to the Yu State Scorching Sun Department, it doesn’t count for anything.

We can work together—let’s eliminate the strongest ones first, what do you think?”

The lightning-struck youth’s face changed. He glanced back in the direction Huang Zhiji left, took a sharp breath, stepped closer, and lowered his voice.

”That badge just now—it was fake?”

”No, the badge was real. It’s just that I got it as a reward when I visited the Scorching Sun Department before, after answering a few questions.”

”...” The guy hit by lightning had a subtle change of heart.

He started to understand why Minister Cai had arranged for this final test.

Because strength itself might not be the key factor for ultimate victory.

Someone might have enough power to get all three mission items, but within this domain, you can’t really be sure in what order you actually get them.

If you try to wait, you might drop from first place to third without realizing it.

From being able to pick three items in the warehouse, to only being able to choose one—the gap in between is massive.

So this test is about more than just making choices and sacrifices—it also tests your ability to gather intel and your judgment.

That Huang Zhiji, he’s definitely strong, but as long as he doesn’t figure out that the badge isn’t a mission item, if he leaves now, he’ll one hundred percent get eliminated.

The lightning-struck youth remembered some rumors about Minister Cai and looked at the young man before him—who looked even younger and more innocent—then sincerely said,

”You’re this cunning? Minister Cai is definitely going to value you highly.”

”You’re flattering me.”

”My name is Chen Shuxian. What’s your name?”

”I’m Zhang Li.”

”Pleasure working with you. If we only get third place, you can go in and pick. Second place, we’ll each get one...”

”First place isn’t even our concern—there’s no way it’ll be our turn.”

”Yeah, true...”

...

It was already getting chaotic inside the domain. Everyone started to realize that finding the mission item wasn’t the hardest part. The hardest part was figuring out how to grab it and then get out to hand in the task.

In the cluster of buildings at the entrance to the domain, when Huang Zhiji appeared with the item, the place was already deserted—nobody else was there.

He pulled out his compass. Seeing the spinning needle, he was about to use his own method to find the exit when he heard the faint sound of vehicles at the top of the stairs.

He looked at the compass in his hand again—the pointer, which had been spinning chaotically, now pointed in a certain direction.

”Great misfortune—a sign that evil guests have come to the door.”

Huang Zhiji’s expression shifted. He focused his senses and even smelled a faint, bloody, metallic stench.

He immediately started to retreat. After putting some distance between him and the entrance, he quickly dug two pomelo leaves from his bag, infused them with the yellow talisman’s blessing, and dabbed them on his eyes before looking again.

At the far end of the road by the entrance, he could faintly see bloodthirsty aura rising, as well as two human figures.

He instantly withdrew his gaze, heart pounding.

Something really has happened!

The final phase of the training wasn’t even what Minister Cai had originally planned—he changed it at the last minute!

That so-called mission item might not even matter. It wasn’t specified what the item was supposed to be—maybe because it simply doesn’t exist.

Right now, it’s all about who can rely on their own skills to get out of here and report back to the Scorching Sun Department.

No matter what, the Scorching Sun Department would never invite two guys reeking so heavily of blood to participate in their trial.

Whatever these things are—maybe not even human—the moment you sense their aura, you can tell they’ve killed more than a few people. That oppressive feeling can be felt even from this far away.

Either they’re demons that eat humans, or they’re cold-blooded killers who murder for fun.

And for people like this to appear here so easily... it means something has definitely happened outside as well.

Huang Zhiji’s brows knit together as he pondered—should he leave, or not?

And where did everyone else go?

What about Minister Cai? What about Wen Yan?

Just as Huang Zhiji was still lost in thought, he saw those two figures coming down the stairs at the end of the road.

After coming down, one went to push open the building door and went inside.

The other scouted the area, then locked eyes on where Huang Zhiji was hiding. He looked up, and the skin on his face started peeling off in layers, revealing a face covered in fine scales. He grinned, showing rows of sharp teeth.

That figure dropped to all fours, hands transforming into claws, and sprinted forward at terrifying speed.

Huang Zhiji’s face hardened at the sight. He instantly gave up on fleeing.

He smacked the pouch at his waist, pulled out a stack of yellow talismans, and, rubbing them between his fingers, unfurled them. With his other hand, he quickly wrote a talisman spell across the overlapping talismans, like stamping a chop halfway between them.

As the demon drew nearer, Huang Zhiji’s expression grew more focused and steady. He chanted an incantation under his breath, stepped out in the Yu Step, drawing out talismans on the ground. With a final stomp, a palm-sized miniature Dharma Altar flew from his pouch and landed on the earth.

Huang Zhiji threw out the stack of yellow talismans, which hovered in the air on their own. He drew three sticks of incense from his belt, igniting them with his own blood and Yang Energy.

”Heaven and earth’s thunder virtue, all laws quaking—with the Mount Mao Patriarch’s command, talisman as proof, incense as the guide, thunder strike here, strike swiftly—by my order, let it be done!”

With a low shout, streams of tiny lightning arced along the talisman streaked in his blood, weaving through the air from talisman to talisman and binding the entire stack together as one.