“Let’s talk as we go!”

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at his teammates and took the lead, saying,

“Someone keep track of the time. We need to be wooden figures again before the next five minutes are up. The person responsible for remembering the route, report it quickly.”

After giving the simple orders, he said:

“The Lingjing Xingzhe instance mentioned that the power of evil cultivators has permeated the instance. If we can figure out what profession the evil cultivators are, we can deduce the source of the crisis and respond correctly.”

Tianxia Guihuo suddenly realized:

“Mist Master!”

“Mist Master.” Baihu Wansui seemed to have thought of something and suddenly brightened up:

“When I was on the outer layer, I collected those brightly colored fungi and fruits. I always felt the patterns on them were familiar. Now I understand, it’s the pattern of the Bewitching Eye.”

These words surprised Zhang Yuanqing, realizing why the patterns on the mushrooms looked familiar.

In terms of observation, the scout is indeed the best… Zhang Yuanqing said:

“That’s right, the evil cultivator in the side quest description is the Bewitching Demon. Those mushrooms on the outer layer are actually a hint. If we had figured this out sooner, we wouldn’t have had to lose anyone.

“The best way to deal with the Mist Master is to stay still, so it can’t observe us.”

Hearing this, the official Xingzhe completely understood.

“As expected of you, Yuan Shi Tianzun, you’re a genius at strategizing instances. If you tell me to go east, I’ll never go west.” A fire master patted his chest, saying heartily.

“Amazing, how did you figure out all this in such a short time? This is god-like wisdom.” Jiang Jingwei’s eyes flashed with admiration.

It’s not that serious, but being flattered feels pretty good… Zhang Yuanqing touched Jiang Jingwei’s head, suddenly understanding why Fu Qingyang appreciated him.

Actually, as long as you figure out the source of the mist, this level isn’t difficult. However, under normal circumstances, it’s hard to link the seemingly ordinary mist with the Mist Master’s abilities.

He was particularly sensitive because he had a psychological shadow, which made him react faster than others.

God-like wisdom is an exaggeration. The surrounding teammates smiled, and the atmosphere became inexplicably relaxed.

They once again felt the ease of having a master in the team.

Although with the wisdom, ability, and experience of so many people, they could probably figure out the root of the mist and find a solution before being wiped out with one death every five minutes.

But that would cost a lot of lives.

Now, Yuan Shi Tianzun solved the problem with almost no effort. This is the benefit of following a big shot in an instance.

Lying down and winning!

“Four minutes…”

Guan Ya reminded everyone.

She was always so reliable.

The discussion stopped immediately, and the team stopped in place, each person stiffening their bodies, standing motionless like stone statues.

Zhang Yuanqing stopped and used Divine Wander, his spirit leaving his body, picking up a leaf from the ground and suspending it in the air.

Time passed second by second, and five minutes quickly arrived. Zhang Yuanqing (in spirit form), who was silently counting the time, flicked the fallen leaf out of his hand, sending it spinning into the gauze-like mist.

“Crack!”

The withered, brittle leaf suddenly shattered into pieces.

In that instant, Zhang Yuanqing saw clearly a thread, almost invisible to the eye, hanging down from the canopy, wrapped around the leaf, and crushed it.

The attacker’s method of killing is a thread? No wonder it could behead people silently.

Zhang Yuanqing’s spirit rose sharply, drifting towards the canopy.

This time, he saw the attacker clearly. It was a spider, the size of a washbasin, with a round abdomen, eight legs, and red eyes, formed from condensed mist. The patterns on its back were twisted and strange, the unique incantations of the Bewitching Demon.

It wasn’t attached to the canopy, but clinging to the mist. The thin, gauze-like mist was like a web it had woven, allowing it to crawl freely within the mist.

Zhang Yuanqing’s psychic power expanded, reaching out towards the Bewitching Spider, trying to grab it using the method of manipulating objects with his spirit.

But the moment he touched the spider, its washbasin-sized body suddenly shattered, turning into a swirl of chaotic mist.

No physical form? Zhang Yuanqing frowned, looked around, then lowered his spirit, returning to his physical body.

In the following time, the group advanced with four minutes of walking and one minute of stopping, without any mishaps.

After about half an hour, the sky-covering mist became thinner and thinner. They could see the shadows of the surrounding trees, the outlines of their companions, and seemed to be leaving the misty area.

After walking for a few more minutes, everyone completely broke free of the thick fog. Looking back, behind them was a frozen fog, like light gauze winding around the tree trunks, only occasionally drifting lazily.

Zhang Yuanqing heard a task notification in his ear:

[Ding! You have successfully left the Mist Spider’s territory, reward 10 points, and obtain a consumable item: Mist Spider’s Reward.]

There’s a reward?

He opened his inventory and found a dormant spider in one of the slots. Its body was formed of mist, and its eyes were scarlet. Zhang Yuanqing took out the spider, placed it in his palm, and checked its attributes:

[Name: Mist Spider’s Reward]

[Type: Consumable]

[Function: Attack, Mist]

[Introduction: A monster formed from a Mist Master’s resentment fused with a spider, possessing both the spider’s strangling ability and some of the Mist Master’s characteristics. It is a terrifying hunter in the jungle.]

[Note 1: Blowing on its body will create a thick fog that covers a radius of 100 meters, lasting for five minutes. The Mist Spider kills one person every minute.]

[Note 2: Because it is a consumable, there is no price.]

Zhang Yuanqing was both surprised and delighted. He was pleased that the rewarded consumable was quite powerful, and surprised that the summit team battle would be incredibly intense and dangerous.

If they could get rewards, so could the evil professions.

Fortunately, there were three teams in the orderly camp, and only one team in the evil professions.

But in this way, the strength of the two sides would be unbalanced. Zhang Yuanqing thought as he looked back at his teammates, saying:

“Did you guys get any consumable rewards?”

“No, only 10 points.” His colleagues shook their heads.

It seems that the reward is only given to the strategists, Zhang Yuanqing nodded slightly.

At this time, he heard the dirty Asano Ryo shout:

“Sugoi—the evil camp’s leaderboard is so high…”

Everyone quickly opened the leaderboard to check.

[1: A Yi, Witch Doctor, Level 3, 170 points]

[2: Only I Am Supreme, Water Ghost, Level 3, 165 points]

[3: Nothing Is Taboo, Bewitching Demon, Level 3, 155 points]

[4: Yuan Shi Tianzun, Night Watcher, Level 3, 150 points]

[5: Jiu Lou Yu, Scout, Level 3, 130 points]

[6: Trample the Heavens, Witch Gu Master, Scout, 120 points]

[7: Zhao Chenghuang, Night Watcher, Level 3, 100 points]

[8: Sun Miaomiao, Night Watcher, Level 3, 93 points]

[9: Jiang Jingwei, Fire Master, Level 3, 80 points]

[10: My Fate Is Up to Me, Illusionist, Level 3, 78 points]

The leaderboard had undergone earth-shattering changes. Yuan Shi Tianzun had fallen from the top to fourth place, while Zhao Chenghuang and Sun Miaomiao had fallen out of the top five. The official side only occupied four spots in the top ten.

The remaining six were divided between the evil camp and rogue cultivators.

Even worse, the top twenty-four list had also undergone huge changes. The evil camp accounted for two-thirds, while the remaining one-third was shared by the official side and orderly rogue cultivators.

Some official Xingzhe who were previously in the top twenty-four had fallen out of the Saint Realm quota.

Tianxia Guihuo said in a deep voice:

“The evil camp has taken down the Tree King and the Monkey King.”

Obviously, the reason for the evil camp’s soaring points must be that they killed the two bosses on the outer layer. The risks and rewards are proportional.

Niu Lanshan’s little fairy, with her hair in buns, frowned and said:

“We must catch up on points in the second level, or even surpass them. Otherwise, they will definitely hunt down a certain number of orderly rogue cultivators, and it will be difficult to turn the tables.”

A figure like Yuan Shi Tianzun, at worst, can stand firm in the top ten, but those of them may have no hope.

Guan Ya frowned and said, “Have you noticed that many people from the orderly camp have died in the second level?”

Currently, the number of people on the leaderboard is 75, while the total number of people entering the second level was 83.

The eight Xingzhe who were lost were all from the orderly camp.

This shows that the casualties of the other two teams are not optimistic. After walking through the maze, many more people will die.

In this way, the gap between the number of people in the orderly and evil camps will be greatly reduced.

The combat power and quality of the evil Xingzhe are higher than those of the orderly.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at his teammates and frowned:

“In the beginning, my points couldn’t even get into the top ten, but what about now? Don’t let the temporary point rankings affect your mentality. Until the last moment, the leaderboard is meaningless.

“The evil camp are all paper tigers. When we get to the top of the mountain, I will make sure you all get into the top twenty.”

As a leader, drawing big cakes is a skill that must be mastered, which can effectively boost morale.

Sure enough, the team members relaxed and regained their fighting spirit.

Zhao Chenghuang knocked out the last teammate, abandoned the scattered teammates, walked straight to the bottom of the tree hanging with corpses, raised his sharp claws, and gently swiped.

The corpse “thudded” and fell, shattering into pieces, breaking bones and tendons.

This corpse was already rotten and extremely fragile.

Zhao Chenghuang stood beside the corpse, inspected it, then squatted down, and used his sharp claws to pick out the two scarlet eyeballs from the corpse’s eye sockets.

[Ding! You have broken the “Corpse Enshrouded in Resentment”, reward a consumable item: Bewitching Demon’s Eyes.]

After reading the item information, Zhao Chenghuang expressionlessly put it into his inventory and turned to look at Yuan Ting:

“Report the casualties.”

“Two dead, four seriously injured, and others have minor injuries, not a big problem.” Yuan Ting reported the results of the previous inspection to him.

Zhao Chenghuang pondered slightly and said:

“Among the seriously injured, are there any from the Five Elements Alliance?”

“Two!”

Zhao Chenghuang took out a tube of diluted Life Elixir, “Inject half a tube into each person.”

As for the other two seriously injured rogue cultivators, he defaulted to giving up on them. In the killing instance, he didn’t need to be responsible for the rogue cultivators.

After Yuan Ting injected the Life Elixir, Zhao Chenghuang swept over Sun Miaomiao and the others and said:

“The evil camp will soon enter the second level. We need to speed up our pace. Even if we sacrifice more people, we can’t let the evil camp reach the top of the mountain first.”

Otherwise, they would definitely lose.

He, who was constantly paying attention to the leaderboard, had already noticed the ranking changes.

As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Miaomiao and the others received a Lingjing Xingzhe prompt:

[Ding! The Mountain Ghost camp has successfully arrived at the Maze Forest. The positioning function is enabled. Please pay attention to the progress of the opposing camp at all times and reach the Mountain God Temple as soon as possible.]

“So fast?”

Zhang Yuanqing was stunned. According to the prompt, with a thought, he opened a map that only he could see, just like opening the leaderboard.

The map was a vast overview of the forest, filled with intricate routes.

At this time, there were three green icons distributed in the “left, middle, and right” areas of the Maze Forest, representing the three orderly teams with different routes.

And a red icon appeared at the mountain road entrance in the middle. Without any notes, Zhang Yuanqing could guess that it represented the evil camp.

Even worse, the middle mountain road was the road they were taking.

In other words, the evil camp was behind them.

“They chose the same route as us.”

“Are they trying to surpass us? Heh, the attackers in the mist will teach them a lesson.”

“Let’s go quickly, don’t let those guys catch up.”

After reading the map, the team members discussed.

Guan Ya raised her eyebrows and said:

“Is there a possibility of an ambush?”

She meant that since both sides had chosen the same path, they might as well wait for the other side and set up an ambush to directly wipe out the evil camp.