Who Is the Prey, and Who Is the Hunter?

The moment the reconnaissance team member spoke, everyone stopped in their tracks.

They quickly drew together, gathering back-to-back as their eyes swept the surroundings, assessing the situation before them.

This was an abandoned factory.

The cobweb-covered equipment was old and decrepit, with half of it collapsed onto the production line. The oil spilled across the floor had long since dried and solidified. It looked as though the place had been abandoned for quite some time.

With the dim lighting and rain obstructing their vision, even as Pioneers of the Spirit Qi Recovery, they found it difficult to detect anything.

The trap laid for the Destroyer Squad had been carefully woven, leaving no easy escape.

"Did we fall for it?"

The captain murmured softly.

An abandoned factory like this did not look like somewhere someone would flee into out of desperation.

It looked more like a trap.

A trap meant to catch them all in one net, like turtles in a jar.

In the darkness.

A massive Black Serpent slowly turned its body, revealing its enormous, muscular frame. Its black scales bore the color of death, glimmering with an Anomalous light beneath the dim illumination.

Its long tongue flicked in and out continuously, carrying a suffocating stench.

Every scrape of its scales made their hearts tremble. Its hissing echoed endlessly among the old machinery, like some kind of provocation.

A Dark Attribute Black Serpent!

Candle Night had deceived every one of them. It had lured them into this abandoned factory under the guise of fleeing.

And the Dark Attribute was inherently among the best at concealment. Candle Night was darkness, and so was the Great Serpent.

Boom!

A deafening crash rang out.

With a sweep of its tail, the Great Serpent slammed the doors shut.

In the silent night.

An uneasy and Anomalous atmosphere gradually spread.

With their vision stripped away, their other senses became exceptionally sharp.

Their ears were filled with the serpent's hissing. A cold, sinister aura pressed against their faces, making them instinctively nauseous.

They could not find Candle Night's location in the darkness.

They could only faintly hear the sound of its tail dragging across the floor. The entire Destroyer Squad had been thrown into a highly passive position.

Suddenly!

A sickening smell shot into their nostrils, striking straight at their heads.

"Dark Attribute Poison Mist!"

"Get out of the way!"

The captain was the first to react and immediately sounded the warning.

But it was already too late.

One of the team members beside him failed to dodge in time, and the poison mist directly touched his arm.

A chilling sensation pierced through his clothes and crawled over his entire arm. He gasped sharply from the pain and reached out to touch it, only to find his hand covered in warm blood!

Corrosion!

In the darkness, the team member's expression abruptly changed.

He did not need to look to know that his arm was now covered in blood.

"Retreat!"

The captain immediately gave the order.

The poison mist's corrosive effect was incredibly powerful, even fiercer than highly toxic chemicals. The moment it touched something, it corroded it!

There was no way to confront such an overbearing ability head-on!

Everyone supported the injured man and quickly retreated toward the door. Blood trailed across the floor in a winding line before his torn clothes were used to bandage the wound.

But the smell of blood filled the air, mingling with the pungent Black Mist.

The others did not look much better either.

"Captain, the poison mist is still spreading."

"If this continues, we'll all die."

In this pitch-black factory, the poison mist sealed off their vision. They could not find the exit and could only dodge.

But no matter how they dodged, the space was limited. Sooner or later, the poison mist would reach the hems of their clothes.

Waiting helplessly for death was not the Destroyer Squad's style.

They were a sharp arrow. If the Anomaly wanted their lives, they would pierce its throat even at the cost of their own.

"Take care of him. I'll find Candle Night."

The captain stepped forward and calmly arranged their tactics. "Listen carefully for the sound of it moving. I'll find a way to keep it pinned in the middle. Then you attack from the shadows."

"Understood."

"Understood."

"Understood."

Three voices answered in unison.

The captain turned around, pressed two fingers together like a sword, and used surging spirit qi to tear open a gap in the Black Mist.

He rushed inside.

Soon, the sounds of intense fighting erupted.

Smack.

A moment later, glass shattered on the right. Something slammed fiercely into the wall, though it was impossible to tell whether it was human or beast.

Boom!

Parts from the old machinery came crashing down, stirring up foul-smelling dust that choked the air.

Everything before them remained pitch-black.

The heavy rain weakened their hearing as well. They could only briefly pinpoint Candle Night and the captain's locations by sound, only for those estimates to be overturned in the next instant.

A sizzling sound, like a roaring bonfire on a winter night, scorched everything in the factory—and everyone's nerves.

Clang—

Another crashing sound rang out.

This time, a familiar muffled groan accompanied it.

Candle Night darted wildly through the darkness, appearing now and then. The captain reacted swiftly, clashing with it each time, but now even he was beginning to struggle to keep up.

"This damned thing!"

The captain sat up and raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were tightly shut, yet they had still been severely corroded by the Black Mist. Two trails of blood slowly flowed from beneath his closed eyelids.

The air felt severely compressed. He panted heavily, feeling as if his nostrils were filled with the stench of the Black Mist.

"Am I... really going to die here?"

Inside the enclosed space.

Once the factory was filled with Black Mist, only a slow death awaited them.

The Black Mist was like a thick veil before their eyes. They could not see the stars or moon, nor could they find the exit.

Even if they found it, they no longer had the strength to make it out.

"My spirit qi is almost exhausted."

"The earlier fight consumed too much spirit qi. Once I no longer have spirit qi protecting my body, the Black Mist will instantly corrode me."

"Still, that beast expended quite a bit as well. Otherwise, the Black Mist would have already filled every one of our corpses. Though that doesn't help much. As long as it's smart enough to stay hidden and slowly release the Black Mist, it can wear every one of us down to death."

"Anomalies aren't beasts. They have intelligence too... So who is the hunter, and who is the prey?"

The captain gave a bitter laugh.

He could no longer locate the others.

Everyone was trapped in the Black Mist, like they were slowly sinking into the depths of a swamp. An increasingly heavy force dragged them all downward, leaving not the slightest possibility of salvation.

Hissing surrounded their ears like a death warrant, endlessly urging them toward death.

This was the first time.

The captain of the Destroyer Squad felt profound despair rise within him.

He heard the rain pouring down across the sky.

The Black Mist gradually swallowed his transparent spirit qi shield.

The blackness that symbolized death slowly filled the entire abandoned factory as well.

At this moment, no one had the attention to spare.

Amid the torrential rain.

A black figure slowly appeared outside the abandoned factory, atop a dilapidated residential building.

Rainwater slid down his robes as he quietly watched the abandoned factory.

"So, the ones who have been monitoring me all this time were from the Spirit Qi Cultivation Association. Their people do seem to understand the rules. They knew better than to disturb my life."

Fang Yi's gaze fell upon the Black Mist surging like a tide.

"So these are the Anomalies?"