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Lin Shuguang turned back and made his way over to Professor Wang and the others.

The group quickly gathered around.

"Captain Lin."

Lin Shuguang's gaze swept across every face. "Everyone alright?"

Of the nearly forty people in the team, fewer than ten remained.

It could be said the losses were devastating.

"Zhou De and the others... to buy us time, they were already taken by those Walking Corpses..." The Special Management Bureau soldiers choked up as they spoke.

They hadn't been thrown together for a single mission; they belonged to the same squad, had lived side by side for nearly five years, and had gone through countless frontline operations. They were brothers who had long since traded their lives for one another.

Watching a brother torn limb from limb was no easy sight.

Many of the younger Special Management Bureau soldiers had red-rimmed eyes.

Lin Shuguang patted the soldier on the shoulder. "Great Xia won't forget them."

"Captain Lin—" Professor Wang opened his mouth, a trace of guilt on his face.

It was all because they had to protect him and the others that so many young soldiers had been sacrificed.

The atmosphere turned heavy with silence.

Many began to hang their heads in dejection.

Lin Shuguang looked at them, his expression flat. "Now isn't the time to dwell on this. I know it hurts—it hurts me too! You're all people I brought in, and I want to take every last one of you back out. Who the hell wasn't born to a father and mother? If some bullshit mission demands your lives in exchange, I won't do it! And I won't let it happen!

I'm putting this out there—no one who came here is a coward!

Now, all of you, pull yourselves together! As long as I'm here, I won't let a single one of you come to harm!"

The Special Management Bureau soldiers jolted.

Under Lin Shuguang's rallying call, the group headed toward the pile of Walking Corpse bodies.

Professor Wang walked up beside Lin Shuguang and asked, "Captain Lin, where did you go after the white fog disappeared earlier?"

Lin Shuguang's gaze was calm. "I was taken into a Maze. After I got out of the Maze, I ran into these Walking Corpses too. I killed them all before I could leave that place."

Everyone who heard Lin Shuguang's matter-of-fact account couldn't help but stare in astonishment.

Killed them all?

The number Lin Shuguang had encountered was probably far more than what they had just faced.

Maybe even greater!

The crowd looked at Lin Shuguang's calm face—the calmer it was, the more it sent chills down their spines.

In their minds, a scene flashed of Lin Shuguang trapped alone, fighting desperately amid thousands of enemies... That bloody, hard-fought ferocity stirred a surging, unstoppable pride in everyone present, sweeping away their earlier dejection.

Professor Wang opened his mouth, but countless words got stuck in his throat, choked off by Lin Shuguang's casual tone.

He heavily patted Lin Shuguang on the shoulder—many things left unspoken between them.

Just as Lin Shuguang had said, who the hell wasn't born to a father and mother?

To sacrifice so many fresh, hard-trained national assets for an old wreck like him—it hurt him too!

On one side was the mission; on the other, living, breathing lives.

Professor Wang fell silent. He had to explore this world more seriously. If he could find something truly valuable, then those young soldiers wouldn't have died in vain!

Lin Shuguang looked up at the sky.

The Blood Sea was still there.

He grew more and more puzzled.

Was the world he had experienced earlier under the same sky as this one?

But then why—when the Blood Saber had stirred the Blood Sea into a vortex—was there no sign of that phenomenon here at all?

"Crack—"

A tearing sound suddenly came from above, sharp and clear in everyone's ears.

They all looked up.

And then they saw a sight they would never forget.

The Blood Sea in the sky, like a shattered mirror, burst into countless fragments that shot outward—but before they could fly far, they were swallowed by the Blood-Red Fire Sea gushing from above, incinerated on the spot.

"What is this?" Wu Feng and the others gaped.

A torrent like a crashing wave descended from the heavens, and the whole world began to shake violently.

"Quick, move! This world is collapsing!" Professor Wang shouted urgently.

The others snapped to attention and dashed toward the passage entrance.

The sky trembled wildly, countless explosive air currents surged down, and massive dark vortices swallowed everything around them.

The terrifying sight made Wu Feng's legs go weak; if Cheng Jun hadn't yanked him hard, he would have collapsed to the ground.

Professor Wang looked around at the corpses of the Walking Corpses with a face full of regret.

He had wanted to study these corpses properly, but he never expected this world to collapse so quickly.

Gritting his teeth, he stopped his escape and instead scooped up the intact half of a corpse lying on the ground, only then beginning to flee toward the passage entrance.

He had little strength to begin with, and now with a bulky corpse in his arms, his speed slowed even further.

Seeing this, Lin Shuguang immediately turned back, grabbing Professor Wang with one hand and the Walking Corpse with the other.

He moved with swift strides.

Behind them, the rolling dark vortex devoured the world, surging from ten thousand meters away to within a thousand meters in the blink of an eye, closing in fast.

Lin Shuguang found these people too slow. The passage was still a hundred meters away.

He decisively tossed Professor Wang and the Walking Corpse corpse through the passage first, then turned back again, running to Wu Feng and Cheng Jun, who were lagging behind, and grabbed them by the shoulders.

"Prepare for impact."

Before his words even faded, ignoring the terror on their faces, he hurled them toward the passage opening.

"Don't touch me!"

Pei Ruoyi shrieked, bursting with speed. Despite the pack on her back, she was not slow at all.

But Lin Shuguang still found her too slow. He grabbed her shoulder without a word, and amid the girl's screams, showed not a shred of chivalry as he flung her out hard, her speed multiplied tenfold.

Now, he alone was left at the rear.

He looked back at the rolling tide of darkness already a hundred meters away.

His heart stirred with emotion.

But then, suddenly!

A blood-red figure appeared out of nowhere, and even the unstoppable dark tide parted before it.

Lin Shuguang's expression shifted.

He instinctively stepped back.

"That thing... it seems to be coming for me!!!"

Unable to tell friend from foe, and especially since it had emerged from the Divine Tree, Lin Shuguang didn't hesitate. He turned and dashed toward the passage opening.

"Woom!"

The Blood Saber flew in with savage force.

The surrounding darkness was even incinerated by the terrifying killing intent it carried.

Feeling that overwhelming power behind him, Lin Shuguang erupted with all his strength.

"Whoosh!"

He shot through the passage.

Landing on the ground.

The desolate and lonely scene before him made him pause in surprise.

The Blood Desolate Land, once a forest of blood-red trees, was now completely barren.

"Captain Lin!"

The soldiers of the Special Management Bureau, seeing Lin Shuguang emerge last, finally felt at ease.

Lin Shuguang nodded. "Contact the Si Bureau. We're heading back."

"Yes, sir!"

Lin Shuguang walked over to Professor Wang, who was already directing Pei Ruoyi and the others to handle the Walking Corpse corpse.

As for Pei Ruoyi, when she saw Lin Shuguang, her hair disheveled, she shot him a resentful glare.