Flame-Congealing Oil

No one thought Xia Hong would be injured, because the one who had ambushed him was an ordinary person.

Even if that middle-aged man had been standing right next to him, it could not change the fact that he was merely an ordinary person.

He had no cultivation at all. Even though Xia Hong had just finished fighting a Frost Beast and was still injured, even showing signs of exhaustion, it should have made no difference.

The Lumbering Realm did not merely represent the ability to go out and chop down trees.

The improvement in basic strength meant that one's physical qualities far surpassed those of ordinary people.

The reason everyone had panicked was, first, that they had lost their heads in the urgency of the moment, and second, that they had never expected this.

Why would an ordinary middle-aged man from the camp attack Xia Hong?

Boom...

However, when Xia Hong raised his hand and caught the middle-aged man's fist, then was sent rolling back more than ten meters, the expressions of everyone in the camp changed at once.

Xia Hong was the strongest person in the camp. Even setting that aside, everyone had witnessed the strength he had displayed while fighting that Frost Beast.

To send him flying more than ten meters with a single punch—

How could this be an ordinary person?

"I know him. Isn't that Wang Ping?"

"How could it be him? It's fake."

"Fake?"

There were only a little over a hundred people in Great Xia, and they basically all knew one another. Someone quickly recognized the middle-aged man and called out his name.

But even faster, everyone realized that the man was not Wang Ping.

"Wary of me, are you? You little thing, you're cautious enough!"

That Wang Ping spoke again, but this time, his voice sounded like wood scraping against wood. It was both shrill and unpleasant, stirring revulsion in the depths of one's heart.

Xia Hong shook his aching hand and looked up at the middle-aged man. There was not much surprise on his face. Instead, a cold smile appeared.

"I was wondering how that Frost Beast had suddenly come over to this slope. So you drove it here. You didn't dare show yourself and sent a Frost Beast instead. What a waste of all that ability of yours."

Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, and the other four had already reached the area. Their faces wary, they surrounded the middle-aged man.

After hearing the strange voice that came from the middle-aged man, how could the six of them still not understand? The thing before them was not a person at all, but the specter from Redwood Ridge—the one that had brought them immense disaster three months ago.

"Cackle, cackle, cackle... I thought it could deal with all of you, but who would have guessed that this brute was too weak? I'll still have to put in some effort myself. Those six are basically crippled already. How much of your strength do you have left? The lives of all you hundred-plus people will belong to me! Heh heh heh heh heh..."

The middle-aged man's laughter was eerie and twisted, just like the posture it had displayed when slaughtering the camp before. This specter seemed to possess some peculiar obsession with killing.

Although Xia Hong kept his eyes fixed on the middle-aged man before him, the corners of his eyes continued sweeping across his surroundings. The middle-aged man in front of him made him even more certain of his previous guess.

That specter really was controlling these counterfeit people from behind the scenes.

It had never shown itself.

However, it seemed to have been frightened by the fire he had used last time.

This time, it had not only sent a Frost Beast over as a vanguard, but had also taken advantage of the chaos to blend into the people in the camp, hoping to deal with him through an ambush.

Perhaps that punch had confirmed that Xia Hong had little strength left. The specter's laughter grew increasingly unrestrained as it swept its gaze over the camp's hundred-plus people, a strangely bloodthirsty light gradually emerging in its eyes.

"Don't celebrate too soon. Take a look at your palm."

Xia Hong's faintly mocking voice brought the specter's laughter to a halt.

Confused, it lowered its head to look at its palm. Only then did it discover that the place that had struck Xia Hong had somehow become stained with a layer of yellowish oil.

"You're trying to trick me? What the—ah..."

The specter looked puzzled, thinking Xia Hong was merely bluffing. But before it could finish speaking, the oily stain spontaneously burst into flames for no apparent reason. Just like what had happened in the cave on the other mountain last time, it let out a sharp, agonized shriek.

"Ah... ah... this fire again... ah..."

Sitting on the ground, Xia Hong breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Over all those preceding days, the smelting furnace had produced only one portion of Fire Condensing Oil. If he had not smeared the oil onto himself beforehand, he might truly have fallen into the trap.

From the moment the Frost Beast had inexplicably charged toward the cave, Xia Hong had already sensed that something was wrong.

The Golden-Eyed Demonic Sheep had always lived around Redwood Ridge. Xia Hong had seen it many times when leading teams out at night. That proved the demonic sheep rarely went elsewhere. So why had it suddenly come to the camp?

Combined with what he had discovered the night he found Wang Ming's corpse, he had no choice but to suspect that the specter was behind it.

Therefore, before he had even begun fighting the Golden-Eyed Demonic Sheep, he had secretly smeared Fire Condensing Oil all over himself, worried that the demonic sheep might also be under the specter's control.

Since that specter could control people, it was naturally possible that it could control Frost Beasts as well.

The truth proved that although the Frost Beast had not been controlled by it, it had indeed been driven toward the camp by it. Smearing the Fire Condensing Oil on himself beforehand had also been the right decision.

This specter really was terrified of the system's fire.

"Ah... ah... you little bastard, I'll definitely kill you."

"You—and all of you people—none of you will get away."

"Ah... I'll come back. None of you will get away..."

The screams did not last long. The specter completely melted away, leaving behind only a few venomous, hate-filled words still echoing through the cave.

Xia Hong watched as the specter was thoroughly devoured by the flames. A trace of anger also rose in his eyes. This specter had already come after the camp for the second time, yet even now, he had never seen its true appearance.

The specter's methods were terrifying and bizarre, but its temperament seemed somewhat... overly cautious.

"Rather than disguise itself as an ordinary person and come over to ambush me, it refused to confront me head-on. Is its strength simply too weak, or was it truly frightened by the system's fire?"

Xia Hong's heart was full of confusion. Logically speaking, when he had been fighting the Frost Beast just now, it would have been the perfect moment for the specter to strike. The camp's fire had gone out then, and the eight of them had been held down completely by the Frost Beast.

Since he could not figure it out, Xia Hong simply stopped thinking about it. He turned to the crowd and spoke:

"Get a fire going at once. Count everyone. Find out whether Wang Ping is still here."

After all, from the moment Wang Ping had suddenly attacked to the moment the specter's identity had been exposed and it had been burned to ash by the flames of the Fire Condensing Oil, only a few dozen breaths had passed.

Everyone was still immersed in that terrifyingly narrow escape. They only came back to their senses after Xia Hong's voice interrupted them, then hurriedly began searching the crowd for Wang Ping.

"He's gone. Wang Ping is gone. We can't find him anywhere in the cave."

Very soon, it was confirmed that Wang Ping could not be found.

When Xia Hong heard this, a grave look flashed through his eyes.

The fake Wang Ping had appeared, while the real Wang Ping could not be found.

If nothing unexpected had happened, the specter had first slipped into the cave, then silently killed Wang Ping before impersonating him.

That meant the specter could transform into anyone it killed through some method—and control that person from a distance?

The worries in Xia Hong's heart went far beyond that.

"Wang Ping was only an ordinary person, but that punch he threw just now possessed genuine strength above the Lumbering Realm."

Not only could it transform into someone else, it could also increase that person's original strength?

More importantly, that specter could control many people at once.

"If this specter isn't eliminated soon, I'm afraid it'll become a calamity!"

Brothers who've read this far, please keep following and supporting the novel! This is the first day of its recommendation push, and the new-book PK period is truly important. Thank you, everyone!