"Impossible! How could you possibly be unaffected?!"
The warlock's irises returned to their natural goblin yellow-brown.
But her aged face showed only bewilderment at the scimitar in her chest—
She was certain that the human who had run her through should have been caught by her spell.
Even if he felt no fear, he should have hesitated briefly, giving her enough time to see him charging forward and move away from the crowd...
Yet he had given her no time to react.
Barely a breath after the spell erupted, he had already wounded her!
"You don't seriously expect me to explain myself to an enemy, do you?"
Tang Qi didn't consider himself a long-winded villain.
Why would he tell her that he had taken a [True Sight Eye Potion] beforehand, allowing him to see through every illusion, and give her a chance to prepare for him next time?
The illusions conjured by the Fear Spell were no more special than the mist in the Twilight Forest.
If the potion said it could expose illusions, then it could.
So from Tang Qi's perspective, as he scrambled awkwardly to his feet and prepared to draw his blade alongside Black Snake, all he saw was black earth spilling from the warlock's hand.
Immediately afterward, everyone—including the goblins and beastfolk surrounding them—looked as though their parents had died and dropped their weapons.
The quicker ones had already fled into the woods.
With no one stopping him, Tang Qi had naturally been able to charge straight up to her.
Since he hadn't quite judged his scimitar's reach, he had simply run the warlock clean through—
At best, he could kill her on the spot; failing that, he would still have a hostage to help them escape the encirclement.
And many crowd-control spells required the spellcaster to maintain concentration.
With that blade driven into her chest, the illusions before her victims' eyes naturally vanished.
"Even spells don't work on you?"
Black Snake hadn't noticed Tang Qi drinking the potion. Discovering that the spell he found so troublesome was insignificant in Tang Qi's eyes left him stunned.
For a moment, he was lost for words.
Unwilling to waste time, Tang Qi tightened his grip around her neck, holding her completely restrained.
He backed up two steps to gain some distance, then put on a fierce expression and shouted at the beastfolk and goblins who had regained their senses:
"Back the fuck off, or I'll shred her guts first!"
But he soon realized that reasoning with these savage races was futile.
This warlock apparently held some standing among the goblins, who shrank back and retreated two steps.
But to the beastfolk, she might not be worth as much as the axes in their hands.
There was not a trace of reason in those crimson eyes.
Roaring, one raised his hand axe and charged toward Tang Qi.
The warlock couldn't help shrieking:
"Damn you, Shivana! Why aren't you saving me?!"
Black Snake's crescent-shaped scimitar was about to sweep across the beastfolk's neck.
But a shrill rush of air came first—
A great axe spun through the air, its blade tracing a full moon before slamming hard into the beastfolk's side.
The beastfolk let out a whimper, startled enough to nearly topple to the ground.
[Alertness] hadn't triggered, which meant the axe had only been intended to intimidate the beastfolk.
Tang Qi and Black Snake both looked toward the direction the great axe had come from.
Yet the beastfolk's death brought no relief.
Quite the opposite: the relentless rumbling that shook the ground set alarm bells ringing in Tang Qi's mind.
A shudder, like plunging into an icy ravine, instantly spread through every pore of his body—
"Hoo, hah!"
"Hoo, hah!"
"Hoo, hah!"
Drumbeats and war cries followed one after another.
At last, he clearly saw the towering silhouettes emerging from the mist—
They were several giant tortoises, each at least fifty feet long and wide!
In the heavy darkness and fog, they resembled rounded, moving hills.
Moss covered their enormous backs. Jagged spikes and sharpened bones reinforced the edges of their shells, with thick ropes and green vines lashed around them—
These held up the precarious, tower-like huts perched on their backs.
Between the huts were even simple platforms pieced together from wooden planks, along with scattered makeshift tents.
Rickety suspension bridges connected the platforms and wooden towers on the giant tortoises, swaying from side to side as they lumbered forward. A few planks even shook loose and fell.
They had no need to charge. The forest could not obstruct their enormous bodies; every step brought swathes of trees crashing down.
Atop the tallest tower on the leading tortoise, which resembled a lookout post, stood a tall, upright beastfolk.
That was unusual.
Beastfolk always hunched forward as they walked, without caring about appearances. This had forced their spines to evolve with a forward slant, making them look hunchbacked.
But to Tang Qi, this wasn't necessarily bad news—
Caring about appearances meant he understood at least something of civilization.
"It would be even better if he's willing to talk."
Watching at least thirty beastfolk on foot in front of the giant tortoises surround them completely,
Tang Qi could only pray for that.
"How about you tell me where the town is? Once I escape, I can pass word of your death to the Poet Academy."
Black Snake spoke hesitantly as he and Kuru edged closer to Tang Qi.
He believed that at his peak, these beastfolk wouldn't have posed much of a threat—
Even if he couldn't beat them, he could at least run fast enough.
But the successive battles had left him utterly exhausted.
If he kept wearing himself down like this, he might well meet an ignominious end.
But Tang Qi wasn't about to let his only real fighter leave:
"If I can't escape, don't expect to get out of this forest yourself."
"This is already a death trap. You could at least save one life, but you'd rather make me die with you?" Black Snake tried to guilt him.
"At least you won't be lonely on the way. How about I sing for you?" Tang Qi wasn't buying it.
"Screw you."
Having heard his answer, Black Snake couldn't help cursing inwardly.
Tang Qi turned his attention to the beastfolk atop the tower—
She climbed down the ladder, then jumped to the ground only after reaching the tortoise's back.
There was nothing wrong with that.
But Tang Qi had expected her to leap down into the crowd with a heroic entrance.
Of course, given the watchtower's height, doing so would probably have broken her leg.
The beastfolk before her made way, pounding their chests with heavy fists in a steady rhythm:
"Hoo, hah!"
"Hoo, hah!"
"Hoo, hah!"
Only as she approached did Tang Qi realize she stood out far more than he had imagined—
Among the beastfolk, no one cared about your gender.
They cared only about your strength.
Even the females had powerful builds and would lose to no male in a contest of strength.
Even so, the female beastfolk before him could only be described as athletic.
Not exaggeratedly muscular, but well proportioned.
Her tusks weren't particularly thick, much less sharp.
They merely showed at the corners of her mouth like pointed canines, lending a dashing air to her attractive, angular, almost human face.
Her pale green skin was left uncovered, revealing that her bloodline was not pure.
Worn strips of cloth bound her chest tightly, keeping those two burdens from hindering her movements as much as possible.
She was a half-orc.
A female half-orc who had still become a tribal leader in a society ruled by survival of the strongest, steeped in violence and bloodshed.
For a moment, Tang Qi didn't know whether to feel glad or worried.
Then every emotion turned to horror when he clearly saw the eyeball circling above this half-orc's shoulder.
No one knew how these beastfolk, who should have been held beyond the Great Wall by the southern front, had traveled thousands of miles into the Twilight Forest in the central East Coast.
Nor did anyone know how they could find their way through this illusion-filled mist.
But now, a construct identical to the one above Melard's shoulder—
An artificial life-form, an eyeball sealed in a bottle and fitted with two gear-driven wings, appeared before Tang Qi.
New Star's arrogant voice instantly echoed in his ears:
"Ordinary adventurers can't rent magical creations of this caliber.
Only important people with some standing and power in Dragon Gold City have the connections to rent one at such a high price..."
He suddenly realized that everything happening now could never be called an "accident."
It was a thoroughgoing...
Conspiracy.
Before you continue