Lava splashed everywhere, and flames spread.
The raid team continued deeper into the scorching grotto.
With Bai Luhao, an S-Class Hunter, leading them, the scattered monsters they encountered along the way—including several elite Lava Scorpion Armor Beasts with strength equivalent to mid-tier A-class—failed to cause much trouble.
Bai Luhao usually needed only one swift charge and a few swings of his tiger claws, wreathed in pale golden Qi energy, to tear through their heavy armor and extract their cores or crush their brains.
However, as the battles mounted, a subtle sense of unease began to spread through the group.
Jin Changpu was the first to notice.
As an earth mage skilled at manipulating the ground, with keen senses to match, he was exceptionally perceptive when it came to the details of a battlefield.
He had noticed early on that some Lava Scorpion Armor Beasts, badly wounded by him and his teammates but still clinging to life, would suddenly develop several tiny holes in their vital head regions during a brief opening.
The holes were minuscule, as though pierced by extremely fine metal needles, yet the result was devastating.
The monsters would instantly lose all signs of life and collapse to the ground.
At first, he assumed Piao Changfan's "Thousand Threads" had become even more refined.
But on closer inspection, the marks left by those metal needles were completely different from the spiraling force Piao Changfan used, which was designed for maximum penetration and speed.
These metal needles that appeared later might not have struck from the most difficult angles, and they might not have been the fastest, but they seemed to contain a highly destructive energy that caused vibrations.
The instant they pierced a target's brain, that energy erupted like a miniature bomb, utterly pulverizing the tissue inside the skull.
Against an A-class monster with tenacious vitality, a physical puncture to the brain alone might not be instantly fatal.
But this internal energy detonation was a true finishing blow.
"Something's not right... There's a kill stealer!"
The thought surfaced in Jin Changpu's mind.
He discreetly glanced at Piao Changfan, who was focused on controlling his metal needles as they attacked another monster. His brow was furrowed; he had clearly noticed the anomaly too.
It wasn't just the two of them. The other keenly perceptive members of the team, such as Li Xuanbing,
and even several experienced melee Hunters, were gradually catching on.
The monsters they were supposed to finish off, already on their last legs, were always beaten to the punch by one or more metal needles.
The other party seemed interested only in "stealing kills" and hadn't shown any intention of attacking them.
In fact, to some extent, he was even easing the pressure on them.
Still, the feeling of being watched and having their kills snatched away by someone they couldn't see made them uncomfortable, even a little unnerved.
The team members began silently exchanging information through glances and the understanding they had built up over years of working together, all while fighting fiercely.
"Ten o'clock. That elite one's nearly down. Keep an eye on it."
"Got it. There it goes again! That needle!"
"That's not Piao Changfan's technique."
"Fast as hell. Perfect timing."
"...Could it be that 'Wind Hidden One' from the rumors?"
"Maybe... I heard he likes to help out this way..."
Bai Luhao naturally noticed the team's strange behavior and sensed even more clearly the persistent feeling of being watched.
He casually smashed the head of a Lava Scorpion Armor Beast lunging at him, then swept his eyes over the corpses of the monsters that had been finished off. A gleam flashed in his tiger eyes.
"Wind Hidden One..."
Bai Luhao's thoughts raced.
The name had recently become familiar among the lower and middle tiers of S City's Hunter community.
A mysterious oddball whose strength was at least B-class.
He hadn't paid much attention to him before. After all, someone who kept his identity hidden like that couldn't be all that powerful.
Besides, he posed no threat to the large guilds and could even make raids easier.
But witnessing him firsthand had slightly changed Bai Luhao's opinion.
The other man had managed to steal kills with such precision in this A-class Dungeon,
right under the nose of an S-Class Hunter like him.
And the strange vibrational energy carried by those metal needles was no ordinary trick.
That meant the other man had impressive strength, concealment abilities, and a keen sense for the flow of battle.
"Perhaps... he's someone worth recruiting."
A spark of interest flashed in Bai Luhao's eyes.
The White Tiger Guild had no shortage of powerful Hunters, but S-class ones were exceedingly rare. Its true backbone consisted of A- and B-class Hunters.
If they could bring this mysterious "Wind Hidden One" into the fold, he would be a major asset, whether for special missions or boosting the guild's prestige.
With that in mind, Bai Luhao subtly turned toward Li Xuanbing
and gave him an order in a coded hand signal only their guild members understood.
Li Xuanbing understood at once.
After casting ice spikes to suppress the monsters once more, he quickly whispered a few words to two agile teammates at the peak of B-class standing nearby.
The two nodded, but their expressions barely changed, as if they were just chatting.
Then, during a brief lull in the fighting, the assassin suddenly clutched his stomach and said to Bai Luhao with a pained expression, "Guild Leader! I accidentally got grazed by a poison spike just now. My mana's not flowing properly. I may need to fall back for a while and deal with it!"
The Ranger hurried over and "concernedly" helped him up.
"I'll go with him! It's too dangerous out here for anyone to leave alone!"
Bai Luhao frowned and looked them over before replying in a low voice, "Go, and come back quickly! Be careful! Xuanbing, give them a few layers of shields!"
"Understood!"
Li Xuanbing immediately swung his staff. Three ice-blue shields, wreathed in biting cold, appeared around the two men, radiating powerful protective energy.
They thanked him, then supported each other as they began to retreat "with difficulty" along the path they had come, heading toward the teleportation gate.
Their mission was clear.
Block any possible escape route for the "Wind Hidden One," and, if possible, try to make contact or force him to reveal himself.
With Li Xuanbing's triple-layered frost shields, even if the other man suddenly attacked, they would have time to brace themselves and sound the alarm.
Xu Feng, hidden in the shadows, saw it all.
"Trying to block my way out?"
Xu Feng scoffed inwardly, but paid it no mind.
His attention was focused instead on the constantly updating Attribute Panel.
The rewards for entering an A-class Dungeon really were beyond his expectations.
[Name: Xu Feng] [Breakthrough Points: 180000] [Qi Realm: Mid Blood Sea Realm (0/7w)] [Body Realm: Mid Golden Body Realm (0/7w)] [Strength Evaluation: Mid A-class (Normal State)]
After entering the Lava Grotto, Xu Feng had finished off at least half of the monsters killed by Bai Luhao's team with metal needles infused with his Qi and blood energy.
Those B-class metal needles weren't particularly high quality, but they were small, easy to carry, and simple to throw.
They could barely withstand the Qi and blood energy he'd refined, allowing them to unleash destructive power far beyond what their material should have been capable of.
"One hundred and eighty thousand... Not bad," Xu Feng estimated. "Once we clear the core region of this Dungeon, I should have enough Breakthrough Points to advance to the next realm."
The team continued onward and finally reached the deepest part of the grotto.
It was an extraordinarily vast underground cavern, with an enormous lake of bubbling lava at its center.
In the middle of the lake stood a tiered platform of obsidian, surrounded and encased by crimson lava.
And at that moment, the cavern was
teeming with a horrifying army of monsters!
Over a hundred ordinary, low-tier A-class Lava Scorpion Armor Beasts
were scattered along the edge of the lava lake and across the surrounding rocks like a red tide, their scarlet compound eyes fixed on the intruders.
Ten more, noticeably larger than the others, had darker armor and longer, thicker stingers. They radiated the aura of mid-tier A-class elites.
They guarded the platform like generals.
Atop the platform, on stone steps streaked with flowing lava, crouched the absolute ruler of this place—
the Lava Scorpion Armor Beast King!
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