Ambushed

Just as Luo Yi was converting Wu Zhong, Xia Heng had already attacked the scout in the distance.

"Boom!"

An explosion sounded from over there.

The three of them looked over and saw a burst of flame erupt on the county road two kilometers down the mountain.

The refrigerated truck had exploded.

Several monsters leaped out of the flames, but they were too far away to see clearly.

Still, Luo Yi recognized them. His brows furrowed. "Vegetable Men..."

"Vegetable Men?" With Wu Zhong's reminder and his enhanced eyesight, Wu Zhong finally made out that the monsters' heads, torsos, and limbs all seemed to be made of vegetables.

Those Vegetable Men had originally been inside the refrigerated truck.

Now that the vehicle had exploded, not only had they not died, they had rushed out and were surrounding Xia Heng.

"Vegetable Men are grown. They possess intelligence and strength close to that of normal humans."

"Most importantly, only objects that are also vegetables can harm them."

"You can think of them as having immunity to all physical damage except interactions with vegetables."

"Forget a car explosion. Even a nuclear blast wouldn't kill them."

Wu Zhong was horrified when he heard that.

Immune to direct physical damage?

"We need to go support Brother Xia!" Wu Zhong shouted.

But Luo Yi remained calm. "No need to worry. They're just Vegetable Men. Old Xia can handle them."

"It's just strange. How did they let the other side blow up the truck? Leaving it blocking the road might attract firefighters."

Wu Zhong understood what he meant. Attracting firefighters basically meant attracting 985.

"Beep beep beep!"

Xia Heng's strength was anything but ordinary. He easily dealt with most of the Vegetable Men.

It was simple. He directly grabbed one Vegetable Man and used it as a weapon to smash the others apart.

Wu Zhong's mouth twitched. Immunity to all physical damage except vegetables sounded terrifying at first, but that was all it was.

Once the weakness was known, it was easy to target—especially since they themselves were made of vegetables.

However, thanks to the Vegetable Men blocking the way, the brooding young man who had been driving escaped while covered in blood.

He was incredibly fast, like a sprinter.

"Vegetable Men are decent helpers, but that's all they are."

"In battle, they're just cannon fodder to Gold Mercenaries."

"Old Xia, don't let that scout get away... Hm? Ah?"

Luo Yi had been calmly finishing his explanation with a cigarette in his mouth. Suddenly, his eyes went wide, and the cigarette fell from his lips in shock.

"What? That guy's so strong?"

"Thousand Swords Art? He's a cultivation-type Awakened... This guy isn't ordinary. With that kind of strength, why didn't he dare fight me before?"

"Damn... this is bad. Old Xia can't hold on."

"I need to support him!"

The more Luo Yi watched, the grimmer his expression became. He kicked off the ground and shot forward, the air howling around him. In an instant, he was more than ten meters away.

"What are you talking about?" Wu Zhong asked in astonishment.

Luo Yi had been explaining things perfectly well, then suddenly looked shocked, said a bunch of strange things, and ran off to support Xia Heng.

But Wu Zhong could see clearly. What Thousand Swords Art? Xia Heng wasn't unable to hold on at all.

The brooding young man was merely running away. He had also been badly injured by the vehicle explosion, with scorched flesh, curled hair, and a ruined face.

He was fleeing in an utterly miserable state, while Xia Heng not only failed to pursue him, but was frantically dodging something.

He darted left and right, rolled repeatedly, and his handsome purple armor made his movements look cool—but it was completely a one-man show. He was acting crazy at thin air.

"This is bad! It's an illusion!"

Wu Zhong realized it. Both Xia Heng and Luo Yi had fallen under an illusion.

This was precisely the Poly-Elemental Art that Matsutake, the vice captain Xia Heng had mentioned before, excelled at.

"Damn, illusions are this powerful? Both of them got hit..."

Wu Zhong wanted to call Luo Yi back, but the man had charged off too quickly.

One kick sent him more than ten meters forward from a standing start, launching him like a cannonball.

Then came a mad sprint. His arms swung so fast they left afterimages, dust flew beneath his feet, and he could probably run a hundred meters in under seven seconds.

"It's fake! Don't go! It's an illusion! Wake up!"

As Wu Zhong stared at Luo Yi's back, he felt something was off.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, warning Luo Yi.

But it seemed Luo Yi could not hear him at all.

This was probably more than just an illusion. Even the five senses had been deceived.

"Debiao, let's follow him!"

Wu Zhong called out to Yang Chunsha. She looked nervous, hugging the leather-bound book tightly to her chest.

She swallowed, cold sweat pouring down her entire body, as though she could feel an immense pressure.

"This is too absurd... I... we shouldn't go, should we? Let the big shots handle their own problems."

Wu Zhong turned back in shock and realized she had also fallen under the illusion. She had seen an extremely terrifying sight, though it was not severe enough to stop her from communicating. It simply was not fully focused on her.

"Then stay here. You can't withstand the illusion anyway."

He had realized that he was the only one present who was not afraid of illusions. Bringing Yang Chunsha along would only burden him.

Yang Chunsha was overjoyed to hear that and nodded repeatedly.

But then her expression changed. She stared behind Wu Zhong, her mouth opening as if to shout.

The moment Wu Zhong saw her reaction, he understood without needing her warning.

His hair stood on end. He spun around sharply and raised an arm as a purple armguard appeared.

A masked man was standing atop the vehicle.

His loose black T-shirt was clearly too large for him. White sun sleeves covered his arms, and his stylish sun-protection mask was embroidered with rebellious words, revealing only a pair of eyes that made him look like a hardened criminal.

"Bang!"

Wu Zhong's armguard collided with the man's palm, and he was instantly sent flying.

He crashed into Yang Chunsha, and the two rolled into a heap.

Wu Zhong rolled once after landing, then stopped on one knee and stared fixedly at the man.

The man remained standing, completely unmoved, cold and proud.

Wu Zhong had lost out in the direct clash, and his heart sank.

His physical abilities had doubled. His punch carried nearly three hundred kilograms of force, and that was before accounting for the armguard's immense impact and hard material...

For an ordinary person to trade punches with him would be suicide.

Of course, this person was definitely no ordinary man. Still, Wu Zhong had not expected him to be able to clash barehanded against the armguard, withstand tremendous force, and not retreat a single step!

Strong! This man was far stronger than him.

The man was now holding a straight wooden stick and looking down from the roof. "Hm? You caught that?"

His voice was hard and magnetic. "You saw through the illusion that quickly?"

"Is that a problem?" Wu Zhong asked gravely as purple slurry gathered in his palm.

There was no doubt that these were members of the Liongrass Mercenary Group. Their combat personnel had arrived.

At least one scout and one illusion expert were on Xia Heng's side, while here...

Wu Zhong heard a disturbance and hurriedly turned around.

"Ahhh!"

Yang Chunsha screamed. Someone had somehow gotten close to her and twisted her arms behind her back.

Without another word, Wu Zhong threw a roaring iron fist, making the air explode.

The enemy had easily subdued Yang Chunsha, but had not expected Wu Zhong to notice.

Had the illusion failed?

Though somewhat stunned, he immediately drew his blade to block. Wu Zhong's iron fist had already arrived, and the armguard clashed with the short blade.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal striking stone rang out, and a small shockwave rippled through the air.

Wu Zhong could not even keep his footing and slid back two steps.

That was with the armguard dispersing a ton of impact for him. In other words, this man's slash also carried over a ton of force!

The second attacker was unmasked. He was extremely handsome, like a supermodel.

But what came out of his mouth was crude. "Damn it, this trash knife couldn't even take one hit? And they dared sell it to me for eight hundred thousand?"

The point where his short blade had collided was already broken. The fracture was filled with faint purple light and was still slowly corroding.

Yang Chunsha was held down with one hand and did not struggle, her eyes vacant.

It was as if she had seen some terrifying illusion.

Seeing that she was completely restrained by the illusion, the crudely spoken handsome man viciously slammed her to the ground and kicked her away without bothering with her further.

Then he threw the broken blade with all his strength. It shot toward Wu Zhong like a flying arrow.

"Whoosh!" A shrill howl tore through the air.

Wu Zhong raised his palm, and a Purple Molten Bomb burst forth.

"Boom!"

The broken blade exploded in midair. The purple slurry still retained some force and splashed toward the enemy.

The man reacted in time, kicking off the ground and retreating several meters.

"Be careful, Arborvitae! He doesn't seem to be affected by the illusion!" the masked man said gravely.

His nervous tone was exactly like Xia Heng's cautious manner when facing an unknown enemy at 985.

Unknown enemies were the most terrifying.

"Could he be a Mind Resister?" he muttered.

At that guess, both men's expressions changed. This was intelligence they had not anticipated.

And while Mind Resisters seemed to be purely defensive types, that was not actually the case, because there was almost no such thing as a purely mind-resisting effect.

Mind resistance was a general term for an effect. For example, if someone could turn into a werewolf and went mad upon seeing a full moon, but was immune to madness caused by any other external force, then that werewolf trait could be said to possess a mind-resisting effect.

Thus, it was usually a secondary function of some other trait. Beyond that, Mind Resisters could adapt to many Calamity Realm objects that came with distortion costs, allowing them to shine brilliantly.

Every known Calamity wielder standing at the top possessed some degree of mind resistance. There were no exceptions.

After all, someone whose mind could be affected by just anything could never reach the peak...

It could be said that this was standard equipment for big shots.

Without it, one was merely a fleeting meteor, easily schemed against and killed.

"I don't believe it. How could there be so many Mind Resisters? And we just happened to run into one?"

"Captain, there's someone here who wasn't affected. Forget that woman and increase the pressure on this man!"

Arborvitae shouted, his voice ringing through the area.

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Chunsha's eyes cleared, and she climbed up in shock.

Seeing her book on the ground, she hurriedly reached for it.

"Crack!"

Arborvitae gave a vicious smile and casually kicked one of her arms, breaking it. The woman let out a shrill scream.

"Ahhh! Save... save me..."

Yang Chunsha's face twisted as tears streamed down from the pain.

"Shut up. Calm down..." Wu Zhong slowly straightened up, purple light swirling around one arm as he lectured the crying Yang Chunsha.

"On your first day stepping into the Calamity Realm, you should have remembered that no one can protect you forever."

"People have to rely on themselves."

His face was expressionless, but inside he was panicking like hell.

Those words were meant for others, but also for himself.

He had to rely on himself again. He felt deeply aggrieved. How had he ended up fighting alone again?

Xia Heng was fighting in the distance under an illusion, Luo Yi had also fallen under an illusion and gone to support him, and Yang Chunsha had been taken down in a single move.

Instead, he, the actual newbie, had exchanged several moves with the attackers.

Great. Now he had to fight one against two?