Douluo Continent: Heavenly Pill Demon Tiger

Chapter 52 The Grim Reaper Tortures the Gluttonous Douluo

Just as Dai Youheng was cultivating, deep within the Mingdou Mountains, in a secluded valley.

The mountains, which had seemed eerie yet peaceful yesterday, were now shattered by a series of violent explosions and earth-shaking tremors.

Thick black smoke mixed with eerie dark green poisonous fog surged out from the cracks and cave entrances of the valley, and the pungent smell of sulfur and fishy stench filled the air.

"Boom boom boom—!"

Violent explosions echoed one after another, sending rocks flying everywhere, and the entire valley seemed to be wailing.

Not long ago, the Shrek Academy inspection team, full of confidence, rushed to the cave marked as the lair of the evil soul master "Death Messenger" after obtaining the intelligence provided by Duke Dai Hao of the White Tiger.

The main players, led by Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, took the lead, while the reserve team followed closely behind.

They originally thought that with so many experts among them, and Elder Xuan secretly protecting them, they would be safe.

Dealing with a mere Death Messenger would be a piece of cake for a Soul King-level evil Soul Master.

No one expected that the "Death Messenger," who seemed to be only at the Soul King level and should have been easily captured, would be so treacherous and cunning.

In addition to the corpse explosion, he had already planted a large number of trigger-activated soul-guided elemental bombs at the cave entrance and in the passage! These bombs were not only incredibly powerful, but also vicious because they were filled with specially refined toxic substances. Once detonated, the poisonous fog would instantly spread, making them impossible to defend against!

The proud Shrek Academy team members stepped into a death trap the moment they entered.

The violent explosion and dense poisonous fog instantly engulfed the vanguard team.

"Watch out, there's an ambush!"

"Poison! It's extremely poisonous! Retreat immediately!"

"Ugh—!"

Exclamations, explosions, and screams erupted instantly.

Although Xuanzi was following in the shadows, the incident happened suddenly, and the explosion and poisonous fog covered a very wide area. Even though he was a highly skilled cultivator, he was unable to protect everyone in an instant.

When Xuanzi roared and rushed into the cave, using his unparalleled soul power to forcibly disperse some of the poisonous fog and suppress the explosion, the scene before him was already a mess.

To protect Ling Luochen beside him, Yao Haoxuan shielded himself from the strongest blast with his body, sacrificing himself on the spot, his remains mangled beyond recognition.

Chen Zifeng's right arm was blown off, bleeding profusely, and his face was ashen white.

Gongyang Mo's left leg below the knee was gone, and he lay in a pool of blood groaning in pain.

Xi Xi and Dai Yueheng inhaled a large amount of poisonous fog, their faces turned blue and black, and their soul power flowed sluggishly. They were obviously deeply poisoned and in critical condition. Dai Yueheng's tiger paw was blown to pieces, and he almost lost half of his hand.

Ling Luochen and Ma Xiaotao were slightly better off, but they were both injured and their breathing was disordered. It would be difficult for them to recover their fighting strength without half a month of careful recuperation.

In contrast, the other members of the reserve team, who were behind the main team and farther from the center of the explosion, and with the main team members acting as a buffer, were not seriously injured except for being frightened and slightly affected.

Apart from Dai Huabin.

He was already eager to prove himself and show off in front of his father because of his conflict with Huo Yuhao and others. He was even more eager to succeed in this operation, rushing in almost right behind the main team, and his position was much ahead of all the reserve team members.

His cultivation level of Soul Venerable was practically worthless against a trap of this caliber. Not only did he fail to help, he became a complete burden.

While being attacked himself, Dai Yueheng also had to protect his reckless younger brother, which caused a gap in his defenses. As a result, he suffered more severe injuries and deeper poisoning than in the original story, and his hand was completely ruined.

As for Dai Huabin himself, because he rushed forward too far, in the chaotic moment of the explosion, he was directly grabbed by the ankle by a pitch-black chain that shot out from the shadows and dragged violently into the depths of the cave!

"Brother, save me!" Dai Huabin's terrified scream was drowned out by the sound of the explosion.

He took Huo Yuhao's place and was captured by the strange messenger of death, becoming a hostage!

When Xuanzi finished clearing the main explosion area in a fit of rage, followed the evil aura deep into the cave, and killed the strange messenger of death, the scene he saw made him frown.

Dai Huabin was thrown atop an evil altar, barely clinging to life. The messenger of death was clearly trying to sacrifice him in his final moments to gain power or to perish together with him.

Although Xuanzi intervened in time and the ritual was not completed, Dai Huabin had already suffered a severe blow.

His spiritual power was almost completely drained by that evil ritual, severely damaged, and his senses became extremely weak.

Even more seriously, his soul power source suffered irreversible erosion, his level plummeting from thirty-seven to barely stabilizing at thirty-one. If it weren't for the three soul rings he already possessed that somewhat locked up his soul power, he probably wouldn't have been able to maintain his Soul Venerable realm and would have fallen directly back to Great Soul Master.

His future path of cultivation is already fraught with thorns, and whether he can recover is unknown. It is feared that his path is already blocked.

Looking at the wounded scattered on the ground and the sacrificed Yao Haoxuan, Huo Yuhao was filled with grief for his seniors and anger towards the evil soul masters.

But when his gaze swept over Dai Huabin, who was lying on a stretcher, pale-faced and with barely any fluctuation of his soul power, a cold, uncontrollable pleasure quietly arose deep within him.

He recalled Dai Hao's cold remarks yesterday in front of the military camp: "All's fair in war" and "Justice must be earned through strength." He also remembered Dai Huabin's smug agreement and his disdain for Dai Youheng.

"All warfare is based on deception..."

"If you're not good enough, you can't blame anyone else..."

"A son born out of wedlock is unlikely to amount to much..."

Those words still seem to echo in my ears.

Huo Yuhao slowly clenched his fist, looking at the unconscious Dai Huabin, and thought coldly, "Truly, fortunes change, Dai Huabin. On the real battlefield, it seems your strength and luck are not enough to win the 'justice' you want. Your father was right, you really can't blame anyone else for this."

The wind blowing through the valley carried the smell of gunpowder and blood, and also brought a chilling irony of fate.

Shrek's first mission ended in disaster, casting a shadow over everyone's hearts. Dai Huabin's pride and future seemed to have shattered along with the explosion and the evil ritual in the dark caves of the Mingdou Mountains, even implicating his elder brother, Dai Yueheng.

Xuanzi stood there blankly amidst the mess, unable to hold the chicken leg any longer.

He looked at everything before him:

Yao Haoxuan's mutilated body, which had been partially recovered, was covered with a white cloth, beneath which once lay a vibrant life.

Chen Zifeng's severed arm was hastily bandaged, and blood continued to seep out. His face was pale, and he gritted his teeth to keep himself from crying out in pain.

Gongyang Mo's lower body, now devoid of his calves, was empty. He stared blankly at the sky, as if unable to accept this fact.

Xi Xi and Dai Yueheng sat cross-legged, trying their best to expel the poison, but the bluish-black aura on their faces was still thick, and their aura was extremely weak.

Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochen supported each other. Their injuries were slightly less severe, but seeing their companion's miserable state, their faces were filled with grief and lingering fear.

The reserve team children stood around, their faces pale and still shaken. Huo Yuhao clenched his fists, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao had tears in their eyes, and He Caitou kept his head down in silence.

Dai Huabin lay unconscious on a stretcher, his soul power fluctuations extremely weak, his mental energy scattered and his future uncertain. Zhu Lu cared for him with a worried expression.

"It's happening again...it's happening again." Xuanzi was filled with grief and indignation. This was not the first time he had led a team into trouble, and this time it was especially serious. How could he explain this to the academy and to the families of these children?