Chapter Forty: I Truly Didn’t Mean to Fight (Please Vote!)

Because this secret realm has only six floors in total, once it was completely cleared, there were virtually no monsters left. Yi Shen quickly retraced his steps up the stairs; he had already grown accustomed to the rhythm of blinking, and even leaping down from great heights posed no issue for him—it was as if he were teleporting and flying through the secret realm.

If not for the dizziness and exhaustion brought on by prolonged use of Blink, he would have considered using it for travel. Laden with materials that filled every slot of his inventory, and with his backpack packed with gear and supplies, Yi Shen emerged from the secret realm.

Space and time shifted.

The light before Yi Shen grew slightly brighter. He had originally intended to head to the next secret realm to grind for experience, but the materials he’d gained here were more than expected. He decided to return first to the Jingmen Safe Zone, hand over the goods to Zhu Qing to sell, and perhaps buy a few more basic elemental skill books to test.

Yet what Yi Shen hadn’t anticipated was that, upon exiting the secret realm, he could immediately sense the atmosphere was off.

This secret realm had existed for a long time, and the surroundings had long been developed with many buildings set up by Taohuawu. Even under Jingbei Industries’ management, there should still have been merchants or other explorers in these structures.

But now, the warning signs once posted by Jingbei Industries were nothing but ruined wrecks, and even the nearby buildings appeared to have been attacked!

Looking further out, Yi Shen was astonished to see two factions locked in open conflict! Together, they numbered around fifty or sixty people, and several buildings were already in ruins. Occasionally, flashes of special effects lit up the sky, while the ground in the distance was littered with the corpses of explorers.

Yi Shen frowned. Though he had no trouble slaying fifty or sixty monsters at once within the secret realm, the sight of human corpses still made him feel a faint discomfort.

...

“Boom!!”

“Crack!”

“Fall back! Heal up—damn it, call more people! Keep going, hit them harder!”

“Healers, keep up the healing! We have more healers than they do, they can’t outlast us!”

The battlefield was in utter chaos, and Yi Shen couldn’t distinguish who belonged to which side.

He pulled his hat low, intending to slip away from the conflict. Though he didn’t know the exact cause of the fighting, he could guess it had something to do with Jingbei Industries’ recent actions—likely a byproduct of the ongoing turbulence in the Jingmen Safe Zone.

This battle had little to do with Yi Shen, and he had no intention of getting involved.

He made his way toward the vehicle depot, hoping to return to the vicinity of the Dimensional Gate.

“Damn it…”

But as soon as he arrived, Yi Shen saw that several motorcycles had been destroyed. His own motorbike had been hacked clean in two by some unknown force. Not only would he have to walk back to the Dimensional Gate, but he’d likely lose his deposit as well!

It seemed someone had intentionally sabotaged the transportation here.

No wonder the fighting outside was so intense. Without any means of transport, returning to the Dimensional Zone would take considerable time and effort.

Unfortunately, Yi Shen had no way of knowing who was behind this; all he could do was sigh in resignation, keep his head down, and follow the route back as he remembered it.

After weaving through the battlefield several times, he finally managed to escape the core combat area. There were still sporadic skirmishes on the outskirts, but Yi Shen did his best to avoid them.

A man who seemed to be of a higher level passed by Yi Shen, sizing up his backpack as if contemplating something. In the end, though, the man held back from trying to rob him and hurried off to support his own group.

Though Yi Shen’s strength had greatly increased, this was his first time witnessing such chaos.

In the Jingmen Safe Zone, mutual fights had been strictly forbidden for years. But when conflict finally erupted, the advanced explorers’ skills invariably brought disastrous losses.

“Hm?”

Just as Yi Shen thought he’d left the battlefield behind and prepared to hurry back to the Jingmen Safe Zone, he noticed a tall, bookshelf-like building where a small team was being besieged by three explorers.

The team numbered five in all; their attackers only three, but the five were clearly being forced into a dead end, steadily worn down.

Yi Shen’s attention was drawn to them because he recognized these five people—they were members of Taohuawu who had ridden up with him in the black market car. As for the attackers, he couldn’t immediately determine their identity, but judging by the battle raging outside the secret realm, this team was in grave danger.

Yi Shen frowned deeply, his mind racing as he weighed whether or not to intervene.

From his perspective, he didn’t really know these five Taohuawu members; they were likely just ordinary members, perhaps even recent recruits.

They were all over level twenty, and yet, even together, they couldn’t withstand the assault of three opponents—which meant the attackers were either very strong or of higher level.

Yi Shen had no obligation to get involved, and the safest course was to simply leave.

But then he recalled the corpses near the secret realm, and remembered the cheerful conversations he’d overheard during the car ride—their talk of working hard, earning more money for their families, or what gifts to buy when they returned.

In the end, Yi Shen couldn’t help but stop in his tracks.

“Damn it, am I not the young master of Taohuawu?”

Though he had never officially joined the guild, because of his father’s position, his eventual membership was all but certain. Instinctively, he regarded this team as his own people.

The battle between the two sides had clearly flared into real hostility, with both aiming to kill.

Yi Shen had no patience for half-measures. He drew his battered bow, conjuring five blazing red arrows that shot across the battlefield.

The three attackers were all tall and thin, and the moment Yi Shen appeared, they noticed him and grew wary.

Yet when they saw the five arrows, they were momentarily stunned. Five arrows? What skill was that—Multishot?

They had never seen Yi Shen’s skill before. Their combat experience enabled them to dodge the arrows after a brief hesitation.

But in the next instant, they realized Yi Shen’s figure had blurred, flickering several times so quickly they couldn’t track him.

Before they could react, arcane energy began to gather on their bodies. Ice crystals formed above them, and the shadow of an explosive charge glowed on their chests!

“-321...”

“-123...”

“-86...”

“-10...”

“....”

“-239...”

A flurry of damage numbers appeared on their bodies. Though they had spread out somewhat, all three simultaneously realized their health was plummeting at a terrifying rate!