Chapter 82: There is One More Survivor!

The moment he saw those words, Chen Ling froze.

Before he could react, a beam of crimson light suddenly erupted from the ground, soaring into the token in his palm.

The surface of the Bai Qi Token was dyed crimson, then the color rapidly faded. Chen Ling distinctly felt an intense aura of killing intent emanating from it.

Audience expectation: 7

Chen Ling didn't know what was happening, nor why the audience expectation would rise with the integration of that crimson light. He had no time to ponder, because just after the blood-light vanished into the token, the entire massive pit began to shake violently!

The distant edges of the pit rapidly disappeared, and the ground transformed into countless tiny grains of sand, like a collapsing sandbox world, vanishing into the void at the bottom of the ancient treasury with astonishing speed.

A wave of annihilation was sweeping towards Chen Ling, engulfing everything in its path!

Chen Ling's pupils constricted. Without hesitation, he turned and fled, his body shooting like an arrow back the way he came. Amidst the collapse of the enormous pit, large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of people, he was like a tiny, struggling ant, desperately pursuing a sliver of hope.

Chen Ling's speed had reached its limit. Just as the collapse was about to engulf him, he narrowly escaped the pit's perimeter, stumbling onto the flat ground.

"Damn it... What just happened?"

Chen Ling wiped the cold sweat from his brow and looked back. The colossal pit had completely vanished, replaced by an empty void. When he looked down, it was like gazing into an abyss.

The next moment, the ground began to restore itself. The empty chasm was filled with soil that seemed to surge from nowhere, completely leveling the area within mere seconds, as if the massive pit had never existed.

Witnessing this, Chen Ling involuntarily recalled the scene where the Killing Intent Projection had automatically reformed after being defeated.

So, was that massive pit also restored by some mechanism of the Ancient Military Treasury?

Chen Ling glanced at the token in his hand, his confusion deepening. However, he had no time to linger; if all went as expected, the three Enforcers were about to open the ancient treasury's gates.

He hid the token close to his body and quickly rushed back to the trial area. First, he ran to the entrance of the ancient treasury, disfigured the faces of all the dead Enforcers from Sector One, and then threw all of them into the ravine. After a moment's hesitation, he also randomly threw two Enforcer bodies from Aurora City down.

After completing all this, Chen Ling randomly found the most cluttered area, overflowing with corpses, and sat down on the spot.

*Thump—*

Simultaneously, a low hum emanated from the entrance of the ancient treasury.

The Ancient Military Treasury had been opened.

Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. He casually picked up a short blade beside him, slowly pressing the edge against his abdomen... then powerfully slashed!

His lower abdomen was cut open by the blade, and a large amount of blood gushed out. Chen Ling's face visibly paled. Enduring the intense pain, he lay back amidst the chaotic pile of corpses.

In the crimson pool of blood, a faint, eerie smile appeared on his pale, bloodless face.

"The performance is over."

He closed his eyes.

Outside the Ancient Military Treasury.

The massive ship swayed gently with the waves. Beneath the black sky, three figures in trench coats stood at the bow, watching the slowly opening vortex.

"Time's up," a Four-Mark Enforcer said, hands clasped behind his back. "I wonder how many will manage to step onto the Military God Path this year."

"Based on previous years, seven or eight would be a good number."

"This time, it'll probably be fewer... Don't forget, Yan Xicai went in with that kid from the Literary God Path. He wants to steal other people's killing intent, so others' chances of promotion will naturally be lower."

"Yan Xicai is cheating so blatantly, are the higher-ups really not going to do anything?"

"Mind your own business," the Five-Mark Enforcer said coldly. "We just need to follow orders."

The two Four-Mark Enforcers immediately fell silent.

As the vortex grew larger, it returned to its original size after half a minute. They stood at the bow, waiting for the Enforcers who had completed the trial to return.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes...

After three minutes, the vortex remained eerily silent, with no sign of anyone emerging.

"What's going on? Did they misremember the time?" A Four-Mark Enforcer asked, puzzled.

"That shouldn't be... Nothing bad could have happened inside, right?"

"What could possibly go wrong in such an outer trial? At most, one or two casualties," another Enforcer shrugged. "They're probably still not satisfied and want to try again... Let's wait."

The three waited another ten minutes, but the vortex still showed no reaction.

"...Something's not right."

The Five-Mark Enforcer frowned slightly. After a moment of thought, he said, "Let's go in and see."

"Huh? But our ranks are above Tier Four; won't we be repelled by this place?"

"The situation is urgent. As escorts, we have a secret treasure from Aurora City as a token, allowing us to operate inside for a short period."

Standing at the bow, he solemnly bowed towards the colossal black sword that pierced the heavens, then leaped and vanished directly into the vortex. The other two Enforcers exchanged glances and followed suit.

A dizzying sensation swept over them, and the next moment, the three stood steadily at the edge of a cliff.

A pungent smell of blood immediately assailed their nostrils!

All three Enforcers frowned simultaneously. When they saw the scene at the cliff's edge, their expressions drastically changed!

They saw over a dozen Enforcer bodies scattered across the cliff, most seemingly shot dead – the very group that had entered the ancient treasury earlier!

"What happened?!" a Four-Mark Enforcer exclaimed in shock. "How... how could so many have died??"

The Five-Mark Enforcer's face turned ashen. He quickly walked among the bodies, his gaze locking onto one figure, then slowly crouched down.

"Something's not right," he murmured, gripping the corpse's face and examining it carefully for a moment. "This person was not among the Enforcers who entered the ancient treasury."

"Are you saying someone infiltrated the Enforcer team?"

"Who?"

The Five-Mark Enforcer did not reply. He immediately stood up and quickly walked deeper into the ancient treasury.

The deeper they went, the more corpses they found. The vast ancient treasury was utterly silent, a silence that now echoed deafeningly in the Enforcers' ears.

"Is that... Yan Xicai?"

A Four-Mark Enforcer trembled as he raised a hand, pointing towards a corner.

The other two sharply turned their heads and saw a gaunt figure, twisted like a pretzel, in a pool of blood. They stared blankly for a long moment before recovering. It wasn't that they didn't recognize Yan Xicai; it was just that Yan Xicai, drained of flesh and blood, was far too different from before.

Without closely examining the details of his face, it would have been difficult for the three to connect this unseeing corpse with the arrogant Young Master Yan they had seen on the ship.

"It really is him..." another Four-Mark Enforcer said hoarsely, terror appearing in his eyes. "Even Yan Xicai died in the ancient treasury. Aurora City is going to be in huge trouble."

"Quick, see if there's anyone still alive!"

The three split up to search. One of them arrived at the base of the hill where the most brutal fighting had occurred. Here, dozens of bodies of Enforcers and Usurpers were piled together, as if they had gone through a life-or-death battle in a meat grinder.

The more they searched, the colder their hearts grew. In the past hundred years, there had never been such a large-scale death toll among new recruits. They couldn't fathom what had transpired here in just 24 hours.

Among the numerous corpses strewn across the ground, a figure, seemingly lifeless, subtly twitched a finger.

"Here!!" The Four-Mark Enforcer's pupils contracted, and he immediately shouted, "There's still a survivor here!!"