Chapter 88 Chapter 88 [We Only Have Ten Minutes]

Jiang Qing concentrated the defense of the golden light shield within a one-foot range around his body. The pale golden light curtain shook violently, dissolving all the black and red mist and sporadic attacks that it touched.

She moved with astonishing speed, her eyes quickly scanning the wolves that were temporarily blocked on both sides of the path.

The closer they got to the center, the brighter the red light in the mutant wolves' eyes became, the brighter the chips embedded in their necks became, and they even began to emit a slight "buzzing" sound.

Just as she rushed into the center of the wolf pack, she was less than ten meters away from the largest wolf, the leader of the pack, whose chip on the neck was almost blindingly bright.

An accident happened.

The mutant wolf leader roared towards the sky, and the chip on its neck suddenly burst out with a dazzling black and red light.

The light spread like ripples, instantly sweeping across all the mutant wolves around.

The chips on the necks of the other wolves shattered and turned into streams of black and red energy, which rushed madly towards the chip on the neck of the leader wolf like rivers flowing into the sea.

The wolf leader's body expanded three times to a degree visible to the naked eye, its muscles bursting and tearing its fur, bone spurs bursting out of its body from the spinal joints, its fangs became bent at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the salt water dripping from its mouth had a strong stench of decay.

The red eyes were fixed on Jiang Qing, who was closest to it.

Hai Yun was the first to react and commanded the Polar Fox to go up and help.

The polar fox whimpered, but its skills had not yet been fully released.

A faster object jumped out from the side.

The rock spikes and ice cones growing out of the ground wrapped and protected Jiang Qing while stabbing towards the strange beasts.

"boom--"

Zhu Tianba's body expanded rapidly while running, and was twice as big as the wolf pack that had just expanded.

It hit the wolf on the head with its hoof.

The ground under the wolf leader's feet instantly became as soft as quicksand, and generated a powerful downward suction force.

The wolf leader's huge body suddenly lost its balance while exerting force. Its movement froze, and its sharp claws deviated from the direction, brushing past Jiang Qing's golden shield and smashing a huge rock next to it into pieces.

At the same time, with the place where Zhu Tianba's hooves landed as the center, a shock wave mixed with rocks and ice crystals spread outward rapidly in a circular shape.

The ground undulated and cracked like waves, and countless thick rock spikes broke out of the ground like the fangs of giant beasts, accurately stabbing at the mutant wolves that were madly absorbing energy.

“Puff—”

The sound of sharp blades piercing flesh was endless.

Several mutating wolves were directly penetrated by this sudden area attack. The chips on their bodies didn't even have time to completely melt before they were nailed to the rock spikes along with their deformed bodies.

Hai Yun seized the opportunity and the Polar Fox immediately released its ultimate killer move.

The moisture in the air was instantly drained away, condensing into countless high-speed rotating ice blade mirror arrays around the wolf leader, reflecting light and cold air.

Not only does it cut its fur, it also greatly interferes with its perception.

The Qingbao Spirit Snake in Huoqiu Mountain spewed out a thick paralyzing poisonous fog, covering the other scattered strange beasts that tried to interfere.

And Jiang Qing had already approached the wolf leader like a ghost.

At such a close distance, she could clearly see the chip embedded under the skin of the wolf's neck.

The edge of the chip was almost integrated with the wolf's flesh and blood, and countless fine energy threads like blood vessels penetrated into its body.

"It is indeed a state of deep implantation and activation..." Jiang Qing's eyes turned cold.

Without any hesitation, she pulled out an ordinary-looking knife from her pocket. The tip of the knife jumped on her fingertips, and the next second, with a "click", it stabbed at the edge where the dark red chip connected to the wolf's flesh.

The wolf leader's head was held down tightly by Zhu Tianba, and no matter how it shook its body, it could not move at all.

"Zilla!"

The knife cut open part of its skin, and dark red blood oozed out from the cut.

The leader wolf howled miserably, and his whole body twitched violently.

Its only remaining eye stared at Jiang Qing, as if filled with poison. It was still trying to open its bloody mouth and bite towards her head desperately.

A fishy wind blew in my face.

Jiang Qing could even smell a disgusting stench just by looking up.

She ignored its shouting, grasped the knife in her right hand, and slashed it downwards.

The dark red core chip, along with a small piece of contaminated flesh around it, was forcibly cut out by Jiang Qing.

The moment the chip left the body, the wolf leader's swollen body quickly shrank like a punctured balloon, and the red light in its eyes quickly dimmed, replaced by a dying gray.

It uttered a weak whimper, fell heavily to the ground, and did not move anymore.

Without the chip in the head wolf's body as the core of energy gathering, the surrounding mutant wolves, which were originally crazy and agitated, suddenly became sluggish, and the red light in their eyes flickered, as if they were an army without a commander.

Although the mutated beasts in other areas were still attacking, their coordination and crazy momentum seemed to have weakened a bit.

"There are energy links and hierarchical relationships between the chips." Jiang Qing instantly understood and quickly said to Hai Yun and Huo Qiushan, "Destroying the key nodes will disintegrate their reinforcement system."

Hai Yun reacted quickly and immediately ordered the polar foxes, "Prioritize attacking those with abnormally bright chips and destroy the chips in their necks."

Huoqiu Mountain also immediately adjusted its tactics. The poisonous mist of the Qingbao Spirit Snake no longer sought to kill, but instead focused on interfering with the chips on the mutants that were obviously secondary nodes.

The change in tactics was immediate.

As several mutants that served as regional energy nodes were taken care of and their chips were destroyed, the mutant beast offensive in their area became noticeably chaotic and weakened.

Zhu Tianba's pressure was greatly reduced, and he began to use earth tremors and rock spikes more calmly to restrict the movement of the beasts, creating opportunities for Hai Yun and Huo Qiushan to kill them accurately.

Jiang Qing shook off the blood stains on the knife and his eyes fell on the dark red chip in his hand that was still pulsating slightly.

She carefully stored the chip in a special isolation box where Haiyun couldn't notice it.

Several people quickly cleaned up the battlefield, confirmed that there were no remaining chips or dangerous energy sources, and then slowly reunited.

Hai Yun frowned and didn't pay attention to the chip at first. Instead, she asked, "What on earth do they want to do? Release this dangerous mutant into the competition venue..."

Jiang Qing briefly told Hai Yun what had happened in Wind Whisper Canyon.

Haiyun frowned even deeper.

At this moment, the broadcast reminder that there was only one hour left in the competition sounded again.

"Some people can indeed go crazy when driven by interests and ambitions," Huo Qiushan said solemnly. He looked at Jiang Qing, "We must get the situation and evidence out of here as soon as possible."

"There's only one hour left in the competition." Jiang Qing glanced at the time displayed on his spiritual communication. "The core resource point, 'Dragon's Saliva Cave,' should have been opened. Senior Renata and the others are likely there. It may also be one of the core areas of the mutation incident."

She looked at Hai Yun and said, "Do you still want to continue the cooperation? Dealing with this mess is more important than competing for points."

Hai Yun barely hesitated and nodded decisively, "Of course. First Academy wouldn't be so confused about such a major issue. We can fight for points later, but allowing something this dangerous to spread would have disastrous consequences."

After reaching a consensus, the few of them did not delay any longer. Zhu Tianba led the way and quickly moved towards the "Ambergris Cave" marked on the map.

The closer you get to the Ambergris Cave area, the more obvious the surrounding abnormalities become.

The vegetation began to wither and twist abnormally, the rock surface was covered with sticky dark purple moss, and the energy in the air was no longer pure, carrying a disturbing sense of restlessness.

Along the way, they cleared out several waves of scattered mutant beasts, but the scale was not as large as the one in the canyon before.

Obviously, most of the mutant energy and individuals are converging towards the Ambergris Cave.

Several people hid their bodies, crept behind a bush on a high ground, and looked down.

Below is a huge basin, in the center of which is a deep cave entrance.

At this moment, the open space in front of the cave entrance was in chaos.

Renata, Ma Chengying and others were forming a defensive formation. They were surrounded by no less than thirty mutated beasts of various shapes, some of which were extremely large and had a fierce aura.

It was obviously the same as what Jiang Qing had just encountered.

At the edge of the battlefield, there were several people wearing the uniforms of the Fourth Academy standing.

The leader was Yue Zhe, who should have been dismissed.

He did not participate in the battle, but stood leisurely on a huge rock, holding something like a controller in his hand, overlooking the battle below with a sneer, as if admiring his own masterpiece.

He was surrounded by several confidants, one of whom was carrying a silver metal box with indicator lights flashing on the surface.

Renata whipped a mutant wind wolf that was about to pounce away and shouted in Yue Zhe's direction, "Do you know the consequences of releasing mutants into the arena?"

Yue Zhe scoffed, his voice carrying a twisted sense of satisfaction through some kind of loudspeaker. "Consequences? As long as I can win, as long as I can prove my worth to the academy, a little 'technical risk' is nothing. Besides, once we clear you all out, who can prove these mutants are connected to our Fourth Academy?"

He pointed at the silver metal box and said, "Once I've collected this batch of 'combat data,' I'll naturally initiate the 'purification process.' By then, there will be nothing left here."

"madman!"

"Whether he is crazy or not, you will soon know." Yue Zhe's eyes turned fierce and he pressed a button on the controller.

"Buzz—"

An even stronger energy wave came from the depths of the Ambergris Cave, accompanied by a teeth-grinding roar. The ground shook more intensely, and the rocks at the cave entrance fell down.

Immediately afterwards, three giant mutants, each as big as a small hill, covered with thick bone armor and with dark purple flames burning in their eyes, slowly crawled out of the cave.

The addition of these three giant mutants instantly doubled the pressure on the Fifth Academy's defense line.

No matter how powerful Renata, Ma Chengying and others are, they cannot withstand the continuous attacks.

"There's only half an hour left in the competition. If we can't deal with them, we'll just drag it out until the end of the competition and have the Beastmaster Alliance investigate." Hai Yun lowered her voice and gave her opinion straightforwardly.

Jiang Qing, however, said, "Ten minutes."

Hai Yun: "What did you say?"

Jiang Qing: "We only have ten minutes."

"Have you noticed that we've been in the arena for so long, and there's been no movement from the referee?" Jiang Qing said seriously. "This is a live broadcast. If the mutant beasts were released by the Fourth Academy, the referee team should have already made a move."

She hadn't said it just now, but after being attacked by the group of strange beasts, the mosaic body disappeared automatically.

This could certainly be attributed to Ji Changsu leaving the effective range of the skill, but combined with the strangeness of the arena, she suspected more that something was blocking the signal.

They could receive broadcast information, but the drones were unable to transmit information back to the stadium.

This is also why Yue Zhe said just now, "Once we clear you all out, who can prove that these mutants are related to our Fourth Academy?"