Chapter 9: The Circus’ Grand Finale

After the sun set, darkness fell quickly, and the Spider Jungle was shrouded in a suffocating gloom. Watching the tree mites surge up from the ground like an overflowing flood, many warriors instinctively gripped the handles of their long swords. But they soon realized what their captain had said—sometimes, mere sword and armor were not enough to handle battle. In this situation, how many could be slain with a single strike? One-thousandth of the total number that emerged in one second? Or one-millionth?

The warriors unconsciously turned to their captain. With his back to them and two long ropes in hand, Neo stood in a space too dangerous for ordinary people to even approach. He was as steady as a mountain, like a boulder sealing away evil forces—once in place, no evil could pass through.

“Even the strongest heroes might not be reliable; it’s better to follow our captain!” one warrior remarked.

“Exactly! Haven’t you seen that all six leaders of the other combat teams are lively and active, while in our Star 745, five of them are half-mad? Wisdom and strength are concentrated in our captain! This is what they call ‘the general who breaks the army stars’—once he appears, all those related to martial arts must lower their status by one level. Nothing can overshadow his brilliance.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Of course! Moon 412 and Star 743 are living examples, aren’t they? What treasures are there in the Spider Nest? Can’t we wait until daylight to explore them calmly? Look—now that it’s dark, big problems arise, and it’s still our captain who has to take care of it.”

Neo paid no attention to the soldiers’ idle chatter. His focus was on the situation in the valley. He saw strange monsters being born—using scattered tree branches as skeletons, dense clusters of tree mites as flesh, and flying wild spirits as consciousness. Their forms were varied; calling them octopuses was an understatement. But that wasn’t the key for Neo. Nor was their combat strength. The real question was: where was the source controlling all this? Was it that uncut poisonous green forest? He didn’t believe it. Neo thought everything happening was due to a wise mastermind behind the scenes.

A cry—like an eagle’s call—announced the arrival of the Aluminum Eagle. This was clearly good news, indicating that Barclay had led his team back to camp safely.

Neo let the Aluminum Eagle land on his shoulder, then took out a magic scroll, the Magic Eye. Taking advantage of the last rays of light before darkness fell, he captured the scene in the valley.

With a flap of wings, the Aluminum Eagle took off with the scroll. Neo took a deep breath, waved his hands lightly, and infused blood-red energy into his rope whip. The obsidian fragments on the whip began to glow brightly, resembling two streams of blood connecting star after star in the dim evening light.

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh! Dozens of twisted mite monsters were attracted by the light, soaring into the air and rushing toward Neo. Though no magical glow surrounded their bodies, they could defy gravity, float in midair, and move freely—quite impressive indeed.

These monsters clearly didn’t realize the power of Neo’s Blood Energy Whip. They charged at him recklessly, closing in to within 10 meters. Suddenly, Neo’s whip transformed. Instead of swinging or striking as the soldiers had expected, it turned into two luminous pythons that coiled and twisted, moving with incredible agility. The monsters that got close were wrapped up and instantly turned into bright red sparks that scattered like flames—a truly spectacular sight.

With these 20-meter-long luminous pythons attacking, dozens of monsters were no match at all; they turned into ashes that drifted away in moments.

The soldiers on the watchtower were stunned, taking a long time to recover.

“What is this? A combat technique or magic?”

“It seems to be a bit of both.”

“The captain is amazing! No, it’s miraculous!”

As the soldiers spoke, whoosh! A figure with a glowing tail flew straight up from the valley woods. Its body was also made of mites, but its human form was extremely realistic, even its facial features and expressions were vivid. “It’s you again, you scum!” the monster snapped in a rough, muffled, and hollow voice.

After thinking for a moment, Neo said, “It seems the Sunfire has burned away most of your parts!”

Neo was right. This was the leader of the monsters who had been first defeated by the light lightning during the night battle—the one who had tried to ambush Neo with a death ray.

When enemies meet, hatred flares. Relying on its ability to float, the monster kept attacking Neo with spells from about 20 meters away. Its attacks were repetitive—rays, light balls, light blasts, and light waves.

Since visiting the library of the Element Tower, Neo had been rapidly shedding his label as a magic idiot. Now, he no longer feared magic as much as before. Especially for energy-based attacks, although difficult to dodge, he could counter them by releasing his own energy. With the two blood-red whips in motion, most of the monster’s spells were shattered. Even if some managed to get close, they lost their strength and shattered against Neo’s protective energy barrier.

“I wonder how long you can hold out!” the monster roared, tilting its head back. Dark purple beams surged from the woods at the valley bottom and flowed into its body, giving it more energy to keep casting spells relentlessly.

Yet Neo was far stronger than it expected. After more than ten minutes of back-and-forth fighting, the monster recharged twice but still couldn’t defeat Neo. Seeing the increasingly chaotic energy on its surface, Neo realized that absorbing the dark, corrupt energy from the valley bottom at will wasn’t without a cost. He guessed the monster was nearly driven to the brink.

Sure enough, after absorbing energy once more, the monster went completely berserk. “This time, I’ll kill you!” it screamed.

Buzz! It was unclear what spell this creature was casting, but energy began to compress inward, gradually forming a brighter and brighter orb in front of it. At the bottom of the valley, countless tree mites took to the air, forming a swirling tornado-like storm that rushed toward the monster. The higher they flew, the brighter these tree mites glowed, until they all turned into specks of light that converged toward the orb in front of the monster.

Whoosh! Neo suddenly leaped upward, diving into the void and charging at the monster. This move startled the monster so much that it interrupted its magic. But soon after, as Neo’s body fell, the monster finally breathed a sigh of relief. Neo was heavy enough, and without any running start, it was impossible for him to cover nearly 30 meters in one leap. The monster thought, “This idiot forced himself to jump off a cliff.” Suddenly, it noticed that the red light ribbon had torn apart the outer tree mite tornadoes and was tightly coiling around its body.

“No! That can’t be!”

Yet everything was real. The blood-red blades wrapped around the monster’s body, twisting and pulling as they shredded it. In the burning purple flames, the monster turned to ashes. Even in death, it never understood how Neo did it.

However, everyone else besides the monster saw clearly. At the moment Neo leaped, the top of a long rope had already wrapped around the probe rod—this sudden, straight blood-energy whip propelled Neo upward into the void. 20 meters plus 20 meters plus Neo’s arm length was more than enough to reach the space where the monster was.

Rumble! The blood-red spirit python transformed into a spinning blood wheel, crushing and devouring the swirling tree mites, turning them into red sparks. This wasn’t just simple killing; it was energy extraction. Any life form was a prey for blood energy, especially these flying tree mites, which were far more nutritious than those below.

The orb the monster had originally controlled began to flicker before plummeting downward. Upon hitting the valley floor, it exploded with a loud boom, sending out purple light waves that created a crater over 20 meters in diameter, killing countless tree mites.

“Argh…” Angry howls came from the poisonous green forests at the bottom of the valley. Neo heard them clearly—this was one of the voices that had called for the wild souls earlier.

Buzz! As swarms of bees took off, tree mites rose from the valley bottom, swirling toward Neo like a dark cloud. Whoosh! The long whip holding Neo aloft suddenly softened, causing him to fall straight down. The other whip transformed into a swirling tornado, killing many of the flying tree mites. Using the force of his fall and the swinging of the rope, Neo spun backward. At this point, he was at a 30-degree angle to the extended probe rod—essentially in line with it. But as he rose higher, the long rope changed position again, altering the angle so that the probe rod became the axis while Neo and the rope acted like a wheel.

Countless tree mites, with their poisonous pincers, chased after Neo, who spun like a wheel. Every time he swung upward, both whips moved simultaneously, turning into two blood-red serpents in the air that strangled the tree mites. When the swinging force faded and he fell, Neo would extend a long rope to grab the probe rod, then decide on the angle of rotation—none of which were ever the same.

Although Neo had no wings, he had indeed been flying all this time—even more exhilarating and thrilling than flying itself. The warriors were stunned. Everyone rushed to the end of the probe and pressed down hard on it, using it as a weight, fearing that Neo might do something too extreme and knock the probe away, causing them to plummet from a hundred meters high and be crushed to pieces.

The people at the bottom of the valley were also stunned. Maxim and the others fought their way out of the encirclement. Just as they emerged from the entrance to the nest, they saw Neo leap into the air and slay the monster. Immediately after that, there were dazzling sequences of swings and violent whips, with countless tree mites turning into red spots and scattering everywhere—flocks and clusters flying through the air. Undoubtedly, it was like the finale act of a top-tier circus, yet even more spectacular than that.

“Damn, who is that? Don’t tell me it’s Simon Windwalker!” Even Eric, usually so composed, couldn’t help cursing. He was utterly shocked. To him, this was even more extreme than seeing a pig that could fly in fancy maneuvers.

“Hurry! Hurry! Use the ropes to climb up the cliff!” Maxim was the first to react. These tree mites not only had poisonous claws but could also drain energy. As they fought their way forward, their own combat energy was being consumed at an insane rate. If they didn’t escape quickly, they would be eaten alive by these insects.

Unlike ordinary climbing, for professionals at level 5 or above, as long as there were good footholds, they could shoot upward. The ropes hanging from the probe were tied in knots at regular intervals, as ordered by Neo. Whether using hands or feet, it was easy to gain leverage by gripping these knots. So even those sergeants protected by energy shields climbed just as quickly.

However, the monster leader in the Poison Green Forest had also recovered from Neo’s dazzling killing display and was certainly not willing to let these enemies escape easily.

Boom! Driven by the powerful force emanating from the Poison Green Forest, the tree mites surged like waves, one after another, forming a tide dozens of meters high—like a dam breaking, with water rushing down the canyon and crashing down with tremendous force.

Sssss! Almost simultaneously with the waves, Neo, high in the air, launched three light bolts. These delayed light bolts were only half the size of the original ones and contained less energy, but thanks to the holy water obtained from the Church of Glory, their power was even greater.

Boom! The light clouds formed by the explosions of the three light bolts were like giant claws digging through space. Within that range, all the tree mites were wiped out, creating clear gaps. This caused large cracks in the probe, allowing the temple warriors climbing up to avoid being crushed.

The leader in the Poison Green Forest wasn’t giving up. After the waves, at his command, countless flying mites, glowing brightly, rose from the bottom of the valley, gathering as they climbed upward to gnaw at the probe and ropes.

“Protect the ropes!” Maxim roared. He knew that once the ropes were damaged, they were done for. Looking at the cliff, the thickness of the tree mites made it impossible to climb up using those surfaces as footholds.

The rope guarded by Yue 412 was somewhat better, as their combat or magical energy could extend further along the rope. The other four ropes were inferior. The chosen ones of Star 743 had just broken through level 5 and still couldn’t use their energy skillfully. Even worse were Valrug and Kocar—though their heavy bodies weren’t a problem, the ropes from the exploration boards could still support two people leaping and climbing at the same time. But due to insufficient extension of their combat energy, they could only watch as the flying mites ate away at the ropes.

The most frustrating was the rope where Zanjin and Mary were. In such situations, panic was absolutely forbidden. Relying on momentum also required precision—after leaping, pulling, and leaping again, the strain on the rope was at its peak. So if two people climbed at the same time, it was best to stagger their movements rather than doing it in sequence, otherwise it would be like applying force downward simultaneously. Neo had explained these details and used physical punishment to ensure everyone remembered them. But when Zanjin panicked, the rhythm was disrupted, and they moved in sequence with Mary. Seeing this, Mary naturally tried to adjust, but Zanjin lacked rhythm. After a few more leaps, they moved in sequence again, forcing Mary to keep adjusting her pace, which slowed her down and widened the gap between them.

The flying mites damaged the ropes and exploration boards in every way. Another sequence of simultaneous movements caused the rope to break. Zanjin managed to grab a section of the rope above, but Mary below had nothing to hold onto and fell backward, plummeting toward the valley.

“Mary!” Several people saw this, but they were helpless—self-preservation was their only concern, and below was an ocean of insects, making rescue impossible.

Just then, Neo descended. His long rope was 20 meters long, while the exploration pole was over 10 meters above the cliff. Since the exploration board was parallel to the cliff, Neo’s rope, once lowered, was already below it. Then, he wrapped his other long rope around the pole of the exploration board, released the first rope, paused mid-air, and then dropped another dozen meters.

This exploration board pole wasn’t like those on the watchtower—it couldn’t withstand the force of someone weighing over 200 pounds falling and pulling hard. Fortunately, the sergeant and Shadow Killer Manson were quick-witted and managed to escape the cliff first, allowing the pole to withstand Neo’s falling weight amid a terrifying creaking sound.

At that moment, Neo was about 40 meters above the valley—equivalent to 10 stories high. With no other choice, he shot his long rope toward the cliff wall, turning it into a straight, highly elastic rod. This rod tilted downward quickly and steadily, followed by another “rod.” After two such tilts, the distance to the valley floor was less than 20 meters. Neo twisted and spiraled downward, his long rope coiling like glowing strands as it strangled the flying mites and dragged them to the bottom.

In the blink of an eye, Neo’s series of actions were nothing short of lightning-fast. By the time he landed, Mary had just created splashes in the sea of insects below and hadn’t yet been completely swallowed by the mites.

As Neo shook the long ropes, they transformed into spinning rings of light that swirled toward Mary’s location. The move resembled the grace of a water sleeve dance, but its destructive power was undeniable—like hollow, spinning fire barrels. As it plunged into the swarm of tree mites, it acted like a giant wheel stirring water, only the splashes were not water but bright red light.

Another long rope coiled around Neo’s body, isolating the tree mites outside the circle. It served both as an offensive and defensive tool. Even with the tree mites gnawing at him closely, Neo couldn’t hold on much longer.

How could the monster leader let Neo rescue people so easily? With a flash of purple light, it disappeared into the poisonous green forest. Boom! A giant skeleton of a thunder lizard leaped up from the sea of insects, like a whale breaking the surface, with immense momentum, charging at Neo. This glowing giant absorbed nearby tree mites as it ran, and within just a dozen seconds, it became fully formed.

By then, Neo had already pulled the fallen and injured Mary to his side. “Hold on tight!” He carried her on his back, then swung the long ropes at the thunder lizard. The two ropes pierced forward while entwining with each other, forming a giant conical spear.

“Argh!” Neo’s hair and clothes flew as his body glowed with bloodlight. With all his strength, the super-long spear emitted a bright red glow, forming a sharp cone that cut through everything in its path, slamming into the thunder lizard’s body.

Then, Neo shook his arms, causing the twisted ropes to unspool from the base at increasing speed, with tremendous force at the tip. Boom! The thunder lizard was torn apart into countless burning fragments that flew everywhere.

The monster leader in the poisonous green forest was stunned. He never expected the giant he summoned to die so quickly and miserably. Seeing Neo swinging the ropes toward him, seemingly determined to storm into the forest to settle accounts, he panicked and quickly organized waves of insects to block him before scurrying underground.

In fact, Neo was just feigning strength. The seemingly simple act of combining and separating the ropes actually consumed a great deal of energy. He didn’t have any extra strength to play hide-and-seek with the monster leader in the forest. With a feint, Neo quickly ran away, using the ropes to prop himself up. Then he thrust the ropes into the cliff wall, using them to bounce himself upward. Within a dozen seconds, he reached the cliff top and rushed into the Flame Blood Formation.

When they learned that Mary was unharmed and could recover within a month even without a healer, everyone couldn’t help but cheer. The warriors of Star 745 cheered the loudest. This wasn’t just about gaining face among their allies—they saw from this how Neo treated his own people: he would never abandon them! With such a captain, everyone felt warm inside.

Zangjin served as a negative example, but he was also honest in admitting his mistake. Otherwise, Neo would have given him a good beating and kicked him out of Star 745. What could you expect from someone who only thought of escaping during a crisis, especially when he didn’t even show remorse afterward?

Maxim stepped forward, looking at Neo with emotion and sighing, “What should I say?”

Nio smiled and answered for Maxim, “Thank you for what you’ve done. At least we can’t say we’ve lost yet, right?”
Phrases like “Thank you for saving my life” or “I owe you my life” were hard to utter and sounded unpleasant. Those who lived by the sword owed many lives to others, and in return, others owed them as well. True friendships were forged through such mutual struggles. Knowing that someone would risk their life if needed was enough—putting it into words seemed pointless.
Things weren’t over yet, as the enemy clearly wasn’t giving up. The tree mites began attacking the Flame Blood Array, trying to drain its energy through sheer numbers. At such times, the flightless tree mites became even more dangerous. They swarmed like a flowing river, constantly burning to death under the power of the Flame Blood Array but still charging forward without hesitation.
At first, everyone was worried, fearing the array would be broken. Nio didn’t say anything but promised to do his best to hold it together—after all, there was no other choice. The enemy’s plan was meticulous, and their retreat must have been well-protected. Charging out now would be suicide.
The monster leader, hiding in the shadows, watched their anxiety and grew even more confident in victory. He urged the tree mites to keep attacking at all costs. Nio inwardly rejoiced—having fools offer him advantages, how could he fail to recoup his costs? If he had known earlier, he should have designed the array to be twice as large. Yet Nio pretended to be worried, and the light of the Flame Blood Array gradually dimmed, with the light at the top of the blood rock monument also shrinking. After a while, it seemed Nio had to feed energy into the array to keep it functioning.
The monster leader was secretly delighted, thinking, “It’s almost time! Joy! Watch how you die. I’ll make good use of your bones and souls!”
In reality, Nio was drawing energy rather than feeding it in. After each operation, he would meditate, seemingly trying to restore his magic. Of course, the demand far exceeded what he could provide. Eventually, with no other choice, he turned to Nim, the blood curse sorcerer, for help. Only then did Nim realize Nio had been acting all along. She couldn’t help but sigh at his cunning. Unaware of it, the enemy had already sacrificed countless tree mites, still without realizing it. By the time they realized, they wouldn’t know how much they’d regret it.
Next was Nim, a sorcerer of Star 743, followed by Kocar, a sorcerer of Star 745. Nio acted very carefully, choosing real blood curse sorcerers as his accomplices. One after another, they took turns pretending to meditate, seemingly straining themselves to the limit. This went on for hours, and by 4 a.m., they were still holding on!

The monster leader, from initial excitement to subsequent resentment, was now filled with extreme unwillingness. The cost had been too high, and with so many tree mites, it was impossible to withstand such a fate. Yet giving up now would be unbearable for him—he had already suffered huge losses. Thus, he fell into a vicious cycle of spending more and losing more, and losing more forced him to spend even more. He intensified his efforts, assembling a group of bone monsters to destroy the magic array. But by then, most of the opponents had already rested, and there were many strong fighters. The monster leader launched several attacks, all to no avail. By dawn, countless cubic meters of tree mite ashes had poured down into the valley. The Flame Blood Array seemed to be holding on by a thread but still wouldn’t break.

The monster leader finally saw through the trick. He knew that if he didn’t leave now, once daylight came and the ground’s magical effects faded, his power would diminish drastically, and he would be trapped. “Simon Windwalker, wait! One day I’ll skin you, pull out your tendons, make you suffer the pain of being bitten by countless insects, and then burn your soul in the magic flames for a hundred years!”

Nio, of course, wouldn’t miss such an opportunity. Smiling, he retorted, “Idiot, how many insects do you still have left?”

“Argh! Argh! Argh!” Filled with rage, the monster leader let out a series of howls and curses in the Poison Green Forest for several minutes before stopping.

As the morning sunlight shone down, the Poison Green Forest lost its noisy bustle. The entire Spider Jungle seemed to have shed its dark veil. Though it still looked unpleasant, it no longer had that gloomy atmosphere. If not for the massive amounts of tree mite ashes, everything that had happened last night might have seemed like a dream.

Nio ended the operation of the magic array. First, he carefully stored the 30-centimeter-long blood rock pillar, then the Wasteland Wood altar, and placed them generously into the Boiling Blood Ring in front of everyone. In fact, since he used his bloodthirsty skill that night, certain things were no longer secrets in the eyes of those who paid attention. And last night, by using his two blood-energy whips to act like a brilliant juggler, he had made some of these things public. Later, when talking about it, he admitted to Maxim and the others that during the battle against the two-headed man-eating badgers, he had gained a Boiling Blood Ring through good fortune.

An ancient Boiling Blood Ring could indeed create a powerful individual. Maxim and the others believed Nio’s story and even found it very reasonable. If it were them, they wouldn’t reveal such power until they fully mastered it. So, whether Simon Windwalker had been missing for over two months to recover or not no longer mattered. What mattered was that he was someone worth befriending, and there were also desirable trophies right before their eyes.

Yes, truly desirable. If Maxim and the others still didn’t understand the full implications, Nim, as a Blood Curse Sorcerer, could say with certainty: Since this Flame Blood Array was different from others—it didn’t consume energy but absorbed it—the materials used to construct it, including the timber for the watchtowers on the array, had all become extremely valuable Blood Curse materials.

Overall, its value lies in two aspects. The first is “blood immersion”; in more general spellcasting terminology, it’s called “transformation” — continuous, high-volume, long-term flow of blood energy that indirectly achieves the effect of refining objects with blood energy. This makes it an excellent specialized energy conductor, and through simple or complex processing, it can fully serve as a component for magical artifacts.

If transformation can still be accomplished by finding a few Blood Curses users willing to sacrifice their own blood energy to refine objects, then dealing with the “blood malice” contained in such objects becomes almost an impossible task. This is because it involves another kind of mysterious metric — the number of lives taken. Of course, an ant cannot be compared to the life of a powerful being, as their impact on the world and their influence on various laws are incomparable. Yet, scholars in the Aemera world have widely accepted the meaning of the term “butterfly effect” introduced by the Divine Lords. This means that even the smallest ant has the potential to trigger changes across the entire world, though for most beings, there’s no chance to witness the full extent of its effects, or rather, no time to observe impacts large enough to draw their attention.

Well, since ants are recognized as life forms, those crazy and evil Tree Mites naturally qualify as well, and in terms of individual influence, they far exceed ants. If the influence value of a normal adult is 1, then these Tree Mites have at least 0.001. 1,000 evil Tree Mites can definitely kill more than one person, and they reproduce. The calculation of their value is quite peculiar — without delving too deep, we can roughly estimate it this way. So, how many people were killed last night? Clearly, killing everyone in Refuge Valley Town isn’t enough. What about including Asia as well? Still not enough. After careful calculation, it seems that almost all humans in the Hylfanis domain, excluding professionals and powerful individuals, would need to be killed to equal that amount. Put differently, the number of creatures killed by dark forces and alien invaders from Monstok over two months in the Erdrit domain is less than a quarter of what happened last night. While such situations may not be impossible to replicate, it seems unlikely they’ll occur again. Thus, the high value of these objects becomes evident.

“In some people’s eyes, this is just a wooden tower piled with gems of equal value,” Nim said, eyeing the bright red, gleaming watchtower with envy. He wondered if those smiling people sitting atop it, swaying back and forth, would be terrified if they knew how much their seats were worth.

Nio, satisfied, packed away the most valuable Blood Stone Monument and the Wildwood Altar, then said with a smile, “The temple’s appraisers should be on their way. If you’re short of money, you might consider selling your share.”

Nim stared at Nio in shock, too stunned to speak.

“I heard the army is a strange organization. For brothers who share life and death together, the worst thing is to reap all the benefits for oneself. For officers, the worst thing is to be unable to control their subordinates. I don’t want to commit either of these mistakes. Besides, can you prove that these things are truly valuable? Also, you can help me assess them—it’s not good for people to think of me as a fat pig, right?”
“…”
Nio smiled and went back to his work. Maxim came over and patted Nim on the shoulder from behind. “We carry the guns together, share the loot together. We must board this ship and set sail on this water…”
So by the time the people from the Temple summoned by the Aluminum Eagle arrived at the cliff edge of the valley, last night’s story had taken on another version—a tale of collective effort, with Sky Warriors fighting against dark forces. In this version, the leaders were wise and heroic, while the executors risked their lives, ensuring no one died and thwarting the dark forces’ carefully planned schemes, resulting in heavy losses for them, and so on.
Of those items, aside from a few fine pieces taken by those in need, the rest were sold to the Temple. These items were valuable; if the Temple was willing to spend some time, they could make ten times the profit by reselling them. But the Sky Temple clearly wasn’t short of money—after all, some things couldn’t be bought even with wealth. Cursesmiths were a major branch of the Temple’s chosen ones, with over 80% of them becoming Blood Cursesmiths. Using a small portion of these as rewards for those who contributed was both honorable and helped strengthen one’s own team—this was the proper way.
As for exactly how much money the Temple paid, what conditions it agreed to, how much Moon 412 received, what Star 743 got, and how much Nio earned—only a few people involved knew. No one would speak up, no one wanted to publicize it. Even within the Temple, only rumors circulated, claiming that Moon 412, Star 743, and Star 745 accidentally obtained a batch of valuable items while clearing out the Mutant Venom Spider nests, which the Temple purchased at an internal price.
According to the Sky Temple’s report, by that day, the Venom Spider incident was officially over. Moon 412 and Star 743 returned, while Star 745 was tasked with thoroughly purging the spider jungle, which had been corrupted by darkness, to prevent further trouble. For Hillfanis, which was already going through many troubles, this seemed like just a minor incident. On the surface, even those semi-military, semi-civilian mercenary groups could handle such tasks, with 40–70 similar missions being assigned each day across Hillfanis. But in reality, it was a catalyst, a seemingly ordinary beginning to a major event. Only when the entire situation became undeniable and exposed to everyone did people start to pay attention to those who had been involved from the start and continued to work on it—the Sky Guardians. That name once again echoed like thunder in winter, its impact astonishing.