The sounds of explosions rocked the earth. Even Xiang Ning and the rest heard it from five kilometers away.

Chu Long laughed happily. “What a tactic. To think they actually fell for it. They must’ve thought we were taunting them.”

“Ha! I think their brains must’ve been dented some time ago!” Yu Qian was laughing, too. Their trap was so stupid that even an idiot would have seen through it. How could they trigger it?

Xiang Ning scratched the back of his head. “Don’t you think it could’ve been caused by beasts?”

“No way. Based on my calculations, they should be roughly five kilometers behind us, so it should be them. Maybe their brains devolved!” Chu Long was dying of laughter.

“Still, since they triggered it, it should slow them down somewhat. It probably won’t kill them, but it should divert their attention.” Gu Kun was laughing, too.

Back on the other side, the people from the Hydrangea clan were speechless. To think that someone would actually trigger such a blatantly obvious trap! “Lan Quan, do you think this is a side effect of their transformation? The other members knew it was a trap, but only the leader went and activated it.”

Lan Quan thought about it. “Probably. Note it down and report back later.” He left after saying that. 

The rest of them followed, but one of them asked, “Lan Quan, do you think our traps will work? Should we see what happens later?”

“No need. With their stupidity, there’s nothing to be concerned about. Let’s move, or the people from the Federation will be out of our surveillance range.”

“Understood.” The five of them quickly followed Lan Quan and left the cultists. 

The cultists were covered in dust and their clothes were in tatters. The bomb wasn’t all that strong, but it was still somewhat powerful. It wouldn’t kill Lord Vulture, but the other cultists who stood further away were hit by shrapnel. Some of them were bleeding a little.

“Hmm? What’s this smell?”

“It’s shit!”

“Damn! They’re despicable!”

“Do we still have water?!”

A thick muck slowly dripped down Lord Vulture’s face. He was burning in anger and roared to the sky. One of the bird-type beasts was scared by his roar and crapped itself before flying away. The crap miraculously found its way into Lord Vulture’s mouth.

Lord Vulture felt like something was choking him. “Uwek! Cough! Blargh!” His face was red with rage as the noxious stench penetrated his nose. He was dazed by the sudden onslaught of stenches. It was a terrible sight. “I’ll kill you all!” His voice was loud, yet hoarse. His veins bulged as he screamed in fury; some of the cultists sympathized with him.

Xiang Ning saw that he was continuously earning 999 Fury Points every second and felt weird. Why were they still angry? Still, if he was earning so many Fury Points, that meant it was definitely the cultists.

The people from the Hydrangea clan hadn’t run far before they heard the screeching. This time it wasn’t only Lord Vulture’s voice; it looked like their traps had been sprung as well.

“Lan Quan… I don’t think we set traps that had that much destructive power, right?”

Lan Quan didn’t know, either. Xiang Ning’s trap would at most hit one or two people. But based on the screaming, it looks like all of them were affected. Just how many traps had they triggered?

“Ignore them. It’s none of our concern anymore. We need to move and quickly leave the area. The beasts must’ve picked up on the commotion. It looks like they’ll be in hell.” Lan Quan moved faster.

The rest of them snickered and followed suit.

Just a minute before, the cultists were strategizing. “Lord Vulture, I don’t think we can proceed any further. Looks like we’ve encountered a master strategist. I think there’s traps ahead, so we need to move left.”

“I agree. We need to spread out or everyone will be caught in the same trap.”

“I think we should head back and make a detour to avoid this place altogether,” one of the cultists weakly said.

“No. Since they have a master strategist, I think there’ll be traps behind us, too, in case we retreat. Look at that area—it looks like a good place to set a trap, but that was the only one there. They obviously thought that we wouldn’t go there,” another cultist said with conviction. 

It was mostly useless, though, since all of them had been falling into different traps over and over. They had triggered so many traps on the road. If it weren’t for that, they would have long since caught up with Xiang Ning.

“Fine, just do as you want. I’ll choose the path to retreat and you can all just choose the direction you want to go.”

The rest of the cultists ignored him and gave him the stink eye.

“GYAAAAAH!” The first cultist got hit by a trap.

“BLAARGH!” The second one, too.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” The third one was no exception.

…

“ARRGH!” The eighth cultist was also a victim.

The ninth cultist scoffed, “Told you so! The return path is the only safe one. Tough luck triggering all those traps. HAHAHAH-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

......

Xiang Ning and the rest naturally didn’t hear their screams, as they were already on a stretch of an abandoned highway. 

“There usually isn’t a lot of beasts around here, but it’s very hard to be certain now. Stay sharp, but we should be fine.” Gu Kun read the map and decided that the previous information they held was now obsolete.

Xiang Ning suddenly leaped away from the highway and pressed himself down in the dirt on the side. The rest of them realized what was happening even without needing him to say anything; the Frost Wolf was howling in fear, too.

“This is bad!! A large wave of beasts is approaching us. We need to hide, now!” Xiang Ning quickly found a spot for them to hide as the Frost Wolf shielded them by wrapping its body around them. Unfortunately, it could only hide four of them. Xiang Ning looked around and saw another place he could hide in. “All of you stay where you are! I’ll be fine.”

They didn’t even have time to react before Xiang Ning dove into a shrub. Just as he did so, the ground started rumbling. The tremble soon grew stronger as the beasts grew closer and closer. In less than three minutes they saw the beasts on the horizon.

Gu Kun was sweating bullets. All of the beasts… are tier four and above!!

The Frost Wolf was trembling in fear. All of them were hiding in a ditch by the side of the highway. Based on the path of the beasts, it seemed that they wouldn’t walk over them, but it was still very close. The four humans sheltering beneath the wolf didn’t move an inch. Their hearts were wildly beating.

Soon, the beasts walked past them. There were thousands of beasts, each of them tier four and above, just five meters away from their hiding spot! If any of the beasts were to stray slightly further away, they would be caught. After a few hundred beasts or so passed them by, Gu Kun and the rest were slightly relieved. It seemed that they would survive after all. But they noticed one particular beast and they knew they were fucked.

Its face lacked eyes, or to be more exact, its small, beady eyes were covered by its flabby flesh. The strange beast was slowly lumbering by, its triangular nostrils sniffing around.

“Fuck! It’s a Giant Salamander!”

There's no mines to sweep if all the mines are triggered