“Everyone be careful, this is where we lost contact with the fourth team.” Fang Hao raised the alarm and everyone was on high alert. Everyone was fully ready to intercept any attacks.

Soon, they arrived at the small building they had seen in the video.

“Leader, look at this.” A martial artist held out a scale for Fang Hao to examine.

Fang Hao took the scale and his expression darkened. He asked the tier six martial artist, “Old Zhou, am I correct in saying that this is a snake scale?”

“Yes, young master. It looks like that snake appeared here.” Old Zhou surveyed his surroundings. Traces of battle were found here and there, and if he was right, there should be more at the top of the building.

“You two stand guard here while the rest of us go up the building,” Fang Hao instructed before leaping up toward the roof.

It was a mess. Mutilated limbs and dried blood were everywhere. He even found the broken equipment. A fierce battle had occurred here.

“Young master, what should we do now?” Old Zhou asked. Their original goal was to collect the black box. The video feed from before the demise of the fourth team didn’t show anything useful, which was why they required their black box to ascertain what had happened to the fourth team. But unfortunately, everything had been destroyed.

“We can’t stay here for long, and we didn’t encounter any beasts on the way here. This is most likely a trap!” Fang Hao suddenly realized that he felt something was wrong.

They swiftly returned to the ground floor and called for the rest of their team. For some reason, neither of them responded, but merely stood there. Fang Hao was puzzled. Just as he wanted to investigate it, he was blocked by the two tier five martial artists.

“Leader Fang, let me and my brother check it out. It seems that things aren’t as simple as they seem.” Both of them had experience in the wilderness, so while they didn’t know exactly what had happened, their experience told them that something was wrong.

When they arrived within ten meters of the tier four martial artists, the latter started howling and strongly contorting, their howls filled with malice.

The siblings knew what had happened. “Leader Fang! Something’s wrong! They’re going berserk!” one of them said. 

“Can you capture them alive?” Fang Hao needed to catch them alive to find out why they had suddenly gone berserk. How could an average human go berserk in the first place, much less two at once?

“Yes!” That single word reflected the confidence and strength of the two tier five martial artists.

Fang Hao nodded and instructed, “Lure them toward our convoy and restrain them there.”

Twenty minutes later, the two men were tied to a tree. Fang Hao was puzzled and tried to decipher what they were saying. In the beginning, he thought they were growling like beasts, but over time he found he could catch on to some words. He walked closer, and both martial artists tried biting him. They had lost all semblance of human beings and were instead responding to their primal instincts alone.

“Ba… Mu… Mas.…” These were the words that Fang Hao could make out after listening for some time.

“Old Zhou, can you tell what they’re saying?”

Old Zhou took a deep breath and steadied himself before speaking. “If I’m not mistaken, they’re talking about the Octoviolet Silversnake that killed more than a million people in a stampede thirty years ago.”

“Was it the beast on the screen?” Fang Hao had more or less guessed the identity of the culprit, but to think that he had been right…. An Octoviolet Silversnake was responsible for wiping out the fourth team.

“Young master, this particular Octoviolet Silversnake was known as Balamu. Its Mental Power is exceptionally strong, and easily capable of controlling other beasts, but this is the first time I’ve seen it capable of controlling humans! It must be the black mist we saw in the video,” Old Zhou explained.

Fang Hao nodded. The only explanation was that the two of them were under the influence of the black mist. But when they arrived on the roof, nothing was there.

“It would be horrible if it was Balamu. It’s finally shown itself after thirty years!” Old Zhou was deep in thought. When he was just a twenty-year-old young man, he had joined the battle and personally witnessed the terror of the Octoviolet Silversnake.

Just as they wanted to retreat, something happened.

“Not good! We are surrounded!” Old Zhou immediately released his aura as a tier six martial artist. Everyone else took out their weapon.

“Leader Fang! I count a total of thirty-one tier three beasts, five tier four beasts, and one tier five beast!” a man holding a large sword shouted.

“Hoh. It seems that we’re a threat to them. To think that they’d send six Beast Generals to us. They even sent one of the strongest tier three beasts, a Bloodthirsty Wolf.” Fang Hao held his class four longsword close.

The animosity between humans and ferocious beasts ran deep. To the beasts, humans were food to increase their strength and cultivation. Similarly, humans hunted beasts to collect precious materials and resources. 

In terms of numbers, the ferocious beasts held the upper hand against Fang Hao’s squad. But in terms of strength, his squad was superior, as he had a tier six martial artist. Old Zhou didn’t even hesitate and tore through the weaker beasts.

At first, it was a one-sided massacre, but soon something strange happened. Black mist emanated from the bodies of the beasts and they started to go berserk, increasing their strength and vitality.

The two squad members who were tied up suddenly violently shook their bodies as they chanted in unison, “Master Balamu! Master Balamu!”

“Not good! Young Master, quickly get in the car! The Octoviolet Silversnake is coming” Old Zhou’s face paled. As he chopped off the head of a tier four beast, he threw Fang Hao into the armored car with ease. “Quick! Get the young master out of here while I hold them off!”

“No! Old Zhou, you must stay beside the young master, we’ll hold them off for you!” the two tier five martial artists said in unison.

“Ssss!” A giant snake suddenly appeared in front of them, its body covered in black and emerald scales; its eyes were locked on Old Zhou!

“Hoho, too late. This damn bastard is already targeting me. You guys! Quickly get into the car and take the young master out of here!” Old Zhou wasted no time as his afterimage dissipated, and in the next moment, he was locked in deadly combat with Balamu.

The two brothers could only exchange glances as they quickly drove the armored vehicle to put as much distance as possible between them and Balamu.

Fang Hao’s eyes turned steely and cold as he observed the battle getting further and further away. He wasn’t afraid of death, but sometimes the situation called for him to do things that he hated, and the same could be said of Old Zhou.