Cultivation Online

Chapter 2629: Dropping the Act

"W-We brought you out here to kill you? That’s a serious accusation, Corporal Yuan!" Captain Chen exclaimed, continuing to insist that it was nothing more than a misunderstanding. "What reason could we possibly have to want you dead?! We only wanted to verify the rumors!"

"You may have no reason to kill me, but your boss, General Gu, definitely does," Yuan said with a smile. "However, if you truly have no intention of killing me, then you’d have no problem with us returning to the city now, right?"

"..."

Captain Chen fell silent for a moment before releasing a deep sigh.

"Unfortunately, we cannot do that," he said with a serious expression, finally deciding to drop the act.

The members of the Scorpion Squad suddenly moved, surrounding Yuan from all sides.

"Are you going to kill me now?" Yuan asked calmly, even though he already knew they wouldn’t dare dirty their own hands. After all, if they could kill him directly without consequence, they would’ve done so long ago.

However, Captain Chen and the others remained silent.

’What should we do now that we’ve been exposed?’ one of the members asked through voice transmission.

’Do we just... kill him now?’

Although killing Yuan themselves seemed to be their only remaining option, none of them wanted to be the one to actually dirty their hands.

"I will do it. I will kill this bastard with my own hands!" Captain Dung suddenly said out loud.

"I have a suggestion."

Captain Dung froze at Yuan’s words.

"A suggestion, you say? Unless you’re offering to kill yourself, I don’t want to hear it," Captain Dung sneered with a look of disdain on his face.

Yuan smiled and said, "That’s exactly what I was going to suggest."

"Excuse me?" Captain Chen raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

"Although I don’t know why you’re so hesitant to kill me yourselves, it wouldn’t matter even if you tried. After all, none of you are capable of killing me," Yuan said with a confident smile.

"What did you just say?" Captain Dung frowned.

"We’ll give you credit for being able to defeat Elite Void Specters and Void Guardians on your own, but fighting other humans is an entirely different matter," one of the members said.

Yuan chuckled and said, "In that case, let’s put that to the test."

Before any of them could even react to Yuan’s words, he suddenly used Void Manipulation, vanishing from his spot and appearing right behind Captain Chen.

"Catch me if you can," Yuan said.

"G-Get him! Don’t let him escape!" Captain Chen hastily shouted as he lunged toward Yuan.

"Don’t worry. I have no intention of leaving this tunnel," Yuan said as he teleported a few meters away.

The next moment, the members of the Scorpion Squad found themselves playing an absurd game of tag with him, and despite having five people, none of them could so much as touch his shadow.

"Hahaha! Is this really the level of captains?! I was expecting much more!"

"Slow! Too slow!"

"Are you sure you even qualify to enter the Purple Zone? Your Void Control barely qualifies for the Red Zone!"

Yuan continued taunting them relentlessly as they desperately tried—and repeatedly failed—to catch him.

One hour... two hours... five hours passed—

"Enough! We get your point!" Captain Chen finally came to a halt and shouted, his voice trembling with frustration.

The other members of Scorpion Squad also stopped trying to catch Yuan and started taking deep breaths from exhaustion.

Yuan then said, "As I was saying... since none of you are capable of killing me, you might as well return to the city and give up trying to kill me."

"Do you really think that’s an option for us?" Captain Chen responded with a frown.

"Well, what other options do you have? If I wanted to return to the city, there’s nothing any of you here could do about it. And if I wanted to kill you... it’d be easier than dealing with Void Specters."

"Then—"

"With that being said..." Yuan interrupted Captain Chen before he could respond. "I don’t actually want to return to the city. At least not yet."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

A profound smile tugged at Yuan’s lips as he explained, "I’ve been wanting to explore the Purple Zone alone—and even the Black Zone—for quite some time now. Unfortunately, with my low rank and status as a new soldier, that isn’t possible."

His smile deepened.

"But thanks to you lot, I now have the perfect excuse to venture as far as I want, and I have no intention of wasting such a valuable opportunity."

Yuan approached Captain Chen and continued, "Therefore, here is my real suggestion. Go back to the city and tell General Gu that you have succeeded in your mission and that I am dead."

"You... are you crazy...?" Captain Chen muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

"You want us to lie to General Gu?! And what do you think will happen to us when you return alive?!" one of the members exclaimed.

Yuan shrugged and nonchalantly replied, "I fail to see how that is my problem. In fact, I couldn’t care less."

"You—!"

"What other choice do you have?" Yuan interrupted them again. "You can either return without me and hope I somehow die on my own, or we can go back together, where you’ll have to explain to General Gu why you failed your mission—and answer to General Mei for trying to kill me."

"!!!"

The members of the Scorpion Squad swallowed nervously at Yuan’s words and fell silent as they weighed their options.

If they returned to the city with Yuan still alive, they would undoubtedly have to face the wrath of both General Gu and General Mei. However, if they followed Yuan’s suggestion and returned without him, they would at least retain a slim chance of survival.

Though it wasn’t as if they really had a choice in the first place, as they were incapable of killing Yuan.

"Are you... really going to go deeper into the Purple Zone and even enter the Black Zone?" Captain Chen asked out of curiosity.

"That’s right." Yuan nodded with a genuine-looking expression on his face.

"Why?"

"That’s none of your business."

"..."

Captain Chen closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to look at the other members.

"We’re returning to the city," he announced in a defeated tone.

"..."

None of the members said anything and silently nodded.

Shortly afterward, the Scorpion Squad left the tunnel, leaving Yuan behind, who went on to absorb the Eternal Essence from the hundreds of Unknown Crystals still glistening along the walls.

"Are we really going to return to the city and lie to General Gu? What if that bastard was lying and plans to return immediately as well?" Captain Dung asked as they made their way back toward the surface.

"Of course not," Captain Chen said. "I want to confirm with my own eyes that he truly intends to venture deeper into the Purple Zone, and regardless of his actions, we’re going to ambush him."

"How are we supposed to do that when we can’t even catch him?"

"That’s why I said we’ll ambush him! We don’t stand a chance in a direct confrontation, so our only option is to catch him off guard."

After leaving the tunnel, the Scorpion Squad hid their presence and waited for Yuan to come out.

Some time later, Yuan emerged from the tunnel.

However, instead of leaving immediately, he remained by the entrance and glanced from side to side, as though searching for someone nearby.

After looking around for a minute, Yuan started venturing in the direction that led him deeper into the Purple Zone.

’He’s really going deeper into the Purple Zone!’

’Should we keep following him?’ Captain Dung asked.

’Of course. For all we know, he could simply be putting on an act because he suspects we’re still watching him,’ Captain Chen replied.

Thus, the Scorpion Squad began secretly following Yuan, completely unaware that he had sensed their presence long before he even emerged from the tunnel.

Despite knowing they were there, Yuan had no intention of confronting them. In his eyes, the Scorpion Squad wasn’t worth his time or effort. Moreover, if they insisted on following him deeper into the Purple Zone, they would only be putting their own lives at risk.

’Now that I am alone...’

A wide grin slowly spread across Yuan’s face as his aura began to rise.

’What is he doing...?’

The members of the Scorpion Squad watched with puzzled expressions, unable to understand what Yuan was planning.

The next moment, his aura erupted violently. Limitless surged outward in every direction like a colossal tidal wave, sweeping across the barren landscape and instantly annihilating every Void Specter caught in its path.

"?!?!?!"

Captain Chen and the others stared with their mouths agape, their eyes filled with utter disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

However, Yuan wasn’t finished.

After clearing the area of Void Specters, he made a simple gesture with two fingers, pointing them toward the heavens. The next moment, hundreds of Unknown Ores shot into the air and gathered before him, as though invisible ghosts were collecting them on his behalf.

After gathering all of the Unknown Ores, including the ones inside the ground, Yuan took a moment to absorb all of their Eternal Essence before moving deeper into the Purple Zone, leaving the Unknown Ores behind.

’W-What was that just now?!’ Captain Chen exclaimed inwardly, having trouble comprehending what he’d just witnessed.

Unfortunately, they had no time to stand around and process what they had witnessed, as Yuan was already leaving them behind.

With no other choice, the Scorpion Squad hurried after him. Yet as they continued following Yuan, he repeated the same astonishing feat again and again—slaughtering countless Void Specters and gathering thousands of Unknown Ores in ways none of them had ever seen before.