"He never showed anything special before; only when he made a move against the mutated Old Dog did we realize just how terrifying his skills were."

"As for how he walked through that Golden Light Barrier... he just walked straight in. We didn’t see any Magic Artifact at all!"

"Walked straight in?"

The man in the mask narrowed the eyes hidden behind the bronze mask, a trace of mockery flashing in his pupils.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Grey Eagle jumped to his feet beside them, pointing at Hou Peng’s nose as he cursed:

"That Golden Light can melt my Assassins into blood in an instant. How the hell could a mortal flesh body tank something more savage than nuclear radiation?"

"You two pieces of trash, you’re already at death’s door and still trying to cover for him!"

The masked man raised his right hand covered in a black leather glove and gave a slight wave.

Grey Eagle’s voice cut off abruptly. He hurriedly clamped his mouth shut, afraid that one more word would make the other man dislike him.

"In this world, there is no carbon-based creature whose flesh can withstand the energy radiation leaking from the world’s barrier."

The masked man spoke in a tone of certainty:

"Even I, without sufficient preparations, can’t stay inside for long."

He paused there, as if realizing it was completely unnecessary to explain this much to two ants.

Then he raised his right hand, and the gloved fingertips casually traced an arc through the air.

Whoosh—

The dense fog around them suddenly felt like it was being violently churned by an invisible giant hand.

A pressure as solid as substance descended out of nowhere, like an invisible mountain crashing down onto Ma Donghe and Hou Peng’s shoulders.

"Crack!"

Hou Peng’s already badly injured left knee smashed into the mud, his kneecap making a crisp snapping sound.

He was crushed flat to the ground, to the point that even lifting a single finger became unbearably difficult.

Ma Donghe was hit even harder; the Strength pressing down on him caved in his chest, his ribs groaning under the strain, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

"Since the two of you can’t provide any value to me, then go become fertilizer for this forest."

The masked man’s tone was flat, as if he were just deciding to crush two ants blocking his path.

He raised his right hand, and a ball of blinding, ghostly-blue lightning faintly gathered in his palm.

The smell of ozone in the air instantly thickened to the extreme.

The destructive energy clearly contained within that ball of lightning made Ma Donghe and Hou Peng’s pupils contract sharply.

The shadow of death once again loomed over the two of them.

At that very split-second.

"Ssshhh—"

A violent hissing, like cold water splashing onto red-hot iron, suddenly came from deep within the fog dozens of meters away.

The sound was faint to the ear, but it was impossible to hide it from anyone with highly attuned Spirit senses.

The ghostly-blue lightning in the masked man’s hand froze abruptly.

He turned his head, the eyes hidden behind the mask piercing through layer upon layer of fog, fixing on the direction the sound came from.

Grey Eagle didn’t have the mind to keep pointing his gun at Ma Donghe anymore. He spun around in terror, gulped hard, and stared rigidly at that patch of darkness.

In front of them, the golden barrier that had been isolating the present world from the unknown was now surging with violent ripples.

The high-dimensional radiation energy rolled like boiling water, spewing thick, acrid white smoke.

A streak of pure golden flame, like a red-hot blade, pierced through the Barrier.

Immediately after, more and more golden flames surged outward, forcibly tearing open a crack from within that curtain of light.

The extreme heat instantly drove off the surrounding chill; even the air itself warped badly under the wave of hot wind.

Under the gaze of Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, Grey Eagle, and the masked man.

A tall, straight figure stepped out from the deepest darkness with steady, heavy footsteps.

As soon as that person took a step forward, the golden flames coating his body receded inward like a receding tide.

In an instant, they sank into his skin, flesh, tendons, and bones, vanishing completely.

The remaining Golden Light Barrier closed back up, once again separating the present world from the Otherworld.

Ma Donghe lay in the mud. When he saw the newcomer’s face clearly, his lips instantly stretched into a grin of wild joy.

But catching sight of the masked man beside him, gathering to strike, he immediately raised his voice and shouted:

"Ah Cheng, watch out!"

"Click."

Grey Eagle immediately flicked off the safety on his rifle. The barrel swung around in an instant, aiming at the newcomer.

The metallic clack of the bolt echoed painfully sharp in the dead-silent forest.

The masked man didn’t launch an attack right away.

The ghostly-blue lightning in his palm gradually dimmed. The eyes hidden behind the bronze mask locked onto Fang Cheng like a radar.

No Magic Artifact fluctuations, no energy leakage, not even the slightest disturbance in his breathing rhythm; everything was as calm as a still lake.

Fang Cheng stopped walking and came to a standstill.

He took a deep breath of the slightly cold and damp forest air, then twisted his neck, producing a crisp series of pops.

He was wearing a training uniform, an army pack slung over his back. His left hand was in his pocket, and his right hand was casually carrying a coarse cloth bundle.

Thick, dark red blood dripped from the bottom of the bundle with a wet patter, splattering blood-flowers on the dry fallen leaves.

If one ignored the eerie surroundings and the suffocating killing intent.

His relaxed demeanor made him look like a college student just finishing a spring outing and getting ready to catch a ride home.

Seeing this, Hou Peng quietly exhaled, his taut body suddenly relaxing.

He didn’t know why, but as long as he saw Fang Cheng’s unruffled expression, whatever stone was lodged in his chest would always fall back into place.

"It’s... it’s him! Sir, it’s him!"

When Grey Eagle saw Fang Cheng walk out, his legs instinctively trembled and he took a small step back.

But remembering that a bottomless Expert was standing beside him, he straightened his spine at once, raised his rifle, and shouted loudly, bluffing under the tiger’s might.

The masked man ignored Grey Eagle’s display of loyalty.

His gaze swept Fang Cheng up and down like a radar, not once but three full times.

He found no trace of any high-level technological device, nor did he sense any fluctuation from a Spell or Array capable of resisting high-dimensional radiation.

Even this young man’s breathing and heart rate were no different from an ordinary person’s, so steady it was almost offensive.

"To be able to conceal a Magic Artifact’s energy fluctuations so perfectly..."

The masked man’s eyes narrowed slightly as he came to a conclusion in his heart.

It has to be a high-grade spatial-type Holy Object."

He simply refused to believe that a carbon-based creature could travel between two worlds relying solely on flesh and blood.

The only explanation was that this man had a Treasure of extremely high rank hidden on him, capable of perfectly concealing its aura.

Fang Cheng paid no attention to the masked man’s appraising gaze. He stepped forward, unhurriedly closing the distance.

"Thud."

He casually tossed the blood-dripping bundle down beside Ma Donghe.

The heavy weight hit the mud with a dull thump, kicking up a puff of dust.

Fang Cheng crouched down, his gaze sweeping over Ma Donghe’s twisted right leg and Hou Peng’s pierced shoulder.

He didn’t waste breath on concern. He directly pulled two rolls of military-issue emergency bandages and a bottle of hemostatic powder from the side pocket of his army pack and tossed them into their arms.

"Can you handle it yourselves?"

Fang Cheng asked in a flat tone.

"I’ll live. Ah Cheng, I’m tough as nails. For this bit of flesh wound, King Yama can’t be bothered to collect me."

Ma Donghe grinned, baring a rough, hard-edged smile as he picked up the hemostatic powder with his good left hand.

"Bear with it for now. Once we’re done here, I’ll help you with Bone Setting."

Fang Cheng nodded and straightened up again.

Only then did he turn his head, finally letting his gaze rest on the man with a head of white hair and a bronze mask.

In the instant their eyes met, a faint, almost imperceptible glint flashed in Fang Cheng’s eyes.

The other man stood a few meters away, barely any sign of breathing, yet the air around him faintly showed a warped distortion, as though disturbed by a force field.

The hidden, simmering danger he exuded felt like facing a killing machine ready to start up at any moment.

He was not in the same league as those so-called Black Market mercenaries from before. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

This was a real hard case.

Fang Cheng silently ran his assessment in his heart.