Chapter 265: Evil Thought Seed

When such a horrifying smile suddenly appeared on Senior Qiu Bai's face, everyone except Jiang Jiang Qinge's expression changed drastically, and they hurriedly stepped back.

Bai Bai Mengmeng was so frightened that her fair little face went pale, her eyes filled with unconcealable terror.

Li Luo also felt a chill creeping up from the soles of his feet. Looking at Qiu Bai's state, he had probably seen the eerie smiling face on the wall inside that Evil Thought Huan Jing earlier as well, but he had relied on the brief moment of clarity from the Green Wood Token to activate his Dual Phase Power, barely managing to resist the smile's erosion.

But clearly, Qiu Bai had failed to resist it.

This made cold sweat break out on Li Luo's back. After all, Qiu Bai was no rookie—he was a top student ranked among the best in the Three Star Court, and his strength had recently stepped into the Earth General Stage before entering the Dark Cave. Although there was a considerable gap between him and Jiang Jiang Qinge, he was absolutely an experienced expert.

But now, even someone of his caliber had fallen for it?

Just what level of Other had left behind that eerie smiling face?

Hiss!

Qiu Bai's face wore that eerie smile. He opened his mouth wide and let out a hissing roar at everyone, then erupted with phase force and charged straight at the closest target—Li Luo.

Ferocious, violent phase force, wrapped in vicious wind, pounced directly toward Li Luo.

Seeing this, Li Luo flicked a finger without hesitation. A Water Light Bullet burst from his fingertip, while his figure swiftly slid backward.

With his strength, he couldn't possibly clash head-on with Qiu Bai, so retreating was the most rational choice.

The Water Light Bullet detonated in front of Qiu Bai. The blinding flash made his eyes sting until tears kept streaming out, but strangely, he seemed to feel no pain. Even with his eyes bloodshot, he kept that eerie smile. His figure pierced through the flash, a Fire-Tip Spear flashing into his hand, its fierce wind enveloping Li Luo.

Clang!

But at that moment, a graceful figure darted in at high speed. A slender sword wreathed in green light cut through the air, seemingly transforming into a green sword-shadow that collided with the Fire-Tip Spear.

Two surges of mighty phase force clashed—neither could overcome the other—and in the end both were sent flying backward.

Li Luo looked at Tian Tian, who had stepped in front of him, and quickly said, "Thanks, Senior Sister."

In the instant Tian Tian blocked Qiu Bai, Jiang Jiang Qinge's attack also arrived. One could see streams of light phase force raining down like light arrows, completely covering the area where Qiu Bai stood.

Boom, boom!

Astonishing phase force surged on Qiu Bai's body. The Fire-Tip Spear in his hand seemed to transform into a fiery red light screen that collided with the sky-filling light arrows.

But his fiery red light screen was clearly in a suppressed state, and soon the fire screen began to teeter on the brink of collapse.

The gap in strength between the two sides was laid bare.

Qiu Bai seemed to sense he couldn't match her, and turned to take the chance to flee.

Whoosh!

But just then, a ring of light descended from the sky and rapidly shrank. After a few breaths, it firmly bound Qiu Bai's body, rendering him completely unable to move.

Qiu Bai struggled with all his might, but he could never break free from the light ring's restraint.

Seeing Qiu Bai subdued, Tian Tian also let out a breath of relief.

Bai Bai Mengmeng and Student Xin Fu walked to Li Luo's side, their faces solemn and terrified as they asked, "Captain, what's going on?"

Li Luo first glanced at the two of them and asked, "You didn't see the smiling face on the wall, did you?"

Both shook their heads blankly. They had also fallen into that so-called Huan Jing earlier, but perhaps because they were farther away, they hadn't reached the wall before Jiang Jiang Qinge shattered the Huan Jing.

"Then you got lucky."

Jiang Jiang Qinge walked over, her exquisitely beautiful jade face carrying a hint of solemnity, and said, "The Huan Jing you entered earlier is called an Evil Thought Huan Jing. It's a domain that only Calamity-level Others can construct."

"We've encountered this kind of Evil Thought Huan Jing before, but..."

Her golden eyes stared at the wall she had smashed earlier and said, "This is also my first time seeing a single residual smiling-face mark capable of creating an Evil Thought Huan Jing that even someone of Qiu Bai's strength fell victim to."

"Such a powerful Other..."

Jiang Jiang Qinge's expression grew even more solemn as she said, "I suspect it might be a Heavenly Calamity-level Other."

"An Other of this level shouldn't have appeared here."

Li Luo and the others swallowed hard, their faces shocked. Calamity-level was divided into two grades—Heaven and Earth—and a Heavenly Calamity-level Other? Wouldn't that be equivalent to the strength of the Heavenly Gang General Stage? How could such a powerful Other have slipped through into this outer region of the Dark Cave?

Hadn't the mentors from the academy conducted a screening beforehand?

And in the deeper areas of the outer region, there were even Four Star Court students forming a defensive line... How had this Heavenly Calamity-level Other appeared here?

"There will always be ones that slip through the net. This kind of situation has happened before," Tian Tian sighed and said. "We can only say we're too unlucky."

"Then the Others here..." Li Luo seemed to think of something, and his expression shifted.

"They've probably all been devoured by that Heavenly Calamity-level Other."

Jiang Jiang Qinge's willow brows furrowed slightly as she said, "This is not good news, because as it keeps devouring like this, it will grow stronger and stronger."

Li Luo, Bai Bai Mengmeng, and Student Xin Fu exchanged glances in silence. Compared to this encounter, the Erosion-level Others they had met before were truly nothing.

The terror and eeriness of Others had finally bared its fangs at them.

They looked at Qiu Bai bound on the ground. The eerie smile on his face was still going—his mouth was splitting wider and wider, muscles tearing, fresh blood flowing—a sight that sent a chill straight to the heart.

Even Qiu Bai, whose strength had reached the initial Earth Sha General stage, had been reduced to this. If it had been them who fell victim, wouldn't it have been even worse?

Li Luo subconsciously touched the corner of his mouth, and for a moment he didn't quite dare to smile.

"Then, what should we do with Senior Qiu Bai?" Bai Bai Mengmeng asked.

Jiang Jiang Qinge said, "His condition isn't too bad. The Evil Thought Seed has already erupted. Later we'll hang him in front of the Purification Tower and let the purification halo cleanse him for a while—he should recover."

"Compared to this kind of erupted Evil Thought Seed, the more troublesome ones are those that lie dormant deep inside, because that creates a huge hidden danger. No one knows whether their teammates have been contaminated, and if such an Evil Thought Seed suddenly erupts at a critical moment in battle..."

"Then a cold arrow from behind might make you die in regret."

Li Luo and the others' faces went a little pale. This Evil Thought Seed was too terrifying, because you never knew when a teammate you trusted would suddenly stab you in the back.

"Senior Jiang, can't you sense it? Earlier you stopped Senior Qiu Bai in advance," Student Xin Fu asked in a hoarse voice.

"That's because he wasn't contaminated deeply, so my Ninth-Grade Light Phase had some resonance. But once an Evil Thought Seed sinks deep into the heart, I'm afraid even I would find it hard to detect in time," Jiang Jiang Qinge said, her willow brows tightly furrowed.

The others exchanged uneasy glances, the terror in their eyes impossible to conceal.

"Let's purify Qiu Bai's contamination first."

Jiang Jiang Qinge pondered briefly, then flicked a finger. The heavy sword in her hand, wrapped in light phase force, hooked onto Qiu Bai's clothes and flew straight across the sky, stabbing into the Purification Tower.

Then Li Luo and the others saw that as rings of purification light emanated from the Purification Tower and swept over, the eerie smile on Qiu Bai's face gradually faded.

After roughly several minutes like this, his somewhat strange gaze gradually returned to clarity.

He first glanced at his own situation, then let out a bitter laugh; from his appearance, he clearly knew exactly what had happened earlier.

Senior Qiu Bai twisted his body, pulled free from the heavy sword, then dropped down.

"Li Luo, my apologies." He covered his mouth, looked at Li Luo, and apologized with a bitter laugh.

Li Luo didn't reply, but instead looked toward Jiang Jiang Qinge and asked softly, "Is he fully lucid now?"

Jiang Jiang Qinge gave a slight nod of her lovely head.

Only then did Li Luo feel relieved. He smiled at Senior Qiu Bai, then stepped forward; a healing-imbued phase force gathered at his fingertip, and he used it to mend the torn corner of Senior Qiu Bai's mouth so it wouldn't look so unsettling.

His thoughtfulness nearly brought a grateful smile to Senior Qiu Bai's face.

"Don't smile." Li Luo hurriedly warned — he was suddenly a bit allergic to smiles right now.

Senior Qiu Bai's smile froze, then he laboriously forced it back bit by bit.

"Senior Qiu Bai, you've really embarrassed our squad. You're at least at the Earth Fiend General rank, yet the freshman squad was fine while you ran into trouble." Tian Tian said, a touch of 'disappointed in you' in her tone.

Senior Qiu Bai said awkwardly, "I let my guard down. I didn't expect a malicious Huan Jing of this level to appear near a second-tier Purification Tower."

As he spoke, his gaze sharpened slightly and he said, "Captain, our area here probably has a big problem."

"What do we do next?"

Jiang Jiang Qinge's gaze looked toward the distance. After a moment of silence, she finally raised a jade-like hand; the heavy sword shot down into her grasp, and at the same time a decisive voice rang out.

"Abort the mission. Return to the purification outpost immediately."

"We need to relay the intelligence here to the academy."