Chapter 265: Seeds of Evil Thoughts

When such a terrifying smile suddenly appeared on Qiu Bai's face, everyone except Jiang Qing'e had their expressions change drastically, and they stepped back in haste.

Bai Mengmeng was even more frightened, her fair little face turning pale, and her eyes filled with undisguisable terror.

Li Luo also felt a chill rising from the soles of his feet. Looking at Qiu Bai's appearance, he feared that Qiu Bai had also seen the strange smiling face on the wall while in that evil-thought illusion; it was just that he had relied on the momentary clarity provided by the Green Wood Token to activate his dual-phase power, which had allowed him to barely resist the erosion of the smiling face.

But clearly, Qiu Bai had not been able to resist it.

This caused cold sweat to break out on Li Luo's back. After all, one had to know that Qiu Bai was no rookie; he was a top-tier student ranked among the best in the Three-Star Academy, and his strength had stepped into the Earth General stage shortly before entering the Dark Cave. Although there was a significant gap between him and Jiang Qing'e, he could definitely be considered an experienced expert.

Yet, at this moment, even someone with his strength had fallen for it?

What level of Otherkind had left behind that strange smiling face?

Hiss!

Qiu Bai wore a strange smile, opened his mouth wide, and let out a hiss at everyone. Then, his resonant power erupted, and he charged directly toward Li Luo, who was the closest.

Fierce and violent resonant power, carrying a baleful wind, lunged straight at Li Luo.

Seeing this, Li Luo did not hesitate to flick his finger, a water-light bullet erupting from his fingertip, while his figure slid backward rapidly.

With his strength, it was impossible to clash head-on with Qiu Bai, so retreating was the most rational choice.

The water-light bullet exploded in front of Qiu Bai. The blinding glare made his eyes sting so much that tears streamed down, but strangely, he seemed to have no sense of pain. Even with bloodshot eyes, he maintained that strange smile, his figure passing through the glare as a fire-tipped spear flashed into his hand, and a sharp, powerful wind enveloped Li Luo.

Clang!

However, at this moment, a graceful figure darted over. A thin sword wreathed in green light broke through the air, seemingly transforming into green light sword shadows, and collided with the fire-tipped spear.

Two powerful resonant powers collided, neither able to overcome the other, and in the end, both were sent recoiling backward.

Li Luo looked at Tian Tian, who was blocking in front of him, and quickly said, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

And in the instant Tian Tian intercepted Qiu Bai, Jiang Qing'e's offensive also arrived. One could see those streaks of light-resonant power descending from the sky like arrows of light, completely covering the area where Qiu Bai was located.

Boom! Boom!

Astonishing resonant power surged on Qiu Bai's body, and the fire-tipped spear in his hand seemed to transform into a fiery red curtain of light, colliding with the sky full of light arrows.

However, his fiery red light curtain was clearly in a suppressed state, and the fire curtain soon became shaky and precarious.

The gap in strength between the two sides was revealed without doubt.

And that Qiu Bai also seemed to realize he could not win, turning around to take the opportunity to flee.

Whoosh!

But just at this moment, a ring of light descended from the sky, simultaneously shrinking rapidly. After a few breaths, it firmly bound Qiu Bai's body, rendering him unable to move any further.

Qiu Bai struggled with all his might, but he was unable to break free from the restraint of that light ring.

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

Bai Mengmeng and Xin Fu walked to Li Luo's side, asking with grave and fearful expressions, "Captain, what is going on?"

Li Luo first looked 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 illusion just now, but perhaps because they were further away and hadn't reached the wall yet, the illusion was broken by Jiang Qing'e.

"Then you are lucky."

Jiang Qing'e walked over, her beautiful jade-like face carrying a trace of gravity, and said, "The illusion you entered earlier is called an Evil-Thought Illusion; it is a type of domain that only Disaster-level Otherkind can construct."

"We have encountered this kind of Evil-Thought Illusion before, but..."

Her golden eyes stared at the wall she had just destroyed, and she said, "It is my first time encountering one where just a trace of a left-behind smiling face is enough to create an Evil-Thought Illusion that even someone with Qiu Bai's strength falls for."

"Such a powerful Otherkind..."

Jiang Qing'e's expression grew increasingly grave as she said, "I suspect it might be a Heavenly Disaster-level Otherkind."

"An Otherkind of this level should not have appeared here."

Li Luo and the other two swallowed hard, their faces shocked. Disaster-level is divided into Heaven and Earth grades, and a Heavenly Disaster-level Otherkind? Wouldn't that be equivalent to the strength of a Heavenly Gang General stage? How could such a powerful Otherkind have slipped into this outer area of the Dark Cave?

Hadn't the instructors within the academy conducted a screening before?

And in the deeper areas of the outer region, there were even four-star students forming a defensive line... How did this Heavenly Disaster-level Otherkind appear here?

"There will always be fish that slip through the net; this situation has not been unheard of before," Tian Tian sighed and said, "We can only say we are too unlucky."

"Then the Otherkind here..." Li Luo seemed to have thought of something, his expression shifting slightly.

"I fear they have all been devoured by that Heavenly Disaster-level Otherkind."

Jiang Qing'e frowned slightly and said, "This is not good news, because if it continues to devour like this, it will become stronger and stronger."

Li Luo, Bai Mengmeng, and Xin Fu looked at each other in silence. Compared to the Erosion-level Otherkind they had encountered before, this was truly a case of a small witch meeting a great one.

The horror and strangeness of the Otherkind had finally bared its fangs at them.

They looked at the bound Qiu Bai on the ground. The strange smile on the latter's face was still continuing, the corners of his mouth splitting wider and wider, muscles tearing, and blood flowing, which made one's heart feel extremely cold.

Even Qiu Bai, who had reached the early Earth Fiend General stage, was reduced to this; if they were to fall for it, they would probably end up even more miserable, right?

Li Luo subconsciously touched the corner of his mouth, suddenly a bit afraid to smile for a moment.

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

Jiang Qing'e said, "His situation is still okay. The seed of evil thoughts has already erupted. We will hang him in front of the Purification Tower in a moment and let the purification halo purify him for a while; he should recover."

"Compared to this kind of erupted seed of evil thoughts, what is more troublesome is the kind of seed of evil thoughts that lurks very deeply, because this will cause a great hidden danger. No one knows if their teammates have been contaminated, and once it suddenly erupts at a critical moment in battle..."

"Then, a cold arrow from behind might cause you to die in regret."

The faces of Li Luo and the other two turned a bit pale. This seed of evil thoughts was too terrifying, because you never knew when your trusted teammate would suddenly stab you in the back.

"Senior Sister Jiang, aren't you able to sense it? Earlier, Senior Qiu Bai was stopped by you in advance," Xin Fu asked with a hoarse voice.

"That is because he was not deeply contaminated, so my Ninth-Grade Light Resonance had some sensing ability. But once the seed of evil thoughts goes deep into the heart, I fear even I would find it difficult to detect for a time," Jiang Qing'e said, her brows tightly locked.

The others looked at each other, their eyes unable to hide their terror.

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

Jiang Qing'e pondered slightly, then flicked her finger. The heavy sword in her hand, wreathed in light-resonant power, hooked Qiu Bai's clothes, and then it flew directly across the sky and was stuck onto the Purification Tower.

Then Li Luo and the others saw that as the purification halos emitted from the Purification Tower swept over, the strange smile on Qiu Bai's face gradually faded.

About a few minutes later, his somewhat strange eyes also gradually regained their clarity.

He first glanced at his own situation, then gave a bitter smile. Looking at his appearance, he clearly also knew what had happened earlier.

Qiu Bai twisted his body, broke free from the heavy sword, and then landed.

"Li Luo, I'm sorry." He covered his mouth, looked at Li Luo, and apologized with a bitter smile.

Li Luo didn't reply, but looked at Jiang Qing'e and asked in a low voice, "Is he completely sober now?"

Jiang Qing'e nodded slightly.

Only then was Li Luo relieved. He smiled at Qiu Bai and then walked up, resonant power emitting healing energy emerging from his fingertips to help Qiu Bai recover the lacerations at the corners of his mouth, so as not to look too ghastly.

His thoughtfulness made Qiu Bai about to reveal a grateful smile.

"Don't smile," Li Luo quickly reminded him; he was suddenly a bit allergic to smiles now.

Qiu Bai's smile froze, and then he retracted it bit by bit with some difficulty.

"Qiu Bai, you've really lost face for our squad. You're at least at the Earth Fiend General stage, yet the freshman squad is fine, but you ran into trouble," Tian Tian said, feeling a bit frustrated that he hadn't lived up to expectations.

Qiu Bai said awkwardly, "I was careless. I also didn't expect that such a level of Evil-Thought Illusion would appear near this Level 2 Purification Tower."

As he spoke, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he said, "Captain, I fear a big problem has appeared in our area."

"What should we do next?"

Jiang Qing'e gazed into the distance, silent for a moment. Finally, her jade hand beckoned, and the heavy sword flew down into her hand, while a decisive voice came out.

"Abort the mission and return to the purification stronghold immediately."

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