Yellow Ball licked his lips, feeling that foreigners' meat wasn't as tasty as people from the Chinese region.
Cannibal Chain had killed the leader of Red Death, so naturally, they couldn’t let him go to waste.
Wu Xiu and Ruan Xiao came to Ye Zhongming’s side to express their gratitude.
Being able to occupy a passage so easily was largely due to Cloud Peak’s assistance. By now, they had held this spot for over four minutes. As long as no one attacked for another minute or so, they would secure passage rights for this stone stairway.
"We’ll give you the scrolls when we return. For now, here are some we have on us—take these first." Wu Xiu handed Ye Zhongming a spatial ring.
Ye Zhongming himself crafted this item—it had a small storage space, suitable for holding small objects. Cannibal Chain, Five Ring Money, and other allied factions of Cloud Peak had all purchased some from him.
Ye Zhongming opened it and checked. Inside were about twenty scrolls, mostly of various magic types, with fire-based ones being the most numerous, followed by water-based. There was only one earth-based scroll, and none of the other elements.
"Aside from earth and dark elements, we can provide sufficient quantities. However, fire and water elements require the shortest time, followed by wind and metal. The slowest are wood and light."
Feeling her explanation might not have been clear enough, Wu Xiu added, "For wood and light elements, gathering two thousand scrolls might take a year to a year and a half. Fire only needs three months."
She was letting Ye Zhongming make a choice.Though fire magic was powerful and visually impressive, it was also the easiest to obtain—its appearance rate on the wheel was high, and it could even be found in some dungeons.
However, fire magic wasn’t without flaws. Its high power came with significant mental energy consumption, and due to its volatile nature, control was difficult, leading to accuracy issues—especially for single-target skills.
Water magic followed the same logic—plentiful but weaker in offense unless transformed into ice magic, which required an equal number of conversion scrolls.
Other elemental types were harder to obtain for a reason—they had their own advantages and disadvantages, but compared to the major limitations of fire and water, their restrictions were smaller.
Ye Zhongming was torn. He needed to decide whether to quickly assemble a fire/water-based magic unit or slowly build one based on other elements.
Before he could answer, he suddenly sensed danger. His head snapped up, spotting a black shadow flying toward them from a distance, already in mid-descent, aiming straight for their location.
Without hesitation, Ye Zhongming raised his gun and fired.
Caught off guard, he didn’t use any gun techniques, but the combination of a purple-grade firearm and green-grade bullets was enough to threaten even a level nine lifeform.
Yet, the high-speed black shadow twisted unnaturally midair, shifting just enough at the last second to let the bullet graze past it.
This scene stunned Ye Zhongming.
Since mastering the Harvester Mimicry Shooter, he rarely missed. If a high-level lifeform had dodged, he could understand—but this black shadow was clearly an inanimate object. How could it evade?
Wu Xiu and Ruan Xiao noticed it barely a moment later than Ye Zhongming and immediately reacted. Without time to command their subordinates, they launched individual attacks like him.
Strangely, it dodged those too.
These were top-tier figures in the Chinese region—none had encountered something like this before.
As the black shadow rapidly descended, everyone finally saw what it was.
"A missile?!"
They all wanted to curse.
Missiles were a mixed bag. They weren’t useless—their explosive damage was intimidating—but against evolved above level five, their effectiveness was mediocre.
Thus, they were rarely used—unless they were special variants.
The other experts around Ye Zhongming were already preparing countermeasures.
"Boom!"
The black missile exploded unexpectedly.
Many were baffled—it hadn’t even reached its target. Why did it detonate? And why was the explosion so weak?
"What’s that?"
From the explosion’s smoke, white snowflake-like particles began to drift down.
"Defense!"**
At Wu Xiu’s command, Cannibal Chain’s warriors simultaneously cast a water-based spell—Rising Water Shield.
This magic had no offensive power. Instead, it released dense water vapor in a designated area to act as a barrier or defense.
Since it was a small-scale spell, only a third of their forces were needed to cover themselves and Cloud Peak’s members. The rest cast it again, forming three layers of Rising Water Shield above everyone.
The white snowflakes landed on the vapor, producing firecracker-like explosions. After a dozen seconds, everything fell silent.
Looking up, they saw that not even the first layer of vapor had been breached. The black missile and snowflakes had vanished without a trace.
Many exchanged glances, confused.
This level of attack was… pathetically weak.
Though Rising Water Shield had defensive properties, it wasn’t truly a defensive skill. It was just used as an emergency measure because it could be cast instantly. Cannibal Chain’s members had already prepared follow-up countermeasures.
Yet, the attack had ended just like that!
"Time!"**
Wu Xiu suddenly spat out the word, her tone laced with frustration.
Ye Zhongming and the others instantly understood.
Cannibal Chain had held the stairway for nearly five minutes. Wu Xiu and the rest had assumed the passage was secured—yet, in the final seconds, this attack had come.
Because they’d been attacked, the countdown to passage ownership had reset!
Wu Xiu, Ruan Xiao, and Ye Zhongming exchanged glances, sensing something unusual.
If this were a coincidence, no one would believe it.
Why attack at the very last moment? Too perfect a timing meant it wasn’t accidental.
Even if it was a coincidence, the attacker or faction should have shown themselves by now.
Yet, scanning the surroundings—nothing.
The truth was obvious: someone was deliberately preventing Cannibal Chain from securing the passage.
The three leaders’ expressions darkened. Whoever had orchestrated this had been monitoring them closely—otherwise, the timing couldn’t have been so precise.
The fact that they could pull this off meant they were no ordinary foe.
"A formidable enemy," Ruan Xiao murmured, his eyes gleaming as he stared in the direction the missile had come from.