As soon as the cry rang out, it immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the cave.

They all turned to look in the direction of that Mercenary Guild guard and when they followed his eyes to look at what he was looking at, they all couldn't help being shocked as well.

In this situation, one would normally expect bones of a victim of the dangerous beast that was living inside of this cave, but that wasn't the case this time.

Instead, it was a little severed head that still had eyes wide in shock and fear that was looking up at that Mercenary Guild guard.

Based on how this head looked, it was clear that it was the severed head of a child. As for how fresh it was..there was still blood that was dripping out of the severed neck..

Team Leader Shen had been about to give an order for him to be quiet, but then he noticed something.

He couldn't help taking another look at the head and he found that it was the head of someone that he recognized..

The group that he led was an elite action group of the Mercenary Guild. It should be clear by their average level of cultivation what kind of training that they had undergone.

People like them wouldn't be shocked by things that would normally shock other people because they had been trained to suppress their emotions in times like this. So even if they were to see a severed head, they should react like this.

The reason why that Mercenary Guild guard had reacted like that was because he recognized the head that he had accidentally kicked..

It was the head of his son..

After a long moment of being dazed by this shock, tears welled in the eyes of that Mercenary Guild guard and he was about to break out sobbing, but Team Leader Shen reacted faster than him. Before he could fall to his knees and start sobbing, Team Leader Shen immediately ran over and held him while covering his mouth, making sure that he didn't make a single sound.

While it hurt him to do something like this, he had to endure since he knew that this was for the good of their team.

After a while, the man he was holding finally stopped trembling and slowly came back to his senses. There was still a deep look of sadness in his eyes, but there was also a look of rage and a desire for vengeance that also filled his eyes.

Team Leader Shen knew that while his emotions were still unstable, he would at least be able to remain calm enough not to harm the rest.

After releasing him, he couldn't help asking, "When was the last time that you saw your son?"

The Mercenary Guild guard trembled, but he still said in a calm voice, "I saw him before heading off on this mission. I even tucked him in bed and kissed his forehead before..leaving.." The more he spoke, the more his voice trembled until he was about to lose control again.

This time, two other Mercenary Guild guards had already moved to his side to help him just in case, so Team Leader Shen didn't do anything himself.

Instead, Team Leader Shen turned his attention to Master Feng who was just standing there with a calm look on his face and asked, "Do you know anything about this?"

The implication behind his voice was clear. He was clearly implying that Master Feng was in some way related to this.

Master Feng just gave a shrug and said, "I'm just as surprised as the rest of you. After all, I don't even know what the backstory here is. Isn't it just the head of some random villager that was attacked?"

The Mercenary Guild guard who was emotionally unstable glared at Master Feng when he said this, but he was stopped by the other two by his side.

Team Leader Shen raised his hand for everyone to stand down as he continued staring at Master Feng. After a long period of silence, he finally said, "You think that you can get away with something like.."

Before he could finish, there was a sound that came from the tunnel behind him.

"Ki, ki, ki!"

It was a very strange sound and it clearly didn't sound the voice of a human. It sounded like the evil voice of a demon, but if one listened carefully, they would feel that it seemed like laughter..

All of the Mercenary Guild guards raised their guard the moment that they heard this. They drew out their weapons and turned in the direction that this sound was coming from, completely ignoring Master Feng.

Of course, not all of them ignored Master Feng. With a hand gesture from Team Leader Shen, a few of the guards moved closer and surrounded Master Feng with their weapons raised.

It was clear that they were there to prevent Master Feng from doing anything.

Master Feng noticed all of this, but he just stood there as if he didn't have a care in the world. He didn't even bother pulling out his weapons as he just stood there in a relaxed manner.

After a few seconds, the sounds of footsteps rang out from in front of them and based on how they sounded, it was clear that something was approaching them.

Having been trained for situations like this, the Mercenary Guild guards started moving until they had taken a formation that would defend against whatever was approaching them from in front.

But to their surprise, the sound of the footsteps suddenly stopped.

After waiting for a full minute, there wasn't another sound that came from in front of them.

All of the Mercenary Guild guards couldn't help knitting their brows as they waited, but still nothing came out.

Could it be that whatever had been coming at them had sensed how many of them there were and had run away?

As they stood there silently waiting for the source of the sound to come forward, they couldn't help feeling more and more tense and awkward.

If the creature that had been moving towards them really ran away, what should they do?

They were a squad that had been organized to hunt down this creature, so it was their job to kill it. So if it did run away, it was only right for them to chase after this creature to kill it.

However, the current situation was just too strange.

After all, there were too many unknown variables for them to safely chase after the creature. If they were to chase after it now, it seemed very likely that they would be caught up in a trap.

But it wasn't as if they could just stay here without doing anything..

So after a long silence, Team Leader Shen finally gave a hand signal for two of the guards to move forward to check the situation.

These two were both in the Seventh Qi Gathering Realm and were used to this as demonstrated by the heavy armour that they were wearing. They increased the spiritual energy armour around themselves before moving forward step by step to check the situation in front of them.

During this time, the ones behind them all raised their guards. The ones at the front of the formation had their weapons raised to get ready to charge forward to help them at any time, while the ones in the back all had ranged weapons raised to help provide cover fire for them.

As the two of them moved step by step forward, there was nothing other than the sounds of their beating hearts since they moved without a single sound.

After they went around ten meters away, they were about to turn back to signal that there was nothing in front. However, right before they could turn around, there were two pairs of claws that suddenly came down from the roof above them.

Before they could even make a sound, before any of their allies could provide any assistance, the claws suddenly twisted their heads, snapping their necks. But the creature that had killed them wasn't done with them just yet.

With another twist, the creature pulled their heads off their necks and pulled out their spines before falling to the ground.

The way that the creature held their spines, it was almost as if it was wielding them like swords. But the creature didn't keep holding onto their spines and raised them up to throw them like spears at the Mercenary Guild guards.

The ones in front raised their shields to block this, but with the force that the creature had thrown the spines at and with the spiritual energy surrounding them, they penetrated right through the shields and pierced through the ones standing behind them.

After piercing through, the spines skewered right through them and pinned them onto the ground like ragdolls.

Everyone was shocked when they saw this because they knew that if it was them, they also wouldn't have been able to block this creature either.

Team Leader Shen's eyes were wide open with shock when he saw this, but he also knew that he couldn't hesitate.

The creature that they had been hunting was much stronger than the reports had stated. At the very least, this creature was in the Eighth Qi Gathering Realm just like him.

There was no chance that his subordinates would be able to face this creature at all!

So the only option was for him to go forward and face this creature himself.

But at the very least, he didn't have to face this creature alone.

That was because Master Feng who was with him was also an Eighth Qi Gathering Realm Cultivator.

He believed that as long as the two of them worked together, they would be able to subdue and kill this creature.

So Team Leader Shen turned to Master Feng and said, "Master Feng, we have to take care of this creature ourselves or the casualties will be too high."

Master Feng had been watching all of this with a relaxed look, but hearing Team Leader Shen talking to him, he gave a nod and finally pulled out a weapon before saying, "Alright, let's do this."

Team Leader Shen was surprised by how easily Master Feng had agreed after how he had treated them this entire trip, but he understood after thinking about it.

After all, this was a dangerous situation for Master Feng as well. If he wanted to escape, his only option was working with him to take down this creature, so he didn't have another choice.

So with that thought, Team Leader Shen headed forward to face the creature.

What he didn't notice was the sly smile that Master Feng had on his face as he followed.historical