Sudden Change

Were those the same Twin-headed warriors they'd encountered before, or were these different members of the same race?

Lu Yuan was mildly curious.

Behind him, Li Qinghe and the others had all widened their eyes slightly, equally startled.

Shuangyue narrowed her eyes. "These are the Twin-headed Demon Race. Their racial strength is extraordinary — they even have several Saints among their number, and they're known for being extremely aggressive. I never expected to find an entire squad of them dead out here..."

Li Qinghe glanced at the severed heads scattered across the ground, eyes still frozen open with disbelief, and asked, "What kind of Aberration Feral Beast could have wiped them out so completely?"

"Let's search the area. There might be some clues."

Si Tingyu gripped her spear and scanned the surroundings with a wary eye.

The four split up to look around. Lu Yuan strolled through the carnage and noted that the number of dead Twin-headed warriors was substantial — most were clad in black battle armor similar to the ones the group had encountered earlier.

Then a sharp cry broke the silence:

"Everyone, over here!"

Lu Yuan turned toward the voice. In the distance, Shuangyue stood at the edge of a deep pit, staring down into it.

He raised an eyebrow, and his body vanished from where he stood, reappearing at her side in an instant. Li Qinghe and Si Tingyu flew over rapidly as well.

Lu Yuan stood at the rim of the pit and looked down — and his eyes went wide in genuine surprise.

At the bottom lay a corpse that didn't belong to the Twin-headed race. It was the body of a humanoid creature: tall, extremely gaunt, with purple skin. The corpse was badly mutilated, only partially intact, draped in a tattered green robe. Even in its fragmentary state, it radiated a dense and oppressive malevolence.

Threads of green flame still smoldered across the body, burning slow and steady, and patches of corrosion marked the surrounding ground.

"Is that a... Binxi Gene Warrior?"

Li Qinghe raised an eyebrow, the question leaving her lips with a note of uncertainty.

"A Gene Warrior shouldn't carry an aura like that, should they? This is more like an Aberration Feral Beast." Shuangyue couldn't help but voice the thought aloud, studying the body below. Then she added, "Though if it were a Gene Warrior who had been Aberrated, they should have been forcibly expelled from the Land of Origin."

It wasn't unheard of for Gene Warriors to undergo Aberration in the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin, but every case ended the same way: they lost their Gene Battle Marks and were cast out — much like a rejection response.

Lu Yuan listened to the exchange, raised an eyebrow, and was about to speak.

Then he felt it. His expression shifted slightly as he turned to look to his left. From that direction, several powerful auras were closing in fast.

Whether they'd been drawn by the green glow from earlier, he couldn't say.

He reached out with his senses over the distance — and his expression turned faintly odd.

The approaching presences were Twin-headed warriors. And by the look of it, the exact same group he'd stalled earlier.

Lu Yuan glanced at the corpses of the Twin-headed warriors on the ground and formed a quiet theory.

*This was their rendezvous point?*

In the span of a brief moment, the auras drew close enough that even Li Qinghe and the others could sense them.

The three women's expressions shifted. They turned toward the direction of approach.

Soon, tall silhouettes burst from the trees and spilled onto the ravaged ground.

At the sight of the bodies, the Twin-headed warriors all froze. The one at the head of the column was a Battle Emperor — one of his two heads swept across the corpses while the other fixed on the only four individuals still standing.

A tinge of red bled into his eyes. He snarled in a low, icy voice:

"You're looking to die."

Dark gold light flared across his body as his aura surged. In the next instant he launched himself directly at Lu Yuan's group, a massive battle axe materializing in his grip as he came in swinging.

Lu Yuan's brow furrowed. A cold expression settled over his face.

Shuangyue had mentioned that the Twin-headed race had a tendency to throw their weight around, and he'd been somewhat skeptical at the time. Now he could see for himself — aggressive was putting it mildly.

Because they happened to be on the scene, this warrior had decided to attack without even asking what happened? He'd already concluded they were the killers?

*What kind of killer stands around at the scene of the crime? Who commits a murder and just... stays?*

Lu Yuan couldn't help but grumble inwardly. Stellar light shimmered around him.

His body vanished.

**Boom!!**

A thunderous impact rang out. The charging Battle Emperor went flying back far faster than he'd come in, both his faces contorted with pain, blood spraying from each of his two mouths.

The other Twin-headed warriors, who had been burning with their own fury just moments ago and readying themselves to join the charge, all froze in place — staring in stunned disbelief at their Battle Emperor comrade hurtling backwards.

Li Qinghe, Si Tingyu, and Shuangyue, who had been bracing to counterattack when the Battle Emperor suddenly lunged, each let out a quiet breath of relief.

*Thud.*

A second Battle Emperor in the group caught his falling comrade, but the force behind the impact drove him back several stumbling steps before he could arrest the momentum.

One of his two heads turned toward his injured partner. "Are you all right?"

The other head remained fixed on Lu Yuan. Wariness and disbelief mingled in his eyes — shock at the fact that a mere Battle Sovereign possessed such terrifying combat power.

*Could this be the descendant of some War God's bloodline?*

He composed his expression, drew a slow breath to tamp down his rage, and spoke: "Friend — how did you come to be here? And how did our kinsmen die?"

Lu Yuan hadn't struck to kill. He smiled easily. "We just arrived. We were drawn by that green glow from earlier, same as you. Your kinsmen were most likely attacked by an Aberration Feral Beast — wouldn't you agree?"

He glanced at the bodies on the ground and added lightly, "If we'd been the ones who killed them, would their bodies still be lying here?"

The Twin-headed Battle Emperor opened his mouth — he'd been about to suggest they might have used an Aberration Feral Beast as a weapon — but thought better of it.

*If this individual actually went and fetched an Aberration Feral Beast... there'd be nowhere left to cry about it.*

Silence settled over the scene. Then Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, studying the assembled Twin-headed warriors. His thoughts drifted back to when he'd been monitoring this group through his Shadow Clone — they'd mentioned something about a mission of theirs.

*I wonder if that has anything to do with this.*

He looked at the Twin-headed warriors, who were watching him with a mix of wariness and apprehension, and smiled pleasantly:

"There's something of a clue over here, actually. Come take a look."

He gestured toward the pit not far away.

The supporting Battle Emperor hesitated, eyeing Lu Yuan with suspicion. He didn't move.

The Battle Emperor he was holding had recovered somewhat by now. His face was pale, and both of his heads held a flicker of shock as he gazed at Lu Yuan from a distance, sending a private transmission:

"Bateis — be careful. This one is dangerous. He might have an ulterior motive."

Among the Twin-headed Battle Sovereigns behind them, pairs of heads were exchanging glances all around, none of them quite sure what to make of Lu Yuan's intentions.

Bateis gave no outward reaction. He studied Lu Yuan for a moment, then drew a steady breath, handed his injured companion off to one of the Battle Sovereigns, and — keeping a watchful eye on Lu Yuan's group — walked toward the pit.

Lu Yuan stood with a faint smile, making no move to stop him.

*No reason to.* He was curious as well — he wanted to know what that purple-skinned creature was. The aura radiating from the body was unmistakably Aberration energy, something he was intimately familiar with.

Li Qinghe and the other two quietly shifted away from the pit and closer to Lu Yuan, not wanting to be caught off guard by a sudden strike from the approaching Twin-headed warrior.

Bateis reached the edge of the pit. One of his heads turned sideways to keep a watchful eye on Lu Yuan's group; the other looked down into the pit.

When his gaze landed on the mutilated corpse at the bottom, Lu Yuan clearly saw him pause — a momentary blankness crossing his face.

*Is he genuinely confused about what this is? Or is he putting on an act?*

Lu Yuan asked pleasantly, "Well? Any useful clues?"

Bateis's second head shook slowly, his tone uncertain: "We weren't told that any Binxi would be involved."

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Was this your group's original rendezvous point?"

Something seemed to register with Bateis that the situation wasn't quite right. One of his heads scanned the surroundings carefully; the other fell quiet for a moment, then gave a small nod.

"Yes."

The Twin-headed warriors gathered at a distance watched Bateis's reaction with puzzled expressions, heads swiveling toward one another, unable to understand what he had seen to produce such a look.

The other Battle Emperor — Leiman — coughed up a thin stream of blood, but his formidable constitution had already worked to close much of the damage. He shrugged off the Battle Sovereign's supporting arms and walked toward Bateis, keeping a watchful eye on Lu Yuan's group all the while.

He spoke in a low voice. "Bateis. What did you see?"

Leiman reached the pit and looked down at the body below. He too went silent.

Lu Yuan made no move to stop him. He smiled and pressed on:

"What was your group's plan for gathering here? And why does a Binxi individual factor into it?"

Bateis and Leiman exchanged a look. After a brief silence, Bateis spoke:

"There's no reason to keep it secret. One of our number — Feilzi — sent word that he'd located a cluster of Aberration Feral Beast gathering points. We were going to join forces and clear them out. When we got close enough and saw that eerie glow, we realized something was wrong and picked up our pace."

As he said it, Bateis felt a wave of quiet gratitude toward the Saint who had detained them earlier. If that hadn't happened, they would have arrived at the rendezvous all together — and there was a real chance they would all be lying here dead.

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. Clearing clusters of Aberration Feral Beasts was routine business for anyone operating in the wilderness — nothing unusual there.

And these Twin-headed warriors seemed to know nothing about the dead Binxi individual.

A flicker of disappointment crossed his mind, and he frowned faintly.

Bateis, by now fairly certain that Lu Yuan's group had nothing to do with the slaughter, looked at him and asked:

"...Friend, did you encounter anyone on your way here?"

*Well, we ran into your group and locked you all down — does that count?* Lu Yuan thought wryly. Then he shook his head:

"We arrived to find things already looking like this. Honestly, we're just as curious about this Binxi individual. You saw it yourself — the creature appears to have been Aberrated. A Gene Warrior who undergoes Aberration and still remains in the Land of Origin... I don't think anyone's seen that before."

Bateis went quiet.

After a moment, he shook his head. "We don't know the specifics either."

Lu Yuan smiled. "In that case, we won't intrude on you as you tend to your fallen." He turned to the three women. "Let's go."

All three nodded.

Bateis and Leiman's four eyes watched as Lu Yuan's group departed and disappeared into the forest.

After a moment of silence, Leiman cleared his throat, wincing slightly — the pain hadn't fully faded.

His expression was grim. "That human is a complete monster. A Battle Sovereign, and the force behind that single strike was enough to put genuine fear in me."

Bateis shook his head slowly. "That human is no ordinary individual... but they had nothing to do with Feilzi and the others' deaths."

Leiman gave a slow nod. "Still — what about this one?"

One of Leiman's heads tilted toward the pit and the Binxi remains inside.

"Hard to say. Perhaps some Aberration source appeared nearby, infected this Binxi, and then for some reason it remained in the Land of Origin rather than being expelled — and Feilzi's group happened to cross its path."

Another beat of quiet. Then Bateis said, "Let's collect the bodies... Take the Binxi's remains as well. Bring everything back for the elders. They might be able to find some answers."

"Right."

The two began issuing orders to the assembled Battle Sovereigns, and the grim work of recovering the dead got underway.

Inside the Dark Night Forest, Lu Yuan's group moved on in silence, pressing deeper toward the core region. The incident with the Twin-headed warriors had been nothing more than a minor interruption — and while all four of them harbored some curiosity about the Binxi individual, as long as it didn't affect them directly, idle curiosity was all it warranted.

Their priority remained unchanged: reach the core region and hunt Aberration Feral Beasts.

The journey went smoothly. Between Lu Yuan's strength and the combined force of the three women, they swept through wave after wave of ordinary Feral Beasts and Aberration Feral Beasts without difficulty. The Evolution Cube quietly absorbed strand after strand of unknown energy, steadily building toward its next metamorphosis.

Then, without warning, a massive detonation erupted somewhere in the distance. Auras of terrifying intensity surged outward in waves, one after another, each more powerful than the last.

All four of them stiffened, heads snapping toward the source.

In that direction, a massive Spatial Rift had torn open across the sky. Torrents of green flame poured through the gap and cascaded downward, and their lurid light blazed across the darkness above the Dark Night Forest — staining everything below in an eerie, ominous green.