I was nothing more than fodder — a mere initial-tier Rank 1 cultivator, the kind that could be offered up as a sacrifice without a second thought.
Why that Rank 2 was deliberately luring a beast into this place… the answer would reveal itself later, drenched in blood and betrayal.
One of the righteous cultivators fighting beside our swordsman clapped his senior on the shoulder with genuine admiration. "Senior, congratulations on taming a peak Rank 2 serpent!"
The rest of us could only force bitter smiles.
The Rank 2 waved his hand casually. "I wanted to help you all, truly. But this wild serpent started following me out of nowhere. I didn't even notice until I reached the open clearing and saw it slithering out from the depths of the forest."
We all knew the truth.
This world ran on one law: kill or be killed.
If you died in the middle of trying to kill something stronger, was it courage… or pure insanity?
Spells flared to life across the battlefield as the massive serpent raised its triangular head, cold emerald eyes scanning its prey.
Its first probing attack was almost lazy — a single swing of its powerful tail.
A screaming wind blade ripped through the air. Every middle-tier Rank 1 cultivator died instantly, bodies severed before they could even cry out.
Chaos exploded.
Our fire cultivators roared in unison, unleashing waves of scorching flames. A righteous wind cultivator whipped up fierce gales to slow the beast's movements, while our team's water user frantically spread spiritual water across the ground, hoping to turn the battlefield into a slippery quagmire.
I narrowed my eyes.
That fool was creating conditions that favored the serpent and crippled us.
Without hesitation, I activated Shadow Jump, melting into darkness and reappearing directly behind him. My fist slammed viciously into the back of his skull.
He dropped unconscious in an instant.
Better to silence him quickly than argue while he dragged us all down. The serpent was no brainless animal — it would never let sleeping prey survive. I flickered away immediately.
Several pairs of eyes turned toward me with open disgust.
"As expected of the unorthodox," one fire cultivator sneered loudly.
I felt no shame whatsoever.
In this cruel world, survival was the only law that mattered. If that water had turned poisonous under the serpent's influence, only an idiot would have let him keep casting.
Together with our earth cultivator and the righteous earth user, we rapidly mended the shattered ground, restoring some stability to the battlefield. Meanwhile, the four close-combat fighters — two from each side — threw themselves at the serpent with reckless abandon, blades flashing as they staked everything on every strike.
While they bled and roared, I quietly glanced at the corpses littering the ground.
Tch. Worthless. I had hoped the dead might carry something valuable, but their storage treasures held nothing but trash. To make matters worse, most of our team's shared loot had been destroyed when the serpent's earlier attacks shattered the storage artifacts.
Such is life.
Suddenly — a terrifying force smashed into me.
My body was hurled through the air like a ragdoll, slamming toward a thick ancient tree at blinding speed. Only a desperate Shadow Jump at the final fraction of a second saved me from being crushed.
I reappeared several meters away, chest heaving, body trembling and temporarily paralyzed from the shock.
The remaining cultivators gave their all.
Fireballs detonated against hardened scales. Earthen walls rose and crumbled. Violent wind swirls restricted the serpent's movements. The righteous Rank 1 swordsman and the Rank 2 saber user danced through the chaos, their weapons clashing relentlessly against the beast's impenetrable hide.
The serpent answered with sweeping tail strikes, razor-sharp wind blades, and coiling venom binds that spread lethal poison through its fangs.
One after another, cultivators fell.
In the end, only two remained standing — our team's sword cultivator and the righteous saber user. Both were drenched in blood, breathing ragged, barely able to grip their weapons.
It was time.
I moved.
Seizing the righteous cultivator's fallen sword, I drove it deep into the serpent's exposed heart — the fatal weakness laid bare by the desperate sacrifice of the close-combat fighters.
Swish!
At that exact moment, an arrow whistled through the air.
The Rank 2 cultivator barely avoided a fatal strike, but the arrow pierced his leg, causing him to stagger violently.
That arrow had come from me.
I had already killed the righteous sword cultivator earlier with a carefully laid trap. Though his final desperate slash had left me gravely wounded, my life now hanging by a thread.
The Rank 2 righteous cultivator died pitifully.
I immediately turned and rushed toward my own team's peak Rank 1 sword cultivator.
A weakling carrying treasure was simply asking to die.
As I morphed into a streak of black shadow and charged, he sensed the killing intent and swung his sword downward in a flawless arc, completely sealing the space around me and cutting off any chance of using Shadow Jump.
Yet instead of retreating, I leapt forward with a simple, direct jump.
From afar, the unorthodox cultivator watching the scene thought coldly, "He's insane. If I had even a fraction of a second longer to react, he would already be dead. This world only favors madmen like him."
Fortunately, I had already exchanged a certain talisman with that Rank 2 earlier — something he had dismissed as useless, but was perfectly suited for this moment.
I activated the teleportation talisman.
In a flash, I vanished from my original position and reappeared safely behind him.
My sword slashed through empty air.
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
The moment I landed, he spun around and dashed toward me with murderous fury.
I extended my sword forward, putting on one final desperate facade.
But then —
The supposedly dead serpent suddenly lunged forward with terrifying speed.
Its massive jaws snapped shut in one brutal motion, devouring the unorthodox cultivator's head whole… while my two outstretched hands froze in place, trapped in its crushing maw.
trust is trash hehehe