Marcus's laughter, sharp and twisted, sounded especially grating amidst the lingering echoes of the explosion.
He was like a madman who, having lost all his chips, had unexpectedly flipped the entire gambling table.
His eyes, venomous, bored into the ashen-faced Cat-man City Lord.
"Punk! You self-righteous, stupid cat!"
"The Clock Tower was a trap! The rebellion was a feint! And I... I was just the bait!"
"Now, the real game begins!"
The tables had turned in an instant.
One moment, he was a prisoner; the next, he was the victor declaring "checkmate."
City Lord Punk's erect cat ears trembled with rage. His gaze could have pierced Marcus, and his voice squeezed through clenched teeth:
"Luring the tiger from its mountain... What a brilliant move!"
He wasted no more time.
"Take them all! Reinforce the City Lord's Mansion at once!"
At his command, the Elite Guard pounced like starving wolves, binding Marcus and the fox-women—who were already weak-kneed with terror—and dragging them toward the towering column of smoke rising from the city center at full speed.
Zhou Yi and his team exchanged grave glances and immediately followed.
"Let's go see what's happening," Lin Qingyue said softly to her three teammates, her tone as casual as if she were asking what they wanted for dinner.
Su Wan, Xia Lian, and Lin Xiyue naturally had no objections.
Compared to the natives' internal power struggles, they were far more interested in the "big fish" Marcus had just reeled in.
-
Inside the City Lord's Mansion, it was already hell.
Its former majesty and splendor had been blown to smithereens, leaving only a scorched crater and crumbling, precarious ruins.
The air hung thick with a nauseating stench—a mixture of gunpowder, scorched flesh, and blood.
The twisted bodies of guards and rebels lay piled together, silently testifying to the brutal battle that had just taken place.
When City Lord Punk arrived with his men, his powerful frame froze, his pupils contracting sharply.
Yet, amidst the rubble and corpses, one figure stood out, utterly out of place.
Lin Qingyue and her team recognized her instantly.
It was Mia, the cat-girl waitress from Tender Village.
But the Mia before them now showed none of the meek humility of a waitress.
Clad in sleek, tight-fitting leather armor that accentuated her agile physique, she exuded a sharp, deadly aura. Beneath her grip, a lavishly dressed woman with small, delicate deer antlers struggled desperately.
"Lord City Lord!" Mia called out to Punk, her voice clear and urgent.
"Your most beloved Madam Tina... she's the traitor! She detonated the 'High-Pressure Steam Core' hidden in the treasury's backup power room!"
Punk's gaze, like two searing blades, pinned the deer-woman. His eyes burned with towering rage, the sting of betrayal, and a bottomless well of disbelief.
"Tina..." He forced the name through clenched teeth, each syllable dripping with blood.
Only then did he turn to Mia, his tone laced with the relief of a survivor. "Mia, you did well."
So, the cat-girl was more than just a waitress at Tender Village, Lin Qingyue thought. Punk's attitude toward her clearly indicated she was one of his trusted inner circle.
However, the captured deer-woman, Tina, showed no fear. Instead, she erupted into a maniacal, piercing laugh.
"Hahahaha... Punk, my dear City Lord! Does seeing me like this break your heart?"
"Serving you night after night... I was so disgusted I could barely stand it!"
She shrieked like a madwoman:
"Even though I failed to get the Scales of Justice, I've ripped a breach in the God of Contracts' barrier with the explosion!"
"The actors and audience are all in place. The show... has begun!"
Before her words could fade, an impenetrably dense, purple-black light erupted from Tina's body!
Her form twisted and swelled in the light, bones cracking with a sickening pop-pop-pop in a grotesque violation of biology!
"Get back!" City Lord Punk roared in warning.
Mia shot backward.
The light dissipated.
A monster that blasphemed the very act of seeing stood before them.
Her upper body roughly retained the deer-woman's silhouette, her clothes shredded, every inch of skin crawling with eerie purple-black patterns.
Her lower body, however, had transformed into that of a deer, its four purple-black hooves planted on the ground, radiating a corrupt and sinister power!
The once-delicate antlers on her head had now grown into massive, twisted branches of dead black wood, reeking of decay and fallen evil
Almost simultaneously, glaring blood-red text flashed across the game panels of Lin Qingyue and her three companions!
[Forest Treant Lord (Corrupted) · Tina]
[Level: Lv. ???]
[Alignment: Chaotic Evil]
[Note: A descendant of the forest demigod Cenarius, with diluted bloodline. Deeply corrupted by an unknown power, her ancient bloodline has been activated, causing her to fall into servitude as a minion of an Evil God. Her very existence is a blasphemy against nature.]
"You dog of an Evil God! How dare you commit such blasphemy in Blackrock Stronghold!"
City Lord Punk's rage flared, and he roared the command: "Focus fire! Shoot!"
Swish-swish-swish—!
Dozens of enchanted arrows and musket balls rained down on the Corrupted Treant.
But the monster merely raised a hand in contempt.
Vwoom!
A translucent, purple-black shield materialized before her. All attacks vanished into it without causing even a ripple.
"The struggles of ants."
The Corrupted Treant let out an inhuman sneer and swung her hand back toward the ground.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The hard stone plaza shattered, spiderwebbing with cracks. Savage treants, formed from twisted black wood and vines, emerged silently from the earth. They charged fearlessly toward the surrounding guards and Lin Qingyue's group!
Amid the chaos, the Corrupted Treant extended several thick vines, which coiled like serpents around Marcus—his face already beaten to a pulp—and the trembling fox-women. It dragged them behind her, shielding them from harm.
This single act broadcast their alliance to everyone present.
A fierce battle erupted instantly. The guards clashed with the evil treants, while City Lord Punk drew his warhammer, preparing to join the fray himself.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yi and his team were putting on quite a show. The Paladin's shield glowed with holy light, the Mage's fireballs roared into the treant horde, and the Berserker's great axe swung wildly, sending wood chips flying.
"Sister Qingyue?" Xia Lian whispered, her hand already on her shortbow.
"Not yet."
Lin Qingyue's gaze swept over Zhou Yi's team fighting desperately, then back to the Corrupted Treant and the City Lord, whose expression was now utterly grim. The amused smirk on her lips widened.
"Looks like Senior Brother's team took a quest from the City Lord. They're really grinding that reputation, aren't they?"
"Let them put on their show first," Lin Qingyue said. "We'll just clear out the small fry and maintain a good viewing distance."
She shot her sister and Su Wan a meaningful glance, signaling them not to go all out—just go through the motions.
And so, a bizarre scene unfolded on the battlefield.
City Lord Punk and his Elite Guard, along with Zhou Yi and his team, were locked in a desperate struggle against an endless horde of treants.
Meanwhile, Lin Qingyue's group of four looked as if they were merely pruning unruly weeds in a backyard garden.
Even without her shield, Lin Xiyue stood protectively before her teammates, sword in hand. With each swing of her longsword, Dawn's Light, she precisely cleaved an advancing treant in two.
"Whoa, Sis, look at this BOSS! Centaur-shaped, and female too. Is that a half-human, half-deer, or a half-deer, half-human?" she mused, finding time for taxonomic debate.
"I wonder if the City Lord will be permanently scarred seeing his little concubine turned into this monstrosity," Xia Lian whispered, firing a few token arrows. Each one pierced a treant's core with deadly accuracy before she ducked back behind Lin Qingyue.
"Xiyue! Stop it... that's so embarrassing! He can't hear us, can he?" Her cheeks flushed as if she were the one being publicly shamed.
Su Wan was even more casual. She occasionally flicked a finger, launching one or two ice spikes that froze any treants trying to flank them.
Then, gazing listlessly at the distant BOSS, Su Wan offered a professional analysis in her cool, detached voice.
"At this distance, he shouldn't be able to hear."
"Furthermore, from a biomechanical perspective, a quadrupedal structure does indeed offer greater stability during certain specific movements."
Lin Xiyue sputtered, "Pfft! Xiao Wan, you've been corrupted!"
Lin Qingyue patted her sister's shoulder. "Everyone, pay attention to the show. It's rare to encounter a Lord-level BOSS, especially a talkative villain with a built-in backstory and juicy drama. Listen closely—this is all valuable intel."
The four's leisurely attitude created a stark contrast to the brutal, desperate battle raging around them, as if they occupied two entirely different worlds.
City Lord Punk had no idea that what he considered an utterly blasphemous Evil God incident was, in the eyes of these outsiders, merely an... appetizer performance with a bit of extra information.
The Corrupted Treant had clearly noticed the four slacking off. Her eyes, burning with purple fel energy, swept over them, a flicker of displeasure at their ease.
But she could sense they weren't followers of the "God of Contracts."
To her, they were just insignificant adventurers. It was better to eliminate Punk, the core target, first, and deal with these "spectators" later.
Thus, her primary target remained locked on City Lord Punk.
"Punk, surrender the [Scales of Justice], and I can grant you... the glory of eternal servitude beneath the throne of the Evil God!"
She spread her arms, her voice echoing across the entire plaza, laced with an enchanting, demonic power.
"Otherwise, today, Blackrock Stronghold will become the first patch of... Scorched Earth of the Divine Kingdom for my Lord's descent!"
Scorched Earth of the Divine Kingdom?
Listening to the chuunii lines, the amused, spectator-like curve on Lin Qingyue's lips finally sharpened with a genuine chill.
First the Holy Court, now an Evil God.
It seemed the director of this farce was finally willing to turn the page to the next act.
In that case...
She raised her eyes to the arrogant Corrupted Treant, her pink pupils reflecting the images of several Character Cards that had been gathering dust at the bottom of her inventory for far too long.
Let's see just how much power you, this so-called "god," truly possess.