The young ones were stunned by Ma Yuanwei's shameless betrayal that took them by surprise.
When the girl screamed, everyone turned their attention toward her, clearly seeing her stumbling outward.
"Alright, dare to commit the act but not take responsibility?"
The girl laughed angrily, threatening, "If you stubbornly stay here, you'd better be careful."
Her implication was understood by everyone.
Seeing others pretending not to hear, Ma Yuanwei grew resentful.
His gaze was like a venomous snake lurking in the dark, sinister and vicious, yet daring not to surface.
His cold, clammy eyes wandered over the crowd, pausing slightly on Luo Feng.
The others shielded him from Ma Yuanwei's view, guarding against his sudden attacks.
Their lives had been smooth sailing, without experiencing betrayal, so they hesitated to directly drive Ma Yuanwei away.
Just as everyone was about to openly confront and expel him, Ma Yuanwei suddenly lashed out.
His target, surprisingly, was not Luo Feng but the girl maintaining the barrier.
The girl was sustaining the barrier without spare strength to defend against his attack, while the others focused their guard on Luo Feng.
With little effort, he injured the girl and snatched the amplifying anomaly item from her hands.
Without amplification, the barrier shattered in an instant, and the swarming monsters broke through their formation.
Ma Yuanwei was gloating over his masterpiece, taking out the spatial anomaly item he had been gripping in his palm, only to find it had no effect when activated...
He clutched the anomaly item tightly, his expression crazed.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
"Why isn't it working?!"
Isolated and helpless, he became the prime target for the monsters to feast upon, still clutching the spatial anomaly item tightly until he was devoured.
Ma Yuanwei diverted some of the monsters' attention, giving the others a chance to regroup.
They could barely protect themselves, let alone spare any effort to care about Ma Yuanwei's life or death.
If they had the capacity, they might even have cursed, "Good riddance."
"Follow me!"
They had nearly broken through the encirclement when Luo Feng decisively chose to make a desperate push.
While the others might have had reservations about others, Luo Feng earned their trust through his actions.
With Luo Feng at the center, the others swiftly rallied around him, following his lead to break through.
"Almost there, everyone put in a bit more effort."
From the seemingly endless horde of monsters to the glimpse of open space, Luo Feng saw hope and encouraged the group.
Covered in fresh blood, Luo Feng mustered all his strength to tear through the final obstacle.
His body lurched forward, collapsing.
Two young men caught him, one with a broken hand, the other with a bleeding palm.
Having finally escaped the encirclement, the group ran swiftly again.
After persevering for so long, simply fleeing had drained them of all their energy.
"What's that up ahead?"
The fleeing group noticed something in front of them.
A rabbit stood in the middle of the road, blocking their path of escape.
"Another mutated rabbit!"
"Just a rabbit, we'll trample right over it."
The young man with the bleeding palm boasted boldly.
As they approached, they realized this was a rabbit exuding an aura of immense power.
Its mere presence felt like a towering mountain, weighing them down and leaving them breathless.
They couldn't muster any will to resist.
Some had expressions of bewilderment and helplessness.
"Should we really trample over it?"
"What's with this mutated rabbit?"
"Why do I feel like we can't defeat the rabbit?"
"But if we don't get past the rabbit, we're doomed."
With the monsters closing in, they ran toward the mutated rabbit in panic.
The rabbit might not eat humans, but the monsters certainly would!
...
"Bang—"
A few resounding noises echoed within the palace...
Qi Yuan tilted his ear, judging the source of the sound to be not far from him.
There seemed to be some restriction inside this palace; attempting to use brute force without activating a domain would be a fool's errand.
After circling around a few paths, he came across a rabbit monster and followed it.
The rabbit monster ahead shook its body, as if sensing an unknown being watching it.
It looked around warily but found nothing amiss.
"Strange..."
Having failed to uncover the source, it dismissed it as a false alarm and hopped off in a certain direction.
One after the other, one in the light and one in the dark, the man and the monster arrived at a particular corner.
Qi Yuan surveyed the scene, rabbits packed tightly together, surrounding another group of rabbits, striving to break through their defensive line.
Rabbits everywhere...
If not for constantly reminding himself, Qi Yuan might have thought he had turned into a rabbit himself, seeing only rabbits around.
His spiritual sense continuously conveyed the voices of this group of rabbits.
Shortly after his arrival, the rabbits put on a grand performance.
One rabbit lashed out, injuring a fellow rabbit.
Qi Yuan raised an eyebrow, watching this rabbit clutch a stone, snarling, with an anomaly item lying motionless at its feet.
Well, he didn't do anything.
Don't always assume everything was his doing.
He saw a few rabbits charging toward him, followed by countless monstrous rabbits.
Qi Yuan's eyes transformed into brilliant golden beast-like eyes, golden scales shimmering on his body, a golden dragon's illusory form rising from his back, and small thunderclouds gathering.
"Boom—"
Dazzling lightning flashed, instantly reducing all the monstrous rabbits to ashes, disappearing within the palace.
The remaining rabbits gaped their three-parted mouths, their jaws nearly dislocating from the wide opening.
They let out a cacophony of "gugugu," "meow meow," and "hissing" sounds, creating a comical scene in Qi Yuan's eyes.
But for this group of rabbits, the scene was quite different.
They watched this rabbit, enveloped in a golden aura, with a golden dragon coiled around its body.
Thunderclouds formed in the blink of an eye, and lightning bolts as thick as buckets struck down from the small thunderclouds.
Countless monsters were wiped out in an instant.
A single thought echoed in their minds:
This is a mutated rabbit?!!
As if the mutated rabbit were addressing them, "Humans, the times have changed!"
The young man with the broken bone was still dazed, weakly uttering, "Look at the rabbit, then look at your thunderous lightning strike."
"Losing to a rabbit, how humiliating."
The young man who nearly got taken out by the thunderous lightning strike muttered.
"It seems to have saved us," the girl whose amplifying anomaly item was snatched said in a daze, seeking confirmation from the others, feeling like she was in a dream.
Her words made everyone pinch themselves hard.
"It really did save us!"
"This rabbit with a fusion domain is too bizarre!"
"The rabbit among kings."
"From now on, I shall address rabbits as the Earth's mightiest animals."
Mutated animals lack intelligence and will not betray their allies.
Someone's mind worked quickly, letting their thoughts run wild.
"I wonder if I can lure it with carrots? Why bother training if I have it?"
"Such a rabbit is too dangerous; let me handle it."
Just as Qi Yuan was about to use his newly created translation anomaly to communicate with them, he heard their attempts to become members of the Peach Satiety Club.
Qi Yuan: ...