Chapter 18 Traitor Task

Yellow Hair's forehead broke out in cold sweat, and to hide the panic in his heart, he shouted loudly, "You all heard him, he doesn't care about the facts, he just wants to frame me!"

Hu Biao and the others frowned, unsure of whom to believe.

As far as the confrontation between the two men was concerned, everything Lu Heng said was conjecture without evidence.

However, if what Lu Heng said was true, then keeping Yellow Hair in Quenching Castle was too dangerous.

Therefore, Hu Biao and his associates were indecisive.

Lu Heng couldn't be bothered with idle talk and walked up to grab the bandage on Yellow Hair's arm, pulling it forcefully.

The bandage came undone, revealing a terrifying scar on his arm.

"The claw mark of a Scary Claw Demon. You all should know what it means to be clamped by the claws of a Scary Claw Demon," said Lu Heng, looking at Hu Biao and the others.

Hu Biao and the others were all too aware of what happened to those clamped by a Scary Claw Demon. Their team originally had fifteen members, and several had been killed by Scary Claw Demons.

Once clamped by the claws of a Scary Claw Demon, even if the demon was killed, the claws would not let go.

So how did Yellow Hair manage to get free after being clamped by a Scary Claw Demon?

The answer was becoming obvious.

Exposed as a traitor, cold sweat streamed down Yellow Hair's forehead as he attempted to argue, "Bro Biao, listen to me..."

Lu Heng had no interest in their team's internal affairs, and said directly to Hu Biao, "This is a member of your team. You know what will happen if Quenching Castle falls to the Horned Demon Commander because of someone in your team."

Hu Biao's face turned ashen, and he said, "I will handle this."

With that, he walked towards Yellow Hair.

"Bro Biao..." knowing that arguing was futile, Yellow Hair immediately activated his invisibility power and tried to escape.

Hu Biao took a swift stride forward, grabbed him by the neck, and dragged him out of the castle.

Yellow Hair struggled desperately, but it was of no use.

During his struggle, a red crystal fell from his body.

Lu Heng picked up the crystal to examine it, then showed it to everyone else.

[Red Light Signal Crystal: A special crystal used for sending signals in Abyss World. When ignited, it produces a bright red light visible to all demons within range.]

Seeing this signal crystal once again confirmed Lu Heng's conjecture.

This signal crystal was meant to mark the location of Quenching Castle.

Once the crystal was lit, it wouldn't be long before the Horned Demon Commander arrived with a horde of low-rank demons.

Holding the signal crystal, Lu Heng went to find Master Gulu to explain the situation:

"We have a traitor among us. This was found on his person."

"Damn it, this is a demon signal crystal, the Horned Demon Commander surely has Quenching Castle in his sights now," Master Gulu panicked.

"I can help block the Horned Demon Commander, but I need some items to carry out the plan," Lu Heng offered to help proactively.

"Perfect, you can use any item you need from within Quenching Castle," Master Gulu now pinned his hopes on these guests from different worlds.

"Do you have any powerful explosives?" Lu Heng inquired.

"There are some, but this stuff is a bit dangerous," Gulu said, leading Lu Heng to the back of the castle where they rummaged through a pile of miscellaneous items, pulling out several boxes of slag produced by quenching.

Lu Heng picked up a piece and inspected its attributes.

[Unstable Explosives: Unstable quenching slag with significant explosive power but poor stability, prone to explode at any moment.]

This was indeed dangerous—moving it might cause it to blow up.

However, Lu Heng wasn't worried. Now that he had the explosives, the plan could proceed.

"Master Gulu, I'll take on the task of blocking the Horned Demon Commander," Lu Heng made the promise.

"Thank you so much, my friend. If Quenching Castle can escape the Abyss, all future weapon quenching services will be provided free for you," Gulu made a pledge.

Lu Heng didn't expect this bonus.

In his previous life, the Superpower Users who completed the "Quenching Castle Crisis" series of hidden tasks could gain the friendship of Master Gulu and receive weapon quenching services at half price.

He hadn't expected the appearance of a traitor would push Gulu to the brink, elevating the reward to entirely free services.

Lu Heng hastened to make preparations with two more hours to go until midnight.

He had Su Muyu deploy a scouting hawk to find a suitable ambush location, finally selecting a commercial building one kilometer away from Quenching Castle.

Then, he released a Shadow Clone to transport the unstable explosives.

All preparations completed, they waited quietly for midnight.

As midnight approached, the fog in the city lifted a bit, revealing a rare glimpse of stars.

Lu Heng talked with Hu Biao and the others, learning that they would immediately return to the main world after midnight, not participating in the task of stopping the Horned Demon Commander.

That was fine; more people would be useless in the mission to block the Horned Demon Commander.

As the clock neared midnight, Master Gulu officially activated the large spatial machine of Quenching Castle, beginning the detachment from the Abyss.

At the same time, Hu Biao and others chose to return immediately after completing the main quest.

On the data panels of Lu Heng and Su Muyu, a return option also appeared, but both chose to stay.

Aside from Lu Heng and another person, Chen Zihang also didn't leave, wanting to participate in the final task of stopping the Horned Demon Commander.

The three of them arrived at the ambush point, ready to face the Horned Demon Commander.

When severe spatial fluctuations occurred in Quenching Castle, the entire city trembled slightly.

The Horned Demon Commander sensed this disturbance, and a roaring sound that pierced the sky came from ten kilometers away.

Lu Heng stood on the first floor of the building, igniting a red light signal crystal.

Roar!

The Horned Demon Commander roared, leading groups of low-rank demons toward the red light.

Not long after.

Low-rank demons began appearing near the building, their eyes emitting a red glow that seemed incredibly frightening in the darkness.

Roar!

The Horned Demon Commander rushed to the front of the building and let out a roar towards the inside.

Lu Heng drew out the Aurora Blade and kicked the signal crystal away.

The Horned Demon Commander, accompanied by hundreds of low-rank demons, charged into the building toward Lu Heng, raising his forearm to slam down where Lu Heng stood.

Boom!

Lu Heng activated Gale Step, leaped to avoid, and the Horned Demon Commander smashed his fist into the ground, creating a five-meter-wide crater shaped like a spider's web.

Missing with his punch, the Horned Demon Commander continued to pounce towards Lu Heng.

Although Gale Step enhanced his speed, facing a high-rank demon like the Horned Demon Commander was still not enough.

The moment the second claw came smashing down, Lu Heng instantly released a Shadow Clone and fled in different directions.

Seeing Lu Heng split into two, the Horned Demon Commander couldn't tell which one was real and chose to chase one.

There was a 50% chance, and Lu Heng was chosen.

That was a bit unlucky.

However, Lu Heng already had a contingency plan for this situation.

Before the battle began, he had already taught Su Muyu how to use skill linkage.

The moment the Horned Demon Commander pounced on the real Lu Heng, a scouting hawk flew into the building from the outside, flew to the Shadow Clone, and exploded into an "Invisibility Veil," enveloping the Shadow Clone.

This was yet another linkage technique of "Scouting Hawk" and "Invisibility Veil."

Under the cover of the invisibility energy layer, the Shadow Clone quickly entered an invisible state.

The Horned Demon Commander was originally chasing Lu Heng's real body but saw the other Shadow Clone enter an invisible state.

It couldn't tell which one was the real body and which was the fake, but one had become invisible.

The Horned Demon Commander had a sudden thought as if seeing through everything.

Moreover, the one that had become invisible had to be crushed immediately; otherwise, after a few seconds' delay, it would never be caught again.

Therefore, the Horned Demon Commander immediately changed direction and pounced on the location of the invisible Shadow Clone, striking with a claw.

Boom!

The ground shattered, and the Shadow Clone was blown away by the intense shockwave, its invisibility energy layer broken, revealing its form, and then the Shadow Clone could no longer withstand the power of the shockwave and burst apart.

The Horned Demon Commander realized it had been tricked and let out an extremely angry squeal, turning around to chase after the real Lu Heng, vowing to tear this damned rat to pieces.

Just then.

Steel bars from the ground, ceiling, and columns extended, binding the limbs of the Horned Demon Commander.

This move was precisely Chen Zihang's metal element ability, and his powers had greatly increased.

The steel bindings couldn't hold the Horned Demon Commander for long.

With two thuds, the Horned Demon Commander broke free from the steel bind, but Lu Heng had already taken the chance to rush out of the building.

In the moment of rushing out of the building, he ignited all the unstable explosives installed inside.

Boom! Boom! Boom…

The load-bearing columns of the building exploded one after another, and the entire building collapsed with a loud crash, burying the Horned Demon Commander and all the low-rank demons who had charged into the building under the rubble.

As the building collapsed, stones flew all around, and dust billowed, sweeping along the ground.

Lu Heng, pulling Su Muyu, ran towards a distant place while watching as hundreds of data prompts flooded their panels.

[Slay the demon, absorb 10 points of Demon Energy.]

[Slay the demon, absorb 10 points of Demon Energy.]

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