150 Rearing Mutated Ghouls? (1/2)

The team looked at Leon with different kinds of gazes. There were doubts, concerns, hostile and even apathetic gazes. He gazes a sideward glance at Nina, who directed the hostile gaze at him.

It appeared that she had developed a favorable impression of the team leader and didn't take kindly to his accusation. Leon was trying to save their lives, but he seems to be the villain in their eyes.

In spite of their various gazes and pressure, Leon remained unperturbed and steady like a mountain. ”First, let's clear up the area a bit.” He said in a placid tone.

”What do you mean-?”

Peak 7th step flames gathered towards his fingers in a concentrated manner. The team members were surprised by his small reveal of strength. ”What are you doing, Leo? Are you going to attack us!?”

The team took defensive stances. ”We just asking what your reason for accusing the leader was.”

They misunderstood his intentions, but it did not matter. He snapped his fingers and the flames billowed out in all directions like air rushing out of a popped balloon.

His flames had like a mind of its own and blew past them without harming anyone. The mist within a 30-yard radius of them had been swept away and they vision became crystal clear. A few ghouls in the area were caught and burnt to a crisp. Apart from Elias, the rest was shaken by his strength, while the mist slowly began to fill the empty area shortly after.

”You're at the 7th step!”

Leon ignored the comment with a calm expression, neither admitting nor denying the claim. He found himself a nice piece of rock to seat himself on, before he proceeding to explain, ”We're already at the 1700-yard mark. If you follow the team leader in that direction for another 60 yards, you'll be leaving the safe boundary. I have been counting since we passed the 900-yard marker.”

What!

”Impossible! We should still be at the 900-yard region. How can we be at 1700 yards?” Nina quickly denied.

”You couldn't even tell your directions in the mist. How can you be so sure we still are? If you weren't listening, I said I've been counting.” Leon was speechless. They had gotten along well at the start, but now, he could only see her as an ignorant lovestruck fool.

”The team leader hasn't been hasn't been fully honest with us all. There are distance markers on the trees, which are important and extremely useful for keep track of our location, but team leader didn't seem to mention this. I wonder why, hmm?”

The team immediately shifted their gaze to the team leader for answers, while Jeremiah directly went up to a nearby tree to check.

”Don't bother looking. I haven't seen anymore distance markers after the 900-yard mark.”

”So, it's true… What's your purpose for doing this, team leader?”

As Garry spoke, all eyes were trained on Elias. The team leader was silent for a brief moment before breaking out into cold laughter.

”I didn't expect someone to have such keen perception to notice such tiny detail. I hadn't anticipated that someone as strong as you would hide your cultivation. Why don't you guess what my goal was?” Elias squinted Leon.

”Since you only targeted us first-timers, you must have been aiming for people with weak minds because people with weak minds are easier for vengeful spirits to invade and become mutate ghouls. So, your true purpose must be to lead us to where the vengeful spirits and have us become mutated ghouls, right?” Leon said with a steady voice. ”Besides, I wasn't the only one hiding my cultivation, no?”

”Bravo. Great inference. You are very correct. That was precisely goal.” Elias clapped with a cold smile. ”Unfortunately, There's no prize.”

As he finished his words, his peak 9th step strength was revealed, along with its pressure bearing on the team members.

”P-Peak 9th step Awakener…” Elena exclaimed and felt weak in the knees. Everyone was shocked by the revelation.

”Since everyone has found out, I will give you all two choices. Enter the deep forest or die.”

Once the words were spoken, everyone began to despair. Both choices were undesirable. One was death, and the other wasn't much different to death. However, they had to pick one of the two. To them, 9th step Awakeners were the strongest under the Transcendent Realm and held absolute reign over their life and death.

”I-I don't want to enter the deep forest! Please spare me, I will do anything you want!” Nina crawled over to Elias and clung to his attire pleadingly.

Nina's beauty wasn't on the same level as Aria and Rachel, but it was enough for her to be called pretty by most. If someone like her offered to sell her body, many men would be tempted.

However, Elias glanced down at her pleading self and remained unmoved. ”Since you aren't willing to enter the deep forest, you can go die.” His hand reached for her head and grabbed it.

Leon's expression turned serious and reacted immediately as he sensed something. His needles were shot at lightning speed, forcibly interrupted Elias from killing Nina to dodge the needles.

The stone cracked under Leon's powerful stomp as he lunges straight at Elias. ”You are a demonic cultivator!”

Surprised by Leon's speed, Elias tossed Nina straight at Leon to stop his charge, while retreating backwards. ”Demonic cultivator? The fuck is that?”