Upon hearing this, the five members of the squad immediately changed their expressions, and their forward steps halted.
When Liu Gu first encountered them, he told them that a new F-rank Awakener in his team had run off, attracting a Level 10 Blood Mantis.
He had intended to step forward and buy time for his other squad members to escape, but unexpectedly, the newcomer abandoned everyone and fled.
Having no choice, he also fled, and along the way, the newcomer even deliberately pushed out teammates, sacrificing others just to buy time for himself.
Finally, Heaven opened its eyes, and the Blood Mantis chased after that person, allowing Liu Gu to narrowly escape and encounter their squad.
The squad leader, with righteous indignation, recounted Cheng Xing's wicked deeds in detail.
“Beauty, please stay away from this backstabbing, kin-harming murderer.”
“Let me kill him and enforce justice on behalf of Heaven!”
With that, the squad leader also very solemnly said to Su Yanran.
He didn't want to miss this opportunity to show off in front of the beauty.
Upon hearing this, Su Yanran had a strange expression. Backstabbing? Harming kin?
If she hadn't witnessed Cheng Xing's astonishing combat power and personally seen Liu Gu run away without looking back upon seeing an E-rank Disaster Beast, she would have “almost” believed him.
Meanwhile, Cheng Xing's face was grim, his gaze fixed on Liu Gu, who was at the back of the team.
He knew without a doubt where these rumors came from.
As the two sides faced off, the Blood Mantis from behind also caught up.
Seeing himself disturbed, Cheng Xing moved, disappearing from everyone's sight.
He reappeared in front of the Blood Mantis.
The Blood Mantis didn't think much of this human who suddenly appeared from nowhere; it simply habitually raised its forelimbs to attack.
“Four Direction Slash.”
However, the next moment, a cold voice rang out, a blade light streaked across the night, and four bloodlines appeared on the Blood Mantis's body, immediately followed by a splatter of blood, splashing the six people nearby with foul-smelling green blood.
Then, the Blood Mantis's over 300 HP instantly dropped to zero before their astonished eyes, dropping two valuable materials.
A Level 9 Blood Mantis was actually instantly killed by someone.
He flicked the blood mantis fang in his hand, shaking off the blood from the blade, simultaneously producing a faint swishing sound.
“Your voice was too soft just now; I didn't hear you clearly.”
“Do you want to say it again?”
Cheng Xing stepped forward, his weapon still unsheathed, stopping in front of the squad members and speaking indifferently.
His words carried no emotion, like casual conversation.
But almost everyone felt a chill, especially Liu Gu.
However, Liu Gu was full of disbelief at this moment.
“How is that possible! You only registered as an adventurer today, and your talent is only F-rank.”
“Are you an S-rank talent? You falsified your talent level!”
“Why?!”
Liu Gu's eyes widened; he really couldn't understand why someone would falsify their talent level.
“You don't need to know that much!”
Cheng Xing didn't even look at him, raising his hand and striking with his blade.
Liu Gu was greatly alarmed and quickly raised his shield to Parry, immediately feeling a force heavier than the Blood Mantis's attack coming from the shield.
This single blow caused Liu Gu to retreat repeatedly, his hand gripping the shield almost losing strength.
“Brother, is there some misunderstanding here?”
Seeing this, the squad leader, who had a good impression of Liu Gu, couldn't help but ask.
“Oh? Do you have an opinion on what I'm doing?”
Cheng Xing glanced at the person and spoke indifferently.
Instantly, that person fell silent; he couldn't afford to provoke this master. The Blood Mantis that had chased them all the way didn't last a single round against him.
The calmed leader recalled Liu Gu's previous story and found many inconsistencies.
Then Cheng Xing continued to advance and strike, Liu Gu could only passively defend, and the shield in his hand began to crack with each attack.
Liu Gu's pleas for mercy were incessant, but Cheng Xing showed no intention of stopping.
Cheng Xing's long blade came out, cutting a gash on Liu Gu's arm.
Crimson blood instantly soaked Liu Gu's clothes.
The intense pain made Liu Gu let out a wail, but soon, the wail abruptly stopped, simply because the fatal blade was already at his throat.
“Come, tell them what you've really done.”
At this moment, Liu Gu didn't care about his reputation and immediately knelt on the ground, revealing everything he had done to Cheng Xing at the Adventurers' camp and what happened after encountering the Blood Mantis.
“I deserve to die, please be magnanimous, don't kill me, I don't want to die!”
After speaking, Liu Gu continuously begged for mercy, and a foul smell came from below him.
This one strike had scared this person so much that he peed himself.
Seeing this, Cheng Xing instantly lost the desire to kill, sheathed his blade, and returned to Su Yanran's side.
The five-person squad, having learned the truth, all had ashen faces, never expecting to have been deceived by this scumbag.
“Pah! Scumbag, what he did himself, just because he was afraid of being known, he threw dirt on others.”
“I've never seen such a disgusting person!”
“You just wait, we will definitely report you to the Guild!”
......
“Why didn't you let me kill him?”
Cheng Xing looked at Liu Gu, who was ashen-faced in the distance, and asked indifferently.
Although his time with Su Yanran was relatively short, she was definitely not the type of person with a 'saintly heart'.
If Su Yanran hadn't warned him beforehand, he would have already cut this person down with a single strike.
“I can't say, you'll know later.”
“You just need to remember, Awakeners should not kill Awakeners unless absolutely necessary.”
Su Yanran shrugged, not explaining much, just telling him very solemnly.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xing couldn't help but fall into thought.
However, before Cheng Xing could figure out why, another commotion came from the other side.
Everyone turned their heads; at the end of the broken road, a five-person squad was fleeing in a hurry.
They immediately spotted Cheng Xing and his group and quickened their pace.
And behind them, a Blood Mantis was also chasing.
Only this time, the situation was slightly different; when this squad was only a hundred meters away from Cheng Xing and his group, the Blood Mantis's movements immediately paused.
It seemed to sense that facing so many people, it had no chance of winning.
At this time, Cheng Xing and his group were in front of an abandoned shopping mall in L Town, and the Blood Mantis was hovering at the edge of the plaza outside the mall.
Seeing that the Blood Mantis didn't charge over, the newly appeared squad couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and quickly went forward to greet the others.
“Hello, we are the F-rank Hunting Dog Squad…”
“We are the F-rank Hackclaw Squad…”
After introducing themselves, the two squads quickly became familiar. They were both fixed teams, with fixed members, and could register a team name with the Adventurers' Guild.
The strength of their two squads was similar; the Hunting Dog Squad was slightly stronger, with everyone having reached Level 8.
When they saw Liu Gu, who was being ostracized, they also asked in low voices, and the Hackclaw Squad leader immediately explained the whole story to them in a low voice. After listening, they couldn't help but despise him.
For fixed teams like theirs, abandonment was a huge taboo; they would absolutely never accept such a person.
After all, they didn't want to be abandoned when they found themselves in a difficult situation someday.
Afterward, they focused their attention on Cheng Xing and Su Yanran. When the Hunting Dog Squad members saw Su Yanran, they almost couldn't walk straight, but due to her cold demeanor, no one dared to approach her and strike up a conversation.
Soon, another squad rushed over...