Versatile Mage

 “Ah~!”

 The scream took everyone on the team by surprise. The man named Chen Binbin quickly went over to the beautiful girl with shoulder-length hair and asked in a panic, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

 “It’s an arm!” The beautiful woman pointed at something hanging on the tree branch with a pale face.

 Lingling was nearby too. She raised her head and saw an arm with blood dripping from it, torn off around the elbow. The cut was imperfect; she could still see the tendons and vessels dangling from it!

 “Silence! As a Mage, even if you discovered a corpse that has been torn to pieces, you can’t afford to be making any sound under the circumstances!” Wang Dakuo glared at the woman.

 The other young Mages had grim faces, too. They had spent most of their time working in an office. Even though they had seen dead bodies before, they had never seen anything so gruesome. They could not help but wonder what happened to the owner of the arm.

 “It’s a demon creature with outstanding physical strength,” Lingling said as she inspected the torn arm.

 Chen Binbin had a strange expression. Even he did not dare look straight at the arm. How could the little girl have the courage to study it so closely? Chen Binbin felt uneasy when he imagined the person being torn into pieces.

 “Elder, maybe…maybe we should just get out of here,” Guo Muzhuang proposed worriedly.

 “How could we turn a blind eye at someone that needs our help?!” Wang Dakuo snapped.

 He immediately led the way. The others had no choice but to follow him when they felt danger approaching.

 —

 “This must be his head,” Lingling suddenly called out.

 The beautiful woman walking beside Lingling was dumbfounded. She screamed and immediately backed away.

 Lingling moved the giant leaf blocking the view aside. There was indeed a head lying on the ground. Most terrifyingly, the torn skin under the head was irregular too. It even had lots of stretch marks, as if it was twisted and ripped off with brute force!

 “Twisting, tearing, and bite marks… it’s most likely a Hillman!” Lingling told Mo Fan.

 Lingling was not referring to the people living in hills or mountains. A Hillman was a kind of demon creature. They looked similar to humans, but they had fangs like wild boars, skin like a tree, and paws like a bear. They could not use magic, but they were one of the strongest demon creatures physically.

 They were extremely quick and good at ambushing their targets. They always killed their targets in the most gruesome way, tearing their prey to pieces.

 The Hillmen normally resided in primordial forests. There was a huge horde of Hillmen in Shennongjia. It was quite a surprise to find Hillmen here on Mount Kunyu!

 Wang Dakuo did not disagree with Lingling’s speculation, as he had noticed some large footprints on the ground. The Hillmen were not that much bigger than a human, between two to four meters tall. Only Hillmen would leave such large footprints behind, since a Hunter with a massive build would be wearing shoes!

 Cries in the distance implied that there were still people alive ahead. The group continued forward, but the beautiful woman that came with Chen Binbin was too scared to go any deeper.

 She had only seen something being torn into pieces on the TV, and the remains were still in good condition. However, the remains she had seen after coming here were just too horrible. She was completely overwhelmed by fear.

 “I’m not going, there’s no way I’m going any deeper into the forest!” the girl said in tears.

 “We have to go now, or we’ll be left behind,” Chen Binbin dragged the girl along while watching the others fading into the distance.

 The rest of the team had gone ahead. The trees were dense and thick. It was extremely difficult to regroup with the team once they were around a hundred meters apart. Chen Binbin was having difficulties dragging the girl with him. He broke out in cold sweat as soon as he heard some movement nearby.

 “I’m going to die because of you!” Chen Binbin snapped furiously. He simply left the woman behind and hurriedly went forward to catch up with the others.

 “Don’t leave me behind!…”

 —

 The scent of blood thickened. Mo Fan and Wang Dakuo were leading the way. As soon as they spread some bushes open with their hands, Mo Fan immediately caught a glimpse of a human figure with muscular arms and legs covered in fresh blood…

 “Assh***, where do you think you’re going!?” Wang Dakuo yelled furiously. He immediately chased after the Hillman.

 The Hillman quickened its pace when it sensed a strong presence approaching. It quickly wove through the trees and vanished.

 Mo Fan did not chase after the creature. He looked down and saw a bloody pile of organs. He recognized some intestines too, he just could not tell if they were human.

 Mo Fan had gotten used to seeing blood and gore, but he was still spooked by how brutal the Hillmen were.

 The others had caught up too. Some vomited when they saw the remains on the ground. Even Hunters would be troubled by the sight of it, let alone these Mages who rarely came to the wild.

 “Where’s the Elder?” Guo Muzhuang asked.

 “He went after the Hillman. He’s too quick, I can’t keep up with him,” Mo Fan said.

 “Ah? How could the Elder just leave us behind? What should we do now?” a Maga named Zhong Mi cried out.

 “Why is it only the few of you? Where are the rest?” Mo Fan looked behind him and realized Zhao Manyan, Chen Binbin, and the beautiful woman were not around. He remembered they were not far behind the team just a moment ago.

 Chen Yi turned around and was shocked when she failed to see the others behind them.

 “Why…why didn’t they stick with the team!?” Wang Hua sputtered in agitation.

 “AHHHH!!!” A piercing cry suddenly came from the direction they had come from.

 The cry was full of agony, like someone being tortured. It immediately sent chills down everyone’s spine.

 “It…it sounds like Hu Duo!” Zhong Mi said in disbelief.

 “Did something happen to her?”

 Everyone’s face turned pale as they recalled the corpses torn into pieces and the remains stacked up in a pile.

 “Phew, phew, I finally caught up to you guys. How fast were you guys running…” Chen Binbin finally showed up. He was panting heavily.

 As soon as he caught his breath, he caught a glimpse of the pile of remains on the ground and subconsciously took a closer look at them. He immediately vomited after realizing what it was. He could not even speak a single word for a long time.

 “Wasn’t Hu Duo with you?” Guo Muzhuang’s eyes widened.

 “Ah? I was afraid to be left behind, so I went ahead while she followed behind me. What about her?” Chen Binbin said.

 “You…you son of a b**ch, I won’t forgive you if anything happens to her!” Guo Muzhuang snapped. He quickly headed back in the direction of Hu Duo’s cry before everyone made up their minds.

 “Don’t go alone!” the skinny man with Guo Muzhuang yelled. He clenched his teeth and went after Guo Muzhuang.

 —

 The others stayed put. The person they were relying on, Wang Dakuo, had gone deeper into the woods. They might completely lose contact with him if they kept wandering around aimlessly.

 Meanwhile, Zhao Manyan and another girl were separated from the group. Mo Fan was not worried about Zhao Manyan’s safety. He could easily look after himself. He was more worried about Hu Duo, whom Chen Binbin had left behind. It was too dangerous to be alone in such a dangerous place!

 “Hillmen are quite intelligent for demon creatures. Even the low-level Hillmen know how to work together to hunt down their prey…” Lingling said.

 “Did the Giant Purple Linden summon them here?” Mo Fan asked.

 “It’s hard to say. I believe the Giant Purple Lindens are only willing to provide shelter to creatures that are more neutral. I don’t think they will accept Hillmen, who have to eat a few living creatures every day,” Lingling answered.

 “Speaking of which, we heard a lot of cries before, like a whole team was being attacked, but if we combined all the remains we’ve seen so far, it’s only a single person…” Mo Fan said.

 “Say, is now really the time to discuss it? I bet the creatures have eaten everything else!” the pale-faced Chen Binbin exclaimed after he finally calmed down.

 “It just felt very weird…” Mo Fan said.

 While Mo Fan was talking to Lingling, there was a sudden movement in the bushes nearby. Everyone immediately turned to the bushes and tensed. They subconsciously drew Star Orbits and Star Patterns of different colors.

 In the end, a slimly beautiful woman walked out of the bushes. The group was surprised to see Hu Duo!

 The girl was still lost in her thoughts, like she had yet to recover from a fright. She asked timidly when she saw everyone looking at her with blank faces, “What…what’s wrong?”

 “Did you encounter something along the way?” Mo Fan quickly asked when he realized something did not feel right.

 “No, I was just scared. I thought I lost you guys just then. Chen Binbin didn’t wait for me either…” Hu Duo said.

 “But…but we heard your…” Zhong Mi said in disbelief.

 “I didn’t make any noise, I was scared it was going to attract the creatures to me. I was covering my mouth all the time…” Hu Duo looked confused too.

 Mo Fan and Lingling immediately exchanged uneasy looks with one another!

 “Crap, Guo Muzhuang and the other guy might have walked into a trap!” Mo Fan said.

 “What the hell is going on?” Wang Hua was utterly lost.

 “I’m afraid the Hillmen know how to imitate our voices. I’m afraid Guo Muzhuang and the other guy are in trouble!” Lingling said in an oddly confident voice.