After leaving the team, the adventurer ladies regretted it deeply

Earth Wolf adventure team, progress level 12, seven members, average level 21.

"Hey, Captain, it looks like there's someone ahead. Could it be an official adventure team commissioned by the Adventurer's Guild?"

One of the bald members' expressions changed.

"No worries, we're all rock-level squads from the same city, easy to talk to. Watch me go over and exchange pleasantries."

Mindy shrugged indifferently and stepped forward, shouting, "Hey— which adventure team are you...?"

A sharp, piercing noise suddenly rose in the air.

It was as if an extremely thin silk thread had been stretched tight, turning into a swift blade slicing toward a person's body.

Mindy's expression froze, and the Life Barrier crumbled like tofu. His body disintegrated into blocks, collapsing under a sky of scarlet liquid.

"Ah?"

The members of the Earth Wolf adventure team stared, dumbfounded as Mindy was instantly reduced to dozens of pieces.

Three people from the river beach came forward.

They wore black robes and their faces were covered with sinister demon masks, smiling yet crying; the masks had a short horn on the right side of the forehead, painted blue.

They were not an adventurer squad from White Dove City.

That signature mask...

"It's the Doomsday Sect! Be careful, everyone prepare for battle!"

Baldy shouted in terror.

Splat!

Splutter splutter splutter!

Invisible sharp threads chaotically danced through the air.

In just a few breaths

, the seven members of the Earth Wolf adventure team were reduced to unrecognizable chunks of flesh.

"Lady Bai Mian, the bothersome ants have been taken care of."

The three sect members returned to the riverbank, kneeling on one knee with their shaking heads hung low.

In front of them, whom they referred to as 'Lady Bai Mian,' stood a woman clad in a black dress with golden hair.

Lady Bai Mian was around one meter sixty, with an impressive bust and wearing a smiling Flower Cat mask.

Her nails painted in tempting red, she delicately took out an item from her Space Ring and tossed it into the center of Breeze River Beach.

"Moon Grass of 100 years."

"A Water Series Magic Core level 35."

"..."

"Lastly, the blood of a witch."

Lady Bai Mian chuckled softly, slicing her wrist open to let out jet-black blood, which she mixed with more than a dozen other ingredients, sprinkling them into the murky river before her.

She completely ignored her three subordinates, opening her arms wide with a pilgrim's frenzy and began chanting, and from her exalted voice, one could easily imagine an excited, flushed cheek.

"Abyss Gate, open now~!"

A deep red light lit up under the Qingfeng River, as the contour of a massive Array appeared, faint and fluctuating.

A horrific magical creature's aura emanated from the Array, like a pale hand grasping at the cliff's edge, as those creatures, desperate to escape from the abyss, pushed forward.

Click click click...

The dense sound of carapace rubbing together blended into a single terrifying noise that made one's skin crawl.

One Murderous Crab after another emerged from the ground beneath the Qingfeng River. Even the smallest was three meters in length.

Among each group of Murderous Crabs, there was always one that was five meters long with a dark carapace.

They opened their pincers, covering the sky and the sun.

The pressure was immense!

These magical creatures, as if they had been imprisoned for hundreds of years, climbed out of Breeze River Beach and excitedly looked upon the vast expanse of the world.

"Hiss hiss."

The black-shelled giant Murderous Crab issued commands to its kin with strange sounds.

The message was clear: Exterminate all life other than themselves.

The Murderous Crabs spread in a frenzy, engulfing every direction!

A member of the blue Oni Horn Sect fawned, "Congratulations on the successful ritual, my lord. Once the World Tree in White Dove City is destroyed, you are certain to win the general's favor!"

A coy laugh emanated from beneath the Flower Cat mask.

"Just wait and see."

Witch Bai Mian, gazing at the overwhelming swarm of Murderous Crabs, spoke reverently, "The great Demon King will bestow destruction and death equally upon every ant beneath the World Tree."

The three subordinates chimed in unison, "And we shall become the masters of the new world."

Moments later, the figures of the four disappeared from Breeze River Beach.

The corpses of the Earth Wolf Adventure Team became a feast for the Murderous Crabs.

...

00:01 at night.

"Good evening to all the adventurers in White Dove City, though by the time you see this footage, it will probably be morning!"

"This is Kami, reporter for White Dove Morning News, here to uncover the secrets of Qingfeng River Beach~"

A short-haired, freckled girl tied in a ponytail, full of vigor, laughed in front of the recording camera:

"What secrets lie beneath Qingfeng River Beach, which has suddenly been classified from low-risk to high-risk? Reporter Kami, together with a Rock-level Squad and the Valiant Adventure Team, will reveal them to you!"

"Could you keep it down, please? If there are hidden Magical Creatures here, you'll attract them. It's very unsafe," complained Robert, captain of the Valiant Adventure Team, with a spiky blonde hairdo.

"Ha-ha, what does it matter? Even if some hidden Magical Creatures do appear, 'Quick Blade' Robert can take care of them, right~" Kami teased, with no sense of danger whatsoever.

Robert hummed proudly in response, "Naturally, what kind of powerful Magical Creatures could there be at a place like Qingfeng River Beach?"

It was at that moment that the ground began to buzz and tremble inexplicably.

It seemed like an earthquake yet was akin to the thunderous charge of ten thousand horses.

An indescribable unease crawled up Robert's ankles along with the earth's trembling.

"Damn it, what is this feeling..." Robert cursed under his breath.

"What's that?" Kami, perched on the cameraman's shoulders, gazed curiously ahead.

A mass of black... crabs?

The vibration grew increasingly close and intense. Discover hidden stories at empire

They finally saw clearly.

At the end of the dark horizon, large pincers shining with the luster of steel illuminated the night.

They marched in unison, like an advancing army, and the dense Magical Creatures' aura, like a mountain that had risen from the ground, weighed heavily on everyone's hearts.

Including Captain Robert, everyone's faces turned exceedingly grim.

Not the delicious edible crabs.

But a seemingly endless horde, numbering tens or even hundreds of thousands, forming a black wall of Murderous Crabs!

Within this moving 'wall,' every so often appeared an even larger Black Shell Man-Eating Crab, exuding an intimidating aura strong enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Such Magical Creatures were at least level 20!

Any adventure team would seem insignificant before the sheer number of these Magical Creatures.

Compared to the rest, who were weak at the knees, reporter Kami excitedly shouted, "Ha-ha-ha~ Huge news, massive news! White Dove City in great crisis, a spectacle seen once in centuries: The Monster Tide has erupted~!"

Is now really the time for this?

Robert glared at Kami with anger, scooped her under his arm, and started running frantically.

He had to get this message back to White Dove City as quickly as possible!

...

In just a short amount of time, the Murderous Crab Tide had attacked two nearby mining camps and spread toward the Barren Plains and Man-Eating Swamp.

Like a clumsy, long-neglected machine, White Dove City only started to lumber into action three hours after the various departments received news of the Monster Tide outbreak, with everything thrown into chaos.