“Don’t be afraid, everyone.”

Goblin Kibote looked at the restless crowd, his heart already anticipating this. He cleared his throat lightly, and the entire camp fell silent, with only his voice echoing clearly.

Most artificers who were interested in politics would have mastered the sonic arts. Sound is power, and even if they weren’t interested in silencing their political enemies, they needed the ability to defend their own voice.

“I understand your concerns, and I won’t mince words here. If we were to drag all the adventurers out here for target practice, there would definitely be innocent casualties. But if we eliminate one every other shot, there will definitely be some fish that slip through the net.”

Kibote looked down at the terrified adventurers below, his contempt growing stronger. They seemed like a bunch of stray dogs to him.

The mayor was right, dogs can be useful, but they can’t be trusted because they can be easily lured away by someone else’s meat. Only by cooperating with those jackals and wolves, by grinding their claws on the bones of these dogs and satisfying the hunger of the jackals, will they naturally go and tear apart their master’s flesh.

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, there are too many dogs and too few jackals.

Therefore, the martial arts competition must be carried out…

Recalling the mayor’s teachings, Kibote’s face grew colder, and he continued, “But rest assured, this festival is of great importance. Compared to the offerings required by the Blood Moon Sovereign, your crimes are insignificant. Even if Captain Bloodthirst suddenly goes mad, I will not allow him to harm the precious combat power here.”

“Don’t worry, Secretary Kibote.” Jielade crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at the adventurers with interest. “I value this festival more than anyone else here.”

Everyone couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. That’s right, the Hunting Hall and the war zone have always kept their distance. Moreover, this is a festival for the invasion from the Outer Domain. How could Jielade possibly come here to arrest people?

But many people still couldn’t let go of their worries. The festival has nothing to do with the Hunting Hall, so what exactly is Jielade doing here? Did he come here to take a walk because he couldn’t sleep?

“However, Captain Bloodthirst did come here to pursue fugitives.” Kibote said, “But it has nothing to do with the majority of people here, not even the adventurers. He is only here to find the fugitives who are disguised as adventurers.”

Asho and the others felt uneasy.

“‘Necrophiliac’ Aqiborde Harvey, ‘Rot Raven’ Ronald Wade, ‘Deceiver’ Igura Bokin, ‘Death Eater’ Lana Chios, ‘Demon Saint’ Asho Heath.”

Jielade said loudly, “I am here only to pursue these five individuals. They have just escaped from the Broken Lake Prison and have removed the miracle chips from the back of their necks. Therefore, they are definitely not adventurers from the war zone, and I am not overstepping my boundaries.”

The adventurers immediately relaxed.

Not only did those five fugitives have nothing to do with them, but more importantly, the fugitive group was not made up of ‘adventurers’. In other words, Jielade did not break the tacit understanding between the war zone and the Hunting Hall by arbitrarily arresting criminals who had joined the war zone. This was the place that made the adventurers feel at ease.

If Jielade were to arrest the criminals among the adventurers this time, the adventurers would not resist. But afterwards, they would quickly flee from the Lakeview War Zone and seek a living in other war zones. After all, if even the war zone cannot guarantee their safety, why would they stay here and wait to become the achievements of the Hunting Hall?

Asho and the others silently exchanged glances and nodded. Without any verbal communication, they all knew that they must cooperate sincerely from now on, otherwise they would never escape the pursuit of the Three-Winged Sanctuary artificers.

Good, it’s time to ignite…

“By the way,” Jielade said, “Although theoretically I am pursuing five people, I am particularly interested in Asho. So in addition to the bounty announced by the Hunting Hall, I have a personal reward for information about Asho Heath. I can offer a reward of 100 gold coins. If the other four fugitives are willing to reveal Asho, I can represent the Hunting Hall and stop pursuing you for three days, giving you time to escape.”

Asho turned to look at the others, and the other four turned to look at him as well.

“…Are you considering betraying a friend just to survive?” Harvey scratched his head. “We are friends…?”

Ronald shrugged. “What’s wrong with surviving by any means necessary?”

Igura said coldly, “If you hadn’t left behind the recording to provoke Jielade, why would he be relentlessly pursuing us? Who pollutes and who governs, is there a problem?”

With just three sentences, Jielade managed to break up this shaky little team. He truly lived up to his reputation as a bloodthirsty hunter who understood human nature.

Just as Asho was about to distance himself from this group of opportunists, Lana calmly said, “We don’t have the chips, so we must find a way to leave the Blood Moon. Unless Jielade is willing to make way for us, betraying Asho will bring us no benefit— even if we have three days to escape, there is no place for us in the Blood Moon anymore.”

Asho couldn’t help but give her a thumbs up. “Look at how reasonable Lana’s words are. You guys actually fell so easily for the enemy’s trick. You should learn from Lana—”

“But if we really can’t find any opportunity to escape, we can only hand Asho over in exchange for some breathing room.” Lana continued, “It’s better to lose one than to lose all five.”Igura hooked Asho’s neck and said, “Thank you, Asho. I didn’t expect you to sacrifice yourself to protect everyone. Will you fulfill my wish?”

Asho sighed, but no one could see his expression as he was wearing a mask. At this point, he could only take it one step at a time. Although Igura could betray him at any moment, Asho had to admit that teaming up with these four scumbags was currently the most suitable option.

After all, they had a common goal, and doing bad things was their specialty. If he teamed up with strangers, Asho would have no other choice but to pray for a miracle.

Jielade waited for a moment but didn’t see anyone step forward to report. He wasn’t surprised and signaled for the goblin next to him to continue speaking.

Kibote said, “Next, the priest team will perform the Miracle of Blessing for everyone. Please line up as a team. The Bloodthirsty Hunter will be responsible for protecting the priest team and scanning your chip information. Information about the foreign land on the other side of the passage has been sent to everyone in this camp. Please read it in a timely manner.”

Asho and the others pretended to summon a light screen. Without chips, they couldn’t receive the mass junk information, so they could only pretend.

At this time, the priest team arrived in front of the platform. They all had some wolf-like features, with almost everyone having a fluffy tail. Asho couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Lan Na, who silently pointed to the blood moon hanging high above.

Unlike the Moonshadow Clan, who received the blessing of the Blood Moon, Lan Na could only transform in the shadows and wouldn’t show any Moonshadow features at other times. The difference between him and other Moonshadow Clan members was as big as the difference between eating regular food and eating feces. No wonder he was thrown into the Broken Lake to die as a heretic.

The adventurers began to line up to receive the blessing, and Asho witnessed the blessing ceremony of the new era. The five priests asked the adventurers to extend their right arms, find their veins, and then inject them with a steel needle.

The assistant priest took out a radio and pressed a button, and the camp echoed with sacred prayers. Soon, changes occurred in the adventurers’ bodies, and the wandering moonlight turned into layers of translucent veils draped over them.

“Wow!”

“Power is surging!”

“Praise the Blood Moon!”

“What the hell!” Asho couldn’t help but comment, “Isn’t this just an injection and music hypnosis?”

“Blessings have always been like this,” Ronald said beside him. “The priests prepare the blessing potions in advance. When they are needed, they can directly inject them and listen to the sacred music to activate the miraculous effects of the potions. Although the effects are not as good as when the priests cast the spells themselves, they are quick, convenient, and can even be carried with you. In the war zone, you can also exchange for blessing potions made by priests, which are basically unavailable outside.”

It was clear that the adventurers had never tried such advanced goods before, and they were so excited that they wanted to throw their heads and shed blood to vent their physical strength. Asho even suspected that the potion contained moon candy ingredients… or the other way around, moon candy contained blessing potion ingredients?

But this blessing was nothing short of a disaster for Asho and the others because adventurers who received the blessing would have a thin layer of red veil on their bodies, which was very conspicuous.

In other words, whether they received the blessing or not could be seen at a glance. They couldn’t sneak past. When everyone else had the blessing light, they would be the only ones without it. The only difference between surrendering and resisting to the end was that resisting to the end would fit the plot better.

They were at the back of the line, and the priest team’s blessing time was not slow. It would be their turn in at most ten minutes, so they had to make a decision quickly.

“Let’s package it.”

“Let’s handle it first and then hand it over to show our sincerity.”

“Leave it to me. I’m a professional in handling corpses.”

Watching Igura discuss with Ronald and Harvey so seriously, Asho trembled. “I’m starting to regret why I brought you scumbags to escape…”

“What are you talking about? We were clearly discussing Lalafell’s approach…”

“Alright, don’t scare Asho, cutie.” Lan Na looked at Harvey. “Necromancer, can you do the same trick again?”

“I can, but the prison is a special building, so it has strong constraints. The only effective restrictions I can guarantee are ‘attack restriction’ and ‘movement restriction’.”

“As for Jielade, don’t hold any hope.” The necromancer didn’t dare to look directly at the captain of the Hunter team and only glanced at him quickly from the corner of his eye. “Not to mention that his strength is enough to resist the restrictions, even his identity and authority are probably higher than the ‘chip processor.’ Any restriction command issued by the processor won’t work on the law enforcement captain.”

Sure enough, Harvey was well-prepared before coming to this life-or-death test. Although it was meaningless—Jielade was the biggest threat to them here—if they couldn’t restrict Jielade, the examiner, with the chip processor, they would fail this prison break test.

Asho asked, “Can’t we cause chaos and take the opportunity to break through? Isn’t it said that the Virtual Realm passage can only accommodate Artificers of the Second Wing and below? Jielade shouldn’t be able to chase after us, right?””You may have some misconceptions about Jielade’s combat power.” Igura spread his hands, “Even the worst gamblers wouldn’t dare to bet that a three-winged holy realm Artificer would expose a flaw that we, as lower-level Artificers, could exploit… Wait, Jielade’s primary target is you. That means we could hand you over to distract Jielade, then take the opportunity to cross the passage. There’s a high probability we could escape.”

Asho glanced at him, “Do you think in that situation, I would desperately run away to buy you guys time, or would I surrender and let Jielade free his hands to capture you all, so we can die together?”

“Tsk, Asho, you really are a refreshing piece of scum.”

“Thanks for the compliment, I’m flattered.”

Jokes aside, Igura’s concern was unavoidable – Jielade was like a mountain, firmly blocking their escape route. No matter how many fancy tricks they had, if they couldn’t deal with Jielade, everything was just empty talk.

“I agree with Igura’s plan.” A man named Langna suddenly said.

Asho looked at Langna in surprise, not expecting this burly, bald man to finally succumb to his survival instinct and betray them at the drop of a hat.

Damn it, give me back all my previous emotions!

However, Igura’s eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands in sudden realization, patting Asho’s shoulder and saying, “Indeed, given the current situation, this is the plan with the highest success rate.”

“Asho Heath, we must hand you over.”