Chapter 53

In an instant, Li Yao's heart was completely frozen! But in the next second, he regained his composure, realizing he was still entranced by the illusions created by the Phantom Vine.

Biting his tongue hard, he instantly woke up from the intense pain, only to feel a gust of wind rushing towards him!

Li Yao had no time to dodge; he swung his fist backward, striking something with a loud thud. A scream came from the opposite side, and he was pushed back several meters by a strange force, crashing into a thicket.

Shaking his head, he focused his gaze and saw that the illusion of Ouyazi had disappeared. Hanging upside down on the tree in front of him was a large, green ape with abnormally long arms.

This ape had a deformed third eye on its forehead, glowing with a sinister yellow light.

"Three-Eyed Ape!"

Li Yao quickly searched his mind and found information about this creature. The Three-Eyed Ape was one of the more troublesome low-level demons. Besides being agile and skilled at hunting in the jungle, the third eye on its forehead could release a special mental attack, causing its prey to suffer from intense headaches and hallucinations.

However, today it had clearly chosen the wrong opponent. Although Li Yao's abilities might not be outstanding, his brain had been tempered by Ouyazi, making his spirit incredibly resilient. Ordinary mental attacks had no effect on him.

This is why he was able to wake up from the illusion so quickly.

"Hisss!"

The Three-Eyed Ape let out a piercing hiss, its third eye suddenly widening and becoming bright, like a piece of red-hot iron. Li Yao felt a sharp pain deep in his brain.

Li Yao knew this was the Three-Eyed Ape's mental attack. He deliberately let out a scream, trembling uncontrollably.

The Three-Eyed Ape made a "squeaking" sound, clearly thinking its trick had worked. It swung around on a branch, using the momentum to charge straight at Li Yao, spreading its arms wide.

However, it didn't notice that Li Yao's right foot was already deeply embedded in the soft decaying matter, clamping onto a bone left by a demon.

As it approached, Li Yao kicked out with his right foot, driving the bone straight into its third eye!

This bone, likely a leg bone of some demon, was incredibly sturdy. It pierced through the Three-Eyed Ape's third eye and directly into its brain. The bone was hollow, and a large clump of brain matter instantly spurted out!

No matter how powerful the Three-Eyed Ape was, with its brain severely damaged, it could only die on the spot. Its massive body trembled violently, fell to the ground, and twitched eerily before finally lying still.

Similar killings were taking place all around the Demon Dragon Island. Some of the more determined and talented cultivators had woken up from the illusions and were using their unique skills to hunt the demons.

However, a large number of young people had bad luck and were targeted by demons before they could break free from the illusions.

At the moment the demons launched their fatal attacks, the Puchi beasts on their heads promptly sprayed a large blob of pink gel, like jelly, which firmly enveloped the young people, making it impossible for the demons to damage them.

At the same time, the cultivators patrolling the sky rushed over to escort these failed challengers off the Demon Dragon Island.

The first ten minutes of the annual Extreme Challenge were the most difficult, with a large number of participants failing in the illusions.

This year was no different. Within ten minutes, 725 challengers left the Demon Dragon Island, returning to the Liao Yuan.

In the monitoring center of the Liao Yuan, observers from the 'Nine Greats,' teachers from various high schools, and military officials gathered, watching the flickering screens with great interest.

Next to them was a glowing leaderboard, showing the top 100 participants.

Li Yao's quick kill of a Three-Eyed Ape earned him a good score, placing him 98th.

"This year's newcomers are quite good. Only 720 people left in the first ten minutes, whereas last year over a thousand failed in the first ten minutes!" a military official said with a smile.

"Zoom in on the top 100, we need to pay close attention to them," an observer said.

The 100 screens immediately stood out, becoming larger, clearer, and brighter, with flame-shaped borders around them.

"Huh?"

Xie Tingxian, a forging expert from Deep Sea University, was slightly taken aback. He had seen Li Yao's entire process of killing the Three-Eyed Ape.

He didn't expect this young man with exceptional forging talent to be so skilled in combat.

"I knew I didn't misjudge him!"

Ding Lingdang, an observer from the Great Wasteland Combat Academy, also excitedly clenched her fist!

"But what is he doing now?"

On the screen, Li Yao didn't leave after killing the Three-Eyed Ape. Instead, he pulled out the demon bone from its forehead, used it as a blade, and skillfully cut open the Three-Eyed Ape's neck, smearing the foul-smelling demon blood all over his body.

He applied the blood evenly, not missing a single toe, and finally soaked his hair completely in the demon blood. Satisfied, he patted his hands, put the demon bone in his mouth, and leaped onto a branch.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao felt as if he had returned to the tomb of magical artifacts.

The narrow space formed by the crisscrossing branches was not much different from the precarious garbage mountains in the tomb of magical artifacts.

Glancing around quickly, Li Yao pushed his computational power to the limit. Instantly, countless directions, wind directions, and numbers appeared in his mind, forming a clear, transparent path before his eyes.

"Xiao Ji, help me find the nearest supply point!" Li Yao said to the white Puchi beast on his head.

A moment later, a semi-transparent map of the Demon Dragon Island was projected before his eyes, clearly marking his current position and the locations of several supply points.

Smiling, Li Yao leaped lightly between the branches, dashing toward the nearest supply point.

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

In the seemingly impassable branches, Li Yao moved freely, as if the Demon Dragon Island had created an aerial corridor just for him, allowing him to speed through the air!

He did encounter demons along the way, but every time he sensed their presence, he would stop and hide deep in the branches.

The strong demon smell from the demon blood on his body, combined with his habit of hiding in the garbage piles of the tomb of magical artifacts since childhood, made it difficult for other demons to detect him.

Sometimes demons would attack each other, but with thousands of fresh and juicy "young meat" newly arrived on the Demon Dragon Island, all the demons were busy hunting humans and didn't bother to eat their foul-smelling kin.

Using this method, Li Yao arrived at the first supply point without any major incidents.

His strange behavior also piqued the curiosity of the cultivators in the Liao Yuan monitoring center, who were all speculating about his intentions.

"This participant's movements are very agile, as if he grew up in the mountains. His ability to conceal his presence is also quite advanced. Look, two demons passed within a few meters of him without noticing him."

"Right, this participant has rich combat experience, not like a newcomer. His mental fortitude is also strong. He remained completely still, not even blinking, as demons passed over his head. He has the potential to become an excellent assassin with some training!"

"But why doesn't he attack? He had several opportunities to easily kill several demons and gain a lot of points, but he held back. What is he planning?"

Apart from killing the first Three-Eyed Ape, Li Yao hadn't made a move for over half an hour. His ranking on the leaderboard kept dropping, and he soon fell to over 2,000th place.

At this point, the average participant still on the Demon Dragon Island had killed three to five demons, and some powerful experts had even killed over ten demons in one go.

At the top of the leaderboard was the name — Helian Lie!

"Little guy, you want to enter the supply point first to showcase your forging talent, right? Fine, I'll watch closely to see what you can do!" Xie Tingxian smiled, his eyes shining.

Li Yao lightly leaped into the supply point.

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