Chapter 93
Chapter 93: That Stinky Loach, Old Loach, Just Wants the Cubs’ Mom Dead
Cheng Xiao Ting swore loudly. “Fuck. The instructor team is straight-up targeting us. They’re one step away from calling out our names.”
Yan Yu agreed grimly. “Yeah. They’re basically saying: no more slacking.”
Sui Xuan Chu nodded. “Exactly. The first two rounds lasted two months. We hunted for less than one month total. We rested for more than one.”
“This third round shrinks the range to a thousand li. They’re telling us not to even think about pulling the same trick we did in round two—wandering around and dodging.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes sharpened. “There are thirty military academies and more than 1.8 million cadets. Even if they all stood still and let us wipe their throats one by one, we couldn’t finish in thirty days. And it’s not like we can just wave a blade and drop them all at once.”
She clenched her teeth. “This time the instructor team isn’t letting us rest. They want us hunting nonstop for an entire month, just to see where our bodies break.”
She didn’t even need to guess who’d come up with the idea.
Chong Ming.
That stinking loach couldn’t stand seeing her relax for even one day.
A dragon like that didn’t deserve dragon hatchlings. Didn’t deserve a mate. He deserved to die alone.
The broadcast sounded again—this time, it called them out by name.
“Members of the ‘wipe out the other twenty-nine military academies’ squad—everything you said is correct.”
“The purpose of round three is to push your bodies beyond their limits, so other cadets have a chance to kill you.”
“You have dominated the first two rounds. Your personal scores and squad score are far beyond everyone else.”
“Kill one member of your squad and the killer earns ten thousand points.”
“Kill the whole squad and the killer earns an extra ten thousand personal points and ten thousand squad points.”
“Dear classmates, little darlings—friendly reminder: you may use beast form to flee. You may not use beast form to attack. Eliminations only count when you cut a throat in human form.”
“Do not steal the instructor team’s sand vehicles, flyers, or weapons.”
“Now get off the ship. You have three hours to run, hide, and find somewhere to survive.”
“After three hours, at 6:30 a.m., the hunt begins. We hope you all achieve good results, take the championship, and earn a private meeting with your idol—Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming.”
Thirty ships docked at once, lined up side by side. Each opened multiple hatches.
1.8 million cadets poured out like a swarm, empty-handed, spilling into a darkness so thick you couldn’t see your own fingers.
The heat had already been brutal inside the ship. Outside was worse.
And the sand beneath their feet was soft and scalding.
Now Jiang Tea Tea understood why they’d been given three hours to run.
In a desert, a normal person might walk fifteen kilometers in three hours if they didn’t collapse first.
Their squad had a problem.
Zhang Ting Zhou—Octo—was a sea creature, an octopus in beast form. Living on land already went against everything in his nature.
Now they were forcing him to walk through hot, soft sand.
After less than half an hour, he was already dehydrating.
Cheng Lin Yue activated her water-element ability and poured water over him to slow the symptoms.
Jiang Tea Tea watched, frowning. “This won’t work. Cheng Lin Yue can’t keep spraying him nonstop. It’ll drain her until she’s exhausted.”
Zhang Ting Zhou’s voice came out weak. “Then I’ll quit—”
“Quit my ass,” Sui Xuan Chu snapped, cutting him off. “We’re one squad. We’re not leaving you behind.”
Huang Da Zhuang nodded hard. “Yeah. We go together. We don’t throw people away because you’re dehydrated.”
Ju Que added, “We’ll find a solution—”
Jiang Tea Tea shot them all a look in the dark. “Exactly. I’m talking because I’m trying to solve it, not because I’m disgusted by Octo. What are you all misunderstanding?”
Zhang Ting Zhou, drenched and shivering, managed, “So…?”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed into the night. “The instructor team said this planet is eighty percent desert and twenty percent ocean.”
“Our activity range is a thousand li. There’s a chance that range includes the ocean’s edge.”
Huang Da Zhuang’s eyes lit up. Sui Xuan Chu’s too. Cheng Xiao Ting slapped his thigh. “Right! If we reach the ocean, Octo can use his natural advantage!”
“We can find food.”
“And we can drag people into the water to hunt them.”
“Sister Tea, you’re a genius.” Huang Da Zhuang grinned. “You really know how to use everyone.”
Then his grin faded. “But… where’s the ocean? We can’t see a damn thing. We don’t even know which way is north.”
Jiang Tea Tea smiled. “Then we ask Octo. He’s a sea creature. Even if he lives on land, he should still be able to—”
Zhang Ting Zhou cut her off, voice stronger with stubbornness. “Give me a moment. Cheng Lin Yue, stop pouring water. Let me try.”
Cheng Lin Yue withdrew the water, moved closer, and watched him in the dark with her sharp night vision.
Zhang Ting Zhou gathered his mental power and spread it outward, reading the air itself—searching for the scent of the sea carried on the wind.
About ten minutes later, he opened his eyes and raised a hand. “That direction. I can smell the ocean.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded. “Turn into beast form. Make yourself smaller.”
Zhang Ting Zhou transformed into a palm-sized octopus. They wrapped him snugly in his wet clothes, his head poking out.
Cheng Lin Yue poured water over him once more.
Sui Xuan Chu slung the bundle onto his back and started walking.
Moving through sand was painfully slow.
Each step sank to mid-calf. You had to yank your leg out and step again, over and over.
By nearly five in the morning, the sky began to lighten. The temperature dropped sharply. The sand turned cold.
If not for their combat uniforms’ thermal regulation, the sudden swings alone could have dropped them.
With daylight, they gained sight—and realized they weren’t alone.
A lot of people were moving in their direction.
And a lot of people were trailing behind them.
Everyone looked hungry and aggressive, like they were just waiting for 6:30 to arrive so they could rush up and harvest ninety thousand points.
Jiang Tea Tea cleared her throat and adjusted their formation.
Before, they’d been stumbling with no structure, half-supporting each other. Now:
Sui Xuan Chu, carrying Zhang Ting Zhou, led in front.
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Lin Yue stayed in the center.
Ju Que and Yan Yu guarded the sides.
Jiang Tea Tea covered the rear.
Cheng Xiao Ting shifted into beast form—a massive wolf—and ranged around them to scout and prevent ambush.
As 6:30 crept closer, they sped up.
The people behind them sped up too.
At 6:28, an instructor team appeared overhead—three to a flyer, hovering like vultures.
They barely had time to look up before another instructor team erupted from the sand ahead of them.
Four of them, wearing sand-colored combat uniforms, fully armed, riding a sand vehicle. One lifted a loudspeaker and shouted in a tone that was “friendly” in name only.
“Dear classmates! Are you ready?”
“One minute left! It’s almost 6:30—hunting time!”
“Members of the ‘wipe out the other twenty-nine military academies’ squad—your eight people are worth ninety thousand points!”
“Kill you and even if you don’t take first, you can still make top ten!”
“Oh wow,” the instructor said, then laughed. “Look at my mouth. I shouldn’t have announced your squad name. Sorry!”
Jiang Tea Tea shouted back, “It’s fine! You’re lucky the rules don’t let us hunt instructors this round. Otherwise, at 6:30, you’d be the first throats we cut.”
Cheng Xiao Ting followed with a wolfish grin. “Exactly! In the first two rounds, we killed so many instructor teams we probably wiped out at least a company. Maybe a battalion.”
“And even thirty Legion Commanders died by our hands. Tsk.”
The instructors’ faces tightened.
But they couldn’t do anything.
They were only here to ensure safety and distribute supplies. They couldn’t hunt cadets. They could only talk.
Just as they were about to announce that 6:30 had arrived, Jiang Tea Tea’s squad moved.
The hunt began.
Yan Yu, a fox-clan beastfolk with blink ability, vanished and reappeared behind the closest target. His soft red blade flashed. A throat opened.
Cheng Xiao Ting, a wolf-clan beastfolk with gale ability, charged forward, whipping sand into the air to blind people before cutting their throats.
Ju Que, a feline beastfolk, moved with him. The two of them harvested targets together so fast the victims couldn’t even react.
Jiang Tea Tea kicked up sand.
In the swirl of dust, a long, finger-thick dry branch shot out of the ground.
She grabbed it and started whipping it through the crowd in brutal, indiscriminate strikes.
Male. Female. Pure human.
If her branch hit them, they hit the ground.
Huang Da Zhuang, Sui Xuan Chu, and Cheng Lin Yue followed behind her strikes, slashing throats with terrifying efficiency.
Most of the cadets attacking them were A rank, S rank, or 2S rank. There weren’t many 3S fighters at all.
The people who’d tried to surround them had underestimated them.
By the time they understood how terrifying this squad really was, it was too late. They couldn’t escape.
About ten minutes in, Cheng Xiao Ting unleashed his gale-sprint ability and kicked up a sandstorm so thick it blotted out the sky.
Using that storm as cover, Jiang Tea Tea’s squad stopped harvesting points.
They shifted to escape.
Everyone who could transform did—beast forms sprinting across the dunes.
Sui Xuan Chu shifted into a red-black dragon more than ten meters long, still carrying Zhang Ting Zhou. His tail cracked like a whip, and he let out a dragon roar.
Jiang Tea Tea used the force of his tail swing to leap up onto his back. She bent low and reached down toward Cheng Lin Yue. “Hand!”
Cheng Lin Yue lunged, reaching for her.
Their fingers nearly met—
Then the sand beneath Cheng Lin Yue collapsed.
She dropped, missing Jiang Tea Tea’s hand by inches.
Jiang Tea Tea’s face changed instantly. She jumped off Sui Xuan Chu’s back to rescue her—
And a long, forked tongue erupted from the sand, wrapped around Cheng Lin Yue, and yanked her down.