Qi Ye revealed his form, his expression exceptionally furious. Although he repeatedly told himself to stay calm, the behavior of this Mantis Warrior reminded him of things he loathed with a passion.

Extreme anger surged in his heart. No matter what, he possessed a human soul within him, and in his eyes, there was only one thought: to kill this arrogant and cruel Mantis Warrior.

A biting chill erupted silently from in front of Qi Ye, instantly enveloping the Mantis Warrior. Because the latter was already in the Hot Spring and soaked, it didn't even have time to react before being frozen into an icicle in an instant.

Because Qi Ye's surprise attack was so swift and near-silent, the Mantis Warriors outside the Hot Spring were unaware that a battle had taken place inside.

Qi Ye then wrapped the Mantis Warrior's entire body in flames to thaw it out.

As the frost receded, a dead Mantis Warrior floated quietly on the surface of the Hot Spring. It was completely dead and could not be resurrected while soaking in the Hot Spring.

Its corpse was perfectly intact; looking from the outside, one couldn't tell it had been attacked at all, as if it had died from an internal illness.

【Ding! Completed Beast Leader exclusive class achievement: Solo kill of a same-tier normal monster. Obtained 20 experience.】

"Do you want to escape?" After dealing with the Mantis Warrior, Qi Ye looked sympathetically at the tormented Horned Bunny and said to it, "I can help you."

There was no expected response. Because the sanity that had briefly returned due to pain had now receded again, the Horned Bunny's eyes became empty once more. Its spirit and soul had long since been annihilated by day after day of torture.

Qi Ye looked around at the other Horned Bunnys near the Hot Spring; their state was exactly the same as this one. They had long since given up on thinking and surviving; their hearts were already dead.

If not for the healing power of the Hot Spring keeping them barely alive, even if their bodies were intact, they would have died completely from mental collapse.

If it were him, shrouded in the despair of having no future, being gnawed on by natural enemies every day, mocked, and used as a target, unable to live but unable to die, he might also have been unable to bear it and suffered a mental breakdown.

Waiting for a while longer, not a single Horned Bunny responded to his words.

A profound sense of sadness arose in Qi Ye's heart. He sighed; if only he had come earlier, perhaps he could have saved these Horned Bunnys.

No, judging from their condition, perhaps months, or even a year ago, they had already been imprisoned in this healing hot spring.

Technology was originally meant to benefit living things, yet it had become a terrifying tool for torturing them.

Looking at this Hot Spring that had turned into a pool of blood, Qi Ye suddenly felt it was somewhat ridiculous. When these Otherworld technological structures were built, the builder's intention was clearly not this.

The Otherworld structure, originally used to treat living things, had now turned into the perfect food-manufacturing machine for evil monsters to imprison living creatures.

Buzz, buzz~

He heard more mantises heading toward the Hot Spring. If they discovered a comrade had died here, they would definitely search the area thoroughly.

Knowing he couldn't stay here any longer, he sighed inwardly, turned invisible, and left the Hot Spring.

This would not be his last time; he would return soon to investigate the operating mechanism of the healing hot spring, find its controls, and completely liberate this group of Horned Bunnys.

Just after he left, in a remote corner inside the Hot Spring, a smaller Horned Bunny struggled to lift its head, looking in the direction Qi Ye had left. A trace of clarity still remained in its eyes.

It was the only Horned Bunny in the group that was still barely keeping its consciousness.

It opened its mouth wanting to say something, but couldn't say anything. Seeing Qi Ye leave, it despairingly lowered its head.

In the distance, Qi Ye returned to Chocolate's side and jumped onto its back. "Chocolate, let's go."

Chocolate responded, carrying Qi Ye back along the original path.

During the trip, he also saw the giant mantis in the distance.

【Mantis Queen, Tier 4 Monster Lord, evil monster.】

It stood at the very center of the territory, clinging to a rotten tree, with over a dozen Mantis Vanguards scattered around, guarding it.

Its size was twice as large as the Beetle Lord Qi Ye had seen before. It was entirely emerald green. Just standing on the ground, it was a full five meters tall, more than three times taller than Da Huang. Its four-meter-long "large scythes" could easily slice all the residents of Qi Ye's territory in half. Its fat, thick abdomen twitched, seemingly gestating many egg sacs inside.

Returning to the territory, it was already dusk.

Qi Ye saw Fox Dad trotting over to report the battle situation with the Mantis Warriors just now.

With the Azure Ice Rat monitoring the whole way, plus the deliberate luring by two teams of Flame-tailed Fox warriors, they successfully lured the group of Mantis Warriors into the ambush they had set up.

Two Tier 2 Flame-tailed Foxes unleashed their newly learned fire Skills. Using C-rank Fire Wall and Fire Javelin Skills, they quickly annihilated them, not letting a single one escape.

Even if these Skills were C-rank, they were definitely not something ordinary Tier 2 Mantis Warriors could withstand. The scorching temperature burned the soil into scorched black earth.

And they also followed Qi Ye's orders, knowing to concentrate experience on Followers about to rank up, letting one Flame-tailed Fox take the kills. This Flame-tailed Fox successfully ranked up to Tier 2 and also Awakened the C-rank Fire Wall Skill.

As a result, the number of Tier 2 Flame-tailed Foxes reached five.

In this battle, two Flame-tailed Foxes suffered minor injuries, but for them, it could already be considered an epic victory.

However, Fox Dad told Qi Ye that besides that, it had another piece of new information.

Qi Ye had previously instructed it to observe the forest path on the west side of the territory more closely and to tell him if there were any signs of humans.

And just at the same time as eliminating the Mantis Warriors, a large group of people had arrived beneath the large cherry tree.

Fox Dad couldn't explain clearly how many people had come; it was somewhat incoherent. After holding back for a long time, it said: "In short, there are a lot of people!"

"Lord, you should go take a look."

Things were happening one after another.

The Adventurers had now refreshed into the dungeon; he didn't know if it was good or bad news for now, but Qi Ye had to go see it and take the initiative into his own hands.

Qi Ye took a deep breath and comforted himself not to panic. The appearance of Adventurers was something he had been mentally prepared for. He had Chocolate take him to the scene.

"Holy crap, this number is too large!"

After passing through the dense forest and seeing the Adventurers, Qi Ye was still stunned for a moment, his heart skipping a beat.

On the flat path, it was densely packed with humans. Estimating their number roughly, there were at least thirty people.

These humans were protected by the safe zone barrier, and the mission had not officially started yet.

Across the barrier, Qi Ye casually threw an Appraisal at an Adventurer and could identify them as a Tier 2 warrior, or a Tier 2 Barbarian, and there were even a few Tier 3 Adventurers among them.