The Team Crumbles

When they returned to the church, they found the surrounding area had been utterly transformed. The ground was riddled with craters, and the chaotic residue of elemental energy hung heavy in the air.

The infighting had clearly run its course. Where everyone had gone was another question entirely.

"Ningxue, are you all right?" Lu Zhenghe was the first to appear, rushing forward — until he saw Mo Fan's hand resting gently on her slender shoulder. His expression darkened in an instant. In a frigid voice directed at Mo Fan, he added, "I'll take it from here."

Mu Ningxue didn't spare either of them a glance. She simply moved to one side and sat down to rest.

True to form, Lu Zhenghe hovered around her like a persistent fly — a far cry from the composed commander he projected to the rest of the team. It seemed what Liao Mingxuan had said about him wasn't entirely wrong after all.

Mo Fan went to look for the others. He was especially concerned about Mu Nujiao — she was his gorgeous housemate, and he felt some responsibility for her well-being.

He swept the area without finding her, but he did run into Luo Song — Fatty Luo.

Mo Fan grabbed him by the collar before he could say a word. Fatty Luo immediately put on his most pitiful expression. "Alright, alright, I'll call you Big Bro, just ease up. She nearly killed me. She's over there — looks like she's come to. She's talking to herself..."

Luo Song did look like he'd been dragged through a ditch — battered, haggard, and clearly having burned through most of his Enchanted Gear. In terms of raw ability, Mu Nujiao had already mastered second-tier intermediate magic, which put her on a completely different level.

Mo Fan found her soon enough. Mu Nujiao was standing in the middle of a thicket of plants — all her own creation. Her gaze was unfocused, her expression distant. But the bloody crimson that had burned between her brows was completely gone, replaced by the serene, refined bearing she always carried.

"Jiaojiao, are you all right?" Mo Fan walked to her side and removed the necklace from his own neck, draping it gently around her dazed shoulders.

Life slowly returned to Mu Nujiao's eyes — and the emotion that filled them was fear. It was the look of someone waking from a nightmare, still half-submerged in it, shuddering at the memory of what she'd lived through.

"Don't be scared. I'm here." Mo Fan drew her soft, pliant frame gently against him, trying to warm her battered spirit with the solid heat of his embrace.

Being held like that, Mu Nujiao didn't react at all. Under normal circumstances, she would have leveled him with a single withering glare.

"I... what happened to me?" she asked, her voice small and vague.

She had little recollection of her own actions. All she could remember was Luo Song slandering the Mu Family — dredging up old rumors and half-truths that had made her blood boil. What had happened after that was lost to her.

"You were mind-controlled. But you're fine now — a good hug is all you need. Go on, hold a little tighter."

Mu Nujiao finally lifted her head. Those beautiful eyes, which had been trembling with fear moments ago, shifted to something sharper: suspicion.

And then it clicked. A flush of rose-pink bloomed across her cheeks, so vivid and striking that Mo Fan found himself momentarily at a loss.

At such close range, with that heart-stirring fragrance all around him, something stirred in Mo Fan's own chest. He wasn't going to do anything reckless — but he absolutely could not stop thinking about pressing a kiss to those soft, rosy cheeks and those shapely lips.

"Pervert." Mu Nujiao shoved the opportunistic scoundrel away.

Her feelings at that moment were probably much like Mu Ningxue's — if she'd had the energy, she would have strung him up and given him a proper thrashing. Not a shred of gentlemanly conduct.

Mo Fan, utterly unbothered, was in quite a good mood. He'd had his hands on not one but two goddesses tonight. Mu Ningxue was silky and impossibly soft — very pleasant, all told. Mu Nujiao's shoulders were fuller, her fragrance lingering in a way that was dangerously intoxicating.

"What about the others?" Mu Nujiao changed the subject before things could get any more awkward.

"No idea. Frankly, I couldn't care less," Mo Fan said without batting an eye.

"How can you be like this," Mu Nujiao said, rolling her eyes.

"Here, this is yours." Mo Fan handed back the small bead. "It was touch and go when I killed the Enchantment Spider — but I couldn't bring myself to use your protective charm."

Mu Nujiao returned the Focus Pendant to Mo Fan — and then she heard him murmur something about exchanging tokens of affection. The flush she'd just managed to suppress came rushing back, and she walked briskly away, not wanting to waste another word on this shameless man.

Her mind was still hazy from everything, and now, after being teased like that, her heart felt strangely muddled in ways she didn't quite want to examine.

Mo Fan and Mu Nujiao eventually found Zhao Manyan and Bai Tingting.

The two of them were unharmed. Zheng Bingxiao had not been so fortunate — struck head-on by one of Zhao Mingyue's intermediate Fire Element spells, he was barely more than a charred husk.

Bai Tingting was working ceaselessly to tend to his injuries, though whether he could hold on was anyone's guess.

To survive every Demon-Beast out there only to be burned half to death by a teammate — even if Zheng Bingxiao pulled through, the experience would likely hollow him out.

The night of infighting had left the team in ruins. Injuries everywhere, exhaustion sinking into every bone. But worse than the physical damage was what couldn't be healed: the trust between them was gone. Song Xia still lay unconscious; Zheng Bingxiao's body was covered in severe burns; Xu Dalong had lost an entire arm...

The team was in shambles. Each person retreated into their own shell, the atmosphere between them as strange and brittle as if the enchantment still lingered.

"Let's head back," Zhao Manyan said. "First thing tomorrow morning."

"I've had enough of this place," Luo Song agreed.

"We haven't finished the survey yet — we can't just leave..." Lu Zhenghe grew visibly flustered, as if the thought of everyone leaving genuinely unsettled him.

"We almost died. Survey be damned — I'm not spending another minute here," Xu Dalong snapped, frustration sharpening his voice.

His arm had been bitten off by Lu Zhenghe's Shadowmark Berserker Wolf.

Even accounting for the fact that Lu Zhenghe had been under the enchantment at the time, Xu Dalong couldn't forgive how far he'd taken it.

As for Mingcong and Liao Mingxuan — the two who had fallen deepest under the Spider's influence — Mingcong had vanished entirely, while Liao Mingxuan was physically present, crouched alone nearby, but the look on his face made everyone uneasy.

From the moment he'd come to, Liao Mingxuan had worn that same unsettling expression — somehow even more disturbing than when he'd been enthralled.

As for the missing Mingcong, the group was too spent to even begin searching. They would have to wait until daylight and comb the surrounding area — and if he still couldn't be found, there would be nothing more they could do.

Everyone was barely keeping themselves together. No one had anything left to give.

Who could have predicted that an Enchantment Spider would be lurking here? Who could have imagined that a well-assembled team of elites could be reduced to this in a single night?