Volume One, Chapter Four: The Mysterious Squad

Yue Shan was stunned for a moment, then his expression changed drastically.

“There’s a monster!”

Without time to think, his instincts took over and he shouted a warning to his teammates.

At the same time, he swiftly drew the saber at his waist and struck hard at the spider’s head.

With a splatter, the giant spider, upon seeing Yue Shan, opened its jaws and sprayed a mass of white liquid.

The liquid collided with his blade.

Upon contact with the air, the substance rapidly solidified into tenacious spider silk.

Seeing this, Yue Shan decisively abandoned his long saber and leapt backward.

A strange hissing sound came from the spider’s mouth as its limbs moved rapidly.

“Object Control!”

Yue Shan reached out, and the saber he had just discarded seemed to be guided by an unseen force, flying instantly back into his hand.

“Go!”

With a wave, he hurled the saber once more; like a guided missile, it shot toward the spider’s eye.

A metallic clang sounded as the saber was intercepted by the spider’s limb.

The razor-sharp alloy blade left only a shallow scratch on the creature’s shell.

“What a hard shell! Yueyue!”

Seeing his attack had been ineffective, Yue Shan called out to Sun Yueyue behind him.

“Coming!”

At his words, Sun Yueyue’s figure flickered, vanishing from her spot and reappearing at the spider’s side.

She drew two pistols from her waist and fired several rounds at its head.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A barrage of bullets struck the spider’s carapace, sending sparks flying.

“Augment!”

Li Ming, a member of the team, pressed his glowing golden palm to the ground.

A golden ripple spread outward in all directions.

In an instant, Yue Shan and the others seemed to be clad in golden armor, their weapons transformed as well.

Montage, who had been feigning unconsciousness, suddenly felt the spiritual energy within his body—long since depleted—begin to recover under the glow.

“What kind of power is this? It can even help people recover?”

Montage was astonished.

This group seemed to possess strange abilities, each one with a unique gift—just like the legendary Sequence Bearers.

Yet from their actions, they didn’t seem to mean him any harm; otherwise, they wouldn’t have spoken of taking him and the other bodies away.

Thinking this, Montage slowly opened his eyes, pretending to have just awakened.

[The Myriad Demon Fruit has formed. Do you wish to harvest it?]

As soon as Montage opened his eyes, a voice echoed in his mind.

"Myriad Demon Fruit?"

Startled, Montage entered his mental space.

Where the Myriad Demon Tree once stood, a small sapling, three or four meters high, had grown.

A pitch-black fruit hung from its branches.

As Montage gazed at the fruit, words floated before his eyes:

[Myriad Demon Fruit: Nine Faces]

[Usage: Consume, Cultivate, Synthesize]

[Consume: Eating it will perfectly inherit the ‘Faceless One’ talent.]

[Cultivate: Wait for the fruit to mature and fall, becoming ‘Nine Faces’. (Note: If nourished with your spiritual essence, the monsters cultivated from the Myriad Demon Fruit will obey the guardian’s commands absolutely.)]

[Synthesize: Combine different fruits to create an even more perfect Myriad Demon Fruit.]

Montage stared at the information for a long time, unable to recover from his shock.

This…

An inexpressible joy surged in his heart.

No wonder previous guardians said the Myriad Demon Tree possessed unfathomable power.

These three abilities alone were already extraordinary!

Though they seemed simple, each function held countless possibilities.

He could not only strengthen himself, but also cultivate guardians, and even synthesize the most perfect evolutionary path.

"This Myriad Demon Fruit seems to have formed by absorbing the power of the Nine-Faced Monster. Does this mean that as long as I have enough monster power, the tree can bear fruit endlessly?"

Montage quickly deduced how to use the Myriad Demon Tree.

Spiritual essence!

He needed to provide his spiritual energy to nourish the tree and help it bear fruit.

Having grasped the key, Montage was faced with a dilemma.

Now that there was a fruit on the tree and three options, consuming it was out of the question—he had no desire to become some inhuman monster.

That left cultivation and synthesis.

Synthesis was excellent, enhancing the fruit’s quality and leading to a more perfect evolution.

So Montage chose to cultivate.

After all, he currently had no means of protecting himself!

Survival came first; synthesis could wait until he was safe.

Right now, he desperately needed a guardian to ensure his safety.

"The information just now said I have to nourish the fruit with my own spiritual energy so it becomes an absolutely loyal servant, and it will mature faster."

With that thought, Montage poured his restored spiritual energy into the Myriad Demon Tree.

[Fruit maturity: 17%. Estimated time to full maturity: 20 hours.]

Montage stared at the remaining time, speechless.

So his spiritual energy only accelerated the process by four hours.

"Looks like cultivating a servant to solve the current crisis won’t work; I’ll have to rely on these people to survive."

He sighed inwardly and turned his gaze to the ongoing battle.

As the fight grew more intense, the team’s coordination left the giant spider battered and desperate. Two of its legs had already been broken, and it was driven into a corner.

The spider let out a silent roar.

The next moment, countless spiders the size of washbasins crawled from the shadows, instantly flooding the cathedral.

“Captain, we’re surrounded!” Wang Meng shouted.

“Abort the mission—retreat immediately!” Yue Shan was decisive; at the sight of the encroaching swarm, he gave the order and quickly regrouped with the others.

“Ready, move!”

Once everyone was gathered, Wang Meng scooped up Montage with one arm, grabbed Yue Shan’s shoulder with the other, and Yue Shan seized Sun Yueyue’s hand. The group formed a tight circle.

A heartbeat later, intricate patterns lit up beneath their feet, forming an array.

The giant spider gave another command, and the smaller spiders sprayed threads everywhere, engulfing the entire cathedral.

At that instant, the team vanished from the spot.

Moments later, a pink figure appeared in the cathedral, soon surrounded by the spiders.

Strangely, the spiders didn’t attack as before, but crouched low like pets.

“You fled quickly, didn’t you?”

A cold laugh sounded, and the figure stepped into the darkness, vanishing.

Wang Meng activated the teleportation, and Montage felt the world spin wildly. When he regained his senses, they were standing in a spacious plaza.

“That was close—we barely made it out,” Sun Yueyue patted her chest in lingering fear.

“But our investigation isn’t finished. We returned in such a sorry state—how will we explain this to our superiors?”

Everyone turned to their captain, Yue Shan.