After leaving the team, the adventurer ladies regretted it deeply

"Hmm?"

Gradually, Lin Da sensed something too.

A bloody scent drifted in the hot wind blowing in their faces.

The Scorching Gorge was at least two thousand meters away from here.

To smell blood from so far away?

How many lives had perished in the Scorching Gorge?

Lin Da's expression changed.

Only some exceedingly terrifying magical creatures could cause slaughter of such magnitude!

He grabbed the still-dazed Kafni, urging, "Don't just stand there, let's leave quickly, the sooner the better!"

Only then did Kafni snap out of her trance, becoming alert again.

Unbeknownst to her, a layer of fine sweat beads had formed on her forehead.

The malevolent and intense aura emanating from the gorge was nothing like the slimes could emit.

It was like a pitch-black fog, devouring everything around it.

Unlike ordinary magical creatures. Moreover, that evil aura was mixed with a hint of human presence.

Such a unique aura... it was, a witch!

Kafni shivered uncontrollably.

The day before yesterday, when Lin Da acquired the "Witch Purification" skill, she was brimming with confidence to hunt and purify all witches.

Now, she realized how foolish that idea was.

The terrifying magic power scent from the gorge was probably close to level 25.

A monster that she and Lin Da couldn't handle today!

...

At this moment, within the Scorching Gorge.

The steep rock walls on both sides were like swords thrusting into the sky.

The twilight rays fell on the red rocks, casting a blood-colored veil all around.

The pungent smell of blood permeated the atmosphere, and in view were numerous human bodies.

There were about twenty bodies, all clad in the silver armor of the Holy Light Church, with capes bearing a totem, a cross enveloped in holy light.

The Holy Light Totem was the knights' faith, but these capes, deemed their pride and honor, were now tattered and torn, including the hard armor on their bodies, which bore deep marks as though they were slashed by beast claws.

Many knights had their fatal wounds on their necks, their throats directly torn open. Their faces were frozen in expressions of agony, their bodies still warm, and blood flowed freely, staining the earth red.

"Let me go, please spare my life!"

A knight with a golden ponytail, threw her sword aside in fear.

This knight, named Tanya, had completely lost her will to fight, including her faith in the Holy Light Church, which crumbled together.

Anyone who saw nearly twenty level-20 paladins slaughtered like chopping vegetables by that beast girl would feel devastated!

Tanya had received a guarantee from her captain before setting off, saying it would be easy to capture a level-20 beastman and earn a lot of merit.

In fact, they were wrong. The captain was killed by the beastman in an encounter, and what Tanya saw was blood and gore, with her teammates clutching their torn throats, writhing on the ground like maggots in their agony.

A witch... undoubtedly, this beastman was the Catastrophe Girl, said to be capable of destroying a city!

Tanya looked fearfully straight ahead.

There stood a girl with light blue short hair.

Her slanting bangs covered one eye, she wore a black crop top, revealing a slender waist with clear muscle lines, covered by a white sunshirt, while her lower body sported navy-blue combat shorts, her long legs powerful, and her brown short boots stepping in the blood stains.

Behind her trailed a fuzzy white wolf tail.

At this moment, the girl's hands transformed into beast claws, her nails as sharp as long blades.

Her claws dripped with the paladins' blood, her tail hung low, its movement minimal even as she walked.

This was a combat stance, ready to pounce on her prey at any moment.

The most hair-raising aspect was, amidst the carnage around her, this beast girl chewed expressionlessly on a piece of gum made from Slime gel.

She tried hard to blow a huge bubble, but each attempt ended in failure.

The repeated failures made her mood extremely foul, the expression on her beautiful face cold enough to cool down the entire Scorching Gorge.

"Please spare me, I will definitely quit the Holy Light Church and never dare to go after witches again, I promise...!" Tanya, trembling, bowed her head low, her hands supporting her on the ground, not daring to look up at the other party.

"Why should I spare you?"

The beast girl examined the bodies on the ground and spoke indifferently, "If you can get me a local adventurer's ID from White Dove City, I might consider it."

"Uh... that... I belong to the Holy Light Church of Red Heart City, but, give me some time, I can get it for you!"

Tanya said anxiously.

"I need it now," the beast girl's voice was utterly flat.

"Please, please have mercy on me?" Tanya resorted to pleading emotionally, wiping her tears as she spoke, "My husband and children are waiting for me to come home. If I can't make it back... They will be heartbroken too! Please have some sympathy, give me a chance."

The beast girl with light blue short hair stopped, her tail, which had been hanging, stood erect.

She narrowed her eyes at Tanya, "Husband? Children?"

As a young beastman in her early twenties, she hadn't yet experienced those things.

"For their sake, is it worth giving up the honor of a knight to beg for mercy?" said the beast girl.

Tanya nodded eagerly, "If it were before I was married, never! But now, for their sakes, I would do anything."

"Then I cannot possibly let you go. If you return, your husband and children will just keep causing me trouble,"

the beast girl sneered.

"Remove weeds thoroughly; that was a lesson her old team captain had taught her."

Beast claws flashed.

In an instant, blood spurted!

Tanya, a level 20 Paladin, couldn't withstand even a single blow.

After killing everyone, the girl stood still.

Her eyebrows slightly furrowed, a hint of pain flashing across her face.

Because of Tanya, she was reminded of her days as an adventurer, and the captain of that adventure team.

A silent, odd man wearing a mask.

Once hailed as the man from the Southern Fire Empire with the most potential to reach the top of the World Tree.

"—Lulu, you've been kicked out of the team," he said.

Three years later,

those cold words, spoken by the captain who was like a magical automaton, still cut through the Beastman girl's heart like a knife.

Before she could take her revenge on that heartless captain, he mysteriously disappeared shortly after kicking her out of the team, leaving no trace behind.

It had been three years since that day.

Remembering the days in that adventure team, Lulu felt only confusion

and resentment towards that captain.

In the World Tree Secret Realm, despite her meticulous execution of his orders, setting off traps just as directed, she was still ruthlessly kicked out of the team in the end.

No matter how much she contributed to the team, he dismissed her as a 'useless early-game character'. Though the team members were all living beings, in the captain's eyes, everyone seemed to become mere data on paper.

Strange not only in personality, the captain's name was also very weird.

It was 'Dai Lian * Zhaowo * 15729570347.'

Lulu truly began to pay attention to this odd person when he inadvertently stroked her head in the Back House, revealing her real name.

A name only she knew.

'Captain Lin Da.'

The captain of the Primordial Adventure Team, Lin Da.

He had rescued her from slave traders, made her into an adventurer, then stripped her of her equipment and kicked her out of the team with a single gesture!

This Captain Lin Da had vanished into thin air three years ago!

Recently, Lulu received news that in White Dove City, a somewhat famous adventurer from the Snow Goose Adventure Team, who served as a Healer, was named Lin Da.

Although she felt it was highly unlikely that he was her former captain, she still came.

Arriving just as White Dove City had an important mission assigned by the higher-ups and with a suspected former captain present, Lulu had high expectations for this trip.

"Surprise, isn't it? Three years have passed, and the trash you kicked out has transformed into this," she said.

Lulu looked self-mockingly at her bloodstained beast claws.

As a witch, the magic power flowed through her veins, bringing tremendous strength along with its binding contract.

This power, obtained at a cost, made Lulu feel ashamed yet also drove her to hide the fact that she had become a witch, wanting to confront him with pride.

Even as a witch, even as a lapdog of the Demon Realm.

The 'useless' team member he had once kicked out had also become a formidable figure.

"Could that 'Eye of Wisdom' from the Snow Goose Adventure Team be you?" she wondered.

Lulu gazed towards White Dove City to the south, appearing as a mere speck, her icy, dead heart seemingly beginning to beat again.

...

South of Scorching Gorge, on the sparsely covered Barren Plains, two adventurers were racing towards White Dove City.

"A witch?" Lin Da asked, eyes wide in disbelief as he ran, hearing Kafni's explanation.

"Are you sure you're not mistaken? Witches aren't cabbages in the field that you see whenever you want!"

Having been on Mystic Continent for three years, Lin Da had only heard of witches in drunken tales from adventurers at the tavern.

Lin Da looked back, the massive Scorching Gorge stood like a giant on the plain. Despite their desperate efforts to distance themselves, they could still see the threatening gorge.

It seemed like the gorge itself was the witch.

"I'm never mistaken!" Kafni snapped, annoyed by Lin Da's disbelief, "I am a Deity, after all. Show some faith in your Deity!"

"Yet you don't even know how to extract a Demon Core."

"Hmph, would you study the dining etiquette of ants?" Kafni taunted. She opened her mouth to belittle Lin Da further, but suddenly, her expression changed dramatically.

"This is bad..."

"What is it?"

Lin Da asked, feeling a bad premonition himself.

Despite the scorching sun overhead, a chill seemed to envelop him.

It was as if a huge, icy fog was rapidly approaching from behind.

Kafni's face turned pale: "She's coming... that witch, she's found us! And she's getting closer!"

"What?"

Lin Da frowned deeply, turning his head. About a thousand meters away on the plain, a small black dot was hurtling towards them like an arrow.

The wild dust surged up, resembling an out-of-control mud dragon.

...

(PS: Please keep following the story!)