"It’s time to bring them out and find out what happened." Veronia began chanting a spell.
The guards crowded in the center of the hall were pushed back by an invisible force, leaving an open space.
Then, the space gate started to spin and released a series of dark figures.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, but all they saw were cold, lifeless bodies.
Thud! Thud!
One after another, heavy objects hit the ground. Each sound struck the hearts of the onlookers, making them feel suffocated and oppressed.
It wasn’t until Raymond, Ralph, Bobby, and Bucky walked out of the space gate that the crowd began to whisper.
"Only seven bodies? Did the rest of the junior guards just disappear?"
"Not just the junior guards. The examiners and the death row prisoners are all gone too."
"This is brutal. This isn’t a junior guard test-it’s a massacre."
...
Veronia shut down the space gate. Her gaze swept over Raymond and the others before finally landing on the unconscious Gregory lying on the ground. "Take him away. Get everything he knows out of him."
Then, Veronia turned to Raymond and the other two. "According to the rules, I have to congratulate you first for passing the first round. But what I really want to know is what happened during the test."
Ralph and Bobby quickly lowered their heads and stepped behind Raymond.
Raymond put on an innocent look. He casually handed over a tree branch and two broken steel needles.
He told the whole story of how Gregory had picked the lock on his own shackles and attacked Ralph and Bobby.
But he deliberately left out the part about Barron and the death row prisoners attacking the camp. He also acted like he knew nothing about the destruction of the other camps.
"So, the three of you subdued the death row prisoner Gregory, and then just stayed in the camp eating barbecue the whole time?" Veronia’s usually calm face instantly darkened.
"Raymond is lying!" Bucky rushed over to Quentin’s side and pointed at Raymond, screaming, "He teamed up with the death row prisoners to slaughter all the junior guards. He also killed my brother Barron and the other examiners!"
Quentin was shocked by this. He kicked over his chair and walked straight toward Raymond. "You bastard! So it was you, you little demon! You let prisoners loose to kill your comrades. You deserve to die!"
As he spoke, Quentin had already drawn the long blade from his waist, pointing the blade directly at Raymond.
Veronia, Grayson, and Marcus-the three officers-did nothing to stop Quentin. The crowd around them stepped back, waiting to see what Raymond would do.
"Stop!" Hal, Milton, and the other two suddenly burst out of the crowd and stood in front of Quentin.
"You’ve all seen the bloodshed. Raymond is the number one suspect! Are you trying to protect a criminal?" Quentin shouted, but he didn’t move any further.
He was about as strong as Hal and the others, so he wasn’t stupid enough to take on four of them alone.
Hal glanced at Raymond, then stepped forward and faced Quentin directly. "You say Raymond is a suspect. Where’s your proof? He’s just a junior guard. How could he possibly kill so many examiners and death row prisoners?"
Quentin couldn’t answer. He waved his hand and called over a few other captains under Marcus’s command.
Just as the two sides were about to come to blows, Raymond stepped between them.
"Captains, before you start fighting, how about checking these bodies first?" Raymond walked over to the corpse of a half-beast and sliced open its chest with his sword.
"How dare you! What are you doing?" Quentin didn’t expect Raymond to cut open the corpse. He rushed forward to stop him.
Bam!
Hilton suddenly slammed into Quentin from the side, knocking him flying.
"You bastard!" Quentin shouted, trying to draw everyone’s attention.
But the open chest of the corpse had already caught everyone’s eyes.
Layers of bones were covered in crystals, and inside the massive heart floated a glowing crystal core.
"That thing... that’s not a half-beast! Half-beasts don’t have crystal cores!"
"Look at those ribs! I swear half-beasts don’t grow bones like that!"
"Damn it! Only beasts have crystal cores inside them! That thing was either an orc, a magical beast, or a sea demon!"
"Disguising itself as a half-beast to sneak into Abyss Prison-it deserved to die!"
The crowd’s murmurs grew louder and louder, and Quentin’s face turned black as night.
In the center of the hall, Grayson looked at Marcus with a mocking smile and said meaningfully, "He seems to be one of your men, doesn’t he?"
Marcus ignored Grayson. He stared at Raymond and the corpse, his body radiating a strong killing intent. "How did you find out? I have every reason to believe you know some inside information that you shouldn’t."
As he spoke, Marcus suddenly appeared in front of Raymond, leaving a trail of afterimages behind him.
Ralph and Bobby, facing an Officer up close for the first time, were so scared they stumbled backward.
Raymond looked Marcus straight in the eye and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Of course I know the inside story. And I know a lot more than you think. Because-I killed all those beastmen, and Barron and his men too."
With that, Raymond leaned in closer to Marcus and grinned. "I’ve got dozens of memory stones on me. The recordings on them are quite interesting."
"You’re asking to die!" Marcus’s lips trembled with rage, and even his aura became unstable.
"Do you want to bet, sir, whether those memory stones will drag you down with me? I promise you, before you can lay a hand on me, those memory stones will scatter across this hall like raindrops. You don’t want to lose everything, do you?" Raymond looked completely unafraid.
He had already prepared to go head-to-head with Marcus ever since Barron tried to kill him.
Raymond didn’t care about Marcus’s strength or status. It was either both of them go down together, or Marcus swallowed his pride.
Marcus stared hard at Raymond. His chest heaved violently, and his face was filled with hatred.
"Marcus! An Officer personally bullying a junior guard-that’s too much!" Grayson shouted to remind Marcus, afraid he might do something outrageous.
Marcus patted Raymond on the shoulder, then turned to Grayson with a smile. "I was just praising our number one candidate. His sharp observation is exactly what a guard needs most."
Marcus changed his face faster than flipping a page. It caught Grayson off guard, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to respond.
Grayson even wanted to ask Marcus, "Have you lost your mind, old man?"
"Enough arguing! Raymond didn’t run into the examiner’s attack, but he did lead his companions to subdue a death row prisoner. He’s qualified to pass the test!" Veronia looked around and announced publicly that Raymond had passed the first round.
At that moment, Bucky, who had been standing behind Quentin the whole time, was completely dumbfounded.
He had planned to use Marcus and Quentin’s authority to take revenge on Raymond, like a fox using a tiger’s might.
But before he could get his revenge, Marcus had already backed down.
"Lord Quentin! This isn’t right! Raymond killed Barron! He deserves to die!" Bucky shook Quentin’s shoulders wildly.
Quentin looked annoyed and kicked Bucky away. "You bastard! How dare you question the decisions of the executive officers?"
Hearing this, Bucky let out a bitter smile.
He pulled out the secret potion Barron had given him and drank it in one gulp.
Smack!
The empty bottle hit the ground, and Bucky’s aura surged wildly.
Even the guards standing around him were forced back by the pressure.
Bucky drew his longsword and pointed the tip at Quentin. "Barron fought for you, and when he died, you wouldn’t even avenge him! You’re all just as guilty!"
Marcus realized that Bucky was trying to drag both him and Quentin down, and he instantly flew into a rage. "How dare you!"
With a roar, Marcus appeared in front of Bucky, leaving only a blur behind him.
"Marcus!" Veronia spoke coldly. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a commanding authority.
Marcus paused for a moment, then still grabbed Bucky by the neck and snapped it with a twist.
Bucky, whose strength had just been boosted to Black Iron Stage Level 20, glared at Marcus, then died on the spot, his eyes wide open in death.
At that moment, Marcus felt the eyes of the crowd on him. He knew that Bucky’s words had dragged him into the mess.
Marcus gritted his teeth, then spun around and kicked Quentin. "You bastard! How dare you recruit beastman spies behind my back and conspire with them to kill your own comrades! You deserve to die!"
Bam!
Quentin was sent flying by Marcus’s kick, straight toward Raymond.
In that split second, Quentin’s face twisted with changing emotions-struggle, regret, madness...
He knew. Marcus was cutting ties with him. He had been abandoned.
But he didn’t hate Marcus. Because if Marcus was kept safe, the beastmen’s mission to rescue General Warren still had a chance.
With that thought, Quentin glared at Raymond, pouring all his hatred onto the eldest son of the Lucian family.
"Raymond! You ruined my plans! You deserve to die!" Quentin roared, forcing himself to draw his long blade and swing it at Raymond.
A bronze-colored battle aura coated the blade of his sword, giving off a dazzling light.
"Hurry up and dodge! Quentin is at Bronze Stage Level 30!" Hal screamed. He wanted to help, but it was too late.
At the critical moment, Raymond lowered his body slightly and gently placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword.
Before this, when he had sparred with Hal and the others using only his bare hands, he had already been able to strike with the power of a Bronze Stage Level 25 fighter.
Back then, he hadn’t even practiced the Holy Hall Body-Tempering Technique yet.
Now, not only had he mastered the Holy Hall Body-Tempering Technique to the Master level, but he was also holding a custom-made longsword. He wasn’t afraid of Quentin at all.
Let me see if I can cut you down with one strike.
Raymond’s sword flashed out of its sheath as he slashed toward Quentin’s blade.
Clang!
A piece of the blade suddenly flew off and buried itself deep into the stone beam of the hall.
Only then did the surrounding guards realize that Quentin’s longsword was now missing a chunk.