Universe Infinite Canteen

Boggy glanced at the time again and her expression grew visibly more anxious.

At this rate, they wouldn't be able to reach the apartment within 50 minutes, let alone make it to the designated location to rendezvous with He Chengyu and the others.

She was inclined to speed up the team, but her reason told her that would be too dangerous. If it hadn't been for Guli scouting ahead just now, they would have likely run into that army of scorpions and been trapped in a fierce battle by this time.

Boggy's gaze finally settled on the huge backpack behind her.

The Fury Wings were fully charged. The straight-line distance from here to the apartment wasn't far, and the flight speed of the Fury Wings was sufficiently fast. More importantly, there were no obstacles in the sky.

But taking such action might draw the attention of some powerful beasts. When she landed, her situation would probably become extremely perilous. The most critical issue was, if Ma Lu was still by the apartment, this move could also put him in danger.

Just as Boggy was hesitating about whether to use the Fury Wings, Guli, who was scouting ahead, returned and spoke.

"I found something."

"What?"

"Traces of a battle," Guli said. "There seems to have been a fight here not long ago."

"Between wild beasts?"

"No, I found some traces left by humans."

On hearing this, Boggy perked up and quickly went to the place Guli mentioned. Mai Mai and Sadie were already there, arriving a bit earlier, and their faces looked very grim.

Seeing Boggy, Mai Mai didn't say anything but just handed over a pitch-black mask.

"The Villain Mask?"

Boggy took the mask, and her heart sank.

"This is what I found over there," said Mai Mai, pointing to a nearby ruin.

Kolete only made five Villain Masks. Each member of the Sunflower Squad had one, and all of theirs were on them, so it was obvious whose the mask at hand was.

And since Ma Lu's mask was here, that left the whereabouts of Ma Lu himself... Boggy didn't dare to think any further.

At that moment, Little Grey dragged something out from the rubble.

It was a piece of trouser leg, apparently from a Hunting Clothes, and Boggy also recognized the pattern on it, the same as the set she had helped Ma Lu buy in the equipment store, and she was stunned.

Seeing her dazed expression, Sadie and Mai Mai also looked as pale as death.

"Is the deputy leader... is he already..."

"No, that's not right," Boggy suddenly had a flash of insight.

"What's not right?"

"There's some distance from here to my apartment. If Ma Lu had successfully gotten the equipment I left behind, there's no reason why he would have come this far without contacting us," Boggy mused.

"Then why are his mask and hunting clothes here?"

Boggy vaguely sensed something, but felt the answer was too bizarre to consider.

The next moment, four steel bars suddenly shot out from the ruins, wrapping around Sadie's hands and feet, rendering her immobile.

Then, a sigh was heard.

Boggy didn't turn around; she chose to activate the Fury Wings immediately. However, just as her body left the ground, two more steel bars sprung out from under a slab of concrete, tightly wrapping around her legs.

Boggy turned up the power of the Fury Wings to maximum, but she still couldn't free herself; and the straps on her backpack broke first, snapping in two.

The jetpack, freed from its constraints, shot straight into the sky like a rocket, but Boggy remained rooted to the spot.

Guli looked up at the Fury Wings, which had hit the ceiling and was now bouncing around wildly before getting stuck between two solar panels, and then he sighed.

"Why did it have to be this way? Things didn't need to get this ugly. If you hadn't found out, you could've quietly died in the beast tide."

"It was really you all along, Uncle Guli," Boggy's eyes filled with disbelief, "Why?"

"All of this was done to protect the honor left behind by Captain Li," stated Guli solemnly.

"What do you mean?"

That's when Mai Mai suddenly interjected, "It was you who hired Black Horn to attack us, not Chi Qi! It was you!"

"Correct."

Perhaps because there were no outsiders nearby, Guli readily admitted it this time, looking at Boggy and speaking openly.

"Chi Qi is a good kid, I told him that as long as he could kick you out of the Hunting Group, I'd make him the deputy leader, so he's been working hard against you.

"But he didn't have the guts or the money to hire Black Horn. His father is a hopeless gambler, and he already owed Black Horn a large sum of money because of his father's debts."

Thinking further, Boggy's eyes widened with even more shock, "The Golden Leopard only attacked Chi Qi last time, then disappeared..."

"True to Li's daughter, you've inherited your father's sharpness," praised Guli.

"Although you've realized it late, the truth is just as you guessed. After Jinjian died, I was worried you guys already knew something. Luckily, after a few encounters with you, your attitude towards me didn't change.

"However, I noticed you were always watching Chi Qi, and I was worried you might contact him privately, so I had to take him out first."

"But the bite marks on his neck..."

"Those were from the teeth of a Grey-Spotted Cheetah, no different in size from the Golden Leopard's. I had prepared earlier, hiding it on my person for just this moment."

"Speaking of which, I owe you one for your spectacular performance against the Earth Dragon, which drew everyone's attention, allowing me to take action so easily.

"Just a pity about Chi Qi, it wasn't easy to find such a promising young one, and now he's gone."

"But why?" Boggy was puzzled, repeating her previous question, "If it was for the sake of the Harpist Hunting Group, didn't you already have it?"

Guli moved his fingers and a steel bar pierced Mai Mai's hand, pinning her left hand, which she'd been trying to secretly grasp the Destroyer with, to the ground.

Mai Mai, sweating with pain, said, "There's a bit of personal grudge in this too, right?"

Guli did not deny it, "I've tolerated you for a long time, you were the most vehemently against me when I became the acting leader, even willing to leave the Hunting Group and give up being a Hunter."

"I always thought there was something wrong with you," Mai Mai said while gasping for air.

"What's wrong with me?" Guli asked.

"Day in and day out, all you talk about is the glory of the Harpist, the honor of Li, and how you impose these things on others, living as if you've been wronged deeply. Do you really think Li would care about any of that?"

Guli fell silent for a long moment upon hearing this, then summoned another steel bar to pin Mai Mai's left foot to the ground too.

"Shut up!"

Mai Mai grimaced in pain but managed to squeeze a smile on her face, "Ha, looks like I hit the nail on the head, and that's why you're so furiously ashamed."

"You don't understand what Captain Li meant to me. A hero like him should be perfect; I won't allow him to have any stains in this world."

"So that's why you want to kill me?" Boggy took a deep breath, "You think I'm his stain."