Chapter 67: Evil spawn! Reveal your true form at once!

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Time rewinds to five minutes ago.
Accompanied by the explosion of a white smoke bomb, Wu Xian and the rest of the China Mainland Team suddenly appeared on a desolate street a few kilometers south of the Grudge House.
Turning their heads to look at the striking mushroom cloud in the distance, the veteran members, who had long prepared for the worst, still wore lingering expressions of fear.
Meanwhile, the newcomers stood frozen in place, clearly failing to recover from the brush with death.
"Damn! Which team is so devoid of martial virtue that they actually dropped a bomb right off the bat? Judging by the yield, it's not much less powerful than a Predator's micro-nuke!"
"Fortunately, the captain had the foresight to exchange for a high-tier defense item, otherwise just this single blow would have meant we'd basically lost half the team battle..."
"Whether it's the India Team or the West Sea Team, I can responsibly say this: they are completely doomed this time. My word, not even the Lord God can save them!"
"Is this the Lord God's Dimension? How dangerous. No wonder they make you sign something like a death waiver before joining this program, and on top of that, they hand out a major's rank right away—this is seriously playing with your life!"
...
Amidst the endless chatter ringing in his ears, Wu Xian couldn't be bothered to care. He had Zheng吒, the former office manager, handle it instead, and then asked Zhan Lan to scan the entire city of Tokyo to locate the members of the other two reincarnation teams.
After all this was done, he turned his attention to Chu Xuan, or more precisely, the white jade ring in his hand—
[Heaven-Guarding Ring – Originates from 'Pan-Xianxia', shaped like a circular jade pendant... Can be refined using active energy, activates abilities through thoughts, and materializes a powerful protective barrier of a certain range around the wearer's body. It effectively resists impacts of various attributes, shields against mental scans to a certain extent, and can withstand small nuclear explosions (until energy is depleted)...]
[Exchanging for this item requires one Grade B side quest and 5,500 reward points.]
This was a defensive item acquired by pooling resources after the group returned from the world of *Alien 1* for the second time. It had been casually mentioned by Zheng吒 in the original work, but its effect was unimaginably powerful.
This could be seen from the fact that everyone was currently unscathed; the defense capability of the Heaven-Guarding Ring was truly terrifying.
Of course, Zhan Lan's teleportation ability was also crucial. Otherwise, once the ring's energy ran out and everyone was left in an environment of high temperature and radiation, the veterans in their armor might have been fine, but the newcomers would probably have struggled to survive.
"How is it? Is there still enough energy inside?"
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Wu Xian stepped forward to glance at the white jade ring emitting a warm, gentle glow, and asked Chu Xuan, who had refined it.
"No problem, it's enough to get through this horror movie. Besides, I'm practically half a Qi practitioner now, so I can also recharge the Heaven-Guarding Ring."
Chu Xuan put the Heaven-Guarding Ring back into his space pouch, turned to look at the soaring flames in the distance, and said in a flat tone:
"Just as we anticipated, the other reincarnation teams chose to strike first, but resorting to such extreme measures right from the start suggests they must have encountered some special circumstances."
"There are many possibilities, but the most likely one is that Kayako in this world is even more troublesome than portrayed in the movie, causing multiple casualties in their team. To offset the penalty of negative points, the two teams have already clashed once."
"Based on your previous intelligence, the West Sea Team is a fairly powerful team of livestock-raisers. Therefore, the most probable scenario is that the India Team suffered heavy losses and ultimately called a truce by surrendering, or formed an alliance, preparing to concentrate their forces to deal with us, the China Mainland Team. The micro-nuke just now was merely a probe."
At this point, Chu Xuan looked at Wu Xian beside him: "Because of the team battle scoring system, we cannot hide the zero-casualty intelligence, which means a portion of our strength is exposed. As a result, those two teams will become even more united...
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of them backstabbing each other, especially the West Sea Team. Given the style of livestock-raisers, I guess their current objective is to complete the main quest and leave the Grudge world early."
Having listened to Chu Xuan's analysis, Wu Xian nodded, thinking to himself that having a strategist was truly great—it was like getting a perfect walkthrough before entering a dungeon; from then on, as long as the level was high enough, you could just brute-force your way through.
"Wu Xian, I've detected a fluctuation of mental scanning."
Just then, Zhan Lan's voice reached his ears. She raised a hand to press near her temple, closing her eyes in concentration, while the corners of her mouth slowly curled up.
"The location... still can't be locked down. Their mentalist has also discovered me and is trying to interfere with and shield my perception. However, her mental power isn't particularly strong. Give me a minute... Huh? Wait, a new mental fluctuation has appeared."
Zhan Lan stopped talking, the expression on her face gradually turning solemn as the blue gemstone on her forehead emitted a dazzling glow.
After a long while, she opened her eyes and said helplessly, "Their mental powers have fused, just like last time in the *Alien 1* world. The quality of their mental power has doubled, and I can't break through their defense in a short time.
Moreover, the mentalist who appeared later showed quite impressive skills, perhaps having unlocked the second-stage genetic lock. If it weren't for the brainwave amplifier, I'm afraid I would be the one being invaded."
"That must be someone from the West Sea Team..."
Wu Xian narrowed his eyes, then smiled at Zhan Lan, who wore a slightly apologetic look: "It doesn't matter. Keep the intrusion going, let them continue defending. Finding people is my job."
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"You?"
Zhan Lan asked, looking puzzled.
As a telepath, she knew very well how strong Wu Xian's mental power was, but his talents were almost entirely invested in combat. If he used mental scanning skills, it might not yield much of a result.
Could it be like in the movies, having Friday check the surrounding surveillance cameras to find people?
Wu Xian did not explain. Instead, hazy black Qi began to rise around his body, and his eyes lit up with a ghostly blue glow.
"If it were any other world, I really wouldn't have this ability, but it just had to be *The Grudge*, and they should all have been marked by now... Evil spirits! Show yourselves at once, what are you waiting for?!"
With that! He reached out and grabbed at the empty air beside him, matching his chuunibyo tone with an indescribable sense of dissonance.
However, the next second, the surrounding temperature seemed to plummet by over a dozen degrees. Even Zheng吒 and the others, wearing Vibranium armor, felt an eerie chill.
At that moment, a shrill scream rang out. A disheveled woman wearing a white robe emerged into view before everyone's astonished eyes, opening her pitch-black mouth wide toward Wu Xian and letting out a shriek mixed with terror.
Immediately afterward, her body trembled violently, and two thick wisps of black Qi drilled out from her chest, flying toward Wu Xian, while the woman in white rapidly faded and vanished from sight.
"Running away fast... But it doesn't matter. As long as you're still in this world, you can't escape the palm of my hand."
Looking at the spot where the woman in white—Kayako—had disappeared, Wu Xian gave a cold snort. Then, gripping the two wisps of black Qi that were gradually taking human form, he issued an order.
"Find the person most recently marked by Kayako's curse, right now, immediately!"
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Friends who have read up to here, if you like it, please be sure to flip a couple more pages to reach the active-reading interface (not shown beyond the top 100, but still useful). This is extremely important for a new book, please and thank you!
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