Astral Apostle

The bear's leather armor with a fur collar on its body had inherited the characteristics of the Claw Rending Bear. It provided him with superior defensive capabilities, making it difficult for ordinary thrusts and slashes to pierce through.

Zhou Jing stirred up a storm in the group of Subterraneans, killing to his heart's content and shattering the other party's formation.

As he casually cut off the throat of one of the Subterraneans, the interface suddenly flashed at this moment.

[Will·Wood (Apostle Serial #001) died primarily from ambush.]

[Completed revenge against the culprits]

[The evaluation of this Astral Apostle has increased slightly.]

[You can inherit a certain ability of Will·Wood at no cost… Assessing, no uninherited abilities currently available.]

[Triggered achievement: Revenge must be sought!]

[Milestone [Avenger] Progress: 1/5]

"Huh?" Zhou Jing was slightly stunned.

Revenge must be sought? He could not find this in the achievement list. It seemed to be a hidden achievement. This was the first time he had triggered such an event.

That meant that the Subterraneans were the ones who killed Will·Wood.

It seemed that there was a special reward for avenging the previous Astral Apostle…

Hooomph!

At this moment, a bone spear stabbed at him.

Zhou Jing quickly came back to his senses, raising his left blade to cut off the arm of the enemy holding the spear. Then, he stabbed forward with his right blade, piercing through the enemy's eye socket and straight through the back of its head.

He picked up the enemy's body and threw him to the side, smashing a Subterranean who was approaching him. The red and white juices from the corpse's head splattered all over the ground.

Zhou Jing composed himself and did not continue to check the interface. He focused on dealing with the enemy in front of him. At this moment, Barong and the others also charged in.

The Subterraneans already could not hold Zhou Jing back. Thus, when Barong, Weiss, and the others joined the battle, they instantly crushed the Subterraneans.

The ten soldiers from White Plains Town formed a simple battle formation. Although they were not as overwhelming as the three Mutant Beast Hunters, they made steady progress and killed all the approaching Subterraneans like a meat grinder.

In just a few minutes, the battle was over. Dozens of Subterraneans were left lying on the ground.

Only a few Subterraneans were still intact and alive. They were tied up—their faces filled with fear as they screamed.

Barong looked at the corpses on the ground and felt like he had vented his anger. He turned to Griff and said, "Go and interrogate the survivors and get them to take us to their nest."

Griff nodded and did as he was told. Although they didn't understand the language, they had interacted with the Subterraneans before. Nonverbal communication was enough for them to communicate. Furthermore, they could speak with their blades, so they weren't worried that the Subterraneans wouldn't understand what they were saying.

The hunters of Frostwood Village were not merciful to the Subterraneans. They couldn't let down their dead companions.

Zhou Jing did not participate in the interrogation. Instead, he wiped his long blade as he shook his head secretly.

The Subterraneans that he had found quite troublesome in the past were now easily dealt with. He might have even been able to solo all of them if given enough time. It was a complete crushing defeat.

Although it was quite enjoyable to torture noobs, Zhou Jing did not feel a sense of excitement from doing this.

Although he was gradually getting used to killing, he was not too interested in it. What he liked was to fight back and forth and engage in intense battles with powerful enemies. The latter made him more excited.

"There's no point in bullying noobs… Looks like I have a bit of the berserker genes."

Zhou Jing smacked his lips and opened the interface to carefully look at what he had just triggered.

After exploring for a while, he confirmed that there was a "revenge mechanism" in the Astral Apostle system.

When an Astral Apostle died to someone, he could use the subsequent Astral Apostle to take revenge. By killing the murderer, this mechanism would be triggered, and he would receive a special reward.

Firstly, it could increase the evaluation of the current Apostles of the Astral Realm, be it through death or clearance settlements.

The second was to obtain a new "free inheritance slot" like the death settlement and obtain a certain ability of the dead Astral Apostle.

Because the current Jason·Wood had inherited all of Will·Wood's abilities, it did not take effect this time.

The third was to trigger a special achievement. [Revenge must be sought] was a repetitive achievement. Every time he completed his revenge for an apostle from an Astral Realm, he would trigger it.

The rewards were uncertain. Different amounts of rewards would be given based on the strength of the dead Apostle and the capabilities of the murderer.

This time, he only gave 500 Astral Points for the achievement of [Revenge must be sought], which was probably because Will·Wood had yet to become a supernatural being, and the enemy was only an ordinary Subterranean.

In addition, every time he completed [Revenge must be sought], he would accumulate the progress of the milestone [Avenger]. After completing it five times, he would be able to trigger this milestone.

This was the first time Zhou Jing had triggered a milestone. It was a special type of achievement. He had to complete the relevant actions many times before he could truly trigger it. The rewards were naturally more generous than ordinary achievements.

"In this case, if every Astral Apostle dies an unnatural death, this achievement can be quickly triggered…"

Zhou Jing thought for a while before shaking his head and laughing.

Although it was a tempting proposition, he had no intention of deliberately sending himself to death. He felt that the time cost was not worth it.

He was not denying himself the opportunity either. He felt that he would have many chances to die in the future.

"There's no need to force it. Just slowly accumulate it."

Zhou Jing shook his head and consoled himself.

At this moment, everyone's interrogation of the Subterraneans had also ended. After killing two more people, the remaining Subterraneans finally learned to cooperate.

"Let's go," Barong said to Zhou Jing.

After hearing this, Zhou Jing put away his blade and followed.

...

Following the Subterraneans who led the way, the group carefully advanced.

Everyone did not completely trust the enemy and kept an eye out, afraid that they would be led into a trap.

They maintained their caution all the way until they arrived at the entrance of the Subterraneans' nest.

The entrance was situated in a hole hidden behind the tree vines. It was very well hidden, and if one did not look carefully, it was easy to ignore it.

Everyone hid in the trees not far away, covering their figures and looking into the distant hole.

They had already searched the vicinity and quietly dealt with the few Subterraneans sentries near the entrance of the nest.

Barong turned around and stroked his beard as he pondered. "We don't know how many people and traps there are in the Subterraneans' nest. If we rush in rashly, we might encounter danger."

"Good point." Weiss nodded. "Then you should take the lead."

Everyone silently turned to look at him.

"What are you looking at? I'm just here to help. You're not going to let me be the first to rush in, are you?"

On the other side, Griff thought for a moment before suggesting, "Why don't we light a fire and force the Subterraneans out?"

"That's worth a try." Barong nodded.

Everyone quickly prepared a large pile of dry firewood and started smoking the hole.

Zhou Jing did not have any objections. He did not intend to teach everyone how to protect the environment and prevent mountain fires.

Flames lit up in the hole, and there were sounds of chaos inside.

Soon, countless Subterraneans surged out. At a glance, there were no less than a hundred of them. They were tall, short, fat, and thin, all holding weapons.

The people hiding around were about to attack them when…

"Aooooo —"

At this moment, a strange beast's roar suddenly came from the hole.