Because he was now closer, Brian Cooper quickly noticed some details he hadn’t seen or paid attention to before. Most of the dead bodies on the ground were workers transporting green jade, but judging by their clothing, some of them were members of the guard responsible for defense.

In comparison, the workers had died miserably, while the guards seemed to have put up some resistance—some of them were still clutching their weapons tightly even in death.

But at the moment, it all seemed pointless, because everyone was dead.

The air around him was growing more and more foul, the stench of blood increasingly thick. Brian Cooper looked around, feeling as if he were standing in the very depths of hell.

He held his breath, steeled himself, then stepped over corpses, severed limbs, and pools of blood, heading toward the main gate of the green jade depot not far away.

This was the Fourteenth Green Jade Depot. Now, much of the outer wall was splattered with fresh blood. Needless to say, most of that blood had come from those now lying on the ground. But Brian Cooper still noticed something—despite the blood on the walls, the closer he got to the depot’s main gate, the fewer corpses and severed limbs there seemed to be.

From a distance, although there were still a few bodies lying near the gate, and blood and body parts were present, it still seemed a bit better than outside.

Brian Cooper’s spirits lifted. Although the scene before him was still horrific, it seemed to confirm his earlier suspicion: this green jade depot had not lost its effect. It was still emitting an aura that all the magical beasts of the inner ring dreaded and feared. At the same time, it might still be the safest refuge for anyone left alive!

With this thought, he strode forward and soon approached the main gate of the depot.

Standing outside the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, Captain and the other ninety-six people forming a circular formation all watched as Brian Cooper walked alone through that terrifying place. Some stared wide-eyed, while others were so frightened they didn’t dare look at all.

At the very front of the group, Captain’s expression was the most complicated, but he was also the most attentive to any unusual developments. Especially when he saw Brian Cooper about to reach the Fourteenth Green Jade Depot’s main gate, his heart leapt into his throat.

From his vantage point, the inside of the depot was pitch black and unfathomably deep, as if at any moment some terrifying monster might burst out and tear Brian Cooper to shreds, or swallow him whole.

This wasn’t just his imagination. In fact, years ago, both he and Brian Cooper had witnessed something similar firsthand—only back then, the unlucky ones who died weren’t them, but their comrades.

The inner ring was the most terrifying and dreadful place on this ancient continent, and not without reason.

Just as he was considering whether to shout at Brian Cooper to stop him from taking any more risks, suddenly, a shadow silently descended from the sky, enveloping him and the remaining ninety-six people from behind.

Captain shuddered all over and spun around. In the depths of his pupils, he was instantly swallowed by an indescribably vast darkness.

“Ah!”

A shrill, miserable scream instantly echoed through the forest.

※※※

Just as Brian Cooper reached the entrance of the depot, he was cautiously observing the corpses and bloodstains around him, inching his way inside while craning his neck to peer within, trying to see if some unimaginable monster was hiding there.

At that moment, he suddenly heard a scream from behind—a scream so harrowing he knew he would never forget it for the rest of his life. It was a cry of terror and despair that pierced the soul, trembling in the face of imminent death.

He spun around and saw, on the other side of the crowd, beyond the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, a monstrous creature had suddenly appeared above the people. Its entire body was pitch black, towering several stories high, with a pair of wings sprouting from its back, looking like some demonic apparition.

The creature’s face was hideously twisted, with a gaping bloody maw and four limbs, the front two ending in bone blades—hard and razor-sharp.

At that moment, as it pounced into the crowd, it let out a piercing, terrifying screech. Its forelimbs swept out, and in an instant, there was a chorus of screams and wails, blood spraying everywhere, people and horses thrown into chaos. At least seven or eight people were sliced in half at the waist at the same time, crashing heavily into the pool of blood.

Half of the survivors were petrified with fear, the other half trembling uncontrollably. Only a few managed to stay conscious, suddenly shouting, “Form up! Form up! Fight it!”

At the entrance to the depot, Brian Cooper, and Captain, who had just snapped out of his daze, both cursed loudly and then roared, “Don’t just stand there—run! Run! Scatter and run!”

Neither Brian Cooper nor Captain had ever seen or heard of such a terrifying monster before. Clearly, this was yet another unknown horror lurking in the inner ring, and no one knew why it had suddenly appeared here today to launch such a brutal attack on the humans.