The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

Another voice came from afar: "No one here either." One after another, from different directions. The high-explosive armor-piercing shell left a charred mark on its skin, not deep.

Looking at the beast's corpse, Professor Wang couldn't help but ask, "Captain Qin, could we keep a complete one...? We want to do some research on it..."

"No." Qin Zheng refused without hesitation, his eyes sharp. "An unknown ferocious beast, unknown abilities, even if it only has one breath left, it could cause casualties. Academic research is not as important as human life."

Professor Wang could only shut up in frustration, his eyes filled with regret.

Soon, a team member ran back to Qin Zheng, stood at attention, saluted, and shouted in a loud voice, "Reporting to Commander Qin! All the ferocious beasts have been annihilated! Not a single one survived!"

The professors finally felt relieved and quickly walked to the Taotie's corpse. They squatted down to examine it carefully, with Professor Wang touching the beast's rough flesh.

His voice still trembled: "It really is a Taotie... the legendary ferocious beast actually exists... what kind of place have we stumbled into this time...?"

"boom--!"

A deafening roar came from the direction of the ruins, and the ground shook violently. Debris flew everywhere, like a volcanic eruption, with countless rocks being thrown dozens of meters into the air before raining down.

Everyone tensed up instantly, raising their guns again as they had just lowered them, all firepower locked onto the collapsed tunnel entrance.

Smoke billowed, and from within it came heavy footsteps, thump, thump, thump, each step striking the rhythm of everyone's heartbeat.

The tunnel entrance, which had been blocked, was now completely blasted into a huge crater. Black mist poured out of the crater, carrying a cold and putrid stench reminiscent of the deepest hell, instantly enveloping the entire area.

When the figure was fully revealed, everyone in the room gasped, their pupils contracted sharply, and their minds went blank.

Ying Wenjie gasped, his voice trembling, "Holy crap! What kind of monster is this?!"

It was a gigantic evil spirit, seven or eight meters tall, whose body completely defied biological norms, combining human, beast, and demonic elements into one.

A figure emerged from the smoke and dust. It was much larger than the Taotie, standing seven or eight meters tall, resembling a moving three-story building.

The figure gradually became clearer in the smoke and dust—four legs as thick as cylinders, with a human-like torso and two long arms on top. Its head was not that of a wild beast, but a human head.

His face had clear, even handsome features, but his eyes were blood red, completely different from the green eyes under his armpits.

It has two huge, curved horns on its head, like ram's horns, coiled and pointing to the sky.

Deep within the armpits of the two forelegs, dark green orbs of light flickered on and off.

It emerged from the smoke and dust, looking down at the countless Taotie corpses scattered at its feet.

There was no anger, no sadness, just a few seconds of staring. Then, looking up, a smile-like expression appeared on the person's face.

His mouth parted, revealing blackened gums—and he let out a strange "hehehe" laugh, sharp and piercing, like fingernails scraping glass, making people's scalp tingle and their eardrums ache.

After laughing, it opened its mouth and uttered a series of obscure and incomprehensible syllables, like ancient witchcraft, babbling incoherently. No one could understand what it was saying, but they could sense its excitement from its tone.

He then looked at the crowd, his expression one of utter contempt and disdain, as if these humans wielding firearms were nothing more than ants waiting to be slaughtered.

No one understood the monster's words, but everyone understood its attitude. Contempt. That condescending contempt, that complete disregard for everyone.

Ying Wenjie swallowed hard, staring intently at the Taotie King before him, his voice trembling as he muttered softly, "This...this is the evil creature within the seal? The Taotie King? The ancestor who rules over all Taotie?"

No one answered him.

Meanwhile, on the top floor of Baotian City, Chen Hao was playing a game with Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing.

suddenly!

Chen Hao sensed a surge of energy. His eyes narrowed as he looked out the window towards the southwest. That direction? Was it towards Laoshan Mountain?

Chen Hao recalled the trending news he had seen on Yao Yao's phone, and his expression turned thoughtful.

Chen Siyao looked at the motionless Weilong lying on the ground on the computer screen, then turned to look at her brother and found him frowning, as if he was thinking about something.

He asked, puzzled, "Brother, what's wrong?"

Chen Hao snapped out of his reverie. "Oh, it's nothing. Let's continue looking for someone to clear the map." He then quickly started searching for people in the aerospace field using the Dragon engine.

Laoshan!

Everyone was stunned by the terrifying pressure, and the entire place was deathly silent except for the sound of the wind and the heavy breathing of the Taotie King.

Just then, the Gluttonous King opened its mouth. Not to speak, but to inhale. Its mouth opened wider and wider, exceeding the range that a mouth should be in human perception.

Its mouth was split to the base of its ears—no, it didn't have ears on its face; its mouth was split to the sides of its head.

Something was condensing in my mouth, a dark red light, like burning charcoal.

A blazing, crimson fireball rapidly condensed in its mouth, growing larger and hotter, distorting and scorching the surrounding air, and instantly drying and igniting the weeds on the ground.

"Get out of the way—!" Qin Zheng's roar tore through the night sky, but he was too late.

The fireball struck the tent cluster in the center of the camp with pinpoint accuracy, causing a deafening explosion that sent flames soaring into the sky, instantly vaporizing several tents.

Not a single wreckage was left behind; a huge crater several meters in diameter was blasted into the ground, with charred marks all around. A wave of heat swept over, making one's cheeks burn.

The most tragic incident involved a member of the Special Affairs Bureau who was closest to the fireball. In an attempt to push Professor Chen Jingshan away, who was unable to dodge in time, he was struck by the aftershocks of the fireball.

All the people saw was a flash of black light. The lower half of the team member's body was instantly vaporized by the high temperature. Before he could even scream, his upper body crashed to the ground, and blood instantly stained the ground red. He was completely lifeless.

"Xiao Liu!" Qin Zheng's eyes were bloodshot and filled with rage as he looked at the fallen team member. The anger and fear in his heart reached their peak.

Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his right hand and roared with all his might, his voice filled with boundless grief and determination: "Open fire! All firepower, unleash it! Fire!"

Instantly, all the heavy machine guns, rifles, and individual weapons opened fire!

Flames erupted as bullets rained down on the Gluttonous King. Armor-piercing rounds and pulse energy rounds from the heavy machine gun slammed into its body, producing a dense, crisp clanging sound, as if striking fine steel, with sparks flying everywhere!

This scene plunged everyone into complete silence, and an overwhelming sense of despair rose in their hearts.

Countless bullets struck the Taotie King, but they couldn't even disperse the black mist on its body, let alone penetrate its flesh and cause wounds!

Armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds were all deflected and landed on the ground without leaving even a white mark!