Evan kept his eyes on the battlefield, analyzing the situation with a calmness that didn’t match the chaos around him.

  The beast swarm looked terrifying, but in truth, most of them were Tier?1 creatures.

  Only eight or nine were Tier?2.

  Their escort team had six Breaker?tier evolvers — more than enough to handle the Tier?2 beasts.

  The real problem was the sheer number of Tier?1 beasts.

  Tier?1 beasts matched Chrysalis?tier evolvers.

  There were over fifty of them.

  But the escort team had barely twenty Chrysalis?tier fighters left standing — and many were injured.

  Evan understood the key:

  Reduce the number of Tier?1 beasts, and the entire situation stabilizes.

  And he just happened to have the perfect weapon for that.

  He flashed Wendy Lewis a quick smile and pulled a small skull from his pocket.

  The Wailer’s Skull.

  A Tier?2 relic.

  A priceless one.

  Elias Zhao had spent a fortune acquiring it for Liam Zhao’s protection.

  Like extracts, relics varied wildly in value — even within the same tier.

  Most relic skills consumed stamina or evolution energy.

  But the Wailer’s Skull?

  It delivered a devastating mental attack, and its cost was tiny — just a bit of mental energy.

  It was so efficient that even a non?evolver could use it.

  That was how Liam Zhao, before his first evolution, had managed to kill Princess Zhu Zhi — simply by using this relic.

  Wendy’s eyes widened when she saw it.

  “That’s… the Wailer’s Skull?”

  “You recognize it?” Evan asked, genuinely surprised.

  “I’ve read about it in research journals.” Wendy gave him a long, meaningful look. “Your background is even more impressive than I thought.”

  “And your knowledge is deeper than I expected,” Evan replied with a grin.

  “Go. Be careful.”

  “Got it.”

  Turning the Tide

  Evan pushed through the formation and stepped to the outer edge — directly facing the swarm.

  The hunters stared at him in disbelief.

  Why is the pretty boy running to the front?

  Is he insane?

  Evan scanned the battlefield, found the densest cluster of Tier?1 beasts, and raised the skull high.

  Then he shouted — loud enough to draw their attention.

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  Dozens of beasts turned toward him.

  And locked eyes with the skull.

  In that instant—

  Ten Tier?1 beasts were hit by the Wailer’s mental blast.

  Two collapsed immediately, unconscious.

  The others staggered, froze, or swayed unsteadily.

  “Don’t just stand there! Attack!” Evan barked.

  The nearby hunters snapped out of their shock and charged.

  Within seconds, they cut down the stunned beasts.

  Ten beasts gone — just like that.

  The pressure on the team dropped dramatically.

  Hunters stared at Evan with wide eyes.

  The “pretty boy” they’d mocked all day…

  had just saved their lives.

  But Evan wasn’t doing great himself.

  Using the Wailer’s Skull on ten targets at once had drained nearly half his mental energy.

  His vision blurred, his face went pale.

  He rubbed his temples, forced himself upright, and sprinted to another flank.

  Then he did it again.

  Another eight beasts fell.

  Now the swarm had dropped from over fifty to just above thirty.

  The hunters could finally breathe.

  They weren’t winning — but they could survive ten minutes.

  And the person who turned the tide…

  Was the one they’d dismissed as useless.

  “Guess the pretty—uh, the kid’s got some real power.”

  “That relic… damn, that’s a treasure.”

  Many hunters stared at the skull in Evan’s hand with naked greed.

  But before anyone could act on those thoughts—

  Someone finally noticed.

  “Wait… where’s Li Carter?”

  The highest?paid Chrysalis?tier evolver — gone.

  Evan had noticed long ago.

  The others only now realized the man had vanished.

  “Did he run away?”

  “Seriously? He’s getting fifty thousand a day!”

  Anger and resentment spread quickly.

  But before they could dwell on it—

  A rustling sound came from the forest.

  The beasts suddenly grew restless, parting to form a path.

  Something powerful was approaching.

  “Another beast? This one’s Tier?2!”

  “No… look at the reaction. It’s at least Tier?2 A?grade… maybe even S?grade!”

  Until now, only Tier?1 beasts had been joining the swarm.

  Tier?2 beasts were territorial — Beast King’s Roar could only influence those within a limited radius.

  That’s why only the initial eight or nine Tier?2 beasts had appeared.

  But now—

  A new Tier?2 beast was coming.

  A strong one.

  The Breaker?tier hunters’ faces tightened.

  They were barely holding off the existing Tier?2 beasts.

  If a stronger one joined…

  They might collapse.

  The rustling grew louder.

  Then the creature emerged.

  A massive gray?brown salamander, over two meters long, tail sweeping the ground like a whip.

  “An Undying Salamander!”

  A Tier?2 S?grade beast.

  One of the hardest to kill.

  The Breaker?tier hunters’ expressions turned grim.

  Evan’s expression twisted into something complicated.

  Of all the beasts to appear…

  It had to be the one he wanted to hunt.

  But this was the worst possible timing.

  A Tier?2 S?grade beast was far beyond what he could handle.

  Yvonne was locked in a duel.

  The hunters were barely staying alive.

  No one could spare the strength to fight this monster.

  And Evan himself was nearly spent — his mental energy was almost gone.

  He couldn’t use the Wailer’s Skull again.

  The situation, once stabilized, was now spiraling toward disaster again.

  Evan saved the team once — but fate isn’t done testing him.

  The Undying Salamander has appeared, and the battlefield is collapsing again.

  If you were Evan, what would you do next?