Half an hour later, the two of them entered the military district.
Under Kennedy’s arrangement, they boarded a military transport plane.
“Where is the mission location?” Leo asked as he sat beside Fire Rose.
Fire Rose replied briefly, “Ofard City, Yotfield State.”
Leo raised an eyebrow upon hearing Fire Rose’s response.
Although Leo had not been to Yotfield State, he knew that Ofard was the capital of Banna.
Banna Prefecture was located at the southernmost part of Yotfield State, connected to the Krumery and Brurgh mountains and rivers.
Fire Rose took out a tablet from her backpack and placed it between them. “Take a look at the photos first.”
Fire Rose operated the tablet with her fair fingers, opening the photo album, and the pictures appeared one by one.
When Leo saw the first photo, his face changed.
The photo showed more than ten bodies, with blackened faces and bleeding from their seven apertures, in a horrifying state of death.
From a traditional medicine perspective, these bodies were likely poisoned by a highly potent toxin.
He swiped the screen to continue looking at the other photos, all of which were bodies that died from poisoning.
Roughly counting, there were at least hundreds of bodies in all the photos.
Moreover, the clothing of the bodies was ordinary ethnic attire, which meant that the hundreds of deceased people in the photos were ordinary civilians.
“Who could have killed them with such brutal methods?” Leo exclaimed angrily.
“Based on the latest investigation report from over there, these people in the photos were all killed by a terrifying poison witchcraft,” Fire Rose explained.
“A poison witchcraft?” Leo hadn’t even considered that possibility.
Fire Rose thought Leo didn’t know what a witchcraft was, so she briefly explained what it was.
“Do you have any leads on who’s controlling the poison witchcraft?” Leo asked again.
Fire Rose tapped the screen a couple of times and enlarged a photo, “We’ve already found a clue, and it’s very likely that this person is responsible.”
On the tablet screen was an old man dressed in traditional Miao Clan attire.
The old man had a wax complexion, a thin and weak figure, extremely sinister eyes, blackened hands, and held a black wooden cane with a snake head carved at the top.
The Miao Clan was one of the ethnic minorities residing in Banna Prefecture, self-identified as “Meng.”
After pondering for a moment, Leo asked, “What is this Miao person’s name?”
“I don’t know his real name, but his nickname is Black Poison King,” Fire Rose replied.
“Black Poison King, is he the leader among the witchcraft masters?”
“Yes, but the title of Poison King is self-proclaimed. According to reliable information from our WONDER colleagues, he not only killed the old Witchcraft King but also several elder-level witchcraft masters, forcing the other witchcraft masters in the Miao village to recognize his position as the Poison King.”
“Killing the old Witchcraft King and seizing power, that’s an internal power struggle, understandable. But why did this Black Poison King kill so many innocent civilians? And how did you identify him?” Leo asked.
Fire Rose scrolled back to the photos of the deceased and zoomed in on the chest area, pointing at the heart. “Take a close look at the heart of the deceased.”
Leo’s gaze shifted to the left chest of the deceased as Fire Rose spoke. He noticed a conspicuous wound on the heart, with a black scorpion present at the site of the wound.
“This is the Venomous Wolf Heart-Eating Scorpion, the personal witchcraft worm cultivated by the Black Poison King. The reason why the Black Poison King killed so many innocent civilians is likely to feed the Venomous Wolf Heart-Eating Scorpion with their blood and hearts,” Fire Rose explained.
Leo clenched his fist tightly, exclaiming, “Truly wicked and vicious!”
“In order to enhance his power, the Black Poison King continuously kills people to feed the Venomous Wolf Heart-Eating Scorpion. So far, he has slaughtered an entire village. That’s why we must eliminate the Black Poison King as soon as possible!” Fire Rose stated firmly.
“There’s another set of photos. The cause of death for these victims remains unknown. Take a look,” Fire Rose said as she opened another album.
The album contained five or six photos, each showing two corpses. The bodies appeared normal in terms of their physical condition and appearance, without any signs of poisoning or external injuries causing their deaths.
The only noticeable aspect was the wide-open eyes of the deceased, which were as black as ink. At a glance, one might even think that the victims had lost their eyeballs.
Leo furrowed his brow tightly, his face showing an incredulous expression.
Noticing Leo’s expression, Fire Rose asked, “Have you figured out how they died?”
Leo had indeed guessed one possibility. The cause of death for these victims in the photos was very likely the extraction of their soul and spirit.
Demon Cultivators or Ghost Cultivators possessed an evil technique of extracting the three souls and seven spirits from living beings to refine evil artifacts and enhance their power.
“I’m not entirely sure yet. We’ll only know once we reach the scene,” Leo didn’t directly reveal his speculation. “Let’s focus on eliminating the Poison King first. We can’t let him harm more people.”
Fire Rose nodded in agreement.
In the evening, the plane landed at an airport on the outskirts of Ofard. After disembarking, Leo and Fire Rose transferred to a military off-road vehicle and headed towards a camp.
The journey was surrounded by dense vegetation and tall trees. Under the sunset’s glow, it presented a picturesque scenery.
When night fell, Leo and Fire Rose arrived at the camp.
The camp had simple facilities, with several military tents scattered around.
In front of one of the tents stood a few individuals.
As the car stopped, Leo and Fire Rose hopped off the off-road vehicle.
“Leo, you finally made it,” Abel spoke.
Leo smiled and greeted, “Mr. Wells!”
Standing beside Abel were six people, all looking towards Leo.
Among the six, Leo recognized two individuals, no, it should be three!
Thunder Dragon, Iron Tower, and… Chad!
It was the same Chad who appeared together with that silly Bruce Tall and Bruce Short one night not too long ago!
Since Chad was affiliated with WONDER, then Bruce Tall and Bruce Short, the two silly ones, should also be associated with WONDER.
As for the other three individuals, Leo had never seen them before.
Fire Rose walked up to Leo and introduced, “Leo, let me give you a brief introduction to the members of our Special Operations Group Three.”
“This is Barrow, an earth elemental ability user,” Fire Rose pointed to a guy who was taller than Iron Tower.
Barrow grinned and hummed, “Leo, nice to meet you.”
Leo looked at Barrow and nodded with a smile.
Fire Rose then shifted her finger towards Chad, “This is Chad, you should have met him before, a wind elemental ability user!”
So, he was a wind elemental ability user. No wonder he ran away so fast after being defeated by Leo last time.
Leo looked at Chad and teased, “Chad, you ran away too quickly last time, didn’t even have a chance to get to know you.”
Chad still wore a carefree expression on his face, reached out his hand to shake Leo’s, and laughed, “Well, now we’ve met. Welcome to WONDER Special Operations Group Three!”
Fire Rose continued with the introduction of the woman next to Chad, “This beautiful lady is Juliet.”
As Leo’s gaze shifted to Juliet, he saw a very beautiful Miao Clan girl.