Inside the canyon, the wind was silent.
The white motes of light left behind by Ivan Squad's exit had completely dissipated.
Lin Xiyue kicked away the rubble at her feet, the sharp crack shattering the heavy silence.
"These guys," she muttered sullenly, "their minds are too straightforward."
"They actually fell for such a flimsy pyramid scheme pitch."
"You can't blame them entirely," Su Wan's voice remained as calm as ever.
"Under the dual rules of [Truth] and [Echo of the Heart's Abyss], every word a liar says sounds like it's coming from the bottom of their heart."
"Add to that their amplified desires and eagerness for quick success, and you have the perfect weakness."
"So..." Lin Qingyue clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the other three.
"Our 'anti-fraud' mission is a long and arduous one."
She gazed toward the horizon, her pink eyes locking onto the circling Steam Magitech Mechas, shimmering with eager anticipation.
"But before we go looking for trouble with those iron behemoths, we need to solve one problem first."
"What problem?" Xia Lian asked.
Lin Qingyue pointed to the top of her head, her expression utterly sincere.
"My 'Heroic Spirit Possession' is too flashy."
She stressed pointedly.
"Especially the visual effect of that giant screen projection... you know what I mean."
The expressions on Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian's faces instantly became complicated.
Using that move in an open area was like lighting a signal tower in the dead of night and shouting at the iron cans in the sky: "Hey, I'm over here! Come and get me!"
"Understood."
Xia Lian immediately grasped the captain's tactical intent, her expression returning to the focused gaze of a hunter.
"We need a battlefield that can block outside surveillance, a natural 'cage'."
"This task is yours, our team's most professional hunter," Lin Qingyue said, giving Xia Lian a thumbs-up.
Xia Lian nodded, her figure flickering and vanishing silently among the jagged rocks.
No one could match a Ranger's reconnaissance skills in such complex terrain.
Ten minutes later, Xia Lian reappeared.
"Found it," she said concisely.
"Three kilometers west, deep within the Broken Dragon Mountains, there's a 'Thread of Sky Canyon'."
"The terrain is even narrower than here, with cliffs so steep they're nearly vertical, forming a natural barrier to sight and sound."
"Excellent. Let's move out."
The four-person squad immediately set off, following Xia Lian's lead as they moved silently through the folds of the mountain range.
Soon, they reached their destination.
This was an extremely long and narrow canyon, its narrowest point barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.
Towering cliffs that scraped the sky blocked most of the daylight, casting deep shadows. The canyon floor was dim, filled with a desolate silence that felt cut off from the world.
"This place is good."
Lin Xiyue nodded in satisfaction, her giant shield lightly tapping the cliff wall with a dull thud.
"A good spot for an ambush and burying bodies."
The four advanced cautiously deeper into the canyon.
Xia Lian, at the front, suddenly stopped. She crouched down, her fingers gently brushing the edge of a rock.
"There are unnatural scrape marks here."
She lowered her voice, her gaze sharpening. "Judging by the direction, someone dragged something from over there."
The others followed her gaze.
Beneath a section of cliff wall covered in thick vines, several vines had fresh breaks, unlike natural decay.
Lin Xiyue stepped forward, roughly pushing aside the tangled vines with the edge of her shield.
The dark entrance to a cave was revealed.
The opening wasn't large, just big enough for one person to enter crouched over. A stale odor, a mix of dust and rotting plants, wafted out.
"Let's go in and check."
Lin Qingyue made the decision.
The four entered in single file.
The cave wasn't deep, and the interior was relatively dry.
The ice crystal at the tip of Su Wan's staff lit up, its soft glow dispelling the darkness and illuminating the scene inside.
A pile of long-extinguished campfire ashes.
In a corner, several carelessly discarded wrappers.
"Someone was here."
Xia Lian crouched down, pinching a bit of ash between her fingers, then carefully examined the dust covering the ground. Her expression grew increasingly grim.
Lin Xiyue walked over, picked up a wrapper, and used the light to read the text on it.
"Nabisco... Nabisco?"
She read the familiar English brand name aloud, then froze.
"American-made high-energy compressed biscuits? And an old flavor from decades ago, how retro."
However, Xia Lian's next words instantly chilled the atmosphere in the cave.
"These traces... were left at least half a month ago."
She stood up, her tone utterly certain.
"Maybe even earlier."
Half a month ago?!
The timing struck everyone's heart like an invisible sledgehammer.
"Half a month ago?!" Lin Xiyue was the first to react, her voice rising in disbelief. "How is that possible?! We only received the Joint Purification Mission notice a week ago! Those guys... they jumped the gun!"
"Xiyue, it's not as simple as them jumping the gun."
Su Wan interrupted her speculation.
In her azure eyes, the data streams that usually flowed had now frozen into ten-thousand-year-old ice.
"Think about what Ivan said."
"That 'Prophet' is also American."
A terrifying yet perfectly logical thought exploded in the minds of all four.
The "Prophet" is American.
The compressed biscuits in the cave are an American product.
They appeared here long before this Dungeon was officially announced as discovered by Huaxia!
All the clues were now connected by a single, deadly fuse.
Su Wan abruptly raised her head. In her azure eyes, the data streams that usually flowed seemed frozen into ten-thousand-year-old ice.
Her voice was utterly flat, yet it made the air in the cave several degrees colder.
"There is only one truth."
Forcing herself to remain calm, she enunciated the chilling conclusion word by word:
"America... discovered this Dungeon long ago!"
"The so-called 'Joint Purification' is a complete and utter lie!"
This deduction drained the color from Lin Xiyue's and Xia Lian's faces in an instant.
"I understand now..."
Lin Xiyue gripped the shield in her hand tightly, her knuckles creaking faintly from the excessive force.
"They sent an advance team to enter the Dungeon and scout ahead. Only after gathering enough intel, and even... even making a deal with that Evil God, did they hypocritically 'share' the information and organize this Multinational Joint Purification!"
"There's more!"
A sudden, soft laugh echoed.
In the dead silence of the cave, the sound was exceptionally jarring.
It was Lin Qingyue!
Her smile held no shock or fear, but rather the extreme excitement of solving a final puzzle and discovering a hidden level!
"Aren't you curious how a local Evil God learned to be so cunning?"
"Pyramid scheme recruitment, psychological manipulation, a believer system run like an internet company... these tactics are all too familiar!"
She clapped her hands sharply, her pink eyes shining with an unnerving intensity.
"Now it's clear: it was the 'Prophet'! He's been 'tutoring' the Mother of Rebirth all along!"
"He used our Earth's knowledge to optimize the Evil God's manipulative abilities, transforming a brutish Boss who only knew brute force into a master of psychological manipulation and pyramid schemes!"
"So!"
The light in Lin Qingyue's eyes outshone even the ice crystals on Su Wan's staff.
"That's why the Mother of Rebirth's avatars were absurdly powerful before!"
"They weren't 'helping' the Evil God at all; they were 'raising a Gu'!"
"Those bastards from America deliberately fed this Dungeon's Boss until it was super-powered, making it impossible to defeat by normal means within this Level 39 Basic Dungeon!"
Su Wan's expression became utterly calm, the kind of stillness that precedes a violent storm.
She continued Lin Qingyue's deduction, each word dripping with killing intent:
"So, their goal was never to complete the Purification, but to use this enhanced Evil God as an executioner."
Xia Lian silently gripped the shortbow, Dark Night Starwhisper, on her back, her aura already as sharp as an unsheathed blade.
"So, from the very beginning, this was never about purifying the Dungeon."
"It was about eliminating all the talented prodigies participating in the 'Joint Mission' from China, Russia... everyone they considered a threat..."
Lin Xiyue slammed Blackstone's Protection onto the ground with a loud bang, finishing Xia Lian's sentence for her,
"To wipe them all out in one fell swoop!"
Lin Qingyue scanned her murderous teammates, the curve of her lips widening as a light called "fervor" flickered in her pink eyes.
In a tone that declared the party had officially begun, she delivered the final conclusion for everyone.
"That's right!"
"This is a meticulously designed trap orchestrated by America, using the Evil God as the blade and the Dungeon as the cage, for all of us 'competitors'..."
She paused, her smile brilliant and icy.
"A Genius Graveyard!"
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Spy-Yep I can already see the chinese gifs from this chap