Chapter 1 A Dark Night

The night was thick, the fog heavy.

At this moment, more than two hours had passed since the start of the match.

In the sky, the already dim moonlight… had somehow dimmed a little more.

"Captain, do you feel like… it suddenly got darker around us?" Final Strike, who was resting next to the pigpen, pinched his nose and asked in a muffled voice.

"Probably those guys from Hell's Frontline triggered some kind of plot," said Vanguard, squatting beside him, in a similar state. He looked up at the sky and mused, "According to my guess… the moonlight shouldn't be changing; it's the 'barrier' that's changing."

"Oh…" Final Strike nodded, then said, "Then I hope they trigger a few more death flags, preferably with two or three self-inflicted casualties…"

"Given the difficulty of this script, that's certainly a possibility," Vanguard replied. "Of course, regardless of the other side's situation, we should stick to our own pace… and recover our lost Stamina and Survival Value first." He took a breath. "Haa… at least we've shaken off the ghosts and stopped the bleeding."

"Yeah…" Final Strike said, "It's just that the price we paid was a bit…" His face was filled with disgust as he said this.

Clearly, rolling around in a pigpen wasn't a pleasant experience, nor was it a glorious one… However, Vanguard's idea had indeed worked; they had successfully covered themselves in a scent even stronger than blood, thereby escaping the monsters.

"Stop complaining; we're professionals. This level of 'price' is nothing," Vanguard replied. "Think about it… if it were Crazy Unseen, he might even jump into a cesspool without hesitation."

"Hey, hey… can we not compare ourselves to lunatics…" Final Strike squinted and promptly retorted.

Just as the two were chatting idly, suddenly!

"Hmm?" Final Strike's expression changed, and he stood up abruptly. "Captain! Do you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Vanguard looked puzzled, apparently unaware of what his teammate was talking about, but he already sensed that something was wrong. "What's wrong?"

"I can't explain it…" A trickle of cold sweat ran down Final Strike's temple, and his Fear Value was subtly rising. "It feels like… somewhere… there's a pair of eyes staring at the back of my neck."

"Could it be…" Vanguard stood up as well, straining his eyes to look around. "Someone used a mental interference skill on you?"

No sooner said than done!

Before Corpse Blade's duo could figure out the situation, a swift shadow had already cut through the air.

The figure was as fast as lightning, as silent as a breeze, and in the blink of an eye, it had rushed from the darkness nearly fifty meters away to close range.

In that fleeting instant…

"Hmph… trying to sneak attack?" Vanguard was, after all, a top player. Even with his skills limited, his physical skills and reaction speed were strong enough. He immediately snorted and drew his blade to meet the attack. "You'll have to get past me first!"

The next second, his sneer froze on his face, and his confidence… shattered in an instant.

Because Wang Tanzhi really did "get past" him. And after passing him, he took Final Strike's life with a single blow.

"That's impossible!" Vanguard turned back in horror, just in time to see his teammate's head fly up and blood spurt out.

The droplets of blood splattered on Vanguard's face, making his expression look incredibly miserable.

"It's pointless to say 'impossible' in the face of a fact that has already happened." Two seconds later, Wang Tanzhi's figure appeared behind Final Strike's still-falling corpse. Because his attack had been so fast, the [Touch of Altair] he used to complete the assassination wasn't even stained with blood.

"You…" Vanguard stood with his blade, and in the midst of this danger, a flash of insight came to him. "...You can use skills without restrictions?"

"As expected of a professional; you immediately made a reasonable and correct deduction," Xiao Tan replied frankly.

Indeed, what had just happened would have been absolutely impossible in a situation where skills were limited…

First of all, Xiao Tan had cast [Draw a Cross and Curse You] on Final Strike before launching the attack to increase the damage. Secondly, he had relied on [Spectre Chaser], enhanced by the Shadow of the Mourning Bell, to charge in. In addition, he had to intersperse a [Demon Bat Phantom] to pass Vanguard's obstruction while using [Spectre Chaser] to approach the target.

In summary… this seemingly brief, simple strike was actually an extremely difficult feat. Not only did it require the cooperation of three skills, but it also required extremely precise prediction and miraculous instantaneous reaction speed.

Objectively speaking, a surprise attack like this could very likely achieve a one-hit kill even if neither side was restricted.

Based on this strike alone, all the professional and non-professional players watching this match could be sure… [Wasted Sigh] definitely belonged to the ranks of the top assassins in Thriller Paradise.

"Looks like… you're planning to take us on alone…" After confronting Xiao Tan for a few seconds, Vanguard basically confirmed that there were no other enemies around, so he tentatively said.

"That's right." Wang Tanzhi was a good young man who didn't like to lie, and in the current situation, there was no need for him to lie. "But… I have to remind you, there's no 'us' anymore; now there's only 'you' alone."

His words were fitting, because at the same time as he said them, Final Strike's corpse turned into white light and dissipated.

"Good…" Vanguard raised his blade with one arm, the tip pointing at the enemy. "Since things have come to this, I don't have much to say… let's see what you're really made of!"

…………

Ten minutes ago, in the Stone Courtyard of the Six Harmony Temple.

Boom—

A loud noise ripped through the night sky.

In that instant, the stone wall of the sixth floor of the pagoda exploded, and two black figures, locked in a struggle, fell straight down from mid-air.

Standing at the foot of the tower, Ruoyu looked up and quickly identified one of the two as the Blood Corpse God.

The figure entangled with the Blood Corpse God… was an unfamiliar humanoid creature.

"I told you…" About two seconds later, Feng Bujue poked his head out from the gap in the tower and said loudly to Ruoyu, "In ten minutes at most, you can help." After saying that, he jumped down as well.

Immediately afterward, Xiaoling's figure appeared at the gap. However, she didn't jump down; instead, she produced a sniper rifle and chose to stay at the high point to provide fire support.

On the other side, the Blood Corpse God and the creature had crashed to the ground a few seconds earlier. When these two Boss-level monsters fell, the ground within a hundred meters of the area shook, and a large crater was created. But… a second later, they stood up as if nothing had happened, and continued fighting.

Before long, the chaotic sound of fists hitting flesh and feet striking bone echoed through the stone courtyard.

"Hmph… this multiverse is truly interesting…" The Blood Corpse God said with ease as he fought, "I actually met another guy who can ignore my 'Fear Projection'…"

The unknown creature was not to be outdone, and replied in a broken gong voice, "Ha! Who would have thought that you, a mere demon, would actually have some skill."

After complimenting each other, they seemed to have reached some kind of consensus, and then… they started to get serious.

As soon as the words fell, the force and speed of the two "people" increased by a level.

And a dozen meters away…

"What's the background?" Ruoyu asked, looking at Jue-ge who had just landed.

"A virtuous monk with the dharma name Xuanhong," Feng Bujue replied.

"The one who killed the evil Taoist back then?" Ruoyu's thinking was very quick.

"Yes, that's him." Jue-ge replied, then changed the subject, "Unfortunately, he's just a fierce spirit possessed by a magical weapon now." As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to Xuanhong, who was fiercely fighting the Blood Corpse God. "Look at his chest."

"Ah, I noticed it from the beginning," Ruoyu responded casually. "Is that the Liuhe Mirror?"

"Exactly," Feng Bujue replied.

"So…" Ruoyu looked at him again and asked, "...What's your plan?"

"Very simple." As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already taken out the Must-Break Defense Blade from his bag. "Take him down within ten minutes, then… take the mirror out. I'll study it, and the rest will be the Blood Corpse God's late-night snack."