The hour of the rat was drawing near. From the depths of the Heavenly Prison came the muffled toll of a bell, signaling that it was time to change shifts.
Like the crack of a starting pistol, the bell seized the deathly still Block E in an instant, wrapping it in an invisible tension!
Xu Qian's eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting slightly in the darkness. He could clearly sense the two dark-red killing auras lurking by the pile of junk suddenly sharpen!
Almost as soon as the bell stopped ringing, two shadows darted out from behind the junk pile like ghosts! They moved as fast as lightning and landed without a sound, clearly having calculated the brief blind spot and lapse in vigilance during the guards' shift change!
Their target was unmistakable—the cell of E-98!
But Li Xi, who should have been on duty there, had somehow quietly moved near the door of E-98's cell. With his back to Xu Qian, his body trembled faintly. He seemed to be pointing the assassins toward their target—or perhaps waiting for something.
"Move!"
One of the black-clad men barked, his voice hoarse and icy.
The other black-clad man flipped his wrist, revealing a short blade glinting with a ghostly blue chill. He lowered his body, ready to charge at the cell door!
At the sight, a flicker of struggle and fear crossed Li Xi's face, but he instinctively stepped aside to clear the way.
At this critical moment!
A sudden change erupted!
The black-clad man in front, short blade in hand, had just taken a step when something seemed to catch the corner of his eye. He abruptly stopped!
What he saw was Xu Qian, still clutching his wooden stick and huddled in the corner!
Xu Qian's presence seemed to be beyond their expectations! According to the information Li Xi had provided, at this time and in this area, Li Xi should have been their only accomplice!
That instant of hesitation and misjudgment was all Xu Qian needed!
Xu Qian moved!
He didn't charge forward with a heroic shout, nor did he try to stop the assassins. The instant the black-clad men's gazes swept over him, he did something nobody could have expected—
As if the sudden turn of events had scared him witless, he let out a short, terrified scream. "Ah!"
At the same time, he scrambled backward from the corner on all fours! He didn't rush toward the assassins or the cell. Like a startled rabbit, he rolled and crawled toward the alternate passage leading to the other sections—the one he had already scoped out!
His escape was a wretched scramble. In his "overwhelming panic," the short wooden stick in his hand even "accidentally" slipped free and rolled toward the assassins' feet.
The whole sequence unfolded in the blink of an eye!
The two black-clad men clearly hadn't expected such a "pathetic" reaction from this lowly guard. They froze for a moment, then disdain and murderous intent flashed in their eyes!
"Looking to die!"
The black-clad man with the short blade snorted coldly. He didn't even bother with the stick that had rolled to his feet. His body shot forward again, straight for the cell door! In his eyes, a useless guard like this could be dealt with any time; finishing the job was what mattered now!
The other black-clad man fixed his icy gaze on Xu Qian, who was scrambling toward the alternate passage. He flicked his wrist, and a streak of dark light shot toward Xu Qian's back like a venomous snake! It was a poisoned sleeve dart!
Yet at the very instant the sleeve dart was about to strike Xu Qian, his seemingly panicked body suddenly lurched sideways, as if he had known it was coming!
"Thwip!"
The sleeve dart grazed his ribs and sank deep into the stone wall opposite. Its tail continued to quiver!
Using the momentum of his sidestep, Xu Qian rolled and crawled into the darkness of the alternate passage, leaving behind only a string of frantic footsteps.
Throughout it all, Xu Qian had portrayed the terror and disarray of a nobody facing mortal danger—and that sliver of "luck"—to the fullest!
The black-clad man who had fired the sleeve dart furrowed his brow, sensing that something was off. But his companion had already reached the cell door, and he had no time to think it over. He immediately turned and followed.
By now, Li Xi, standing before the cell, was completely paralyzed with terror. He looked at the black-clad man charging toward him like a god of slaughter, then at the direction Xu Qian had vanished. He opened his mouth, seeming to want to say something.
But the black-clad man with the short blade gave him no chance to speak!
The ghostly-blue short blade swept through the air in a cold arc, like the scythe of Death!
"Pfft!"
The blade sliced his throat!
Li Xi's pupils dilated. His face filled with disbelief, terror, and despair. He futilely clutched at his blood-gushing throat as his body crumpled to the ground. He convulsed a few times, then fell silent forever.
The accomplice had been swiftly and cleanly silenced!
The two black-clad men didn't even glance at Li Xi's corpse. One of them quickly produced a strangely shaped ring of keys—clearly supplied by Li Xi in advance—and thrust one into the lock of E-98's cell door.
Inside the cell, the young man who had kept his head bowed at all times seemed to have been roused by the commotion. He slowly raised his head.
His face was pale as paper, his lips cracked and dry. But his eyes held no fear, only a deathly chill, and... a trace of mockery, as if he had been waiting for this for a long time.
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