Everyone nearby was stunned. They instinctively started to put some distance between themselves and the bearded man, who had already become a corpse, but Xu Huo warned them, "Don't move!"
Under normal circumstances, people developed a certain conditioned response to what others said. For example, when someone shouted, "Don't move," many people would instinctively pause. In games where people could end up fighting to the death at any moment, that response could be exploited. If someone yelled, "Watch out, there's a hidden weapon!" at you, you would instinctively brace yourself or dodge, whether or not there really was one.
Of course, some people were very good at resisting that sort of response. They could make their own judgments and weren't swayed by habit or common sense. So when Xu Huo shouted, the big-bellied man wasn't distracted in the slightest. But the moment he stood up and stepped back, a string of blood droplets burst from his waist. Then, without even realizing what had happened, he was cut in half!
Mu Yan and the glasses man had also been about to retreat, but Xu Huo's warning had stopped them on instinct. When they came to their senses and saw what had happened, they froze in place in unison, then looked at the people who had remained seated.
"What happened?" Mu Yan tilted her head slightly, careful not to move too much. "I didn't feel a thing!"
Xu Huo's expression was grim. It was only when the bearded man died that he realized someone had tampered with the space around them. He hadn't noticed before, but once he started paying attention, he spotted four lines around himself, two running in each direction, forming a "井" shape that enclosed him. The bearded man had been unlucky: he happened to be outside one of