First Blood

"Begin."

Following the referee's shout.

Lu Hao sprang up and swung his blade directly at the young man.

Seeing this, the young man was not foolish enough to block with his bare fists, so he began to retreat.

Lu Hao continued to press forward, and the next moment, he leaped into the air, slashing at the young man once more.

The young man had not expected Lu Hao to possess such skill, but his experience in the Life-Death Arena allowed him to quickly raise his arms, preparing to parry Lu Hao's Big Ring Blade.

Seeing his opponent foolishly preparing to block his blade, Lu Hao sneered. If this were an ordinary martial artist who had only tempered their lower limbs, they might indeed have succeeded due to a lack of power.

However, Lu Hao practiced the Blood Battle Mad Blade. He channeled his blood energy into the Big Ring Blade and struck down with a fierce chop.

As the blade descended, the young man's tempered arms were left with a massive gash under the force of the blood energy.

Lu Hao did not give him a chance to catch his breath; he followed up with another strike. This blow unleashed half of Lu Hao's total blood energy, yet the power it erupted with was only one-third of what he had poured in.

Even so, a strike of this caliber was already approaching the level of a finishing move.

The young man sensed the power of this attack and realized that if he failed to block it, he would die. He let out a roar, channeling his blood energy into his fists.

He believed his fists could withstand the blade because he had accidentally obtained a manual for a fist technique that included methods to enhance the skin and flesh of his hands; the current strength of his fists was no weaker than a weapon.

The blade came down, carrying an eruption of nearly 50 units of blood energy. The young man had overestimated his fists and simultaneously underestimated the power of Lu Hao's strike.

The near-finishing blow tore through the young man's fists, and the force of the blood energy left his body a bloody mess.

"I was wrong, I was wrong, I surrender, I surrender! Please, sir, don't hold a grudge against a small person like me, let me go!"

The young man collapsed to the side, crying and shouting.

Lu Hao paused for a moment, but only for a moment, before stepping forward.

One strike, decapitation.

[Enemy killed, Slaughter Point +197]

He saw the familiar panel pop up with a message again.

Hmm???

Why so many Slaughter Points?

Lu Hao was full of confusion. He knew that when he was slaughtering pigs before, a single pig could only provide 2 Slaughter Points, yet this First-Grade martial artist had provided 197.

Lu Hao glanced at the headless corpse across from him. Was there something special about him?

Without dwelling on it, Lu Hao slowly walked off the stage. As soon as he stepped down, he saw Viper watching him.

"Little Lu, do you feel any discomfort? It's normal to feel uneasy the first time you kill someone; you don't have to force yourself to hold it in."

Viper walked over to Lu Hao's side and said with a hint of concern.

"Uncle Wang, I'm fine. I'm not unaccustomed to it. I've fought so many times in the Standard Match that there's really no difference between bleeding and death. There's nothing I can't accept."

Lu Hao said. He truly felt nothing. Through his past slaughters, he had tempered a resolute heart; killing a person now felt no different to him than killing a pig.

What he was thinking about now was a different question: why could a First-Grade martial artist provide so many Slaughter Points?

Viper took Lu Hao to the lounge, telling him to adjust himself. After all, in Viper's view, killing was something that no one could simply walk away from without needing time to process it.

Lu Hao moved his mind and opened the panel.

[Slaughter Point System]

[Host: Lu Hao]

[Blood Energy: 113/254 units]

[Spirit: 186/299 units+]

[Storage Space: 10 cubic meters]

[Slaughter Points: 314]

His blood energy had reached 254. Over the past month without the help of the panel, Lu Hao had tempered 13 bones, averaging more than one every two days.

His spirit remained at 299 without a breakthrough; Lu Hao estimated he would need to reach the Second Grade for a chance to break through.

His Slaughter Points had reached 314, which was enough for Lu Hao to temper another six bones.

Pondering the reason for the increase in Slaughter Points, Lu Hao thought for a long while before realizing that perhaps this 197 was simply the young man's blood energy value. As for why the pigs provided so little before, Strictly speaking, pigs themselves did not have blood energy values; those two Slaughter Points were likely the condensation of the pig's total vitality.

Lu Hao thought for a moment, greeted Viper, and headed toward the morgue. He wanted to see if there were any changes to the young man's corpse.

After all, if he had truly siphoned the young man's blood energy, his corpse would inevitably show signs of severe aging. If such changes were indeed occurring, he would need to be more careful about how he obtained Slaughter Points in the future.

After greeting the two guys at the door, Lu Hao walked into the morgue. Half of the staff now knew that Lu Hao's status was extraordinary, especially since Viper was responsible for following him around every day.

If it weren't for the fact that Lu Hao and Viper looked nothing alike, these underlings would have thought he was the boss's illegitimate son.

Arriving at the morgue, Lu Hao spotted the young man he had beheaded at a single glance.

Lu Hao walked over, observed him carefully, and even reached out to touch and feel the body.

The result made Lu Hao heave a sigh of relief; the young man's corpse showed no special changes and was in the same state as the bodies Lu Hao had moved before.

Lu Hao had been afraid that there might be some unusual transformation, as that would prevent him from openly gaining Slaughter Points in front of others in the future—after all, if every enemy Lu Hao killed ended up looking like their blood had been drained dry, even a fool would notice something was wrong.

The current situation was perfect; he could gain Slaughter Points without anyone discovering his secret, allowing him to keep a low profile and develop steadily.

After investigating and finding no issues, Lu Hao walked out. Although he still didn't know the correlation regarding how many Slaughter Points he gained, Lu Hao didn't dwell on it, as he would figure it out sooner or later.

Back in the lounge, Lu Hao prepared to use ten Slaughter Points to restore his blood vitality so that once he reached his peak, he could fight another Life-Death Arena match.

After all, a First-Grade martial artist could provide nearly 200 Slaughter Points, and Lu Hao only had to spend ten; even a fool would know that this was a good deal.

An hour later, Lu Hao walked out of the lounge and told Viper that he had used a Blood Vitality Pill to recover and wanted to fight again.

Although Viper expressed disapproval of Lu Hao's reckless behavior, he still arranged a Life-Death Arena match against a mid-stage First-Grade martial artist at Lu Hao's request.

An hour later, Lu Hao stepped down from the arena. This opponent was much more troublesome than the young man he had encountered earlier; upon realizing that Lu Hao's blade technique was extraordinary, he refused to clash head-on and instead kept circling him.

It was a pity that Lu Hao's leg technique had not yet reached the level of Adhesion Force, otherwise, his opponent wouldn't have been able to escape him even if he wanted to.

After exchanging nearly seventeen or eighteen moves, Lu Hao seized an opening, used his leg technique to kick his opponent to the ground, and successfully killed him.

Lu Hao's body was also covered in quite a few wounds, all of which had been left by his opponent.