Hunting List

"Hoo... hoo..."

Panting heavily, Ye Chen hid in a dim storage room within the mansion. Using Space Storage, he retrieved a lightweight short sword and a thin steel wire from his handkerchief, then used bandages to bind them tightly to his blood-seeping, stiff left hand.

Since his long blade had been dropped in the study, Ye Chen's close-quarters combat now relied entirely on these two small trinkets.

He looked down at the Gold-Patterned Black Cloak on his body, which had a deep, dented crater slowly returning to its original shape, then glanced at his left arm, from which a large chunk of flesh had been carved away, and his bruised, swollen waist and abdomen.

Next, the youth circulated his Auling Power through his blood, sweeping away the Abyss Matter that was thrashing excitedly within his wounds, eradicating every one of these disgusting worms that were attempting to further ravage his flesh.

The silver lining in this misfortune was that the moment he was struck by the sniper rifle of Xiaowaluwen, Ye Chen had managed to protect his abdomen with his left arm and the Gold-Patterned Black Cloak. Crucially, he had also twisted his body slightly, which greatly offset the lethality of that Abyss Bullet, leaving him with only severe surface-level injuries.

Otherwise, Ye Chen's body would have lost at least one or two organs by now, which would have caused him to lose his combat capability entirely, ultimately leading to failure in the third trial.

Enduring the pain echoing through his skull, Ye Chen took a bottle of painkillers from his handkerchief and swallowed several pills at once.

Afterward, he tore off the excess bandages to simply wrap his left arm and waist, then took a thin cord from his handkerchief to tie the grip of his revolver to the wrist of his still-functional right hand.

Before Ye Chen set off, Lyle had only ever mentioned the Lord Xiaowalus as the target of the third trial, or at most, required Ye Chen to clear out everything related to the Abyss within the Xiaowalu family.

Beyond that, Lyle had never spoken of Xiaowalus's younger brother, Xiaowaluwen, who was also one of "Those Who Hear Its Song," nor had he mentioned that this man's Spirit Art happened to be the most difficult ability to guard against: Invisibility.

This had led to Ye Chen being caught completely off guard, leaving him with a semi-crippled left hand and injuries to his waist and abdomen, clearly putting him at an overwhelming disadvantage.

However, Ye Chen did not feel particularly annoyed by Lyle's deliberate concealment of the trial's key details. Instead, he began to focus on how to turn the tide of the battle, carefully laying out his strategy.

The youth understood that Lyle had done this specifically to see if he possessed the ability to adapt to such unexpected and dire circumstances, and thereby turn the situation around.

After all, Lyle's requirements for Ye Chen had always been ridiculously high, and it was only natural that each of the three trials was harder than the last.

Now, although Ye Chen had blown off the head of Xiaowalus with a single shot, he naturally could not let the man's brother, who was also involved with the Abyss, go free.

Furthermore, Ye Chen had not yet had the chance to confirm whether an Abyss Core existed within the body of Xiaowalus, or if some sort of mutation would occur, so he still had to deliver a finishing blow to the corpse to ensure the kill.

There was still much to do, and the trial to be completed was still difficult.

Precisely because of this, the only thing on Ye Chen's mind right now was to rack his brains and risk his life to overcome every obstacle, completing the third trial perfectly so that Lyle would fully acknowledge his capabilities and witness his growth.

"Hoo... let's begin."

The youth made up his mind. With swift footsteps, he followed the route he had already memorized and ran directly to the power room of the Xiaowalu mansion, raised his revolver, and fired five shots at the massive circuit breaker.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five bronze-colored bullets instantly destroyed the circuit breaker, sending sparks flying and causing all the lights inside the mansion to cut out and go dark.

The massive Xiaowalu mansion was instantly plunged into darkness.

"Why did the lights suddenly go out?"

"It must be because that bastard destroyed the power box!"

"That means he's in the power room now. Go, kill him! Avenge the Lord!"

The commotion caused by Ye Chen alerted every enemy in the mansion to his location, and they began rushing toward the power room from various points.

Ye Chen naturally knew the risks of his actions; the moment the gunfire ceased, he immediately ran, rapidly shifting his position.

Xiaowaluwen hid his form, walking softly through a corridor of the mansion.

Although he, like the guards, had heard the gunfire from the power room, he did not rush toward the source. Instead, he couldn't help but frown.

"To find the location of the mansion's power box so quickly means this bastard has already memorized the entire layout of the building. This is getting a bit tricky."

Xiaowaluwen muttered to himself. Now he understood why Ye Chen had asked the butler to show him around every corner of Xiaowalu Manor earlier; it was to deal with this exact situation. His foresight was far too thorough.

"However, this house is the territory of our Xiaowalu family after all. You outsider can struggle all you want, heh!"

He sneered and then vanished around the corner of the corridor.

The first group of guards to reach the power room did not see Ye Chen's figure and quickly dispersed to check for traces left at the scene.

After less than a minute, one of the guards spotted blood droplets on the floor and immediately lowered his voice to alert his companions.

"Hey, I see blood here. Come over."

Ten guards quickly gathered around and discovered that the blood droplets were scattered along the path, leading directly toward the door of the dining hall ahead.

"Follow him."

Without hesitation, the group followed the bloodstains into the dining hall, only to find it in a state of utter chaos. The surface of the tile floor was covered in shards and powder from shattered porcelain, such as dinner plates and teacups.

The guards signaled each other to move quietly, then, holding their single-shot rifles, they crept one by one into the dark, silent dining hall to search for Ye Chen.

Hidden in a dark corner of the dining hall, Ye Chen listened to the multiple faint sounds of shoe soles stepping on porcelain shards and couldn't help but frown.

He peeked out, using the moonlight as cover to see the true faces of the intruders.

It wasn't Xiaowaluwen as he had expected, but the group of Xiaowalus's personal guards he had seen at the mansion entrance that afternoon.

Xiaowalus didn't send the guards outside the city? He lied to me?

Ye Chen eyed the vigilant squad ahead, feeling puzzled and suspicious.

He had been quite satisfied with his acting performance, yet he hadn't expected that even then, Xiaowalus had kept an extra layer of caution.

Although Ye Chen didn't know that the guards had actually been hidden in the mansion's basement by Xiaowalus's brother, Xiaowaluwen, those questions were irrelevant now. His priority was to consider whether these people would pose a threat to him.

In his mind, Ye Chen instantly formed two hypotheses.

First: These people were merely pawns used by Xiaowaluwen to distract him, while the truly threatening Xiaowaluwen was lurking nearby, waiting for him to let his guard down before launching an attack.

Second: These personal guards, just like Xiaowaluwen, possessed bullets imbued with Abyss Matter capable of wounding Ye Chen. This would be the worst-case scenario, as Ye Chen would then be forced to guard against the lethal onslaught of dozens of people simultaneously.

Let us assume the situation has reached that worst-case scenario.

With this thought in mind, Ye Chen immediately added all the personal guards present to his kill list.

Although he understood that these guards were likely unaware that the Lord they served, Xiaowalus, had been attempting for years to complete an evil ritual capable of annihilating every living soul within the Eternal Winter Hidden Domain, at this point, Ye Chen no longer had the heart to hold back.

He was not a god, but a Hunter.

Regardless of whether the other party was aware of the truth, as long as they harbored murderous intent toward him, they were his enemies and his prey.

He would not let them go, nor would he spare a single one of them.

Mercy must never be allowed to become his undoing!