Ye Chen steeled himself, then flicked the Frost Coin from between his right fingertips with all his strength. It struck the trap he had set at the other end of the dining hall: a broom leaning against the wall, draped in a tablecloth.
The sudden noise startled all the Elite Guard members present. They turned their attention to the fallen broom, which, shrouded in shadow, looked like a person collapsed on the ground.
"Fire!"
Someone in the Elite Guard shouted first. The others immediately took aim at the fallen broom and unleashed a fierce volley.
Bang—!
Ten Abyss Bullets riddled the broom, leaving it in tatters. In response, there was only silence.
While the guards struggled to determine whether they had hit their target, Ye Chen was already rushing in from the other side. He raised the Silver Revolver, its polished surface gleaming in the moonlight.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
Ye Chen squeezed the trigger five times in rapid succession. With each shot, he shifted the muzzle by just the right angle, sending five bronze-colored bullets toward the vital spots of five different targets.
His focus, sharpened by the life-or-death moment, and the steadiness of his right hand, which seemed almost fused with the revolver, sent every bullet straight into the chest or abdomen of an Elite Guard member. One after another, they fell with muffled groans and died.
Five.
Ye Chen counted silently, then immediately sprinted toward the back door of the dining hall.
"He's over there!"
"Don't let him escape!"
"Fire!"
The five surviving guards had no time to attend to their fallen comrades. They worked their rifles and launched a second fierce assault on Ye Chen's fleeting silhouette.
But the light was too dim, and Ye Chen was moving too fast. Their bullets struck only the large window behind him, leaving behind the ear-splitting clatter of shattering glass.
Crash!
The next moment, Ye Chen disappeared through the back door of the dining hall.
"Load up, then pursue!"
The five remaining guards pulled back their bolts, chambered a third Abyss Bullet, and raced after Ye Chen through the back door.
Ye Chen hadn't gone far from the dining hall at all. He was merely hiding beside the back door.
When the first two guards charged out and found him less than a meter away, the bloodstained short sword wound tightly around his left hand was already sweeping up in a razor-sharp flash.
Slash!
Before either guard could raise a rifle, Blood Blade's curving stroke sent both their heads flying into the air.
"Ah!?"
The third guard rushed out right behind them, only to find his two companions inexplicably headless. Shock and uncertainty flooded his face. He immediately raised his rifle and fired at Ye Chen.
Bang!
Ye Chen lowered his body and stomped forward, letting the Abyss Bullet graze past him as he charged straight at his enemy.
With a bloodstained wire clenched in both hands, he swung, twisted, and looped it around the guard. He knocked the rifle aside and cinched the wire tight around the man's neck.
Crack.
Empowered by Ye Chen's blood, the slender wire became a merciless executioner. In an instant, the sound of breaking bones rang out.
The guard didn't even have time to scream before Ye Chen's wire snapped his spine.
The two guards inside the doorway had witnessed their comrade's gruesome death. They immediately raised their rifles, but Ye Chen kicked the third guard's corpse into the fourth, knocking him to the ground, then rolled aside to dodge the bullets fired by the fifth.
Ye Chen retreated to the side of the back door and grabbed the first guard's fallen rifle. Then he immediately doubled back, quickly leaned into the dining hall, and fired. Using an Abyss Bullet against them, he shot down the fifth guard as the man was preparing to eject his spent casing.
"Ughhh!"
Pinned beneath his comrade's corpse, the fourth guard struggled to get up. Ye Chen swiftly pulled back the rifle's bolt and delivered a fatal shot.
As the last guard silently fell, Ye Chen had cleared out every prey in the dining hall in the blink of an eye.
Ten.
Ye Chen counted silently, taking cover in the blind spot behind a stone pillar in the corridor. That kept Xiaowalus, who might be lurking in the shadows at either end of the corridor, from getting a chance to hit him with the sniper rifle.
The rifle's bullets were coated with Abyss Matter, but as long as he didn't touch them directly, they could still kill for him while loaded in the chamber.
Having confirmed this for himself, Ye Chen quickly checked that two Abyss Bullets remained in the rifle, then slung it over his back.
Next, Ye Chen used his right hand to flick open the revolver's cylinder and tucked the gun beneath his left arm. With his right fingertips, he methodically loaded the bronze-colored rounds into the chambers.
Just then, a faint sound came from the floor five meters to his side.
Someone had stepped on the porcelain shards Ye Chen had scattered near the stone pillar beforehand.
Crick.
Ye Chen whipped around and immediately noticed Xiaowaluwen's ghostly figure emerging from thin air.
The next moment, the two daggers in his hands, coated in black sludge, tore through the cold air and slashed straight at Ye Chen's neck.
I knew you'd try that again!
Ye Chen had been ready for Xiaowaluwen's ambush. The instant the porcelain shards crunched, he raised the short sword wrapped around his left hand and spun, sweeping it toward Xiaowaluwen.
Under the cool moonlight, Ye Chen's bloodstained short sword traced a red streak, while Xiaowaluwen's Abyss daggers carved out two black lines.
The clash of one red streak against two black lines had an utterly predictable outcome.
The red light blazed like fire, and the black lines shattered into fragments.
The two black daggers Xiaowaluwen had swung at him crumbled beneath the strike of Ye Chen's blood-red blade, scattering into powder that fell helplessly to the ground before Xiaowaluwen's eyes.
"How can this be—!?"
Xiaowaluwen couldn't help crying out in shock. He had never imagined that the unremarkable short sword in Ye Chen's hand could not only stand against the Abyss weapons he had forged, but also shatter them to pieces in the blink of an eye.
To him, Ye Chen's sword seemed like a weapon made specifically to destroy the Abyss.
But Xiaowaluwen didn't know that it was Ye Chen's blood, smeared across the blade, that was truly doing the work!
Ye Chen's Spirit Art had an exceptionally strong suppressive effect against the Abyss!
Xiaowaluwen's face stiffened with shock, but Ye Chen's blade didn't pause. After smashing the daggers, he snapped his sword around and struck at Xiaowaluwen's head.
"Ugh!"
Xiaowaluwen unleashed all his Auling Power and raised his left hand to force Ye Chen's blade off course.
The blow sliced away half his hand, but that was still much better than having his head split in two on the spot.
Clutching his severed hand, Xiaowaluwen leaped out of the sword's reach, his face twisted in pain.
Ye Chen raised the revolver in his right hand, preparing to fire his second Blood Bullet. At almost the same moment, Xiaowaluwen concealed himself again, blending into the dim surroundings.
Ye Chen couldn't see Xiaowaluwen's body. He could only make out the sound of his running footsteps echoing through the corridor, so he didn't use his trump card right away.
When a long sniper rifle emerged from the air at the far end of the corridor and aimed its muzzle at him, Ye Chen finally moved the finger he'd been holding over the trigger.
At that moment, even though Xiaowaluwen had hidden himself, the enormous sniper rifle gave away his position.
Ye Chen fired without hesitation into the air beneath the rifle barrel. Xiaowaluwen immediately returned fire at Ye Chen's chest, but he was a fraction of a second too slow.
Bang!
The gunshots from both sides rang through the corridor in seamless succession.
The next moment, as Xiaowaluwen crouched on the ground, the fierce Blood Bullet blasted away a large chunk of flesh from his right shoulder, while Ye Chen's dive to the side left his left shoulder only lightly grazed, narrowly evading the sniper's shot.
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