Inside the Rift.
The moment Lin Feng stepped inside, a thick smell of blood hit him.
Dried blood covered the rock walls on both sides of the passage.
From farther ahead came the sounds of fierce fighting and Exotic Beasts roaring.
Following the noise, Lin Feng used Lost Trace Step. His figure became a blur as he crept over without a sound.
Rounding a bend, he saw a five-person team surrounding an Iron-Armored Violent Bear.
The Iron-Armored Violent Bear was famous among E-Rank Exotic Beasts for its thick hide and flesh, and its defense was astonishing.
The strongest member of the five-person team, their captain, was only a three-stage Martial Artist. The other four were all at the first stage.
The five had been fighting the Iron-Armored Violent Bear for ages. Sparks flew as their blades struck its body, but they couldn't even break the skin.
Instead, the bear knocked them sprawling, one slap at a time.
"Captain, this isn't working! This beast's too tough—we can't get through its defense!" one team member shouted, barely dodging a bear's lunge.
The captain was an eyepatch-wearing man, and his face was already bloodied. Gritting his teeth, he roared, "Hold on a little longer! Its weakness is its belly. Find a way to flip it over!"
Just then, a shadow flashed across the rock wall above their heads.
Everything blurred before their eyes.
The next second.
Thwack!
The muffled sound of a blade sinking into flesh.
The Iron-Armored Violent Bear, which had been so fearsome moments ago, suddenly lost its enormous head. It tumbled off its neck and rolled to a stop at the eyepatched man's feet.
Bear blood sprayed more than three meters into the air from the severed neck, like a fountain.
The massive body wobbled, then crashed to the ground.
The eyepatched man and his four team members stood frozen.
They hadn't even seen who had struck.
By the time they came to their senses, a figure in a tattered cloak was crouched beside the bear's corpse, expertly cutting open its belly and digging out a Magic Core.
The man wiped the Magic Core on his clothes, stuffed it into his pocket, then walked deeper into the Rift without looking back.
From the moment he appeared to the moment he vanished, the whole thing had taken less than two seconds.
"Holy crap?" One team member rubbed his eyes. "What was that just now?"
The eyepatched man looked from the headless bear on the ground to the chipped blade in his hand. For a long time, he couldn't say a word.
He'd still been figuring out how to flip the bear over, and that guy had chopped its head off with a single strike?
"Captain, our Magic Core."
The eyepatched man came to his senses and smacked the team member on the back of the head.
"Magic Core, my ass! Could you cut that thing's head off with one strike?"
The team member clutched his head and shook it, aggrieved.
"Exactly!" the eyepatched man grumbled as he sheathed his blade. "Tough luck—we ran into an expert. Let's go, quick. Don't stand around here. What if he comes back and chops us up too?"
The five left with lingering fear.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng had already headed for his next target.
[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beast: Iron-Armored Violent Bear ×1, gained Martial Path Points ×50] [Steel of the Blade: 103/500]
With an A-Rank War Blade and S-Rank movement technique in hand, hunting ordinary E-Rank Exotic Beasts was as easy as could be.
Even better, other people were working for him for free.
He didn't need to search for monsters himself. All he had to do was follow the sounds of fighting.
When he saw a team nearing the end of a tough fight, he'd step in to land the finishing blow, take the Magic Core, and leave without a trace.
"Hey, you up ahead! Give us a hand! This Poison Fire Scorpion's about to go berserk!"
A three-person team had been cornered by a scarlet scorpion, and they were on the verge of being wiped out.
Lin Feng dropped from above.
His blade flashed.
The scorpion was split in half.
As the three looked at him with gratitude, Lin Feng calmly dug out the Magic Core and drifted away.
The three: "..."
"Damn it! Can somebody tell me what just happened?"
"Did some good Samaritan just save us?"
"Good Samaritan? The hell kind of good Samaritan steals the Magic Core? I fought that thing for half an hour! My arms are about to fall off!"
"Hold on, everyone! This Three-Eyed Demon Wolf's almost done for!"
A seven-person team, all of them wounded, had finally worn an E-Rank high-tier Exotic Beast down to its last breath.
Just as the captain prepared to deliver the final blow to the wolf,
a blur swept past.
The wolf's head went flying.
Lin Feng expertly dug out its Magic Core, then nodded at the seven, who were staring at him in shock, as if greeting them.
The seven: "..."
"Holy shit! It's that kill-stealing bastard again!"
"Who the hell is he? Does he make a habit of stealing kills?"
"Don't chase him! We can't catch him. His movement technique is too freakish!"
Before long, the entire Rift was filled with complaints.
Every Martial Artist team that had come in to hunt monsters had heard about a mysterious "Cloaked Swordsman" who appeared and disappeared without a trace. He always showed up just as someone was about to succeed and snatched away the fruits of victory.
To make matters worse, he was absurdly powerful. Every strike was an instant kill, and he moved like a ghost. No one could catch him.
Quite a few people were so furious they cursed him out on the spot. A few teams even joined forces, hoping to flush out this "kill-stealing bastard."
But Lin Feng didn't care in the slightest.
He was having the time of his life.
There was nothing like reaping the rewards while others did the work.
In just one hour, he'd stolen seven or eight kills. The Martial Path Points and talent stacks on his System Panel were climbing rapidly.
[Current Martial Path Points: 650] [Steel of the Blade: 132/500]
He was close to reaching the Armor Piercing effect at 150 stacks.
In high spirits, Lin Feng was about to look for his next target when he suddenly stopped.
He sensed an unusual aura.
It was deep inside the Rift, about five hundred meters away.
The aura was weak.
It seemed weaker than a Martial Artist's.
"Martial Disciple Perfection?"
Lin Feng frowned.
How could someone at Martial Disciple Perfection have made it this far into an E-Rank Rift?
Had they taken a wrong turn?
His curiosity was piqued.
Suppressing his aura, he used Lost Trace Step and crept quietly in that direction.
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