The Zhao Family? One Slash Per Person

The man with the grass in his mouth was still laughing.

"Kid, since you know the Zhao family, that makes things easy. Eight hundred thousand, not a single cent less. If you're Li Ming's friend, help him pay it back, and we'll leave right now."

The other man also stood up, patted the dirt off his pants, and reached out a hand toward Lin Feng.

"That's right, transfer works, cash works too. Interest is calculated daily, and today adds another three thousand two hundred."

Lin Feng took Mountain Splitter off his shoulder and held it in his hand.

Mountain Splitter left its sheath.

Without any warning.

The grass-chewing man hadn't even finished speaking.

He looked down at his chest—a long blade had pierced through his body, jutting out from his back.

The Martial Artist at the third rank beside him shrank his pupils sharply, his hand reaching for his waist.

Too late.

As Lin Feng pulled out the blade, he swept it horizontally in one motion.

A blast of sharp wind carried a penetrating effect across, cutting the second man clean through from his left shoulder to his right ribs.

Two corpses, in less than a second, fell at the base of the camp wall.

Blood splattered across the wall surface, trickling down along the brick gaps.

[Killed targets ×2]

[Steel of the Blade: 272/500]

Lin Feng flicked the blood off his blade, then turned his head to look around.

The entrance of the Seventh Defense Line was quiet and deserted; at this hour, most people were eating, and no one passed by.

He crouched down and searched through the two men's pockets.

A collection order from the Zhao Clan Bank, stamped with the Zhao family's seal.

A stack of cash, roughly two or three thousand.

Two daggers, both junk.

Lin Feng didn't turn his nose up at it. After pocketing everything, he dragged the two corpses to the barren land behind the camp.

The Northern Territory's wilderness lacked nothing except the claw marks of Exotic Beasts.

He placed the bodies in an area with signs of Exotic Beast activity, then used Mountain Splitter to add a few simulated beast-claw tears on them.

He was already well-versed in doing this kind of thing.

After finishing, he clapped his hands together and walked back toward the camp.

He ran into Wang Tie and Chen Lie head-on.

Chen Lie, with his one arm crossed over his chest, swept a glance at Lin Feng, then looked around toward the camp entrance.

"Those two debt collectors at the gate?"

"Gone."

Chen Lie stared at him for two extra seconds.

"Gone?"

"Yeah, I had a talk with them. They came around, thought the Northern Territory was too dangerous, and decided to head back to Qing Prefecture."

Chen Lie's mouth twitched, but he didn't press further.

Anyone who'd spent a long time in the Northern Territory understood one truth.

Some things are better left unasked.

"Wang Tie told me about Li Ming's situation." Chen Lie cut to the chase. "E17 Rift, three days without coming out."

"Is the Exotic Beast density inside the rift too high?"

Chen Lie shook his head.

"It's not a density issue." His voice dropped low. "Both rescue teams that came back said the same thing. The fifth layer of the rift showed abnormal fluctuations, much stronger than a normal E-Class."

Lin Feng frowned.

Abnormal fluctuations?

Last time, he'd encountered something similar in an F-Class Rift.

That time, a Red Flame Earth Lizard had nested deep inside the rift, expanding it from within.

Could this be the same situation?

"I'm going in." Lin Feng didn't hesitate.

"By yourself?" Chen Lie asked.

"One person is enough."

Wang Tie grew anxious beside him. "I'm going too!"

Lin Feng glanced at him.

"You're at Martial Disciple first stage. Entering an E-Rank Rift is no problem, but if there's really a D-Rank or higher anomaly inside, you won't be able to help even if you go."

Wang Tie opened his mouth, the words of rebuttal reaching his lips before he swallowed them back.

He knew his own strength well.

Martial Disciple first stage—barely enough to protect himself in an E-Rank Rift. Anything beyond that, and he'd just be feeding himself to the enemy.

"Stay here and wait for me." Lin Feng patted his shoulder. "I'll bring Li Ming back."

Wang Tie gritted his teeth and nodded.

Chen Lie pulled two pills from his pocket and handed them over.

"Energy Recovery Pills. Aged ones, a bit better than the ordinary kind."

Lin Feng took them, tucked them into his pocket, turned, and walked out of the camp.

The E17 Rift was twelve kilometers northwest of the Seventh Defense Line.

With his current speed as a Martial Master fifth stage, going full tilt, it wouldn't take more than twenty minutes.

A few stray F-Rank Exotic Beasts roamed in the distance. Sensing Lin Feng's aura, they gave him a wide berth from afar.

The pressure of a Martial Master level was a natural predator to low-rank Exotic Beasts.

Fifteen minutes later, the entrance of the E17 Rift came into view.

The rift opening wasn't large—about ten meters wide. The rocks at the edge were stained with large patches of dried blood.

Some was human, some from Exotic Beasts.

No guards at the entrance.

This was a rift directly under military jurisdiction, but because it was far from the camp, only patrols made regular checks.

Lin Feng drew Mountain Splitter and stepped inside.

The first layer of the rift was littered with Exotic Beast corpses.

As soon as Lin Feng entered, he noticed something was off.

The rock walls on both sides of the passage were covered in battle marks.

Slash marks from blades, scratch marks from claws—old and new overlapping, dense and chaotic.

But the vast majority of the Exotic Beast corpses were fresh.

Some were still bleeding.

"Someone cleared the path ahead." Lin Feng crouched down and turned over a Steel-Tooth Rat's corpse.

The wound was caused by a dagger. The angle was crooked, the force uneven.

Martial Disciple level technique.

Li Ming.

Lin Feng stood up and quickened his pace deeper in.

Second layer. Even more Exotic Beast corpses.

But the battle marks started to get messy. In some places, it was clearly a one-versus-many fight. The blood on the ground stretched out in a long trail.

Someone was injured, fighting while retreating deeper.

"This kid—instead of running out, he burrows further in?" Lin Feng muttered to himself, not slowing his steps.

Third layer, fourth layer. He pushed through all the way.

Any E-Rank Exotic Beasts that popped up along the way were casually dealt with.

At his current level, facing E-Rank Exotic Beasts was like a one-sided slaughter—one slash, one kill, clean and efficient.

[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beast: Iron-Armored Centipede ×4, gained Martial Path Points ×200]

[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beast: Poison Claw Lizard ×3, gained Martial Path Points ×150]

[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beast: Rock-Shell Beetle ×6, gained Martial Path Points ×300]

[Steel of the Blade: 281/500]

The system notifications rang out nonstop. Martial Path Points were accumulating, and the talent level was rising.

But Lin Feng's attention was entirely on the traces beneath his feet.

The blood was getting denser.

In some spots, there were drag marks. In others, clear signs of someone falling and struggling.

Li Ming was badly injured.

Fifth layer.

Lin Feng stopped.

The air changed.

Not the temperature—the pressure.

A surge of energy far beyond what an E-Rank Rift should emit rolled in from the end of the passage.

Heavy, dense, carrying a frequency that made the heart clench.

Chen Lie was right.

There really was an anomaly above D-Rank here.

Lin Feng slowed his pace, holding the Mountain Splitter across his chest as he crept forward step by step.

He rounded the last bend.

And he saw it.

At the end of the fifth layer, there should have been a dead wall.

But now, a crack had split open on that wall.

The opening wasn't large—about three meters wide, a little over two meters tall—and the rock at its edges showed a strange, dark purple hue.

From within the crack emanated a dense aura of an Exotic Beast.

Not E-Rank.

Not D-Rank.

C-Rank.

Inside the rift, there was another rift.

"Matryoshka?" Lin Feng stared at the opening, his mind spinning for a moment.

Deep within an E-Rift, a C-Rank Rift had torn open.

He'd seen this in textbooks before—it was called "Rift Nesting," extremely rare, usually occurring in areas where energy at the rift's bottom was too concentrated.

The Exotic Beasts in a nested rift were often one to two major tiers higher than those in the outer rift.

A C-Rank Rift's beasts started at the Martial Ancestor level at minimum.

Lin Feng stood before the opening for three seconds.

There were footprints on the ground.

Faint, messy, but definitely human.

More than one set.

Besides Li Ming, there had to be others.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, tightened his grip on the Mountain Splitter, and stepped inside.

As he passed through that dark purple opening, goosebumps rose across his skin. The energy density in the air shot up several notches.

The space inside was much more spacious than outside.

Lin Feng had walked less than fifty meters when he heard sounds.

Not the roar of an Exotic Beast.

Human shouts.

"Hold the line! Don't let it through!"

"Old Zhang's done for! Pull him over here!"

"Who still has pills? The bleeding won't stop!"

The voices came from deep within, chaotic and desperate.

Lin Feng quickened his pace.