As long as you die, the secret will no longer be a secret

Zhou Yuan's hands were trembling.

He stared at the corpse on the ground, still warm. Liu Gang's neck had been sliced halfway through, blood seeping along the rock crevices, faint steam rising from it.

That slash had been too fast.

So fast he hadn't even seen Lin Feng draw the blade.

"Lin Feng, calm down."

Zhou Yuan shuffled half a step back, his own blade held across his chest, but that strip of metal gave him no sense of safety.

"Liu Gang is Deputy Commander Zhao's man. You killed him—you can't go back to base camp."

Lin Feng flicked the blood off his blade tip, his steps steady.

"If I hadn't killed him, would he have let me go back?"

Lin Feng's voice carried no inflection. His long blade was leveled, the tip aimed straight at Zhou Yuan's throat.

"Spill it. Zhao Tianxiong had you bring me into the Rift—what was the real reason?"

Zhou Yuan swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He knew he couldn't beat the monster in front of him.

The file said Martial Disciple Rank 7, but the strength and speed that had exploded out just now had definitely crossed that threshold.

"I can tell you all of Zhao Tianxiong's secrets, including where he keeps the ledger for his military supply embezzlement. Just let me go."

Zhou Yuan's words came out in a rush, afraid that if he slowed down by even a second, the blade would sink into him.

Lin Feng stopped, standing three meters away.

"Oh? Embezzling military supplies? That's interesting."

He'd heard rumors before—someone in the army was skimming supplies, pocketing the difference.

He hadn't expected it, though. Even a Deputy Commander would stoop to this. A man's greed knows no bounds. One word: greed.

Lin Feng let out a cold laugh. Finally, some leverage.

Zhou Yuan saw an opening and quickly threw out his bargaining chip.

"Zhao Tianxiong is looking for a batch of Body Tempering Pills. They're supplies he intercepted from the Provincial Martial Arts Association—ten pills total, worth a million."

"He suspects you took them, so he ordered us to dispose of you inside the Rift and make it look like an accident."

"Also, he planted a tracker in the Tactical Backpack you picked up. The moment you leave the Rift, his men will swarm you."

Lin Feng listened, then reached back and felt his pack.

In the seam of the inner lining, he found a hard lump the size of a fingernail.

He crushed it.

Crack.

The sound of shattered electronics rang sharp in the quiet cave.

"Done?"

Lin Feng looked at Zhou Yuan, his eyes devoid of any warmth.

Zhou Yuan froze for a moment, then nodded.

"Done. I swear I'm not lying. You can take me with you—I know a secret exit through the Logistics Department..."

"Alright. I've got it."

Lin Feng cut him off, his feet suddenly driving into the ground.

Zhou Yuan's face twisted in alarm. He instinctively raised his blade to block.

Clang!

A sharp ring.

The standard-issue steel long blade in Zhou Yuan's hands shattered like paper under Lin Feng's edge, bursting into fragments.

The blade's momentum didn't stop. It carved cleanly across Zhou Yuan's throat.

A jet of blood sprayed sideways from his neck, and the light in his eyes faded fast.

Even in death, Zhou Yuan couldn't understand why—after he'd handed over such critical intel—the other man hadn't hesitated for even a second before killing him.

Lin Feng sheathed his blade, bent down, and rifled through Zhou Yuan's belongings. He found two porcelain medicine bottles and a small pouch of Exotic Beast Magic Cores, stuffing them quickly into his waist pouch.

"Secrets like that—only the dead keep them best."

He muttered to himself, then turned and walked back.

Wang Tie and Li Ming stood at the corner, both frozen, their weapons gripped tight.

They'd heard most of the conversation.

Wang Tie watched Lin Feng approach and was silent for a full three seconds.

He was an old soldier from the Northern Territory, accustomed to life and death, and had seen plenty of dark dealings.

But he had never seen anyone as ruthless as Lin Feng.

Decisive in killing, no wasted words.

He even felt a bit of relief now that he hadn't crossed Lin Feng.

"All cleaned up?"

Wang Tie spoke, his voice a little hoarse.

Lin Feng nodded, pulled out the pile of electronic fragments from his bag, and tossed them to the ground.

"There's a tracker in the bag. Zhao Tianxiong didn't plan on letting us go back alive."

Wang Tie cursed under his breath.

"That old bastard. I've had my eye on him for a long time, even skimming the recruits' compensation. Didn't think he'd be this black-hearted."

Li Ming stood nearby, his face pale as a sheet, hands trembling like a sieve.

"Brother Lin, what do we do now? Going back means death, staying here means death too."

Lin Feng glanced at him, then tossed the porcelain bottle he'd found to Wang Tie.

"Take one pill each. Since the mission is to investigate the abnormal fluctuations, we keep moving deeper."

"If we don't get the mission report, going back is still insubordination. Zhao Tianxiong will have even more reason to kill us."

"Block off the path, and he'll think we died in the mouths of exotic beasts."

Wang Tie caught the bottle, opened it, sniffed, and his eyes lit up.

"Energy Recovery Pill? Good stuff, can quickly restore stamina."

He took out two pills, handed one to Li Ming, and returned the bottle to Lin Feng.

"Alright, I'm with you. This life of mine was picked up anyway. Kill one and break even, kill two and make a profit."

Lin Feng said nothing, lowering his head to glance at the system panel.

[Steel of the Blade: 51/500 (First Stage Activated)]

Killing those two with ill intentions just now had actually given him layers.

This gave him a new understanding of this talent.

As long as the target carried hostility, it seemed they could become fuel for stacking layers.

That would make the path to stacking a lot easier.

"Let's go. To the third layer."

Lin Feng led the way into the depths.

The deeper they went, the heavier the smell of burnt air became.

The soil underfoot felt soft and spongy, carrying an unnatural residual warmth.

Li Ming looked down and suddenly stopped.

On that soft layer of soil was a massive claw print.

The print was three-lobed, each toe joint as thick as a bowl, sunk at least five centimeters deep into the ground.

"Brother Lin, this print is hot."

Li Ming crouched down, touched the edge of the claw print with his finger, and immediately pulled back.

Lin Feng walked over, stared at the claw print for a long moment.

An exotic beast of this size should never appear in an F-Class Rift.

According to what he'd learned at school, only fire-attribute exotic beasts of E-Class or above would leave such high-temperature footprints while moving.

"The filed data is wrong."

Lin Feng stood up, looking at the dark passage ahead.

"This isn't just a simple F-Class Rift."

When Wang Tie heard this, his eyelids twitched.

"E-Class? That's something a Martial Artist squad handles. This temporary team we've scraped together..."

He looked at Lin Feng, then at himself.

Lin Feng was a Martial Artist, he knew that.

But he himself was only a Martial Disciple Rank 9, and Li Ming was even worse, just a Martial Disciple Rank 3.

"Scared?"

Lin Feng turned back and asked.

Wang Tie grinned, spat on the ground.

"Scared of what? The Magic Core of an E-Class exotic beast is worth a fortune. Just thinking about it gets me excited."

"Zhao Tianxiong wants us dead, but I'll be damned if I don't bring back something valuable to slap his face with."

The three pressed on.

Along the way, the number of exotic beasts had clearly increased.

But most were just lone F-Class Exotic Beasts.

Lin Feng was taking almost all the kills.

Every time they encountered a beast, he would charge ahead before Wang Tie could make a move.

[Killed F-Class Exotic Beast: Fire Beetle, gained Martial Path Points ×1]

[Steel of the Blade: 53/500]

[Killed F-Class Exotic Beast: Rock Snake, gained Martial Path Points ×1]

[Steel of the Blade: 54/500]

Lin Feng's movements grew faster, and the sound of his blade cutting through air grew sharper.

As the layers stacked, he felt the long knife in his hand become an extension of his body.

With every swing, he no longer needed to think about angle or force.

Instinct told him exactly where the defenses were weakest.

Li Ming followed behind, his heart once full of fear, but after watching Lin Feng's effortless, chopping-vegetable-like performance time and again, he gradually calmed down.

He even started trying to finish off the beasts whose legs Lin Feng had severed.

"Bro Lin, this one's not dead yet—my turn!"

Li Ming shouted, charging over to stab wildly at a twitching Fire Beetle.

Thud.

[Assisted teammate kill, gained Martial Path Points ×0.5]

Lin Feng paused, surprised that a teammate's kill could also give him a small amount of Martial Path Points.

It wasn't much, but every bit counted.

"Keep going."

Lin Feng left those two words behind, then flickered and vanished into the red glow ahead.