Black Rifle, Assassination!

Taking the Reagent No. 4 Feng Buzhi handed him, Pei Chao's body trembled uncontrollably.

A voice deep within him told him to resist, but he could never muster the courage to do so. After all, he had already resisted twice today, and after those two attempts, the training—torture—he endured had become even more intense.

In the end, he followed the instructions and drank the entire half-flask of reagent.

Dizziness clouded his mind again. By the time Pei Chao regained a little clarity, he had followed Feng Buzhi into the Mist once more and seen the green eyes deep within it—the Green-skinned Dwarves.

If this had been yesterday, he probably would have gotten hotheaded and charged in with his machete.

But after the miserable experiences of the day, he only wanted to muddle through somehow.

A vicious-looking Green-skinned Dwarf charged at him. Pei Chao belatedly raised his machete, only to see the dwarf abruptly accelerate. In the blink of an eye, the axe in its hand was already chopping toward his face.

That axe could kill him!

The stimulus of life and death made Pei Chao realize that he still did not want to die.

"Damn it!"

Pei Chao cursed, and the dull, vacant look on his face abruptly turned ferocious.

In that instant, he seemed to enter the state he had been in while fighting Goblins last night. Everything around him seemed to slow down.

And unlike yesterday, he had become stronger today.

The resistance around him seemed to lessen. With a diagonal slash, he cleaved the Green-skinned Dwarf before him in two, then pounced like a tiger onto the one beside it and slit its throat with his machete.

Pei Chao quickly got to his feet and charged at another Green-skinned Dwarf. A fire about to explode burned in his heart, and he wanted to vent the depression inside him on these Green-skinned Dwarves.

"I'll chop you damned bastards to pieces!"

Several meters away, Feng Buzhi casually chopped through a Goblin's neck with his axe, then gave a slight nod.

He had been observing Pei Chao the entire time.

Judging from Pei Chao's current performance, the effects of those three later sessions of Basic Cultivation Assistance during the day had not been as poor as he had imagined.

Pei Chao was now slaughtering Goblins with remarkable efficiency, yet he had not displayed such ability after daytime training. It appeared that after training during the day, Pei Chao had failed to draw out his body's potential.

In other words, Pei Chao had very poor control over his own body. Under normal circumstances, he might only be able to exert around seventy percent of his full strength.

Only when stimulated by the line between life and death could Pei Chao unleash all of his strength.

"Perhaps I can have him practice the twelve forms of the Muscle-Tendon Transformation Classic as well. His flexibility is much worse, though, so he probably won't be able to complete many of the movements. But if he trains a few more times with Basic Cultivation Assistance, his flexibility should improve."

"Looking at it this way, I should bring him to farm more Abyss Points today. Besides that, I also need to learn as much as I can about the Weird's power."

"Though I don't agree with Shadow's words about rushing for quick gains, they do make some sense."

As he spoke, Feng Buzhi swung his axe, smashing apart the skulls of two Goblins.

Even without breaking through his shackles, his strength had reached seventy percent of what it had been after doing so. These Goblins posed no threat to him whatsoever.

Feng Buzhi did not slaughter all the Goblins either, appropriately leaving some for Pei Chao nearby.

As they remained in one spot for a long time, more and more Goblins gathered in the Mist.

Feeling the pressure, Pei Chao let out a roar. He stabbed two Goblins to death with one slash, then immediately withdrew his blade and sprang forward, claiming another Goblin's life.

Compared to his performance last night, Pei Chao was far stronger today.

Several dozen minutes later, the valiant Pei Chao had killed twenty-seven Goblins, far exceeding yesterday's fifteen. During that time, Feng Buzhi had also split forty-eight Goblins to death with his axe.

If things had continued as they did last night, Goblins in the Mist would have appeared wave after wave. Yet after the two of them killed over seventy Goblins, the number gathering around them clearly diminished.

It was not that they had stopped gathering, but there were far fewer Goblins coming than at the beginning.

Feng Buzhi guessed that the rate at which Goblins spawned within a certain range of the Mist was limited. When their killing speed surpassed the Goblins' spawning speed, the Goblins would become fewer.

The reason they had not felt this way last night was that neither he nor Pei Chao had been anywhere near as strong as they were today, and their rate of killing Goblins had been insufficient.

As for why there had been so many Goblins gathered at the start, perhaps every area had an initial number of Goblins after night fell.

As he ventured deeper into the Mist toward other areas, his guess was quickly confirmed.

After advancing some distance, more Goblins indeed emerged from the Mist. Then, after he cleared them out for a while, the newly emerging Goblins became fewer again.

Over the course of the entire night, Feng Buzhi explored far into the Mist. He even carried the exhausted and unconscious Pei Chao back to the Spider Cave from before, but did not encounter those spider Monsters.

It seemed that Goblins were the only kind of Monster in the nighttime Mist.

Over the course of the night, he killed a total of 435 Goblins. Bearded Pei Chao also performed quite well, collapsing from exhaustion after finally killing fifty-three Goblins. The injuries on his body were even lighter than yesterday's.

By dawn, his title, "Goblin Butcher," took effect, and the Goblins appearing nearby fled in panic.

This time, while deliberately observing with his sonar ability, he also discovered two Goblins vanishing into thin air within the Mist after daybreak.

These Goblins came in the darkness of night, then disappeared again in the daytime.

This change also seemed to explain why there were far more Monsters in the Mist at night than during the day.

Lost in thought and analysis, Feng Buzhi carried the unconscious Pei Chao back to the clearing south of town.

"According to Shadow, the Goblins in the Mist are evil creatures created by the Weird, and they come from the Endless Abyss."

"As for what exactly the Endless Abyss is, Shadow has never revealed it. It only urged me to go to those five altars, saying that once the Weird merges into my body, I will know everything."

Setting Pei Chao down on the ground, Feng Buzhi murmured softly.

Suddenly, he seemed to sense something.

It was an intuition akin to a sixth sense. He shifted slightly to the side.

Pfft!

A sharp pain flared in his left shoulder. He had been shot.

Feng Buzhi rapidly rolled across the ground several times. More shrill shots rang out, and a series of precise shots struck the ground, all successfully evaded by Feng Buzhi.

Three hundred meters away, Ryan saw the figure rolling repeatedly before disappearing through his scope. His pupils contracted, and he immediately raised his gun and retreated.

Unfortunately, he was still too slow.

A few breaths later, Feng Buzhi appeared at the spot where Ryan had just fired from. As for Ryan, he now stood twenty meters away with both hands raised, a bitter smile on his face.

Too fast. In only a few breaths, Feng Buzhi had rushed close to him like a ghost. He had no chance to retreat at all.

If he could do it over again, he definitely would not have agreed to this ambush so rashly.

The reward Wang Chen offered was simply too little...

Ryan said with a bitter smile, "Hey, friend, I know I shot at you, but it wasn't my intention. This is all because of Wang Chen. I can help expose his hypocritical true face, I..."

Ryan's words came to a halt halfway through as a strange smile appeared on his face.

—The Weird Mine he had planted at the ambush site had been triggered.

Boom!!

The Weird Mine buried underground blasted Feng Buzhi into the air.

Yet before Ryan could show a triumphant expression, he saw that the blasted-away Feng Buzhi had already transformed into a ghostly blur again and charged toward him.

Feng Buzhi was simply too fast. Before he could raise his gun and fire in a sweep, he found the weapon in his hands kicked away by Feng Buzhi.

In his panic, Ryan activated the Weird's power. A mass of black mist gathered around his right arm, turning the entire limb pitch-black as he swung his fist at Feng Buzhi.

Bang!

Ryan's black fist was caught in Feng Buzhi's palm. The other man's hand was like an iron vise, and he could not break free at all.

Feng Buzhi said, "Is this the Weird power you obtained?"

"Yes, I... Aah!!"

Before Ryan could finish speaking, his arm had already been twisted into a pretzel.

Without giving Ryan time to react, he felt an immense force seize his neck in the next moment. Feng Buzhi had gripped his throat in one hand, and amid the sound of bones shattering, he lost consciousness forever...