The Sound of Wind

His aim was precise, his force solid, and his arm did not tremble in the slightest.

Perfect!

Lu Ren felt rather smug about that move.

Whether it was Basic Combat or Basic Swordsmanship, his skills had given him a profound understanding of the human body's vital areas, as well as where to strike to instantly deprive someone of their fighting ability.

Once a skill took shape, it was as though his body had undergone countless trials and trained this move to perfection, while innumerable intricacies naturally flowed through his mind.

Defeating an enemy in one blow, killing them in one blow—that was what Lu Ren sought. Unfortunately, it seemed the other party's heart was in the wrong place.

System: "Ding, the fat woman has taken notice of you and wants to claim you for herself."

The monster, wracked by pain, let out a roar and wildly grabbed at Lu Ren in midair with both hands. Yet Lu Ren had already withdrawn the moment he struck. Hanging upside down, he twisted with Borrowing Strength, and landed like a spider with both feet and one hand braced against the monster's head and shoulder, narrowly evading those two sharp, metallic claws.

He immediately pushed off with his hands and feet. The instant he landed, he rolled forward, only rising to his feet after charging five meters away.

At that moment, he was already standing in the hallway of this floor.

Lu Ren glanced at the iron shard in his hand. Dark brown bloodstains covered it, and drops of the monster's blood were slowly sliding from its tip onto the floor.

"Ding, because you focused completely and swung the iron shard with intense concentration, you suddenly gained insight. Your Basic Swordsmanship proficiency has increased by 30!"

This really was...

He looked back at the monster, which was waving its limbs about, layers of fat jiggling as it roared and charged at him. However, the high heels on its feet made it especially slow.

At least, it seemed quite slow to him.

He could not take it head-on. He could only rely on technique, or dodge with agility.

"Fuck you, how are you still not dead?"

He dared guarantee that strike had pierced the monster's heart—if its body structure was identical to a human's.

Lu Ren bent slightly at the waist. With a burst of strength from his back, he lunged forward, then abruptly arched backward into an iron bridge. Half-kneeling on the ground, he slid forward, evading those fat hands and the fierce wind they whipped up. The sharp iron shard in his hand struck directly into the creature's waist and abdomen, sinking all the way to the cloth-wrapped handle.

Seeing that it seemed immune to pain and was about to twist around and pounce on him, Lu Ren did not dare pause in the slightest. He immediately braced himself against the ground, spun around, and lay on his back. Then he used a rabbit-kicking-eagle move, viciously kicking at the creature's feet.

As he watched it topple toward him, Lu Ren cursed furiously and twisted sideways with force from his waist and abdomen, narrowly avoiding it.

Thud!

Several hundred pounds of fat slammed violently into the floor. Lu Ren could even feel the faint tremor running through the hallway.

Ignoring the string of prompt sounds in his head, Lu Ren rolled over and sprang up. Gripping the sharp iron shard, he viciously drove it toward the fat creature's neck.

Squelch!

With a soft sound of flesh being pierced, the force from Lu Ren's twisting arm, waist, and abdomen drove the shard straight through the monster's neck.

Without stopping, Lu Ren used his above-average Mental attribute to see the monster's movements with perfect clarity. He dodged its claws by a hair's breadth, pulled out the iron shard, and brought it down hard once more.

After more than twenty such strikes, he had practically severed the monster's neck, leaving only a little skin and flesh still attached.

Its head could be said to have been cut off, yet its body still thrashed for another minute before finally going still.

Panting heavily, Lu Ren straightened up and looked at the hard iron shard in his hand. He needed to find time to sharpen it, or it would be difficult to fully display his strength.

What shocked him even more was the astonishing vitality within the creature's body. Even after its neck had nearly been cut through, it had still thrashed mindlessly for quite a while before falling still.

"Ding, because you continuously wielded the iron shard and finally killed the Greasy Freak with great difficulty, your Basic Swordsmanship proficiency has increased by 40."

"Ding, because you continuously dodged, your Agility proficiency has increased by 1."

"Ding, because..."

The flood of system prompts in his mind took Lu Ren quite some time to sort through. Then he felt pleasantly surprised. He had not expected that proficiency could be gained not only through everyday training, but also by killing powerful opponents for even greater amounts of proficiency.

This was tempting him to actively seek out slaughter. It felt a little like entrapment.

The hallway and rooms, briefly filled with commotion, fell quiet and still. Everything sank back into darkness. Other than Lu Ren's somewhat heavy breathing, all returned to calm.

Yet within that silence lurked threads of strangeness.

Lu Ren looked at the deep, pitch-black hallway stretching before and behind him. Having recovered, he quickly steadied his breathing and slowly walked, step by step, toward the hiding place he remembered.

He strained his eyes wide, but in the darkness, he could only make out vague outlines.

By the light of someone else's phone lying on the floor, Lu Ren took out his own phone and turned on the flashlight. Then his pupils suddenly contracted. At the doorway leading to the room in the middle of the hallway lay two sections of a corpse.

Someone had been cut in half at the waist!

No, not just at the waist. Their neck had also been severed by a sharp blade, so they had not made a sound.

Upon closer inspection, it was Feng Zicheng—the quiet, honest-looking man dressed in work clothes.

What had done this?

Before Lu Ren could think further, he suddenly heard a sharp sound tearing through the air behind his head, making his expression change drastically.

"Ding, Blade in the darkness has fixed her gaze upon you. She is curious about you and wants to get closer to you."

What kind of bullshit system was this? Why did it start spouting nonsense whenever he encountered an enemy?

Ignoring the system prompt, his entire body suddenly tensed. With no time to make any evasive movement, he could only raise the iron shard in his hand and use Lü Zu Carries Sword on His Back, slanting it across his back.

Clang! Clang!

Two nearly simultaneous rings of metal striking metal suddenly echoed through the relatively spacious hallway.

The mighty force from behind sent Lu Ren stumbling several steps forward. He then used the momentum to dive ahead, rolled twice, and pushed off the floor to twist himself upright.

"Ding, you suffered a sneak attack from Blade Bamboo and successfully defended against it. Your Agility proficiency +1."

"Ding, you suffered..."

Constitution, Agility, and Strength had each gained quite a bit of proficiency. The rewards gained between life and death were truly exhilarating!

The attacker was hanging from the ceiling!

Ignoring the system prompts in his mind, Lu Ren shone the flashlight in his tightly clenched left hand upward, revealing a figure hanging from the ceiling—extremely slender and tall.

Its entire body bore the color and luster of grayish-white armor. Rather than feet, it would be more accurate to call them two sharp iron rods with a metallic sheen. Its pointed feet had pierced through the ceiling boards as easily as stabbing through tofu, allowing it to hang upside down above.

Its hands—or rather, its arms, which bore long, narrow blades—were incomparably sharp. Even the slightest sway produced a faint sound of slicing wind.

Its head was as sharp as an iron mountain horn, with no facial features whatsoever, like a sheet of rust-covered iron.

It looked altogether like a four-limbed stick insect.

An agility-type monster.

"Ding, because your potential suddenly erupted between life and death, and you blocked Blade Bamboo's attack at the critical moment, your Agility proficiency has increased by 30."

Lu Ren's back was already drenched in cold sweat. That had been far too dangerous. His thoughts had not even had time to react, leaving him unable to think. Everything had depended solely on instinctive action.