The man before him was tall and broad, but his face was hideous and menacing.
A mouthful of rotten yellow teeth showed between his parted lips. The bloodstained saber in his hand and the head on the floor made him look positively murderous.
Yet Qin Ran watched him with calm eyes.
Partly because his own strength was enough to handle the danger before him, and partly because the man had given himself away.
Despite his murderous appearance, the man had no actual intent to kill!
Even under that direct stare, Qin Ran felt none of the prickling discomfort of being threatened.
Put simply, the man was putting on an act.
As for why he would do that?
The Sanctuary's trial!
Qin Ran could think of no other answer.
Did the trial begin the moment we boarded?
Then...
Is this part of it too?
Qin Ran looked at the head beside his feet. Eisind's face was contorted in a grimace, suggesting he had suffered terribly before his death.
If this really was a trial, Eisind naturally would not be dead.
Even the person who had fallen overboard earlier might well have been part of the trial.
Still, the blood seeping from the head was real.
Qin Ran could establish that by smell alone.
And the head itself?
The instant Qin Ran picked it up and his fingers touched it, he knew whether it was real.
"Made from fired clay?"
Qin Ran asked in surprise.
The man had hardly been gentle when throwing the head down. With the hardness of fired clay, a toss like that should have shattered it.
Clearly, something special had been added to it.
"When did you figure it out?"
While Qin Ran examined the head, the aggressive intruder helplessly lowered his bloodstained saber and looked at him