A Hundred Victories, the Hell Road Opens

Slaughter City had no seasons, only an ever-rising tally of victories.

After his tenth match, Yuan Yu rarely appeared on the streets. Too many people wanted to kill him. Nine out of ten came for him because he looked underage; the last had his eye on the Sun Wheel Blade. Dealing with them was easy. Wasting wine on them hurt.

He rented a stone house in the inner city, practiced his Breathing Style by day, and fought in the Slaughter Arena by night. Without his Soul Skills, he had to channel every scrap of Soul Power in his meridians through his body and blade. Attacks he once could have handled with his Artifact Aspect now had to be parried by hand.

In the first month, he won twenty-one matches.

By the third month, his tally had reached forty-seven.

Half a year later, the name Myriad Phenomena made many people in the inner city take another route. Hu Liena, the Hell Envoy, was also piling up victories fast. Blue-haired Tang Yin was like a concealed weapon kept in its sheath: he struck seldom, but never left anyone alive when he did.

The three had never publicly formed an alliance.

Before Tang Yin's sixty-third match, someone planted poisoned needles in the ceiling of a passage. Yuan Yu happened by and cut through the mechanism, leaving only a warning: "There's something in the crack in the wall."

After Hu Liena's seventy-first match, more than a dozen people blocked the exit. Tang Yin tossed a pebble from a nearby roof and put out the lamp at the mouth of the alley. By the time it was lit again, Hu Liena had fought her way out.

Before Yuan Yu's eightieth match, the Bloody Mary brought to him was darker than usual. Hu Liena lifted her