The road to Slaughter City had no name.
The closer they came to the entrance, the fewer villages and towns they passed. During the final half-day, even the fields vanished, leaving only wild grass and animal bones bleached white by the wind.
At dusk, the two reached a solitary tavern.
Old, dark stains marked its Gate. Inside sat a roomful of desperate men with vicious eyes. When Bai Jin and Hu Liena pushed their way in, conversation stopped for a moment.
"Two glasses of water." Bai Jin sat down at the counter.
The bartender looked as though he had heard a joke. "We only sell Bloody Mary here."
"Then we won't drink."
Bai Jin swiped a piece of candy from the counter and had just peeled off the wrapper when a curved blade swung at his neck from behind.
Hu Liena kicked the back of the blade.
The curved blade veered into a wooden table. She caught the attacker's wrist, and a Short Blade slid from her sleeve, drawing across the side of his neck.
Blood splashed into a drinking glass.
The tavern erupted.
More than a dozen men rose at once. Blades, axes, and chains came at them from every direction. Hu Liena did not release the Demon Fox. Relying only on the footwork she had honed over two months, she wove through the crowd. She used one man to block a flying axe, severed another's wrist tendons with her Short Blade, and whipped her leg into a third man's temple as she turned.
Bai Jin remained seated at the counter.
A cleaver swung at the back of his head, then slowed to a stop within Limitless. Without looking back, he reached out and nudged its tip aside.
"Fight her. Don't cut in line."
Before the man with the