Hell's Gate!

"Fourfold Kill!"

Shan He gritted his teeth as he spoke.

The first volley of bamboo arrows was meant to lure the enemy in. I knew they couldn't hurt you, but I wanted you to know I was waiting right ahead. Eager to prove himself, Jinta charged at the front, and a large net was waiting for him.

The second net restricted movement, confining one or several targets within as small an area as possible. Once they were unable to move, they could be shot down one by one.

The third arrow was both for killing and driving them away. Trapped in the net, there was nowhere to dodge. If it could kill, it killed. Even if someone rescued him, it had already limited Jinta's range of movement to the span of a palm.

Yes, Jinta had been held in his own hands at the time. He had only just rescued him from the air and had not even had time to put him down.

The fourth layer of killing intent was that Dogleg Knife, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, killing enemies without a trace.

Just when you thought you had avoided the bamboo arrows, a large net waited ahead. When you cut the netting at the critical moment and had not even caught your breath, the Dogleg Knife came again.

There was nowhere to dodge and no defense against it.

This required not only formidable strength, but also a deep psychological battle.

Shan He was truly curious. What kind of person could set up such a perfect Fourfold Kill in so little time?

That adolescent standing before him, whose hair had not even fully grown in?

Shan He was a master of the Qi Control Realm, and his eyesight was far beyond ordinary.

Even on this pitch-black night, his ears and eyes remained keen. He could take in the colors of the surrounding flowers and grass, even the sounds of insects crawling.

He could see Tang Fei's face. He was a delicate-looking youth, his features refined enough to be called exquisite. Even the handsome boys on the Starry Sky Ranking would pale in comparison.

Most unforgettable of all were his eyes—clear, bright, carrying a mocking smile and a fearless Ruffian Spirit.

How could Old Earth produce such an exceptional boy?

Had nuclear radiation failed to fry their brains?

Boom!

Shan He threw Jinta, whom he had been holding up, onto the ground. The man was already dead, so there was no point in carrying him any longer.

Just as the Clown had said, dead people could offer this team no help.

Shan He looked at Tang Fei and asked, "Did you set this trap?"

"I did." Tang Fei grinned. "Are you satisfied?"

"Very impressive." Shan He said, "Honestly, we never expected you to set up such a Fourfold Kill in such a short time. I admit it. I made another enormous mistake. I underestimated you."

"Originally, I thought I had taken you seriously enough. I even kept my team from splitting up and giving you the chance to pick us off one by one. But now I see that I still underestimated you."

Tang Fei casually waved a hand. "It wasn't all that impressive. If you hadn't been so stupid, our Fourfold Kill would have failed."

"Stupid?" Shan He looked at Tang Fei suspiciously.

"Yeah." Tang Fei pointed at Jinta's body, severed from head to neck. "If I'm not mistaken, this big guy practiced defensive techniques like the Adamantine Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt, right?"

Shan He's gaze sharpened, and he nodded. "That's right."

Jinta had indeed practiced a defensive martial art called the Turtle Burst Technique. It focused on defense, compressing oneself to the extreme before bursting forth at a critical moment, killing opponents with thunderous force.

That was why they had Jinta lead the way. At crucial moments, he could help block arrows.

"This kind of technique is hard to deal with. If you fight it head-on, ordinary people can hardly hurt its practitioners at all. When strength is equal and you can't find their weak point, you could fight for three days and nights without deciding a winner," Tang Fei explained.

Then he narrowed his eyes and thanked Shan He. "At the crucial moment, I still had to thank you for your help, Uncle."

"Oh? How did I help you?"

"If you had put him down the moment you rescued him and helped him cut away the net, then with his strength, he would have had more than enough ability to protect himself. I never expected you to keep holding him in midair, leaving him wrapped in the net and unable to move."

"At that point, wasn't it the perfect chance to draw my knife? Uncle, don't you think I should thank you?"

"Hahaha!"

The Clown burst into wild laughter.

He laughed himself hoarse, laughing so hard he bent forward and backward, even slapping his thigh and stomping his feet on the spot.

He pointed at Shan He and said, "Uncle Shan He. Hahaha, I should thank you too. Thank you for helping me get rid of this big guy."

"This is too hilarious. So it was one of our own who killed us! Hahaha, how could this be so funny?"

"..." Shan He's face darkened, and red light flickered in his eyes again.

The Clown paid him no heed, as if he had not noticed the strange expression on Shan He's face. Pointing at Tang Fei, he asked, "kid, what's your name?"

"Tang Fei. Tang as in Tang Fei, Fei as in Tang Fei."

"Interesting. Too interesting. Kid, I like you. We're the same kind of people."

"I walk the road of the living. You walk the road of the dead. We're not the same kind," Tang Fei said.

The Clown laughed even more happily and pointed at Tang Fei. "Arrogant. Arrogant enough. Kid, I like you even more now."

"Shameless!"

"..."

The Clown could no longer laugh.

Though he found those words even funnier, his face had stiffened, and he simply could not laugh.

Shan He looked at Tang Fei and said, "The Fourfold Kill performance is over, isn't it?"

"It's over," Tang Fei replied.

"Then it's our turn to perform."

"Sure." Tang Fei chuckled. "Now, please begin your performance."

Before he had finished speaking, Tang Fei turned and ran.

Shan He's body sprang upward like a cannonball, shooting into the sky.

"Trying to run?" Flying through the air, he chased after Tang Fei, who was sprinting through the dense forest like a startled rabbit. "Leave your head behind!"

Tang Fei had cut Jinta's head off right in front of him, so he would take Tang Fei's head as well.

Only then would people on the Starry Sky not laugh at him when he returned.

He knew that if Tang Fei did not die by his hand, and the squad he had brought did not all die—

what had just happened would become the greatest humiliation of his career.

Helping his opponent cut off a teammate's head—if word of that got out, how could he ever face anyone again?

His career would take a massive blow. He might even lose his job in the future.

When the Clown, Snake Woman, and the others saw Tang Fei flee, they all used their movement techniques and chased after him.

Tang Fei ran quickly, as though the wind had grown beneath his feet.

He darted and weaved, lunging left and right, occasionally changing direction.

He loved this feeling—the feeling of blending into this mountain and its lush forest.

He knew this place too well. From the moment he had first begun to remember things, or perhaps even earlier, he had followed Old Man and Little Fatty into these mountains.

At first, Old Man took him and Little Fatty up the mountain to hunt. Then Old Man took them into the mountains and watched the two of them hunt. Later, Old Man let him and Little Fatty go hunting by themselves—

until he began hunting in the mountains alone.

He knew where the animals were fierce, where to hunt two-headed sheep and two-eyed rabbits, which patches had the most abundant wild mushrooms and wild boars, where there were stagnant pools, and where cliffs rose sheer.

He knew it all.

He knew this mountain like the back of his hand. He was the king of this mountain.

Of course, that was when the mutated tiger kings and adamantine leopards did not appear.

Or when the Wolf Pack did not appear.

Tang Fei passed through Hundred Flowers Ridge, ran past Crocodile Pool, crossed White Bone Gorge, and continued forward, ever forward.

Then he stopped.

He stood there, panting heavily.

Bang!

Shan He landed like a cannonball, stamping heavily onto the muddy ground. He stared at Tang Fei and said, "kid, weren't you good at running? Keep running."

"I'm not running anymore." Tang Fei waved a hand, gasping for breath. "I can't run anymore."

"Then this will be where you die," Shan He said.

Red light flickered in his eyes. Both hands clenched into fists, and red light flashed over his knuckles as well.

It was an extremely bizarre and evil technique called the Thousand Corpse Transformation.

This technique was mainly used to absorb corpse-fire from dead bodies—the so-called ghost fire that older generations often spoke of.

Human bones contained phosphorus. After a corpse decayed and changed, it produced phosphine. Phosphine had a very low ignition point and could spontaneously combust.

Walking could cause it to drift along behind someone. Looking back and seeing it was frightening, so superstitious people called it ghost fire.

Shan He used this technique to absorb that deathly energy, then refine and devour it, ultimately killing people with corpse poison.

Relying on this sinister art, he had actually cultivated his own Yin Yang Qi, breaking through realm after realm and becoming a renowned assassin on the Starry Sky.

"Here?" Tang Fei looked around and said with a smile, "The scenery here isn't bad. How about we give it a name?"

"Your burial ground can be called anything you like."

"I want to call it Hell's Gate," Tang Fei said.

"As you wish." As Shan He spoke, he tried to spring upward again.

When he watched movies on New Star, one line had left a deep impression on him: villains died from talking too much.

He knew he was a villain, so he usually spoke as little as possible.

Especially while carrying out missions, he barely spoke at all.

He did not want to waste more words on Tang Fei. He wanted to deal with Tang Fei as quickly as possible.

After all, Tang Fei was not his true target. That little bird hidden in the shadows was.

Huh? He hadn't moved.

He tried again. Still, he hadn't moved.

Then he stared at Tang Fei in astonishment and asked, "What kind of place is this?"

"Didn't I tell you? This is Hell's Gate. That's what us locals call it."

"What does that mean?"

"Don't you feel your body sinking rapidly?" Tang Fei said with a smile. "The faster you move, the deeper you sink. Even if a lion king or tiger king came, it would be useless. So, is this Fifth Kill passable?"

"What about you? Why aren't you sinking?" Shan He stared at Tang Fei's body. He still stood calmly, showing no sign of sinking.

"Because I drifted in, while you jumped in." Tang Fei smiled. "I have to say, Uncle, that jump of yours really was full of momentum. Impressive, impressive."

"..."

Shan He knew that he had fallen into another trap.

The Fifth Kill!