Yan landed on both feet, holding the Spray Soul Tool. He swung his head from side to side, surveying his surroundings.
"Heh heh heh! Is everyone hidden? Here I come!"
His laughter echoed through the courtyard.
Gun in hand, Yan strode forward. First, he glanced at the Main Residence's front door straight ahead. It stood open, pitch-black inside. Then he turned toward the Backyard Garden on his left: ancient trees, boulders, bushes. He looked right: a vegetable patch, its crops planted in neat rows.
"Five minutes, six people." Yan licked his lips. "Plenty."
He didn't rush inside. First, he took a few steps toward the Backyard Garden, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger at a boulder.
Rat-tat-tat...
Blasts of soul power sprayed out, striking the boulder with dull thuds. It rocked twice, but nothing changed.
The rock was a real rock.
Yan fired another burst into the bushes beside it.
Rat-tat-tat...
The impact sent the leaves rustling, and a few drifted down. No one sprang out of the bushes.
"No one in the rear garden," Yan muttered, turning toward the Main Residence.
As he passed the side entrance, he caught the two rows of flowerpots by the doorway out of the corner of his eye.
Eight flowerpots, four to a row, stood neatly arranged on either side of the steps.
Yan glanced at them without stopping.
Hu Liena nearly suffocated inside her flowerpot. Yan's footsteps passed just two feet in front of her, his heavy combat boots thumping against the stone tiles.
He hadn't noticed.
Hu Liena inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, that's all the brains this guy has.
As Yan's footsteps passed the side entrance, Qin Chuan tensed beneath him too.
Yan stepped on the tile beside him.
Just one tile away.
Yan lifted his foot, stepped forward onto the corridor's stone tiles, and never looked back.
Qin Chuan thought, Yan, thank you for being so careless.
Yan carried his gun into the Main Residence.
He entered the main hall first and looked around. A square dining table, Grand Master Chairs, a painting hanging on the wall. He raised his gun and fired a burst at the painting.
Rat-tat-tat...
The painting swayed twice, its paper bulging under the blasts before flattening again. Nothing happened.
He fired another burst beneath the dining table. The legs hummed under the impacts, and a layer of dust rose.
No one.
Yan headed farther inside. Beyond the main hall lay a long corridor, with several rooms on either side.
He pushed open the first door.
A junk room. Boxes and old furniture were piled inside. Without a word, Yan raised his gun and opened fire.
Rat-tat-tat...
The boxes bounced wildly, and an old wooden cabinet slid half a foot backward under the blasts.
No one.
The second room.
A storeroom. Several large vats and a few sacks of grain.
Yan circled the vats, prodding their sides with his gun. Two solid thunks rang out.
He crouched to inspect the gaps beneath the vats. Nothing unusual.
He stood and moved to the next room.
The third room.
A study.
Yan pushed open the door and glanced around. A row of bookshelves lined the wall, a desk stood in the middle, and an open book lay on it. In the corner stood a wooden blade rack holding six blades.
Yan approached the desk and flipped through the book. Nothing special.
He turned to glance at the blade rack and thought for a second.
Six blades of different sizes, their designs not quite identical.
Yan stared for two breaths. He couldn't spot anything wrong.
He turned to leave.
At the doorway, he looked back at the blade rack.
"Something's wrong."
Yan walked back.
He aimed his gun at the rack, hesitated, and held his fire.
He crouched and leaned closer.
Six blades lined up together, their edges gleaming. The first, the second, the third...
Yan spotted it.
The black cloth wrapped around the third blade's hilt was tighter than on the others. Its edge had a slightly different curve too, a more elegant bend.
"Xie Yue," Yan murmured.
Xie Yue was a Moon Blade expert, and his martial soul was a crescent-shaped short blade. Even after he transformed into a blade, its curve still carried a trace of his martial soul.
Yan raised his gun and pulled the trigger at the third blade.
Bang!
A blast struck the blade. White light flashed, and it turned back into a person.
Xie Yue stood beside the rack, his expression calm, though the corners of his mouth dipped slightly.
The [Clown Dwarf] somersaulted in midair and cried in a shrill voice, "Hider Xie Yue has been eliminated!"
Yan roared with laughter. "Xie Yue, you barely put any effort into hiding! Your blade had exactly the same curve as your martial soul!"
Xie Yue said, "Since when did you become so observant?"
Yan thumped his chest. "Of course! A Seeker's intuition!"
Xie Yue glanced at him, said nothing more, and withdrew to the Eliminated Players' Spectator Area.
Yan smugly carried his gun onward.
One found. Five left.
He left the study and followed the corridor. The next room was a bedroom.
He pushed open the door.
A low table, a bronze incense burner, a small wooden carving, a clay jar. Five black-and-white cat dolls also sat on the table.
Yan glanced over them.
Five cats. He leaned closer. They were all roughly the same size and color, with slightly different poses. Some curled up, some lay on their bellies, and some lay on their sides.
Yan thought it over. Five cats were too many. One or two would be enough for an ordinary display. Who would put five identical cats on a single low table?
Unless one was a transformed person.
Yan raised his gun and sprayed the low table.
Rat-tat-tat...
Blasts of soul power swept across the five cats. The first wobbled, but nothing happened. The second rolled to the edge of the table, but nothing happened. The third was blasted clean off, and white light flashed.
Zhu Zhuqing stood on the low table, her long black hair falling loose, her cool eyes fixed on Yan.
"Hider Zhu Zhuqing has been eliminated!" the [Clown Dwarf] announced.
Yan grinned. "Zhu Zhuqing! You shouldn't have put out five cats! It was too obvious!"
Zhu Zhuqing thought, If I'd known, I would have made fewer copies.
Yan left the bedroom and continued searching along the corridor, gun at the ready. He searched every room in the Main Residence, firing at cabinets, beneath tables, and at vases.
No one remained inside the Main Residence.
Yan emerged through the Main Residence's back door and stood at the entrance to the Backyard Garden.
Two minutes had passed. Two found, four left.
He glanced to his right. The vegetable patch.
Yan walked into it, gun in hand.
Rows of vegetables stretched along either side of him. Scallions, cabbages, tomatoes, radishes. He walked along the dirt path between the rows, sweeping his muzzle from side to side.
When he reached the middle, he stopped.
He had spotted a clump of carrots.
Orange-red carrot tips poked out of the soil, each topped with a tuft of green leaves. Seven stood together, quite close to the neighboring vegetables.
Yan stared at the clump of carrots for two seconds.
There were indeed radishes in the vegetable patch, but when he'd glanced around upon entering the arena, he recalled this section being planted with tomatoes and scallions. The radishes had been on the other side.
He looked more closely.
No, something was wrong. These carrots' leaves were far greener than the surrounding vegetables, as though they'd just been stuck there.
Yan raised his gun.
Xiao Wu held her breath in the soil, utterly still.
She grew nervous, chanting inwardly, Don't shoot, don't shoot, don't shoot...
Rat-tat-tat.
The blasts swept across the clump of carrots. The first shattered-a copy. The second shattered. The third flashed with white light.
Xiao Wu sprang out of the soil, mud still clinging to her.
"Ah!! I hid so well!" Xiao Wu stamped her foot.
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