Penta Kill! Five legendary kills!

The horn sounded.

The match began.

Qian Renxue did not strike immediately.

The nine others immediately split into three groups.

Three banded together to hold the north side, while four formed a loose, temporary alliance and occupied the east. The remaining two fought alone.

Yin Tu was one of the two fighting alone.

He stood on the south side, in no hurry to act, observing as well.

A tall, skinny man spotted Qian Renxue alone and charged at her with a short blade.

He was around level forty and had decent footwork. He twirled the short blade in his hand, then thrust its tip straight at her throat.

Qian Renxue saw it clearly. This strike was a feint; the real killing move was in his left hand, where a Sleeve Arrow was poised to fire.

Qian Renxue did not dodge. She raised her right hand and grabbed the blade outright.

A clang rang out as metal struck metal.

Tempered by ice and fire, and strengthened by the Angel Saint Hand she had just mastered, her hands were as hard as refined iron.

Cheng Ran commented, "Not bad. Our self-created Angel Saint Hand and Angel Saint Step have reached the second stage. Hand techniques are also a method, and the way of the feet is also a path. There are profound mysteries here."

The tall, skinny man's expression changed drastically. Before he could react, Qian Renxue's left hand had already clamped around his wrist.

Using the momentum of his forward charge, she pulled him sideways and tripped him.

The tall, skinny man lost his balance completely. His own momentum sent him flying, and he slammed hard into the ground.

At the same time, the Sleeve Arrow shot out of his left sleeve, but being flung away threw off his aim, and it embedded itself in the ground.

Qian Renxue swung her long, slender, powerful leg down hard. His neck snapped, and the tall, skinny man died on the spot.

The entire process took only a few breaths.

A streak of white light sank into her body, and Qian Renxue felt a warm surge of Soul Power rise from her lower abdomen.

This opponent's cultivation was a cut above the fodder in the outer city, and the experience was richer too.

Cheng Ran: First blood! The first kill! Keep going!

By then, the four-person alliance on the east side had already killed two of the northern trio. The last knelt and begged for mercy, only to have his throat slit.

But they had lost one of their own in exchange, leaving only three.

Before they could charge over, however, Yin Tu moved first.

Bone-Crushing Hand Yin Tu was a level sixty-three Soul Emperor whose bare palms could shatter metal and split stone.

His tactics were simple and brutal: take a blade strike to land a punch. His body was exceptionally tough and could easily withstand it, but his opponents could not.

Ignoring everyone else, he headed straight for Qian Renxue.

In Yin Tu's eyes, this blonde woman was the greatest threat. Kill her, and today's match would be in the bag.

His fist whistled through the air toward Qian Renxue's face.

Qian Renxue did not take it head-on. She dodged sideways, the wind from his punch whipping her golden hair into the air.

Yin Tu drew back his fist and struck again, alternating left and right, each punch pounding flesh and carrying terrifying force.

Qian Renxue dodged repeatedly, then seized an opening. Both hands clamped around Yin Tu's right fist, pulling him sideways with the momentum of his punch as she drove her knee into the gap in his stance.

Yin Tu's balance collapsed in an instant, and he pitched forward.

Qian Renxue did not let go. Using the force of his forward plunge, she flipped his entire body over her head.

Bang!

Yin Tu slammed into the ground, sending spiderweb cracks spreading across it.

He struggled to get up, but Qian Renxue had already dived down, plunging her Soul Bone Skill, the Angel Blade, into his back and through his heart.

Yin Tu lay facedown on the ground, blood spilling from his mouth as his eyes lost focus.

Qian Renxue straightened. A dense streak of white light rose from Yin Tu's corpse and sank into her body.

All the sin and murderous aura accumulated from the hundreds of lives Yin Tu had taken became her experience points.

Cheng Ran: Double kill! Two kills in a row!

Some spectators recognized Yin Tu, and cries of astonishment rose one after another.

"Bone-Crushing Hand Yin Tu? He lost?"

"That newcomer took him down in three moves?"

"Just where did that girl come from...?"

The three remaining contestants stood rooted to the spot, trembling.

Qian Renxue glanced at them. She believed what the Evil God had said: these people were all guilty!

One of the three, a burly man with a vicious face, worked up his courage and charged at her, bellowing to bolster himself.

Qian Renxue stepped forward, sweeping the Angel Blade horizontally.

The burly man's head flew into the air, his face still frozen in its bellowing expression.

Cheng Ran: Triple kill! Three legendary kills!

At the sight, the second man turned and ran.

Qian Renxue activated flight, descended from above, and stamped on his back, snapping his spine.

Cheng Ran: Quadra kill! Four transcendent kills!

The last man dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing frantically. "Spare me, heroine! I have an eighty-year-old mother and a three-year-old child, and in between there's my thirty-year-old self who needs to sell blood! If you kill me, no one will support my mother or feed my child. Please, heroine, spare my worthless life!"

Qian Renxue frowned. "How is that my damn problem?"

The Angel Blade flashed.

Cheng Ran: Penta kill! Five legendary kills!

She was the only one left standing in the arena. Her first victory.

Listening to the cheers filling the stands, Qian Renxue felt an indescribable sensation rise within her. In one word: exhilarating!

She could not help asking, Evil God, are you sure this won't become addictive?

Cheng Ran: Heh heh heh... Just farm monsters without worrying. Go ahead and be a gaming-addicted girl. There's no Yang Yongxin here.

Qian Renxue: Who's Yang Yongxin?

Cheng Ran: Known far and wide as Lightning Douluo.

Qian Renxue: Huh?

In the days that followed, Qian Renxue fought several matches every day.

Her fighting style grew increasingly refined, and her tactics became more varied.

In her seventh match, she encountered a veteran poison user, an Evil Soul Master who had fled the Heaven Dou Empire. His Martial Soul was a Corpse-Poison Toad.

He refined his venom by devouring rotting corpses and had poisoned everyone in three towns within the empire. He piled their bodies in a secret chamber, letting them slowly rot to cultivate his poisonous creatures. Pursued by Spirit Hall, he had fled into Slaughter City.

But Qian Renxue was immune to all poisons. The poisonous mist the Evil Soul Master was so proud of felt like nothing more than a tickle when sprayed onto her, and the Angel Blade cut him in half at the waist.

The heavier the sins, the brighter the white light and the greater the experience points.

She had already reached level sixty, but without obtaining a Soul Ring, she could not advance further.

The strongest opponent in her eighth match was a Soul Emperor who had started out as a tomb robber. He had thoroughly looted three royal mausoleums in the Star Luo Empire, even prying out the Soul Bones buried with the dead. After becoming a wanted man, he had hidden in Slaughter City.

His movements were bizarre, and he excelled at burrowing underground, but the airborne Qian Renxue gave him no chance to touch the ground. A single blade strike slit his throat in midair.

With every person she killed, the Soul Power within her increased.

But Qian Renxue soon discovered that Slaughter City's dangers were not confined to the arena.

Once, while she was walking along an inner-city street, a seemingly harmless little girl suddenly thrust a dagger at her from the side. Fortunately, Cheng Ran took control of her body in time and shattered the girl's skull with a backhanded palm strike.

Having to fend off sneak attacks from every direction after a match, when one was at one's weakest, was what truly made Slaughter City terrifying.

From then on, Qian Renxue kept her Spiritual Power extended whenever she walked the streets, remaining alert at all times.

No killing intent could escape her perception.

Naturally, Cheng Ran was unwilling to waste such a perfect monster-farming map either.

Every night, while Qian Renxue slept, Cheng Ran took control of her body and wandered the inner-city streets alone.

Even in the dead of night, Slaughter City's inner city remained ablaze with lights and revelry, the sounds of killing never ceasing.

To Cheng Ran, this place was a respawn point with an endless supply of Humanoid Monsters to farm.

His method was simple and brutal: randomly select one lucky criminal.

Just as he did now, Cheng Ran (Qian Renxue) walked up to a drunken, burly man, stopped, and looked him up and down.

Cheng Ran (Qian Renxue): "Brother, what's wrong with your face?"