Scalding, corrosive hot soup splashed down with a crash, drenching every inch of Cao Zhen’s bare backside.
Jiang Ke’er, with her pure and fragile heart, simply couldn’t bear to watch such a deranged scene, so she hurriedly began digging up dirt, tossing pile after pile into the pit.
At first, the pit rang with Cao Zhen’s pig-slaughtering screams.
As the dirt accumulated, those screams turned to pleas for mercy.
In the end, when the earth completely buried him, not a single sound could be heard from Cao Zhen.
Jiang Ke’er deeply coveted Cao Zhen’s formidable strength, but he was just too powerful.
Even her dagger couldn’t pierce his defenses, so she had to give up with regret.
If someone needs to be buried alive, then so be it.
If you get too greedy, you might not even be able to save your own life.
[You have gained Villain Points from Cao Zhen…]
[You have gained…]
[…]
This guy was incredibly tenacious.
Even after Jiang Ke’er tamped down the soil, the System Interface continued to refresh with waves of Cao Zhen’s resentment, popping up every few seconds—clearly, he was driven mad with rage.
“Still not dead yet?”
Jiang Ke’er stomped hard on the packed earth, then dusted herself off with satisfaction and left.
At last, the greatest threat had been dealt with.
It seemed this Trial was finally coming to an end.
While she was still in good condition and time remained, Jiang Ke’er quickly made her way toward the campsites of the remaining teams.
Dawn was the time when people were at their most exhausted, but it was also the most active hour for thieves and assassins—those who walked in the shadows.
Jiang Ke’er had learned many things from the System Dummy, but most of all, she’d absorbed that nearly supernatural, ghostly approach to combat.
Like an assassin, she moved unpredictably, exploiting every possible aspect of the surrounding environment, eliminating her opponents with minimal expenditure, by any means necessary.
If not for the System Dummy’s training, Jiang Ke’er could never have pulled off her current feats—killing over a dozen people with barely any spiritual energy loss.
If she’d stuck to her old ways, she’d probably have just charged straight in for a head-on brawl.
Always remember to reserve ninety percent of your strength, unless absolutely necessary.
Inside the campsite, Zhuo Feng’s head was drenched with sweat, his neck flushed and thick with suppressed fury.
He had treated Cao Zhen as a shield, only to find that this arrogant man couldn’t care less about him, abandoning the team to go off on his own.
To make matters worse, he’d sent Liang Ruhui to tail Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji, but now Liang Ruhui had gone missing without a trace.
Now, only six combatants remained in the campsite, three of whom were unreliable wild cards.
The distant sounds of explosions told him that Cao Zhen had already clashed with the enemy, which gave Zhuo Feng some relief.
Yet, within these explosions, the atmosphere in the camp only grew stranger.
Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji stood together on one side, while Zhuo Feng, Xuanyang, and two others formed another group.
“Clang—”
A sword gleam flashed. A flying sword came to a halt at Emperor Taizong of Tang’s throat.
Emperor Taizong of Tang’s expression was calm, as if he had long foreseen this calamity.
“I already told you, I never saw Liang Ruhui,” Emperor Taizong of Tang said, closing his eyes.
He’d thought he had accounted for every possibility, even anticipating that Zhuo Feng would send someone to tail him…
He just hadn’t expected Liang Ruhui to disappear on his own.
No matter how he argued now, he couldn’t clear himself of suspicion.
“Tie them up,” Zhuo Feng ordered. Two men stepped forward and bound Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji.
“And you?” Zhuo Feng turned to Xuanyang, sword aura flickering, killing intent obvious.
Seeing that the masks had dropped all around, Xuanyang took a step back.
“I won’t risk my life for a foreign race,” Xuanyang said.
“Though we’re from the same sect, we’re of different blood. I won’t cross that line… You all can rest easy.”
“Tie him up, too.”
Zhuo Feng didn’t want to take risks and chose not to trust Xuanyang, ordering him bound as well.
Xuanyang didn’t resist.
While his own strength was only slightly below Zhuo Feng’s, Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji were weaker. A 3v3 fight would be hopeless.
Zhuo Feng manipulated three flying swords, suspending them in the air, each one held to the throat of the captives.
Should any of them so much as flinch, he would strike without hesitation.
But just then, a sudden breeze swept through the crude wooden hut.
Zhuo Feng’s nerves immediately tensed, his sword pressing even tighter against their throats.
Fortunately, the explosions in the distance continued, letting him relax a little… Clearly, he was just being overly sensitive.
After all, the enemy was still busy fighting Cao Zhen—how could they be here, too?
“Ah—!”
A miserable scream outside the door made Zhuo Feng shudder.
The hut’s window was suddenly smashed open by something hurled in with brute force.
Zhuo Feng looked closely. What had smashed the window was— a human head!
“What’s going on?”
He stared at the familiar face… It was one of their own teammates.
The man had just gone outside to investigate, only to lose his head for it.
“Stop sneaking around! If you’ve got guts, get out here!” Zhuo Feng roared in anger, though his voice was clearly trying to sound braver than he felt.
The only reply was the ceaseless wind in the woods.
Zhuo Feng had never faced such an opponent.
Cultivator battles were usually direct and fierce, the outcome determined by skill, wealth, and cultivation.
Even when there were tricks, they were magical tricks—not this, laying lethal traps throughout the environment.
Zhuo Feng now felt enemies were everywhere.
Any move could set off a trap. It was as if his real opponent wasn’t Jiang Ke’er, but the entire world.
“Petty tricks!”
Despite his fear, Zhuo Feng still felt a deep disdain.
These kinds of tactics only worked on low-level cultivators; in battles between higher-level ones, they were useless.
He believed the opponent had sacrificed future potential, wasting energy on these pointless, low-level battle techniques.
This way, her current dominance was only temporary—sooner or later, she’d pay the price.
Thinking this, he felt somewhat more at ease.
…Still, he had to deal with the current crisis.
No matter how worthless the enemy might be in the future, for now, she brought a suffocating pressure.
“Your friends are in my hands. If you don’t want them dead, you—”
Zhuo Feng rattled off a stream of threats, but there was no reply at all.
What did the other side mean by this?
Zhuo Feng was about to lose it—the enemy’s silence left him completely on edge.
All he could do was keep his nerves taut, speaking constantly in an attempt to communicate with Jiang Ke’er.
Jiang Ke’er had already slipped away.
She’d even plucked a wild watermelon by the roadside, munching as she walked.
Trying to attack again after the enemy had been alerted would be a thankless task.
If you land a blow, never linger; apply crushing pressure and then leave your opponent to play mind games with the air until they’re utterly exhausted…
That, too, was something she’d learned fighting the System Dummy.
Sadly, inside the System Space, it had been she herself who got played for a fool.
“I’m so weak, but why does this group seem even weaker than me?”
Jiang Ke’er spat out watermelon seeds, deep in thought.
“Hmm, they must be hiding their true strength. There must be other trump cards… Yes, that has to be it.”
Looks like the pressure isn’t enough yet. I’ll have to work even harder.