Chapter 9: The Correct Use of Stealth
A large hole had been blasted through the roof.
A black-clothed, masked man lightly jumped down through it.
Landing on the ground, he stepped on Ding Yingchun’s chest and drove the short spear even deeper.
Ding Yingchun spat out another mouthful of blood.
The light in her eyes had already begun to fade.
The man had his face covered with black cloth.
His voice was incomparably hoarse, clearly a disguised voice.
“The gui I raised, and vermin like you dare lay your hands on it?”
Wang Tianyou emerged from the shadows.
His hair was disheveled.
Cupping his fists, he said, “Friend, please spare Patrol Hunter Ding for now. Everything can be discussed.”
“Spare her?”
The masked man let out a savage laugh.
Suddenly exerting force, he pressed down hard.
A series of Crack, crack. sounds rang out as Ding Yingchun’s ribcage was crushed.
Blood sprayed high into the air.
Ding Yingchun did not even manage to scream before her life ended.
Wang Tianyou’s expression darkened.
The other three emerged from the darkness as well.
They occupied three directions, forming a horn-like formation together with Wang Tianyou.
Zhou Yutong muttered, “Young Master Wang, this situation is troublesome.”
“You’ll have to increase our compensation afterward.”
“Double it.”
Wang Tianyou answered without hesitation.
“We outnumber him.”
“There’s only one of him.”
“We can fight.”
The masked man suddenly burst into loud laughter.
“You really think I’m alone?”
“You people are truly stupid.”
Everyone was puzzled upon hearing that.
Then all the Spirit Hunters’ faces became extremely ugly.
Because the white jade tokens hanging from their waists all lit up.
Red light shone from them.
Looking at the masked man, Wang Tianyou asked in horror, “You destroyed the boundary?”
The masked man did not answer.
He simply stood there quietly.
Meanwhile, Wang Tianyou and the others could already faintly hear the chaotic murmuring voices.
“Run!”
Wang Tianyou roared.
“Everyone run!”
“From here on, rely on your own abilities.”
“If any of you survive, come find me in Dian City afterward.”
“I will definitely compensate you.”
Having said that, Wang Tianyou rapidly formed hand seals.
Golden light radiated from his body.
“I gave you permission to leave?”
The masked man snorted.
No one knew where he produced another short spear from.
He hurled it directly at Wang Tianyou.
While flying through the air, the spear split into six copies, shooting toward different parts of Wang Tianyou’s body.
Wang Tianyou swung his flexible sword repeatedly.
Sword flowers bloomed like flowing water.
In an instant, he knocked away five of the short spears.
But each spear he blocked weakened the golden light around him slightly.
After deflecting five spears, Wang Tianyou’s movements visibly slowed.
The final spear pierced his thigh.
Blood dripped down.
Wang Tianyou let out a muffled grunt.
With a sinister expression, he stared at the masked man.
“Profound Fiend Overlapping Shadow Spear...”
“I’ll remember this.”
“Don’t let me find out who you are.”
“You’ll die a miserable death.”
After saying that, Wang Tianyou’s body transformed into a puff of green smoke and vanished.
At the place where he disappeared, a burning yellow paper effigy talisman fell to the ground and continued burning on its own.
Seeing this, Zhou Yutong and Zhan Shijun immediately turned and ran outside the Earth God temple.
Not a moment of hesitation.
“Li...”
Su Huafang looked toward where Li Lin had been.
He wanted to tell him to run faster as well.
But when he looked...
Li Lin was gone.
Surprise flashed through his heart.
Then he also turned and sprinted away.
He even ran faster than the two ahead of him.
The masked man snorted.
With a wave of his hand, he removed the golden binding cords from the female gui.
Then he grabbed her hand and charged out of the temple.
Meanwhile, Li Lin was wearing the black Gui-Hiding Cloak and crouching motionlessly in a dark corner.
Thanks to his constant training in this stealth technique during this period, the effect had become extremely obvious.
No one could detect him.
Everyone had left.
The Earth God temple returned to silence.
Li Lin, however, did not leave.
He remained crouched in place.
Because the masked man had just said he had destroyed the boundary.
That meant the outside world now belonged to the strange entities.
As a complete novice, where could he possibly run without relying on stealth?
Besides, Li Lin felt that hiding here was probably a good idea.
After all, hiding beneath the lamp was also a form of concealment.
He closed his eyes and made his breathing as light as possible.
Not a single sound escaped him.
After a long time, footsteps sounded outside the Earth God temple.
The masked man walked in carrying a person in each hand.
Then he tossed them onto the ground.
Li Lin opened his eyes a crack.
The bodies belonged to Zhou Yutong and Zhan Shijun.
The two corpses were thrown beside Ding Yingchun.
Three corpses lay neatly together.
Li Lin sighed inwardly.
He had known these three for less than a day.
Now they were separated from him by life and death.
I wonder whether Senior Su escaped or not.
The beautiful female gui followed behind the masked man.
She stared greedily at the three corpses.
“Eat.”
The masked man spoke indifferently.
The female gui floated over to the corpses and inhaled deeply.
The flesh and blood of the three corpses transformed into red mist and was sucked into her mouth.
Before long, all the flesh vanished from the three bodies.
Only three skeletons remained.
The female gui’s complexion became rosy and healthy.
She no longer looked like a gui at all.
Instead, she resembled a living person.
The masked man nodded.
“As expected, Spirit Hunters are a tremendous tonic.”
“Evil creature, I want you to aid my cultivation.”
Upon hearing this, the female gui descended to the ground and knelt.
The masked man walked before her and loosened his belt.
He simply stood there.
Soon, strange sounds began echoing through the Earth God temple.
From Li Lin’s angle, the masked man had his back toward him.
The female gui’s face and line of sight were also blocked by the man’s body.
Neither of them should have been able to see him.
A peculiar feeling suddenly arose in Li Lin’s heart.
Looking at the man’s back, he felt as though a red targeting frame had appeared there.
It seemed to be telling him to go do something.
Not far away lay a short spear.
It was one that Wang Tianyou had knocked aside earlier.
It had landed there.
Li Lin slowly shuffled two steps to the left while crouching.
Stretching out a hand, he picked up the short spear from the ground.
The moment he obtained a weapon, the red marker on the masked man’s back became even more obvious.
So that was how it was.
Li Lin slowly advanced in a crouch.
Every step was slow and light.
As he drew closer and closer, sweat began to appear in his palms.
They felt slick.
Yet his heartbeat did not speed up in the slightest.
Step by step.
Closer and closer.
Meanwhile, the people opposite him continued enjoying themselves.
After roughly sixty breaths had passed, Li Lin finally reached the masked man’s back.
Even now, neither the masked man nor the female gui had noticed him.
It also seemed they had reached some crucial moment.
The masked man’s body suddenly tensed.
Both hands instinctively stretched forward and gripped the female gui’s head tightly.
Now!
The short spear thrust forward.
The black spear tip accurately struck the red frame behind the masked man.
That spot was his right kidney.
The spear pierced into the masked man’s body as easily as stabbing tofu.
There was no resistance whatsoever.
It went in smoothly.
“AAAAAHHHHH!”
The masked man let out a scream of agony.
When people were in pain, they instinctively grabbed whatever they were holding with all their strength.
And at that moment, he was holding the female gui’s head.
With that burst of force, he crushed the female gui’s head outright.
It exploded into fragments.
Li Lin swiftly pulled out the short spear.
The red frame shifted again.
This time it moved to the left side.
Without the slightest hesitation, he stabbed down again.