Chapter 402
"So..." Qin Ran raised the knife in his hand, pondering, "When was I exposed?"
He reviewed his actions over the past few days, searching for details that might have given him away.
"Captain, what's this about?" While reviewing, he asked aloud.
"Are you from Evil Shark Island?" Tie Ruonan continued to approach, now nearly within her optimal attack range. She asked coldly, "Or are you actually the young master of Evil Shark Island?"
"Hmm? Did she start suspecting me from the day I carried back that corpse?" Qin Ran analyzed her words, but then realized, "No, that night Tie Ruonan even gave me medicinal pills, and besides, she doesn't have the brains for that."
He glanced around at the other Night Walkers, "And they weren't in the mood to consider whether I was from Evil Shark Island or not."
"It must have been him." He thought of the man in red.
"Captain, what are you talking about, Captain?" He asked with an innocent and confused expression, "How could I possibly be from Evil Shark Island?!"
"You're not from Evil Shark Island? Then why did you kill our Night Walkers?" Tie Ruonan had reached her optimal attack position. She stopped advancing, raised her war blade, and completely locked her energy onto Qin Ran.
At this moment, although Tie Ruonan had stopped moving, Qin Ran instantly felt as if the world had frozen. All of his attention was drawn to the edge of Tie Ruonan's war blade. He felt that Tie Ruonan's blade could show him his own brain matter at any moment.His body stiffened because of the blade's edge, his skin raised goosebumps due to the killing intent.
But Qin Ran's expression remained calm as he defended himself: "I didn't kill any Night Walkers!"
"You didn't kill Night Walkers? Then why has your performance these past few days been completely inconsistent with the combat ability needed to kill the young master of Evil Shark Island? Every night, you've only had one prey." Tie Ruonan lowered her head, looking at the blade's edge, her voice still cold and expressionless, "This isn't the combat ability you should be displaying."
"Because the battle to kill the young master of Evil Shark Island that night was too dangerous, I didn't want to take such risks again," Qin Ran explained.
"A very convincing explanation," Tie Ruonan nodded.
Although Tie Ruonan verbally agreed with him, Qin Ran didn't relax, because the edge of the blade in Tie Ruonan's hand gleamed coldly in the darkness.
"I originally didn't believe you were a traitor, but now I do. Do you know why?" Tie Ruonan didn't wait for Qin Ran's answer, she answered herself, "Because, although your mind is trying to remain calm, your body, every inch of your flesh, is speaking of fear."
"Who wouldn't be afraid when facing the Captain's war blade?" Qin Ran replied.
"Still quibbling!" Tie Ruonan suddenly shouted.
In an instant, the calm suppressed by Tie Ruonan's energy erupted. In the darkness, all the killing intent burst forth with this shout.
"Swoosh!"
A snow-white strip of light exploded, the blade's light split the darkness, instantly reaching Qin Ran's face!
Although Qin Ran had been quibbling, he had also been on full alert. When the blade light came, he raised his knife to defend.
But unfortunately, his spirit was willing but his flesh was weak. He wasn't a body cultivator, nor a body refiner, and he wasn't even skilled in combat. So although he managed to intercept the path of the blade light through prediction, he still couldn't withstand Tie Ruonan's furious strike.
The knife in his hand shattered with a clang.
He managed to dodge in the midst of extreme danger, with only his shoulder and the hand holding the knife being severed by Tie Ruonan's blade light.
"Not bad!" Tie Ruonan praised coldly.
But, when she spoke, she was already within ten feet of Qin Ran, and before her words had even fallen, she was already in front of him.
The blade in her hand was even more ruthless and unfeeling, slashing down!
Facing Tie Ruonan directly, Qin Ran finally understood just how strong she was. Not through observation, not through others' praise, not through spoils of war, but through the very real threat to his life.
In the darkness, he clearly saw Tie Ruonan's war blade suddenly burst into his field of vision from far away, then getting closer and closer to his eyes, closer and closer, until it entered his brain...
She then pulled downwards!
"Slash!"
He was cleaved in two with a single strike!!
"What a swift blade!" he praised.
Tie Ruonan stood before Qin Ran, holding her blade. She wasn't pleased about cleaving Qin Ran in two with a single strike, nor was she honored by Qin Ran's praise. Her expression remained grave, even more so than when she had discovered that Qin Ran was indeed a traitor, an insider.
Because, although the person before her had been split in two by her, he was still standing.
Although she had dismembered one of his arms and split him in two, there was no blood.
No blood spurting out, no blood raining down to drench her entire body.
She very much enjoyed bathing in the blood of her enemies, watching their blood spurt out like a whale's spout. She found it beautiful. It was her only romance.
But this person was still standing, his face showing no pain, regret, or any other expression. Instead, he started to smile.
The situation had subtly reversed.
"Who are you?" She raised her head, glaring at the two eyes of the bisected Qin Ran.
"Actually, we're quite familiar," Qin Ran smiled gently, but his current appearance paired with his smile was truly eerie. He addressed her respectfully, "Captain Tie!"
As he smiled and spoke, his two halves began to melt like snow.
"Captain Tie, we'll meet again," his body melted into water, he gradually shrank down, but he raised his head, looking up at Tie Ruonan, smiling as he promised, "I will kill all of you."
"You?"
Who was Tie Ruonan? What kind of eeriness or threat could intimidate her?
She swung her blade again, with a flash of blade light, Qin Ran's already shortened two halves became four pieces. He no longer had the strength to stand and fell to the ground, continuing to melt.
"You won't leave Divine Essence Mountain alive," the four pieces of body lying on the ground melted faster, soon turning completely into water, seeping into the earth, emitting a voice, "Just by me alone."
"Trying to scare me?!!"
Tie Ruonan summoned her energy, "Boom boom boom" swinging out more than ten strikes, directly chopping out a regular large pit where Qin Ran had disappeared.
But still no sign of Qin Ran.
Qin Ran had indeed likely escaped, right under her nose, in this bizarre manner.
She held her war blade, standing at the edge of the pit, her eyes blood-red, breathing deeply repeatedly.
When she had calmed down a bit, a Night Walker came over and asked, "Captain, are we still carrying out the mission tonight?"
Tie Ruonan turned her head and coldly glared at him, asking in return, "What? Are you afraid of him? Are you afraid of death?"
"No, I'm not," this Night Walker replied.
"He's clearly not a body cultivator, just knows some flashy techniques," Tie Ruonan snorted coldly, "Be a bit more careful, what other tricks can he pull? Continue the mission!"
"Yes!"
The Night Walkers responded in unison, then disappeared into the darkness, continuing to carry out tonight's mission.
Tie Ruonan cast a murderous glance at the huge pit she had chopped out, and then began to carry out tonight's mission as well.
When the Night Walkers completed their mission and returned to the formation ground, they found that they were still missing one person when counting their numbers.
Tie Ruonan didn't know if the Night Walker had been killed while carrying out the mission or if he had been killed by the traitor. But she assumed that the Night Walker had been killed while carrying out the mission.
The second night they still went out on their mission as usual, not taking the traitor's warning to heart.
So when they returned and counted their numbers after completing the mission, only nine Night Walkers remained.
The third night, seven.
The fourth night, six.
Tie Ruonan was sitting cross-legged on the ground, cleaning her blade. She was using a cloth covered in runes, dipped in a strange liquid, to wipe the blade.
Her face expressionless, she only asked, "Are you afraid?"
"No."
"Are you afraid of him?"
"I'm not afraid of him!"
Tie Ruonan glanced at this Night Walker, seeing his dark face without a beard, with two horrific scars on his left cheek.
She lowered her head, continuing to clean her blade, saying in a calm voice, "We are the reapers in the darkness, hunting cultivators in the night. The cultivators of Divine Essence Mountain fear us, respectfully calling us Night Walkers. It has been so for thousands of years.
"Have you ever seen sharks being hunted as prey? It's always the sharks hunting other fish.
"We are Night Walkers, we are the hunters! If we don't kill him now, what face do we have to continue existing in this world?!"
She tossed aside the cloth for wiping her blade, picked up her sword, and pointed it at the remaining six Night Walkers. With a cold voice, she asked, "Are you afraid?"
"Shing! Shing! Shing!"
The six Night Walkers all drew their swords. The black-faced Night Walker spoke, "Death is all that awaits us. What is there to fear?!"
"Polish your blades!" Tie Ruonan commanded, "Tonight, we are the hunters!"
The Night Walkers also wiped their blades with that special liquid.
Then the group of seven set out from their base.
Tie Ruonan held her sword, carefully searching in the darkness, cautiously exploring Divine Essence Mountain. Tonight, she didn't care about anyone else; she only wanted to find that traitor.
After searching for half the night, when it was deep into the night hours with the bright moon high in the sky, she came to the seaside. There, on a rock by the shore, she saw a man in black sitting with his back to her.
The black clothes were the Night Walkers' attire, and judging by his build and aura, she thought she hadn't forgotten him so quickly.
"Were you waiting for me?" Tie Ruonan silently moved to the optimal striking distance, her energy locked onto the man on the rock. She spoke, "You were waiting for death!"
The man on the rock turned around, revealing the face of the traitor. He asked Tie Ruonan, "You came alone?"
"To kill you, I only need one hand. What does it matter if I'm alone?" Tie Ruonan replied.
"You can't do it," the man on the rock shook his head. "You may be able to defeat me, but you cannot kill me."
Tie Ruonan raised her sword, showing it to the man on the rock. The cloth and mysterious liquid she had used to polish her blade earlier had given her sword a special effect.
She said, "This sword can cut through the soul. No matter how many magical transformations you have, you only have one soul."
"Very well," the man on the rock nodded in agreement. "You now have a weapon capable of killing me. But how will you keep me here?"
"Why do you think I've been talking to you for so long?" Tie Ruonan said.
The man on the rock realized and looked around. Sure enough, the remaining six Night Walkers had surrounded him, including from the sea.
"You were waiting for them?" His expression finally changed.
"You're too arrogant," Tie Ruonan said. "Just because you managed to kill a few Night Walkers with your despicable methods, you've forgotten who you are!"
With that, she gripped her sword tightly, her form suddenly flashing as she rushed towards the rock.
In the moonlight, her shadow stretched long due to her incredible speed.
At the same moment, the other Night Walkers also closed in on the rock in a surrounding formation.
Tie Ruonan, being the strongest and fastest, reached the rock first. She swung her sword down, and the traitor, offering no resistance, was split in half by her blade.
And then...
The traitor still didn't die!
Just like that night, the man split in two stood steadily, eerily, in the moonlight on the rock.
But her sword was supposed to be able to cut through souls now! Had the man in red clothes deceived her?
She looked at her sword, then couldn't help but ask the traitor split in two, "Why aren't you dead?"
"Why?" The traitor smiled and still gave Tie Ruonan an answer, "Because I have no soul."
By this time, the other six Night Walkers had also reached the rock.
Tie Ruonan looked closely at the traitor in front of her, suddenly feeling he was somewhat transparent. She realized something was wrong and hurriedly shouted, "Retreat! Quick, retreat!!"
But it was too late.
With a loud "boom," the traitor exploded.
In the clear moonlight, the exploding traitor looked like a wave blooming on the shore.
The water from his explosion splashed onto the rock and onto the seven Night Walkers, including Tie Ruonan.
"Hmm?" Tie Ruonan stuck out her tongue to taste the liquid that had flowed to her lips. Not tasting blood, she was confused, "Water?!"
"No," the Night Walker who had rushed over from the sea spoke up, explaining to her, "It's poison."
"What?" Tie Ruonan was shocked. She looked up at the Night Walker opposite her, recognizing him as the black-faced Night Walker who had suggested she abort the mission.
At this moment, under her gaze, she saw the black-faced Night Walker's form slowly change, transforming into the familiar appearance of the traitor.
"It's you?!" She exclaimed in surprise, raising her sword to strike at the traitor.
But for some reason, as she swung her sword, she suddenly felt weak all over. A feeling of being neither alive nor dead rose from within her heart.
She suddenly only wanted to die, not live, and her hand lost all strength.
"Clang!"
Her sword blow was caught by the traitor, who then vanished from in front of her in a flash.
She was stunned, and in the next moment, she felt a sword pierce through her back into her heart...
"When did my reactions become so slow?" The thought occurred belatedly in her mind.
"If I could infiltrate your group once, why couldn't I do it again?"
The traitor's voice came to her. She turned towards it and saw the traitor hovering in mid-air above the sea. The clear moonlight shone on him as he smiled gently, looking refined and even somewhat holy.
...It would have been perfect if he wasn't splattered with her blood.
The traitor's smile seemed somewhat familiar to her. As she was slowly trying to recall why, she saw the hovering traitor change his form again, becoming the man named Han Li whom she had killed with her own hands on the day they landed on the island.
"It's you?!" She cried out in shock.
"It's not me," Qin Ran shook his head and smiled, then mischievously changed back to his true form. "It's me."
"!!!!" Shocking Tie Ruonan for life, as the Death Notice Pill invaded her heart and soul, she used her last breath to cry out venomously, in disbelief and loudly, "Li Feiyu?!!"
Her shrill voice carried far across the sea and under the moonlight.
Qin Ran watched as Tie Ruonan slowly fell, along with the other Night Walkers, onto the rock he had carefully chosen for them.
The sky was azure, the moonlight clear. He smiled gently, shaking his head slightly, and softly corrected her, "Not that either. My name is Qin Ran."
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