"Qin Fen?" Bian, the King of Thieves, rasped, his large eyes scrutinizing the motionless Qin Fen. Only a slight surprise registered in them. "The one who rose like a comet half a year ago, then suddenly vanished? The Qin Fen who recently killed Li Jianglong in the Golden Triangle?" Lü Dongbin nodded with a grave expression, only to be met with a disdainful sneer from Biancheng Wang. Every few years, a batch of so-called geniuses would emerge among the younger generation, but how many could truly shake the established powerhouses of the older generation of Grand Martial Artists?

The younger generation was more often just a vessel for hope, people whose minor achievements were constantly inflated! Biancheng Wang sized up Qin Fen, his imposing, towering frame looking down on him. "How many of you went when you killed Li Jianglong?" "Quite a few," Qin Fen replied coolly, sweeping his gaze across the members of the Underworld. He secretly calculated: strictly speaking, including travel time, it had been over three days since they entered this natural graveyard. He wondered about Xue Tian—had he secured the five hundred million in exchange funds? What forces had the Underworld sent to meet Xue Tian? Xue Tian only took two people this time; had Yang Lie sent too few?

Bang. With a crash against the wall, a new door at the Earth's Narrow Army base slammed open, and Xue Tian's voice immediately echoed throughout the otherwise unremarkable office building lobby, which was not exactly hidden, but certainly unexpected.

"I'm back!" Yang Lie sat behind the commander's desk and looked up at the languid Xue Tian. His eyes were instantly drawn to the iaido sword at Xue Tian's waist. Even though the cold iaido lay quietly in its sheath, Yang Lie, a first-rate martial artist of the younger generation, could still smell the thick scent of blood emanating from the scabbard.

In other words, Xue Tian had killed someone! Yang Lie's gaze shifted past Xue Tian to Solomon, who stood behind him. Solomon’s hands, long, white, and beautiful—more like those of a pianist than weapons—also faintly exuded the smell of gore.

Solomon had killed too!

Yang Lie narrowed his brows, staring at Xue Tian, and held up a hand. "The money?" Xue Tian plopped down onto a sofa, resting his hands behind his head against the backrest, and pouted. "Didn't get it." "Oh?" Yang Lie tilted his head slightly. "How so?" "They never intended to pay the ransom," Xue Tian said, carelessly tossing the iaido he carried onto the coffee table in front of him. "Solomon and I went, and the guy claiming to be the Eighth Hall Yama King turned out to be a replacement for the one who was killed recently. He figured he didn't have many enforcers and assumed we could be his muscle. So, he put on airs and offered me an annual salary of ten million to work for him. If I refused, he would—" "Kill you?" Yang Lie leaned back in his chair. "That bold? Aren't you afraid we'll go to the Heavenly Gate?" "Extremely bold," Xue Tian replied, taking a cup of tea handed to him by the beautiful new secretary Yang Lie had hired. "Miss, what's your name? Do you have a boyfriend? How do I look? Aren't I handsomer than your boss, Yang Lie? Hey, don't walk so fast, I'm not a wolf..." Yang Lie watched Xue Tian’s antics and regretted hiring such an attractive secretary; he should have hired someone plainer to avoid this harassment.

"Right, where was I? Oh!" Xue Tian took a sip of tea. "That kid was very audacious, bringing a whole group of Martial Arts Masters to put on a show for us. He even brazenly brought up the conflict between Qin Fen and the Heavenly Gate, suggesting we cooperate if we dared. Then he gave us two choices: release the hostage and, incidentally, be hired as his enforcers for ten million a year. Otherwise, he’d cut us down. I was just about to haggle with him when—" Xue Tian glanced sideways at Solomon, who was quietly sipping tea beside him, looking extremely refined, utterly harmless, like a literary scholar. "—Solomon just made his move. He immediately smashed one of them—I couldn't even tell if it was Bull Head or Horse Face—right there. That angered the City King, who drew his sword and was about to hack at me. But the grievance lies with the killer! Solomon did it! Yet, he wouldn't reason with me and insisted on killing me to account for one of his subordinates. Tell me, what could I do in that situation?" Xue Tian spread his arms in helplessness. Yang Lie tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table, like a leader listening to a subordinate’s report, and asked slowly, "So, you killed him?" "It was self-defense," Xue Tian said, shaking his head innocently. "He insisted on killing me without even considering the victim's position." Yang Lie nodded cooperatively. Internally, he had to reassess Xue Tian's strength. Rumor had it that the Ten Yama Kings were all immensely powerful; excluding the subordinates of the Divine Beast Martial Artists, they were arguably the true peak powerhouses among all current humans. Xue Tian returned completely unscathed, and his iaido suffered no damage, yet he cleaved the City King of the Eighth Hall in two just like that.

Solomon set down his teacup and looked at Xue Tian seriously. Yang Lie felt a flicker of interest. Solomon was usually either mad or demonic; why was he so quiet today?

"You flirted with White Impermanence, and Horse Face attacked..." Yang Lie's tapping fingers suddenly stiffened. An imagined scene immediately flashed in his mind: the City King was probably posturing before Xue Tian, but Xue Tian wasn't someone to be trifled with either. Realizing he couldn't get the ransom money anyway and having already offended the Underworld, Xue Tian might as well openly try to seduce their subordinate, White Impermanence, right in front of the Yama King, provoking Horse Face to strike first, leading to the subsequent events.

"Killed them all?" Yang Lie asked again.

"No," Xue Tian shook his head. "Once they saw their boss cleaved, they immediately turned and fled. In the end, White Impermanence and some official called Dry Official escaped; everyone else died. It was a crowded downtown area; accidental harm to civilians is easily caused."

Yang Lie shrugged dismissively. "That is indeed a problem. Next time something similar happens, try to arrange it in a desolate area."

Xue Tian gave him a thumbs-up. "Insightful. That's a good suggestion." Yang Lie moved away from the desk and gazed out over the distance through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. "I wonder how Qin Fen is doing now? With the new energy sources and new metals, he must be encountering a lot of trouble."

"A lot?" Biancheng Wang nodded, showing no surprise. This answer was entirely expected. For a martial artist like Li Jianglong to be besieged and beaten to death by a group of young people wasn't strange; rumors suggested Qin Fen's school team numbered nearly ten people.

Biancheng Wang's attention was more focused on Lan Caihe. Those low, animalistic roars and the hostility so sharp it felt like knives cutting the skin—perhaps it was this monster that had killed several experts present?

Lü Dongbin sneered at Biancheng Wang's indifference. His mind churned over whether he should try to instigate conflict between Qin Fen and the Underworld. The situation was very delicate. Biancheng Wang's attitude might be provoked into fighting Qin Fen, allowing Lü Dongbin to use Qin Fen's hand to eliminate the three top experts of the Underworld.

Lü Dongbin sensed the fearful gaze of the Seventh Hall Yama King, Taishan Wang, and then looked at Qin Fen, who stood there like a pillar supporting the heavens. He sighed inwardly and abandoned the tempting idea.

Now, Lü Dongbin had to admit that in this natural graveyard, the Heavenly Gate's greatest enemy, for the time being, was not the Underworld, but Qin Fen! If he used Qin Fen to get rid of the Underworld, the Heavenly Gate members would also lose any chance of obtaining the new energy sources and new metals. Qin Fen's strength was far greater than half a year ago. Who knew what martial arts insights or lucky encounters he’d had in the past six months?

"Cooperate with the Underworld? To eliminate Qin Fen?"

Lü Dongbin found the idea himself utterly ridiculous; he wouldn't have dreamed such an absurd thing before. But now, facing Qin Fen who had shed the guise of a jungle ranger and appeared in an invincible state, the only chance was to first join forces to take down Qin Fen, and then gamble with the Underworld over whose luck was better. After killing Qin Fen, whichever side retained fighting strength could secure the new energy sources and new metals.

Lü Dongbin was confident that as a long-range combatant, the side retaining strength in the end would likely be the Heavenly Gate. Previously, five top experts failed to kill Qin Fen; this time, the five experts were increased to six! Furthermore, they had added an eighteen-star martial artist as reinforcement. Their overall strength was now far superior to before!

Adding one seventeen-star powerful martial artist to the team was entirely different from adding one eighteen-star powerful martial artist. Moreover, Lü Dongbin faintly sensed that this Seventh Hall Yama King was not ordinarily powerful; he possessed the Human Gang Qi/Wild Gang Qi that Lan Caihe lacked!

Lan Caihe possessed Human Gang Qi even before becoming an Insect Martial Artist, but upon becoming one and increasing his star level, his Human Gang Qi had not advanced even slightly. This was different from the Seventh Hall Yama King, Taishan Wang. He had a clear focus, and his Human Gang Qi was far stronger than Lan Caihe's. His only flaw was lacking Lan Caihe's ferocity and fearlessness. If they fought, determining the winner would be difficult, but if they joined forces to kill, their combined power would be anything but ordinary!

"Tie Guai Li and the others..." The Seventh Hall Yama King, Taishan Wang, looked at Lü Dongbin suspiciously, his voice full of conjecture, and asked with reluctance to confirm, "Were they killed by Qin Fen?"

Lü Dongbin’s sorrowful face slowly nodded, immediately causing a wave of low gasps among the Underworld members. Two of the Heavenly Gate's supreme experts had indeed fallen at Qin Fen's hands.

The Seventh Hall Yama King narrowed his eyes into thin slits and asked again with a tone of surprise, "It wasn't a one-on-one duel?"

Lü Dongbin and He Xiangu nodded powerlessly with mournful expressions. This silent body language further confirmed the helplessness in their hearts: the supreme experts of the Heavenly Gate, who would be highly valued on any planet, the true peak martial artists of humanity, could not even defeat one rising prodigy.

"Just now, the five of us..." Lü Dongbin pointed a finger first at his two dead companions, then at the two living ones, and finally pointed at Qin Fen: "We all attacked together, intending to kill this young man, yet we ended up having two of our own killed by him. Moreover..."

"What?!" Lü Dongbin's chest heaved violently. "He didn't even move from his spot."