The Deaf Man... was speaking?

His voice was resonant and slightly hoarse, with a strange, captivating quality, as if it had a natural reverb.

From the very beginning, the Deaf Man had only ever made strange babbling noises, as if to prove he was both deaf and mute.

But now he was speaking.

Although Yue Yan was surprised, as a veteran of the "Twenty-Eight Stars," she wasn’t caught completely off guard. She reacted in an instant, realizing that he was Casting a Miracle Technique.

It was common knowledge among insiders that duels between Miracle Masters followed certain rules: they relied on a medium and concealed their Restrictions.

Whichever Miracle Master had their "rules" seen through, their "medium" nullified, or even their "Restrictions" figured out first would undoubtedly be at a disadvantage.

Aside from the rookie Dou Xie, both Yue Yan and Feng Bei had been anything but careless, wary of their opponents’ tricks from the moment they met.

Figuring out an opponent’s methods and deducing their "Restrictions" in a life-or-death battle was a mandatory lesson that every member of Ye Weiyang had to master when they first became a Night Guard.

But as the Deaf Man spoke, his hoarse voice reaching her ears, a fierce light glinted in Yue Yan’s eyes. She was about to pull her threads taut and slice the two men apart. Unexpectedly, her middle finger, curled toward her palm, unconsciously loosened its grip.

The Deaf Man laughed again. "Look at the Blind Monk’s eyes! So dark and round!"

’Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look!’

Yue Yan told herself.

But in the end, she couldn’t resist.

As if her neck and eyes were no longer under her control, Yue Yan looked at the Blind Monk’s slightly open eyes, her gaze meeting the crimson light in his pupils.

The next second.

It was as if a black cloth had been thrown over Yue Yan’s eyes, plunging her into darkness.

The Deaf Man’s two Castings instantly allowed Yue Yan and Feng Bei to understand his Path.

Yue Yan: "It’s the ’Thousand Gate General’!"

Feng Bei: "Thousand Gate General."

The so-called "Thousand Gates" made their living through deception. This trade has existed since ancient times, a shady business as reviled as a rat scurrying across the street.

The rule of the Thousand Gate General was simple, relying entirely on one’s mouth: "Deception."

But the Path of the [Thousand Gate General] was said to have further subdivisions, the "Eight Generals." However, very few could cultivate this Path to its depths, and Yue Yan had never encountered one since joining Ye Weiyang.

Most who followed the [Thousand Gate General] Path had shallow Path Cultivation and could not open the deeper doors within it.

Yue Yan’s voice was filled with unconcealable shock.

She wasn’t shocked that her opponent followed the strange, unorthodox Path of the [Thousand Gate General]. She was shocked that the effect of his Casting was so overbearing that it could forcibly make her believe his lies.

Yue Yan curled her middle finger tightly once more. Even without her sight, her Magic would not be interrupted.

"Eee-yah, eee-yah—"

After tricking Yue Yan twice, the Deaf Man seemed to turn mute again, letting out his strange babbling cries.

"Lame Man, Lame Man, what’s the Deaf Man saying?"

With blood streaming from his eyes, the Blind Monk felt the threads around him tightening. He hurriedly shouted to the Lame Man, who was busy cracking open insect eggs on the vaulted ceiling.

"Blind Monk, Blind Monk, the Deaf Man said to let me save you!"

The Lame Man leaned on a crutch, holding up one leg, yet he ran upside down at a speed that was hard to follow with the naked eye.

CLICK! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He moved to an open spot, aimed his crutch at the Blind Monk, and pressed a hidden mechanism with his thumb. A long, thin, handleless, double-edged blade shot out toward the monk.

"A-yi-ya-yi-ya-yeee—"

The Deaf Man let out a cold laugh. As Yue Yan tightened her threads, he decisively thrust his right hand into the gap created when she had momentarily loosened her grip, and yanked hard.

Almost simultaneously.

The threads on both the Blind Monk and the Deaf Man snapped.

The Lame Man had cut the threads on the Blind Monk.

Blood now gushed from the Deaf Man’s right wrist. Of the hand that had forcefully torn the threads, three fingers were gone, and the remaining two, barely attached by severed tendons, were about to fall off.

"I can see again!"

Dou Xie, who had been uselessly cursing at a wall for nearly ten breaths, suddenly snapped out of it, his vision restored.

The moment he could see, he saw the Deaf Man charging toward Sister Yue Yan with a savage grin.

’It’s my time to shine!’

Dou Xie flipped open his book to a page with two large words written on it—Thunderous Shout!

He followed the [Scholar] branch of the [Scholars] Path.

Dou Xie’s Casting Restriction was, frankly, quite embarrassing for him.

To complete a Magic, he first had to transcribe it in advance, and second... he had to recite it in its entirety.

Never mind his trump card, the *Song of the Vast Righteous Qi*, which took up half the book and was six hundred and seventy-two characters long.

Most of his other powerful killing moves were also over a hundred characters long.

There was no time to recite a major spell, so Dou Xie decisively chose the short and useful minor spell, [Thunderous Shout].

"Thun—!"

Dou Xie had just uttered the first syllable when the Deaf Man lunged forward like a Fierce Tiger. Midway, the Deaf Man shot Dou Xie a look and said rapidly, "Don’t be hasty, young man! Quick, look! The Blind Monk has ’I’m an idiot’ written on his face!"

"Really?"

Startled, Dou Xie couldn’t stop himself from looking at the Blind Monk’s eyes. A moment later, Dou Xie was blind again.

The Blind Monk cursed, "The Lame Man is the real idiot!"

The Lame Man, still upside down on the ceiling, cackled and stomped his crutch. "THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!" He stomped and said, "You two, the Blind Monk and the Deaf Man, are the idiots!"

Hearing the sound, Feng Bei was about to rush to Yue Yan’s side to block the Deaf Man, but she strangely started moving in the opposite direction.

It was the Lame Man’s Magic!

"Eee-yah, eee-yah!"

The Deaf Man’s intact left hand shot toward Yue Yan’s two vacant eyeballs, now just inches away.

The Lame Man and the Blind Monk roared with laughter, shouting in unison, "Heh! We got her!"

Yue Yan felt the wind rushing past her face and thought, ’It’s over.’

The disabled trio—the Deaf, the Blind, and the Lame Man—were clearly a team of well-coordinated Miracle Masters. They had used a Chain Skill, catching them completely by surprise.

And of all things, on their team of four, there was one... no, two rookies.

Their strongest combatant, Lord Upper Three, was tied up, and Young Master Zheng was of no help in the bizarre duels of Miracle Masters. Meanwhile, Dou Xie, who should have been the most helpful, had, as expected, fumbled at the critical moment.

’It’s over! But—’ Yue Yan inwardly regretted not being ruthless enough to destroy her own ears first. The Casting medium of the three enemy Miracle Masters was obvious. If she had just destroyed her own hearing, most of their Magic would have been broken.

In the darkness, Yue Yan retreated rapidly. With a flick of her fingers, threads surged madly from her sleeves, wrapping around her as a shield.

But under the influence of the Lame Man’s Miracle Technique, Yue Yan’s web was a chaotic mess, full of holes.

"This is bad!"

Yue Yan’s face turned pale.

THUD!

The ground shook.

A shadow, fast as lightning, shot in from the side and slapped the Deaf Man.

WHOOSH!

In that instant, the Deaf Man screamed as he was sent flying.

Feng Bei stood there silently, her left eye closed and her right eye open. The two words "Ding Wei" spun in the depths of her pupil. She flicked her hand, shaking off the blood and flesh clinging to it, and frowned slightly in the direction the Deaf Man had flown.

’Such a decisive person,’

Feng Bei thought.

Only Feng Bei had clearly seen what happened in that critical moment.

When the Deaf Man sensed Feng Bei coming to the rescue, he didn’t hesitate for a moment. He redirected his killing blow, which had been aimed at Yue Yan’s eyes, toward his other shoulder, using his already-mangled hand to block Feng Bei’s attack.

Although his hand was obliterated into flying flesh and blood, the Deaf Man had saved his own life.

For a moment, the mountain cave fell utterly silent.

"THUD!"

The Lame Man, who had been running swiftly across the ceiling, fell to the ground, his face a mask of horror!

’How is that possible!’

He had clearly seen that Mystic Feng Bei, caught in his Miracle Technique, had her sense of direction scrambled, darting about aimlessly like a headless fly.

But just as the Deaf Man was about to succeed, Feng Bei had stomped on the ground, using the force to launch herself forward. In the blink of an eye, she appeared before the Deaf Man and struck like lightning, taking off his arm.

She had found the right direction!

Impossible!

’It has to be a coincidence!’

His Miracle Technique’s effect was simple—it merely "confused" one’s sense of direction. To put it plainly, it swapped the victim’s front, back, left, right, up, and down, making them wander as if in a maze on flat ground, unable to orient themselves as long as they were within range of the sound.

To Crack this Magic wasn’t difficult, but it was by no means simple, either.

The Lame Man looked down at the footprint clearly visible in the stone ground not far away—a print a full three inches deep. A possibility suddenly struck him.

’Could it be that Mystic Feng Bei figured out the pattern of the "confusion" after just a few short attempts?’

"Monster! Monster! Monster!"

The Lame Man leaped to his feet, frantically jabbing the ground with his crutch, the THUMP-THUMP-THUMP sound almost continuous. "Blind Monk! Deaf Man! This one’s tough, let’s scram!"

Blind Monk: "Lame Man, Deaf Man, scram!"

Deaf Man: "Blind Monk! Lame Man!"

Blind Monk: "Lame Man, Lame Man, Deaf Man, Deaf Man!"

Deaf Man: "Lame Man, Deaf Man!"

Lame Man: "Blind Monk, Deaf Man!"

The three of them scattered.

Retreating toward the cave entrance.

Their voices echoed through the cave.

Their voices eventually blurred into a chaotic, nonsensical echo.

BZZZZZZZ—

The Blood Crow they had brought with them was forgotten by everyone.

The Blood Crow’s talons rested on one of the insect eggs. It preened its feathers, its two jet-black eyes staring down, quietly observing everything that was happening below.

Feng Bei frowned. She had indeed found the pattern to the directional confusion, but she hadn’t expected that as the frequency of the enemy’s tapping changed, the pattern of confusion also changed in subtle ways.

She took a small step and immediately felt the disorienting dissonance of her position being scrambled.

Feng Bei watched the trio rapidly retreating toward the cave entrance. Her gaze turned cold, and she was about to press her hand to the ground.

But she glanced back and saw the still-shaken Yue Yan and Dou Xie, who was spinning around aimlessly. With a soft sigh, she pulled her hand back.

Finally, she looked in another direction, worried about Zheng Xiu, wondering if he was faring well.

As she turned her head, the composed Feng Bei suddenly froze, her small mouth gaping into an oval.

A young man, covered in filth and blood, strode forward with clenched fists. The blood staining his face made his smile seem even more ferocious. He moved as if no one else existed, swiftly closing in on the fleeing trio.

"Get over here!"

"Don’t you dare run!"

"You’re too ugly to be talking!"

Zheng Xiu frantically threw his Dice, expertly landing a [Taunt] on each of the fleeing trio—the Deaf, Blind, and Lame Men.

"Bastard!"

"Eee-yah, eee-yah!"

"You brat, you’re courting death!"

The three were inexplicably enraged. They stopped in their tracks, turned back, and charged furiously toward Zheng Xiu.

Halfway there, they realized something was wrong.

Blind Monk: "Lame Man!"

Lame Man: "Deaf Man!"

Deaf Man: "Quick, look and see how many eyes the Blind Monk has!"

Zheng Xiu let out a sinister laugh. He closed his eyes and surged forward, delivering one punch to each of them.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Instantly, the three men’s backs arched like shrimp as the fists of the young man with immense Divine Power slammed them into the wall, where they coughed up blood endlessly.

Yue Yan looked up. Influenced once again by the [Thousand Gate General] Miracle Technique, she tried to see how many eyes the Blind Monk had and was instantly plunged into darkness.

But just before her vision went black, she faintly saw the young man taking out the disabled freaks one by one with his fists. She couldn’t help but cry out in astonishment, "How are you not affected?"

Feng Bei’s first concern was for the young man who had just been fighting the Immortal Lady alone. "Are you alright?"

Zheng Xiu turned around. The world was silent.

He had just finished them off, one punch each, and was about to go over and land a few more blows to finish the job when he saw Feng Bei and Yue Yan, their expressions a mixture of emotions, their mouths moving as if they were saying something.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Zheng Xiu pointed to his own bleeding ears and said casually, "I’m deaf. I can’t hear you."