"How dare you get distracted before me? I will kill you, you bastard!" Shen Yuan was about to open the reward when the iron mace tore through the system screen like it was not even there and charged straight for Shen Yuan’s face.

Woosh!

Shen Yuan pivoted on the edge of his heel and used the base of his palm to attack the servant right under his chin.

"Achk!!!" The force of the attack was so much that Shen Yuan’s attack made him bite his tongue in two. A spray of blood covered Shen Yuan as he watched the man clutching his mouth with tears and snot dripping from his face.

The servant staggered backwards, both hands flying to his mouth.

"Wgh...! Ghh...!"

Fresh blood leaked through the gaps between his fingers as he desperately circulated qi towards the wound, trying to stop the bleeding before he lost any more strength.

His eyes turned bloodshot.

He pointed the iron mace at Shen Yuan with a trembling hand.

"Y-Yuu...!"

"Ghh...!"

He tried again.

"Nnng... Yhh...!"

Not a single coherent word came out.

Only wet, garbled sounds echoed through the cave.

Shen Yuan glanced at him before lowering his eyes towards the blood dripping onto the ground.

Then he looked back up with a faint smile.

"...You talked far too much anyway."

He casually shook the blood from his hand.

"I was wondering how long it would take before someone gave you a reason to shut up."

The servant’s face flushed crimson.

His shoulders trembled with rage as he desperately tried to curse Shen Yuan.

"Ghh...! Ngh...!"

The more he forced the words out, the more blood seeped from his ruined mouth.

Shen Yuan clicked his tongue.

"See? I told you."

"You needed a break." Shen Yuan spoke as he dodged the sharp sickle coming for his head.

Even as the sickle flew right before his eyes and turned back to its owner, Shen Yuan never stopped mocking him.

"Take your time; I’m in no hurry."

The servant’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Unable to shout or curse, he let out an enraged roar instead.

"GGGRAAAH!!"

Ignoring the pain, he tightened his grip around the iron mace and charged at Shen Yuan once more, murderous fury replacing what little reason he had left.

"SSss... Ssssnake... S-Step!"

The servant’s mangled voice barely resembled words anymore.

As he charged forward his body suddenly twisted from side to side like a snake.

Instead of running in a straight line, he slithered across the cave floor in an unpredictable pattern, his shoulders swaying while the heavy iron mace dragged behind him before whipping around for another strike.

"Die!!"

Or at least... That was probably what he intended to say.

To Shen Yuan, it sounded more like an angry snake choking on a frog.

At the same time—

The woman wielding the chained sickle flicked her wrist.

Clink!

The chain shot through the air once more, the curved blade spinning towards Shen Yuan’s neck while the iron mace came crashing towards his ribs from the opposite direction.

The two attacks perfectly boxed him in.

"You..." The woman narrowed her eyes. "...Are you looking down on me too because I’m a woman?"

Shen Yuan glanced at her for a brief second; his expression looked genuinely puzzled.

Vanishing Step!

The two attacks sliced through Shen Yuan’s body without meeting the slightest resistance.

"...!"

The servant with the iron mace widened his eyes.

The chained sickle continued flying forward as though it had struck nothing at all.

Shen Yuan’s figure rippled...

...before fading into scattered afterimages.

"Afterimage?!" The woman exclaimed.

"No."

A calm voice suddenly echoed behind her.

"I’m just faster."

Her pupils contracted.

She instinctively tried to pull the chain back, but it was already too late.

Shen Yuan’s left foot planted firmly against the cave floor.

His waist twisted.

His left arm shot forward like a spear.

Killer Move!

Ba-Dump!

His palm drove cleanly through her back before emerging from the front of her chest.

The woman’s body froze.

Her eyes slowly lowered towards the hand protruding through her robes.

"..."

Blood trickled from the corner of her lips.

She tried to speak but no sound came out.

’If only I could use electricity and had white hair.’ Shen Yuan quietly withdrew his arm.

The woman staggered forward several steps before collapsing onto the cave floor with a dull thud.

The entire cave fell silent.

Even the servants who had been rushing forward instinctively halted.

"..."

Shi Lui’s expression remained as cold as ever.

But the faint tightening of her fingers betrayed the surprise hidden beneath that icy face.

"Don’t stop."

She pointed towards Shen Yuan.

"Kill him."

Four more servants immediately broke away from the formation.

Together with the servant whose tongue had been severed, five people charged at Shen Yuan from different directions.

The tongueless servant let out another furious roar.

"GGGHHHH!!"

He raised the iron mace high above his head.

The others followed close behind, determined not to repeat the same mistake.

Shen Yuan, however, paid them almost no attention.

Instead...

He bent down besides the fallen woman.

His hand picked up the kusarigama lying on the ground. He gave it a brief inspection before grasping the chain with both hands.

With one sharp pull—

Clink!

The chain separated from the sickle. He tossed the weighted chain aside before weighing the curved blade in his hand.

It was nothing like Huang Fu’s work.

But it would do.

’I don’t know how to use them together.’

He lightly spun the sickle once before settling into a relaxed stance.

’But separately...’ A faint smile appeared on his face. ’they’re much simpler.’

"Give up, Shen Yuan. You can never get out of this place alive. Not only are you injured but you are also poisoned by Lord Shi Jin." Shi Lui shouted from the distance while taking out her own throwing knife hidden somewhere from underneath her tight robes that hugged her figure.

"Come on... This little thing," Shen Yuan laughed as he pointed the sickle at his right shoulder and chuckled. "This is nothing. Let me show you a magic trick I just learned."

Shi Lui’s eyes widened in shock as she saw something brazen happening before her eyes. Shen Yuan threw the Sickle in the air and reached out to pull three herbs from his robes.

’2-star herb?! The other two are 1-star herbs as well. Where did he get them? I thought he only got the spirit grass.’ Shi Lui’s thought stopped when Shen Yuan risked the herbs in the air and said it.

"What a waste of such perfect herbs, but I guess I have no other choice..." Saying this, he raised the above his head and squeezed the herbs at the same time, letting their fluid drip into his mouth.

"Hurry! Kill him!!" Shi Lui did not know what Shen Yuan was planning, but nothing good could come out of letting him eat a 2-star herb. To stop the man, she even threw her own knife using all of her strength.

It was faster than most of the servants who had just reached Shen Yuan but...

’Too late,’ Shen Yuan thought as he felt the sweet taste of the herbs touching his tongue.