Xia Li paused right where she stood, dialed the number, and smiled.
"Why did you issue a First-Level Alert?"
"Better safe than sorry. After all, Lantie City is a small place without any top experts stationed here. In the end, someone has to take responsibility," Song Fushan's voice came through.
"I saw you reported a casualty in the line of duty. An old subordinate?" Xia Li asked again.
"Yes. He's dead," Song Fushan said.
It was at this very moment.
While Xia Li was on the phone at the entrance of the Bureau of Investigation, Ye Huan looked down at her from the rooftop and silently uttered in his mind:
"Challenge Xia Li's Identity Achievement—begin!"
The scenery of the entire world suddenly vanished.
...
Ye Huan found himself standing in a lush mountain forest.
A martial artist dressed in black training robes stood high upon the branch of a large tree, looking down with folded arms.
"You little bastards, fighting is all you know every single day. It's about time you learned a lesson."
He pointed toward a building not far away—
It was a skyscraper snapped in half, only its lower half remaining, towering amidst the emerald sea of trees like a giant slowly being swallowed by time.
"At quarter past six this evening, the whistle will blow, and the competition will end.
"Rankings will be determined by your haul, and there will be all sorts of rewards.
"—Remember, a true powerhouse is more than just someone who knows how to fight!
"Go and find valuable items.
"Timing starts now!"
With that, he produced a gong and struck it forcefully.
The dozen or so young boys and girls standing below shot forward, vanishing in an instant.
Only Ye Huan was left.
At this moment, on his skill tree, the icon for the "Three Skims of the Flying Swallow" movement technique was still grayed out, not yet illuminated.
—He still only cultivated the Iron Cloth Shirt!
"Ye Huan? Why aren't you keeping up? Moving so slowly, lagging behind on your own?" the martial artist on the tree branch asked.
"That place definitely isn't safe. I'm in no rush—I need to conserve my stamina," Ye Huan said with a grin.
"Hmph, crafty little rascal, aren't you?"
The martial artist nodded, approving of his reasoning.
In the gentle mountain breeze, Ye Huan strolled slowly along the hillside toward the skyscraper.
Those boys and girls were all top-tier prodigies.
What did he have?
He only had the Iron Cloth Shirt.
However, before coming here, he had acquired Xia Luoning's memory in advance.
—About this exploration, he knew everything!
It was now nine in the morning.
This exploration would last until quarter past six in the evening, and none of them had brought provisions.
Across such a long time, they wouldn't even have a mouthful of water to drink.
In the end, there would definitely be a fight!
Ye Huan smiled and turned toward the jungle.
The sunlight was pleasant.
After walking for a while, Ye Huan suddenly leapt onto a tree branch and picked several yellowing oranges.
He leisurely stowed the oranges away, hopped down, and walked a bit further before picking up a rock from the ground and hurling it into the underbrush.
With a squawk, a wild pheasant that had just taken flight was struck dead, hitting a large tree and tumbling down.
"Lunch!"
Delight washed over Ye Huan's face. Stowing the pheasant as well, he continued onward.
No rush.
The entire course of this test was already mapped out in his mind.
At this very moment, the first event of this wilderness exploration took place.
Zhang Beisheng, a boy from an established martial lineage—the very child who had lost to Ye Huan in the arena—having undergone months of sect cultivation, now considered his martial arts peerless among his generation.
He did one thing.
—He blocked the entrance passageway to the skyscraper, declaring that anyone lacking sufficient strength was forbidden from entering.
Only peers whom he deemed worthy were allowed through.
Immediately afterward.
Perhaps inspired by him, Xia Luoning also did something.
No one was allowed to leave the building!
Unless they offered up a portion of their harvest to her, they wouldn't be permitted to return to the sect!
Even Zhang Beisheng had to hand over part of his gains!
Recalling the scene from her memories, Ye Huan couldn't help a slight twitch of his lips.
When kids from prestigious, elite families did things, they acted practically like mobsters.
Who would have guessed Xia Luoning was like this as a child?
When sitting in her office, she was so solemn and proper, speaking and conducting herself with meticulous precision.
Tsk.
Ye Huan gazed at the distant skyscraper, listening to the waves of quarreling, and turned his steps toward the sound of babbling water.
You guys take your sweet time fighting.
I'm out of here.
Arriving at the stream, Ye Huan rolled up his trouser legs, waded into the water, and caught fish and shrimp.
From time to time, he took a rest on the bank.
Before he knew it, the sun climbed to its zenith.
At midday, Ye Huan was already hungry.
He gathered plenty of dry twigs and leaves, started a fire by drilling wood, bled the pheasant, gutted it, cleaned the gutted fish in the stream, and skewered the fish on twigs to slow-roast over the coals.
As for the chicken, he made it beggar's chicken style, burying it beneath the glowing embers.
Roasting both above and below.
When it was time to eat, he brought out the oranges to cut through the richness of gorging on meat.
Ye Huan ate slowly.
Soon, he understood why people out in the wild liked cooking food this way.
Without salt, grilling fish until the skin was crisp and the meat tender inside allowed the charred aroma from the coals to mask some of the fishiness.
It was edible.
The chicken had no salt and was quite bland.
Still, it was edible.
—As long as it filled his belly, that was enough.
Eating as he pondered, Ye Huan reflected on the setup.
Everyone had been roused early in the morning and rushed here to assemble without even eating breakfast.
They had fought several rounds just to get into the building.
No lunch either.
It wouldn't end until the evening.
And come evening, there would be more fighting.
Looking at it this way, the sect had deliberately drawn out the duration without giving any advance notice, presumably to make everyone suffer a bit of hardship.
Ye Huan carefully observed his surroundings.
Gradually, he noticed traces of foot traffic along many mountain trails.
He even spotted two elderly farmers pulling handcarts, leisurely crossing the trail on the opposite mountain.
—Wilderness? What wilderness was this?
The entire mountain range was probably the Taiyin Sect's domain!
It was disappointing.
Yet reassuring at the same time.
Ye Huan finished every bite of food, then took a slow walk in the shade of the trees.
According to Xia Luoning's memories, at midday, everyone engaged in fierce clashes inside the ruins, vying for the items hidden throughout the various passageways.
Those were bona fide, knock-down fights, with no one backing down and no one yielding an inch.
Their skirmishes would last about two hours.
Two hours.
Enough for a nap.
Ye Huan found a large tree, leaped up, and lay down on a branch.
With a gentle mountain breeze, shielded from the sun, and a full belly, it was the prime time for sleep.
Ye Huan yawned and drifted off as soon as he closed his eyes.
This nap lasted for over an hour.
After waking, he waded into the stream to hold his stance for a while.
Half an hour later, completely refreshed and energized, it was already past four in the afternoon.
Time to go.
Ye Huan stepped ashore and walked along the path to the front of the ruined skyscraper.
The first to emerge from the ruins was Zhang Beisheng.
Several people had ganged up on him to beat him and snatch his harvest, forcing him to end his exploration early.
Ye Huan was in no hurry. He simply stood in the open space before the skyscraper, waiting patiently.
Before long, Zhang Beisheng's figure appeared.
"Ye Huan? What are you doing here?" he asked, panting heavily with an exhausted expression.
"Drop the bag in your hands, and I'll let you go back," Ye Huan said.
A few seconds of silence followed.
"Hahaha!" Zhang Beisheng burst out laughing. "Do you have any idea what you're saying? I've mastered three secret techniques and uncovered where your vital point is! If you're begging for a beating this time, you can't blame me!"
He set down his things and charged forward, aiming a kick straight at Ye Huan's abdomen.
Ye Huan strode forward and threw a punch in return.
—You fight your way; I'll fight mine!
Clang!
A crisp ring.
Zhang Beisheng's kick landed squarely, yet it felt like crashing into solid steel, turning his entire foot numb.
"Why are you still cultivating this?!" he cried out in complicated disbelief.
Thud.
Ye Huan's fist slammed him brutally to the ground. Grabbing him back up and ignoring his flurry of seven or eight strikes, Ye Huan knocked him down with another punch.
"Damn it—" Zhang Beisheng shouted, violently twisting his body and weathering one of Ye Huan's blows to unleash three strikes in succession.
Clang, clang, clang!
Amidst the rapid clashing sounds came the dull thud of Ye Huan's fist connecting with his cheek.
"Didn't you eat today? Your fists have no power at all."
Ye Huan shook his head and landed another punch on his face.
Dazed and seeing stars, a sudden flash of realization struck Zhang Beisheng's mind, and he yelled, "You damned mutt, I haven't seen you since the start—did you hide away to conserve your energy?!"
Thud.
Another punch.
Zhang Beisheng bellowed furiously, "I fought all across the field and ran out of stamina, you underhanded scoundrel—"
Thud.
Knocked down again, hauled back up again.
They clashed once more.
Knocked down, hauled up, punched.
—Repeating over and over, seven times in total.
"Stop hitting me! You win, alright? What the hell—what did you eat for lunch? We weren't allowed to bring personal items on this exploration! You broke the rules! I'm going to report you!"
"I ate wild pheasant and small fish, freshly caught on the spot," Ye Huan shrugged.
"Too underhanded!" Zhang Beisheng fumed.
Underhanded.
"Let me ask you, what is our sect called?" Ye Huan asked.
"Taiyin, of course," Zhang Beisheng replied, baffled.
"You can't get by without being underhanded. What you just called 'too underhanded'—that's the true spirit of our sect! Why else would it be called the Taiyin Sect?" Ye Huan stated with solemn conviction.
Zhang Beisheng froze, falling into deep thought.
"So that's how it is," he muttered. "Taiyin Sect... meaning the grandmasters of underhanded tricks?"
"Exactly!" Ye Huan gave him a thumbs-up.
Two ten-year-old boys standing there pondering the origin of their sect's name.
Meanwhile, the martial artists observing from hiding all had their mouths twitching in unison.
—Our Taiyin Sect's reputation is definitely not explained like that!
"I'm done fighting, take the stuff!" Zhang Beisheng panted, his heart filled with indignation.
"That's more like it," Ye Huan smiled.
He walked over, picked up Zhang Beisheng's bag, and casually looked through it.
Inside were some wooden blocks of varying sizes, with the word "Treasure" written on them.
—Using this kind of thing as treasure was entirely duping little kids.
"Just this?" Ye Huan couldn't help asking.
"Now I get what you were saying. Look, these things have nothing to do with treasure, yet they made us spend an entire day looking for them—on an empty stomach, without even a sip of water. The sect really is underhanded enough," Zhang Beisheng said.
The two exchanged a glance, sharing a certain tacit understanding of having seen right through the sect's modus operandi.
Chapter 43