Suddenly, a strange shadow appeared behind Xia Chen. A dagger stabbed toward the back of his head like lightning, attacking like lightning but without making a sound.
"Pfft!"
The figure stabbed into Xia Chen's body, but missed the mark. That figure was actually a phantom—a talisman about a foot long and two inches wide, spinning rapidly and slicing across the person's neck. Without a single sound, the talisman's head was severed.
"Whoosh."
Xia Chen waved his hand, and the talisman flew back into his hand like a boomerang. Though it was just a piece of paper, it was as sharp as a divine weapon—coming and going, impossible to guard against.
What shocked Long Chen and Guo Ran the most was that at the moment Xia Chen was struck, even Long Chen couldn't figure out how he had completed teleportation. His movement was so bizarre that there was no sign at all.
"Wow, this movement technique, this technique—that's incredible!" Guo Ran finally saw Xia Chen make his move, his movements clean and decisive, extremely graceful.
"This guy is a real expert. He already has six nameplates. Let's split them up—two each." Xia Chen said.
"I don't want it, I can get it myself." Guo Ran said proudly.
"Take it for now, so you don't reveal any flaws. Only dead bodies don't have nameplates. If they get caught, it will be troublesome." Long Chen said.
Seeing Long Chen say this, Guo Ran finally tucked the nameplate into his chest. As they gradually became familiar with the terrain and the formation disks were connected, the three gradually relaxed and distanced, each beginning their own "trial."
You have to know, assassins never form cliques. Even if their goals are the same, they fight separately and never cooperate with others.
Because a killer's first creed is that on the battlefield, the only person they can trust is themselves; their comrades are often more dangerous than the enemy.
Long Chen, Guo Ran, and Xia Chen all knew nothing about stealth warfare; they just ran around the woods, deliberately luring others out to kill them, and then counterattacked.
Maybe Guo Ran was putting on a show too obviously, but except for the first person who tried to assassinate him, it had been half an hour and no one else had tried to kill him. Maybe this guy was acting too exaggerated. The assassin wasn't a fool—the more he tried to lure others out, the more they felt something was off.
In contrast, Long Chen and Xia Chen had already killed more than a dozen people. After killing them, Long Chen directly examined the soul fragments and finally understood the rules of this trial.
This trial is the largest trial in the Nine Nether Hall, and also the strongest and most brutal trial held once every ten years.
In this trial ground, there is a special magnetic field. If anyone dares to escape this area without its support, the poison they swallowed in advance will take effect, and they will die a miserable death.
Therefore, no one would escape this trial ground. What they had to do was how to seize the nine nameplates and save their lives.
For ordinary assassins, survival is the top priority, while for the strong, hunting down more people is the key to entering the final trial.
Besides this trial, there are three more trials ahead, each one full of dangers and a near-death experience.
If you can collect 900 nameplates at once, you can jump straight to the final stage of the trial, saving a lot of effort and avoiding many dangers.
True experts gather in the central area of the trial grounds, because they are all experts. Experts are confident and must kill opponents as quickly as possible to collect all the nameplates. Because they jump directly to the final trial slot, there are only three hundred in total—if missed, it's gone.
The area Long Chen was in was the outskirts, and those who came here were relatively weak. Their ultimate goal was to collect nine nameplates and survive.
Once they collect nine nameplates, they can exit the trial and receive the first wave of rewards.
Afterwards, they had two choices: either continue participating in the trials to earn richer rewards, or they could give up and be assigned to various branch halls to carry out missions and begin their assassin journey.
For them, nine nameplates was already the ultimate goal. If luck was on their side, they only needed to kill one person, and that person had exactly eight nameplates, and that would be considered success.
Of course, conversely, if you are unlucky, kill several people, collect eight nameplates, and are just one short of the last one, then killed by others, you can only accept your bad luck.
The trials at the Blood Slaughter Hall were extremely bloody and brutal, but the people here felt little fear, because they had long since become numb and were extremely indifferent to life—not only to others' lives but also to their own.
It is precisely because they are indifferent to life that they fear death and remain calm at all times. Only then can they unleash their true killer power. In plain terms, they are killing machines, without any emotion.
Unlike the assassins of the Blood Killing Hall, the assassins of the Nine Nether Hall specialize in assassination techniques, prioritizing technique. But the Blood Killing Hall is different; their disciples use assassination techniques only as support; they are more skilled in schemes, traps, hidden weapons, poisoning, beauty traps, and self-sacrifice tactics.
One is technical, the other a strategist—both assassins, yet hostile to each other. The Nine Nether Hall looks down on the Blood Killing Hall's schemes, believing that assassins should specialize in assassination.
The Blood Killing Hall also looked down on the Nine Nether Hall, believing that assassins should have a smart mind—fighting spirit over brute force.
The assassins of the Blood Kill Hall thought the assassins of the Nine Nether Hall were idiots. Assassins pursued results and deserved meticulous calculations, using every possible means.
The assassins of the Nine Nether Hall consider the Blood Kill Hall killers to be scum in the assassin world. Assassins have their own bottom line. Various schemes and lowly tactics are a desecration of the profession. Assassins should specialize in assassination, whether it's open or obvious killing. As long as they can take out their target, that's what makes them a true assassin.
In short, not only were the two hall masters hostile to each other, but the disciples were also at odds. If it weren't for the restrictions of the Great Brahma Heaven, the two halls would have been able to fight to the point of bloodshed.
But to be fair, the assassins of the Nine Nether Hall were far stronger than those of the Blood Killing Hall, since their skills were all earned through direct confrontation.
But once the Blood Kill Hall guys are exposed, all they can do is run; if they can't, they're doomed. Their ability to fight head-on is nothing to laugh at.
However, these assassins were clearly disciples trained by the Blood Killing Hall. Although their assassination skills were excellent, their experience was clearly lacking and somewhat immature.
Long Chen and the other two advanced toward the core area. Long Chen had already collected over three hundred nameplates, Xia Chen was about the same, but Guo Ran had killed six people but only collected seven nameplates, making him so angry he was about to cry.
You have to know, everyone Long Chen and his men killed carried at least a few nameplates, and some even carried dozens of them.
"Buzz!"
Just as the three entered the core area, a figure suddenly descended from the sky, lunging straight at Guo Ran. A sword struck at Guo Ran's forehead—a head-on assault.
"Smack!"
Guo Ran grabbed the sharp longsword with a single hand. The man was shocked—he was an extremely arrogant expert, otherwise he wouldn't have launched a direct assault. But he hadn't expected someone to snatch a blade barehanded.
"Pfft!"
Just as he was startled, a quiver appeared on Guo Ran's left arm. A sleeve arrow shot like a black lightning bolt, piercing through the man's brow.
"Wow, I've struck it rich!"
What Guo Ran didn't expect was that the man actually had 297 nameplates. When he put the nameplates into a specific backpack, the bag suddenly lit up, and Guo Ran's figure vanished instantly.
"Not good, this kid has been teleported away."
Long Chen and Xia Chen's expressions changed instantly. Everything happened so suddenly, and they didn't know if this kid would slip up.