Chapter 135: Bladeskill—Flowing Fire

Outside Room 1121, people were packed together so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through.

Lin Huang came upstairs carrying breakfast and was noticed almost at once.

“Boss Lin Huang is here! Everyone, make way!” someone shouted.

The others immediately turned at the sound. Seeing Lin Huang standing beyond the crowd, they quickly opened a path for him.

“Boss Lin Huang, you actually came out personally to get breakfast…”

“…”

Lin Huang was speechless.

Once he had passed through the crowd and reached the doorway, he finally understood what all the commotion was about.

Fang Wen, who was first on the points ranking, and Li Li, who was third, were already inside their rooms. Outside, everyone ranked from fourth to tenth had arrived as well.

Xiao Mo was sitting together with Fang Wen and Li Li. The moment Lin Huang entered, the three of them stood up.

“Brother Lin Huang, my name is Fang Wen.” Fang Wen appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen. Refined and courteous, he extended a hand and introduced himself.

“My name is Li Li.” Li Li looked to be in his early twenties and seemed much more mature. He was extremely tall—probably at least six feet two, if not six feet three.

Clearly, after witnessing Lin Huang’s methods the previous day, this group had come to pay their respects.

“Brother Lin Huang, we mainly came here to get acquainted. The fact that we were assigned to the same training camp is fate. Once we enter Purple Crow, there may be opportunities for us to work together. Here is a small gift as a token of friendship. It is nothing valuable.”

As he spoke, Fang Wen handed Lin Huang a storage ring.

“Then thank you, Senior Fang.” Lin Huang’s lips curved upward as he accepted it without the slightest hesitation.

After killing Gongsun Ying, he had deliberately collected the corpse in front of so many people. He had done it precisely for the benefit of people like these. By establishing himself early on as someone who valued money, he had naturally invited certain people to come bearing gifts.

Before leaving, he might as well extort a little profit from these fellows. At the very least, then his trip to the training camp would not have been entirely fruitless.

“I heard that you favor saber techniques, Brother Lin Huang. As it happens, I once acquired a rather impressive saber art. It has only gathered dust in my hands, so it would be better given to you.”

Li Li took out a combat-skill crystal and held it out.

When Lin Huang heard that it contained a saber technique, his brows rose, and he accepted it immediately.

After presenting their gifts, the two exchanged a few polite words with him before departing.

The group outside the room also presented their own gifts one after another. Lin Huang did not refuse any of them and accepted everything.

More than half an hour passed before the crowd finally dispersed.

“The breakfast has gone cold…” Lin Huang sighed and shook his head after seeing everyone off.

“I’ll go buy another serving,” Xiao Mo hurriedly offered. He wanted to give Lin Huang a gift as well, but he truly had nothing valuable enough to offer.

“No need. Just eat.” Lin Huang handed one portion of steamed buns to Xiao Mo.

Xiao Mo accepted them. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “From now on, I’ll buy breakfast and dinner.”

“That’s fine. Take some points from me later,” Lin Huang said with a nod. It was convenient to have Xiao Mo handle these errands, and it would save him some time.

“No need. Breakfast and dinner don’t cost many points.” Xiao Mo quickly waved his hands. “I used to refuse because my ranking was too low. But now it doesn’t matter.”

“Points are useful to you, but not to me. I don’t lack combat skills or equipment, and I don’t even need to compete for a place on the rankings. Besides, even if I needed points, earning tens of thousands a day would be easy for me. You’re different. Every single point matters to you, so you have to spend them where they count.”

Lin Huang explained, “Just use my points for meals. If you feel uncomfortable about it, treat me to something better after we get out.”

“All right!” Since Lin Huang had put it that way, Xiao Mo no longer insisted.

While the two were eating breakfast, another announcement about the public executions came through the loudspeaker.

They immediately left the room and followed the crowd to the execution grounds.

The three prisoners were soon brought onto the square. When Xiao Mo saw the last one, that man was staring at him as well, his gaze never leaving Xiao Mo for even a moment.

The man watching Xiao Mo was the one who had previously ranked fourth from the bottom. Because Lin Huang had helped Xiao Mo cheat and allowed him to escape death, the condemned prisoner had become that man instead. Naturally, he hated Xiao Mo from the bottom of his heart.

Lin Huang noticed the man’s gaze and patted Xiao Mo on the shoulder.

“Are you all right?”

Xiao Mo shook his head, but he no longer dared raise his eyes to look at the man.

The executions began soon afterward. Once the first two men had been killed, it was the third prisoner’s turn to speak.

The man in sunglasses held the loudspeaker to his mouth. He was supposed to announce his name and method of execution.

Instead, he smiled.

“Xiao Mo, never forget for the rest of your life that you owe me your life!”

The man in sunglasses frowned and nodded toward the executioner.

The executioner clamped a hand over the prisoner’s mouth, then slit his throat, leaving him unable to speak another word.

Bright-red blood gushed from his neck. A rasping sound like air being dragged through bellows came from his mouth. Transmitted through the loudspeaker, it made nearly everyone feel as though they were suffocating.

Until the very moment he died, his eyes remained fixed on the place where Xiao Mo stood.

After the execution ended, Xiao Mo remained silent all the way back to the room.

“That man is already dead. You don’t need to let his words trouble you.” Lin Huang patted him on the shoulder.

“He was right. I should have been the one to die. I owe him my life.” Xiao Mo shook his head.

“You were simply lucky enough to survive. You don’t owe him anything,” Lin Huang said, trying to comfort him. “If you let this become a knot in your heart, it will affect everything you do in the future. He is already dead. No matter how guilty you feel, you cannot bring him back. So my advice is to put this matter aside for now. Once we get out of here and you become a reserve member of Purple Crow, you can investigate his background and see whether there is anything you can do to make amends.”

Xiao Mo fell silent for a moment before finally nodding.

“Also, try to keep yourself busy. That will help prevent you from overthinking. Go fight in the training space. It might be good to vent your emotions.”

“Then I’ll go to the Trial Tower.” Only then did Xiao Mo stand up. He called out a farewell to Lin Huang and turned to leave.

Lin Huang sat down on the edge of the bed and began examining the gifts Fang Wen and the others had sent.

The storage ring Fang Wen had given him did not have a particularly large capacity—only around a thousand cubic meters—but it contained a full three thousand standard units of Life Crystals.

One standard unit of Life Crystal was equivalent to one hundred years’ worth of life fragments. Converted into credits, the three thousand units were worth a staggering thirty billion credits.

“Fang Wen is incredibly generous. His family is probably aristocratic—and perhaps not merely a minor noble house…”

From this alone, Lin Huang could easily infer Fang Wen’s background. Only aristocrats could afford to make such a lavish gift.

After putting away Fang Wen’s ring, Lin Huang turned his attention to the saber art Li Li had given him.

He opened the information page for the combat-skill crystal and read.

Blazing Current was a saber art created three hundred years ago by a master of the saber. He had fused together various fire-element saber techniques and spent seven years simplifying them into their final form…

“Blackie, how is this saber art?” Lin Huang asked, though he did not expect an answer. After all, he had not even begun cultivating it.

“You’re not messing with me, are you?”

Lin Huang had not expected such a response. He straightened abruptly. Of all the combat skills he currently possessed, the only one that had reached the epic level was the Great Wilderness Saber Scripture. When he heard Blackie say that this saber art could grow to the epic level, he found it difficult to believe.

It was the first time Blackie had ever given such an evaluation of a combat skill.

“If this saber art reaches the epic level, which is stronger—the saber art or the Great Wilderness Saber Scripture?”

Lin Huang pondered for a moment. The number of fragments required for this saber art would certainly be substantial, and it was unlikely that he could gather them all in a short time. If he devoted himself to cultivating it, he would probably have to expend a great deal of time and energy.

But his most urgent task now was to find a way out of this place as quickly as possible. He had to escape within the remaining two and a half months.

After putting away the combat-skill crystal, Lin Huang examined the other gifts one by one.

With the jade of Blazing Current before them, none of the other gifts caught his eye.

After giving them a cursory inspection, Lin Huang lay back down on the bed and began thinking about how to escape.

Although he was doing extremely well in the training camp and the people from Purple Crow had high hopes for him, Lin Huang truly could not stand the way these people conducted themselves. Joining an organization like that would be very difficult for him.

“The Scarface is definitely paying even closer attention to me now. The moment my aura disappears after I use a Transformation Card, he’ll notice immediately. There’s no way I could escape…”

“And then there’s the surveillance. The entire stronghold is covered without a single blind spot. Even the toilets and bathrooms are monitored. We’re watched twenty-four hours a day. There are even surveillance birds in the training space…”

“From what I can see, there are only two ways to leave the training camp. One is to become a reserve member of Purple Crow and be openly taken away by Purple Crow’s staff. The other is to die, after which my body would be taken outside the stronghold for disposal…”

“In other words, the most likely way for me to escape is—to fake my death!”

“But before that, I have to find out where they take the bodies and how they dispose of them. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, faking my death could become actual death…”

After analyzing the situation and sorting out his thoughts, Lin Huang prepared to put his plan into action.

He left the room and stood on the balcony, glancing down into the courtyard. Gongsun Ying’s corpse was already gone.

The corners of his lips lifted slightly. He walked to the room next door and knocked on the metal door.

“Do you know which room Fang Wen is in?”