Inside the Life Ancient City.
Somewhere within.
"Nearly four hundred billion!"
As Zhao Xuan counted the gains from this round, a trace of satisfaction finally appeared on his otherwise cold face.
"One step closer to seven thousand five hundred billion."
Murmuring to himself, Zhao Xuan swiftly stored away all the resources taken from those eight people.
Then—
The smile on his face quickly faded.
"In the end… I was still exposed."
Although Zhao Xuan had done everything he could to kill the six as quickly as possible—
He had still been a step too slow.
When he killed the second-to-last person, he had already sensed new teams of ability users arriving.
At that moment—
Zhao Xuan had briefly considered silencing the newly arrived teams as well.
But—
When he went after the final target, two more teams appeared.
Three teams in total.
Altogether, around fifteen or sixteen people.
Zhao Xuan was not arrogant enough to believe he could fight fifteen fully alert opponents at once.
"Tch… troublesome."
Zhao Xuan frowned deeply.
As mentioned before—
Zhao Xuan was never a magnanimous person.
He was petty.
He was vengeful.
He was the kind of man who would repay even the smallest slight.
Anyone who had ever attacked him—
He would never let them go lightly.
So—
Even now, Zhao Xuan was still keeping his eyes on the remaining three ability-user teams that had previously made a move against him.
"This is getting tricky… Now that my true strength has been exposed, they'll all be on guard. If I want to deal with them, the price I'll have to pay won't be small."
Don't be fooled by how unharmed Zhao Xuan seemed after the fight.
In reality—
He had consumed a huge amount of life energy.
Zhao Xuan could clearly sense it.
The life energy accumulated in his bones had already been depleted by nearly half.
That was not good news.
The reason he had been able to crush six opponents—each using extreme techniques and possessing power comparable to Eighth-Rank Kings—in less than a minute…
Was because he had been maintaining his extreme burst state the entire time.
Without using the extreme technique—
Zhao Xuan would never have been able to face all six at once.
At best, he could have held off three or four of them.
"Damn it! This is all because of those three idiots!"
The more he thought about it, the angrier Zhao Xuan became.
Just as his irritation peaked—
Suddenly—
A flash of inspiration struck his mind.
"Wait… so what if my strength was exposed?"
"The Life City is enormous. And all these teams are wary of one another."
"Information won't spread that fast."
"If that's the case… as long as I move fast enough—"
"As long as I can eliminate the remaining teams before the news reaches them—then even if my strength is exposed, what does it matter?"
At that thought—
Zhao Xuan's eyes gleamed.
Immediately—
He summoned the Big Golden Rat.
Then—
Guided by it, he rushed straight toward the third ability-user team on his blacklist.
About ten minutes later, Zhao Xuan found them.
At that moment—
They were in the middle of fighting a squad of Silver Guards.
Zhao Xuan made a decisive move and closed in immediately.
Just as he had predicted—
Although his strength had been exposed—
These people clearly had not yet heard about it from anyone else.
When they noticed Zhao Xuan—
When they saw him pale-faced, "panicked," fleeing toward them in apparent desperation—
They froze briefly, then broke into delighted expressions.
Immediately—
They sent out two of their faster members, flanking Zhao Xuan from left and right.
From spotting Zhao Xuan to dispatching attackers—
The entire process took less than a second.
Clearly—
They had learned from last time.
They didn't want to let this walking one-hundred-billion escape again.
In the blink of an eye—
The two had already reached Zhao Xuan.
Then—
BOOM!!!
Zhao Xuan erupted.
Several punches flew out in an instant.
Before the two could react—
They were smashed to death one after the other.
The entire process flowed like water.
One second?
No.
Not even half a second.
Far away, the remaining four were still fighting the Silver Guards—
And Zhao Xuan was already behind them.
He gave them no chance to react.
"BOOM!!!"
A fist smashed out.
Right in front of the other three—
He crushed one man's head completely.
Only then did the remaining three finally realize what was happening.
But by then—
It was already too late.
Far too late.
Their strength was not weak.
But unfortunately—
Zhao Xuan was stronger.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Under Zhao Xuan's storm-like assault, the last three fell one after another in less than a quarter of an hour.
After wiping out this team—
Zhao Xuan immediately moved on to the second-to-last team that had previously attacked him.
This was a seven-man squad.
When Zhao Xuan arrived—
They too were fighting a group of Silver Guards.
"As expected—speed really is everything."
"So what if my strength has been exposed?"
"As long as I'm faster than the news, it doesn't matter."
Thinking this—
Zhao Xuan was just about to repeat his usual tactic and move closer—
When suddenly—
"Jiji-jiji!"
The Big Golden Rat cried out urgently.
Zhao Xuan's expression changed instantly.
"What did you say?"
His eyes sharpened as he frowned.
"You're saying there's another group hiding nearby?"
"Jiji! (Yes!)"
The rat nodded emphatically.
A trap.
This was a trap.
The word flashed instantly through Zhao Xuan's mind.
Without even a moment's hesitation—
He turned around and left.
Elsewhere.
The seven fighting the Silver Guards.
One of them suddenly spoke:
"He left! That kid suddenly pulled back! He must've noticed the ambush!"
"Hmph. That brat's got pretty sharp instincts."
A burly man snorted regretfully, then said:
"In that case, no point acting anymore. Stop wasting time."
As his words fell—
All seven erupted at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
After a series of violent impacts, the Silver Guards—who had been fighting them evenly—were instantly reduced by more than half.
Just as Zhao Xuan had suspected—
This was a trap.
A trap set specifically for him.
Not long after—
Another hidden ability-user team moved in quickly.
"Where's Zhao Xuan?"
"He ran."
"Ran?"
"Yeah. Probably noticed you guys."
"What a pity. According to the intel we've gathered, that kid has repeatedly used his harmless-looking cultivation level to massacre people."
"If nothing unexpected happened, Hawkins' group probably died at his hands too."
"Their relic cores and life stones must've all fallen into that kid's possession."
"He's holding at least seven to eight hundred billion worth of resources."
The moment those words were spoken—
Everyone's eyes turned red.
Greed flooded every face.
"Damn… what a waste. He noticed us and escaped," a bespectacled man said regretfully.
"No. Not a waste. Not at all."
The captain of the newly arrived team spoke calmly.
"Don't forget—Life City only stays open for three days."
"After three days, the gates reopen—and close again after half an hour."
"Anyone who fails to leave before the gates close will be assimilated by the city and turned into a puppet."
"So—"
"We just wait for him at the city gates."
"In the words of Jiuzhou—waiting by the tree for the rabbit."
None of them noticed—
In a nearby alley—
A golden-furred Big Golden Rat was poking its head out, quietly eavesdropping on every word.
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