Chapter 1467 Entrant Ticket
This person blocking Xia Fan’s path was a man who looked to be under thirty. He had a sly appearance, with very white skin. His eyes were narrow and curved, while the corners of his lips were upturned.
Xia Fan stayed silent and remained expressionless, one of the essentials of impersonating a Desert River man. Xia Fan was not only paying close attention to the expression on his face, but was even more careful with what he said. If there was no need, he would not even open his mouth.
This sly man gazed in the direction the special ability users from the Sacred Federation had run off to and then turned around to size up Xia Fan. He then silently opened his coat to reveal a badge with the insignia of Murder Shrine.
He moved very naturally, all in one swift motion. It was as if the man did not have a hint of worry in his heart.
!!
Murder Shrine had been designated as the key criminal organization wanted by all three Federations. There was no way anyone from the Inner Territories could ever have imagined that one of their members would reveal their identity as boldly in the Outer Frontier as this.
Xia Fan still did not smile, though he was actually rather shocked deep down in his heart.
Murder Shrine was truly everywhere. Perhaps they had clearly seen everything he had done just now, though he had no idea just what this person from Murder Shrine wanted to do by blocking his path.
The sly man examined Xia Fan and suddenly burst into laughter, asking Xia Fan directly, “You’re a nephew from Old Yu’s family? From Deserted River?”
Xia Fan did not reply, but nodded slightly.
The sly man shrugged, “Sure enough, only someone from Deserted River could harbor such ruthlessness, daring to kill even someone from the Sacred Federation. However, I’ve never heard that Old Yu had such a fearsome nephew in his family. Could Old Yu have been hiding you all along?”
Xia Fan thought to himself, ‘Would this question be considered a background check?’
But before Xia Fan could even answer, someone from the Eight Burly King Kongs who went by the name of Yu Teng growled gruffly, “My cousin just arrived in Hidden Mountain Outpost yesterday.”
“Forget it. It is not like I don’t know Old Yu’s grift. Cousin? There’s probably just a handful of you that really have a surname of Yu, right? To put it bluntly, you’re all just dogs that bite people at Old Yu’s behest.
“But, I don’t care if you’re dogs that Old Yu reared. I just think that this person is rather impressive, so I wanted to ask him if he is interested in joining the special ability Tyrant Battle that we are organizing.
“Though this person doesn’t appear to have received much decent training, demonstrating recklessness in his actions and lacking skills, he is ultimately a speedster, and seeing his performance just now, must have reached a speed over 500 m/s. That makes him more than qualified to join our special ability Tyrant Battle!
“So how about it? Would you like to consider this offer?If you don’t understand what the special ability Tyrant Battle is, you can just ask Old Yu. That old creature is sure to know all about it.”
The sly man did not even finish speaking when he squinted his eyes weirdly, because he saw that Xia Fan had reached a hand out.
It had to be said that the amazing skin that the Faceless Clan had created was really scary. Xia Fan’s hand was not only tanned, but he also had obvious scars and cracks visible, his weather-battered skin looking very much like part of someone who had desperately clawed his way out from Gell.
His thickly scarred hand looked very real, and there was no flaw to his disguise.
The sly man frowned and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Money,” Xia Fan said hoarsely. “Just give me money, and I’ll kill anyone.”
That sly man was mildly surprised, but he soon burst into laughter, like he had just heard an extremely funny joke.
“Oh wow, that’s hilarious! You truly are a b*st*rd of Deserted River. Do you really think the special ability Tyrant Battle will need you to kill people? Is your head just filled with glue?
“Forget it. Since you’re just a buffoon from Deserted River, you won’t even understand a thing if I explained it to you. You just want money, right? Here, take it!”
With that, that sly man handed Xia Fan a Grade Three energy crystal, as well as an alloy pendant with the mark of Murder Shrine, resembling a button.
“Look here, this thing is the proof of your participation in the special ability Tyrant Battle. Whatever you do, do not lose it. I’ll still need to go pick out some other warriors in Hidden Mountain Outpost during this time, but when the time comes, you’ll be joining me. My name is Griffin, got it?”
That sly man acted like he was giving instructions to an idiot, sparing no details and speaking as plainly as possible.
Xia Fan had not imagined that he would so easily obtain a ticket to participate in the special ability Tyrant Battle. Perhaps that incident just now was enough for the people from Murder Shrine to confirm that Xia Fan really was a person from Deserted River. After all, if he had been an undercover agent from the three Federations, there was no way Xia Fan would have just killed an investigator from the Sacred Federation. That act alone had pretty much eliminated any suspicions they had about him.
After Griffin finished relaying his instructions to Xia Fan, he made to leave. The strangest thing was that he did not seem to be very bothered by the appearance of Sacred Federation investigators in Hidden Mountain Outpost.
Xia Fan grabbed Griffin once more.
“You’re so annoying, what is it this time?” Griffin demanded, irritated with him.
Xia Fan waved that button with Murder Shrine’s insignia and then held up two fingers, indicating he needed two of them.
Griffin was nonplussed, so he asked why he needed two, at which time Xia Fan pointed to Traveling Buddha behind him. “He’s my younger brother.”
…..
…
In the end, Griffin gave two pendants to Xia Fan. Xia Fan and Old Yu’s nephews then returned to the trading firm. The way back happened to be the same path those Sacred Federation investigators had taken when fleeing.
Turning the corner, Xia Fan saw bodies. They were the corpses of the people from the Sacred Federation.
There was Xiao Wu, whose neck Xia Fan had already broken, laying down on the ground. Beside him were his comrades, each lying in pools of their own blood, a triangular dagger stab wound clearly visibly where their hearts should be.
There were only six bodies; the only one who had escaped was the strange woman with the knife stuck in her hair.
Xia Fan instantly understood why Griffin from Murder Shrine was not in the least bit worried, despite having uncovered Sacred Federation investigators here in Hidden Mountain Outpost.
It turned out that while Griffin was talking with Xia Fan, there were already people from Murder Shrine hunting down these unlucky youngsters.
Xia Fan could feel a vague sense of fear run down his spine. The influence that Murder Shrine possessed here in the Outer Frontier might be greater than what he had imagined. To be able to assassinate investigators from the Sacred Federation in broad daylight like this so easily, one could just imagine what might happen if their true identity as Traveling Buddha and Xia Fan were to be exposed!
*Thud*
Xia Fan expressionlessly kicked the corpse that was blocking his path to the roadside, and then continued on his way to Old Yu’s store, all the while a feeling of unease rising in his heart.
…
…
If Xia Fan needed to find out if he was being monitored, it was a very simple matter. All he needed to do was use his scent special ability and all the smells within five hundred meters around him would be registered in his nose clearly and unmistakably.
Scent was not a powerful combat special ability, but it was extremely formidable. Even installing a silent listening device in Xia Fan’s room would leave a unique scent, something that would not escape Xia Fan’s notice.
After ensuring that their surroundings were clear, Xia Fan told Traveling Buddha about his concerns.
“It’s too easy?” Traveling Buddha furrowed his brow after hearing what Xia Fan told him.
Xia Fan nodded, “That’s right. That Griffin person gave the two of us our entrant tickets, almost as if he did not care for them. Because of that, I still have some misgivings over it, which is why I plan to be very careful when the preliminaries begin.”
Traveling Buddha replied, “I’ll defer to you. In any case, I’m really just tagging along with you this time, so if you feel that there’s anything amiss, then we’ll go take a look together.”
——
Several days passed, and Yu Jiang finally came back from the hospital. Because Old Yu had been warned by Xia Fan, he took good care of the man, specifically assigning two of his nephews to accompany Yu Jiang to help serve him.
At the same time, the preliminaries for the special ability Tyrant Battle started, and though it was a secret, it was an open secret in the city.
Xia Fan headed to Old Yu’s trading firm every day and heard the customers gossiping. They were frequently discussing matters concerning the special ability Tyrant Battle, talking about the attractive rewards, as well as who from what family had participated in the preliminaries and been chosen.
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha went to the venue and saw that it was a martial hall in Hidden Mountain Outpost. Although there was no signs indicating that the selections were being held there, the locals were all aware of it, and there were plenty who had gathered to watch.
Because Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha had already received their entrant tickets, they very easily gained access into the martial hall, and once more saw the sly man who went by the name of Griffin.
Griffin was clearly attending with several other members from Murder Shrine, all of them seated under the ring. Whenever they nodded, the people managing the martial hall would send a certification for entry to the warrior who attended the tryouts.
When Griffin saw Xia Fan, he gave a slight nod to him, and then he turned his head to speak to a barrel-chested man next to him. The stout man glanced at Xia Fan from afar, but did not initiate a conversation with him.
Xia Fan pretended that he was there to join in the festivities, staying in the martial hall for about an hour before he got up and left.
When they left, even the usually careless Traveling Buddha also felt that something was amiss.
Traveling Buddha whispered into Xia Fan’s ear, “We’ve watched for just a short while, yet there’s already more than ten people that were chosen. That’s far too unbelievable. Murder Shrine seemed to be taking all kinds of people, even those with the slightest special ability were being chosen! They claim they are going to pick the special ability Tyrant King across the eight large star regions that Outer Frontier is composed of, so why would they want to select so many warriors who have such minor special abilities and bring them to the actual venue?”
Xia Fan frowned. He had been alarmed by the same fact. He simply could not figure out right now why Murder Shrine was being so liberal with their picks?
Considering the standards of Murder Shrine, they should not be taking in just anyone; ever since they had become active in the Outer Frontier, they had not once recruited too many members locally. The good majority of their people were still from the three Federations.
Perhaps it was for the sake of secrecy, or maybe it was because they looked down upon the combat strength of the Outer Frontier people. In any case, Murder Shrine had always developed very cautiously in the Outer Frontier, never once recruiting members with such huge fanfare.
Something must be afoot if things had gone awry. Xia Fan decided that he should inform Nie Yan of this matter as soon as possible.
