The bald man pretended not to have heard Liu Jia’s words and didn’t make a move to turn around, but just like that, his eyes still turned black.

Xu Huo had already arrived at his right side, slashing down with his sword from a distance. As the sword energy barrier rushed forward, a semi-transparent large bell suddenly enveloped the other man’s entire body. The Crimson Sword failed to cleave through the bell, and the sword energy instead dissipated against its outer surface!

His expression changed slightly, and he quickly adjusted his posture to swing the sword horizontally.

The Crimson Sword could only cut through the first target object. Fighting with full freedom in this kind of forest was difficult. This sword slash was to attract the bald man’s attention.

Although the bald man couldn’t see, he still made a defensive posture to brace for impact the moment he heard the sound. At that moment, Yan Jiayu leaped in from behind, the muscles in her arm holding the Demon-Subduing Pestle bulging as she ferociously smashed it against the back of his head!

This blow didn’t directly hit the bald man, but the large bell emitted a deafening, buzzing sound. People even some distance away couldn’t help but cover their ears, let alone the bald man inside the bell. The effect of Liu Jia’s shouted words had worn off, but he was now dizzied and disoriented by the reverberations from his own item, even bleeding from his nose!

Yan Jiayu seized the opportunity to land another blow with the pestle. This time, the bald man couldn’t hold on any longer. Whether he actively deactivated the item’s effect or was forced to, he half-knelt on the ground.

Xu Huo didn’t show any mercy just because the man appeared seriously injured. Signaling for Yan Jiayu to step back, he swung his sword to slash at him!

The bald man was indeed not in as bad a shape as he appeared. The next second, he abruptly shot toward the left side, avoiding the slash while simultaneously reaching out to grab Yan Jiayu. A stream of colorful smoke sprayed from his palm!

Yan Jiayu instinctively held her breath, turned, and climbed a tree. With an unbelievable speed, she scaled several meters up the trunk before leaning back and leaping down from above. After flipping once in the air, her feet slammed viciously onto the top of the bald man’s head!

The bald man tried to grab her, but by then Xu Huo had already arrived. He seized the man’s arm and brutally wrenched it. Accompanied by the sound of cracking bone, the bald man groaned in pain and swung his other hand back to strike!

Xu Huo turned his hand and held the sword vertically beside his body. The moment the other man tried to withdraw his hand, Xu Huo kicked him away!

The bald man flew backward several meters before crashing into a thick tree and tumbling down. He opened his mouth and spat blood, then immediately took out a potion. However, before he could drink it, Yan Jiayu shattered it with a small stone.

Shen Xin and Hu Wenhu had already finished up over there. They dragged the tied-up player over, and Xu Huo’s group now had their hands completely free.

A flash of regret crossed the bald man’s face, and he immediately knelt on the ground, begging for mercy. “Don’t kill me! I have inside information! I have no grudge against you;
I was just hired to do a job!”

“Is that so?” Xu Huo manipulated the piano wire to fly behind the man. “Tell me, who hired you?”

“If I tell you, will you let me go?” the bald man asked hesitantly.

“You still dare to negotiate terms?” Yuan Yao, who had been hovering on the edges of the fight, finally dared to step forward.

Sima Xiao Er also angrily said, “If you die, just wait until we get back to the Special Defense Department and see how I deal with you!”

The bald man completely ignored the two of them, staring at Xu Huo. “As long as you give me a guarantee, I’ll tell you. You’re the one who can make the decision here.”

Xu Huo looked at him. “If you say it, you can die a little less painfully.”

Seeing that Xu Huo showed no intention of relenting, the bald man said, “If I’m going to die anyway, what good does it do me to say it? Maybe someone will avenge me later!”

“That’s one way to think about it.” Xu Huo raised his hand, crossing two fingers to control the piano wire as it slithered over. But the bald man was once again enveloped by the large bell. He laughed, “Ordinary items can’t break my Golden Bell. You can’t kill me!”

“Is that so?” Xu Huo swung his sword twice, cutting down a five-meter-long section of tree trunk. With one push and one kick, he sent it crashing toward the bald man.

The bald man’s expression changed drastically, instinctively trying to flee. But his escape route had long been blocked. His gaze swept over Yan Jiayu and the others, then settled on Zhou Ning’s direction. Unfortunately, the moment he took a step, Zhou Ning transformed into a giant serpent, opening a bloody maw to bite down at him!

The bald man immediately changed direction, but by then the large tree trunk had already slammed into him. Through the Golden Bell, it pinned him against a tree. With the violent impact, the dull roar emitted by the Golden Bell made his eyes roll back in his head!

“I’m guessing the effect of this item of yours can’t last very long. But even if it could last twenty-four hours non-stop, it wouldn’t matter. I can ring the bell for twenty-four hours. I wonder if you can listen that long.” As soon as Xu Huo finished speaking, he loosened and then tightened his grip, breaking the tree behind the bald man from five meters away.

“You… are truly ruthless!” Forget twenty-four hours, he hadn’t even lasted three minutes. The bald man’s Golden Bell item disappeared. Supporting himself against the tree, he knelt on the ground. “I’ll talk…”

“It was Hou Song, a Vanguard Player from the Flower City Special Defense Division branch.” He said, “He hired me to intercept and kill you. He also said that after the job was done, I would not only get one-third of your items, but also a large sum of money.”

“Using one-third of your items as payment isn’t just for your items, is it?” Zhou Ning looked at Xu Huo. “Do you know this Hou Song?”

Xu Huo quickly reviewed the information in his mind. “He’s Team Leader Liao’s driver. He was the one who drove me to the hospital.”

“That’s right, I’ve seen him,” Yuan Yao said.

Yan Jiayu also said, “Listening to what Team Leader Wu said, it seems like the news of your evolution was leaked by him.”

“So he’s a mole!” Sima Xiao Er spat. “That old guy Liao is always looking for an opening to exploit, never expecting someone would exploit an opening right next to him. I’ll call the team leader right now.”

Xu Huo gestured for him to wait, then asked the bald man again, “Where did you meet?”

The bald man’s eyes shifted slightly. Just as he was about to say something, he looked up and was startled by Xu Huo’s gaze. That utterly calm gaze seemed to transform into a tangible pressure, making the hairs on his back stand up and cold sweat pour down. The words he was about to say stumbled, and he involuntarily blurted out, “…It was Ting City! Not far from the First Research Institute!”

“Besides the items, did he tell you to bring my body?” Xu Huo asked again.

The bald man felt his scalp go numb under Xu Huo’s extremely intimidating stare and hurriedly said, “How did you know? That’s exactly what he said…”

Combined with the Flower City incident, the others understood perfectly well. The items were secondary. Hou Song’s main goal was the chance for a second evolution. To lower the difficulty, they only wanted to take away a dead Xu Huo.

“But why did he hire people like you?” Yuan Yao couldn’t help but ask. “You’re so weak.”

The bald man shot him a resentful glare. It wasn’t that they were too weak, but that Xu Huo’s items were too powerful. Right at the first encounter, he had killed half of his men. Otherwise, the outcome of a real fight between the two sides would have been hard to say!

No wonder so many people wanted him dead. Just these items alone were enough to make people envious.

His gaze uncontrollably lingered on the sword in Xu Huo’s hand, and then he heard him say, “Alright then. You take me to the handover, and I’ll give you a chance to live.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep