159: Chapter 159 The Malfunctioning Radar! The Vanished Hunter!

Poison Fang led his men, quickly weaving through the dense fog.

These fifteen individuals were all professional assassins who had undergone rigorous training; their feet stepped on the withered leaves without making even a single sound.

The Shadow Blade Alliance squad split into three paths—left, center, and right—forming a massive net as they lunged straight toward Lin Qi's coordinates.

Each person wore tactical goggles that combined thermal imaging with mana perception. As long as there was a living creature ahead, a red high-temperature outline would immediately appear in their field of vision.

On the periphery, over thirty independent professionals were also galloping from other directions of the forest, following the coordinates Lin Qi had sent.

Everyone was racing against time, vying for that 100,000-point kill.

When they were only five hundred meters away from the red dot's location, Poison Fang suddenly stopped and made a hand gesture.

The group immediately crouched low to the ground, using the ferns—which were taller than a person—to hide their figures.

"The target is just ahead. Slow down and activate all Stealth skills," Poison Fang ordered in a low voice.

In an instant, a ripple of transparency washed over the fifteen assassins, and their forms blended directly into the surrounding environment.

This was the exclusive skill of the Assassin class—[Stealth].

Poison Fang was cautious by nature; he lowered his head to re-confirm the tactical radar on his wrist. However, in the next second, his pupils suddenly constricted.

The red dot that had been flashing on the radar screen flickered strangely twice, and then—

It went out completely.

Gone.

All coordinates had vanished; the screen turned into a dead-silent green grid.

"What's going on? Is the signal cut?" Poison Fang slapped the side of the radar hard, but there was no response.

He immediately pressed his headset: "Team Two, Team Three, do you still have the target's coordinates? Is anything showing on your radars?"

A series of chaotic responses came through the headset:

"Boss, mine is gone too."

"Damn it, it was right on the 3D coordinate point just now, then it just vanished into thin air."

"Could the magnetic field in this forest be interfering with the positioning?"

Poison Fang gritted his teeth, feeling incredibly frustrated.

Was the duck already in the pot about to fly away?

"Turn the thermal imager sensitivity to the maximum!" Poison Fang said fiercely. "He's just one person; it's not like he can fly or burrow into the earth! He's in the area ahead—search every inch for me!"

The fifteen cloaked assassins moved forward like a comb, checking through the dense fog bit by bit.

At the very rear of the team, the assassin codenamed "Ghost Eye" was moving backward, responsible for guarding the rear.

He held a light hand-crossbow coated in potent poison, staring intently at the thermal imager.

The screen was a sheet of icy blue; there were no living creatures emitting body heat.

Ghost Eye felt a bit of a chill on the back of his neck; he reached out to touch it but felt nothing.

"This damn place, the ghostly wind is giving me goosebumps," he cursed inwardly.

But he didn't notice at all that right above his head, under a thick tree branch, a figure was clinging upside down.

Lin Qi was like a lifeless gecko, pressed tightly against the bark; if one didn't look closely, it was impossible to distinguish him.

[Turtle Breathing Technique].

Lin Qi had pushed this ancient martial arts auxiliary Mind-Cultivation Technique to its limit.

He had closed all the pores of his body, his heart rate dropped to only two beats per minute, and his blood flow speed dropped to the freezing point.

In this state, there were no mana fluctuations on his body, and his surface temperature perfectly assimilated with the surrounding cold air.

High-tech thermal imaging, mana radar—before this "returning to nature" ancient martial arts technique, they all became scrap metal.

The moment Ghost Eye passed directly under the branch while backing up, Lin Qi moved.

He released the tree trunk with both hands and his body fell straight down, not even stirring the sound of the wind. His toes touched the ground; he landed silently.

Ghost Eye noticed nothing, still scanning by turning his head left and right.

Lin Qi expressionlessly extended his right hand, pressed two fingers together, and struck like lightning at the vital point below the back of Ghost Eye's head.

He didn't use a single shred of True Qi, relying purely on the ultimate mastery of his Physical Body.

His fingertips carried a strange Spiral Force that instantly drilled through skin and flesh, reaching the medulla oblongata.

[Spiral Force].

This was a sinister hidden force specifically used to crush the central nervous System.

*Puff.*

A muffled sound, subtle as a bubble bursting, exploded inside Ghost Eye's skull.

His body instantly stiffened, his eyes bulged like copper bells, and he couldn't even let out a scream before his brain's control center was twisted into mush by this hidden force.

His body went limp and was about to collapse.

Lin Qi was quick; his left hand grabbed the other's collar, preventing the corpse from making a sound on the fallen leaves. He then lifted the hundred-pound corpse with one hand and silently hung it on a nearby branch.

The entire process was smooth and fluid, taking less than three seconds.

Killing without shedding a drop of blood.

In this Mist Forest with extremely low visibility, Lin Qi was no longer the Blank Slate player bound by the System's rules.

He was the sole hunter, the absolute Dominator.

After dealing with Ghost Eye, Lin Qi clapped his hands and looked at the "invisible people" ahead who were still bumping around; a cold sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

An assassin's [Stealth] could deceive the eyes, but it couldn't deceive his [Sound Localization] and [Clear Mind].

In his world of perception, the heartbeats and footsteps of those fourteen people ahead were as noisy as a wet market.

"Who should I choose as the next one?" Lin Qi took a step forward, his figure instantly vanishing into the white mist.

Walking at the very front, Poison Fang felt more and more that something was wrong.

The surroundings were too quiet; even the sound of insects had disappeared, leaving only the eerie green light emitted by the radar screen.

An inexplicable chill surged into his heart, and his instincts from years of living on the edge screamed a warning: a great terror was approaching!

Poison Fang stopped abruptly and pressed the tactical walkie-talkie on his shoulder.

"Everyone stop searching! Report in by number!"

Sparse responses came through the earpiece:

"Number One, received."

"Number Two, no abnormalities."

...

"Number Fourteen, safe."

Poison Fang waited for three seconds.

The person responsible for guarding the rear made no sound.

Dead silence.

Poison Fang's eyebrows knitted together tightly. He pressed the talk button hard and roared into the microphone:

"Number Fifteen! Ghost Eye! Answer if you hear me! Where are you?!"