227: Chapter 228 Silent Harvest! Ghostly Killing Array! The Hunting Time of the White-Board Demon King

The soldier's eyes were still fixed on the dark corridor ahead.

His breathing was steady, well-trained, and he could maintain a normal heart rate under twenty times gravity.

But he didn't hear the sound behind him.

Because there was absolutely no sound.

Lin Qi's five fingers clamped onto the back of his head, his palm pressed against the scalp, feeling the curve of the skull underneath.

True Qi sank from his palm, condensing into a fine stream of Penetrating Force that passed through the skull and directly shattered what was inside.

The entire process took less than half a second.

The soldier's body stiffened, his eyes fixed, and his pupils dilated to the maximum. His mouth was open, his tongue pressed against his lower jaw, unable to utter a single syllable.

Then his entire body leaned forward, slumping softly against that fossilized rib, his head drooping as if he were asleep.

There wasn't even the sound of him hitting the ground.

Lin Qi withdrew his hand and flicked his fingers.

Clean.

Martial Intent Insight continued to spread, locking onto the locations of the four outer guard posts. The one he had just taken out was the outermost one, about eight hundred meters from the rift.

The second one was in the northeast direction, about six hundred meters away.

The third and fourth were close together, located one hundred and fifty meters on either side of the rift entrance.

Four men, four directions, all facing outward, staring in the direction of the bronze gate.

Not a single one would look back.

Because behind them was a solid bone wall and a dead end piled with skeletons.

Who could have imagined that someone would bypass the core rift in the thirty-times gravity zone and sneak up behind them?

No one could have imagined it.

Lin Qi's figure vanished into the darkness, not stirring a breath of wind.

Six hundred meters away.

The second soldier was leaning against a massive fossilized shoulder blade, gripping a short blade in his hand, his eyes fixed ahead.

His nerves were already highly strained. Too much time had passed since entering the Dragon Tomb, his physical stamina was severely depleted, and the twenty-times gravity was constantly pressing down, making his legs start to go weak.

His neck felt cold.

It wasn't the wind. Something had pressed against him.

He subconsciously wanted to turn around, and just as his mouth opened, a hand covered his entire face from behind.

Five fingers locked onto his upper and lower jaws like iron hoops, his teeth biting into the True Qi membrane on the palm, letting not a single sound leak out.

The other hand clamped onto the back of his neck.

Twist.

Snap.

A very faint, crisp sound, almost like snapping a dry twig.

The soldier's eyes rolled upward, and the short blade in his hand clattered to the ground. His body went limp, and Lin Qi held him by the back of his collar with one hand, slowly laying him down in the shadows at the base of the bone wall.

From a distance, he looked like a person dozing off against the base of the wall.

Two down.

Lin Qi straightened his back and flexed his wrists.

Martial Intent Insight swept around. The crowd inside the rift had no unusual movement, indicating that the commotion outside had not traveled in at all.

The two guard posts at one hundred and fifty meters were too close to the rift entrance.

He needed to be cleaner when taking action.

No need to get close.

Lin Qi crouched down and picked up two pieces of broken bone from the ground.

Pinching the end of the bone fragments with his fingertips, he infused them with True Qi, compressing them, and compressing them again.

The bone fragments trembled slightly between his fingers, a layer of almost invisible dark golden halo appearing on the surface.

One in his left hand, one in his right.

Aim.

The soldiers at the two guard posts: one was on the left side of the rift entrance, paring his fingernails with a short blade, his spirits clearly relaxed. The other was on the right, yawning against a bone pillar, his mouth wide open.

Lin Qi flicked his fingers.

Both bone fragments shot out simultaneously, without a sound of breaking air. The True Qi membrane wrapped around the surface of the bone fragments, absorbing all air resistance and sound waves.

The soldier on the left was struck in the temple first; the bone fragment drilled in half an inch, and the Penetrating Force exploded inside his cranial cavity. The short blade in his hand was still caught between his fingers as he tilted to the left, falling straight down and hitting the back of his head against the stone with a dull thud.

The one on the right was even faster. The bone fragment hit exactly where his mouth was open, passing through his oral cavity and breaking the second cervical vertebra.

His yawn stuck in his throat, unfinished, his head tilted back, frozen in that position.

All four outer guards cleared.

From start to finish, it didn't take more than three minutes.

Lin Qi stood up, brushed the bone dust from his palms, and walked toward the rift.

His pace was not fast. Every step was steady, the angle and force of his feet landing precisely controlled, the True Qi membrane insulating all sound.

He stopped at a position fifty meters outside the rift entrance.

Martial Intent Insight probed inside.

Scar-faced Leader was pacing back and forth in the rift, with about a dozen soldiers left under him. Xiao Kuangyun was half-dead, leaning against a bone pillar, and Han Qianchi was huddled in a corner.

A few people were already looking outside, their expressions not quite right.

The people who were supposed to change shifts hadn't returned.

Scar-faced Leader rubbed the hilt of his blade, turning his head to glance at the darkness outside the rift.

"Where are Old Three and Old Six? It's time for the shift change."

A soldier leaned in and replied in a hushed voice.

"They haven't returned. There's no signal from the communicators either."

Scar-faced Leader's brows knitted together, and he licked his dry lips.

"Two of you, go and see what's going on."

Two soldiers took the order and crept out of the rift, crouching low. They both gripped their weapons, their steps light, eyes scanning their surroundings.

They had just stepped less than ten meters out of the rift entrance.

Two dark lights flew out from the darkness, moving so fast that the naked eye couldn't keep up.

The first bone fragment hit the center of the left soldier's forehead. His head jolted back, his feet were still moving forward, but his body was already out of control, and he fell headlong to the ground.

The second one hit the right one's Adam's apple. The Penetrating Force pierced from the windpipe to the spine; he didn't even manage a groan, his knees went weak, he knelt down, and then sprawled face-first on the ground.

Two corpses lay outside the rift entrance, blood seeping out from their foreheads and necks, staining the broken bones on the ground black.

It was quiet inside the rift for three seconds.

Then Scar-faced Leader's voice rang out, his throat strained and out of tune.

"Go out and look! Go look quickly!"

He sent two more.

This time they walked five more steps.

The result was the same.

One was pierced in the temple by a pebble shot from the shadows. The other was just about to crouch down to check his companion's corpse when he was suddenly struck on the back of the head, and with a muffled grunt, he fell into the pile of corpses.

There began to be a commotion inside the rift.

Some were panting heavily. Some were cursing in low voices. Some were crying.

Scar-faced Leader finally moved with the remaining people toward the rift entrance, bracing himself to peek outside.

A dozen corpses, one here and one there, lay scattered in disarray, paving the way from the rift entrance outward.

Some were lying face down. Some were face up. Some were leaning against the bone wall, staring with dead fish eyes.

They were all his men.

All dead.

They died without making a sound.

Xiao Kuangyun squeezed over from the depths of the rift, and seeing this scene at the entrance, his legs went weak on the spot, his back sliding down against the bone wall as he plopped onto the ground.

That devil.

Had returned.

Scar-faced Leader's voice was unnaturally shrill, the words he roared trembling.

"He is outside! He is right outside!"