Chapter 48: There’s a Tiger to the North

It was already late at night. The difference in temperature between day and night in the rain shadow was huge. It was scorching hot during the day, while chilly winds blew at night.

Xiao Yu had a coat on, snuggling at Xia Fei legs while sleeping soundly. Even though Xia Fei was also exhausted, he needed to persevere. As long as he was still in danger, he could not drop his guard.

He took out a bottle of pills from his spatial ring and poured out two on his palm before washing it down with a gulp of mineral water. A few minutes later, Xia Fei’s eyes turned bright again, as if he were a wild beast searching for prey in the night, shining with his vigilant eyes.

This drug was called Edge, and people could maintain a high state of vigilance under its effects, not feeling tired at all.

Edge was originally a psychotropic drug used to cure narcolepsy. Even the pharmaceutical company that developed the drug had not thought that the effect of Edge would be so shocking. Not only could it curb narcolepsy, people who took it were also even able to go without sleep for three days.

As such, the unassuming pill became the essential drug for countless warriors, especially during the wars. Even the army of many countries would dispense those pills during combat.

It had been four days since the assessment started, but Xia Fei had not even closed his eyes once. He had been trying to rely on sheer perseverance alone to stay awake, and this was the first time he actually took the pill.

Perseverance was something that a warrior would always need. It was already a fairly impressive feat that Xia Fei could rely on his tenacity alone and stayed awake for 4 days.

Actually, Xia Fei could still persist and do another two days without sleep. However, once a human started feeling sleepy, the head would still get drowsy even while persisting to stay awake, thereby resulting in varying degrees of decline to their judgment and the tempo of their own body.

Xia Fei had no intention of taking the risk with a dulled judgment. After all, this assessment was out of the ordinary. Every detail was important, which meant he needed to maintain his concentration at peak performance the entire time.

All of a sudden, the detector in his pocket sent a series of vibrations. A prey had arrived!

Xia Fei lightly placed Xiao Yu on the ground and used the shortest path to arrive at the location. He activated his Breath Control and hid in the bushes as he patiently waited. Like a veteran hunter, he was not feeling flustered or in any rush, hardly letting his mood or emotions affecting him.

He lifted his head up to the sky, but the rain that he was hoping for never arrived. Instead, it was getting clearer, as several stars in the sky faintly twinkled.

A figure appeared in the east, slowly making his way into Xia Fei’s ambush. This person was walking slowly and unwaveringly, like a traveler, keeping the same pace from the very start.

Soon, this person walked into the heavily trapped area that Xia Fei had set up, and he had not discovered anything amiss.

Xia Fei quietly pressed the button on his controller as a large number of mechanical snakes came burrowing out from the vegetation!

These mechanical snakes were frantically slithering out as it rushed toward this person. These mechanical snakes looked just like real snakes, making it impossible for anyone to differentiate them from the real deal under the cover of the night.

At the same time, a swarm of mechanical bees began buzzing as they came rushing out! A steel needle was tied to every mechanical bee, and their sharp tips were tinged green, which was precisely the venom of the Chinese Copperhead snake!

The moment this passerby realized that something was off behind him, he immediately broke his stride and began running, disappearing without a trace in a blink of an eye, demonstrating a speed that was well over 1000m/s.

Xia Fei pursed his lips. This person was a Speed Ability User and had a high cultivation to boot, so all he could do was watch him disappear into the darkness.

Pressing the button again, all the mechanical snakes and bees returned to their post and waited for the next prey.

“This is the fourth today, right?” Phantom asked from behind Xia Fei. Xia Fei had already chanced upon 4 prey in the day that he had no way of catching up. They were all far too strong as Xia Fei couldn’t take on any of them.

“Yeah,” Xia Fei stood up from the vegetation, watching as that Speed Ability User disappeared into the dark night. He had a strong urge to smoke a cigarette, but he curbed it because any light source would reveal his position during the night out here in the rain shadow.

“That guy’s speed was really fast,” Xia Fei softly said. “I’m afraid he has already reached Star Domain rank already.”

“That’s right, Primary Star Domain rank. Had you made your move then, you’d most likely be the one to be at a disadvantage,” Phantom said. “All your little devices and tricks sure are useful; they can probe and find out just about special ability and rank of the opponent, so you wouldn’t find yourself in the unfavorable situation of not knowing your enemy, at the very least.”

These mechanical snakes and bees were actually quite comical. They were toys that extraterrestrial kids played with and were used for pranks and such. Xia Fei had found them to be amusing and bought some, never imagining that it would actually come in handy here in the assessment.

“Candidates who could obtain a token and escape within 4 days ought to be very powerful individuals. After all, obtaining a token out of thousands of people isn’t a simple task. There would be more and more people traveling out here in the next 3 days by my calculations. Furthermore, it is impossible to continuously fight for 4 days in the foothills without paying any price yourself. I’ll stay and wait till then for the golden opportunity to snatch the token.” Xia Fei said as he made his way back to Xiao Yu’s side.

Phantom nodded repeatedly. Xia Fei’s analysis was very logical. To be able to swiftly take off with the token from the foothills and then escaping an ambush that was 500 kilometers away. It would have been impossible if these candidates weren’t powerful themselves.

Similarly, the longer a candidate remained in the foothills, the more their physical strength would be exhausted, even to the point where they might end up bearing severe injuries. If anyone were to get injured and then travel 500 kilometers, only to end up stumbling into Xia Fei’s ambush, even a strong candidate would be half their peak form at most, and that was precisely the chance that Xia Fei was waiting for.

Without feeling sufficiently confident to make the kill, Xia Fei would most definitely not underestimate an opponent, as he would rather miss out on the chance than put himself in a dangerous situation.

“I intend to get Xiao Yu to coordinate with me tomorrow. Best to let her sleep tonight; a child’s development would be affected if they don’t get enough sleep,” Xia Fei said to himself.

…

Xiao Haili sat in his own office, glaring at the screen in front of him with much animosity. It had already been four days since the assessment started, yet Xia Fei was still alive and well. This fact made him feel awful in his heart. He had developed a deep hatred toward Xia Fei ever since he saw Xia Fei and Ye Xiaohan’s exciting performance that night.

He wished he could just kill him as soon as possible!

But he was well aware deep down that he couldn’t do such a thing. The Adjudicator Union’s assessment had strict monitoring systems in place, so he would only end up attracting endless trouble to himself if he were to do the deed by his own hands. More importantly, it would negatively affect his career progress in the Union.

Seeing Xia Fei still alive and kicking on the screen only made Xiao Haili develop more and more hatred toward him. He gritted his teeth and took out a wireless communicator and quickly dialed with his fingers.

This old-fashioned communicator transmitted through encrypted radio waves. The monitoring system within the assessment venue could monitor most communication equipment. However, they simply couldn’t do anything about the old-fashioned wireless communicators, and it was only natural for the chief examiner Xiao Haili to know about it.

The other end of the communicator was also someone that Xiao Haili hated very much, but this person was not as hateful in comparison to the detestable Xia Fei.

“There’s a Tiger to the North.”

There was plenty of information in those 6 words, as Xiao Haili had hesitated for a good while before finally deciding to send this message.

Standing up, Xiao Haili quietly made his way to the garbage disposal area in the ship, and since it was night, the workers in charge of sorting through the rubbish were all resting.

Opening the incinerator and tossing the communicator in, the 10,000 degrees heat quickly burnt the old-fashioned communicator until not even its ashes remained.

Seeing the fiery glow within the incinerator, Xiao Haili revealed a very vicious smile as he said to himself, “Ye Xiaohan is mine, and she can only be mine.”

…

In the foothills to the east.

Just as Xia Fei had expected, the entire battlefield was littered with blood and corpses of the candidates. In these four days, countless fights and battles had happened here, and as many as 20,000 dead candidates were lying around!

Without a doubt, as the deadline for the first round of this assessment drew near, the seemingly endless bloody storm of violence would continue. As the candidates who had not managed to get hold of the tokens yet continued to fight it out over the next 3 days!

A band of men was hiding in a narrow valley, numbering around seven to eight candidates, and each and everyone one of them was bearing scars from the fighting in varying degrees of severity.

There was a young man in his early twenties in this band, and he was wearing a set of expensive yet somewhat fancy combat suit. It was presently covered in dirt and mud, though he was the only one in the entire band without any injury. His face was slightly stained, evidently having gone through some agonizing hardship.

He and Xiao Haili were both from the Lombard Empire’s Xiao Shi familial clan, and if it came up, he still had to call Xiao Haili his elder cousin.

But the difference was that Xiao Haili was the most outstanding representative out of all the young men in their clan, while he was considered one of the many typical losers in the clan.

Xiao Yong was a name that people associated with a fierce general who was great at war, but Xiao Yong was far from a fierce general in any respect. In fact, he did not even have a bit of bravery in him, usually spending his days chasing girls and gambling away, and the only ability he had was tricking his doting mother out of her money.

He had an old-fashioned communicator that he had carefully pinned to his waist that was even fitted with a solid triple titanium alloy casing, afraid that it would receive even a bit of damage.

From the very start of the assessment, Xiao Yong had long been waiting for this communicator to buzz, but as time went by, Xiao Yong’s heart sank down to the bottom of the ocean.

All of a sudden, that old fashioned communicator vibrated. Xiao Yong was abruptly startled by this as he swiftly pulled out the communicator, cradling it by his ear like it was a precious gem.

“There’s a tiger to the north?” Xiao Yong muttered under his breath once as his face immediately lit up with ecstasy.