The Nether Bell
Xia Fei turned to Fangyuan's side and spoke in a voice that only he could hear, "It's stupid for a warrior to show his trump card too early. It's also fatal."
Xia Fei gently pushed Fangyuan's back with his finger as soon as he finished his sentence, and the plump man fell to the ground. He bounced twice on the ring, no longer showing any signs of life. A huge amount of blood gushed out of his wound, staining the clean floor red.
Since Xia Fei was too fast, most of the spectators did not even see how Xia Fei killed Fangyuan. All they knew was that Fangyuan had fallen to the ground with blood gushing out of his body.
The entire sparring ground was dead silent. Xia Fei walked off the ring as if nothing had happened and left.
It took a few seconds for the smarter disciples to react. They shouted Xia Fei's name, almost tearing up from the excitement. After Smokeshadow and Merryshadow's defeat, the disciples of the Assassin Sect were in desperate need of a victory to boost their morale, and Xia Fei did just that.
It was just that Xia Fei's technique was too clean and neat. He did not engage in an intense fight like they had imagined, nor did he stand in the ring and cheer like a hero. It was as if he was just doing what he was supposed to do.
From provoking the other party's nerves at the start, to calmly and steadily dealing with the situation on the battlefield, to finding an opportunity to deal a fatal blow, everything had been so calm and unhurried. Xia Fei quietly walked up and down the ring as if he was just a passerby in a hurry, nothing more than another corpse on the path he had taken.
The entire sparring ground was in an uproar. Some of the younger disciples even hugged each other tightly. Even though they had been chattering about who was more skilled in martial arts the day before, at this moment, they were all excited for the victory of their sect. As for everything in the past, they had long since forgotten about it.
Craneshadow stood up excitedly. His childish face was flushed with excitement. He was excited for Xia Fei's victory, and he was even more impressed by his senior, Shadowless's choice. He was able to use an outsider who had nothing to do with the Assassin Sect at the most crucial moment. It was a desperate choice, and it turned out that Shadowless's foresight was right; he was much smarter than he was.
On the other hand, Tongtian's expression was a lot worse than Craneshadow's. Fangyuan's death was secondary; what was more important was that he had bet the fate of the entire Sky Eradicators Sect on this. Now that the Assassin Sect had a point in their hands, even if he defeated Craneshadow, it would only end in a draw. If he were to lose, the fate of being homeless would befall him. How was he supposed to explain it to the tens of thousands of disciples in his sect then?
In the blink of an eye, Xia Fei had already left the sparring grounds. He ignored the wild cheers behind him and went to the woods to light a cigarette. He leaned the Bloodthirsty Screech against a tree trunk before sitting on a patch of green grass, leisurely smoking Hongtashan as he gazed at the huge sun in the sky.
"Well done!" Phantom said excitedly. After all, he had a lot of feelings for the Assassin Sect, so he was naturally very happy that Xia Fei had won.
Xia Fei looked at Phantom and smiled strangely. "I suddenly thought of something."
"What is it?"
"Since I've been taken in as Shadowless's disciple, how should you address me?"
Phantom was speechless. His face immediately turned green.
…
As a matter of fact, the second duel between Craneshadow and Tongtian had yet to take place. Craneshadow might be smart, but he was not as domineering as Shadowless. He always had some mercy in his heart and did not have the intention to kill his opponent.
As the saying went, leave a way out for the future. It was not wrong for Craneshadow to have such a thought, but he was wrong in letting his enemy go. Showing mercy to one's enemy was equivalent to being cruel to oneself. Xia Fei and Craneshadow both understood this logic, but the difference was that Xia Fei would kill all his enemies, while Craneshadow was unrealistically hoping to turn enemies into friends.
An enemy for a day meant an enemy for a lifetime. Humans had always been jealous and sinister animals. Treating humans like animals would only bring more trouble to oneself. Reality had long proven that humans were not as trustworthy as animals.
Tongtian, of course, agreed to Craneshadow's suggestion. He was eager to leave as soon as possible. Losing face was not a big deal; the most important thing was to protect the sect. He said a lot of nice things to Craneshadow and promised that they would bury the hatchet and get along well in the future.
Craneshadow might not believe it, but he had already made up his mind not to become enemies with the Sky Eradicator Sect. Therefore, he let Tongtian and his people go easily, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction among the disciples.
The next morning, Xia Fei packed his luggage and had breakfast with Manatee. He was going to say goodbye to Craneshadow and Shadowless and return as soon as possible. After all, there were still many things waiting for him.
It was not a good thing to always disappear out of habit. He wondered how things were going in the company and if Avril was crying because of him.
Manatee was very impressed by Xia Fei's performance the day before. Xia Fei took the opportunity to motivate him, hoping that he would not give up on his pursuit. Since he loved martial arts, he should persevere until the end. No matter what difficulties he encountered, it was just a test for him. People who gave up easily would never achieve great things.
After breakfast, Xia Fei went up the mountain path to the thirteenth floor of Nameless Mountain. He was already Shadowless's disciple. According to seniority, even Phantoms master, Moonshadow, had to call him master, so the rule that disciples were not allowed to enter the thirteenth floor did not apply to him.
Phantoms could not complain about Xia Fei's seniority. Although he and Xia Fei were not master and disciple, he was technically Xia Fei's first teacher. Now that he, the teacher, had become his student's junior, Phantoms was very angry. What was even more infuriating was that Xia Fei often teased him about it.
Craneshadow already knew that Xia Fei was leaving. As soon as Xia Fei set foot on the thirteenth floor, Craneshadow appeared right in front of him and brought Xia Fei to Shadowless's residence.
After passing through an arched door, Xia Fei saw Shadowless struggling to clean the courtyard. Xia Fei quickly went forward and wanted to take Shadowless's place, but Shadowless did not agree. He claimed that cleaning the courtyard was his job, and he did not need someone else to do it for him. Therefore, Xia Fei had no choice but to step aside quietly.
There was a huge cedar tree in the yard, and under it was a square table carved out of stone and four stone chairs. Shadowless waved his hand and gestured for Xia Fei and Craneshadow to take a seat. He then brewed a pot of tea for both of them.
The snow on the mountain was heavy. Fortunately, there was no wind, so people did not feel cold. It was quite elegant to be able to enjoy tea in the snow.
"Master, if there's nothing else, I'm planning to leave today. I'll come back to see you after I'm done with my business," said Xia Fei respectfully.
Xia Fei did not have any ill intentions toward Shadowless. No matter what, the two of them were master and disciple. Besides, the old man seemed easy to get along with, looking harmless and harmless.
Shadowless nodded and said honestly, "I don't know when we'll meet again. You've done a great deed for the sect, and you're my new disciple. You should show me something. Feel free to tell me if you need anything."
Craneshadow suddenly felt an inexplicable sadness. Only he and Shadowless knew that he was going to die. Xia Fei was afraid that he would only see Shadowless' memorial tablet when he came back. Craneshadow could not help but feel emotional when he thought of his old brothers leaving one after another.
Although Xia Fei said that he was too embarrassed to ask Shadowless for anything, he quickly changed the topic and mentioned the nether bell. Xia Fei clearly remembered how Darkshadow used the nether bell to summon a team of Deathguards. He was currently at a crucial stage of developing a super radar. A small communication system that could overcome environmental disturbances would be very helpful to him. It would be great if he could get his hands on one as a sample, as it would be crucial for the development of the super radar.
However, Xia Fei was not going to tell Shadowless about it. It was Phantoms who told him about the nether bell. He would not be able to answer Shadowless if Shadowless asked him how he knew about the nether bell.
Therefore, Xia Fei cleverly took a roundabout approach and slowly moved the topic toward the nether bell.
Shadowless nodded and said softly, "The thing you're talking about is called the nether bell. It's a tool used to send messages between fellow disciples." Shadowless rolled up his sleeve and revealed a small bell on his left arm. "Every disciple has this thing. You're my disciple now, so it's not a big deal to give you one. If you really need it in the future, you can use it to secretly contact your fellow disciples nearby. No detection system will be able to detect your signal."
Shadowless turned to Craneshadow after that. Craneshadow knew that Shadowless was asking for his opinion as the sect master. After the incident yesterday, Craneshadow was extremely impressed by Shadowless, so he agreed to give Xia Fei a complete set of nether bell without any hesitation so that he could use it in the future.
Xia Fei was overjoyed. He casually asked about the origin of the nether bell. According to Shadowless, this special communication device was found in an extraterrestrial ruin. There were more than three hundred of them, and they had been in use since the Assassin Sect was founded. None of them had been damaged, which was enough to show how well-made they were.
However, there was only one of them. Once a set was lost, there would be one less, and there was no way to replace it. The disciples had to return the bells after they died so that the disciples could continue using them.
Xia Fei came to a realization. It turned out that the bells were not a product of the Pan-Human Alliance. No wonder they were so good.
A few moments later, a pair of strange-looking bells appeared in Xia Fei's hands. The nether bell was just a name, but it was actually a communication device that looked very much like bells. One was black, and the other was silver.
The black one was called the mother bell. It could transmit a signal to all the silver bells around it at any time, which was equivalent to a full-channel broadcast. The silver bell could only communicate one-to-one, unable to transmit a message to everyone at the same time.
As for the range of communication, it was not certain. It depended on the strength of the interference in the surroundings. After many years of testing by the Assassin Sect, no matter how strong the interference was, the nether bell could still send a signal over a million kilometers away. If the interference was not too strong, the communication distance could reach several lightyears.
A pair of small bell-shaped communicators could actually complete communication over a distance of several light years, and it did not need to be attached to any network. This level of technology was simply incredible. Although it still could not compare to the super radar system of the Titan battleship, it was much more powerful than the communicators used in the Alliance today.
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