Volume Two: The Thousand-Faced Youth, Where Falsehood Seems Truth. Chapter 109: Closing the Net

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

"How is it? Have you spotted him?" Dai Hua'an communicated with one of his subordinates.

"Yes, he has been spotted. He is currently beneath our tower, and it appears he has already aimed his weapon at the guards inside."

"Good. Keep watching him and wait for the right moment to strike."

"Understood."

Dai Hua'an closed the private channel and turned his attention back to the map, continuing to direct the flow of battle. With Huo Ye, the Red team’s primary assault force, removed from the equation, they had begun to fall back, and the Blue team’s encirclement was nearing completion. However, the warrior had now turned into an assassin, a threat that could not be ignored. Fortunately, his own hiding spot was extremely secure; the opponent would never guess where he was.

Although Huo Ye had caught a glimpse of the subtle mechanics of skin-based breathing, most of his focus remained on the movements of the guards within the tower. These men were meticulous; while they did not stand as rigid as statues, they were vigilant, observing in all directions. Their surveillance net was virtually seamless, leaving him no opening. Moreover... it felt as though someone was watching him.

Huo Ye’s intuition was razor-sharp; it seemed to be an innate gift. Whenever he was subjected to a malicious gaze, the pores on his skin would tighten, and goosebumps would rise where he felt watched. This miraculous alarm mechanism had saved his life countless times. Back when he faced Karen and the insect tide, he had sensed the danger, though the enemies had been so overwhelming and easily tracked by sound that this specific ability hadn't been the deciding factor. But this time was different.

Huo Ye clearly felt someone aiming at his head and heart—vitals that were not truly fatal to him, but while wearing the mask of the Night Rain Raven, it was better not to expose his regenerative abilities.

From the channel, Huo Ye could hear that the Red team’s situation was becoming increasingly dire. He could delay no longer. Ahead lay an impenetrable wall of defense, and behind him lurked an unknown threat. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.

This was no time to wait. Should he take a more aggressive approach?

Huo Ye sighed with melancholy, then a sudden spark of inspiration struck. A light smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, a look of absolute confidence returning to his face.

Inside the tower, the Blue team’s guards suddenly felt a violent tremor beneath their feet. The surrounding stone walls seemed to be under attack from all sides; clouds of dust billowed from the mortar joints, and cracks began to spiderweb across the floor and walls, accompanied by the dull, grinding sound of shattering masonry. It was as if something were tearing the tower’s structure apart from within.

"What’s happening?"

"Something is destroying the tower! It's an enemy attack!"

"Who cares who it is? Get out! Don't wait until the tower collapses and buries us alive!" As soon as the words left his mouth, the others, realizing the gravity of the situation, scrambled to leap out through the windows.

Once they landed, they saw a figure standing proudly, wearing a black mask with carved gold wings. He held a dozen taut, thin ropes in his hands. The other ends of these ropes had completely burrowed into the walls of the tower. Judging by the movement of the cords, they were still actively piercing and pulverizing the structure from within. This guy was actually planning to destroy the entire tower.

Huo Ye looked at the group and chuckled. "Heh, you lot are quite clever, but expecting you to stay inside like wooden dolls waiting to be buried alive was a bit idealistic. Regardless, it’s all the same. To prevent you from reinforcing the front lines, I have to take you all out. Don't rush to attack yet, wait until I..."

Before Huo Ye could finish his sentence, the entire tower shattered, transforming into a spray of bricks and stone that pelted the group. The Blue team’s experts, seeing the onslaught, scattered in a panic, covering their heads as they fled. Huo Ye, however, stood perfectly still. The stones that threatened to crush him were either shattered or swatted away in mid-air by his Dragon-Nailing Cords, not a single one touching him.

He then finished his thought: "...make it so your flag has nowhere to stand."

A single Dragon-Nailing Cord nimbly snatched the flag from the falling rubble of the tower's top and delivered it into Huo Ye’s hand, obedient as a pet.

Huo Ye tucked the Blue team’s flag away and addressed the fleeing guards: "Everyone, I recall saying just a moment ago that I couldn't have you going to the front lines to stir up trouble."

*The Coiling Dragon.*

The technique Huo Ye had previously used to control over twenty people reappeared, but this time, he deployed far more than two cords. Ropes filled the sky, flooding toward the fleeing group. Arms, legs, torsos—no one escaped his psychic arts. They could not break free; the cords themselves were incredibly tough, and with the reinforcement of Huo Ye’s psychic power, their attempts to escape were pure fantasy. As for using the combined strength of twenty people to overpower the Night Rain Raven, it was a valid strategy in theory, but what was truly outrageous was just how immense his strength was!

"It is absolutely astonishing! The Night Rain Raven is restraining the pulling force of over twenty people and hasn't budged an inch! Look, everyone—his feet seem to be rooted into the earth, and the ground around him is cracked, which means the force he is exerting is beyond imagination. We saw a hint of this when he spun those twenty people around like a top earlier. It seems he possesses an individual psychic ability; otherwise, it is impossible to fathom how a single person could reach such a level of strength!"

Shen Jiewen began to stir the excitement, trying to build the atmosphere of the commentary to a fever pitch. One versus twenty—the Night Rain Raven’s actions were so insane they defied description. One had to remember that while suppressing his true power, Huo Ye was only at Rank A, and the people Dai Hua'an had chosen to guard the flag were certainly not weak. While not all of them were Rank A, at least half were, and the rest were elite Rank B students. Bancroft was, after all, the gathering place for the top students from over a dozen colonies; had they not been lacking in battlefield experience, they could have formed a formidable Disaster Hunting Squad.

But for Huo Ye, these children, despite their strength, were still too green. The real battlefield...

Huo Ye was like a puppeteer, and the others were his marionettes. Some tried to attack him with long-range psychic arts, but Huo Ye merely flicked his fingers, causing them to lose their balance and crash to the ground. But Huo Ye’s actions went beyond mere suppression. These people had to be eliminated.

In the distance, a sniper lay prone, attempting to lock his crosshairs on Huo Ye’s vitals. But for some reason, every time he prepared to fire, the opponent shifted his posture, rendering the effort useless. Had he been spotted? That couldn't be right. Even if he were spotted, how could he possibly know where the sniper was aiming? Was he really that absurd?

The next moment, a cold short sword was placed gently against his neck. The bone-chilling cold felt like an ancient glacier, freezing his blood—it was the *Ice-Blade Morning Dew*.

"Try moving against him and see what happens!" Shangguan Yudie’s expression was dark. As she spoke, the *Ice-Blade Morning Dew* sliced through his throat. The sniper dissolved into data and vanished. No one noticed what had happened there, for everything had been silent and swift. She vanished back into the shadows; the battle over there would likely still need her help. One versus twenty—even for Brother Xiao Ye, it would be taxing.

Under normal circumstances, Huo Ye would indeed have found it difficult, but he had successfully utilized the chaos caused by the tower’s collapse to restrain them. Now, they were merely lambs for the slaughter.

*I am the knife and the cutting board, they are the fish and the meat.*

By the time Shangguan Yudie arrived, the battlefield had been cleared. Huo Ye was walking toward the front line, fiddling with the flag that now had no home, humming a faint, indiscernible tune, looking quite pleased with himself.

Seeing Huo Ye like this, Shangguan Yudie couldn't help but smile. Perhaps only at moments like these could Brother Xiao Ye briefly relax and reveal the childlike heart that he had never allowed to fade.