Chapter 150: I Will Send You to Be Reunited

In the dim corridor, Dalian had long since scampered away, vanishing through several twists and turns without a trace.

Ye Fei’s nose twitched; then he squatted down, reached out to touch the floor, and picked up a bit of viscous, bloody residue on his fingertips. He confirmed that this was blood dripping from the wound on Dalian’s shoulder as he fled.

……

"Hah, hah, hugh, hugh. The Grim Reaper, Ye Fei, truly lives up to his legendary reputation. Although he has regressed, when Xiaoxue and I joined forces, we were still no match for him. Xiaoxue, I'm sorry." Dalian had temporarily found a place to hide. Panting heavily, he thought to himself. When he recalled Xiaoxue’s death, not a shred of guilt stirred in his heart.

"No, I'm not safe yet. I must leave this prison as soon as possible, or Ye Fei will track me down sooner or later. But the most urgent task right now is to tend to the wound on my shoulder and stop the bleeding first; otherwise, Ye Fei will soon follow these bloodstains and find me," Dalian muttered. He turned his head and looked around, noticing that the bathhouse was not far away. He decided to go inside first to wash off the blood and eliminate the scent of iron.

‘Splash, splash, splash……’

The sound of flowing water echoed as Dalian washed the blood from his shoulder in the bathhouse, entirely alone. In the dim bathhouse, a single figure stood by the water basin amidst the running water, accompanied by a faint scent of blood. The scene possessed a chilling and eerie atmosphere.

Dalian washed the blood clean from his shoulder and prepared to apply a simple bandage.

Suddenly, a sensation of danger washed over him. Dalian grabbed his poisonous dagger from nearby, spun around swiftly, and shouted toward a corner, "Who's there—?"

"I guessed long ago that you would come to the bathhouse. I've been waiting here for a while since you stepped inside," Ye Fei said indifferently, stepping out from the shadows.

"Ye Fei!" Dalian’s voice trembled slightly, though he himself did not notice it.

"Xiaoxue is already dead. You two assassins have always operated as a pair; I'm here to send you to reunite with Xiaoxue," Ye Fei said.

These words fell upon Dalian’s heart like a thunderbolt. It wasn't Xiaoxue's life or death that he cared about; what horrified him was that Ye Fei meant to take his life.

"I'll fight you to the death!" Dalian roared. Disregarding the wound on his left shoulder, he lunged at Ye Fei with his right hand gripping the dagger, radiating an indomitable momentum of pressing forward without retreat.

Ye Fei sneered, brandishing the divine weapon in his hand to meet the charge. He beat Dalian back and taunted, "Are you trying to use this chance to make a dash for the door and escape?"

Dalian’s heart gradually sank. Indeed, he had intended to make a dash for the exit just moments ago. That seemingly unstoppable momentum was merely a ruse to disorient Ye Fei. As long as Ye Fei was unwilling to fight to the death and chose to temporarily yield by clearing the exit behind him, Dalian could seize the opportunity to bolt from the bathhouse.

Regrettably, Ye Fei stood guard before the door like an iron statue, unmoving, completely denying Dalian any chance to dash for freedom.

With his intentions seen through and his final route of retreat blocked by Ye Fei, Dalian was truly driven to desperation this time.

‘Clang!’

The two daggers crossed, and the poisonous dagger suffered damage.

‘Clang!’

Dalian had no other choice; he could only endure bitterly, striving to buy another second of life.

"Ye Fei, listen to me. There is no personal grudge between us. This time, someone else ordered me to kill you. As long as you spare me, I will go back and kill the employer for you, and I guarantee I will never leak the secret of your seclusion in the deep sea. Furthermore, I will stay three hundred paces away whenever I encounter you in the future," Dalian pleaded.

Ye Fei sneered, "The assassin duo shared an immensely deep bond. Now that Xiaoxue has died by my hand, how could I possibly spare a hidden hazard like you? Wouldn't letting you go be akin to nursing a tiger, leaving you to exact revenge for Xiaoxue later?"

Dalian cried out hastily, "No, no, no, Ye Fei, you can rest completely assured. Although Xiaoxue and I used to be a pair, our bond wasn't actually that deep. Otherwise, I wouldn't have used Xiaoxue to stall for time earlier. Rest assured, I will never seek revenge for Xiaoxue."

Hearing this, although Ye Fei still guarded the doorway, he temporarily ceased his attacks.

The two stared at each other warily.

Ye Fei asked, "You truly won't avenge him? How am I supposed to believe you?"

Dalian replied, "Absolutely not. I can swear an oath. If you don't believe me, I'll throw away my weapon first to show my sincerity."

As he spoke, Dalian kept his eyes fixed on Ye Fei stealthily.

Ye Fei remained silent, appearing to wait for Dalian to demonstrate his sincerity.

‘Clatter—’

Dalian actually tossed the poisonous dagger onto the floor, then said, "Ye Fei, do you believe me now? Can I leave?"

Ye Fei nodded and said, "Very well, walk slowly. If I detect any suspicious movement from you, don't blame me for being discourteous."

With that, Ye Fei seemed to genuinely agree, stepping aside to clear the bathhouse doorway.

Dalian shuffled slowly toward the exit, step by step. Just as he was about to step outside, both Ye Fei and Dalian moved simultaneously.

Ye Fei launched an attack on Dalian, while Dalian, gritting his teeth against the pain, raised both hands and swept them out to encircle Ye Fei. Simultaneously, the poisonous dagger Dalian had discarded earlier rose from the ground as if guided by an invisible sword, shooting directly toward Ye Fei.

Dalian’s hands moved as if playing with a cat's cradle—twisting left and right, up and down, tracing circles—as though an invisible thread spanned between his palms, ready to bind Ye Fei tightly.

Indeed, a thin steel wire was concealed within Dalian’s hands. Beneath that very steel wire, countless lives had already been snuffed out.

In response, Ye Fei slashed directly with his divine weapon, severing all of Dalian’s steel wires in one clean stroke.

"Damn it! It's all because of his divine weapon ruining things," Dalian cursed inwardly. He believed that had it not been for Ye Fei possessing a divine weapon capable of shearing iron like mud, he surely would have slain Ye Fei tonight. Regrettably, the battle's outcome had been overturned by a single weapon.

Knowing that both Dalian and Xiaoxue wore poison-tipped stinger rings on their fingers, Ye Fei sliced past Dalian’s palms as he severed the steel wires.

‘Swoosh—’

The razor-sharp divine weapon swept across, cleanly severing Dalian’s hands at the wrists.

"Ah—" A miserable scream pierced the air.

Ye Fei rolled away to dodge.

‘Thud!’

The flying poisonous dagger pierced straight into Dalian’s chest, and the poison rapidly flooded his body.

"Ah! Ah! Ah……"

Dalian cried out in panic. However, his hands had already been severed by Ye Fei, leaving him unable to pull the dagger out, so he could only shriek repeatedly.

"Reaping what you've sown," Ye Fei remarked, making no move to pull the dagger out for him.

At the very end of the poisonous dagger's hilt, an extremely fine steel wire remained attached. Moments earlier, Dalian had used this wire to control and launch the dagger in a surprise attack against Ye Fei, only for it to pierce his own heart in the end.

"Ye Fei, even as a ghost, I won't let you go," Dalian cursed vindictively in utter despair.

Standing beside him, Ye Fei replied with cold indifference, "A ghost? Rest assured! Your sins are profound; you are bound to remain in the eighteenth level of hell to cleanse them. Even if you return as a ghost, I will make you die once more, leaving you unable even to be a ghost."

Before he could finish, Dalian seemed to want to say something more, but after a couple of strained whimpers, no words came out, and his breath ceased entirely.

Whatever poison Dalian and his partner had applied to the dagger was exceptionally virulent; within about a minute of being pierced, Dalian succumbed to the toxin and died.

With this, all of Ye Fei's threats had been thoroughly eliminated. As for Boss Bao and the others remaining, they were merely pathetic wretches awaiting the arrival of death.

Without sparing Dalian’s corpse another glance, Ye Fei turned and walked away.

The following day, two piercing screams rang through the prison.

The first came from the cell of Boss Bao and his cronies. Waking up early, they were greeted by an utterly horrifying and grotesque scene: the cellmate who had slept in the same room with them, Big Crocodile, was missing his head. It had been severed cleanly from the neck, leaving a headless corpse lying on the bed in a state of supreme horror.

The cell was splattered with blood, and even the blankets of Boss Bao and the others were stained red.

"Ye Fei, Ye Fei, it must have been Ye Fei!" Boss Bao panicked, feeling a chill run down his neck as though some eerie monster stood right behind him, blowing cold air against his nape.

The remaining men trembled with fear. They were accustomed to beating people to death, but waking up in a cell to find a companion bizarrely transformed into a headless corpse was a first in their experience.

The calmest person in the cell at that moment was Fierce Wolf. Having spent the entire previous night in terror, looking at the scene now, he felt a measure of detachment. However, he harbored a lingering doubt: why had Ye Fei taken Big Crocodile's head with him? Perhaps the answer would reveal itself today.

The second scream came from a prison guard who had stepped on a round, rolling head in the corridor. One of the head's eyes had been gouged out, making it deeply grotesque.

Furthermore, a trail of blood stretched out not far from the head, leading to a corpse lying in a pool of blood.

"Could this be the body belonging to that head?" The prison guards leaned on one another for support as they walked over to inspect, discovering Xiaoxue’s complete corpse.

"This corpse has a head, so whose head is that?" a guard wondered aloud.

Enduring his terror, the guard examined it closely and identified: "Isn't this the head of Boss Bao's sworn brother, Big Crocodile? It's Big Crocodile... he, he... Ye Fei did this..."