Speak the truth, or take a beating.

"Wow! So many rooms!" The taxi stopped in front of a villa, and the drawn woman let out an exclamation of wonder at the rows of windows.

"A house is only comfortable if it's spacious," Yuan Yao said with a smile. "Feel free to pick whichever room you like later."

They had agreed in the car that she would stay at his place tonight.

As soon as they stepped inside, the drawn woman rushed into the bathroom to try on her newly bought clothes. Yuan Yao poured Xu Huo a cup of tea, then pulled over a computer and started working.

"This account address is still encrypted?" After tinkering for a moment, his interest was piqued. "Generally in such cases, this person is definitely not simple."

Watching his fingers fly across the keyboard, Xu Huo figured he wouldn't get a result anytime soon, so he stood up and inspected the three-story villa from top to bottom.

Standing by the third-floor window, he spotted the number "5" floating on an old tree dozens of meters away, which was continuously rising, turning into "9" in the blink of an eye.

Full of killing intent.

Xu Huo closed the window and went downstairs.

"Got it!" Yuan Yao shouted in the living room. "This guy is definitely a novice. The firewall was probably outsourced to someone else, and everything on the computer is unencrypted. I found something interesting."

"The Sword of Sanctuary?" Xu Huo looked at the triangular pattern made of three intersecting swords on the computer screen. "A cult?"

Yuan Yao scrolled through the chat logs on the computer. "Seems like a player organization. This guy has been wanting to join for a long time, and recently submitted a loyalty pledge. He's an official member now."

"What loyalty pledge?"

"Props, train tickets, that sort of thing. Joining requires handing over something recognized by the Sword of Sanctuary."

Yuan Yao paused. "This guy's post was actually bait... Is this Sword of Sanctuary hunting players?"

Xu Huo glanced out the window. "It's getting late. We'll talk about it tomorrow."

The two returned to their respective rooms. Before long, the lights in the villa were turned off one by one, and the entire structure plunged into darkness.

An hour later, a cat-like figure silently climbed into the villa. Pressing his palms against the ground and arching his back high, he scaled the wall like a real cat right up to the window of Xu Huo's room. Pushing the window open, he landed without a sound and bared his sharp claws at the lump under the covers on the bed!

Just as he was about to strike, a patch of dark shadow suddenly peeled off the wall, whipping around his head like a gale!

The dark shadow was startled. Upon contact, he realized it was only a piece of paper. Figuring he had already been exposed, he tore through it with a claw and lunged toward the large bed!

At that moment, the quilt on the bed snapped open, enveloping his front completely!

The dark shadow abruptly checked his momentum, preparing to retreat, but a leg suddenly burst out from the center of the airborne quilt, striking him squarely in the abdomen!

The kick sent him vomiting blood from his nose and mouth, violently slamming him against the opposite wall. Before he could even hit the ground, a fine thread sliced through the room, hooked his right wrist, and pinned him to the wall!

The dark shadow extended his long fingernails, but failed to cut the fine thread. At that moment, the lights in the room suddenly flashed on. Narrowing his eyes, he realized there was more than one person in Xu Huo's room. Aside from the tattered-looking woman standing in the corner, another person was crawling out from under the bed.

Yuan Yao brushed the dust off his face, coughing and complaining about the landlord's subpar housekeeping. Glancing up at the wall, his face lit up instantly. "Caught him!"

"Is this the guy who followed us all the way from the mall? I don't even know him. Why was he following us?"

"There's always a reason." Xu Huo stepped down from the bed and sized up the lean man. "Turns out he even has animal traits. Are you with the Sword of Sanctuary?"

The lean man kept his mouth shut, his eyes darting among the three of them. Suddenly, his pupils slit vertically, and his entire body bent backward with feline flexibility. As he wrenched his hand free from the fine thread, he flipped upside down onto the wall, his long fingernails digging deep into the masonry like sharp claws!

"Crap! He turned into a beast!" Yuan Yao yelled and backed away.

Meanwhile, the lean man let out a low, beast-like growl from his throat and lunged straight at him!

"You never learn." Xu Huo sprang forward, yanked Yuan Yao out of the way, grabbed the attacker's hand in mid-air, pulled him forward as he lunged past, and brought his foot down heavily onto the ground!

"Boom!" A deep footprint was stamped directly into the floorboards. The lean man, who had managed to flip away a split second earlier, leaped onto the bed. Seeing the footprint, even he felt a lingering terror. Meeting that pair of cold eyes, his feral instincts triggered an urge to flee!

However, Xu Huo, who had been waiting for him in the villa all along, wasn't about to let him escape so easily. A sweep of his long leg knocked the man tumbling onto the bed, grabbed his left arm, and yanked it—*crack*—rendering the entire arm limply useless.

"Ugh!" The lean man groaned in pain, lashing out with a backhand claw toward Xu Huo's face. Yet his wrist was caught in mid-air. Tipping his upper body back, he kicked out with both feet to push the opponent away, and leaped toward the window without looking back.

At that moment, Yuan Yao—who had materialized out of nowhere with lightning reflexes—propped up a stool. The lean man plowed straight into it headfirst, his head wedged through the window while the rest of him was trapped inside the stool!

"Brother Xu! Quick! I've got him!"

Xu Huo approached the window, ready to pull the man back inside, when several black snakes suddenly darted out from beneath the window frame, viciously striking the back of his hand!

The stinging sensation made him quickly pull his hand back. He looked down, but there was no wound on the back of his hand.

Taking advantage of this opening, the lean man was dragged out of the room, entangled by several unnaturally long black snakes.

"Trying to run?" Xu Huo drew his dagger and leaped out after them, his cold blade flashing as he sliced the black snakes apart in mid-air.

He landed on top of the lean man, only to discover that the black snakes on the ground had turned into a few bundles of hair.

"Elderly Medusa!" A woman's voice rang out ahead of him. He snapped his head up, involuntarily locking eyes with a pair of lantern-like crimson pupils as a giant python opened its jaws to bite him!

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes, catching the person hidden within the shadow of the snake closing in on him. He kicked the man beneath his feet away and hurled his dagger with a flick of his wrist!

Two small snakes intercepted the dagger in mid-air, hissing menacingly at him.

Xu Huo grabbed those two small snakes, ignored the giant python snapping down from above, and yanked the person opposite him forward with brute force. Just as he seized the attacker's throat, the illusory phantom of the giant python enveloped them both, but upon touching the ground, it dissolved into smoke-like ash and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Hair." Xu Huo tossed the two locks of black hair aside and looked at the woman struggling in his grip. "I'll ask you again: are you people from the Sword of Sanctuary, and through what channel did you find out I'm a player?"

"What Sword of Sanctuary? I've never heard of it!" The woman, who wore a long black braid trailing down to her ankles, breathed with extreme difficulty. Gripping Xu Huo's hand desperately, her eyes filled with hatred, "You clearly captured my younger brother! What did you do with him?!"

"If you killed him, I won't let you off!"

Xu Huo used his other hand to pinch her cheeks and stop her from speaking. "You're already in my hands. Exactly how do you plan not to let me off?"

"Answer honestly, unless you want a beating."