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The entrance to the crack was narrow; after taking two steps inside, the light began to sink.

It wasn't a gradual darkening, but a sudden sinking.

The sunlight was still outside, but it was completely gone inside. Only a few dark red spots remained on the rock wall, hanging motionless and shining intermittently. It was unclear whether they were reflections from the rock or the eyes of something.

Lin Feng followed the group inside. As soon as his right foot touched the ground, a line of text quietly popped up in the corner of the system panel.

[Talent: Steel of the Blade, Current Level: 0/500, Activation Condition: Kill while wielding a blade]

He glanced down at the blade, then casually drew the knife from its sheath, gripped it firmly, and walked toward the nearest point of red light.

It didn't take long.

A pack of seven Bloodclaw wolves, all F-rank and at the fourth stage of Martial Apprentice level, darted out from the crevice in the side wall. They howled as they pounced, their formation in complete disarray.

Before they could swarm around him, Lin Feng rushed straight into the group.

The first cut: the throat.

The second cut was also to the throat.

He slashed seven times in a row, all in the same spot. The speed of his slashes was so fast that the last few didn't even see where his hand was before they fell.

[Defeat 7 F-rank Beasts: Bloodclaw Wolves, gain 7 Martial Arts Points]

【Steel Blade 7/500】

The system beeped seven times in a row. Lin Feng gripped the knife, and the fatigue in his hands vanished instantly. At this moment, he had only one goal: to stack steel!

"Damn, is the entrance density really that high?"

Wang Tie, knife in hand, stepped over a wolf carcass, took two steps forward, glanced deeper into the area, then stepped back. "Something's not right."

"The F-level filing says this place has been cleaned once." Lin Feng didn't reply, but glanced to the side.

Liu Gang and Zhou Yuan landed to his left and right rear, respectively, not clustered together, one on each side, seemingly guarding the flanks, but the spacing and angle left Lin Feng sandwiched in the very center.

The practiced stance was no coincidence.

Lin Feng remained silent, noted down the location, and continued advancing.

As the group walked deeper, the rock walls became narrower and narrower, water began to drip overhead, and the fishy smell grew stronger, mixed with a burnt sulfur odor, wafting up from the depths and becoming more intense the further they went in.

The second wave came even faster, with two ironback bears mixed with a group of venomous clawed lizards, charging out simultaneously from the front and left.

Wang Tie carried the iron-backed bear forward, but a claw slashed his shoulder, tearing a gash in his combat suit. He winced in pain, cursed, and swung his knife downwards, the blade grazing the bear's leg bone. The bear's legs buckled, and it collapsed to its knees. Wang Tie pressed down to finish it off, while Li Ming frantically stabbed at the bear's back from the side.

Lin Feng's side had six Poison Claw Lizards, spread out and forming a semicircle.

He didn't retreat, but swept his sword horizontally, driving away the three in front of him, kicking one to the side and knocking it over, finishing it off with a sword, and then blocking the one that came around from behind with a backhand—moving continuously, climbing up the layers.

[Defeat 6 F-rank monsters: Poison Claw Lizard, gain 6 Martial Arts Points]

【Steel Blade 13/500】

Those around him only knew that he was fighting well, but no one knew that the thing on his knife was growing.

Walking a little further in, the path turned a corner, the rock wall narrowed, and the passage became narrower. After going around the bend, a fleshy wall appeared in front of us.

Iron-spined Python, Martial Arts Apprentice, Ninth Dan.

The python's body was covered in iron armor, and at its thickest point it was twice as wide as a person's waist. It was coiled up there, blocking the entire road, and its tail was still slowly sweeping the ground, making a dull metallic clanging sound when it hit the rock wall.

Wang Tie took half a step back: "Top-tier F-grade, this thing's armor is too thick. A regular knife can't cut through it."

He was right.

It takes a full-force strike from a martial artist to break through the armor plates of an Iron-Spined Python. If a martial apprentice tries to cut it with force, the blade will chip before the python skin is even damaged.

Lin Feng didn't stop; holding his battle sword, he charged in.

With a full-force strike, the blade emerged from the iron-spined python's body, drawing out a stream of black blood.

The python, in pain, slammed its fist on the ground, causing the soles of its feet to go numb.

But he couldn't break free of the sword no matter what he tried.

Without hesitation, Lin Feng drew his battle sword and slashed at the snake's neck. With a soft thud, the snake's head fell to the ground.

[Defeat F-rank monster: Iron-spined Python x1, gain 3 Martial Arts Points]

【Steel Blade 14/500】

Wang Tie stood there, stunned for two seconds, and didn't say anything.

As expected of a martial artist, he took down a top-tier F-rank alien beast with just two strikes.

Lin Feng didn't utter a sound, walked around the python's body, and continued pushing.

After rounding the second rock wall, Li Ming grunted in response. His right arm was sprayed by a poisonous mist spider from the nearby bushes. The venom burned his skin, and he gasped for breath. He clenched his teeth, and without stopping, plunged the knife into the spider's abdomen from under his jaw, twisted it, and pinned the spider to the ground before freeing his hand to wipe the liquid off his arm.

"Are you alright?" Lin Feng glanced at him.

"They can fight."

Upon hearing this, Lin Feng stopped asking further questions, as layering was the most important thing.

Lin Feng didn't rest for a moment along the way, and the number of layers of Blade Steel was also rapidly increasing.

Soon, the entrance to the third floor appeared before everyone.

On the third level, large numbers of strange beast corpses began to appear on the ground, but they were not killed by humans.

The broken bones were all bent downwards, left by the weight of the weight. The claw marks were sunk into the soil, three times larger than the iron-spined python's paw, with clear knuckles, and could be pressed down to a depth of half a finger.

Lin Feng squatted down and pressed it.

The warmth was still there; I had walked for at most fifteen minutes.

He straightened up and glanced into the depths.

You can't see anything in the darkness, but that low-frequency vibration has already spread from the ground to the soles of your feet, slowly and steadily moving towards you through the soles of your shoes.

"There's something big," Wang Tie said in a low voice, "not in the records."

"Retreat?" Li Ming asked.

Before Lin Feng could speak, Liu Gang said, "What could possibly be in an F-level rift? There's no need to make a fuss. We should send someone ahead to scout it out first, so we don't find out how deep it is once we get there."

Zhou Yuan chimed in, "Yes, it's better to investigate thoroughly before pushing forward."

That makes sense.

Just as Wang Tie was about to object, Lin Feng had already walked away, patting Wang Tie on the shoulder and signaling him and Li Ming to stay put.

Liu Gang and Zhou Yuan exchanged a glance, then decided not to follow and stayed behind to wait.

Lin Feng turned around the rock wall, took five steps, but there were no strange beasts, no sounds, and the silence was abnormal.

Normally, it wouldn't be this quiet here.

He gripped the hilt of the knife, but didn't draw it, and stood there for two seconds.

The sound of air being cut came from directly behind. The blade cut backward, close to the ribs, at a low angle and with great speed. It was the power of a ninth-level martial arts apprentice, without any unnecessary words.

But Raymond Lam had already turned to the side.

It wasn't about anticipating the situation, but rather the martial artist overwhelming the martial apprentice with speed.

The blade sliced ​​through the outer layer of clothing but didn't touch the flesh underneath. At the same time, he reversed his grip on the knife and stabbed backward, piercing through Liu Gang's arm holding the knife. The bones cracked, and the knife slammed to the ground.

Lin Feng looked down and glanced at the system.

[Steel Blade 49/500, one kill away from activating the 50-stack effect]

He looked up at Liu Gang's bleeding arm.

"Just one shot away."

At this moment, Lin Feng couldn't care less about anything else; maybe even killing people could stack up the numbers.

Before Liu Gang could understand what those words meant, the knife had already fallen.

[Steel Blade 50/500! Attack speed increased by 100%, additional armor penetration effect activated!]

As Liu Gang's head fell to the ground, the system's voice exploded in Lin Feng's mind.

The knife in Lin Feng's hand suddenly became exceptionally smooth.

He had just turned around when the tip of his knife was pointed at Zhou Yuan.

"Your turn!"