After speaking, the one-eyed man swiftly jumped down into the cellar.

Seeing the one-eyed man going down to retrieve the bodies, Thomas took a few steps forward and smiled at Ed.

"Lord Ed, you can take all the monster bodies I've been keeping for you. I've stored them all carefully..."

Although Ed had always let Thomas keep them, Thomas never thought of these items as his own.

He had always seen himself as someone who was merely helping Ed temporarily store them.

Now that they were about to leave the arena, Thomas was excited to return the spoils to Ed.

But when he looked up, he suddenly saw that Ed's face was terrifyingly cold and grim.

"Lord Ed, you…?" Thomas was immediately startled.

Ed slapped him sharply on the shoulder, his calm yet terrifyingly cold eyes locking onto his. "Step back now! Don't come near here!"

Thomas instinctively took a step back, while Ed almost instantly drew his sword and retrieved his sword oil.

After coating the blade with the oil, Ed's killing intent surged as he tightly gripped the hilt, mentally pumping himself up.

Seeing Ed's actions, Thomas was even more shocked.

What's going on? Is he planning to kill the one-eyed man?

But why? Thomas felt like everything happening right now was completely beyond his understanding!

Before he could even begin to process the situation, a muffled voice suddenly came from below the cellar:

"Ed, there's something going on. Come down here!"

Below the Cellar

The one-eyed man looked at the two corpses before him, their bodies riddled with sword wounds. His face instantly turned a deep shade of pale.

Shock, confusion, anger, and disbelief flashed across his face one by one.

Almost immediately, he pulled out his steel sword, then shouted up to Ed.

Breathing heavily, like an enraged lion, the one-eyed man's heart was filled with cold fury. "This bastard dared to fucking deceive me!"

"As a Medium Quality Silver Rank Demon Hunter, I can't believe I was toyed with by a rookie junior!"

He had already decided: as soon as Ed came down, he would immediately decapitate him with his sword!

"Ed, did you hear me? I need your help," but on the surface, his voice didn't show any anger.

Instead, he tried to remain calm, attempting to call Ed down.

But standing by the cellar, Ed was not going to walk into a trap. He simply stood there, holding his sword.

No matter what the one-eyed man called out from below, Ed ignored it, as if he hadn't heard anything. His mind was focused entirely on reviewing his sword techniques.

And preparing for any possible scenario that could unfold next! Various combat scenarios replayed in his mind.

"One-Eye is definitely not an ordinary Low-Quality Silver Rank Hunter. He's an experienced Hunter from the Moon Eclipse Demon Hunter Association, while Brown and Brian are just students who have recently entered this world of Hunters. Their combat experience can't possibly compare to One-Eye's!

When you don't know how strong the enemy really is, it's always better to be cautious.

This was the first time Ed felt his palms sweat nervously. This battle would definitely be incredibly difficult!"

"No, even if I try to ambush from above the cellar, the risk is still too high for me."

"

The gap in strength between him and me might be quite large!" Ed shook his head suddenly, realizing that this approach wouldn't work.

He had to come up with a strategy that would minimize the disparity in strength!

Ed's mind raced as he thought quickly. After a moment, his brow remained furrowed. He turned and looked at Thomas, suddenly struck by an idea.

He gave Thomas a knowing glance.

Below in the cellar, the one-eyed man called out several times, but when he received no reply, his anger only grew.

If Ed had responded, there might have been some hope for negotiation. But now, with Ed remaining silent, the one-eyed man was certain that Brown and Brian had been killed by him!

The one-eyed man activated his hunter's senses and scanned above. He was even more shocked. There was only one scent present: Thomas.

As for Ed, his presence was completely gone.

Had Ed, out of fear, already fled?

"You're dreaming! A young man without an association kills two of my Moon Eclipse Demon Hunter Association's people, and now you think you can run away?"

"Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will make sure you die!"

The one-eyed man was resolute in his desire to kill the person who had murdered his disciple.

Since Ed wasn't coming down, the one-eyed man pulled out a small cloth bag and carefully packed away Brown and Brian's bodies.

He inspected the area once more. Indeed, there was still a lingering aura of the ghost spirit below. It was clear that the ghost spirit had stayed there for quite some time.

But now, the ghost spirit was nowhere to be found. The one-eyed man couldn't help but wonder where it had gone. Could it be dead?

But who could have killed it? Even if Ed, Brown, and Brian had teamed up, they should have still been no match for the ghost spirit.

"It looks like the disappearance of the ghost spirit and the high-level spiritual treasure must be reported to the vice-captain."

"Of course, I'm going up now to hunt that bastard down! I'm going to make sure he dies a painful death!"

With that, the one-eyed man leaped up and rushed out of the cellar. The moment he emerged, he saw Thomas.

Thomas's face looked slightly panicked. The one-eyed man's expression grew stern, and he immediately pressed his sword to Thomas's throat.

"Where is Ed? Did he run away?"

Thomas was shaking with fear, his legs trembling uncontrollably. "Ed… he…"

He was so frightened that his mouth trembled for several seconds without saying a word, and Thomas was sweating profusely, desperate to speak but unable to get the words out.

The one-eyed man was growing increasingly impatient. He activated his hunter's senses once again to scan the surroundings. Ed's presence had completely disappeared without a trace.

Within the entire area, stretching for several hundred meters, it seemed that, apart from him, only Thomas was still alive.

"Even if Ed ran, there's no way he could have gotten that far in such a short time, right?!"

The one-eyed man couldn't make sense of it. As he looked at Thomas, who was still stammering and unable to speak, his frustration grew. He pressed down on the hilt of his sword with more force.

In an instant, a line of blood appeared on Thomas's neck!

"Speak, damn it! Stop stalling, or I'll kill you!"

Under the threat, Thomas, terrified, started to speak with a slight sob in his voice, shouting, "Ed, he... he ran away!"

"Where did he go?" the one-eyed man demanded.

Thomas turned his head and pointed in a direction.

The one-eyed man looked in the direction Thomas was pointing. "You're saying he ran into the forest? That damn bastard!"

Just as the one-eyed man was fuming with anger, Thomas, unable to hold it in, glanced over his shoulder at the one-eyed man.

In his eyes, he saw a young figure with a grim expression, holding a sword high above his head!

Ed swung the sword down hard at the one-eyed man's back, simultaneously, the gas vent stone in his left pocket was glowing and charging up.

Whoosh!!

Using the ability to block his presence, Ed's sword strike came as a surprise attack from behind, and the one-eyed man couldn't detect it in time.

However, while Ed's presence was masked, the sound of the sword slicing through the air as it descended at high speed still reached the one-eyed man's ears!

"Hmm?" Just as the sword was about to land, the one-eyed man quickly turned around. His face changed in an instant, and his body immediately moved to react!

Clang!

The one-eyed man's left arm was slashed, and blood began to trickle down his shoulder and through the gaps in his damaged armor. He staggered back several steps, his face twisting into a cold, almost savage grimace.

Ed also stepped back several paces. The sneak attack hadn't achieved its desired effect—first, because the one-eyed man had reacted in time.

Second, the armor he was wearing, whatever material it was made of, was incredibly tough, absorbing most of the strike's power. The one-eyed man wasn't seriously hurt.

"Ed!"

The one-eyed man's gaze fixed on the young man in front of him. In addition to his extreme anger, a cruel smile now spread across his face.

Ed hadn't fled! He stood right in front of him. This was his chance for revenge! There was no greater satisfaction than this!

The one-eyed man gripped his sword tightly and spoke, his voice laced with a terrifying pressure: "Don't say a word. I'm going to make you die a thousand times more painfully than the ones you've killed."

The one-eyed man glanced at Ed's sword, his expression changing slightly.

"Oil on the sword? That must be the stuff I gave to Brian," he muttered. "You... if you didn't have that oil, you wouldn't have been able to cut through my armor."

Ed didn't respond. His mind was busy calculating his next move.

After failing with the initial surprise attack, entering a direct confrontation was definitely not in Ed's favor.

If he didn't want to lose, didn't want to die, he needed to think of a way to break the norm and use power beyond his own limits.

He had to turn the tide!

"What can I do? At this moment, it seems like I can't think of anything," Ed thought with a grim expression.

Seeing the oil on Ed's sword, the one-eyed man's gaze shifted down and landed on the gas vent stone in Ed's left pocket.

In an instant, everything became clear to him.

"No wonder I couldn't sense your presence earlier!" he realized.

Ed coldly retorted, "That's why a Hunter can't just rely on their senses. A person is born with two eyes for a reason, not to waste them."

The one-eyed man didn't waste any more words. He snorted in disdain. He couldn't stand that Ed, the killer of his own disciple, was now using his disciple's belongings to try and kill him in revenge.

At that moment, Ed had become even more unforgivable in his eyes!

Without further hesitation, he leaped forward and swung his sword.

"Your words disgust me! I'll start by slicing your tongue off with this strike!" he growled.

Ed, who had been standing still, thinking through his plans for so long, finally had a clue of what to do.

As a Medium Quality Silver Rank Demon Hunter, the one-eyed man's movements were incredibly fast, and even though Ed seemed like nothing more than an insignificant bug in his eyes, the one-eyed man wasted no time.

He was an experienced Hunter, and when he struck, there was no mercy. His sword pointed forward, and in that moment, the very air seemed to shatter.

The air around them twisted, forming a storm of killing intent that slammed into Ed, making all the hairs on his body stand on end!

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