Chapter 249: Nether Bell

Xia Fei walked up to Fangyuan and stood beside his body. He spoke in a soft voice that only Fangyuan could hear: “It’s very unwise and deadly for a warrior to show his trump card too early in a fight.”

Following this, Xia Fei gave Fangyuan a soft nudge on his back. The muscular body fell and bounced twice on the ground before lying still. A large amount of blood sprayed across the floor rapidly.

Xia Fei’s movement was so quick that most spectators did not even see how he killed Fangyuan. All they saw was Fangyuan falling onto the ground with blood pouring out of his body.

The entire sparring field fell silent. Xia Fei left the ring and walked away as if it was nothing.

A few disciples finally collected their thoughts after a few seconds. They chanted Xia Fei’s name and almost broke out in tears due to overwhelming excitement. The disciples of the Assassin Sect desperately needed a victory to boost their morale after Smokeshadow and Merryshadow were defeated, and Xia Fei had given them just that.

However, Xia Fei’s kill was too clean. The fight was not as intense as they had imagined, nor did he stand in the ring with his arms lifted into the air to declare his victory. He acted as if he was merely fulfilling his responsibilities.

From provoking the opponent before the fight and handling every situation calmly in the ring to launching the deadly counterattack when the opportunity surfaced, Xia Fei had done everything calmly. He entered and left the ring quietly as if he was just an insignificant interloper. He was only adding another body count to his journey.

The whole sparring field was in an uproar. Some of the young disciples were hugging one another tightly. Even though they were arguing who was stronger among them just a day ago, they were excited about their sect’s victory. They had tossed everything else beyond the topmost clouds.

Craneshadow rose to his feet excitedly. His slightly childish face was blushing with excitement. He was stirred emotionally by Xia Fei’s victory and was utterly impressed by his Senior Brother Shadowless’s decision. The fact that Shadowless was able to stake everything by choosing an outsider who was unrelated to the Assassin Sect to represent them clearly indicated that Shadowless’s foresight was a lot better than his.

Tongtian’s expression was a lot worse than Craneshadow’s. Fangyuan’s death was not much of a concern to him. Most importantly, he had bet the Sky Eradicator Sect’s fate on the duel. Now that the Assassin Sect had scored a point, it would only be a draw if he won against Craneshadow, but if he lost the duel, everyone in the Sky Eradicator Sect would become homeless. How could he possibly explain himself to the disciples of his sect?

Xia Fei had already left the arena. He went into the woods and lit a cigarette without caring about the loud cheers from behind him. He propped the Bloodthirsty Screech up against a tree, sat on the grass, and proceeded to smoke his Hongtashan contentedly while staring at the huge sun in the sky.

“Well done!” Phantom exclaimed. After all, he was very close to the Assassin Sect, so he was overjoyed when Xia Fei won the duel.

Xia Fei grinned while looking at Phantom. “I just realized one thing.”

“What is it?”

“What should you call me now that Shadowless has taken me in as his secret disciple?”

Phantom’s forehead was soon covered in black lines as his face darkened.

…

As a matter of fact, the second match between Craneshadow and Tongtian did not take place on the same day. Craneshadow might be astute, but he was less imperious than Shadowless. He was taking a little pity on the enemy. He did not have the intention to eradicate them all at once.

As the saying went, it was better to keep certain bridges intact. Craneshadow’s idea was fine, but the only problem was he had just spared an enemy’s life. Being merciful to one’s enemy was being cruel to oneself. Xia Fei knew it clearly, and so did Craneshadow, but what was different was that Xia Fei would insist on cleaning up every loose end, while Craneshadow naively thought that he could always convert enemies into allies.

Being an enemy for a day was enough to make someone an enemy for a lifetime. Humans had always been a jealous and cunning species. Treating humans like animals was only going to bring them more trouble. Many incidents already proved that humans were less trustworthy than animals.

Tongtian gladly agreed to Craneshadow’s suggestion. He could not wait to leave the place. Embarrassing himself was one thing, but at least he managed to keep his sect intact. He spoke kind words to Craneshadow and promised to put the past behind them and help the two sects turn hostility into friendship.

Craneshadow did not believe it, but he had long decided not to fall out further with the Sky Eradicators Sect. It did not take long for him to release Tongtian and his men. Many disciples were displeased by the outcome.

Early the next day, Xia Fei packed his stuff and had breakfast with Manatee. He was planning to say goodbye to Craneshadow and Shadowless before taking his leave, for he had a lot of matters to attend to still.

It was not really a good habit to just disappear without telling anyone. He wondered if the company was doing well and if Avril was crying because of his sudden disappearance.

Manatee was very impressed by Xia Fei’s performance the day before. Xia Fei took hold of the opportunity to give Manatee a motivational speech, hoping that he would not give up on his ambition. He should keep persevering if he seriously loved martial arts. He should treat every difficulty he encountered as a trial. After all, a person who gave up easily would never have any great achievements.

After breakfast, Xia Fei followed the mountain path to the thirteenth level of the Nameless Mountain. He was now an unacknowledged disciple of Shadowless. According to the seniority in the sect, even Phantom’s master, Moonshadow had to call him a sect senior. Therefore, the rule that forbade the disciples of the sect from entering the thirteenth level was no longer applicable to him.

Words could not express how troubled Phantom was when it came to seniority. He and Xia Fei might not be master and disciple, but he was more or less Xia Fei’s first mentor, yet he had somehow become his student’s junior. Phantom just could not accept it, and to make things worse, Xia Fei kept using it to tease him.

Craneshadow already knew that Xia Fei was leaving. He appeared as soon as Xia Fei set his feet on the thirteenth level and brought him to Shadowless’s place.

They went past an arch door and saw Shadowless struggling to sweep the courtyard. Xia Fei immediately went forward to lend him a hand, but the man insisted on doing it himself, claiming that cleaning the courtyard was part of his duty. He would not allow anyone to do it in his place. Xia Fei had no choice but to wait quietly at the side.

There was a tall cedar tree in the courtyard that had been around for a long time. Under it were a square table and four chairs made of stones. Shadowless waved his hand, signalling Xia Fei and Craneshadow to take seats as he went to brew a pot of tea.

The snow was heavy on the mountain. Luckily, there was not much wind. It was not too cold; thus, it was quite relaxing to enjoy some tea amid the heavy snow.

“Master, I must leave tonight if there isn’t anything else. I will pay you a visit again after I’ve done settling the matters in the mundane world,” Xia Fei said respectfully.

Xia Fei did not harbor any malicious intent against the old man. Either way, they were now master and disciple, and the old man was quite easy to get along with. He seemed quite harmless, too.

Shadowless nodded and said, “I wonder when we are going to meet again after today. You’ve done the sect a huge favor, and you’re my new disciple, too. I should express my gratitude. Why don’t you tell me what you want?”

Craneshadow was suddenly overwhelmed with grief. Only Shadowless himself and he knew Shadowless was soon reaching the end of his life. Xia Fei would only see Shadowless’s memorial tablet the next time he came. Craneshadow was emotionally stirred as he thought about his old brothers who had passed away one after another.

Even though Xia Fei claimed he was too embarrassed to ask anything from Shadowless, he briefly mentioned the Nether Bell. He clearly remembered how Darkshadow had used the Nether Bell to summon troops of Deathguards in the dark. Now that they were at the crucial stage of inventing the super radar, the little communication device that could overcome the environmental disturbance might come in handy. It would be the best if he could acquire another copy of it, too, since it would greatly help with the invention of the super radar.

However, Xia Fei could not explain it in detail, for it was Darkshadow who told him about the nether bell. Xia Fei would struggle to explain himself if Shadowless asked where he had learned the existence of the nether bell.

Therefore, Xia Fei slowly led the conversation to the topic on the nether bell.

Shadowless nodded and said, “The thing you described is called the nether bell. It’s a tool for disciples of the same faction to communicate with one another. Shadowless rolled his sleeves up to reveal a little bell on his left arm. “It’s only given to the disciples who are qualified. Since you’re my disciple now, it won’t hurt to give you one. You can also use it to contact the others, who happen to be nearby, if necessary. Most surveillance systems won’t be able to pick its signal up.”

Shadowless turned to Craneshadow after he was done talking. Craneshadow knew he was asking for the sect master’s permission as a way of respecting him. Nevertheless, Craneshadow was extremely impressed by Shadowless after what happened yesterday. He agreed to gifting Xia Fei a complete set of nether bells without any hesitation. It would also help them to stay in contact.

Xia Fei was overjoyed. He briefly asked a few more questions about the origin of the nether bells. According to Shadowless, they had acquired these special communication devices from the ruins of some alien civilization. They only found around three hundred sets of them, but ever since the Assassin Sect was established, they had yet to break even a single set of the nether bells, which clearly indicated how well-built these devices were.

However, there was only a limited number of these communication devices left. Every set lost was gone forever as it was impossible to replenish them. The disciples had to return the bells after they were dead, so the rest of the disciples could use them, too.

Xia Fei came to a realization. It turned out that these bells were not a product of the Pan-Human Alliance, which explained why their quality was so impressive.

A moment later, a pair of oddly shaped bells flew into Xia Fei’s hands. Nether bell was only its name. It was actually a communication device set that resembled a pair of bells. One was black, while the other was silver.

The black bell was called the source bell. It could transmit messages to every silver bell nearby. It was like a megaphone to all channels, while the silver bell could only be used for direct messaging. It could not deliver a message to everyone at a time.

The range of these bells was not fixed since it also depended on the strength of the signal disturbance from the environments. However, after years of testing by the Assassin Sect, they know that the nether bell could still transmit a message over a million kilometers away. If the signal disturbance was not too strong, the transmission distance could reach a few lightyears.

The thought of a pair of tiny bells being able to communicate over a distance of a few lightyears without relying on any external networks was astounding, a testimony to how ridiculously advanced this device was. Even though they were still incomparable to the super-radar system on Titan, they were still a lot stronger than the communication devices the Pan-Human Alliance was currently using.

Xia Fei put the bells away with a smile. Shadowless let out a sigh and suddenly mentioned something that took Xia Fei by surprise.