Chapter 52: Chaptet 52: Group 13

With a faint, arrogant smirk, Kirito leisurely walked to the payment counter where the elderly tavern owner was trembling in hiding.

"I’d like to compensate for all the damage to the broken table, and also rent a first-class room for the night." Kirito casually placed a large amount of gold coins onto the wooden surface.

Taking the bronze key from the old man’s hand, he turned around and strode straight up the wooden stairs, completely ignoring the chaos and terrified gazes of the patrons below.

Finding the guest room at the end of the corridor, Kirito entered, kicked the door shut, and locked it securely. The moment he was certain no one could disturb him, he unhesitatingly thrust two fingers deep down his throat, stimulating his reflex mechanism to force himself to retch and vomit violently.

Just a moment later, Kirito vomited out a pale, purplish parasitic worm that was still writhing about.

That’s right, this was the deformed creature hidden inside the silkworm cocoon. If he had once mercilessly forced others to swallow that cocoon for control, he himself had also swallowed it beforehand.

However, Kirito’s training method completely surpassed ordinary people. As the one who directly nurtured and tamed this toxic silkworm, he had all biological mechanisms as well as the methods to control them at his fingertips. Under Kirito’s domination, this toxic purple worm became an exceptional biological shield to absorb all strange toxins invading his body.

The newly vomited worm had completely absorbed the extremely potent poison in the plate of stir-fried beef earlier, its body instantly turning grayish-black before going still.

Kirito casually used his sleeve to wipe the corners of his mouth, his gaze showing amusement: "It’s been a very long time since my body had the sensation of being poisoned and threatened like this, what a nostalgic experience."

He bent down, casually flicking the dead worm into a dark corner of the wall where a colony of worker ants was crawling around in search of prey.

"They stood outside watching a good show without daring to intervene, proving that the three individuals just now must have a backing and extremely massive influence pulling strings behind the scenes in this city. There will definitely be a good show to watch by midnight."

Thinking this, Kirito didn’t bother giving it another half a word of thought, leaning straight back onto the single bed and closing his eyes to sink deep into sleep to recover his strength.

"It’s been a long time since my life was threatened this closely. Hopefully tonight the enemy will bring a little stimulation, because peace and quiet lately make me feel a bit bored."

When night fell, the blood moon hung suspended against the pitch-black sky, blanketing the entire stronghold in a cold, eerie light.

A tall, dark figure suddenly glided like a feather from the rooftop, silently dropping down toward the window frame of Kirito’s room. A shining, terrifyingly sharp steel kunai blade was gripped ready between its fingers.

The shabby window was pushed open gently without the slightest sound.

The ninja-clad intruder took cat-like steps into the room. He lunged straight for the bed, flipping the thick blanket right over with the intention of delivering a fatal blow, but astonishingly—beneath it was completely empty, without a single soul.

Right at that moment, from the dark rafters right above his head, Kirito suddenly let his body drop downward like an arrow. Before the enemy could react, his muscular hands tightly grabbed the ninja’s neck, using a tremendously powerful twisting force with a crisp "crack" to break his neck right on the spot.

The assassin’s lifeless corpse collapsed flat onto the floor. Kirito cast a cold glance, slightly smirking: "Oh, just this much? How boring."

Without a moment’s hesitation, he hoisted the ninja’s corpse out of the window, found a large wooden stick, and used a rope to hang the assassin’s corpse upside down high up, with its neck twisted crookedly to a horrifying degree. Afterward, Kirito carried the entire pole and stuck it vertically right in the middle of the wide training yard in the center of the city.

He leisurely climbed up to perch prominently on the high roof tiles, crossing his arms to look down at his terror-inducing and provocative corpse. This action was no different from a thunderous slap to the face of the forces behind the scenes, but Kirito had never known what fear was.

"I am genuinely curious to know what kind of prominent figure the person behind this cowardly trick against me turns out to be."

The next morning, as dawn’s early light just broke to illuminate the entire stronghold...

Kirito leisurely walked down the main street in preparation for the roll-call gathering before heading into the ancient mausoleum.

Around the training yard, a large crowd was tightly gathered, whispering and gossiping, pointing toward the corpse of the unfortunate ninja brutally hung upside down last night. Everyone was anxiously speculating about the identity of the person daring to cause such heaven-defying trouble within the Hasin clan’s territory.

In stark contrast to the crowd’s panic, inside an extremely lavish and luxurious mansion in the center of the city...

An exquisite woman stood with dignity in the middle of the grand hall. She was draped in a modernized Kimono design that was utterly bold, seductive, and provocative to the extreme. Above her chest was a thin, ivory-white silk strip designed like a halter bodice, plunging deeply into a cleavage to fully showcase her full, rounded breasts and completely expose her bare hips and armpits. A tight black skinny belt was neatly tied with classical patterns, accented by a glowing emerald green gemstone right in the middle, combined with a brilliantly radiant red skirt slit high up to her hips.

Most distinctive was the crisscrossing laced ribbon design tied in bows on both sides of the skirt’s hips, intentionally leaving the wasp-waist curves and flawless white skin completely bare. Draped loosely over the outside was a delicate, ivory-white sheer silk robe resting lazily and languidly on her slender shoulders.

That was Miyune—a character with terrifying underground power in this region.

At this moment, Miyune was calmly holding a bow, drawing it to shoot. Surrounding her were dozens of servants and maids standing in attendance, clasping their hands and bowing while awaiting orders.

Swish!

The arrow tore through the wind, completely embedding itself right in the dead center of the bullseye on the wooden target board dozens of meters away.

Right at that moment, an old butler hurriedly ran into the courtyard, with a panicked expression reporting the incident of the assassin being killed and his corpse hung up as a deterrent in the training yard this morning.

Walking closely right behind the old butler was the pink-haired girl who had her abdomen slashed by Kirito in the eatery yesterday. At this point, her entire upper body was thickly bandaged with stark white cloth, and grievance-filled tears continuously streamed down profusely.

"Auntie! You must get justice for me! That bastard dared to openly challenge and provoke us right in broad daylight!" She sobbed.

The woman named Miyune slowly lowered her bow, nodding slightly, her eyes flashing with a sharp, dangerously bright glint: "That human brat is truly gutsy, smart, but also extremely insolent."

"However, calm down a bit, silly girl."

"It’s not certain that once he steps inside that ancient mausoleum full of deadly traps, he’ll even be able to walk out alive."

The injured girl stepped forward angrily, tightly gripping Miyune’s hand, her voice choked with tears: "Aunt Miyune, you must kill him to avenge me!"

Miyune gently patted the girl’s hand, coldly affirming: "Of course, I will absolutely not let this humiliation slide. He must certainly pay a heavy price."

At the same time, at the gathering area of the mausoleum exploration expedition...

Kirito stood quietly in the long line of participants, gradually inching forward to draw lots for team formation.

According to regulations, individuals without a pre-existing group were required to draw lots to be randomly paired with each other, while also being assigned a group of trap-finders trailing behind.

Kirito’s turn arrived. He reached out and pulled out a wooden tag carved with the number: 13.

Thus, he was officially assigned to Team 13, comprising a total of four teammates. An interesting coincidence was that this group featured the samurai wearing the demon mask whom he had defeated at the training ground a few days prior.

Right at that moment, a pink-haired girl with a warrior style, carrying two sharp swords crossed behind her back, approached and confidently introduced: "Hello everyone, I am Nana."

The next two members stepping out from behind were a pair of twins with burly physiques, their bulging muscles developed so evenly that at first glance they looked like a perfect copy of each other.

"We are Azua. The two of us brothers always act in unison, marching forward together in everything, so calling us by a single representative name is enough."

The masked samurai from before also approached, speaking in a low voice: "I have no fixed notable name, you can call me by whichever name you like."

Finally, Kirito casually held up his numbered tag, answering concisely: "And I am Oscar."

After completing the team pairing, Team 13 was immediately allocated five trap-finders (individuals forced to walk ahead to scout and trigger traps). All five trap-finders trembled violently, their faces drained of color knowing the path ahead was full of nothing but death.

However, no one dared to run away or resist, because seasoned participating members like Kirito were granted absolute authority: any trap-finder daring to plan desertion or disobedience would be executed on the spot immediately.

The five trap-finders were driven ahead, while the five members of Team 13 sat leisurely on a large, sturdy bull-drawn wagon to travel to the mausoleum’s entrance.

Sitting inside the spacious wagon bed, Kirito crossed his arms, breaking the silence to gather information: "Hey everyone, does anyone clearly grasp how far the excavation progress of this ancient mausoleum has reached? Tell me about it."

Nana adjusted the sword on her shoulder, showing herself to be very knowledgeable about local conditions, and replied: "Ah, I’ve caught wind of a few core pieces of news.

It seems previous expeditions have cleared the first two outer sealing doors, while deep inside how many more layers of barriers remain is completely unpredictable by anyone."

Kirito frowned and continued asking: "Then why are the clans certain that supreme martial arts manuals handed down by legendary Samurai and Shinobi masters are hidden inside?"

Nana explained patiently: "This stems from a hundred years ago, when those two grand grandmasters were so powerful they dominated this entire region."

"The four major clans today were actually primitively just a single major clan belonging to four biological brothers. But during the struggle for supreme power, internal division occurred so they split into four independent clan branches like now."

"At that time, the father who bore those four brothers was an extremely close confidant of the two legendary Samurai and Shinobi grandmasters. It was that previous clan head who agreed to donate this entire mountain to the two masters as a place of seclusion and to build a private mausoleum."

"Information about the two of them leaving behind ultimate martial arts heritage inside the mausoleum was real. However, the tricky part was that when the elderly previous clan head passed away, he forgot and didn’t manage to recount the location details to his four sons in time."

"Only recently, coincidentally the third son named Eren stumbled upon and found his father’s old diary hidden in a secret chamber. Reading through those recorded lines, he was startled to discover this earth-shattering secret. Information gradually leaked out..."

Nana shrugged in conclusion: "And so the bloody power struggle among the four clans to monopolize the manuals has broken out fiercely as it is now."

Hearing the story, Kirito raised his hand to stroke his chin, nodding slightly to commit all the important intelligence information just gathered to memory.