Entering the Grave

“Little Black, are you a Rebate? And your father is a King? How can you not have Teeth Knife?” There was still a while to go before the next knife rain came, so Han Sen tried to talk to Black Steel.

Hearing Han Sen call him Little Black, his eye twitched. He held back the urge to cut Han Sen down and simply closed his eyes.

“I know you must be the playful sort. I bet you like hitting on girls or something, to have skipped the years that would have allowed you to learn Teeth Knife.” Han Sen was curious. Teeth Knife was so strong, so why was it that Rocks Fall Duke had learned it, whereas Black Steel hadn’t?

Black Steel’s eyelids twitched. He stared at Han Sen and said, “Do you think everyone is as lucky as you? Teeth Knife is a Rebate skill, but not many people have the ability to practice it. Only six people know it right now, and Queen is the only one that is capable of mastering it I want to learn from her, but she does not think I am capable of learning it.”

“You can go and find the other five,” Han Sen said.

Black Steel hummed and said, “I want to learn from the best If I can’t learn it from her, I won’t accept it from anyone less. Queen recommended that I learn another skill, anyway, so I don’t need Teeth Knife.”

“What is the skill you are learning, then?” Han Sen asked.

Black Steel coldly said, “Cut-Steel Knife.”

“That sounds powerful. Is that the skill you were using?” Han Sen’s eyes opened wide. He was looking quite shocked.

Black Steel saw Han Sen was only pretending to be shocked, so he could extract more information, and felt his own eyelids repeatedly flicker with a twitch. He stood up and focused on getting to the top of the mountain.

“Little Black, where are you going?” Han Sen asked as he followed.

“I have a death wish. If you are afraid of dying, then I recommend that you don’t come any further. When the grave erupts, you’ll be slaughtered,” Black Steel said coldly. Then, he went ahead to reach the peak.

Han Sen did not believe Black Steel was going to die, and he was quite happy to have finally met someone with a fine temper. He wasn’t going to let him go off quite so easily.

So, Han Sen followed him up to the peak. It was like a real volcano there. When Han Sen looked down, it looked like a meatgrinder beneath him, with a sea of knives all lying together. They lined up like the layers of teeth within the maws of a monster. It was a scary sight to see.

At the bottom, there was a red juice. It was lava, presumably. The weapons appeared to be ticking out from the liquid.

“Little Black, can we find a weapon amidst those? The weapons are all together, right? So, the good ones should be easier to find.” Han Sen couldn’t take his eyes off the Knife Grave.

Black Steel coldly said, “If you aren’t afraid of dying, you can certainly try.”

Han Sen thought his life was more important. He wasn’t familiar with this place, so it was best not to risk it all by trying to venture in.

While Han Sen was thinking about this, Black Steel was actually climbing down already.

“Little Black, why are you going down?” Han Sen looked surprised.

“I am not afraid of dying,” Black Steel said simply. He was clutching a knife as he made his descent.

Han Sen decided to follow. The knives were all crisscrossed, and the places you could grab onto were just the blades. It was like you were climbing a knife mountain.

Fortunately, those blades were fairly poor. They were like the ones that had just fallen in the first rain. And since the dull knives weren’t currently falling out of the sky, they weren’t really dangerous.

“Little Black,” Han Sen said, just as he felt the blades start to shake. The steel juice at the bottom was beginning to bubble and boil. It looked ready to fly upwards.

Black Steel gave Han Sen a signal to be quiet He stayed silent, and then the knives and the steel juice became calm.

Han Sen tried to copy him and kept on climbing. It seemed like Black Steel had brought him here just to get him to shut up.

The lower they got, the sharper the knives became. They were surrounded by knives now, and if the knives started to move, Han Sen and Black Steel would be turned into pincus.h.i.+ons.

Even if the knives didn’t move, Han Sen could imagine the fate that would await him if he slipped.

But Han Sen was not afraid, and neither was Black Steel. In reality, he had nothing to be afraid of. He could always fly for a short time, and here, that would be enough to get him to safety.

And furthermore, he had the Taurus s.h.i.+eld. There was no way that the blades of a Baron could harm it. Then again, if Han Sen used the s.h.i.+eld, he wasn’t sure if the knives would still want him.

They climbed down quietly, getting closer and closer to the steel juice. Black Steel had only decided to come here because Han Sen had asked so many questions. The curiosity of wondering if there were any knives being born also played a part.

But there had only been one rain, and the good knives wouldn’t be revealed just yet. Han Sen wasn’t too hopeful.

When he looked at the seething steel juice, he saw a pitch-black horse knife resting halfway within the liquid. The air was insanely hot that close to the liquid steel, but the sight still gave Han Sen the chills. Han Sen was thinking, “That’s a good knife.”

The knife was inside the steel juice. Han Sen tried reaching for it, but he was short by two arm lengths.

He didn’t dare to move suddenly. If he s.h.i.+fted his weight too much, it would undoubtedly make the knives move, and the grave might even erupt at a faster pace. Even if their bodies were built of steel, they would still be sliced and diced into dust.

Black Steel frowned. He thought the horse knife was a Viscount cla.s.s weapon. If he got it now, it would help him reach the seventh round. It was difficult to find a weapon such as that before the seventh rain. That knife might even carry him all the way to the tenth round.

If he gave up now and waited until the eruption, the knife might end up at a random location several hundred miles away. It’d be hard to find it.

But there was no way he could reach it Just as Black Steel was giving up, Han Sen came down next to him and got his attention, then grabbed his arm.

Black Steel understood what he meant Han Sen wanted to lift him and let him reach out for the knife.