In the next moment, two ropes broke, and the ninja gritted his teeth, clutching two ropes, swinging towards the other side like a swing.

"Quick, grab the ropes and pull Oda up."

Kawai shouted, and Ozawa Ria and Kurokawa Motoishi promptly grabbed the two ropes.

"Bang....."

Meanwhile, a dull sound was heard as Oda directly collided with the mountain wall. Although he had already reduced the force, the collision still left him somewhat dazed.

"Didn’t fall down, truly worthy of a ninja."

Looking at Oda still tightly gripping the rope, Xia Liang squinted his eyes, having underestimated this fellow.

"Hold on, Oda, we’ll pull you up now."

Kawai Matsutake also noticed that the ninja was okay, shouted, and then together with Ozawa Ria and Kurokawa Motoishi started pulling the rope, gently lifting the ninja up.

If examined closely, one would find the ninja’s hands gripping the ropes had started bleeding, and there were cuts all over his body from the sharp stones on the mountain wall he had hit earlier.

Even so, the ninja gritted his teeth and persisted, which almost moved Xia Liang.

"Since you went down, don’t think about coming back up."

Xia Liang slightly smiled, with three shurikens appearing in his hand, which he had gotten from Aoi’s corpse earlier.

The corpse had turned to ashes in the flames, but the three shurikens, due to their good craftsmanship, remained intact.

"Xia Liang, you bastard, if you dare take action, I’ll make sure you die without a burial place.."

Kawai Matsutake also saw the shurikens in Xia Liang’s hand, and immediately shouted. Less than ten meters remained for them to pull Oda up.

"Is that so? Then death is all I ask."

Laughing dismissively at Kawai Matsutake’s threat, Xia Liang prepared to unleash the shurikens towards Oda.

A distance of fifty meters, in normal circumstances after the shurikens are thrown, quick-reacting people could dodge them, not to mention these ninjas.

This is also the reason Kawai Matsutake and the others hadn’t attacked Xia Liang, as it would be utterly meaningless and only lead to wasting weapons.

But now the situation was different. Oda was in mid-air, completely unable to dodge. Although Xia Liang dreamt of directly killing him, that wasn’t his intent.

As long as they hit their target, the sharp pain would force him to let go.

Just as Xia Liang was preparing to strike, the sound of blades breaking through the air suddenly echoed, and sharp blades shot out from the mountain wall, heading towards Oda.

"Ah..."

Next moment, Oda let out a miserable shriek as his body was pierced by numerous sharp blades, forming bloody holes, and he instinctively released his grip on the rope due to the pain.

"Bang....."

After about ten seconds, everyone heard a dull sound coming from the bottom of the cliff, and it was clear Oda was dead beyond recovery.

Even Kawai Matsutake and his group were surprised by the unexpected change, and Xia Liang was perplexed as well; he hadn’t even moved, yet the other person had died.

"Cough, Kawai-san, it’s not my fault; I haven’t even made a move yet."

Xia Liang said while putting away the shurikens, saving himself three weapons.

Simultaneously a bit astonished, he hadn’t expected Zhuge Liang to be so ruthless, setting traps in the cliff walls.

"But isn’t it odd? Zhuge Liang wouldn’t expect anyone to survive after falling into a hundred-meter abyss, right?"

Xia Liang wasn’t aware that this canyon was once a river that had dried up over the years due to geological changes, which turned it into a vast gorge.

"Xia Liang, if I don’t kill you in this life, I swear not to be human."

At this moment, Kawai Matsutake’s roar echoed again, his eyes filled with killing intent as he looked at Xia Liang.

"Kawai-san, that’s not fair; Oda-san wasn’t killed by me. You saw it, Zhuge Liang did it. If you want revenge, you should look for Zhuge Liang."

Xia Liang shrugged and said helplessly, honestly this time it wasn’t his doing.

Kawai Matsutake gritted his teeth as he glared at Xia Liang. How dare this guy say that; if he hadn’t cut the rope, how would Oda have nearly fallen off a cliff and been killed by Zhuge Liang’s hidden weapons.

"Oda wasn’t killed by you, but he died because of you!"

Kawai Matsutake said coldly.

"So what? You want revenge?"

Xia Liang said indifferently, also looking at the wooden bridge.

"There’s a bridge here, isn’t there? If you want revenge, I’ll wait for you here. Come if you dare."

"Bastard, Xia Liang, once we take this treasure, I’ll tear you limb from limb!"

"Come if you dare!"

"Doesn’t your Dragon Country have a torture method called Lingchi? I’ll make sure you experience it too."

"Come if you dare."

"And your family, I’ll make you watch as we torment them; it’ll become your nightmare!"

"Come if you dare!"

"Can’t you say something else?"

"What? You want to kill me, right? Come if you dare. There’s a bridge here, isn’t there? Come if you dare. I’ll wait for you here; come if you dare. Anyone can talk big; come over if you have the guts...."

....

Across from him, Xia Liang’s arrogant demeanor made Ueno Matsutake spit out a mouthful of blood, furious internally. If looks could kill, Xia Liang would have been dismembered by now.

"Enough, don’t waste words with him. Although we can’t get over, he can’t come here either, and that’s fine; he can’t bother us while we go inside."

Kawai Matsutake wanted to speak but was stopped by Nakamura Komachi.

"Once this is over, killing him will be as easy as pie."

"Mr. Nakamura’s right."

Kawai Matsutake took a deep breath, calming himself slightly, but hearing Xia Liang’s "come if you dare" from across the canyon still made the corners of his mouth twitch.

"They’re not paying attention to me anymore, how annoying."

Watching the four heading towards the Stone Gate, Xia Liang stroked his chin and thought for a moment. He hadn’t meant to provoke Kawai Matsutake, mainly he wanted to buy time.

Of course, if he could instigate Kawai Matsutake to really come over by the bridge, that would be ideal.

But reality didn’t allow that.

Should he deal with them here?

There should be more traps inside, right?

As Xia Liang pondered, Kawai Matsutake and the others arrived at the giant Stone Gate.

The giant Stone Gate was carved with various intricate patterns, still shining brightly even after a thousand years, and beside the gate were two ancient words: "Gate of Death."

Kawai Matsutake and the others understood this was Zhuge Liang’s final warning to those who came here; if they continued forward, danger awaited inside.