The woman in red giggled, "You're too soft-hearted. I told you, killing all those people would let you escape, why didn't you believe me?"

"Now look, you've hidden in the underground pipes, even those three long howls from before won't work anymore. What ability do you have to deal with so many rats?"

"Take a close look at their eyes. Isn't my shadow in the eyes of every single rat?"

"Where there's a shadow, I can create countless clones. How are you going to deal with me?"

"Haha…" I suddenly laughed and turned to look at the woman in red.

She was taken aback by my laughter: "What are you laughing at?"

I said calmly, "I'm laughing at the fact that you've been fooled too! I dared to come down here because I can capture you."

The woman in red cautiously scanned her surroundings before slowly breathing a sigh of relief: "I really can't see how you're going to deal with me."

I stood with my hands behind my back, a half-smile on my face: "What are rats most afraid of?"

"Cats?" The woman in red subconsciously said "cats", then immediately exclaimed, "Snakes?"

"That's right!" I walked towards her step by step: "Let me formally introduce myself, I'm a disciple of the Snake King. I brought you down here so you would split yourself into the rats. That way, I can kill you!"

The woman in red laughed heartily: "You don't need to scare me. This is the Northeast, not the South. There aren't that many snakes here. If you have the ability, summon a snake! I'll show you what a swarm of rats devouring a snake looks like!"

While I was speaking, my right hand had been stretched out with my fingers slightly spread towards the ground. From the woman in red's perspective, my posture was just the usual way a martial arts expert gathers and builds up strength. Little did she know, I was using a secret technique of the Snake King.

I had already used my knife to cut a snake-shaped wound on the palm of my hand when I jumped down the well.

When I was talking to her earlier, there was indeed a process of accumulating power, but that was just using my zhenqi to wrap the blood that was about to drip from my palm.

As soon as the woman in red finished speaking, the zhenqi in my hand burst out, forcefully striking the blood in my hand towards the ground.

The scarlet bloodstain, like a small snake lying on the ground, raised its head grimly, echoing my palm from afar.

As the blood light flowed in my hand, I shouted sharply: "Nine Nether Poison Scales, heed my command, kill!"

The secret technique was activated, and a ghostly wind suddenly rose. The ghostly wind that rose from nowhere instantly turned into countless venomous snakes with bared fangs, wildly dancing and rushing towards the rat swarm.

Although those rats had been controlled by her, their fear of their natural enemies was not diminished at all. When the venomous snakes flew over, they immediately panicked, pushing and shoving each other as they fell from the air.

Countless black shadows, accompanied by squeaking screams, fell to the ground. Snake shadows that emerged from the ground bit at their targets one after another, swallowing them before the rats could even land.

Amidst the wildly dancing black shadows, I quickly rushed towards the retreating woman in red.

She retreated rapidly, sticking close to the heating pipes, her hands waving yin energy that rushed towards me.

The blade wind and yin energy collided continuously in the limited space, and the force of the impact was wild. The pipes that were cut off by my blade qi rolled around like fallen rocks. But I didn't give in at all, kicking away the iron pipes and engaging the woman in red.

The moment my blade was about to reach the top of her head, the squeaking sounds of the rats suddenly stopped, and a soaring killing intent quietly rose behind me.

The woman in red laughed heartily, "Your secret technique is not working anymore."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the rats, which had just been routed, had regrouped, their blood-red eyes staring fiercely at me.

Although rats are small, hundreds or thousands of them gathered together, united against a common enemy, their ferocity and baleful aura were enough to be terrifying.

My secret technique had failed!

Back then, the Snake King relied on his "Nine Nether Snake Spirits" to roam the martial world unhindered, capable of fighting a thousand men. When it came to me, it might not work.

When the Snake King taught me the secret technique of the Snake Spirit, he told me: You are not a disciple of the "Yellow Jacket Marshal," one of the Ten Yama Kings, and you have never worshiped the Yellow Jacket, so don't easily summon the Snake Spirit.

The Yellow Jacket is in charge of the souls of insects and worms on the ground, and the Snake Spirit is within his jurisdiction. To borrow the Snake Spirit from him, you must at least be a believer of the Yellow Jacket Marshal. Your ancestor is not the Yellow Jacket Marshal, if he takes back the Snake Spirit, you may die without a burial place.

Ever since I learned that I was a descendant of Black and White Impermanence, I have been even more afraid to use the secret technique of the "Nine Nether Snake Spirits." This time, I had no choice but to risk casting the spell because I was overwhelmed.

If my secret technique could have lasted for another half a minute, or even a dozen seconds, I would have been confident enough to take down my opponent.

However, the Snake King's secret technique seemed to have been manipulated, failing suddenly in those crucial seconds, not only allowing my opponent to escape my control but also trapping me in the middle of the rat swarm.

This situation of being attacked from both sides was extremely uncomfortable!

A thought suddenly flashed in my mind: Someone deliberately took away my secret technique.

Has the battle between the Fate Stealers extended to the underworld?

And I just happened to be the one being used as a pawn.