After weaving through several winding alleys, Joel came to the location marked on the map.

This is an abandoned courtyard in the northern part of the Ice City, overgrown with weeds and dead wood, and dilapidated.

"Is there really a mistake with this information...... Joel hid sideways behind a crumbling stone wall not far away, picking up the map to reconfirm.

The area he was in now was one of the most dilapidated in the Ice City, usually deserted, and the dilapidated buildings and roads had been left untouched for a long time.

"But...... The guy named Lino really needed such a secluded location if he sensed danger and wanted to hide. Joel thought.

The courtyard is not large, and at first glance there is nothing but a few stumps and leaves.

"How do you hide in such a place?" Joel still wondered. At this time, he recalled the last pursuit. When Lino escaped the tunnel and entered the back garden of the palace, he saw exactly this scene before his eyes.

Thinking of this, Joel crept into the yard, trying not to make any movement as much as possible, and focused his attention on the ground beneath the weeds and branches.

Sure enough, Joel noticed that some of the branches and dirt had been crushed, and it looked like someone had walked on them. He lowered his waist and pushed the cover away with his hands, seeing that the exposed dirt was very loose. After sweeping the shallow soil away, as expected, there was a well-shaped entrance underneath, covered by a circular stone slab.

Joel removed the slab, grabbed a stone from the side and threw it in. Through the echoes, he judged that the entrance was a slope, and the depth of the tunnel was not shallow.

Joel took the fluorescent stone out of his pocket. This stone is magically enchanted, and it always emits a magical fluorescence, which is especially noticeable in the dark. This is one of the treasures that Edetta gave him, which can be used in the dark instead of candles, illuminating the field of vision, and the effect is stable, not affected by environmental factors such as thin air.

He leapt into the tunnel, and slowly walked forward with the glow of fluorescent stone.

The construction of this tunnel is obviously not as elaborate as the previous road leading to the palace. There was no flat ground, no lights on either side, only damp and foul air and gravel pits everywhere, as if they had been built in a hurry.

"Could it be a temporary shelter that Lino built after the last incident?" thought Joel.

He traveled dozens of meters, still not seeing the end of the tunnel. At this time, Joel seemed to hear some subtle movements.

Vigilance, he immediately put the fluorescent stone back into his arms, leaned sideways against the wall, held his breath, and listened carefully.

When Joel quieted down, he could clearly hear footsteps, his steps were messy and he landed heavily, and it didn't seem like the other party was trying to hide the movement. The voice was gradually drawing closer to Joel.

"There's someone here, it should be Lino!" Joel thought, keeping his breath to a minimum, his hand clenching the hilt of his sword at his waist, ready to strike instantly when the opponent enters his attack range, and defeat the enemy with one blow.

Joel listened with bated breath, and after a few more steps, Joel felt that the position was in his range. He just wanted to make a move, only to hear the other party muttering to himself: "Damn, what the hell is this place......"

For some reason, after hearing the other party's voice, Joel felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, but it was not anyone he knew. This muttering made Joel hesitate for a moment, and did not make a move, but he didn't expect the other party to notice the abnormality first.

Joel saw a sudden burst of light in front of him, which should have been the other party holding up something similar to fluorescent stone. He knew that it was difficult for him to hide anymore, so he simply took advantage of the fact that now, before the other party had time to see him clearly, he directly attacked and preempted the enemy.

He jumped out to the opponent's diagonal side with an arrow step, leaned forward with his upper body, and at the same time raised his right hand holding the sword outward, intending to directly use the inertia of the forward leap to cut the opponent's throat with a sword. The moves are vicious, and Joel is very powerful, and his movements are extremely fast, if he hits, the scene must be extremely tragic.

But Joel knows that the opponent may not be so simple, after all, he can sense his presence when he is holding his breath and the environment is dark, and he will not be an ordinary person.

Sure enough, the other party reacted extremely quickly, and quickly dodged backwards, dodging Joel's throat cut.

This situation was expected by Joel, and he had already prepared the next move. I saw Joel cut his throat and cut it empty, bent down on the side, turned around, and reflexively stabbed the opponent from the left side.

Joel's thorn has two main points. One is to spin back and make it difficult for the opponent to counterattack, even if he counterattacks, he can only hit Joel's back and other areas that are not easily injured, so that he is prepared for defense, and in addition, after turning around, Joel stabs the opponent to the left side, so that it is difficult for him to dodge again. Because Joel's first move is to cut his throat on his right side, the opponent must retain the inertia of the left after dodging, and at this time, stabbing to the left, the opponent can no longer change the direction of his dodge in an instant.

The corners of Joel's mouth raised slightly, full of confidence in this blow, and with the belief that he would kill, he stabbed with all his might.

With a "bell", Joel only felt that his wrist suffered a powerful concussion, and the sword that he stabbed with all his strength was steadily blocked by the other party, which made his tendons numb, and the fingers holding the sword were a little weak.

Shocked by this change, Joel hurriedly took two sharp steps back, and with a slight trembling sword crossed his chest in a defensive posture, while carefully observing the other party.

The light in the tunnel was dim, and even though the other party had lighting objects in his hands, Joel could only roughly see that there was a man in front of him, who seemed to be a young man, with a well-proportioned figure, holding a sword in his right hand, and holding a fluorescent stone in his left hand.

"This guy doesn't look like Leno......" Joel thought to himself.

"Are you Lino?" the other man opened his mouth first.

Joel was stunned at first, but immediately understood that the other party should also be looking for Lino. "This Lino is really extraordinary, so many masters are looking for this guy. It seems that my trip will not be easy. Joel thought.

Having met Crete before, and this time by a mysterious master, Joel, who had never missed a beat, ran into a wall twice in a row in such a short period of time, and his pride and self-esteem made him angry.

Joel stared at the opponent in front of him with murderous aura, silently telling himself that he must kill the other party today, even if he dies here, he can't escape, and he must not insult the dignity of the killer again!

Joel made up his mind, and the hand holding the sword increased a little more strength, leaning forward slightly as his left foot slowly took a step diagonally forward.

This seems to be a simple small step, but in fact there are many hidden mysteries: one is to prevent oneself from standing too dead and being hit by the opponent's sudden attack through footsteps; the other is to find the right time to make a move, test the opponent's reaction, if the opponent does not change his position in time and appropriately, he can find out the flaw and launch an attack, and at the same time, he can also use this to judge the opponent's strength.

With years of experience in training and tasks, Joel will not panic in any situation, and can still keep his mind running at a high speed. After taking this step, he instantly conceived in his mind the various ways of dealing with the other party and the follow-up moves he should take, and he believed that the other party's mind would not think more than he thought in such a short moment.

But what Joel didn't expect was that the other party didn't make any special moves, but just turned slightly with the direction of Joel's movement, keeping the front always facing Joel's direction.

This simple turn is the best way for Joel to deal with this tentative step, which does not mess up and reveal flaws, but also makes the moving Joel appear unstable and full of flaws.

"To be able to react like this requires extreme calmness first," Joel thought quickly, "but even if you are calm, without sufficient experience, it is difficult to figure out the best way in an instant, what the hell is going on with this guy......"

Joel's tentative steps are simple, but the subsequent changes are very complex, and it is difficult to deal with them on the spot without enough practice. Many people were killed by Joel's follow-up moves simply because they didn't deal with this step well, and it was because of this that Joel appeared to kill cleanly. It took him a lot of training to put this tentative step to good use, and he also discovered the only nemesis of this move, the turn without additional movements.

And the man in front of him, as if he had practiced this trick repeatedly like Joel, made the simplest and most effective response - turning.

Although turning around is a dead end for the tentative step, Joel has done a lot of practice after all, and it is impossible to be overwhelmed by this alone. I saw that he used his left foot to kick hard, and the whole person rushed out to the right front, trying to attack the opponent's left side.

This trick also has a hidden mystery. With the distance between Joel and his opponent, Joel can't reach the opponent's side with a single arrow step. Although his move may seem ferocious, it is actually a feint, and he will quickly pop out to the left front when his right foot lands, and this time it is the real attack.

If the opponent is frightened or tricked by Joel's feints, they will turn to the left to defend themselves, but this will expose their right side, which is exactly what Joel is really targeting.

These two combos are Joel's very proud starting moves. It was this combo that he had won every hand-to-hand combat he had encountered, and he had never missed, otherwise he wouldn't have survived to this day. In fact, there were very few people who could get him to use this second trick, and most of them had seen the view of hell after Joel's tentative step.

With another "bell", Joel's attack was once again fiercely blocked, and the other party seemed to have anticipated Joel's true intentions and easily blocked Joel's attack on the right side.

Joel was very stunned and took two quick steps back again, distancing himself from the other to prevent danger. However, as soon as he looked up, the opponent's sword was already pointed in front of him.

Before they could gain a firm foothold, they had attacked the other side, and the situation was very critical.

There was another sword encounter, and Joel blocked one of the opponent's swords. Joel had subconsciously raised his sword before he raised his head, otherwise he would not have been able to escape this move.

It's just that even he himself wonders why this battle seems to have been rehearsed, he seems to have known in his mind that the other party will stab at him and subconsciously raise his hand in advance, and the other party seems to know his tricks well, and the whole fight has a sense of déjà vu.

After this sword, both sides stopped moving, paused, and said two words in a trembling voice: "Xidan?"

Joel thought the voice was all too familiar.