Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  After muttering to himself, Jiang He promptly hung up and sent a WeChat voice message to Wang Siyu instead.

  Soon, she replied with a voice message of her own: “I can hear you now. Where are you, Jiang He?”


  “A cornfield at the eastern end of the village.”


  “Eastern end?” Wang Siyu’s tone changed as she quickly said, “There was an explosion there just now! And I received word that a Sky Demon Sect elite is coming for you, so hurry back! Our team leader will be here soon!”


  “Sky Demon Sect elite?”


  Jiang He responded with another voice message before taking a photo of Cordo’s corpse. Even though it was nighttime and dark, the photo came out clear thanks to the flash.

  After sending the photo to Wang Siyu, he asked, “Are you talking about this midget? I’ve beaten him to death, as well as the other beast-tamer of the Sky Demon Sect and over a dozen Ferals…… hold on! Where’s that big snake? Oh no. One of the Ferals isn’t dead yet. It probably ran off…… I have to deal with it. We’ll talk later.”


  Jiang He pocketed his phone after sending the voice message. Looking around, he soon found some traces of the serpent. It was exceedingly huge, flattening a lot of corn stalks in its wake and leaving a mess behind. Moreover, it had been wounded by the Pea Bomb and was bleeding profusely along the way.

  Jiang He strode forward in pursuit. “Damn it! One actually escaped? That snake is actually a rank-one Feral too! It’s worth 10 merit points, meaning a hundred thousand bucks…… I’m not letting it go when I can practically taste the money!”


  ***

  Back at Jiang He’s house in the village.

  As a WeChat notification jingled, Wang Siyu cliked on her chat with Jiang He and saw the photo he sent to her. She did a double take when she clicked on it, followed by Jiang He’s voice message which was transmitted clearly into her ear.

  “What…… Jiang He killed that rank-four martial artist of the Sky Demon Sect? Along with a dozen Ferals and one Awakened?”


  Wang Siyu could only feel her head spinning, unable to focus. That was when team leader Duan called her.

  “Wang Siyu, I’m at your village’s entrance now. Where are you?”


  “I’ll be right over.”


  Taking a deep breath, Wang Siyu went to the village entrance to find a Passat parked there, with a middle-aged man wearing a trench coat standing beside it. He stood at around one-point-seven-five meters tall and looked plain, although he appeared powerful and menacing even as he stood there casually.

  Duan Tianhe, rank-six pinnacle martial artist.

  No, he is now rank-seven!

  Dangers had lurked everywhere during his last journey to Mount Dadong. But despite the horrors and the threat of death, Duan Tianhe’s martial arts improved to the level of grandmaster in a single stroke, although he did not make a big fuss about his breakthrough.

  “What’s the situation?” Duan Tianhe looked somber as he asked about the situation in Jinyintan Village.

  However, after musing to herself for a while and still unable to decide how she should start explaining, she simply handed her phone to Duan Tianhe. The photo Jiang He sent her was on the screen.

  Duan Tianhe’s expression changed after a glance at the photo. “What’s this?” He enlarged it and studied it carefully, before exclaiming in surprise, “Cordo?!”


  “You know him, team leader Duan?” asked Wang Siyu.

  “Cordo is a rank-four martial artist from the Western Frontier,” replied Duan Tianhe. “He’s good with blades and wields a curved blade. He was an average street thug before the revival of spirit qi, and had learned a martial arts style passed down in his family. After the revival of spirit qi, his martial arts improved by leaps and bounds and he became bolder. He has been the culprit of over a dozen murders, and was on the bureau’s wanted list. The Western Frontier division managed to capture him last June, but the transport moving him to a secure prison was attacked by the Sky Demon Sect.”


  There was an unspoken agony on Duan Tianhe’s face. “A good friend of mine was in charge of that operation……” He paused briefly before continuing, “Cordo must have joined the Sky Demon Sect after they saved him. By the way, where did you get that photo?”


  “Jiang He sent it to me,” said Wang Siyu. “Looks like Cordo was the elite that the Sky Demon Sect sent to handle him. However, he managed to pacify the danger. He said that he killed Cordo, along with a Sky Demon Sect beast-tamer and a dozen Ferals.”


  “What?” Duan Tianhe appeared surprised. “Come, get in my car. I have a sudden urge to meet this Jiang He.”


  He couldn’t help being surprised, mainly because the information surrounding Jiang He was changing too rapidly. Duan Tianhe himself had read through Jiang He’s information earlier and learnt that he might be a C-class beast-tamer.

  But just days later, Jiang He’s information was updated to B-class beast tamer, as well as a martial artist between rank-two or three. Moreover, he had just received this latest information about Jiang He yesterday at Mount Dadong.

  How was he able to kill Cordo, a rank-four pinnacle martial artist, in the blink of an eye?

  His Passat cut through the village and soon arrived at the eastern end. When they reached the cornfield, Duan Tianhe and Wang Siyu found it in an utter mess.

  The corpses of twelve rank-one Ferals were neatly arranged in a single row, with one rank-two Feral placed next to them. What was left of Cordo’s corpse, which was pretty much a bloody pulp, had also been placed beside the rank-two Feral.

  Duan Tianhe scanned their surroundings. “Judging from this scene alone, these two Ferals were killed by a bomb that caused a strong explosion…… where did Jiang He get it from?”


  After all, firearms and explosives were banned in the Hua Nation, so most people wouldn’t be able to get their hands on them.

  Nonetheless, Duan Tianhe didn’t keep probing into the matter and turned his eyes to Cordo’s chest. As his gaze focused, he said, “Cordo was killed with a single palm that split all his organs and severed his lifeforce…… Every other wound on his body is an instakill from that single palm.”


  “Instakilled? exclaimed Wang Siyu in surprise, “Jiang He just made a breakthrough to rank-four. Could someone who only recently reached rank-four instakill a rank-four pinnacle martial artist?”


  “In an ambush, there’s a small chance of that happening. Cordo’s wound, however, is from a face-to-face fight……” Duan Tianhe breathed out a long sigh. “There is more to Jiang He than meets the eye. Are you sure he just reached rank-four today? Even the average rank-five pinnacle wouldn’t be able to kill Cordo with a single direct palm. By the way, didn’t you say that Jiang He killed a beast-tamer of the Sky Demon Sect too?”


  “Jiang He? Why isn’t he around?”


  That was when a dull sound could be heard—it was Jiang He, and he was dragging a snake that was half-a-meter thick and over a dozen meters long out of the cornfield. Even before he reached them, his complaining had already reached their ears.

  “You beast! You’re so good at running, huh? That’s at least over a hundred Mu worth of cornfields ruined……”


  Dumping the snake’s corpse amongst the pile of other Feral corpses, Jiang He glanced at Duan Tianhe and grinned. “That beast-tamer died rather horribly. I felt disgusted, so I didn’t retrieve his coprse.”