Old Man Jiang parted the snow and rescued the cook, only to see him motionless, sprawled on the ground with profound sorrow filling his eyes.
"N-Not necessarily your family's member, you know. Such ordinary iron thumb rings are everywhere," Old Man Jiang comforted him.
The cook sat up. "My wife was wearing a green ruqun, and A Xue was wrapped in a red swaddling cloth with white floral patterns. Am I right or wrong?"
Old Man Jiang was once again at a loss for words. Both corpses were stark naked, their clothes stripped away by someone; how could he possibly know?
Yet his silence made the cook laugh a miserable laugh once more, taking it as confirmation.
Before Old Man Jiang could explain further, he heard a roar. A brawny man came running with heavy strides, his eyes burning crimson, his muscles bulging and terrifying.
Both of them stared in shock. On one hand, this man's appearance was terrifying, and he was approaching aggressively.
On the other hand, they recognized this man as one of the cannibal refugees who had fled earlier. Yet, after not even half an hour, how had he become so burly?
This... this was the monster, right?
Roar! Without a word, the red-eyed refugee grabbed at the old man's chest with a pair of huge hands.
Old Man Jiang didn't hesitate in the slightest either. While lunging sideways, he held his woodchopping knife in his left hand and slashed diagonally upward!
Rip!
Urgh-ah!
A foot-long gash was cut under the red-eyed refugee's left ribs, and fresh blood gushed out in streams.
He cried out in pain, but his footsteps didn't stop. In fact, the movements of his hands grew even faster, producing a sound of tearing air as he lunged at the old man.
So fast! While rolling frantically, Old Man Jiang showed anxiety on his face.
How had this refugee suddenly become so formidable?
Although he, Old Man Jiang, had campaigned in the military for many years and learned saber techniques—capable of handling three or five ordinary men effortlessly—that little bit of skill was completely low-grade in the pugilistic world!
In contrast, the brute force and speed of this red-eyed refugee were simply not something ordinary martial artists could unleash.
Now, Old Man Jiang was holding two children in his arms, and his right hand was injured, leaving him able to hold the knife only with his left hand. Added to his old age, frailty, and three days without food, he was utterly exhausted—how could he possibly fight?
After barely struggling through a few moves, he was caught by the refugee.
My life is at its end... Old Man Jiang sighed. Offering no resistance, he placed the two infants on the snow at the very last moment to avoid accidental injury.
Who would have thought that this action of his would save a life instead?
The red-eyed refugee casually tossed him aside and grabbed the male infant who was sucking on his finger.
"Do not harm my grandson!" Eyes about to burst, this guy had returned inexplicably stronger just to eat this child?
"Ah-ah-ah-ah! I'll fight you to the death!" Old Man Jiang's head buzzed. With hair standing on end in fury, he charged forward like a life-risking man, driving his woodchopping knife straight into the refugee's chest.
This strike of his was both fast and fierce, even knocking the refugee over!
It was a pity the weapon in his hand was a woodchopping knife, its curved blade not particularly sharp; it missed injuring the refugee's heart by just a hair.
Even so, it still inflicted a heavy blow on his opponent. The refugee's blood flow seemed extremely fast, and with just this single blow, blood sprayed out like a gushing spring.
"Fool!" Watching from afar, Chen Hu couldn't help cursing inwardly when he saw the refugee get stabbed so easily by an old man.
Yet there was nothing to be done. Surface-level kung fu rivaled the second-tier, but in reality, it was low-grade; actual combat prowess involved far too many factors.
That refugee understood no techniques whatsoever. Possessing brute strength alone, he was utterly clumsy!
Not only failing to leverage his own advantages, he had also lost his cool head. He had told him to go kill the demon infant, and the guy really only killed the demon infant?
Why shake off that old man? Wouldn't it have been fine to just crush him to death when he caught him?
Chen Hu curled his lips, though fortunately the refugee had still severely wounded the demon infant. With his belly completely torn open, wouldn't this strike force him to reveal his true form?
This old man wants to see what your true body is!
"Eh?" After staring for a long time, Chen Hu was stunned instead. "What? He's still not revealing his true form?"
The demon infant lay on the ground with blood pooling everywhere. He lay paralyzed, unable to move, painfully gasping for breath, whimpering, and crying with tears streaming down his face.
"Wuwu wawawawawa..." Seeing his grandson disemboweled, Old Man Jiang wept bitterly, desperately wanting to hold the child.
Yet having served in the army, he knew to eradicate evils completely. At that moment, he pressed down on his opponent, his woodchopping knife twisting frantically in his hand, determined to send that villain to his death.
The red-eyed refugee wailed in agony. Suddenly, a stream of true qi circulated within his chest, transforming into a massive force that surged outward, sending Old Man Jiang flying with a loud crash.
Following that, he executed a spring-like bound and actually stood up once more.
Blood was still spraying from his chest, but it only drove him into an even greater frenzy. "Old man... I'll kill you!"
Chen Hu, observing from the shadows, murmured to himself, He finally used it. That's right, fight just like that. You have five years of this old man's kung fu inside your meridians!
At this moment, Old Man Jiang had been blasted more than a zhang away by the true qi, his ribs fractured. He violently spat a mouthful of blood, his face turning pale white.
In this condition, he had no way left to stop the red-eyed refugee from walking over to take his life.
At the most critical juncture, the cook charged up. "You dog, go die!"
He picked up a sharp stone and smashed it fiercely against the back of the refugee's head.
Then, taking advantage of the refugee turning around, he circled around from the other side to face the refugee's front, seized the woodchopping knife protruding from his chest, and slashed with all his might.
The red-eyed refugee's wound widened once more, and fresh blood flowed without stop.
Chen Hu shook his head in anxious exasperation. "Idiot, losing this much blood, he can hold on for thirty breaths at most."
"Hmm?"
At the same time, Chen Hu was paying attention to the demon infant, only to see that within this short span of time, the demon infant had started moving on his own.
Covered in ice shards and snowflakes, he shrank back toward his belly, returning to his original position.
"Monster!" Chen Hu gasped in astonishment. He didn't know what kind of monster this was, but such formidable life force was definitely not of mortal stock.
And even weirder things were yet to come. The once-limp demon infant could move again, and even stopped crying, relying on his soft, tender muscles to crawl into a sitting position!
With tear-blurred eyes, innocent and full of curiosity, he seemed to be wondering what this was...
"Slurp!" He seemed hungry!
"Ah, this..." Chen Hu felt his rationality degrade a bit, his mind full of confusion.
What was this monster doing?
Chen Hu had imagined the demon infant suddenly revealing his true form and ferociously slaughtering all directions.
He had also imagined the demon infant smiling coldly, wielding sorcery to eliminate the enemy.
Even more, the demon infant might possess profound cultivation, using his spiritual sense to discover him lurking in the shadows, and then coming straight for him.
Yet instead, the demon infant acted precisely like an infant who understood nothing at all, sucking away right there.
If one were to say he was continuing to disguise himself as a child... but in what way did he still look like a human?
Why? Chen Hu couldn't fathom it; the only explanation was... this monster was playing.
This might well be a powerful monster, deliberately toying with mortals.
Chen Hu desperately wanted to leave, but without witnessing truly formidable, irresistible demon arts, he still felt unwilling to give up.
"Fool! Go get the demon bone!" Chen Hu's lips moved slightly, transmitting his voice via true qi straight into the refugee's ears.
This was the art of Sound Transmission into Secret; with his cultivation, he could transmit sound within fifty zhang in an open space.
He saw that the red-eyed refugee had already blasted the cook away with a single punch after the latter had tangled with him at the cost of his life. This punch utilized true qi and possessed formidable might!
The cook was struck so hard that his chest collapsed deeply, blood bursting from his mouth and nose, his eyes staring wide, his face like golden paper as his complexion turned ashen at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Young man!" Struggling to his feet, Old Man Jiang felt profound sorrow upon seeing that the cook was clearly beyond saving.
Following Chen Hu's command, the red-eyed refugee did not kill the old man again. He strode swiftly to the demon infant's side, and upon seeing the sight of the demon infant sucking on him, he was also startled.
Then, he grabbed the demon infant and pried open his belly once more, searching for the so-called demon bone.
Yet after searching for a long time, turning him over and over, poking and digging, he saw no jade-like bone whatsoever.
"There isn't any!" the red-eyed refugee shouted toward Chen Hu's direction, his tone simultaneously carrying an irrepressible agony and weakness—the sequela of the forced empowerment was appearing.
"Idiot, don't yell at me..." Chen Hu rolled over and hid behind a tree, exposing half his face to observe.
The demon infant didn't look over, hanging from the refugee's hand like a broken, ruined ragdoll.
His skin was pale white, and his gaze was somewhat hazy; his entire body hung limp without a shred of strength.
Judging by this appearance, he was also bleeding too heavily and was about to perish?
"Impossible! If he were truly heavily wounded and dying, he would definitely reveal his true form..."
"This fellow is clearly faking it... Could he be trying to lure me out?"
Chen Hu held his breath and concentrated, preparing to flee at any moment.
Sure enough, it moved as obediently as an arm, but this time it didn't drill directly back into the belly; instead, it drifted along and burrowed straight into the wound on the red-eyed refugee's chest! It was just like an umbilical cord.
At the same time, the demon infant seemed completely fine again. His skin regained its rosy hue, his limbs thrashed about, and he struggled in the refugee's palm.
To look at him, he seemed starved to the extreme, repeatedly smacking his lips and licking the corners of his mouth. Paired with his harmless little face, the sight was chilling in the extreme!
"Ah! The monster is drinking my blood!" The red-eyed refugee got a fright, thinking the monster was finally going to show its true colors. He immediately tightened his arm, channeling true qi along his meridians to guide it out from his palm, pouring it endlessly into the demon infant's body.
This was the sole palm technique Chen Hu had taught him before sending him off, capable of mobilizing true qi to transform into palm force that wreaked havoc within the demon infant's meridians, beating him until his whole body spouted blood with ceaseless popping sounds.
"Ya!" The demon infant shrieked miserably, opening his mouth wide in agony and gasping for air desperately.
This was an infant's instinct; once subjected to any harm, besides crying, the little mouth would suck desperately, even if there was no milk at all.
Seeing the enemy torturing his child, Old Man Jiang completely lost his mind. At the horrifying sight of the blood-soaked infant convulsing in the refugee's hand, his heart ached so fiercely it tore his guts apart.
Disregarding entirely whether he could win or not, he charged into the refugee's embrace like a mad bull, thrusting one hand deep into the large gash torn by the woodchopping knife while biting down on the refugee's throat with his teeth.
Instinctively raising his knee, the refugee kicked the old man flying away.
"Cough, cough..." Coughing up blood continuously, Old Man Jiang finally failed to get back up.
"Hmph!" If the refugee hadn't been incapable of splitting his focus to control his true qi, that kick just now would have killed the old man.
His true qi continued to batter the demon infant, his palm force rolling like wave upon wave, while the demon infant cried and struggled in his palm.
Yet somehow, it no longer possessed the meridian-bursting might of the very beginning. In fact, the demon infant even seemed to find it quite comfortable; after a moment he stopped crying and smacked his small lips, radiating the satisfaction of having finished nursing.
"Huh?" Amidst his shock, he raised his left palm again and slammed it fiercely against the demon infant's forehead—truly a two-pronged approach!
However, his true qi could no longer function as it had before, sending hidden forces to detonate the demon infant's meridians and make him shriek. Instead, it was like a mud ox entering the sea.
"Tsk~" Far from worsening, the demon infant's complexion grew even better than before, regaining his naive, inquisitive gaze, his little mouth sucking audibly.
The refugee had never been very good at controlling his power, and his true qi gushed forth like an opened floodgate, ending up completely given to the demon infant.
"Damn it, I'll tear you to pieces!"
The refugee felt agonizing pain all over his body. Ever since he was injured and bled, he had been extremely uncomfortable; that 'invincible under heaven' feeling of power continuously receded, and his internal organs ached down to the marrow.
He might have been able to endure it before, but with his true qi completely squandered now, it only hurt worse on top of pain.
He exerted every ounce of his thousand-jin strength—forget a person, he could tear sheet metal apart with this! He intended to thoroughly rip the demon infant to shreds and find that demon bone.
Yet this time, he couldn't tear him apart...
"What?" The refugee was startled. Earlier, with just a tiny bit of force, he had disemboweled the demon infant with absolute ease.
Now giving it his all, how could he fail to tear him apart? Furthermore, the demon infant's belly was already split open; tearing along the wound should have been even easier!
Yet the reality was that his thousand-jin strength couldn't even expand the wound by so much as half an inch!
"Die, go die!" Realizing that this monster was playing for keeps and likely using demon arts, the refugee—having exhausted all his tricks—panicked.
The red-eyed refugee hastily let go of the demon infant, dropping him onto the ground.
Yet upon being dropped like this, the demon infant instead wore a painful expression once more, even rolling his eyes back so that one could see the back of his head striking a stone, cracking open to bleed.
Such formidable palm force had been useless, but a knock against a stone caused severe injury?
"M-Monster... I shall execute you!"
The red-eyed refugee pulled out the woodchopping knife stuck in his body, took a step forward, and struck down fiercely, determined to chop the demon infant into minced meat.
"No!" Eyes about to burst, Old Man Jiang cried out, yet lacked the strength to stop him.
Yet right at this critical juncture, the red-eyed refugee clutched his chest, his face drained of all color.
"Urgh..."
He felt a bone-deep agony throughout his entire body, and his heart directly... stopped beating!
"Urgh-gurgle-gurgle..." His face twisted to the extreme, his eyeballs bulging while his pupils dilated, and his brawny torso collapsed with a loud thud!
His sturdy muscles instantly withered away, becoming even leaner than before.
Blood slowly trickled from his seven orifices, and not a shred of breath remained.
p.s: Sorry. The corner of the mouth