Just This?

There really was poison in the wine.

But Shen Che's body had long since been strengthened to an unimaginable level. The sheer force of his vitality and blood far surpassed anything ordinary people could imagine.

This poison, specially made to deal with Body Tempering Realm martial artists, was no different from drinking water to him.

Zhang Hao clutched his severed arm as blood poured from it. He rolled across the ground in agony, his face twisted into something ghostly from the pain and blood loss.

He glared at Shen Che with venomous hatred.

"Lord Demonic Beast! Please! Don't kill him—leave him to me!"

"I'll skin him alive! I'll carve his flesh off piece by piece!"

The leader among the three "guards" let out a low laugh, his voice like sandpaper grinding together.

"Fine."

"As long as you continue obeying us and lure more, stronger Demon Queller Envoys here, this human will be your reward."

The instant his words fell, a cloud of foul black qi exploded violently from the three of them.

The crackling explosions of breaking bones made teeth ache. Their bodies rapidly grew taller and swelled before everyone's eyes, bursting through their guard uniforms.

The leader grew dense blood-red scales over his body, his hands transforming into claws. Two clumps of bloody flame seemed to burn within his eye sockets.

Of the two beside him, one's head turned into a savage eagle's head, while the other grew boar-like tusks and bristles.

Terrifying demonic qi swept outward, making the poisoned Li brothers, sprawled on the ground, catch their breath.

"True Meridian Realm... These are General-level Demonic Beasts!" Li Zimo cried out in horror.

The realm the two brothers had desperately sought to break through into had produced three of them here all at once.

"Kid, get the hell out of here!" Li Zifeng roared from the ground with all his strength. "Forget about us! Go back and report this—the whole of Qingxi County is a trap!"

Li Zimo hurriedly echoed him, "Junior Brother Shen, while the green hills remain, there will always be firewood. Hurry and leave! We can't stop them!"

Shen Che stood where he was, utterly unmoving.

He glanced at the three Demonic Beasts that had fully revealed their true forms, his tone calm.

"Leave?"

"Are these little trash fish even worthy of making me run?"

The Li brothers were completely dumbfounded, wondering if they had misheard him.

"Ha... Hahaha... Hahahaha!" Zhang Hao, lying on the ground, seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. He covered his severed arm and burst into mad laughter, laughing until tears streamed from his eyes.

"Did you hear that? Did you hear that?! The poison fried his brain! A Body Tempering Realm martial artist calling three General-level Demonic Beasts trash fish?"

"Arrogant!" The eagle-headed Demonic Beast let out a shrill screech. "A mere human, yet you still dare spout such wild nonsense when death is at your doorstep!"

The blood-red pupils of the leading Blood Scale Demonic Beast brimmed with mockery and cruelty.

"Go."

He ordered the eagle-headed and boar-headed Demonic Beasts beside him.

"Tear off all four of his limbs. I want him to watch as his own body is eaten bit by bit."

"Understood, Big Brother!"

The eagle-headed and boar-headed Demonic Beasts grinned viciously and lunged at Shen Che from either side, turning into two black shadows.

Two claws gleaming with cold light tore through the air and precisely clamped down on Shen Che's arms.

"Break for me!" the boar-headed Demonic Beast roared. The muscles all over his body knotted as he exerted all his strength.

Yet the scene of torn flesh and blood he had expected never appeared.

What he had grabbed did not feel like human arms, but two red-hot branding irons—no, two pillars of dark iron a hundred times harder than branding irons.

At that moment, the vitality and blood within Shen Che's body roared like thunder. Beneath his skin, every muscle tightened, harder than iron and stone.

He did not even look at the two Demonic Beasts. He merely shook both arms outward.

Crack—!

A crisp sound of splintering bones rang out, making everyone's scalp go numb.

It was followed by two inhuman screams.

"Ahhh! My hand!"

"My finger bones!"

The claws the eagle-headed and boar-headed Demonic Beasts had locked around Shen Che's arms had every finger bone violently shattered by the rebounding force, bending outward at grotesque angles.

Shen Che gave them no chance to react.

He twisted with the momentum, attacking with both fists as he simply sent them out to either side.

There were no flashy moves, only power in its purest, most absolute form.

Bang! Bang!

Two dull booms, like battering rams smashing into flesh targets.

The two once-arrogant General-level Demonic Beasts flew seven or eight meters away like discarded rag sacks, spraying blood foam mixed with chunks of internal organs from their mouths.

Their chests had caved in completely, forming a horrifying depression.

Their bodies twitched twice, then fell silent forever.

[Absorption successful. Time Value obtained: 100 points.]

[Absorption successful. Time Value obtained: 100 points.]

The system notifications rang in Shen Che's mind, pleasant to the ear.

The entire Wang Family Village fell into dead silence once more.

Li Zifeng's fan-sized hand remained frozen in the gesture of pushing him away. His whole body stiffened, his mouth wide enough to fit an egg.

Li Zimo braced himself against the ground, trying his best to stand, but the sight before him left his mind utterly blank.

A Body Tempering Realm martial artist... one punch each, instantly killing two General-level Demonic Beasts?

Was he fucking dreaming?

Zhang Hao's crazed laughter stopped abruptly, like a chicken with its throat seized.

The extreme mockery on his face instantly froze, then turned into incomprehensible shock before finally becoming pure terror.

Impossible... This was absolutely impossible!

He had personally seen those two Demonic Beasts slaughter the elite Prefectural Guards sent from Cangyun City as easily as cutting melons and chopping vegetables.

But now, just like that... they were dead?

"Haha... Hahahaha!"

A burst of wild laughter after long suppression shattered the eerie silence.

The sole remaining Blood Scale Demonic Beast was not frightened in the least. Instead, he laughed so hard he swayed back and forth, the scales all over his body trembling.

"Interesting! Fucking interesting!"

He stopped laughing, his blood-red pupils locking tightly onto Shen Che.

"I underestimated you, human. To slaughter two of my worthless subordinates with the body of a Body Tempering Realm martial artist, you do have some skill."

"However..."

His tone suddenly became sinister.

"You aren't naive enough to think that I'm on the same level as those two pieces of trash, are you?"

Before his words had even faded, the demonic qi around him surged explosively once more!

Beneath his black scales, one, two, three... deep crimson meridians lit up one after another. Like red-hot branding irons, they coiled across his body, radiating a terrifying aura that made hearts palpitate.

In the end, eleven deep crimson meridians clearly emerged across his body, emanating an ominous blood-red light.

Li Zimo's pupils shrank to pinpoints as he cried out, "Eleven True Meridians! He... he's nearly at the peak of the True Meridian Realm!"

Against a Demonic Beast of this level, let alone three Body Tempering Realm martial artists, even a formal Demon Queller Envoy who had only just entered the True Meridian Realm would be helplessly slaughtered.

They were finished.

This time, they had truly kicked an iron plate.

"Hahahaha!"

Feeling the surging power within his body and seeing the despair on Li Zimo's face, the Blood Scale Demonic Beast let out a delighted, crazed laugh.

"Now, do you understand the gap between us, human?"

"I'll give you one more chance. Kneel down and lick my feet. Perhaps I'll let you die a little more quickly."