Disperse

The magical runes in his eyes kept shifting and spinning, drawing his attention involuntarily to them until only those eyes remained before him.

Everything else seemed to vanish, the eerie Blood Pupils swelling larger and larger, as if filling his entire perception range!

"This is—!"

Unable to hide the shock in his heart, Ye Man bit his tongue hard, relying on his formidable willpower to drag himself back from this abnormal state. But by then, he realized half of his attacks had already scattered!

"Even so! A mere One-Star Ranger like you can't withstand this!"

Gripping the axe handle again to adjust his center of gravity, Ye Man roared inwardly, trying to mask the lingering palpitations and fear.

The first 'Strength' core he had condensed, and each subsequent core he formed only reinforced the ones before it! As a Three-Star Warrior, Ye Man truly had the capital to turn the tables mid-battle!

That's right! As a Warrior, losing to a Ranger in close-quarters skill was indeed disgraceful! But a person's overall capability wasn't just about these bizarre abilities and techniques!

In the face of absolute power...

'Clang~'

Before the self-encouraging voice in his heart had even faded, the next moment, his tiger's-mouth split wide, flesh and blood flying! The immense shockwave blasted his palm open, exposing stark white bone!

The Heavy Axe, swung upward from below, shattered his fingers, then flew out of his hand, crashing heavily into the sand and kicking up a huge curtain of sand!

How...

The sight of the heavy bow's body slamming into his head made Ye Man's thoughts grind to a halt.

Could it be!

In his slowed, dulled perception, his face was completely deformed by the bow's strike, the muscles rippling and twisting in a grotesque wave. The next moment, his entire body was sent flying.

Even then, he couldn't understand how the other party, relying on the strength of a One-Star Ranger, had sent his weapon flying!

'Crack~'

After landing and tumbling like a skipping stone, he collapsed limply like a noodle, his neck twisted unnaturally—his cervical spine clearly snapped, his whole body paralyzed and on the verge of death.

With such direct damage to the central nervous system, not even the Bloodlust Power's bloodline could restore his combat ability!

As someone who had condensed Professional Cores in the three inner mansions of Strength, Endurance, and Agility, Ye Man possessed formidable combat power and sustained fighting capability.

But without opening the Qi and Blood Inner Mansion, which focused on physical defense, being struck in a vital point by another Professional Rank Expert's full force was something he simply couldn't withstand...

If it hadn't been for his weapon being inexplicably knocked away and his arm broken, how could he have ended up like this!

Unwilling!

I'm unwilling!

Everything had gone according to plan, smoothly executed! Even when unexpected events occurred, they were under control! But why a mere One-Star Ranger...

Having nearly exhausted himself delivering the final blow, Xuan Ye leaned on his long bow planted in the ground, feeling the fiery, tearing pain in both arms, followed by a wave of numbness. If this strike hadn't worked, he would have been finished.

Fortunately, having seen the other party's Bloodlust Power bloodline and formidable Combat Continuation ability early on, he had put all his strength into that last blow. It seemed his efforts hadn't been wasted!

After the successful strike, Xuan Ye felt a sense of exhaustion, both mentally and physically.

But after condensing the 'Perception' inner mansion's Professional Core, the backlash dizziness from using his bloodline power for the first time had weakened considerably. At least he felt the pain in his arms first before the waves of dizziness set in.

Turning back to look at the guy whose head was twisted to one side, completely still, while the rest of his body twitched wildly, erupting with astonishingly hot Qi and Blood, Xuan Ye felt a lingering fear.

Though it was one of the most common bloodline powers, this tenacious vitality, this trait of growing stronger the more injured one became, was truly terrifying.

"Why... why..."

A familiar voice, as if from the depths of the Hell Abyss, came with a wheezing breath through broken teeth, interrupting Xuan Ye's thoughts and startling him badly. Your neck is twisted like that and you can still talk?

Even a cockroach isn't this tough!

"Your strength is indeed something I can't match. If you had only used the power of your arms, I wouldn't have had much confidence. But you were too cautious."

While briefly satisfying the other party's request for an explanation, Xuan Ye also quickly recovered his breath, keeping a sharp eye on him. He couldn't afford to capsize in a ditch at a time like this. No matter how miserable the opponent seemed, he couldn't let his guard down. He needed to recover quickly and finish him off from a distance.

Even the Essence released when a Three-Star expert died, he was prepared to forgo absorbing it. Safety was paramount; who knew if he'd be ambushed again.

"Your biggest mistake was trying to go all out to kill me even in that moment of snapping back. Gathering the five forces of your legs, waist, shoulders, hips, and arms into the axe shaft could indeed unleash terrifying destruction. But I only needed to seize the node and break that balance. You were then rebounded by those chaotic forces, like a child swinging a heavy hammer."

Standing again, looking at his heavy bow, which had bent from being used as a melee weapon, Xuan Ye twitched his mouth. At this range, it should still be usable, barely.

Then, drawing the broken bow, he aimed.

"Heh, I never thought that in my attempt to end the fight before you burned your core, I would instead lose the chance to even use a Combat Skill. Karma..."

Ye Man, lying on the ground, seemed to have seen through life and death, his voice filled with emotion. But before his words faded, an arrow pierced his eye socket, killing him instantly!

"Rest assured, though you're dead, you'll live forever in my heart. Farewell... Actually, I really don't have the guts to burn my core."

Xuan Ye, lowering his bow, silently recited words that seemed full of ambiguity, then suddenly turned, covering his mouth with a dry heave.

The dizziness from the bloodline power's backlash was still severe. Hmph, maybe other factors were involved too...

Ye Man, who had calculated the entire team into such horrific destruction, would remain a constant warning bell for this still-growing youth.

For Xuan Ye in his growth, with the Database's records, every loss was a valuable accumulation of experience...

"Uncle, uncle, snap out of it! It's me! Hey~"

Xuan Ye kept slapping Luo Luoji's face while frantically wiping away the blood that kept spilling from the corner of his mouth, shouting with anxious urgency.

"So noisy, can't even let a man sleep in peace." Whether it was because Xuan Ye's slaps hurt, Luo Luoji opened his eyes and climbed back up from the sand pit as he spoke.

"Haha, Uncle, it's really great that you're okay." Seeing Luo Luoji get up, a look of joy appeared on Xuan Ye's face. He had truly been afraid that this uncle who had helped him so much might—pfft, why say such unlucky things.

"How could I possibly be okay? If not for that poison... forget it, I won't talk to you about this. Mm, gather their remains and bury them here on the spot." Luo Luoji looked calmly at Xuan Ye, a hint of relief and emotion in his eyes, before swaying as he personally began to arrange the bodies of his two old comrades, Jack and Uncle Dao.

"Oh." Nodding obediently, Xuan Ye also dragged Ye Man and Dean over, along with the nearby Azure Wolf corpses. These were all Predator Rank prey—excluding any possible Magic Cores, each corpse was worth at least five thousand silver coins at the base.

These were all spoils of war. But the most valuable items were still on the three from Dream Island. After searching and rummaging, he found three Spatial Bags. Besides various bottles and jars of spellcasting materials, there was enough space left to store the valuable materials from the Azure Wolves, though the meat was impossible to take.

Finally, he dragged back Aitiya, the Paladin girl. Staring at that exquisitely beautiful, deathly pale face, he shook off thoughts like "the original owner's lingering thoughts" about taking advantage while she was still warm, muttered a few curses inwardly, and then fixed his gaze on her fatal wound.

Clearly, the so-called Crystal of God that Ye Man had pulled out was a small crystal trinket, yet now a pitch-black dagger was embedded hilt-deep into Aitiya's chest, just below her ribs! Black magical runes spread out from the wound, looking extremely eerie and sending chills down one's spine.

But without a doubt, something that could easily kill a powerful Paladin and pierce armor like paper was no ordinary item. After hesitating for a long time, Xuan Ye still gripped the dagger's handle, pulled it out quickly, and tossed it into a Spatial Bag. There wasn't even any blood at the wound, as if all the blood in her body had been drained dry!

And although her set of armor and skirt seemed quite valuable, Xuan Ye didn't strip them off. Regardless of whether they were implicated because of her, in the end, she had died to save them.

After laying everyone neatly in the sand pit, Xuan Ye turned back and presented the three Spatial Bags to Luo Luoji like treasures, trying to distract him from his low spirits. "How about we split things evenly? Then we'll take a third and give it to Jack's family and the others."

The dead have passed; the living must carry on their will and continue to live.

After flipping through the contents of the Spatial Bags, pulling out something like a cigar, biting it between his teeth, and lighting it with a flint, Luo Luoji said bluntly, "Don't give them that. Giving it would only harm them instead—'a man's wealth is his own ruin.' You just give them some money when you see them. Here's their home addresses. Oh, and the cipher for the treasures I've saved over the years is on there too. Split it all with the rest of the Scavenger Squad. Here~"

With that, he handed Xuan Ye a piece of parchment covered in scrawled handwriting, seemingly written hastily with blood.

Rolling his eyes at Luo Luoji, Xuan Ye muttered, "Go yourself. You're the regimental commander, why give it to me?" Not to mention he still had a mountain of debt back in Stanrose, he couldn't even face the eyes of his fallen comrades' families. This guy Luo Luoji...

"Me? I'm afraid I won't be going." Taking a deep drag of this luxury he rarely indulged in, Luo Luoji grinned, showing his white teeth, and spoke with a hint of melancholy.

Then he swayed over to the open space in the center of the sand pit, separating the two sides.

A bad feeling suddenly rose in Xuan Ye's heart. He raised his hand and said, "Uncle, don't... don't joke like that."

"Ha, yeah, I wish I were joking too." "Too bad, burning a Professional Core—how could it not come at a cost..." As he took two fierce puffs of the cigar in his hand, blood finally spilled uncontrollably from the corner of Luo Luoji's mouth, staining his beard, and then he slowly fell backward.

A small regret—he hadn't died at the hands of the alien race, nor in the jaws of a Magic Beast, but at the hands of his own people. Was this fate...

Thud.

A ray of morning sunlight drove away the darkness before dawn at the edge of the desert. The burly figure crashed heavily to the ground, freezing the expression on Xuan Ye's face.

'That's right, I want you.' 'Gritting your teeth over a little pain—only with a strong mindset can you have the strength of a strong man.' 'That damn old man actually said I tarnish the temple's image. What's wrong with a man being strong?' ...

(End of Volume 1. Chapter 1 of Volume 2 will be posted shortly.)

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Volume 1 is over! Begging for all kinds of support—spiritual and physical, I'm not picky!