Time to Gain a Foothold

More than ten minutes later.

Looking at the earthen pit he had refilled and the dark metal door within it,

Ling Wuyuan panted heavily as he put the wooden boards he had lifted back into their proper positions.

Next, he only needed to sweep away the dust in the room and clean up every trace. Then the matter would be successfully concluded.

At this moment, through the faint moonlight filtering in from the window, he looked at the furniture inside the house and began considering whether to move it away or sell it for a little living money.

After all, he had given all his money to Pei Yiman...

Although she had said that some living supplies were stored on the other side of the hidden passage, who knew what those things actually were?

Thinking of how she had gone from a life free of worldly cares to abruptly switching channels into a battle royale, without even the slightest adjustment period, Ling Wuyuan decisively chose to give her every last bit of his money to improve her chances of survival.

As for himself?

Back in the day,

when he could only be easily one-shot by adults,

he had still managed to survive.

Now that he had undergone a massive version upgrade and could easily one-shot adults himself, there was naturally even less of a problem.

Perhaps that was the confidence of a Survival Expert...

As someone who had long since been beaten black and blue by life into a Survival Expert,

even though he was now penniless,

he still had ample confidence that he could eat and drink well in Black Market City.

Things he had once been completely unable to get his hands on due to insufficient ability

were now things he could find ways to obtain.

After thinking briefly,

Ling Wuyuan decided to take some useful things from the house.

Such as blankets.

As for staying here directly?

Better not.

If the Pei Family's enemies traced their way here and found him, that would be truly hard to bear...

Even sleeping here for one night carried considerable risk.

So he had better slip away early.

Pack up his valuables, then run.

That was his complete battle plan!

For a time,

he also decided to strategically relocate his current base—move away from that ruined temple and find a new lair.

The corpse in the dry well would gradually rot and stink in a few days.

That might cause other problems.

So relocating ahead of time was very necessary.

Besides that,

thinking of the slightly strange, peculiar expression Pei Yiman had worn when she climbed out of the dry well earlier, it was not hard to tell that she had probably noticed the bloody smell inside it.

Although Ling Wuyuan had deliberately piled plenty of dry grass, branches, torn blankets... over the beggar's corpse, pressing it firmly beneath everything else, the thick bloody smell it gave off was ultimately not something that could be completely concealed so easily.

After giving it some thought,

Ling Wuyuan decided that when he left the ruined temple, he would throw a fire into the dry well.

He would take it as seeing that beggar off with raging flames...

The next day.

Early in the morning,

Ling Wuyuan stood at the edge of the crowd, silently gazing into the distance.

At the place where a birthday banquet had still been held yesterday,

although the overall area had already been cleaned up, large amounts of blood still remained in the corners.

This left a distinct smell of blood hanging in the air.

At this moment,

as far as the eye could see, the stage previously erected by the Pei Family and the Pei Family manor directly behind it had all become ruins.

Faintly,

scattered sparks and thick smoke were still slowly rising.

Even the homes in the surrounding area had mostly been reduced to rubble.

Perhaps the innocent residents within had also gone completely cold.

However,

what drew Ling Wuyuan's attention most at this moment were the enormous ravines and deep pits of varying sizes scattered across the site.

Those ravines, for example.

With a single glance,

he understood that even the shorter ones were likely dozens of meters long, while the longer ones were at least a hundred meters long. Their depths ranged from dozens of centimeters to several meters. Like an irregular spiderweb, they divided the entire area into extremely irregular [blocks].

As for those deep pits, they reminded Ling Wuyuan of the heavy mortars he had seen in all kinds of military videos in his previous life.

Even thickened flooring made from hard stone, no less durable than metal, had been effortlessly punched through by them, leaving behind deep pits ranging from several meters to dozens of meters in diameter.

The largest pit within Ling Wuyuan's sight directly encompassed several homes he had seen just yesterday, blasting them into complete disappearance on the spot—not even their foundations remained...

Looking at everything before him,

although Ling Wuyuan did not know whether there were even more brutal battle marks in the surrounding areas, such as deep within the Pei Family manor, he deeply understood that the Extraordinary Power in this world was absolutely not something that numbers could easily resist.

Judging from the destructive power he had witnessed, those people who could make a huge pit with a single move could harvest ordinary people like leeks. Without other powerhouses stopping them, those people could casually kill tens of thousands...

Even if they were thrown into the modern world of Ling Wuyuan's previous life,

it would probably take Fuel-Air Bombs, Mother of All Bombs, nuclear weapons, and the like to deal with them.

Before powers capable of slaughtering armies by the thousands,

the strength he currently possessed truly did not even count as a water pistol...

For a time,

he yearned even more for Extraordinary Power.

And he liked this world even more.

He understood that the more immensely powerful this world's extraordinary power system was, the greater the chance that, after becoming a cultivator, he would obtain what he desired...

Endless power and everlasting life...

So, aside from sighing at the Pei Family's decline, there was only joy in his heart...

In the end, his gaze turned to the three family banners that had just been raised.

They were three flags embroidered with different patterns and characters.

Ling Wuyuan understood that they belonged to the forces that had destroyed the Pei Family.

Perhaps they would also be the people he would need to deal with for Pei Yiman in the future.

It was not that he thought Pei Yiman would be unable to deal with the matter herself in the future. Rather, he thought that perhaps he might level up faster than her?

Beyond that,

a certain thought existed in his heart.

"Perhaps when the power I possess lets me deal with these people alone, that will be the moment I can truly gain a foothold in this world, no longer a lowly ant who can only drift with the current..."

"They will be my whetstones, my trial through a certain stage of life..."

"I will use the wails and deaths of their entire clans to prove myself..."

At that thought,

the anticipation and joy in Ling Wuyuan's heart made a sincere smile unconsciously appear at the corners of his mouth.

It was boiling yet dormant killing intent, along with incomparable joy...