All Monsters Can Be Killed

Yue Lingshan let out a scream and sprang far away. Only then did she catch from the corner of her eye that Wang Jingyuan had already dressed himself. She was instantly embarrassed and angry. "What were you doing just now, Junior Disciple Brother?! How could you be naked like that?! You... if you do that again, I... I won't speak to you anymore."

"Tch, you don't even dare look at a naked body. If someone stripped naked and came to kill you, would you just squat there and wait to die?"

"How could such a person exist in this world?"

"Well, you saw one today!"

"You!"

"˙ϖ˙ Nyah nyah nyah~"

Yue Lingshan looked at the leader lying on the ground, still not dead. After hesitating for a moment, she asked Wang Jingyuan, "Are we just going to leave him alone?"

"I pierced his lung and damaged an artery. Given the current medical conditions, unless some miracle doctor suddenly falls from the sky, he's definitely going to die. But since Junior Disciple Sister brought it up, you've reminded me not to take chances. Even such low-probability events must be guarded against."

"That's not what I..."

A massive hammer appeared in Wang Jingyuan's hands. Gripping the handle with both hands, he swung it fiercely and smashed it squarely into the leader's chest and abdomen. The man jerked twice off the ground like a shrimp, and blood began pouring from his mouth and nose.

"Now even Hua Tuo couldn't save him if he came back to life. Wait, why didn't my proficiency increase? Tch, was the killing method wrong?"

Wang Jingyuan put away the hammer and began looting the corpse. Since he had no need for dead people's clothes, he searched them with exceptional brutality.

He directly tore open the dead man's clothes to search through them. Whenever he found somewhere that seemed to have a hidden pocket, he pried it open with his sword. After only a few moments in his hands, each corpse was left with its chest and body exposed.

"Ah! What are you doing?!"

"Keep it down. I'm not touching you, so stop making such a fuss all day. I'm looting corpses. If you kill a monster and don't loot it, then you killed it for nothing."

"Loot... looting corpses?! Junior Disciple Brother, how could you... Ah!" Seeing Wang Jingyuan strip a corpse naked, Yue Lingshan naturally turned around and hid far away. Still, she could vaguely hear her Junior Disciple Brother violating the corpses while muttering something about "hardcore."

Yue Lingshan truly could not understand it. She could not understand where exactly her father had found this disciple. At this moment, even the Demonic Cult's fiends looked more human than he did.

Wang Jingyuan found ten copper coins on the five men, which was hardly useful. However, the leader's saber and the fat man's axe were both decent, so Wang Jingyuan tossed them into the Inventory.

After finishing all that, Wang Jingyuan mounted his horse, only to be stopped by Yue Lingshan again.

"Wait!"

"What is it this time?!"

"Are we just going to let their corpses lie exposed in the wilderness?"

Wang Jingyuan casually pointed around them. "Although this is near Huayin City, I'm sure there are still wolves, wild dogs, and the like around here. Before long, they'll turn into organic fertilizer and give back to nature."

"You want to let wild beasts gnaw on their bodies?!"

Wang Jingyuan spread his hands. "What else should I do? I've killed countless monsters. It's already generous of me not to put their corpses to further use, and you expect me to bury them? Do you know that burying bodies is far more troublesome than killing people?"

"But... but you can't do this... this sort of thing."

Since he had gained quite a bit of proficiency from Yue Lingshan, Wang Jingyuan shook his head and dismounted. Dragging the corpses by their ankles, he piled them beside the official road.

He casually cleared away the surrounding weeds, then took a jug of oil from the Inventory and poured it over the corpses. He dipped their clothes in the oil, lit them, and tossed them onto the pile of bodies.

Though the human body contained plenty of water, it was also rich in fat. That fat man in particular made excellent kindling.

Wang Jingyuan turned to Yue Lingshan. "Is this good enough now?"

"Junior Disciple Brother, you're burning corpses after killing people?! You... forget it..." Yue Lingshan gave up as well and mounted her horse. She feared that if she said anything more, Wang Jingyuan would do something even more outrageous.

Wang Jingyuan and Yue Lingshan rode away from the burning pile of corpses. Yue Lingshan turned her head aside, unwilling to look at the cruel sight, while Wang Jingyuan showed no reaction at all.

After traveling for a long while, Yue Lingshan finally said, "Earlier, once those people heard the name of the Mount Hua Sect, they were prepared to let us leave. Junior Disciple Brother, your sudden sneak attack was morally unjustifiable."

"Even if Junior Disciple Brother hates evil as if it were an enemy, after that last man escaped, he was still willing to come back and save his companions. That was not without chivalry. You should have spared his life."

Wang Jingyuan adjusted his trajectory and shifted into a more comfortable position on horseback. He answered as if it were obvious, "You don't need to think so much when killing monsters. Besides, I hate monsters with escape mechanics the most. Since that fatty came back, it was nature's gift. How could I let him go?"

"Monsters?"

"Just think of them as enemies."

"But..."

"A monster is a monster, and an enemy is an enemy. They are hardships I encounter on the road, resources for my growth, and entertainment to relieve boredom. Whether they are good or bad, loyal or treacherous, I don't care.

Kill every monster I encounter.

If I didn't kill them at the time, it was only because my current strength was insufficient. I'll leave them for later and kill them then."

Yue Lingshan wanted to say more, but she remembered some of the instructions her father had given her before she set out and swallowed her words. She only felt that her Junior Disciple Brother seemed so unfamiliar.

Perhaps she had never truly known him at all.

Wang Jingyuan glanced at her before saying, "Then I'll put it in a way that sounds more pleasant to you. Earlier, I found ten copper coins on them. The surfaces of the coins had blackened somewhat, likely from dried blood.

"That proves those coins were taken from dead people. As for whether they robbed people and met resistance, or robbed them and then chose to murder them to silence them, I don't know.

"But I do know that at Spring Breeze Tower in Huayin City, a table of food costs one hundred copper coins, while a prostitute costs between one hundred and two hundred copper coins. In other words, the minimum cost at Spring Breeze Tower is two hundred copper coins.

"And the women at the Half-Veiled Gate in the city aren't cheap either. Better-quality ones cost forty copper coins, while even the worst can 'share a bed hand in hand' for ten copper coins."

"Wait, why do you know so much about these prices?"

"When I asked Grandpa Qin, the doorman at Spring Breeze Tower, for tobacco leaves, he had nothing better to do than tell me about it. Anyway, back to the point. There were five of them, and altogether they only had ten copper coins. If I grabbed any random wannabe tough girl near my home, she'd be richer than them. So it was unlikely they had spare money to seek pleasure."

Yue Lingshan frowned. "What do you mean by that, Junior Disciple Brother?"

"That dead fat man you thought was so loyal? The way he looked at you from the beginning was far from clean. He had clearly tasted women before, and after getting a taste, he wanted more. Tell me, do you think someone might have found him heroic and handsome, then offered herself to him?"

Yue Lingshan lowered her head and said nothing.

"Robbery, murder, rape—they had all earned their deaths." Wang Jingyuan smacked his lips with lingering satisfaction. "Tch, truly hardcore. I never expected even a random roadside encounter to be made with such care, leaving behind so many hidden clues. The developers really put effort into it."

Yue Lingshan's brow relaxed. She accepted Wang Jingyuan's explanation, but still asked, "Junior Disciple Brother, if we encountered a powerful enemy, would you come back to save me like that bandit did?"

Wang Jingyuan answered without hesitation, "Of course."

Yue Lingshan felt slightly better. Although her Junior Disciple Brother was indifferent to human life and played with corpses, at least he...

"Even if I'm too late to save you, I'd still have to come back and collect your corpse. Who knows whether your body might drop something like 'Yue Lingshan's Force Field' or 'Second-hand Destruction Sword'?"

Yue Lingshan clenched her fists. "As expected, you're still just as annoying! We're at the foot of Huashan now, so I'll let you off this time. But once we reach the Fuwei Escort Agency, you must listen to me. Don't go causing unnecessary trouble."

Wang Jingyuan glanced at Yue Lingshan. "Then what's your plan for this mission?"

Yue Lingshan pondered for a moment. "We'll first lie in wait near the Fuwei Escort Agency and observe the situation. If the Fuwei Escort Agency truly encounters the calamity Father spoke of, then we'll step in and help."

Wang Jingyuan's face scrunched up. "I always knew you weren't very smart, but what I didn't know was that it had gotten this serious."

"Junior Disciple Brother, you're asking for a beating!"

"I'm dodging!"

"Stop right there!"

"Heh, no! What's the use of having better martial arts than me? Your horse isn't as fast as mine."