The bandit sitting on one side of the carriage noticed that something was wrong. He hurriedly called over the other two companions who had been chatting to confirm the situation.
"What?! What is that—?!"
They were seated in the rear compartment of the carriage. Amid the constantly receding scenery, they could see the branches along one side of the path swaying wildly.
There was no wind tonight. Though the slight airflow stirred up by the convoy would make the trees along the forest path sway, it should not have caused such violent movement.
Yet the branches on one side were thrashing and shaking wildly, as though someone were moving among them. But there was not a single person within sight. It was as if the forest had begun to stir on its own because of some savage presence, like the place was haunted.
The swaying branches calmed down some ten meters away from the last carriage—theirs. But before the bandits could relax, a cloud of disturbed dust rose from the empty path, right along the route their convoy had just passed.
—There was clearly no one there, so why were there such strange traces?
"How—how is this possible?! Is it a ghost?"
A young member of the bandit gang cried out in terror at the sight. That confusion and helplessness was the same despair felt by most prey exposed to the hunt of the Pride Stalker, yet utterly incapable of fighting back.
It was not a ghost, but an invisible predator—an invisible threat.
What exactly was happening? To these ordinary bandits, there was simply no way to understand what was unfolding before them.
"Calm down!"
The bearded man roared. Although he had no idea what this eerie situation was, he knew they had powerful hunting rifles in their hands. Those weapons could protect them.
Even when facing the soldiers of the Training Corps, the bandits could still run rampant because of these firearms. They might be useless against Titans, but when it came to human infighting and killing, they were exceptionally effective.
The bearded man narrowed one eye and aimed his hunting rifle at the ground where the dust had risen for no reason, firing several shots in rapid succession. In this world, nothing could not be solved with one bullet. If one was not enough, then two would do. He firmly believed that.
"See? Isn't there nothing strange anymore?"
After the smoke from the two shots dispersed in the wind, the dust trail left by someone running along the road behind the carriage vanished.
The bearded man lowered his hunting rifle and turned to the younger bandits. "In our line of work, you need a bigger heart—and you need to be crueler."
"Indeed—"
Just as the junior bandit was about to echo his senior's lesson, a violent jolt and sway threw everyone off balance. They nearly fell out of the rear compartment.
Bang—!
The roof of the carriage compartment was smashed apart without mercy. The invisible hunter who had pounced down from above finally revealed himself. Even more impossible to ignore were the black hunting blades and daggers that had appeared in his hands, excellent weapons forged from tempered iron.
"That makes a lot of sense. 'You need a bigger heart—and you need to be crueler,' huh?" Lianye quietly repeated the bandits' exchange. With his senses enhanced by Hunting Rhythm, even their whispers had sounded crystal clear.
Since they understood such a simple truth, Lianye would not hold back either. Returning their own methods upon them was a simple and understandable principle.
Krista was very kind, so although Lianye felt that saintly cancer was an illness that needed treatment, he could not truly bring himself to dislike her. But these bandits had likely been stained with sin more than once or twice. Thus, Lianye could only answer them with a heart of ice.
"You—" The fierce-looking bearded man instantly held his breath.
—Ruthless and merciless!
The blood-glinting hunting blade flashed past. Two streams of blood burst forth, and the bodies of two headless bandits staggered before collapsing into the carriage compartment.
"Don't, don't, don't kill me! I didn't—" The last bandit stumbled back to the front of the compartment, pressing himself against the wall.
"Forgiving you is God's business. I'm a hunter. All I need to do is—send you to meet God." Lianye grabbed the bandit by the collar with one hand and spoke words filled with domineering philosophy.
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