Huang Dongshu

Early morning.

Sunlight streamed through the villa's enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, spreading a warm golden glow across the floor.

Xu Feng pushed open the heavy alloy door to the basement and stepped out.

He wore a loose black training outfit and was barefoot, his feet touching the cool marble floor.

A faint blood-red mist still seemed to rise from his skin. It was a sign that he had just broken through, his vital energy and blood brimming with power and not yet fully contained.

He walked to the enormous living-room windows. Facing the rising sun, he slowly closed his eyes and felt the surging power within him.

His mind sank into the Attribute Panel:

[Name: Xu Feng]

[Breakthrough Points: 40,000]

[Qi Realm: late Blood Sea Realm (0/100,000)]

[Body Realm: early Jiao Body (0/300,000)]

[Strength Evaluation: pseudo-S-Class (normal state)]

"Jiao Body..."

Xu Feng murmured, the corners of his mouth lifting in satisfaction.

The term Jiao Body drew on the meaning of "jiao dragon."

Though it wasn't a true dragon, it was already far beyond an ordinary mortal body.

His skin was tougher than refined steel, his bones as dense as alloy, his muscle fibers packed with explosive strength, and his internal organs teeming with vitality. His blood and vital energy flowed like a mighty river, endlessly renewing themselves.

It was a leap in his very level of life, a sign that the foundation of his body had entered an entirely new dimension.

He could clearly feel it: his strength, speed, defense, recovery... every physical attribute had undergone a qualitative transformation!

His normal-state Strength Evaluation had leaped straight from mid-A to "pseudo-S-Class"!

That meant that even without activating Blood Dragon State, his powerful body alone would let him contend head-on with the weaker physical-type Hunters who had only just crossed the threshold into S-Class!

"If I activate Blood Dragon State..."

Xu Feng estimated, his eyes flashing,

"my strength, speed, and defense will all increase dramatically. I should be able to match, or even overpower, an ordinary low-level S-Class Hunter. And if I use that 'state' as well..."

He remembered the final moments of the previous night, when he had detonated his blood and vital energy to escape, creating a "Flesh Bomb" with the attack power of a mid-level S-Class.

If he combined that power with the foundation of his Jiao Body and controlled it more precisely... perhaps he really could fight head-on against a mid-level S-Class powerhouse like Bai Luhao!

Thinking of Bai Luhao, Xu Feng couldn't help curling his lip.

Next time they met, if that guy dared to act so smug again, Xu Feng would make sure he learned why the flowers were red.

But his explosive growth in power had brought a few "problems" too.

Xu Feng looked down at his bony, well-defined hands and remembered his passionate night with Mai Xiao Wen. An exasperated smile crept onto his face.

"From now on... I'll have to hold back most of my strength when I'm with Xiao Wen."

He shook his head and thought,

Otherwise, one little slip... and I might actually put a hole through her.

That was no exaggeration.

With his current physique and control, even if he was careful, he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't lose control for an instant in the heat of the moment.

Though Mai Xiao Wen had trained with the Fist Scripture and been nourished by magic, making her far stronger than an ordinary person, compared with his body, she was still as fragile as porcelain.

"I need to find a way to raise Xiao Wen's strength as soon as possible..."

Xu Feng frowned, deep in thought.

The conflict between vital energy and magic remained a problem. Perhaps... he could try a different approach?

Enhance her magical equipment?

Or...

His thoughts scattered in every direction, but he soon set them aside for later.

For now, there was a more urgent problem to deal with.

He looked out the window toward the distant point where the horizon met the sea.

His gaze gradually turned sharp and icy.

"Huang Dongshu..."

Far out on the open sea, blue waves stretched as far as the eye could see.

A lavishly decorated white cruise ship cut through the blue waters, sailing steadily toward H-country.

The sea breeze carried a salty dampness as it swept across the deck.

On the topmost level of the ship, on a private observation deck with the widest view, a figure stood by the railing like an iron tower.

He was extraordinarily burly, nearly two meters and twenty centimeters tall. Even in loose jeans and a tight black T-shirt, he couldn't hide the contours of his powerful, steel-forged muscles.

His hair was cut in a neat buzz cut, and his bronze skin gleamed healthily in the sunlight.

A pair of dark aviator sunglasses covered most of his face, leaving only his sharply defined chin and tightly pressed lips exposed.

Just standing there, he silently radiated a ferocious, savage aura like a primeval beast.

Even the nearby waitstaff instinctively slowed their steps and went around him, not daring to approach.

He was Huang Dongshu, H-country's former eighth S-Class Hunter and now one of the top fighters in the M-country guild "Cleaners"!

With both hands in his jeans pockets, Huang Dongshu tilted his head slightly. His gaze, hidden behind his sunglasses, pierced through the lenses and fixed on the coastline growing clearer along the distant horizon, and on the harbor facilities barely visible there.

"Brother..."

His lips moved, barely voicing the two words. His voice was hoarse, charged with a complex emotion that was hard to put into words.

Beneath his sunglasses, his eyes were sharp as knives, but a rare trace of... longing and guilt had crept into them.

"If only I'd known... it would turn out like this..."

Huang Dongshu's voice dropped even lower, trembling almost imperceptibly.

"When I left back then, I should've... should've dragged you away by force, no matter what... taken you out of this damned country..."

He thought of his older brother, Huang Dongshi, who was greedy, crafty, and full of bad ideas, yet had protected him from childhood and always saved the best things for him.

The brothers had relied on each other, struggling up from the very bottom of society until Huang Dongshu awakened as an S-Class Hunter and rose to prominence.

He had immigrated to M-country, joined a stronger guild, and pursued greater power and influence, leaving his brother behind in their homeland.

He had thought no one would dare touch his brother, not with his status as the family member of an S-Class Hunter...

"I was... too arrogant."

Huang Dongshu slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, that trace of vulnerability had been utterly crushed.

In its place was boundless, icy killing intent!

He slowly pulled his hands from his pockets and clenched them into fists.

His knuckles cracked with a bone-grinding pop. Veins rose across the backs of his hands like coiled dragons, as if they held enough power to crush steel.

"Xu Feng... Cheng Xiaoyu... Liu Chenhao..."

He spoke each name in turn, every syllable steeped in deep-seated venom.

"Not one of you... will get away."

He put particular emphasis on the name "Xu Feng."

Based on the information he had uncovered by calling in favors and using every means at his disposal, this low-level B-class physical-type Hunter was likely the key figure behind his brother's death!

"A mere low-level B-class... dared to lay a hand on my brother?"

Huang Dongshu's voice suppressed a volcanic rage.

He raised a hand to adjust his sunglasses, his fingertips trembling slightly.

If anyone had been able to remove his sunglasses then, they would have been horrified to find his eyes already covered in a dense web of blood-red veins!

It was the mark of overwhelming rage and hatred!

As for the Hunter Association's rule against "Hunters killing one another in the real world"?

Huang Dongshu's lips twisted into an icy, mocking smile.

Rules?

They were for restraining the weak.

Just a fig leaf to maintain the appearance of order.

Huang Dongshu was a low-level S-Class Hunter, backed by M-country's top guild, "Cleaners."

And standing behind him was Andre, the M-country National Power Level Hunter whose strength was unfathomable!

On this planet, aside from the handful of Hunters who were also National Power Level, who did he need to worry about?

The seven S-Class Hunters left in H-country?

They might be strong, but each had their own ties and obligations.

Who would dare risk falling out with Huang Dongshu and the Andre behind him for the sake of some B-class nobody?

The strong preyed on the weak. Power was truth!

That was the iron law he believed in!

"Xu Feng..."

Huang Dongshu murmured the name again, as if he wanted to chew up and swallow its owner, along with everything connected to him.

"Your family, your parents, everyone close to you... I'll find them all... one by one, and then... tear them apart... with my own hands..."

He could already picture the bloody scene, the screams and suffering all around.

The savage thrill of revenge mingled with the pain of losing his family, and he could barely contain the murderous intent boiling within him.

But just as he was lost in bloody fantasies, his killing intent at its peak—

"Hmm?"

Huang Dongshu's brow suddenly furrowed. The fingers resting on his sunglasses froze!

He jerked his head up, his piercing gaze cutting through the lenses and locking onto the vast, open sea ahead!

Several kilometers in front of him, where the empty blue sky met the deep blue water, a figure had suddenly appeared!

A figure... clad head to toe in savage armor like congealed blood, with what seemed to be illusory dragon wings spread behind him, radiating a monstrous ferocity and the aura of a sea of blood... a humanoid figure!

It hovered in midair as though it had appeared from nowhere. Facing him from a great distance, it silently "looked" his way.

Even from several kilometers away, Huang Dongshu could clearly feel the immense aura the figure gave off, brimming with challenge and icy killing intent!

That aura... was no weaker than his own!

"Who... is that?!"

Huang Dongshu's heart skipped a beat.

A warning of danger, like the sensation of a more savage beast locking onto him, shot up his spine like an icy snake!