Beginning the Slaughter

Above the sea, the water rippled, and the lingering mist of the morning condensed into a thick fog, shrouding both the ocean and the massive bay.

The lush green mountains and forests appeared hazy within the mist, looking just like a natural ink wash painting.

[Writing this here, I hope readers will note our domain, Taiwan Novel Network is super practical, t͎͎w͎͎k͎͎a͎͎n͎͎.c͎͎o͎͎m͎͎, take your pick]

In Lianjiang City, in the dilapidated Two Wells Alley.

The cries of a young girl shattered the morning silence.

The doors and windows of the low houses opened just a crack, with people inside peering out cautiously.

"Keep looking and I'll gouge your eyes out!"

A few thugs brandished short clubs and shouted with glares, scaring many of the people inside back into hiding, daring only to curse these beasts in their hearts for not acting like human beings.

"Hiss, what's going on?" Zhao An regained consciousness, feeling his head buzzing with pain, as if someone had drilled a hole through his skull.

Subconsciously, he reached up to touch his head, only to find his hand covered in blood.

At least it's just blood, not brains...

He let out a sigh of relief, only to realize with a start that the hand touching his head and the clothes on his body were not his own.

As this thought crossed his mind, a flood of unfamiliar memories poured into his brain, leaving him stunned in place.

"He's awake! Brother Zhao is awake!"

The two thugs beside him were overjoyed and hurriedly helped Zhao An up.

"Brother Zhao, how are you feeling?" Seeing Zhao An standing there blankly with no expression, Li Gou'er grew uneasy.

Could he have been beaten stupid?

"I'm fine." Zhao An furrowed his brows and let out a long breath, his voice muffled with a nasal tone.

The girl's crying and the thugs' shouting in his ears were making him irritable.

However, he had managed to sort out his thoughts.

Having died suddenly in his previous life, he had transmigrated.

"The Great Wu Dynasty, a world where one can practice martial arts, and there is also the art of witchcraft and gu..."

"An alien world!"

After fully absorbing the memories of his predecessor, Zhao An had a rough understanding of his current situation.

His predecessor was a street thug, barely better than the bottom-tier riffraff, who had become a minor leader in the Tiger Head Gang thanks to his fierce and combative nature.

Today, he had clashed with members of another gang and was accidentally beaten to death in the street.

So I'm just a cannon fodder villain character...

Zhao An sighed inwardly as he stood up and looked ahead.

In a low, drafty house, the annoying crying was coming from inside.

There were a few more thugs guarding the door, and when they met the gaze of the blood-covered Zhao An, their expressions turned panicked.

This Zhao An had always been vicious and held deep grudges.

They hadn't expected that the few sneak-attack blows they landed hadn't actually killed this fierce man.

At the same time, understanding the cause and effect, Zhao An simply strode forward.

Whether in his past life or this one, his build was incredibly robust—over eight feet tall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, like a solid wall.

More importantly, he had never been a gentle or soft-hearted person who let others push him around!

Under this approach, the thugs instinctively wanted to retreat in their panic.

One of them, despite his fear, shouted, "Zhao An! You still dare to come here!"

Before the words had even left the other man's mouth, Zhao An didn't waste any time; he slammed a fist directly into the thug's face with such force that it shattered the man's jaw.

The thug didn't even groan before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.

"Beat him to death!" Seeing this, the other thugs jumped up and swung their short clubs.

Zhao An glared, his movements even faster as he grabbed the arm holding the club. The strength hidden in his thick arms far exceeded that of an ordinary person, preventing the club from descending even an inch.

Another punch followed, even more ruthless, striking the man directly in the throat.

With a sharp crack, the throat bone shattered!

Just then, he took a blow to the back with a club. The searing pain made his eyes bloodshot and his body heat up, and he turned to look at the thug behind him like a crazed, vicious tiger.

That single look made the man's legs go weak, and he didn't dare to swing a second time.

Zhao An loomed over him, grabbed the man's head with his large hand, and slammed it violently against the stone wall.

The already unstable stone wall was smashed into a large hole.

In the blink of an eye, he had taken down three men, leaving them unconscious or worse, and the remaining two thugs, who were standing further away, didn't dare to get any closer.

Even with weapons in their hands, Zhao An looked more like a crazed, vicious tiger, chilling them to the bone.

Ignoring them, Zhao An kicked the door open.

In the room, a burly, naked man with a head full of scabs was frantically tearing at the clothes of a young girl on the bed.

On a wooden table nearby lay an old woman who had fainted, while on the floor, an old man lay with his legs broken.

The old man screamed until his voice grew hoarse, yet he could not stop his daughter from being violated.

Zhao An suddenly burst in with a gust of foul wind, causing the naked man by the bed to jump in shock.

Before the scab-headed man could even turn around, Zhao An strode forward in two steps and kicked him squarely in the waist with such force that the man was sent flying into the wall, shattering the bed frame upon impact.

"Damn it, Zhao An, you dog-bastard, you're hard to kill!" Xu San roared in pain and indignation.

Opening his eyes to see Zhao An charging toward him like a tank, he scrambled to grab a short blade he kept for self-defense from the corner of the collapsed bed.

Just as he was about to stab Zhao An, his hand was seized; after a brief struggle, the blade was turned around and plunged into the naked man's own chest and abdomen.

Xu San's face twisted in agony, unable to comprehend that he would die today.

"Zhao An, this isn't over! The Python Gang won't let you go! I'll be waiting for you down below!" Even as he breathed his last, Xu San refused to lose face, his eyes bulging with rage.

Zhao An remained silent; he swung his arm and delivered another punch, his fist striking like a heavy cannon against the man's face to shut him up.

With blood dripping from the back of his hand, he slowly stood up and took a few deep breaths.

Only now did Zhao An's heart begin to surge with turbulent emotions.

He hadn't thought much a moment ago, acting mostly on the memories and instinctive temperament of his predecessor.

Coming back to his senses, he realized he had already killed more than one person.

No matter how tough he was, he couldn't remain calm inside at this moment.

Fortunately, in this world, killers were as common as hair on an ox, especially with gang violence, and even the local government officials tacitly chose not to meddle.

He didn't need to worry about imprisonment.

For now, his attention shifted to the space above the naked man's head.

A faint red label was floating there.

[Xu San]

"Red name..." Zhao An looked toward the girl, who was curled into a ball.

A label appeared above her head as well, though it wasn't red, but a very pale white.

[Lin Xiaoxiao]

Seeming to notice Zhao An's gaze, the girl's already panicked face turned deathly pale, drained of all color.

It was as if, compared to the scab-headed Xu San who had just tried to assault her, Zhao An was even more terrifying in her eyes, as if she were looking at a ghost.

Her pale legs trembled uncontrollably, and it looked like she might lose control of her bladder at any second.

"Don't, don't kill me! Master An, whatever you want, I'll give it to you!"

Hearing this, Zhao An remembered that the reason he had clashed with Xu San of the Python Gang today was that they had both taken a liking to the same girl and had come to blows while fighting over her.

In essence, he was no different from the scab-headed man on the floor; they were cut from the same cloth.

Of course, he had no interest in such things now.

His gaze fell back to the old man on the floor and the old woman who had fainted on the table.

Above their heads were translucent labels with no special colors.

He had also noticed the names floating above the other Python Gang thugs he had just finished off; one was pale red, and two were gray.

"Can you see the words above people's heads?" Zhao An pointed to the people in the room, then to his own head, and asked the girl.

Beyond her fear, Lin Xiaoxiao looked bewildered; she didn't understand what Zhao An meant.

Seeing her reaction, Zhao An understood: these words were visible only to him.

Having transmigrated here, it wasn't strange to possess some special ability.

His thoughts raced, and he understood that the different colors of the names he saw must represent different meanings.

Just then, the scab-headed Xu San on the floor finished spitting blood and took his final breath.

A faint red glimmer emerged from his body, flew into Zhao An's palm, and vanished.

[Wicked deeds abound, sinful soul collected!]