No Matter, Kill Him While We're At It

"That wasn't me..."

"It was Xiao Chen. Xiao Chen gave the order!"

"Please, please spare me. My son is only ten years old, and I still have an old mother at home..."

Liu Feng's voice became incoherent.

"I know your son. He isn't ten!"

Jiang Ming cut him off.

Liu Feng fell silent at once.

Jiang Ming's gaze shifted toward a corner of the hall.

Liu Long was crouching there.

This level-eighteen Soul Master had been hiding in the corner since the battle began, wishing he could squeeze himself into a crack in the wall.

When Jiang Ming's gaze fell upon Liu Long,

Liu Long's face instantly went pale, and his pants were soaked between the legs.

"Dad... Dad, save me..."

Liu Long's voice trembled with tears.

"Don't touch him! Please, don't touch him! He's innocent! If you want to kill someone, kill me! I'll pay for him with my life!"

Liu Feng's voice was hoarse to the extreme, every word filled with sobbing and pleading.

He had dominated Nuoding City for over twenty years and had never begged anyone like this.

But at this moment, he no longer cared about anything, as long as his son could live.

"My parents are lying beneath the ground. They never offended anyone. They were innocent too."

Jiang Ming pressed a palm against Liu Feng's chest.

"Space Compression!"

Liu Feng's body was flattened into a sheet of paper.

His features twisted as terror and unwillingness froze upon the paper-thin surface.

The sheet drifted to the floor, landing in Xiao Chen's pool of blood.

"Ah!!!"

Liu Long let out a shriek, then scrambled toward the door.

Jiang Ming did not chase him.

He did not even look in that direction.

He merely made a casual slicing motion.

Liu Long's body split into two halves as he ran.

Each half took two more steps before collapsing at the same time.

The hall finally fell silent.

Xiao Chen was still alive.

But he was covered in blood, with dozens of bloody holes still seeping blood.

His consciousness was already fading.

Yet he had still seen Liu Feng turn into a sheet of paper and heard Liu Long being cleaved in half.

"Kill me."

He no longer hoped to live.

He only hoped for a quick death.

Jiang Ming walked up to Xiao Chen.

"Back then... I was confused... If you want revenge, come at me... Don't touch my wife... She really... didn't do anything..."

Xiao Chen's eyes had already lost focus, but he still forced those words out from his throat.

Only the sound of rain remained in the hall, pouring in through the open doors.

Then Jiang Ming spoke.

His voice was soft and calm.

There was no gnashing of teeth, no satisfaction from vengeance.

It was as though he were discussing something unrelated to himself.

"I no longer care who was right or wrong."

Xiao Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Those words made him more desperate than any threat.

Because they meant that Jiang Ming had not come for "justice," nor to "seek fairness," nor even for "revenge."

He had simply come to kill.

He needed no reason, no explanation, no one's understanding or approval.

If you did it, you had to answer for it.

If you owed it, you had to repay it.

It was that simple.

Xiao Chen opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But Jiang Ming gave him no further chance to speak.

His fourth Soul Ring lit up.

Black light illuminated the entire hall.

"Space Compression."

Starting from his head, Xiao Chen's body was flattened inch by inch.

Bones shattered, flesh compressed, organs burst...

All the sounds blended together.

His body was compressed into a ball.

Patterns covered the sphere's surface, traces left behind by skin and bone compressed to their absolute limit.

Jiang Ming gently clenched one hand!

Then,

it shattered.

Not even a drop of blood remained.

Jiang Ming turned around.

Qin Yue had not run. She still lay half-reclined on the floor.

But unlike the other three, there was no fear in her eyes.

"You're finished."

Qin Yue forced the words from her throat.

"Hmm?"

Jiang Ming turned to look at Qin Yue.

"You have no idea who you've provoked. There are other forces behind the Xiao Clan, but that's nothing. I'm talking about me."

Qin Yue stared fixedly at Jiang Ming.

"My cousin is a Soul Emperor."

Six words!

Six simple words, yet in her mouth, they seemed to become six trump cards.

"A level-sixty-three Soul Emperor."

"If you kill me, he will definitely come for you."

"So what if you're a Soul Ancestor?"

"Before a Soul Emperor, you're nothing but an ant."

"When that time comes, you'll die ten times worse than Chen Yu and a hundred times worse than Xiao Chen."

"He'll pull out your bones one by one..."

A twisted curve tugged at Qin Yue's lips.

"Red Wolf."

Jiang Ming interrupted Qin Yue.

His gaze fell upon Qin Yue's Martial Soul.

That wolf was crimson all over.

Its fur blazed like burning flames. It was completely different from Xiao Chen's Silver Wolf, yet it faintly carried an impression he had seen elsewhere.

"Blazing Gray Wolf?"

"Your cousin wouldn't happen to be called Qin Ming, would he?"

Jiang Ming looked at Qin Yue, his gaze as still as stagnant water.

Qin Yue's expression changed.

First came confusion, then shock, and finally wild delight...

The nearly crazed delight of someone clutching onto a lifeline.

"You know him?!"

"If you know him, then you should know what kind of person he is! You should know the consequences of offending me!"

Qin Yue's voice rose.

She thought Jiang Ming was afraid.

She thought that name was her talisman of survival.

"Let me go, and I can plead for you before my cousin."

"You only killed Xiao Chen and the others. I can say you were forced to do it, I can..."

Qin Yue's voice softened somewhat, but the smugness in her eyes could not be concealed.

Jiang Ming looked silently at Qin Yue.

That look made the rest of Qin Yue's words catch in her throat.

Because that gaze was not directed at a living person, but at an ant!

As though he were looking at a corpse.

"Fine."

Jiang Ming slowly nodded.

"Huh?"

Qin Yue froze.

She had thought she would need to spend more effort persuading him.

She had not expected...

The next second, Qin Yue froze again!

"When the time comes, I'll kill him too."

Qin Yue opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

She had prepared so many threats, thought of so many ways to make this young man afraid.

Yet his response had been only three short words.

Kill him too!

A level-sixty-three Soul Emperor sounded like some random passerby he could crush at will.

She finally understood.

The young man before her simply did not care.

He did not care who her cousin was, did not care whether he was a Soul Emperor or not, and did not care about backgrounds, factions, or social ties.

He stood here today not to reason, not to weigh the pros and cons. He had simply come to kill.

To kill everyone who could still move.

That realization was like a bucket of ice water poured over her head, freezing her to the bone.

Fear finally appeared on that well-maintained face...

"No..."

Before Qin Yue's voice could become a scream, Jiang Ming's hand was already pressed against the top of her head.

His fourth Soul Ring lit up.

Black light illuminated Qin Yue's twisted face.

"Space Compression."

Those were the last two words Qin Yue heard.

Then came the sounds of bones breaking, flesh compressing, and then the sound of everything falling silent.