A Minor Interlude

This man stood over two meters tall, his upper body bursting with muscles that seemed ready to tear through his black shirt at any moment. With a well-groomed, rugged beard and wild, aggressive features, he looked like a ruthless character straight out of the Water Margin, much like Li Kui!

"What are you doing?"

As soon as the burly man spoke, a voice like rolling thunder drowned out the frantic music in the dance hall, making the eardrums of those few men ache with pain.

Perhaps the biker whose wrist had been snapped was spurred on by the intense pain, his reason scattered, for he immediately roared at the ox-like man!

"F*** your mother!!! What the hell are you! My hand..."

Before he could finish spewing all the filth in his throat, the bearded giant swung a palm as large as a fan, slamming it fiercely against the other man's face with such force that it stirred up a gust of wind!

BANG!!

With a heavy, muffled thud, the biker felt as if he had been struck head-on by a train, instantly sent flying like a kite with a broken string!

He hit the wall with another loud crash before collapsing limply to the ground, twitching slightly as blood mixed with other fluids leaked from his seven orifices, his life or death unknown...

Seeing the fate of their companion, the other few finally sobered up in an instant.

This physique, this strength—it was clearly a strength-type Baptized One of at least the second rank, a true wasteland warrior!!

Coming to their senses, the remaining two bikers hurriedly hoisted up the companion who had been left catatonic by Xia Leng's glare and fled the bar in a panic, not even bothering to care if the other two members lived or died.

As for the biker whose wrist was still tightly gripped by Xia Leng, unable to pull his hand out of the backpack, he was already flushed red from the pain, on the verge of kneeling to beg for mercy.

Seeing this scene, the bearded man immediately understood. "Oh, so you're just some petty thieves. Didn't you see the rules painted on the wall outside?"

The bearded man's expression turned gloomy, making him look even more ferocious, like a Zhong Kui descended from the underworld!

In truth, the graffiti outside the bar didn't spell out the rules in text; they were drawn in highly abstract symbols. If one didn't stare at them for a few minutes, it was impossible to tell what bloody content was depicted, and those who didn't know might mistake it for a painting of scrambled eggs with tomatoes...

As for how to deal with the itchy-fingered act of theft, the method was naturally to dispose of the "tools" used to commit the crime.

The bearded man pulled a nearly one-meter-long, thick-backed mountain-cleaving blade from somewhere, and without another word, he swung it directly down onto the biker's right arm, which was still stuck inside the backpack!

CRACK!

For the bearded man, severing a sturdy arm bone was as easy as snapping a stalk of sugarcane.

After a brief moment of numbness and shock, the pain signals reached the brain, and the biker whose arm had been cleanly severed finally let out another heart-wrenching, desperate scream.

The flailing stump sprayed thick blood like a water gun, splattering onto the floor and the bar counter, causing the other bartenders to frown, as the boss had just increased their workload again...

"Throw these two lumps of rotting meat into the infection zone."

The bearded man wiped the blade, still stained with warm blood, onto the clothes of the biker who was rolling on the ground in agony, then sheathed it behind his back.

One who was barely alive and another who was as good as dead, the two bikers were dragged out by several bartenders. The other guests had long since become indifferent to such scenes; it didn't affect them in the slightest, and they went right back to dancing and drinking.

At this moment, the bartender who had taken pure water from his own share to trade for that magazine walked out from the back with two full water canteens, freezing at the sight before him. He had only been gone for a few minutes—how did a fight break out?

"Guest, were you frightened by those guys? It's my negligence for letting them in. I'm Leino, the person in charge of this bar."

Seeing Xia Leng sitting motionless in his seat, the bearded man named Leino assumed he had been scared silly and walked over apologetically, grabbing the severed hand still stuck in Xia Leng's backpack to toss it into the trash.

Just as he pulled the hand out, he was surprised to find that the wrist had been crushed into a ring of black bruises!

It looked as if the flesh around the wrist had already undergone necrosis from being squeezed before it was even severed!

"Oh? This guest, are you also a Baptized One?"

Leino examined the black marks on the severed wrist without any hesitation, discovering that even the wrist bone had been crushed into fragments; an ordinary person certainly wouldn't have such strength!

However, what puzzled him was that if he were a strength-type Baptized One like himself, his physique should be much more robust; this young man looked so thin.

Of course, one couldn't generalize, otherwise those brain-enhanced Baptized Ones would all look like aliens with oversized heads...

"I'm not. Perhaps his hand was already like that."

Xia Leng's expression remained calm, without a ripple. In truth, he had wanted to act fearful to make the other man think he was an ordinary person.

But his personality had been this way since he was young; even if he wanted to act, he simply couldn't pull it off.

Leino could naturally see that the other party was intentionally avoiding the topic, so he didn't press further.

"Yang Wei, pour this guest a drink to calm his nerves. I have other matters to attend to. Enjoy your drink, guest."

"Understood! Take care, Boss!"

The burly bearded man patted Xia Leng on the shoulder and left.

When Xia Leng heard that the bartender who had traded him the adult magazine for pure water was actually named Yang Wei, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly...

Soon, a glass the height of a thumb was placed before him, filled with a transparent liquid that emitted a mellow, fragrant aroma—this was the white liquor brewed from the old era using several times the amount of grain.

Although it was only a small glass, its value was enough to fill a canteen with pure water.

Xia Leng didn't stand on ceremony; he picked up the glass and downed the precious liquid, feeling a wave of warmth flow from his throat to his stomach, finally radiating throughout his entire body.

Although he wasn't fond of alcohol, he wouldn't refuse any food that could provide his body with heat.

Afterward, Xia Leng put the two full water canteens back into his backpack and stood up to leave the bar.

Such a seductive place had never been a destination he longed for.

Xia Leng looked at the endless road ahead, scorched by the blazing sun until the air itself seemed distorted. He pulled up his black hood, forgot about this little interlude, and began his journey.

Just then, not far behind him, three bikers gripping shotguns sat on their motorcycles, watching with vicious eyes as he gradually moved away from the bar's territory...