I Won't Be at Ease If I Don't Kill You, Zhan Yuanxue!

The night was silent.

The previous slaughter and bloody scene had long since scared away anyone nearby; the surroundings were deathly quiet, save for the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs, with the distant, chaotic noises of the streets sounding faint and intermittent.

In the open courtyard, rows of corpses were laid out.

The air was thick with the pungent scent of blood, a smell that drilled straight into one's nostrils.

Ning Da scrutinized the youth with suspicion.

He closed his eyes, focusing his senses on his surroundings for a moment. A look of doubt flashed across his eyes, and the grief and panic on his face largely dissipated.

His tone grew colder, laced with probing intent, "Junior, which sect do you belong to? You killed my brothers—was it for the bounty money?"

"Though this head of mine can fetch 800 taels of silver, it isn't something a junior in the Blood-Coagulation Realm like you could take. Have your elders come out. I don't know which martial arts expert from Guan Province is observing here, and while I, Ning, failed to welcome you properly, is a mere eight hundred taels worth this much trouble?"

"I, Ning, do not wish to fight your sect. I am willing to trade three Alien Sources for a path to survival."

He continued in a low voice, raising a waterproof bag at his waist to demonstrate.

But his posture and expression had changed.

The mournful, humble demeanor from before was gone.

Instead, he looked like a starving wolf about to strike, his eyes flickering with malicious intent. When he looked at Shi Wen, the killing intent was exceptionally dense!

The chill and murderous aura in the air seemed to have intensified.

"No, I am not a disciple of any sect," Shi Wen replied, chewing on his dried meat.

"Not from a sect?" Ning Da was stunned for a moment, then snarled, "Bounty Hunters are this bold now? Daring to hunt even us? Aren't you afraid of having money to claim but no life to spend it?"

"I am not a Bounty Hunter."

"From the County Office?" Ning Da's pupils constricted. "I didn't expect the local County Office to have turned Black Cloud County into such an impenetrable fortress, to be able to track us here based on such minor intelligence? But as far as I know, the County Office is not exactly a monolith."

"I am not from the County Office either," Shi Wen shook his head, taking out Golden Wound Medicine to sprinkle over some gruesome wounds. "I am just an ordinary person."

"An ordinary person?"

Ning Da was taken aback, then suddenly laughed.

An ordinary person, capable of killing the elites who had bathed in the blood of battle, capable of slaughtering his twelve brothers single-handedly?

"Good! Very good! A fine 'ordinary person' indeed!"

Ning Da's calm face instantly turned ferocious, and he growled in a low voice, "Then why did you kill my brothers? We had no grudges against you; why was your hand so ruthless?"

Shi Wen took a sip of wine and said calmly, "Just now, three Blood-Tempering martial artists came to kill me. They said they wanted to kill me to establish their prestige."

"I have no grudges against you, and I am but a lowly Blood-Tempering cultivator. Why did you want to kill me to establish your prestige?"

"Li Niu and the others came to attack you? Are you the martial artist that the Fist Academy disciple mentioned, the one who only broke through to the Blood-Coagulation Realm today?"

Ning Da's expression was one of astonishment, which then turned extremely ugly.

He had thought it was the Sinan Guard, thought it was a sect expert, thought it was a Bounty Hunter, thought it was the County Office.

He thought his situation was about to be exposed.

He had wanted to sacrifice his own to cover for the others.

But who would have known...

The disaster that claimed his brothers' lives was actually triggered by such a trivial matter?

They didn't even know this person, had no grievances with him, yet because of a momentary lapse in judgment, they had invited their own deaths?

Ning Da took a deep breath to suppress his inner rage and said in a low voice, "Then why didn't you explain?"

"When someone is trying to kill you, why don't you ask them why they are trying to kill you?"

Shi Wen chewed on the Grey Meat, his face calm.

Shi Wen stared straight into Ning Da's face—which appeared composed but was already filled with earth-shattering fury—without a hint of fear.

After locking eyes for a long time, Ning Da suddenly lowered his head and sighed, "Sigh... so that's how it is. Blame me for not restraining my brothers better. It is our fault. Little brother, this matter has nothing to do with you. You may go."

Shi Wen did not move. He asked, puzzled, "I know the ins and outs of the matter now. You are not at fault in this. You can go back."

"Rest assured, I do not slaughter the innocent. I am a soldier with military discipline, upright and kind. It is only the times that forced me to become a deserter, leaving men of ambition like us with no way to serve our country. We would never lay a hand on ordinary commoners."

Ning Da explained earnestly, wearing a gentle expression, "Go home. Your family is waiting for you to return."

"If you don't die, I won't be at ease."

Shi Wen chewed on his dried meat, speaking the words filled with the most killing intent in the calmest of tones.

Ning Da froze, then burst into loud laughter, "Good, good, good! You are an interesting fellow. Are you truly without accomplices?"

"Relying on a Blood-Coagulation Realm brat like you, how do you expect to fight me?"

"My aptitude is limited. I have practiced martial arts for over a decade and could only condense one Blood Membrane, barely stepping into the Origin Blood Realm. But do you know that the Origin Blood Realm is worlds apart from the Blood-Coagulation and Blood-Tempering realms?"

He took a few steps forward, killing intent flashing in his eyes, "The Origin Blood Realm is the construction of an airtight Blood Membrane around the body using one's entire blood energy. This membrane completely envelops and protects the skin, flesh, tendons, bones, and organs, and from this, Origin Blood is born!"

"Those with Origin Blood possess a vast and inexhaustible supply of it within their bodies, thick as lead and mercury. Their blood energy is vigorous, acting like a furnace to forge the skin, flesh, tendons, and bones, achieving an effect akin to a rebirth."

"A Yuan Blood Martial Artist has thick skin and sturdy flesh, with bones and tendons as thick as cables, and a body weighing seven or eight hundred catties. An ordinary Yuan Blood Martial Artist possesses a base strength of several thousand catties, and their Yuan Blood is vigorous and scorching; a single palm can melt iron and stone, and suppress mountain torrents and wild beasts—only then can they be considered a true martial artist!"

"Furthermore, as long as the Blood Membrane does not dissipate, the Yuan Blood does not die!!"

"And if it is not a martial artist of the same rank, they simply cannot break through the Blood Membrane; even by piling up numbers, it is difficult to pile a Yuan Blood Martial Artist to death."

"You, what do you have to kill me with!!"

As the words fell.

Ning Da stomped his legs into the ground, creating a half-meter crack, and scorching waves of heat emerged from the earth. He charged forward like a cheetah, and the punch he threw casually seemed to carry the weight of ten thousand jun, smashing down with a rolling, scalding heat wave!!

Shi Wen's pupils constricted.

In an instant, he activated Iron Armor Body Protection over his entire body. His originally withered and thin frame instantly surged to two meters in height, and the muscles covering his body seemed to be coated with a layer of rusted luster.

Clang!

The fist smashed into his blocking arms.

Shi Wen was sent flying as if hit by a cannon, his figure hurtling backward and smashing through the house in the courtyard.

"Daring to kill my brothers without any background, you truly deserve to die!!!"

Ning Da's expression was ferocious, his body radiating monstrous killing intent. He leaped over ten meters into the house, grabbed that figure, and began raining down punches with overwhelming force!!!

Rumbling sounds echoed.

It was as if a humanoid beast was frantically venting the anger in its heart amidst the ruins; wherever it passed, walls and courtyards collapsed, and the very earth trembled!

Boom!

Ning Da was kicked away by Shi Wen, and what followed was Shi Wen's hysterical outburst!

"Double Impact, Double Yang Peak, Dusting, Lion Closes Mouth, Yama Beckons..."

Shi Wen attacked like a madman; the seemingly ritualistic movements transformed into lethal strikes under his command!

Techniques like thrusting, embracing, lifting, straddling, and coiling were brought to their absolute limit by Shi Wen. His fists and elbows, hard as iron and stone, were enough to shatter stone monuments, yet when they struck Ning Da, they only produced muffled thuds like a cowhide drum being beaten.

Every punch he was now unleashing with his full power.

In the previous fight against Wang San and the others, a single punch had been enough to cripple a man.

Yet now, Ning Da stood there letting him hit him, and he couldn't even inflict any fatal damage on Ning Da!

The opponent's skin and flesh were incomparably tough, as if piled together from layers of cowhide. Every full-force punch he threw felt like hitting cotton, the force of the strike completely dissipated.

Ning Da watched Shi Wen with an expressionless face.

It was as if the other's movements could not cause any harm at all.

Ning Da dealt with him nonchalantly, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings, yet he still found no trace of an ambush.

He felt a slight sense of astonishment in his heart.

Could it be that everything this brat said was true?

If that were the case...

Ning Da grabbed Shi Wen's fist with one hand, a cruel killing intent flashing in his eyes, "Kid, you really have no one backing you!!"

"Then die!!!"

"Pfft..."

With a single elbow strike, Shi Wen's chest collapsed, and he was sent flying over ten meters away...