Kill! Loot! Harvest!

"How could he just disappear..."

Liu Yiyi's heart sank, as if gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

An elderly man of seventy, frail and withered, had suddenly vanished after the chaotic battle ended...

An ominous thought, like a venomous snake, slithered from the depths of her heart, sending a chill through her entire body.

Could it be that Old Jiang was...

After a moment of hesitation, Liu Yiyi took a deep breath and walked toward Liu Qingshi with heavy steps.

Liu Qingshi was crouching beside Guo Wei, his hands stained with blood as he used a torn strip of cloth to tightly bind the wound where the arm had been severed.

Guo Wei's face was as pale as paper, and he had already slipped into a semi-conscious state.

Liu Qingshi's brows were locked in a tight frown, beads of sweat seeping from his forehead, yet his hands remained steady.

"Father." Liu Yiyi's voice was soft, yet carried a stifling weight. "Old Jiang... he's gone."

The hand Liu Qingshi was using to wrap the cloth came to a sudden halt.

"What did you say?"

He looked up abruptly, his eyes—usually as steady as a mountain—revealing a rare flicker of agitation and disbelief.

Even when he had been locked in a life-or-death struggle against the ugly man from the Seven Kill Cult not long ago, his expression had never fluctuated so violently.

"Old Jiang... is gone?!"

He stood up abruptly, ignoring the blood still dripping from his hands, and turned to rush into the crowd.

His gaze was as sharp as a hawk's, sweeping over every face, every corner, and every shadow where someone might be hiding.

"Old Uncle Jiang is missing?!"

Su Yan had also heard the news.

She had just emerged from a bloody battle; her gentle face was disheveled, strands of hair loose, and bloodstains marked her collar.

Upon hearing Liu Yiyi's words, she froze for a moment, then immediately began helping Liu Qingshi search the area.

But the result was the same as Liu Yiyi's—nothing.

After the group searched repeatedly, it was finally confirmed that Jiang Ye had indeed vanished.

"Father, I'm sorry. I didn't protect Old Jiang well."

Liu Yiyi's face was full of self-reproach.

Liu Qingshi shook his head silently.

He knew the situation had been far too chaotic; with hundreds of refugees charging at once, it had already been difficult enough for Liu Yiyi to protect her mother, Huang Xiyu, from harm.

"Sigh, those refugees are like beasts that have tasted blood—killing and looting anyone they see."

Su Chen walked up to the silent Liu Qingshi and said in a low voice, "In that brief moment just now, several of our Su Family servants were snatched away in the confusion. Old Uncle Jiang is old and not quick on his feet; he might have been accidentally abducted by those thieves as well."

Hearing this, Liu Qingshi's eyes narrowed. With a sudden push off the ground, he shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, sprinting in the direction the refugees had fled.

"Hey—Brother Liu!!!"

Su Chen was stunned.

His intention in saying those words was to tell Liu Qingshi that the old gatekeeper, Jiang Ye, was likely doomed, and that he should accept the loss and not delay their journey.

He hadn't expected Liu Qingshi to chase after the refugees without a second thought.

This was disastrous.

With Guo Wei missing an arm and severely wounded, Liu Qingshi was the most capable fighter in their group.

For him to run off after the refugees—wasn't that just madness!

What if they ran into the monsters of the Seven Kill Cult again?

"Brother Liu!!!"

Su Chen shouted sharply, trying to call Liu Qingshi back.

However, Liu Qingshi's speed was simply too fast; within a few breaths, his figure began to blur in the eyes of the crowd.

"Hero... Hero, spare my life!!!"

A disheveled, grime-covered refugee was hoisted into the air by Liu Qingshi with one hand, his face full of despair as he wept and pleaded:

"I never saw any seventy-year-old man from start to finish!!!"

"Besides, when we snatch people, we only snatch women!!!"

Liu Qingshi, usually a man of benevolence, looked at the weeping refugee with a cold expression, his eyes filled with nothing but icy killing intent.

He brought his palm down hard against the refugee's head.

Thud!

A dull, heavy sound echoed out.

The thick, overbearing force directly blasted the refugee's body into a pulp of meat and gore.

Liu Qingshi continued to pursue forward, unwilling to give up.

However, after grabbing more than a dozen fleeing refugees in succession, the answers he received from their mouths were almost identical.

No one had seen that seventy-year-old man, and certainly no one had robbed him.

"Spare me, hero... Ah--!!!"

Accompanied by a shrill, miserable wail, another refugee was blasted into a pulp by Liu Qingshi.

The pale green clothes on Liu Qingshi's body were already stained crimson by the splattering blood, yet the fury in his heart did not diminish in the slightest.

He stood silently in place for a long time, a trace of guilt and pain appearing on his face as he muttered in a low voice:

"Old Jiang, you once saved my life, yet I..."

He desperately wanted to keep chasing.

However, his remaining reason told him that he could not pursue any further.

Otherwise, once separated from his protection, Liu Yiyi, his wife, and the rest of the Su Family caravan would be in danger.

"Ah!!!!!!"

In the end, the guilt and pain on his face transformed into a roar of unwillingness.

Meanwhile.

Under the cover of the night, Jiang Ye followed the direction in which the Seven Kill Cult deviant had fled, moving neither too fast nor too slow.

His figure was like a spirit deer traversing the mountain forests; every step was so light it felt as if he were treading on clouds, landing without a sound, not even disturbing a single blade of withered grass.

His aura was completely retracted, as if he had merged into the very heavens and earth—this was the Deer Form True Intent he had realized not long ago: Startled Deer Leaves No Trace.

Just as the chaotic battle broke out moments ago, he had used the confusion to silently slip away from the group and hide in the darkness.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but a retreat he had planned in his heart ever since Liu Qingshi mentioned traveling to the prefecture city with the Su Family.

The reason was simple: on the surface, he was merely a decrepit old gatekeeper.

He possessed the strength of Transformation Strength, yet he could not display it in front of others.

He could hardly tell Liu Qingshi that after obtaining the Five Animal Fist manual from him, he had become a Transformation Strength expert in just half a month.

Such an inconceivable rate of progress could not be explained by common sense, and the secret of the Ascension Stairway was his greatest reliance for surviving in this chaotic world; it must never be exposed to anyone.

Therefore, hiding during the chaos and moving from the light into the shadows was the best choice.

In this way, he could lurk in the dark, both protecting the Liu family from afar and deciding whether to intervene based on the situation.

He could advance to attack or retreat to defend, which was infinitely more flexible than following the group in the open.

He had seen the previous fierce battle clearly from the shadows.

The ugly man from the Seven Kill Cult had been severely wounded by Liu Qingshi's punch and had fled while vomiting blood.

Jiang Ye knew that this was prey that absolutely could not be allowed to escape.

If the opponent were allowed to return and report the news, it would certainly bring more Seven Kill Cult deviants.

Moreover, this fellow had committed endless evils along the way; he must have accumulated quite a bit of ill-gotten wealth.

In this chaotic world, silver and medicinal pills were strength; there was no reason to refuse resources delivered to his doorstep.

Regardless of the considerations, this person had to die by his hand!

Deep in the wilderness, within a sparse little forest.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the branches, casting mottled light and shadows upon the ground.

The short, ugly man with a face like a yaksha stumbled into the woods and collapsed in a patch of dense wild grass, gasping for air in large gulps.

The indentation on his back, blasted out by Liu Qingshi's punch, was a shocking sight; every breath tugged at the wound, bringing up a mouthful of foul blood mixed with foam.

"Damn it, I really misjudged the situation today; there was actually such a ruthless character among this flock of fat sheep."

He gritted his teeth and caught his breath, spitting out another mouthful of bloody foam.

If he hadn't practiced hard-body techniques, giving him a physical constitution far exceeding that of an ordinary person, Liu Qingshi's punch would have shattered his spine directly.

"It's all that damn Black Old Five's fault for not coming to rendezvous with me; otherwise, if the two of us had joined forces, there wouldn't be a fat sheep we couldn't devour!"

The ugly man cursed with a hideous expression, "That lecherous glutton is probably off playing with some woman somewhere right now."

"I'll wait until my injuries heal a bit before I go find him... As for those fat sheep, don't think they can get away!"

The ugly man carefully took a jade porcelain bottle from his bosom and poured out a red medicinal pill.

The moment this pill appeared, a fishy, foul stench of blood permeated the surrounding air.

The ugly man brought the pill to his nose and took a deep breath of the foul scent, a look of intoxication actually appearing on his face, as if it were not a stench, but the most beautiful fragrance in the world.

Even the pain in his back seemed to ease slightly with that single inhalation.

"That's the flavor..."

He muttered, opening his mouth to swallow the medicinal pill, just about to gulp it down.

Suddenly.

BOOM!

A sharp, piercing sound that seemed to tear through the air exploded right behind his head.

The ugly man didn't even have time to turn around before a withered, bony fist slammed violently into the back of his skull.

THUD!

A muffled impact.

His head was exceptionally hard, and this fierce punch failed to shatter it instantly.

However, sometimes, being durable only means suffering greater torment.

Two blood-soaked eyeballs were forced out of their sockets by the sheer force, dangling with bloody threads and torn nerves as they rolled onto the ground, coated in dead leaves and dirt.

The scene was bizarre and bone-chilling.

"AAAH!!!"

A scream so shrill it didn't sound human tore through the silence of the night.

The ugly man clutched his empty eye sockets with both hands, collapsing forward as if his bones had been pulled out, rolling frantically on the ground.

The blood pill he hadn't managed to swallow rolled out of his wide-open mouth, stained with blood and filth, disappearing deep into the grass.

In this moment, beyond the unimaginable pain and rage, his heart was filled with overwhelming fear and despair.

He had practiced hard-body techniques for many years, and his five senses were far sharper than an ordinary person's; even a master at the peak of Transformation Strength shouldn't have been able to sneak within ten feet of him without being detected.

He instinctively wanted to turn his head, to see that face clearly.

But he no longer had eyes, destined to never know what the person who killed him looked like.

"Oh? His head is actually this hard!"

Seeing that his opponent's skull could withstand a punch, a flicker of surprise crossed Jiang Ye's aged eyes, and he immediately swung two more punches without hesitation.

THUD! THUD!

Two sounds like muffled thunder rang out.

The ugly man's incredibly hard head finally could no longer hold up, and it exploded with a crash.

The ugly shell twitched a few times before falling completely silent.

After the kill, Jiang Ye began to loot the corpse with clean, practiced movements.

"Huh, what is this..."

With a casual reach, Jiang Ye pulled two manuals hidden close to the ugly man's chest.

One was the Blood Moon Saber, its brushstrokes sharp and exuding a scent of blood.

The other was the Diamond Body Refining Technique, the handwriting ancient and heavy.

A brilliant light instantly flashed in Jiang Ye's aged eyes.