Killing

The sky had brightened!

A piercing light tore through the gloom, striking down with such intensity that it felt like a heavy hammer smashing into one's eyes.

Everyone in the canyon closed their eyes simultaneously.

Bright Moon Illuminating People, who had been observing through binoculars, dropped them and rolled on the ground, clutching his eyes.

"What happened?!" Mountains and Seas Affection cried out in alarm.

Bright Moon Illuminating People covered his eyes, tears streaming down uncontrollably. Yet, the stinging pain from the stimulation was nothing compared to the violent trembling that had seized his entire body.

A profound sense of terror rose from the depths of his heart.

What happened!?

What on earth did that pig do? Why did the canyon explode?

No, it wasn't an explosion.

It was as if a torrent of flowing light had suddenly erupted from the bottom of the canyon. There was only the sound of rocks shattering at the very beginning, followed immediately by the blinding light.

It was like a laser, over ten meters in diameter, shooting straight into the heavens!

But he was certain that pig was behind it!

Otherwise, it wouldn't have erupted the very instant the Wild Boar jumped into the cave!

That pig had planned this all along!

"Go! Go!"

Leave this place immediately, run! As far away as possible, and never approach that pig again.

The explosion of the Earth Vein Node this time was much larger in scale than the last, yet far gentler; there was no deafening roar, only the sound of an iron rod being plunged into ice water.

Sssss—

Zhu Jiusi followed the cave downward, crashing into a tomb.

He turned around to see the Green-Haired Zombie chasing him down.

But the creature had entered the cave too late; its shoulder blade and half the back of its skull had melted away, leaving a mess of green and white fluids streaming down its back.

The stench of rot assaulted his nostrils.

The moment Zhu Jiusi landed, he turned his body and rammed into the zombie behind him.

He put his entire strength into this strike.

Crack!

The zombie, having just landed, had one leg snapped clean off by the impact. Its entire body slammed forward.

But while still in mid-air, Zhu Jiusi arched his back, his tusks aiming straight for the base of the zombie's neck.

Rip!

With a sound like tearing silk, the tusks grazed the base of its neck, failing to pierce the flesh.

With that strike useless, Zhu Jiusi reared up on his hind legs, his massive hooves smashing downward.

He poured all his strength into crushing its damaged skull.

Boom!

Boom!

One strike, two strikes...

The zombie roared, but its two arms had already been melted away by the explosion and could not be raised. It tried to bite with its fangs, but a single hoof from Zhu Jiusi shattered them.

It wasn't until his front hooves were covered in a mess of gore and a new line of text appeared on the Scroll that he stopped his brutal assault.

Points +30

Only then did Zhu Jiusi let out a long sigh of relief.

If this zombie had entered even a second earlier, before the exploding Earth Vein Node had left it half-crippled, he would have been in grave danger today.

The commotion outside the cave had quieted down significantly, and the Corpse Howl had basically ceased.

However, his points were still rising sporadically.

Points +1

Points +10

Points +1

Zhu Jiusi stayed at the cave entrance, motionless. It was only when the points stopped increasing entirely and the heat waves outside gradually receded that he began the arduous climb back out.

His thinking had been too habitual; he had only considered that entering the underground cave would allow him to avoid the explosion, without thinking about the difficulty of a wild boar climbing back out.

When he finally managed to scramble out, he was met with a scene of utter devastation.

It looked like a giant cauldron embedded in the ground, or perhaps a meteorite crater, with the surrounding area scorched pitch black.

The plants within sight had already been carbonized. The extreme heat from the node's explosion a moment ago had obliterated most living things in this vicinity.

Even the rocks were speckled with glittering patches—sand and stone that had been vitrified by the heat.

Thank heavens; if that zombie hadn't chased him into the cave and shielded him from the initial wave of heat, he would have been a roasted pig by now.

A gust of hot wind blew past, searing to the skin.

Zhu Jiusi tested the ground with his hooves, and once he confirmed it wasn't hot enough to burn, he carefully began to make his way out.

Charred corpses lay scattered all around.

He glanced at his status: his points had reached 774. A massive haul. Even after exchanging for the remaining three Life Stones, he still had a surplus of 684 points.

If Zhu Jiusi had tried to lure the zombies himself, he never would have achieved such a harvest.

Many thanks to the top donor!

Gratitude shouldn't just be spoken; it had to be acted upon!

Zhu Jiusi turned and bolted toward the exit of the canyon; he had spent the entire day scouting the area and had the terrain memorized.

Indeed, one could not afford a single shred of complacency in Journey Survival.

Resources had been too tight at the start, so he hadn't used them to trade for a Dao Discussion Card—though, in truth, he had also harbored the thought of harvesting resources from this group of people to make a fortune.

After all, these people couldn't beat him.

But they had turned around and pulled a stunt on him! Even if the outcome was favorable, such a thing was absolutely not to be allowed again!

There were still slow-moving Walking Corpses along the way, but Zhu Jiusi ignored them. He circled directly above the canyon, where the night breeze carried a variety of scents.

Found them!

In the middle of the wilderness, if there was a scent of humans, it had to be this group; there was no need to overthink it.

Zhu Jiusi adjusted his state and broke into a trot, giving chase.

From afar, he saw two people running for their lives, one after the other, struggling to flee.

But the escape was difficult; for some reason, these two had also provoked a zombie and were being hunted by a White-Haired Zombie.

The names above their heads were still visible.

Mountains and Seas Affection, Bright Moon Illuminating People.

Both were on his blacklist.

Very good.

Zhu Jiusi didn't charge in immediately. He trailed them from a distance, waiting until the moment they joined forces to arduously slay the zombie and were just catching their breath before he suddenly lunged.

Without a word, he slammed into the calf of Mountains and Seas Affection, knocking him to the ground. Before he could rise, he bit down on his throat and tore outward.

Rip!

The windpipe and artery were both severed by Zhu Jiusi's bite.

Having succeeded in one strike, Zhu Jiusi immediately pivoted and pounced toward Bright Moon Illuminating People.

Bright Moon Illuminating People's face was deathly pale, and there was a wound at the base of his neck; it looked as if he had already been bitten by a zombie.

Did this idiot actually think a zombie bite was just an ordinary injury?

He hadn't even tried to find a solution, yet he dared to run around.

Seeing a Wild Boar pounce, the already pale face of Bright Moon Illuminating People drained of all color.

He looked like a sheet of white paper.

His pupils trembled uncontrollably.

He had encountered zombies twice—he had been in a zombie tomb the moment he entered the instance, and he had only survived by backstabbing three other Path Seekers.

He had just been hunted by a White-Haired Zombie, so he had the most direct understanding of their combat power.

Yet, this Wild Boar on the path of Journey Survival had already killed one of these zombies.

He had seen clearly what the boar did in the valley below—it had teased over a dozen Green-Haired Zombies and twenty or thirty White-Haired Zombies simultaneously, all while moving with ease among the horde of Walking Corpses!

This wasn't something that could be achieved with physical strength alone; it required true combat intuition, the kind possessed only by those who had danced on the edge of a blade for years.

Before entering Journey Survival, was this Wild Boar perhaps a mercenary?

The moment he saw Zhu Jiusi's actions, Bright Moon Illuminating People knew he had been wrong.

Dead wrong!

This was not a person he could afford to provoke!

Just as Zhu Jiusi charged, Bright Moon Illuminating People dropped to his knees with a thud.

"I was wrong! As long as you don't kill me, I'll agree to any condition."

He didn't even have the slightest intention of putting up a fight.

Zhu Jiusi slowed his hooves, squinting at him: "Who else was involved?"

Bright Moon Illuminating People did not hesitate in the slightest, pointing at the corpse still twitching on the ground: "This is Mountains and Seas Affection, and there is me."

"On the east road are Lame Fei and the Sheep Seller, and in the eastern canyon are Tanaka Banichi and Thin Monkey; there are only six of us..."

He spoke up to this point, then hurriedly added: "And there is Daoist Number 323. He didn't participate, but your location was provided by him!"

Bright Moon Illuminating People looked at Zhu Jiusi and swallowed hard: "As long as you don't kill me, I will give you everything I have..."

Slash!

Before he could finish his sentence, Zhu Jiusi's fangs had already pierced his throat, and with a backward flick, he tossed him against the mountain rocks like trash.

"Foolish! If I kill you, your things will be mine anyway!"

The moon had already provided a friendly reminder: killing a Path Seeker in the dungeon resulted in a 100% drop rate.