"Qin Heng" forcefully suppressed the surging rage in his chest. Rather than linger, he immediately began searching.
With spiritual power comparable to that of a Title Douluo, he swiftly swept through every inch of the village. In the end, he found five surviving children in a hidden cellar behind the village.
The oldest of the five was around twelve or thirteen, while the youngest looked no more than five or six.
They huddled in a corner of the cellar, their faces pale and their eyes filled with terror and numbness.
Clearly, in the final moments, their parents or elders had hidden them away at the cost of their lives, buying them a slim chance at survival.
"Qin Heng" tried to soften both his voice and movements as he carried them out of the cellar one by one, bringing them to a granary in the village that was relatively concealed yet offered a clear view of the village entrance.
From the oldest boy, he quickly learned what had happened.
About three hours earlier, a group of black-robed Soul Masters with cold, sinister auras had suddenly burst into the village.
Their leader was a powerful Soul Master with a bat-type Martial Soul. He possessed eight Soul Rings and had reached the level of a Soul Douluo.
The Fallen Ones had begun slaughtering the moment they entered the village, their methods incomparably cruel.
Not only had they drained the villagers' blood, but they had specifically targeted the elderly and children, tearing out hearts, severing limbs, and torturing them, as though they took pleasure in slaughter and suffering.
After listening, "Qin Heng" gently patted the boy's shoulder. His voice was low, yet carried an unquestionable firmness.
"Stay here and don't come out. Very powerful Soul Masters will arrive soon. They are the Angel Legion of Spirit Hall. Once they see what happened to the village, they will definitely stop to investigate. Then you'll be safe."
He took out some dried provisions and clean water from his Storage Soul Tool and placed them within the children's reach before rising to his feet.
The five children looked at the figure before them, completely covered in armor. Though they could not see his face, they instinctively felt a reassuring strength from him.
The oldest boy choked back a sob as he asked, "L-Lord Soul Master, w-where are you going?"
"Qin Heng" turned around. The Asura Armor gleamed with a cold, blood-red light beneath the sun. His voice was calm, but it carried a chilling killing intent. "I'm going to kill every last one of those beasts."
With that, he no longer hesitated. His figure flashed, and he shot out of the granary, racing down the official road leading toward the Star Luo Empire.
Since the Angel Legion would arrive shortly, the children's safety was assured.
As for him, he was merely a clone. At worst, if he was dispersed, he could simply condense another one.
Right now, he only wanted to catch up and personally tear those inhuman Fallen Ones into pieces, leaving none alive!
The Asura Armor's Second Soul Skill was activated at full power. "Qin Heng" transformed into a dark crimson afterimage and, driven by towering fury, frantically pursued the direction in which the Fallen Ones had gone.
"Qin Heng" sped along the official road as a dark crimson blur. The immense enhancement granted by the Asura Armor made him astonishingly fast, and the scenery along the way nearly blurred into indistinct shadows.
Yet the farther he went, the heavier his heart became.
After a little more than twenty minutes, he came across three villages in succession.
The first village was slightly smaller than Qinghe Village, and it was just as silent as death.
Several corpses, torn apart beyond recognition, lay at the village entrance. The thick stench of blood mingled with the rot of decaying organs, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
"Qin Heng" quickly searched the entire village and ultimately found only three children trembling in terror inside a dried-up well behind the village. The oldest, a girl, tightly held two younger boys in her arms. Her lips were pale, yet she clenched her teeth desperately to keep herself from crying.
The second village stood directly opposite the first, and its condition was even more tragic. It had almost been washed in blood, with many houses blasted apart by soul skills and severed limbs scattered everywhere.
"Qin Heng" rescued another three children from beneath the ruins of a collapsed woodshed. The youngest had been so terrified that he could not even speak, merely staring blankly at the sky.
He placed the six children in relatively safe locations, leaving them food and water. At the same time, he used his spiritual power to set up a simple Soul Power barrier nearby to keep wild beasts away.
By the time he reached the fourth village, the sky had already begun to darken.
This village was larger than the previous ones, with more than a hundred households.
But the instant "Qin Heng" stepped into its entrance, an even stronger stench of blood and death rushed toward him. He pushed his spiritual power almost to its limit and carefully searched the entire village three times, yet he did not find a single living person.
Every villager, young and old alike, had been brutally slaughtered. Many corpses had been arranged in grotesquely twisted poses, clearly having endured immense pain and torture before death.
Some houses still contained flames that had not yet burned out. The charred stench mixed with the smell of blood, making him nauseous.
Standing beneath an old locust tree in the center of the village, its trunk stained red with blood, "Qin Heng" clenched his fists beneath the Asura Armor until they creaked. The rage in his chest had burned to its peak.
"Beasts." Since crossing over, he had never craved slaughter as desperately as he did now.
About half an hour later, three figures finally appeared ahead.
The three men sat leisurely in an open space at the edge of a small forest, gathered in a circle. Each held a bloody object in his hands and gnawed at it in large bites.
Looking closely, what they held were hearts, each still covered in blood vessels and membranes!
The moment he witnessed this scene, the killing intent in "Qin Heng's" eyes nearly solidified.
Without a word, he willed it into being, and the Asura Magic Dagger instantly appeared in his right hand. Its silver-white blade flashed with cold, vicious light beneath the sun.
Beneath his feet, his Fourth Soul Ring suddenly lit up. Dense Wind Attribute Soul Power surged madly into the Asura Magic Dagger, and a layer of sharp, emerald-green radiance instantly appeared over its blade.
"Die." "Qin Heng" let out a low shout and violently flicked his wrist.
Two emerald-green rays, each almost as thin as a strand of hair, shot from the magic dagger. They rapidly intertwined and spread through the air, becoming an enormous green net in the blink of an eye.
Its mesh was as fine as fish scales, every thread containing extreme sharpness and cutting force.
The three Fallen Ones did not even have time to react, let alone raise their heads for a look, before the sudden green net descended upon them.
Sssh! Sssh! Sssh! Sssh!
A dense, rapid sound of cutting erupted, like countless blades grinding at once.
In an instant, the three men's bodies were sliced into innumerable tiny pieces. Blood, flesh, and organs splattered in all directions like rain.
Before they died, they only managed to let out short, miserable screams, their voices filled with extreme agony and disbelief.
Soon, all that remained were puddles of mush mixed with blood and chunks of flesh. Yet "Qin Heng" felt no satisfaction whatsoever. Killing three was nowhere near enough.
According to the information, there were more than thirty Fallen Ones in that group, and their leader was even a Soul Douluo-level expert. These three were merely stragglers left behind. The true culprits were still ahead.
He took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the killing intent that was nearly boiling over within him. With an icy gaze fixed on the official road ahead, he continued chasing toward the Star Luo Empire.
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