Evil Reaches Its Full Measure

A "wu" is black earth.

In the Coiling Dragon Mountain region, residential houses are mostly roofed with black tiles. These tiles connect to form a vast, dark, and hazy expanse; thus, the character "wu" can be understood as a village settlement with interconnected rooftops.

A "bao" is protected earth, understood as a structure possessing the function of defending local territory.

Therefore, a "wubao" is a residential settlement equipped with military defensive capabilities.

In such massive settlements, villages are linked together with overlapping ramparts, and every village is built with a watchtower, each hanging a drum.

If any village detects enemy activity, they strike the drum once. Upon hearing this, the surrounding villages immediately follow suit; villages further out hear the sound and continue the relay; even more distant villages hear it and continue the drumbeat.

In this way, the sound of the drums can spread across a hundred miles in an instant, prompting the militia stationed at every strategic point to mobilize their forces and surround the intruders.

This entire system is the basic military defense framework for the various wubaos in the chaotic Coiling Dragon Mountain region, where bandits are rampant.

And now, Li Hai stands at the outermost layer of the Zhou Family Fort defense system—the outer rampart.

Regarding the rampart: "lei" (rampart), when broken down into its upper and lower components, can be visually understood as earth piled up to be narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.

"Bi" (wall) is the cleaving of earth; using blades and axes to carve the soil so that both sides are neat, smooth, and steep. It is a higher grade of rampart, being more solid, straight, and level.

Therefore, the outer rampart of the Zhou Family Fort is a row of winding, continuous earth and stone walls.

Beyond this stone wall lies a winding yellow dirt road, vast stretches of farmland, and scattered farmers walking through the fields with their cattle and sheep.

Li Hai did not choose to strike at night; he waited until the sun rose and the sky was bright before arriving at this Zhou Family Fort.

The reason for this is not complex: he did not wish to engage in the cowardly act of assassination.

Li Hai wanted to slaughter Zhou Yugen and his entire family in broad daylight, in full view of the public, just as one would butcher dogs in the marketplace.

Upon arriving at the Zhou Family Fort, Li Hai stood on the main road, and the passing pedestrians and merchants began to instinctively detour around him, not daring to get close.

Almost everyone who detoured felt a lingering fear in their hearts at Li Hai's hulking and imposing stature.

However, many simple villagers were not overly afraid, merely sighing in wonder.

For instance, an elderly farmer carrying a hoe passed by and, without a hint of fear, struck up a conversation with Li Hai:

"Young man, you are truly sturdy."

Li Hai happened to want to ask for directions, so he simply stood by the roadside and chatted with the old farmer:

"Old man, have you finished your work?"

"Finished, finished. An old man like me has little land and less work."

"Is the land your own?"

"No, no."

The old farmer shook his head repeatedly. "Over ninety percent of the land in the Zhou Family Fort belongs to the Zhou family. I am merely a tenant farmer for them."

"A tenant farmer? Then how much rent do you pay a year?" Li Hai asked again.

"About..." The old farmer made a gesture. "Seventy-five percent."

Li Hai frowned immediately upon hearing this. "That is so predatory. How do you feed your family?"

"Don't dare say such things."

The old farmer waved his hands repeatedly, his face filled with terror. "If the Zhou family hears that, I'll be in trouble."

He then sighed, "I have no family; I am all alone."

"Where is your family?"

"They are all dead. Someone killed them."

"The Zhou family?"

The old farmer was silent for a moment, then said, "If my grandson were still alive, he would be about your age, though he likely wouldn't have grown as sturdy as you."

Li Hai nodded. "Old man, do you know which direction to take for Ox-Horn Town?"

"Simple. Just follow this main road and don't turn; walk a few miles and you'll be there."

"Do all the members of the Zhou family live in Ox-Horn Town?"

"Ox-Horn Town is the most prosperous place in the entire Zhou Family Fort, so all the Zhou family members live there."

"Understood."

Li Hai nodded and added, "Old man, if you are free today, you can go to Ox-Horn Town. I will be there to slaughter the entire Zhou family on the spot, to take revenge for you and for everyone."

"Ah?!" The old farmer was stunned. "Young man, you... what are you saying? Old man... old man doesn't understand."

Li Hai said no more. He simply smiled, turned, and with a single step, vanished into a flurry of heavy afterimages, sprinting toward Ox-Horn Town, leaving the old farmer and the pedestrians on the road standing there in a daze.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Along the long yellow mud road, heavy, muffled thuds echoed continuously from the ridges of the fields, while deep, abrupt craters exploded into the soil one after another.

Pedestrians on the road looked on in terror, yet they could see no one, as if an invisible beast had just streaked past without ever intersecting with the human world.

They did not know that this was Li Hai running, sprinting toward Ox-Horn Town at a speed of over fifty zhang per second.

Had he run along the main road, every single pedestrian would have been smashed into a mangled pulp, leaving not even a complete corpse behind.

Fortunately, Li Hai was not that deranged; to avoid harming the innocent, he sprinted only through the deserted fields beside the road.

Yet even so, the gale whipped up by Li Hai's rapid dash still caused the nearby trees, both large and small, to sway violently and rustle incessantly.

"Hoo~"

"Haa~"

Maintaining a steady rhythm as he sprinted, Li Hai's powerful heart pumped surges of blood to his limbs and bones, allowing an inexhaustible well of strength to surge continuously within him.

In truth, as he delved deeper into the realm of Steel Tendons and Iron Bones, Li Hai became increasingly certain that he could now shrug off almost all firearm attacks.

Even the so-called anti-material sniper rifles would likely be unable to inflict any damage upon him.

This was simply because his current physical durability was far too exaggerated and terrifying—terrifying to the point where he could withstand bombs or even artillery fire.

Meanwhile, Li Hai did not remain idle during his run.

He glanced at his personal interface and, with a single thought, pushed the divine ability he had learned from Qiu Fangzheng to its limit.

In an instant, Li Hai gained two new trait entries: [Yin Absorption Level 1] and [Breath Concealment Level 1].

Simultaneously, he suddenly grasped the essence of the Golden Ridge Yin Gathering divine ability.

The "Golden Ridge" referred to mountain peaks, and mountains are eternally silent and immovable.

Therefore, Golden Ridge Yin Gathering was a divine ability that could both absorb the yin energy of deep mountains and conceal one's tracks and presence.

Yet, paradoxically, the living could not withstand yin energy; an excess would lead to illness, or even a decline in fortune and death.

Thus, Golden Ridge Yin Gathering was clearly a ghostly divine ability born specifically for the dead, requiring the user to die and become a ghost before it could be activated.

This was the fundamental reason why a creature like Qiu Fangzheng—who was thoroughly dead with his corpse long rotted away, making the concept of bloodline irrelevant—could still possess a Bloodline Divine Ability.

From this divine ability, Li Hai also suddenly realized.

Where there is one, there will be two; where there are two, there will be three.

Since things like dual-trait divine abilities existed, there must inevitably be even more powerful divine abilities, martial arts, and sorceries in this world possessing an even greater number of trait entries.

They were simply waiting for him to seek them out, discover them, and claim them.

"Arrived."

Outside a towering memorial archway, Li Hai came to a halt. "This is Ox-Horn Town."