Naihe Imprint

As the blood gushed out rapidly, Zhou Xingye's struggles grew weaker, while the despair and agony in his eyes deepened.

In the end, under the astonished, curious, fearful, and gratified gazes of the crowd gathered outside the shop, he breathed his last, his eyes wide and his face twisted.

The Naihe Token that Li Hai had pulled out, once it touched the blood in the iron basin, began to gulp down the entire pool of blood like a living fish, then started to flicker with a faint black-red glow.

Li Hai was quick-witted; he reached out his left palm and snatched the Naihe Token from the iron basin in a flash, channeling his true energy into it.

Hum—

In an instant, a familiar, cold voice echoed in his mind:

"Guiyou Grotto-Heaven has been successfully activated. Do you wish to enter?"

Li Hai immediately responded in his consciousness: "No."

The cold voice replied at once: "Command received."

A mere moment later, the voice sounded again: "After the successful activation of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven, the Storage and Etherealization functions have been unlocked. Do you wish to enable them?"

"Etherealization?"

Li Hai was somewhat puzzled. "I can roughly understand the Storage function—it's for taking external objects and storing them within the Grotto-Heaven—but what does this Etherealization mean?"

Driven by curiosity, he immediately chose to enable the Etherealization function of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Swish—

In the blink of an eye, the Naihe Token in Li Hai's hand cracked, shattered into powder, and scattered to the ground, leaving only a streak of black-red radiance that seeped into his palm.

"Eh?!"

Li Hai raised his hand to look and discovered that two ancient, blood-glowing seal characters—Naihe—had appeared out of thin air on the skin of his left palm.

At the same time, lines of text flashed through his mind.

After reading through this information in a single thought, Li Hai immediately understood what this so-called Etherealization function truly meant.

According to the information, the essence of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven did not reside within the Naihe Token itself, but outside the mortal world; the token was merely a small portal.

Once Li Hai activated the Grotto-Heaven and became its master, this portal detached from the Naihe Token and transferred onto him.

As for the characters "Naihe" on his left palm, they were merely the external manifestation of the Grotto-Heaven portal.

If Li Hai wished to change their position—whether to the center of his brow, the sole of his foot, or even his backside—it was a trivial matter he could accomplish with a single thought.

Beyond this, Li Hai's physical body would henceforth be unable to enter the Grotto-Heaven and could only exist outside of it.

However, this did not mean he would be unable to manipulate the various items within the Grotto-Heaven in the future.

Li Hai could borrow the power of the Grotto-Heaven portal to manifest an intangible perspective and intangible limbs within the Grotto-Heaven, allowing him to observe and touch the items inside freely.

"Hahaha."

In high spirits, he laughed aloud, "To put it plainly, isn't this just a storage ring? It's just that the internal space is much larger and possesses extremely high growth potential."

Li Hai made a rough calculation: the rectangular Side Hall of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven was about a hundred zhang long, sixty zhang wide, and nearly two zhang high.

This area and volume were quite substantial, enough to hold many things.

Immediately, Li Hai spread his left palm toward the pile of powder left behind by the shattered Naihe Token and activated the Storage function.

Hum—

In the blink of an eye, the pile of powder vanished without a trace, appearing on the floor of the Side Hall inside the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

Li Hai reasoned that since it was material left behind by the Naihe Token, it must be extraordinary.

It might even be useful for forging divine weapons in the future, so it was better to keep it.

"Benefactor!"

Suddenly, a hesitant voice reached Li Hai's ears.

He followed the sound and saw an old woman, her face weathered and her clothes worn, stepping out from the crowd gathered outside the shop.

As soon as the old woman reached Li Hai, she fell to her knees and pleaded:

"Benefactor, could you grant me the head of Zhou Xingye?"

"Oh?" Li Hai reached out to help the old woman up. "Do you have a grudge against him?"

After standing up, the old woman merely nodded, unwilling to say more, only murmuring: "I... I want to use Zhou Xingye's head... to pay respects to my daughter, my little grandson, and my husband."

"I understand." Li Hai nodded, turned around, used his butcher knife to sever Zhou Xingye's head, and handed it to the old woman by the hair.

The old woman didn't care at all about the blood covering her hands; she simply gritted her teeth, clutched the head, and clawed at it, wishing she could crush it in her embrace.

"Thank you, thank you, Benefactor!" After venting her hatred, the old woman knelt again to kowtow to Li Hai before hurrying away, clutching Zhou Xingye's head.

After the old woman broke the ice, several more people stepped out from the crowd and knelt before Li Hai in unison:

"Benefactor, I want Zhou Xingye's left arm."

"Benefactor, I want Zhou Xingye's pair of hands."

"Benefactor, I want Zhou Xingye's black heart."

These people were men and women of all different sorts, yet the one thing they shared was faces filled with hatred and grief.

Li Hai understood the situation and did not ask further; he nodded, turned around, and began to busy himself with his blade.

As he worked, he could not help but recall his past life, back when he slaughtered pigs and portioned meat in the countryside.

Just like now, a crowd of people had gathered, watching him with eager eyes.

The only difference was that back then, after the meat was distributed, the villagers offered him money.

Now, after the meat was distributed, the commoners offered him their gratitude.

The two seemed different, yet in reality, they were somewhat the same.

The similarity was that Li Hai felt incredibly satisfied.

And in this life, satisfaction was all he sought.

"My lord, could you spare me some more clean blood? The stuff on the ground is too dirty. I want to take it home to dip in steamed buns for my grandson. The doctor said the blood of such wicked men is very effective for curing illnesses!"

"It's all gone. There is none left."

Facing the old woman's ignorant request and the expectant gazes of the surrounding commoners, Li Hai felt quite helpless.

No matter how fat Zhou Xingye was—even if he were as round as a ball—he could not be divided among so many people.

One could only say that his three-hundred-pound frame was truly insufficient to account for the evil he had committed.

After dealing with these people, Li Hai once again walked toward the Zhou Family Fort mansion.

"I gave you so much time to prepare..."

He looked at the three inner and three outer rows of over a hundred soldiers from the Musket Squad at the entrance of the Zhou residence and could not help but sneer coldly, "Yet in the end, you only put on such a small show. Not a single expert among you—it's truly a disgrace."

Suddenly, an elderly man in fine robes appeared within the innermost rank of the Musket Squad. He looked at Li Hai, who was several dozen yards away, and shouted from afar:

"This old man is Zhou Yushu. I have the honor of being the head of the Zhou family and the master of Zhou Family Fort. May I ask, young hero, what grudge do you hold against my Zhou family?"

Li Hai replied, "Neither grudge nor enmity."

As he spoke, he also took a distant look at Zhou Yushu's personal interface.

Unexpectedly, this old man did not know a shred of martial arts; he was a completely ordinary person.

"Hahahaha~"

Zhou Yushu laughed coldly, "Since you have no grudge or enmity with my Zhou family, why then must you torture Zhou Xingye so cruelly?!"

Li Hai chuckled, "Is he your grandson?"

"No," Zhou Yushu said, "He is the grandson of my third brother, Zhou Yugen, but I treat him as my own and view him as my own grandson."

"Good, very good."

Li Hai smiled with satisfaction, "So Zhou Yugen, Zhou Hu, and Zhou Xingye are actually a grandfather, father, and grandson trio. Truly wonderful."

With that said, Li Hai put away his smile and strode toward the Zhou Family Fort mansion.

Seeing this, Zhou Yushu immediately shouted in a panic, "Fire! Quickly, fire!"

At his command, the entire Musket Squad immediately opened fire.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Accompanied by bursts of smoke, a rain of lead pellets instantly roared toward Li Hai as he walked forward.