With Li Hai's razor-sharp eyesight, he immediately spotted the black headscarves worn by these men, along with the wolf-head emblem on them.
He understood in an instant.
These damn Black Wolf Bandits had come right to his doorstep looking for a beating.
As for why these bandits had come to Ox-Horn Town, or who had brought them here—
To be honest, none of that mattered to Li Hai.
Who was he?
He was a Wood-Rank Lieutenant of the Demon-Slaying Division of Great Jing, a bona fide government official.
And these men? They were nothing but a pack of bandits and thieves.
An official killing bandits—what more reason did he need?
"I just broke through to a new realm and was itching for a fight. Then you lot came knocking on your own."
Beneath the azure sky, Li Hai threw his head back and laughed. "Hahahaha! I don't give a damn why you're here. I'll slaughter a few hundred or a thousand of you for fun, then we'll talk."
With that, he spun around and stamped hard toward the sky.
Bang!
A series of explosive booms rang out as waves of air surged.
The air within several yards around him was instantly stamped into a vacuum, and Li Hai shot toward the earth below, propelled by the rebound.
Whoosh—
Dozens of yards vanished in the blink of an eye.
But just as Li Hai was about to reach the ground, he suddenly opened his mouth and unleashed a terrifying, visibly powerful sonic howl at the bandits below, who were looking up at him.
Roar—
In an instant, the nearest several dozen—perhaps a hundred—bandits were rocked by the sonic blast. They trembled all over, blood pouring from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths as they collapsed, their fates unknown.
The bandits farther away didn't bleed from all seven orifices, but they too clapped their hands over their ears, screaming and groaning as they fell one after another, losing most of their fighting strength.
At that very moment, Li Hai finally reached the ground, grinning savagely as he crashed into the center of the crowd like a meteor.
Boom!
As if struck by a missile, the ground caved in two feet deep within a radius of several yards. The dozen or so bandits standing there were smashed into a mist of blood and a pulp of flesh on the spot, spraying everywhere. The bandits farther away cried out in terror and hurriedly retreated.
But before the bandits could take more than a few steps back, two crimson whip-shadows lashed out from the smoke and dust above the sunken ground. Like enormous, rapidly spinning propellers, they swept across the area within ten yards in an instant, brutally smashing the bandits into a deluge of blood, splintered bones, and mangled flesh that spattered across the ground.
Only after he had slaughtered dozens, perhaps a hundred, bandits did the billowing dust finally disperse, revealing Li Hai's towering, impossibly muscular frame and his face brimming with murderous intent.
"Li Hai?!"
On a distant raised platform, Zhou Hu stared wide-eyed and growled, "The demon underground was him? How could he be this powerful?!"
As a Steel-Grade Martial Artist, Zhou Hu's eyesight was naturally sharp.
Li Hai had only given a small display of his strength, but his horrifying performance—soaring into the sky and then descending like a god of slaughter—had still let Zhou Hu discern some of his true power.
He was certain that Li Hai had absolutely, unequivocally... surpassed the ordinary Steel Rank.
"And... what was that commotion underground?"
Zhou Hu ground his teeth, his pupils trembling. "Was that also the work of this Li? Th-this isn't something a Steel-Grade martial artist could do!"
While he stood there, his thoughts in turmoil, Li Hai had already begun his merciless slaughter of the bandits.
"Hahahahaha!"
Under the horrified gazes of hundreds upon hundreds of Black Wolf Bandits, Li Hai let out a wild, wicked laugh and stamped hard against the ground.
Bang!
The earth trembled. His figure blurred as he smashed through layers of air in an instant, charging toward the mass of bandits amid a thunderous wind howl.
He ran so unbelievably fast that the gale he kicked up even swept the nearby bandits off their feet and into the air. They crashed back down with twisted bones and broken limbs, dying gruesome deaths.
The bandits lined up in his path had it even worse. Not a single one of them was left whole; they were smashed into a pulp of blood and flesh on the spot, splattered across the walls and ground.
The bandits farther off on all sides were just as unable to escape death.
The two crimson steel whips in Li Hai's hands swept relentlessly in every direction, like death warrants from the King of Hell. Whoever they struck died; whoever they lashed exploded.
In a matter of moments, the streets and alleyways around the Tea Hall, along with a vast stretch of Ox-Horn Town, were drenched in free-flowing blood. Scattered across every corner of the dark-red ground lay mangled corpses like discarded burlap sacks.
The sight was so horrific it made the residents of Ox-Horn Town, hiding in their homes and daring only to peek through cracks in doors and windows, squeeze their eyes shut in terror and refuse to look any longer.
The Black Wolf Bandits facing this carnage were even more frightened by Li Hai's brutal slaughter. They screamed and sobbed as they fled in every direction, like a flock of spineless quail, doing nothing but running for their lives without daring to resist.
"Run! Hurry!"
"Help! Second Master, save us!"
"The monster's coming!"
"Damn it, fight him!"
"Ahhh! Let's fight him, damn it!"
Among them were several dozen bandits with guns who had fled into a dead-end alley. Seeing Li Hai stroll toward them with blood-red steel whips in hand, and realizing they had nowhere left to run, they finally broke down. They screamed and cursed like madmen as they opened fire on him.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—
A storm of bullets instantly swept toward Li Hai's entire body.
But he didn't dodge or evade. He simply let the bullets rain down on him.
In an instant, sparks burst and scattered all over him.
"I can't feel even the slightest itch."
Standing amid the fierce rain of bullets, Li Hai slowly raised his hand. Watching the "slowly" approaching bullets strike his palm and burst into sparks and dust, he couldn't help sighing. "Have I turned into a monster?"
As he spoke, he deliberately opened his eyes wide and faced the incoming bullets, letting seven or eight rounds strike his pupils one after another.
But even bullets hitting his eyeballs—and several in a row at that—only gave Li Hai the faintest sensation, like putting in eye drops. It was so slight that he could almost ignore it.
He couldn't help sighing again. "Looks like I really have become a monster. Well, I like being a monster."
Then he grinned broadly and casually swung a steel whip hard across the space in front of him.
Clang, clang, clang, clang—
After a burst of tearing flesh, the several dozen armed bandits were sliced in half at the waist by Li Hai's whip, their bodies strewn across the ground.
"I just heard someone calling for the Second Master."
Li Hai flicked the blood from his steel whip and smiled coldly. "Could Zhou Hu have come too?"
After torturing a few bandits, Li Hai followed their directions to a raised wooden platform.
But now the place was deserted, without a soul in sight.
It seemed Zhou Hu really was as timid as a mouse. He must have turned tail and run as soon as he spotted Li Hai from afar.
"I don't believe you could have run that fast."
Li Hai chuckled. Then, gripping his pair of steel whips, he casually swung them hard at the earth beneath his feet.
"Flood Dragon Overturns Water, Tremble!"
Before you continue