Beast Cores, Dust Sword Heart!

"Uncle Zhou, we're back!"

The guard behind the iron mesh seemed to scrutinize them carefully before turning to run toward the heavy gate, which had been welded together from scrap metal.

While waiting for the gate to open, Qiu Yashuang turned her head, her tone carrying a hint of imperceptible showing off as she took the initiative to introduce the place to Chen Yan:

"See? This is our territory."

Chen Yan raised his eyes to look.

Although the camp bore clear traces of post-war reconstruction, it was not as dilapidated as he had imagined.

Rather than a camp, it was more like a small, fully functional, and orderly settlement.

The buildings within the walls were constructed from various materials—mostly bricks, wood, and metal sheets salvaged from ruins—but they were arranged in an orderly fashion, and the streets, though narrow, were kept quite clean.

Following his gaze, Qiu Yashuang's tone turned slightly somber:

"These shelters were all set up by the Windless citizens who were lucky enough to survive after the 'Rift Cataclysm' back then. Ours is just one of them."

She paused. "The first generation is long gone; most of the people here now are their descendants, or those who joined later while fleeing for their lives."

Chen Yan asked, "Isn't it called a mercenary group? So, where are the mercenaries?"

Qiu Yashuang looked at him with slight disdain. "What a stupid question..."

"Mercenaries... it just means that those of us with martial talent who have made a name for ourselves form teams to go out and take jobs. We mainly hunt those fierce beasts and trade the spoils for supplies."

She pointed inside the camp. "We have over a thousand people here now."

"There are five squads capable of going out to work, each led by a 'Professional-level' martial artist, with about twenty people per team."

She emphasized "Professional-level" specifically, as if observing Chen Yan's reaction.

"How about that? Our Windless Mercenary Group is quite strong, right!"

"Do you want to consider staying?" Qiu Yashuang tilted her chin up slightly.

Listening to the undisguised enthusiasm in her tone, Chen Yan was silent for a moment before he suddenly spoke calmly: "I won't be staying here."

He paused and added, "Besides, I don't think my mother would approve of me dating this early."

To be fair, Qiu Yashuang was indeed born with great beauty; the heroic spirit and brightness between her brows were exactly the type Chen Yan appreciated.

It was also clear that she cherished her appearance; despite being in a relatively rough mercenary group, she still dressed quite exquisitely.

But for well-known reasons, Chen Yan dared not scatter his affections everywhere.

Qiu Yashuang's pretty face turned beet red in an instant. "Pah! Who, who wants to date you!"

"Not only are you an exhibitionist, you're a narcissist too!"

With that, she huffed and turned her head away.

Chen Yan smiled speechlessly and did not argue.

Ever since he mastered Spirit Control, he could often capture the unspoken emotions of others.

Especially with siblings like the Qiu family, who had grown up in the wilderness and had never come into contact with mental cultivation methods like the Mystic Meditation Method, they had no sense of mental defense.

In Chen Yan's perception, their thoughts were almost like open books, effortless to read.

If he had to describe it... when Qiu Yashuang was talking to him just now, the air around her was filled with pink bubbles.

Three or four minutes later, the heavy iron gate slowly creaked open with a harsh, grating sound.

An old man walked out from behind the gate.

He was thin and gaunt, his back slightly hunched, wearing an old, patched-up coat.

His face was etched with deep wrinkles, like land that had been eroded by wind and sand for years.

His skin was rough and dark, and his eyes were slightly cloudy with heavy bags underneath.

As soon as he appeared, he didn't even look at Chen Yan, the new face, but instead launched into a scathing lecture directed at the Qiu siblings in the vehicle:

"Haven't I told you time and time again! There was a fierce beast riot in the west last night with abnormal energy readings, and all squads were strictly forbidden from going out!"

"And you little brats did the opposite—not only did you sneak out, but you also stole the No. 3 vehicle!"

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? If there's a next time, don't even think about staying in the camp. Get out and fend for yourselves!"

Qiu Rao and Qiu Jiu were clearly used to this, maintaining their cheeky grins as they leaned out of the truck bed:

"Uncle Zhou, don't be angry! Didn't we come back safely? We didn't even encounter a single living beast on the road!"

"Calm down first and look at what good stuff we brought back!"

As he spoke, Qiu Jiu pulled back the waterproof tarp covering the truck bed, revealing the neatly stacked, strangely lustrous, and massive snake meat.

"Hmm?" Uncle Zhou's cloudy but sharp gaze swept over the dark, lustrous snake meat in the truck bed, his brows furrowing.

"Judging by the size of the scales and the build of this Earth Scale Python, it was at least a Tier 5 beast in its lifetime. Its scales and armor are impervious to ordinary blades."

He looked up, his gaze scraping over the three Qiu siblings like a knife. "Don't tell me you three little brats hunted this?"

Qiu Jiu shrank his neck under the stare and scratched his head sheepishly.

"Well, not exactly... Uncle Zhou, we don't have that kind of ability. You could say... we just happened to find it?"

"Perhaps it fought with other, more formidable beasts and they both ended up battered, leaving us to reap the rewards?"

"Hmph, wishful thinking." Uncle Zhou let out a cold snort, clearly disbelieving such a stroke of luck. He was far more concerned with something else. "The beast core? Is it still there?"

Seeing Qiu Jiu fumbling, seemingly unable to find a place to sink his blade into the snake's head, Uncle Zhou clicked his tongue in impatience and stepped forward himself.

He held his fingers together like a blade, his gaunt hand appearing to harbor the power to pierce through metal and stone. With a seemingly casual thrust and a flick, he struck a specific spot on the snake's head, which was far tougher than steel!

"Puchi—" came a soft sound.

When he withdrew his hand, his fingertips held a dark yellow crystal about the size of a pigeon's egg.

The crystal was neither jade nor stone, and Chen Yan could clearly sense a modest amount of energy contained within it.

So this is a beast core? Chen Yan felt a stir in his heart. His understanding of the fierce beasts of this era was indeed lacking, even inferior to that of the child, Qiu Jiu.

A sense of urgency, born from his own ignorance, surfaced in his mind: This Seat must read more books...

More than the beast core itself, what secretly surprised Chen Yan was the effortless strike Uncle Zhou had just delivered.

When he had fought the giant snake earlier, he had found it difficult to even break its defense.

He had not expected this seemingly gaunt old man to be able to pierce the hardest part of the skull with such precision and ease, extracting the core with a single, casual palm strike.

This level of control over power and insight into weaknesses was by no means ordinary.

Uncle Zhou wiped the blood and brain matter from the surface of the beast core with his sleeve, only then turning his gaze toward Chen Yan.

Seeing this, Qiu Yashuang started to introduce him: "Uncle Zhou, he is—"

Before she could finish, an invisible pressure, heavy as a mountain, suddenly radiated from Uncle Zhou as the center!

This pressure did not target the physical body, but acted directly upon the spiritual level.

Qiu Yashuang, Qiu Rao, and Qiu Jiu, who bore the brunt of it, instantly turned pale.

Their breathing became labored, their bodies trembled uncontrollably, and fine beads of cold sweat broke out on their foreheads.

Chen Yan did not notice anything unusual at first, until he caught a glimpse of the pained expression on Qiu Jiu's face beside him, and he suddenly realized what was happening!

He deliberately let his gaze go vacant for a split second and allowed his body to sway almost imperceptibly.

At the same time, a perfectly measured pallor quickly washed over his face.

Just as he made it appear as though he were about to collapse, that invisible pressure receded like a tide, vanishing without a trace.

"Uncle Zhou, what are you doing!" As soon as the pressure lifted, Qiu Yashuang gasped for air, shouting in a mix of shock and anger.

"You're a high-level professional ninth-rank expert, why are you unleashing your aura on us kids! Do you want to crush us to death?"

Uncle Zhou ignored her complaints entirely. His sharp eyes remained fixed on Chen Yan, who had just "recovered," and he said in a hoarse, indifferent voice:

"You're not bad."

Then, as if offering an explanation to Qiu Yashuang—though his gaze never left Chen Yan—he added: "I was merely testing whether he was a fierce beast in disguise."

"You girl, why such a big reaction?"

Chen Yan's gaze rested on Uncle Zhou, keenly sensing an indescribable, sharp aura faintly emanating from the man.

He was like an ancient sword hidden within a tattered scabbard; though it remained sheathed, it was enough to make one's skin crawl with a faint chill.

Just then, the system prompt rang out in Chen Yan's mind.

[Ding! Special constitution holder detected (Zhou Li)!]

[Constitution: Dust Sword Heart]

[Current Realm: Professional Ninth Rank]