Time rewound to that morning.
It was when Xiao Ze left Green Mountain Town and headed for the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
The Wolf Head Mercenary Group had people keeping an eye on him in secret, and they spotted him right away. They promptly reported it to the group's young leader.
The Wolf Head Mercenary Group.
In the young leader's room.
"Bang!"
"What did you say?"
"That damn pretty boy left Green Mountain Town?"
"Are you sure?"
The young leader, Mu Li, had been looking for a chance to cause trouble for Xiao Ze. When he heard Xiao Ze had left Green Mountain Town, his face flushed with excitement.
A whole month.
He had waited a whole month to find trouble for Xiao Ze.
But the right opportunity had never come.
Xiao Ze was either staying at home or with Xiao Yi Xian. Mu Li simply hadn't had a chance to make a move.
But good things came to those who waited. At last, the opportunity he'd been waiting for had arrived.
"Absolutely!" a mercenary replied gravely. "We saw him leave town with our own eyes. Unfortunately, we lost track of him after he went out."
"We only know that he headed for the Magical Beast Mountain Range..."
"No matter!" Mu Li waved his hand excitedly. "He'll have to come back sooner or later. We just need to lie in wait on the road into town and quietly wait for him to walk right into our net!"
The thought of dealing with Xiao Ze with his own hands thrilled Mu Li.
He swept his hand through the air and led more than thirty mercenaries out the door.
"Today, I'll tear that damn pretty boy limb from limb!"
The scene returned to the present.
Xiao Ze looked at the people closing in around him. Each wore a finely crafted wolf-head badge on their chest, all identical in design. They must belong to the same mercenary group.
"Who are you? Why are you blocking my way?" Xiao Ze asked calmly.
"Hmph!" Mu Li glared at Xiao Ze viciously and said coldly, "You're the pretty boy Xiao Yi Xian brought back?"
Xiao Ze raised an eyebrow. "If there's no one else, then I suppose that's me."
"You actually admit it?" Mu Li looked a little surprised. "At least you've got some guts."
"But it's a pity. She's not someone you can lay a finger on!"
"Men!"
"Seize him! I'll peel his skin off myself!"
He waved his hand. The more than thirty mercenaries around him began closing in. Every one of them had reached Dou Zhe, and several had thick, powerful auras—they had already attained the Dou Shi level!
"Kid, you and I have no grudge between us. But it's your own fault for going after the young leader's woman... Sorry about this!"
A mercenary captain reached out to grab Xiao Ze.
Pfft—
An invisible attack sliced his hand clean off.
"Ah! My hand! My hand!"
His shrill scream drew everyone's attention.
They looked over and saw his right hand was gone, leaving behind a smooth cut as a torrent of blood gushed out. It was a gruesome sight.
"What happened?" Mu Li's expression changed.
He stared at the captain, who had lost his hand, then suddenly thought of something and turned to Xiao Ze. "Did you do this?"
"I did." Xiao Ze clasped his hands behind his back, his expression indifferent.
"What? Before you came after me, did none of you think to find out whether I had any cultivation?"
At Xiao Ze's words, Mu Li fell silent.
Of course he'd investigated.
But Xiao Ze's origins were mysterious, and Mu Li hadn't been able to dig up a thing.
If it hadn't been for Xiao Yi Xian, he wouldn't have paid Xiao Ze any attention at all.
After tailing him for a month, Mu Li had found that Xiao Ze seemed like an ordinary person with no Dou Qi.
"Hmph. So what if you have cultivation?"
"You're still going to die today!"
"Everyone, attack together!"
Xiao Ze might not be as ordinary as he seemed, but Mu Li refused to believe he could be a Da Dou Shi or stronger. Given Xiao Ze's age, he could only be a Dou Shi at most.
A mere Dou Shi thought he could oppose the young leader of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group?
"Ah..." Xiao Ze sighed. "I never wanted to kill anyone."
As everyone watched, he slowly raised his right arm and made a loose fist in the direction of the crowd.
"Bang!" Just as everyone was wondering what he was doing, the mercenary captain whose hand Xiao Ze had severed suddenly exploded.
His body swelled like an inflated balloon, then burst with a deafening bang. His organs, wrapped in flesh and blood, flew in every direction, while boiling blood rained down from the sky.
"What?" Everyone stared in horror.
Before they could react,
explosions rang out one after another.
The mercenaries, who had been full of life moments ago, burst like firecrackers, one after another. Blood mist drifted through the woods as though the Grim Reaper were harvesting lives.
In the space of a dozen breaths,
the more than thirty mercenaries had been reduced to just one person: the young leader, Mu Li.
"How could this happen? How could this happen?" The horrifying scene dealt Mu Li a devastating blow. He sat in the pool of blood, as if he'd gone completely mad.
"Your turn..." Xiao Ze came to his side and held a finger against his forehead.
The next instant,
Mu Li felt a bone-piercing sharpness gather between his brows.
It was as if Xiao Ze only had to move a finger, and a bloody hole would appear in Mu Li's forehead.
"Don't!" His expression changed dramatically. "Don't kill me! I was wrong. I'll never come after you again!"
"Please, let me go!"
He fell to his knees and begged, snot and tears streaking down his cheeks. Yellow-brown urine ran from his crotch, and he looked utterly wretched.
"No." Xiao Ze's expression remained indifferent. "You don't know you were wrong."
"You know you're about to die!"
As he spoke, a wisp of Dou Qi gathered at his fingertip.
The sharp aura pierced Mu Li's brow, and a drop of bright red blood slid down his face.
Xiao Ze only had to move his finger slightly to kill him with ease.
"Wait, wait!" Mu Li screamed in terror. "I know of a cave abode left behind by an expert in the Magical Beast Mountain Range!"
"If you let me go, I can tell you where it is!"
Fear filled Mu Li's eyes. To make Xiao Ze believe him, he even gave away the cave's location right then and there.
At that moment, he could only think of every possible way to stay alive.
"Sorry, but... I don't need it!"
Xiao Ze's gaze was cold as he applied the slightest pressure with his finger.
The sword energy drilled into Mu Li's head, reducing his brain and his entire body to pulp.
And so—
everyone who had come to surround him perished.
As for the ancient cave abode Mu Li had mentioned, if Xiao Ze's guess was right, it was the very cave where Xiao Yan obtained the Flying Dou Technique.
The novel never described the cultivation level of the cave's owner.
But the treasures left behind offered a clue: the owner's strength had reached Dou Emperor at most, and was more likely only at the Dou Wang level.
The cave abode of a Dou Wang expert wasn't enough to make Xiao Ze spare Mu Li's life.
"Wouldn't it have been better to stay alive?"
"You had to come waste my time!"
After finishing all this, Xiao Ze dusted off his hands.
He looked up at the sky and realized it was already late.
Xiao Yi Xian would usually have dinner ready by now.
"No, I have to hurry back."
"If I get back too late, there'll be nothing left to eat."
A sense of urgency rose in him. He didn't linger and immediately hurried back to Green Mountain Town.
Before you continue