Four Kills!

Feng Buzhi had a premonition that as he explored those five locations, it would not be long before he took that final step and awakened his Reincarnated Memories.

It was autumn here. Leaves drifted down from the white birch forest from time to time, while gray Mist shrouded the sky above this ruined town all day long, showing no sign of dispersing.

As he ventured deeper into the Mist, the whispers within it grew clearer and clearer.

Those Eerie Whispers constantly collided within the dense forest, producing all manner of changes. Feng Buzhi discovered that he had gained a peculiar sense.

After walking roughly two kilometers, Feng Buzhi paused slightly and slowed his pace.

"Those Goblins? I wonder if they can help me take that final step..."

The corners of Feng Buzhi's lips lifted faintly as his peripheral vision swept over both sides of the forest path.

On either side of the forest trail, four green-skinned Monsters hid among piles of dead leaves and behind trees. They were precisely the Goblins Feng Buzhi had wanted to find but failed to locate seven days ago.

The four Goblins were very quiet, like old hunters waiting for prey to take the bait.

Only one human was passing along the path. This male human was not particularly strong, and he did not appear to be in good condition either. He looked sickly, leaving the Goblins somewhat disappointed.

After hunting humans in the town these past few days, they had become somewhat addicted to the thrill of the hunt. They preferred hunting stronger humans; that made them more excited.

This human really looked a little weak.

Still, even against the weakest prey, the Goblins would go all out.

"Not making a move? Or do you think I'm not worth attacking because I'm alone?"

Feng Buzhi considered whether he should strike first. He had already passed the hidden Goblins on both sides of the forest path, yet they had not ambushed him.

As for how he had discovered those hidden Goblins, it was because of the Eerie Whispers drifting through the Mist.

In fact, Feng Buzhi had only discovered this trait of the whispers not long ago.

These Eerie Whispers continuously traveled through the Mist. When they encountered living creatures, they underwent certain special changes, somewhat like the ultrasonic feedback of bats, or a submarine's sonar.

It was nearly impossible for ordinary people to notice such changes.

After all, the Mist's whispers were exceedingly Weird. Listening to them for too long caused dizziness, mental fog, and disorientation. People usually deliberately resisted the whispers, trying to keep themselves from being affected by them. No one would earnestly contemplate them as Feng Buzhi did.

It could be said that even sensing the phrase "you want to possess power" within the whispers was extremely difficult for ordinary people.

Of the twenty thousand people currently in Initial Town, only several dozen knew that the Mist's whispers contained clues to obtaining power, and even the clues they sensed were extremely vague.

They knew nothing of the whispers' five tones or their origins in five locations. Mastering something even further beyond that, like sonar, was even more impossible.

In short, using this sonar-like ability, Feng Buzhi easily detected the four hidden Monsters.

Feng Buzhi was still considering whether to take the initiative when he saw a Goblin appear on the path ahead, blocking his way.

"Looks like there's no need to keep thinking about it."

Feng Buzhi spoke softly.

This Goblin was about 1.5 meters tall and rather thin among the four. It wore tattered leather armor and held a metal shortsword, its face wearing an ill-intentioned expression.

The Goblin's gaze was intensely aggressive. Its shortsword constantly shifted between its left and right hands, while gurgling sounds came from its throat, reminding Feng Buzhi of his standoff with the wolf pack in the Wilderness.

This Goblin blocking the road had eyes very similar to that wolf which had blocked his path.

Whoosh!

An arrow streaked through the air. The Goblin blocking the road looked fierce, but it was merely the feint responsible for drawing attention. The true killing blow came from the Goblin archer diagonally behind the human.

Unfortunately, the arrow missed.

Feng Buzhi shifted slightly to the side, dodging the arrow that should have struck his head.

The Goblin blocking the road cried out. It tossed the shortsword from its left hand into its dominant right hand, lowered its center of gravity, and lunged forward with its blade aimed at the human's throat.

Yet as the Goblin charged, it suddenly discovered that the human throat it had targeted had vanished from its sight.

Not just the throat—the entire human had disappeared from its vision.

Above!

The Goblin suddenly realized something.

The next moment, an immense force struck.

The Goblin felt its neck being pressed downward by tremendous force.

Accompanied by the sound of shattering bones, the Goblin blocking the road lost consciousness and died.

The moment the arrow was fired, Feng Buzhi had opened all the shackles within his body.

Although seven days without proper food had left him extremely weak, Breaking the Shackles brought comprehensive improvements to his strength, speed, and reflexes.

Having seen through the battlefield, he easily evaded the arrow. Then, when the Goblin blocking the road charged at him, he leaped high into the air, grabbed the Goblin by the neck, and pressed down, snapping its neck.

Feng Buzhi did not stop. After killing the Goblin blocking the road, he charged toward the Goblin archer.

The Goblin archer had already grabbed another arrow, its expression somewhat terrified.

Before the Goblin could fully draw its longbow and fire a second arrow, Feng Buzhi snatched the arrow from its hand and, beneath its terrified gaze, drove it into its eyeball and deep into its brain.

The Goblin archer's body twitched twice before collapsing. Feng Buzhi continued forward, and by the time its corpse had completely fallen, he had reached the third Goblin's position.

The third Goblin was the sturdiest, nearly 1.6 meters tall. Its strength was clearly a cut above ordinary Goblins, perhaps even slightly stronger than an adult human, but it was still far too inferior to Feng Buzhi after Breaking the Shackles.

Feng Buzhi lashed out with a sweeping kick at the Goblin's lower back, then closed in. As he knocked the Goblin down, he gripped its head with both hands and twisted hard.

Crack!

Its neck shattered. The third Goblin lost its life as well. Feng Buzhi picked up the hand axe it had dropped, walked to a nearby pile of dead leaves, and brought the axe down.

The fourth Goblin was hidden within that pile of dead leaves. It had not made a single move from beginning to end. Whether it was still waiting or too terrified to act, no one knew.

Amid a burst of panicked, agonized wails, the fourth Goblin hiding in the dead leaves lost its life.

In only a few breaths, all four Goblins had been killed.

As the Goblins died, Feng Buzhi felt something flow into his body. It should have been the Abyss Points used in the center of the plaza.

It seemed that one way to obtain Abyss Points was by hunting the Monsters outside the town.

Feng Buzhi released the state of Breaking the Shackles. His body trembled uncontrollably before he collapsed to the ground.

Intense stabbing pain swept through his entire body, and his throat filled with a fishy, salty taste.

Before he realized it, blood had begun to flow from the corners of Feng Buzhi's mouth and his nose.

He tried several times to rise from the ground, but kept falling back down uncontrollably. The backlash from Breaking the Shackles in every aspect was still too great, especially when he was already so weak.

It took Feng Buzhi several full minutes before he barely managed to stand again.

"Looks like seven days without proper food have affected me quite badly. And I haven't practiced much fighting technique—I only crushed them with my physical abilities after Breaking the Shackles. Otherwise, I could have reduced the expenditure by a lot."

Feng Buzhi moved with difficulty to one of the Goblin corpses, bared his teeth at its neck, and bit down hard. His body needed nourishment.

Hot, fishy blood flowed into his throat, then into his stomach.

After a long while, Feng Buzhi wiped his mouth and smiled.

Although his body was in terrible condition right now, that very condition made the Eerie Whispers in the Mist seem clearer. He was also closer to taking that final step into awakening his Reincarnated Memories.

Several minutes later, Feng Buzhi followed the feeling in his heart and changed direction, choosing the farthest source of whispers and continuing deeper into the Mist.

His condition remained terrible. Every short while, he would fall once...