Another Skill Card! Back to the Village!

The flames exploded, sweeping through everything around them.

Fortunately, Wu Yu retreated at once, avoiding most of the flying rocks, iron fragments, severed limbs, and chunks of flesh.

Only a few fragments landed on the golden barrier.

Wu Yu approached only after the flames had dispersed.

The one-eyed bandit had become a headless corpse, yet it had not vanished.

He looked around. The ordinary bandits killed in the blast had already dissolved into light.

Watching the headless corpse twitch from time to time, Wu Yu could not help clicking his tongue.

Clearly, it still retained a trace of life force and could not be considered completely dead.

"Is this even human?"

"Is it a trait of Transcendent life? Or because of the Tiger Ghosts?"

He picked up his machete. The muscle memory from Tiger Roar Eight-Slash Saber kicked in as he brought it down with a fierce slash!

Roar—!

As the tiger's roar rang out, the blade, wreathed in a thread of black qi, stabbed fiercely into the corpse's chest.

The corpse shuddered. Several seconds later, it dissolved into light inch by inch.

"The hero used magic to kill all those bandits!"

"The hero is invincible under heaven!"

"Wonderful, I survived!"

"Hero, please help untie us."

Seeing the bandits dead, the villagers became excited as well.

This was a world with supernatural powers. Whether martial arts or magic, such things were passed from mouth to mouth among the people.

Thus, when they saw flames and white light, everyone assumed it was Wu Yu's magic!

Wu Yu ignored them and picked up all the cards from the ground.

Those from the two groups of bandits, as well as the one-eyed bandit leader.

As he did so, he watched everyone's reactions and found that most of them looked bewildered, unable to understand what he was doing.

"Looks like Tower Climbers and natives are fundamentally different."

"They can see bandits dissolve into light, but they cannot see the loot."

"Tower Climbers, however, can see it!"

"The Newcomer Secret Realm is cooperative. If there are competitive Secret Realms in the future... or rather, in the Great Ruins, bloody battles will probably erupt."

Most cards dropped by ordinary bandits were things like [Beast Meat] and [Vitality Pill], with green being the highest grade.

Wu Yu did not count them. He simply discarded the cards he did not want and stored the rest in his inventory.

Only the one-eyed bandit dropped better things, such as [One Hundred Taels of Silver]. Another one had dropped!

It was rather amusing. Perhaps the one-eyed bandit had never possessed one hundred taels of silver in his entire life, yet after death, he had dropped it instead.

Of course, Wu Yu did not care about the silver. His gaze settled on another type of card.

Tiger Roar Eight-Slash Saber!

"This one again?"

"Can skill cards be used repeatedly?"

Wu Yu was astonished, but this was not the right time to experiment. He put away the skill card and went over to untie everyone.

"Thank you, hero!"

"Damn bandits! Thank goodness the hero came!"

"Hero, please be careful. There are many Tiger Ghosts both inside and outside the stronghold."

There were no fools among the villagers. One after another, they thanked him endlessly.

After regaining his freedom, Old Wu climbed up from the ground, caught his breath, and reminded him, "Brother Wu, seeing that you came down from above, could it be that you have already slain the bandit chief?"

"That's right! The hero came down from above, so he must have killed that bandit chief!"

"The hero's martial arts are formidable, and his magic is astonishing!"

The crowd discussed it fervently, their faces filled with the joy of surviving a disaster.

Wu Yu nodded slightly. "The enemies in the stronghold have all been killed by me. But the bandits who came afterward..."

"Those were the only two groups."

Old Wu explained, "Not long after you left, we went to escort a merchant caravan as usual."

"Most of Redfang Village's living supplies are delivered by merchant caravans, so this time there were as many as fifty armored guards. Captain Lu went too."

"Yet halfway through the escort, five groups of bandits emerged! Five leaders wounded and captured Captain Lu, and we were left scattered and defeated..."

Old Wu's expression darkened.

"Although we fought back and killed many bandits, they had already become Tiger Ghosts. Their eyes were crimson, they could endure far greater pain, and their strength had increased tremendously."

"The remaining bandits split into five groups. One leader was killed on the spot by Captain Lu during the siege. The other three leaders escorted Captain Lu and some others toward Lostway Cave, while that one-eyed bandit led the two more heavily damaged groups back here with us as prisoners."

After saying that, Old Wu gave a bitter smile. "If Brother Wu had not acted, we might already have been chopped into minced meat!"

The Tiger Ghost threat had not been around for merely a day or two.

But such severe losses had happened for the first time.

Old Wu said bitterly, "They capture people, using some as blood food while turning others into Tiger Ghosts through the Mountain Lord Rite!"

"But for some reason, their strength suddenly surged. The numbers of leaders and ordinary Tiger Ghosts have increased dramatically, far beyond anything before!"

Hearing this, Wu Yu frowned slightly, thinking of something.

The caravan's supplies had all been sent toward Lostway Cave. After everyone had rested, they did not dare linger and left the stronghold together, hurrying toward Redfang Village.

The journey was smooth. No bandits emerged to attack them, which let Wu Yu breathe a sigh of relief.

He observed the natives and discovered that none of them could see or sense the mist.

Clearly, that mist posed a deadly threat only to Tower Climbers!

An hour later, the group returned to Redfang Village.

An additional layer of fencing had been erected at the valley entrance, and villagers with shields even stood in front of the archers.

Seeing everyone return, the guards were astonished.

But once they saw their clothing, they relaxed.

The enemy was the Mountain Lord and Tiger Ghosts, so there could be no infiltrators.

"The caravan people are back!"

"Quick, notify the village chief!"

"The guards too! Old Wu is among them!"

"Get inside, quickly!"

The valley entrance descended into chaos. The villagers had little sense of order, and before long, the scene became deafeningly noisy.

When they learned of the Tiger Ghost attack, Captain Lu's capture, and the destruction of Evil Tiger Stronghold, the valley entrance erupted into even greater uproar. Everyone wore expressions of disbelief.

Evil Tiger Stronghold had several hundred bandits, after all. Even the village chief, a Transcendent Martial Artist who knew magic, could not fight his way in!

At once, everyone's gaze converged on Wu Yu.

Astonishment, worship, awe...

The villagers, long threatened by Tiger Ghosts, were simple-hearted. No one questioned Wu Yu. Instead, they all spoke up to praise him.

Wu Yu calmly accepted their thanks, and the tension in his heart eased.

"Could this be a hidden benefit of the [Newcomer Secret Realm]? There are no treacherous people in Redfang Village, and because of the Mountain Lord Rite, infiltrators cannot exist!"

"No wonder it says the difficulty has been greatly reduced..."

A moment later, the village chief arrived!

His arrival finally quieted the commotion at the valley entrance, and everyone made way for him.

The old village chief wore a solemn expression as he walked straight up to Wu Yu and cupped his fists in salute.

"Mr. Wu! Please accept this old man's bow!"