Chen Dabiao's chest caved inward at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the clothes on his back exploded with a bang!
His eyes bulged violently, filled with blood vessels. He opened his mouth wide, but no sound came out.
The light in his eyes quickly dimmed, and the aura of life faded like the receding tide.
Lin Ming let go.
Chen Dabiao's body crumpled to the ground. A terrifying hole pierced clean through his chest, and blood gushed out like a stream, quickly soaking a large patch of earth.
Dead silence.
A dead silence even more complete and suffocating than before descended over the entire scene.
Everyone stood as if immobilized, staring blankly at Chen Dabiao's corpse on the ground before looking at the young man standing ramrod straight, his abdomen still bleeding, the dark golden vitality around his body slowly receding, his eyes cold.
He... killed him?
Chen Dabiao, the eldest son of the Chen Household, had really been killed?
In full view of everyone, killed with a single punch?
At that moment, the cold system notification rang in Lin Ming's mind right on schedule:
[You killed a Second Tier Fourth Layer Warrior. Kill Points obtained: 3,000.]
Lin Ming was slightly taken aback.
Kill Points?
Right. The system description said that Kill Points were obtained by "killing enemies." It had never specified that they had to be Mutated Beasts. He had simply been on the battlefield before, facing nothing but Mutated Beasts, and had subconsciously overlooked this point.
Warriors... were also "enemies."
Killing Warriors of the same tier or even stronger could likewise earn Kill Points!
And judging by the results, the reward seemed pretty good. A Second Tier Fourth Layer had given him 3,000 points. Although that was not as much as killing a Third Tier Mutated Beast across tiers, it was still far more efficient than killing ordinary First Realm Mutated Beasts.
A dark golden glow flickered faintly in Lin Ming's eyes.
He seemed to have... inadvertently discovered another "shortcut" to obtaining Kill Points.
Of course, this path was more dangerous, and the consequences would be greater. But... it did not seem completely unworkable.
"Lin Ming! You..." Su Yunwan was the first to recover. She rushed to Lin Ming's side, looking at Chen Dabiao's corpse on the ground. Shock and panic drained her pretty face of color.
"You were too impulsive! How could you kill him?! The Chen Household... the Chen Household rules South River! Chen Haidong is a Fifth Tier powerhouse, and he's extremely protective of his own! This is his only son!"
She had only wanted Lin Ming to teach Chen Dabiao a lesson. She had never imagined that he would take his life. Now things had become a huge mess—a heaven-shaking mess!
"Impulsive?" Lin Ming turned his head toward Su Yunwan, his gaze still calm, as if the person who had just killed someone had not been him. "He ambushed me and wanted my life. I fought back and killed him. Is there a problem?"
He paused, his voice icy.
"Among Warriors, conflicts determine both victory and defeat, as well as life and death. Since he had murderous intent, I sent him on his way. This is my martial path. If I have to endure even this, then what's the point of cultivating martial arts?"
Su Yunwan was rendered speechless. That was indeed the logic of the matter. When Warriors fought, they bore responsibility for life and death, especially since Chen Dabiao had launched the ambush first. But this world was not one where only reason mattered! The Chen Household's fists were bigger than reason!
Old Wang, Old Black, and the others also came scrambling over, each with an uglier expression than the last.
"Kid Lin! You... sigh!" Old Wang stamped his feet anxiously. "Leave! Hurry up and leave! Get out of South River! No, get out of this Base City! The farther away, the better!"
"Right! Madman Lin, the Chen Household will know soon! Chen Haidong is a madman! He won't reason with you!" Old Black also spoke urgently.
"Go! Go now! Climb over the back wall and enter the Wilderness!" Bitter Melon urged him on.
Lin Ming frowned, but Old Wang and the others were right. A Fifth Tier powerhouse was not someone he could contend with yet. Staying behind meant certain death.
His gaze swept across the edge of the training field. Sure enough, several lackeys who had come with Chen Dabiao earlier were running into the distance in panic, scrambling as they went. Clearly, they were going to report what had happened.
"Let's go." Lin Ming no longer hesitated and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Su Yunwan called out to him, gritting her teeth.
"I'll give you the Silver Frost Spear directly... The Wilderness is dangerous. You'll need a good weapon to protect yourself!"
Lin Ming looked at the Silver Frost in his hand, then at Su Yunwan. This spear was Su Yunwan's personal weapon, an A+ Grade item of immeasurable value. She had actually given it to him just like that?
"Come back alive, then return it to me." Su Yunwan looked at him with a complicated expression—worry, urgency, and a trace of emotion even she did not understand.
"If... if you don't come back, then consider this spear... a gift from me."
Lin Ming was silent for a moment. He tightened his grip on the Silver Frost Spear and nodded. "All right. I'll come back alive, and I'll return the spear to you."
With that, he did not linger. The Dragon Roaming Step instantly reached its limit beneath his feet. His figure moved like a ghost, and after several flickers, he rushed beneath the towering wall on the inner side of the fortress.
He drew a deep breath. Pain stabbed through the wound in his abdomen, but under the effects of Boiling War Blood and the Immortal Foundation, the bleeding had temporarily stopped and his movements were not greatly affected.
He tapped the wall several times with his toes, borrowing force to leap upward like an agile ape, and easily flipped onto the wallhead more than twenty meters high.
Standing on the wallhead, he looked back one last time. Su Yunwan, Old Wang, Old Black, Mute, Bitter Melon, and all those shocked, frightened, or complicated gazes had converged on him.
In the distance, he seemed to hear faint shouts of rage and hurried footsteps rapidly drawing near.
Lin Ming no longer hesitated. He leaped from the wallhead, and his figure quickly vanished beyond the fortress into the Wilderness shrouded beneath the dark-red sky, filled with the unknown and danger.
He had chosen the most dangerous path, but also the one that might be his only road to survival—the Wilderness.
Return to the city? Facing the enraged Fifth Tier powerhouse and the Chen Household's network of influence, that would be walking straight into a trap.
Only the Wilderness—the vast, endless Wilderness, the territory of the Mutated Beasts—could offer him a sliver of hope.
Less than an hour after Lin Ming vanished into the Wilderness.
Wuuuu!!!
A shrill air-raid siren suddenly rang out above South River Base City! This time, the alarm was more urgent and piercing than ever before, as if announcing the arrival of some disaster!
Immediately afterward, a terrifying pressure beyond description descended upon the Seventh Entrance area like a tangible mountain!
The sky itself seemed to darken.
A military attack helicopter with vicious lines and a blood-red tiger insignia roared overhead like an enraged bird of prey. It hovered directly above the training field, its deafening rotors whipping up flying sand and stones as everyone staggered about.
The cabin door burst open.
A figure dropped from the sky like a meteor and slammed into the center of the training field, smashing a shallow crater several meters in diameter into the ground!
The dust slowly dispersed.
An old man emerged. He wore a dark-red, archaic robe and had completely white hair and beard, yet his face resembled that of a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, without a single wrinkle. He was not particularly tall, but once he stood there, he seemed to be the center of the entire world.
His eyes were scarlet, like two burning blood moons. His terrifying killing intent and fury had nearly solidified, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet and the air to become viscous and heavy!
A Fifth Tier powerhouse! The Golden Body Realm!
Chen Haidong! The Chen Household's patriarch! Chen Dabiao's father!
His scarlet eyes immediately locked onto the corpse on the ground, its chest torn open by a gaping hole, its body already cold and rigid.
"Biao!!!"
A heart-rending roar like that of a wounded beast burst from Chen Haidong's throat. The sound left everyone's eardrums aching and their vitality roiling, while some of the weaker people even vomited blood and collapsed on the ground!
Before you continue