Moral Blackmail?

Bang! Another mercenary took a punch to the chest, his sternum caving in as blood sprayed from his mouth. He flew backward, crashed through the bonfire, and sent sparks scattering everywhere.

Slash! Lin Ming's fingertips swept across the third mercenary's neck, drawing a line of blood. Without even a groan, the man crumpled to the ground.

There were no dazzling martial skills, no earth-shaking spectacle. Only the simplest, most direct, most efficient slaughter.

Combined with the terrifying strength of the Indestructible Asura Body, the surging vitality of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art, and his minute-level combat instincts, these mercenaries—mostly at the peak of the First Realm or the third or fourth level of the Second Realm—were like paper dolls before him.

[Killed a Tier Two, third-level martial artist. Obtained Kill Points: 3000.]

[Killed a Tier Two, first-level martial artist. Obtained Kill Points: 1000.]

The cold notifications rang through his mind in succession, but Lin Ming paid them no heed. His movements did not pause in the slightest. Like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep, he left snapped tendons, broken bones, and cries of agony in his wake.

In barely a dozen seconds, the five or six mercenaries who had rushed at him were all sprawled on the ground, dead or crippled. The thick stench of blood instantly filled the entire camp.

The commotion finally alerted everyone.

"What happened?!"

"Enemy attack?!"

"Fourth Brother! A-Qiang!"

The other awakened mercenaries grabbed their weapons and rushed out of their tents. When they saw the grisly scene in the center of the camp, they were all stunned.

Captain Zhou also charged back from outside the camp like an enraged lion. Seeing his subordinates scattered across the ground, dead and wounded, and the young man standing calmly amid a pool of blood without so much as a rumpled hem, his eyes nearly split with fury as violent blood energy erupted from him!

"Lin Ming! What have you done?!"

Captain Zhou's hair stood on end in rage. He pointed his heavy sword straight at Lin Ming, releasing the full pressure of the ninth level of the Second Realm in an attempt to intimidate him.

Xia He had also been awakened. Protected by two female mercenaries, she stepped out of her tent.

Looking at the bloody scene before her and smelling the heavy scent of blood in the air, her face instantly turned pale. She adjusted her glasses and looked at Lin Ming with a complicated expression, then at the severely wounded, wailing mercenaries on the ground—the ones who had clearly attacked Lin Ming first. Clever as she was, she had already roughly guessed what had happened.

Lin Ming slowly raised his eyes. He looked at the aggressive Captain Zhou, swept his gaze over the mercenaries around him—angry, fearful, or at a loss—and finally let his eyes settle on Xia He's pale face. In an even tone, he stated the facts:

"They wanted to kill me and claim the bounty. So I killed them."

Simple and direct, without a single explanation or defense.

"Bullshit!" A mercenary who had been lucky enough not to participate, but was usually close to Fourth Brother, roared with bloodshot eyes.

"Fourth Brother and the others were just trying to play a joke on you! How could you be so vicious? Are you even human?!"

"Yeah! We were only testing your skills!"

"It was a misunderstanding! All of it was a misunderstanding!"

"Fourth Brother's child is sick, and he desperately needed money. He was just confused for a moment..."

"You're not dead, are you? Why can't you forgive them?!"

The other surviving mercenaries also began shouting, pushing the blame onto a "joke," a "misunderstanding," and a "moment of confusion." Some even tried to play the sympathy card.

Captain Zhou's face turned livid, his chest heaving violently. Of course he knew what Fourth Brother and the others had done. The scents of the Drunken Dream Powder and Bewitching Spirit Smoke had not even dispersed yet!

But they were brothers who had spent years licking blood from the edge of their blades together!

Besides, Lin Ming was an outsider, yet he had killed so many people in his camp! Where was Captain Zhou supposed to put his pride as captain?

"Lin Ming!" Captain Zhou drew a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his anger as he tried to overwhelm him with authority.

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"Even if they were at fault, they never truly hurt you! You were far too ruthless! For Miss Xia's sake, I can choose not to pursue the matter of you killing my men. But you must leave immediately! And compensate my brothers' families!"

Relying on his ninth-level Second Realm strength, he believed he could easily suppress the "Tier Two, third-level" Lin Ming from the intelligence reports. His tone was an unquestionable command.

As for Xia He's previous favorable impression of Lin Ming and her attempt to recruit him, those were no longer important in the face of his brothers' blood.

Listening to Captain Zhou's words, then looking at the mercenaries around him—some furious, some pleading, some gloating—Lin Ming suddenly found it rather amusing.

A misunderstanding? A joke? They hadn't actually hurt him?

So drugging him, using smoke to knock him out, and ambushing him with blades was a "joke"? But when he fought back and killed them, that made him "vicious"?

Because they had failed and he was still alive, he had to "forgive" them? Because they had "difficulties at home," their attempted murder was somehow excusable?

That logic was truly... revolting.

He understood that the martial world was ruled by the strong preying on the weak. But such shameless twisting of right and wrong still opened his eyes.

Lin Ming said this with a serious expression.

"I'll kill him now, apologize to you... and then you'll forgive me, right? After all, you're all so broad-minded..."

"How could that possibly be the same?!"

Captain Zhou immediately exploded. His composure shattered, and he began cursing, his words brimming with killing intent.

Lin Ming shook his head mockingly and said,

"Isn't that a double standard? When the pain isn't yours, you keep telling others to forgive... Your heart isn't that broad after all!"

How could Lin Ming possibly forgive someone who had tried to kill him?

"Captain Zhou," Lin Ming said. His voice remained calm, yet carried an icy, piercing force.

"Do you think that if I had been the one drugged unconscious tonight, if I had been the one whose throat was cut, if I had been the one lying here... would you have given me the chance to explain it as a 'misunderstanding'? Because I had 'difficulties at home,' would you have spared my corpse instead of taking it to claim that ten-million bounty?"

Captain Zhou's breathing caught, leaving him speechless for a moment.

The mercenaries around them also fell silent for an instant.

The answer was self-evident.

"So." Lin Ming flicked his wrist, shaking the blood droplets from his spear tip. His calm gaze swept over Captain Zhou and every mercenary present. "Don't lecture me with such ridiculous logic."

"You wanted to kill me, so you should have been prepared to be killed by me."

"As for compensation for their families?"

An extremely cold curve formed at the corner of Lin Ming's mouth as his gaze fell upon Captain Zhou's door-sized heavy sword.

"Defeat me, and my life—as well as this twenty-million bounty—will be yours."

"If you can't..."

He paused. The Silver Frost Spear slowly rose, its tip pointing at Captain Zhou. A terrifying spear intent, heavy as a mountain and sharp as a blade, erupted together with the fierce, baleful aura of the Indestructible Asura Body!

"Then go down and join those brothers of yours who kept talking about a 'misunderstanding.'"

The air in the camp seemed to freeze in an instant.

The bonfire's light danced in Lin Ming's eyes, where a faint dark-golden gleam flickered, reflecting a hellish battlefield of slaughter.

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