Blood.
Rain.
Mud.
Icy rainwater mixed with warm blood, washing over Chen Chen's cheeks. He lay facedown in a heap of rotting leaves, his lungs like a battered old bellows, every breath bringing tearing agony.
Three ribs were broken. The bone in his left arm had pierced through flesh and protruded into the air, ghastly white.
But he did not dare stop.
Behind him lay hell.
A few hours earlier, the Chen Family of Qingyang City had been engulfed in soaring flames.
His father, who had always showered him with affection, had been run through the chest by a black iron spear and nailed to the plaque above the ancestral hall. In his final glance at Chen Chen, there was no fear—only a roar wrenched from every ounce of his strength: "Chen'er, live!"
His mother, uncles, brothers, sisters... one familiar face after another had dissolved into a blurred haze of blood amid flashing blades and clashing swords.
The Wang Family!
That name was like a poisoned steel needle driven into Chen Chen's mind, every word dripping blood.
"Hey, that brat's up ahead! Don't let him get away!"
Arrogant shouts rang out behind him, accompanied by the crackle of snapping branches, drawing ever closer.
They were Wang Family guards.
Chen Chen bit down hard enough to shatter his molars, swallowing the bloody froth rising in his mouth along with rainwater. Using his only uninjured right hand to brace himself against the ground, he dragged his body forward through the mud with agonizing difficulty. Every inch felt like being carved to pieces by a thousand cuts.
He could not die here.
He had to take revenge!
That thought was like a tiny flame burning amid a sea of blood, his only support at this moment.
His vision began to blur. The chill of blood loss and the agony wracking his body battered his taut nerves in wave after wave.
Just as his consciousness was about to sink away, a black shadow shot out from the nearby brush like lightning. It carried a stench of blood as it lunged straight for his throat.
A demonic beast!
Chen Chen's pupils constricted. His instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else. Before he could even see what it was, he rolled across the ground, barely evading the fatal strike.
The black shadow landed with a low growl.
It was a black cat slightly larger than a hunting hound, its fur pitch-black from head to tail. Only its four claws gleamed with a metallic sheen, while its pair of emerald vertical pupils glowed like ghostly flames in the dim forest.
A First-Order Demonic Beast, a Shadow Cat.
Known for its speed and sharp claws, it was a common predator in the outer reaches of the Black Wind Mountain Range.
"Beast, get lost!"
Chen Chen roared hoarsely.
The Shadow Cat had clearly taken this severely wounded human for an easy meal. It arched its back, a threatening rumble rolling from its throat as the muscles in its hind legs swelled, readying another attack.
The shadow of death descended over him, terrifyingly real.
A trace of madness flashed through Chen Chen's eyes.
He did not want to be killed by his pursuers, much less become a demonic beast's food!
The instant the Shadow Cat pounced again, he did not retreat. Instead, he twisted his body with all his strength, aiming the broken bone protruding from his back at the incoming black shadow!
He turned his body into a blade!
It was the only way he could think of to attack.
"Pfft!"
A dull sound of something sharp piercing flesh.
The Shadow Cat was moving too fast. It never expected its dying prey to fight back in such a brutal manner. It slammed squarely into the pale bone spike, the jagged break stabbing through its lower jaw and piercing straight through its skull.
"Meow—"
Its shrill scream stopped abruptly.
The Shadow Cat's body convulsed violently twice, and warm blood sprayed across Chen Chen's face.
The agony sent darkness flooding over Chen Chen's vision, and he nearly passed out on the spot.
Yet at that moment, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice rang directly in his mind.
[Ding! Detected that the host has completed their first kill. The God of Slaughter System has officially activated!] [Name: Chen Chen] [Realm: None (Mortal)] [Cultivation Method: None] [Martial Skill: None] [Cultivation Points: 0]
Chen Chen's mind buzzed, going completely blank.
What was this? A hallucination?
[Ding! Killed a First-Order Demonic Beast, Shadow Cat. Cultivation Points +1!] [Cultivation Points: 1] [Consume 1 Cultivation Point to repair part of your injuries?]
This time, the voice was even clearer.
Chen Chen's eyes flew wide open. He could "see" a pale blue panel floating before him, visible only to him.
What was this...?
"That brat's over there!"
His pursuers' voices were already close at hand.
There was no time to think. His instinct to survive made the choice for him.
Repair!
He roared inwardly.
[Cultivation Points -1. Beginning repair...]
A warm current sprang forth from within his body out of nowhere, like a spring flood arriving in a dried-up riverbed. The warmth surged toward his most grievous wound—the broken left arm.
Under Chen Chen's horrified gaze, the bone protruding through his flesh slowly retracted back into his body at a visible speed. Muscle, meridians, and skin wriggled like living things, healing themselves.
In no more than three breaths, the gruesome wound had been reduced to a shallow bloody mark.
Though the broken bone had not completely rejoined, the heart-rending agony had already lessened by more than half!
This... this was not a hallucination!
It was real!
Chen Chen's heart pounded wildly, not from fear, but from the ecstatic shock of finding life at the end of a dead road!
Killing... could make him stronger?
Killing could earn him Cultivation Points?
His gaze shifted slowly from the dead Shadow Cat toward the source of the voices.
Two burly men in Wang Family guard uniforms had already pushed through the brush and appeared ten meters away from him.
They saw Chen Chen on the ground and the dead Shadow Cat. After a moment of surprise, savage smiles spread across their faces.
"Heh, what a useless piece of trash. A Shadow Cat actually forced him into such a state." The scar-faced guard on the left spat contemptuously.
"Cut the nonsense, Li San. Finish him quickly and take his head back for the reward. The second steward said he wanted him alive, so breaking all four limbs would do. But looking at him now, he's nearly crippled himself already." The one-eyed man on the right licked his lips, cruelty gleaming in his eyes.
They closed in step by step, the Steel Blades in their hands reflecting cold, sinister light through the dimness.
In their eyes, Chen Chen was fish on the chopping block, ready to be carved up at will.
They did not notice that the youth who should have been at death's door was slowly pushing himself up from the mud.
Chen Chen kept his head lowered, rainwater sliding down his black hair and obscuring his eyes.
His left hand was still weak, but it could already move slightly.
In his mind, the system's cold voice intertwined with his father's dying roar.
Live!
Take revenge!
He raised his head. His eyes shone frighteningly bright through the curtain of rain. The despair and terror from before were gone, replaced by coldness and... greed.
Like a starving wolf at death's door that had spotted prey delivered right to its jaws.
"One... two..."
He murmured in a hoarse voice.
"Brat, what are you muttering about?" Scarface Li San frowned, an inexplicable unease rising in his heart.
Chen Chen bared his teeth in a smile.
That smile looked incomparably strange and savage on his blood-smeared face.
"I was thinking how many Cultivation Points I'd get for killing you."
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