The night deepened.
After the rain, the Black Wind Mountain Range was steeped in the scent of damp earth and rotting leaves, occasionally mingled with a faint, almost imperceptible smell of blood.
Chen Chen did not choose to leave immediately.
He knew very well that the Wang Family had sent far more pursuers than just those two men.
Going back now would be no different from walking straight into a net.
The most dangerous place was often the safest.
To others, this dark forest was a perilous land fraught with danger at every turn, but to him, the owner of the "God of Slaughter System," it was a perfect hunting ground.
He needed to adapt to this brand-new body at the Body Tempering First Layer.
He needed to hone his killing skills.
More than that... he needed to accumulate more Cultivation Points!
Chen Chen dragged the two corpses into the dense brush, then covered most of the bloodstains with mud and fallen leaves. Once he was done, he gripped the steel blade he had taken from One-Eyed Dragon and melted silently into the night like a true ghost.
After breaking through to the Body Tempering First Layer, his five senses had become exceptionally sharp.
The rustle of wind through leaves, the cry of a night owl in the distance, even the sound of a beetle crawling across the ground more than ten meters away—all of it reached his ears with perfect clarity.
Darkness was no longer an obstacle. Instead, it became his finest disguise.
Like a patient cheetah, he prowled his territory in search of prey.
Before long, he found a lone Tusked Wild Boar.
It was a First-Order Demonic Beast, thick-skinned and foul-tempered. Its pair of curved tusks could easily gore through iron armor.
The old Chen Chen could only have taken a detour upon encountering such a thing.
But now...
Chen Chen lowered his body and silently drew closer beneath the shadows of trees and rocks.
The Tusked Wild Boar was using its enormous snout to root through the muddy ground for edible tubers, wholly unaware of the danger closing in.
Ten meters.
Five meters.
Three meters!
At that instant, Chen Chen moved!
With a light tap of his toes against the ground, he shot forward like an arrow released from the bow, making not the slightest unnecessary sound.
Infused with the surging blood and qi from his breakthrough, the steel blade in his hand seemed to have become even sharper.
He did not target the boar's hardest back, but its comparatively vulnerable neck.
"Pfft!"
The blade precisely sliced through thick hide and muscle, burying itself deep in the boar's neck bone.
"Aoo—!"
The Tusked Wild Boar let out a pained roar and thrashed madly, trying to throw the enemy from its back.
A tremendous force traveled through him, and Chen Chen nearly lost his grip on the hilt.
But his eyes reddened, his teeth clenched tight, and he pressed all his strength into the blade. Following the boar's thrashing momentum, he slashed viciously!
"Riiip!"
A bone-deep wound tore from the boar's neck all the way down its spine.
Blood burst forth in a torrent.
[ Ding! Killed First-Order Demonic Beast Tusked Wild Boar. Cultivation Points +2! ]
The boar's massive body crashed to the ground. After twitching a few times, it fell silent.
Chen Chen panted heavily as he jumped down from its body.
Though he had killed it successfully, the process had not been easy. His combat experience was still far too lacking.
"Only 2 points of cultivation..."
Chen Chen looked at the system panel and frowned slightly.
It seemed that even among First-Order Demonic Beasts, differing strength meant differing Cultivation Points. This boar was clearly somewhat stronger than the Shadow Cat from before.
A Body Tempering First Layer martial artist, meanwhile, directly gave him 10 points.
Humans were the best "cultivation resources."
The thought flashed through his mind, making even him feel a chill of dread.
But he quickly suppressed that trace of discomfort.
Mercy?
When the Wang Family slaughtered his entire household, had they ever shown even the slightest mercy?
In this world where people ate people, showing mercy to an enemy was cruelty to oneself!
Over the next two hours, Chen Chen completely transformed into the god of death in the night.
Relying on senses far sharper than those of others at the same level, he continuously searched for isolated Demonic Beasts.
A venomous Green-Eyed Snake died to his precise thrown stone.
[ Ding! Killed First-Order Demonic Beast Green-Eyed Snake. Cultivation Points +1! ]
Three Iron-Backed Wolves traveling in a pack were lured apart one by one with the terrain, separated, and slain.
[ Ding! Killed First-Order Demonic Beast Iron-Backed Wolf. Cultivation Points +1! ] [ Ding! Killed First-Order Demonic Beast Iron-Backed Wolf. Cultivation Points +1! ] [ Ding! Killed First-Order Demonic Beast Iron-Backed Wolf. Cultivation Points +1! ]
His combat skills improved at an astonishing pace amid one bloody fight after another.
From awkward and clumsy at first, he became clean and decisive.
He learned how to use the environment, how to kill with a single strike, and how to conserve as much stamina as possible.
His gaze grew colder and colder, until he resembled a true beast more and more.
When the Cultivation Points on the system panel accumulated to "10" once more, Chen Chen found a concealed cave and prepared to rest briefly.
After continuous battles, even a body forged of iron needed time to catch its breath.
He tore off the tenderest piece of tenderloin from the boar, sliced it into thin strips with his blade, and swallowed it raw.
The cold slices of meat slid into his stomach with a bloody taste, yet swiftly turned into streams of warmth that replenished his depleted strength.
Body Tempering Realm martial artists possessed vigorous qi and blood, and could already begin digesting the energy within raw meat.
Just as he leaned against the cold stone wall and prepared to close his eyes to recuperate, the deliberately lowered conversation of several people drifted in from outside the cave.
"Damn it, there isn't even a bird in this cursed place!" a rough voice complained. "The Wang Family is too stingy. For one useless brat, they're offering so little reward money that they made us brothers enter the mountains in the dark."
"Shut up, Black Bear! Are you trying to draw all the Demonic Beasts over here?" another, steadier voice rebuked him.
"What's there to fear? The boss is here. Besides, they say that Chen Family brat was beaten half to death. He's probably already feeding wolves in some corner. We're just here to go through the motions."
Chen Chen's eyes snapped open in the darkness.
They were not Wang Family guards.
They were mercenaries!
Desperadoes who had come for reward money!
A cold curve slowly formed at the corner of his mouth.
What perfect timing... just when he was sleepy, someone brought him a pillow.
He rose without a sound, reining in his aura to the utmost limit. Like a rock within the cave, he merged into the darkness.
Outside the cave, a group of four passed nearby, cursing under their breath.
At the front was a burly one-eyed man carrying an enormous Mountain-Cleaving Axe over his shoulder. His aura was steady; he was clearly the leader of the group.
Body Tempering Second Layer!
Chen Chen's gaze narrowed slightly.
The other three were also at the Body Tempering First Layer, little different from the Wang Family guards he had killed earlier.
In a direct confrontation, he stood no chance.
But this was his hunting ground.
"Boss, there's a cave ahead. How about we go in and rest our feet? We can wait until dawn," the burly man called Black Bear suggested.
The One-Eyed Boss at the front glanced at the pitch-black cave entrance and frowned. "Be careful. Send someone in to take a look."
"I'll go!" A thin mercenary volunteered, lit a firestarter, and carefully walked toward the cave.
The firelight flickered in the darkness, drawing nearer bit by bit.
Chen Chen's heartbeat slowed with it, like a giant python in hibernation waiting for prey to step into its trap.
Holding the firestarter aloft, the thin mercenary poked his head around as he entered the cave.
The firelight illuminated the cave walls. It was empty, save for several scattered rocks.
"Boss, it's safe!" he called back.
Yet at the instant he turned around, a figure dropped soundlessly from the darkness above his head!
Chen Chen hooked his feet into a crack in the cave ceiling and hung upside down. The steel blade in his hand, like a venomous serpent's fang, precisely covered the thin mercenary's mouth. At the same time, he gripped the hilt in reverse with his other hand and viciously drove the blade into the man's back!
"Mmph!"
The thin mercenary's eyes widened instantly. The firestarter slipped from his hand and died against the damp ground.
[ Ding! Killed Body Tempering First Layer martial artist. Cultivation Points +10! ]
Chen Chen did not pause in the slightest. The moment the corpse crumpled, he had already used the momentum to spring back into the shadows overhead. Throughout the entire process, he made not a single extra sound.
Outside the cave.
"Monkey, what happened? Why did the flame go out?" Sensing something wrong, the One-Eyed Boss shouted sharply.
There was no response.
A deathly silence.
The remaining two mercenaries' expressions instantly turned grave.
"Damn it, something's off!" Black Bear cursed, tightening his grip on the saber in his hand.
A vicious glint flashed through the One-Eyed Boss's eye. "We go in together! I want to see what's playing tricks and pretending to be a ghost!"
He took the lead, his massive body blocking more than half the cave entrance as he strode inside.
Behind him, Black Bear and the other mercenary followed close behind.
Yet all they saw was Monkey's corpse lying in a pool of blood.
"Monkey!" Black Bear cried out.
"Watch above!" The One-Eyed Boss was experienced and instantly realized something. He abruptly raised his head.
But what he saw was not an attack from overhead.
It was...
The cave entrance!
A boulder weighing several hundred jin had somehow been pushed above the entrance, and now it came crashing down with a howling rush of wind!
It was Chen Chen!
The moment he killed Monkey, he had circled outside the cave and used every ounce of his strength to shove the boulder he had spotted long ago!
"Not good!"
The One-Eyed Boss's expression changed drastically. He wanted to retreat, but the two men behind him blocked his escape.
He wanted to advance, but the cave was too narrow for him to avoid it completely!
BOOM!!!
The boulder fell and sealed the entire cave entrance shut, trapping all four of them within the cramped space.
No, three of them.
The final mercenary, walking at the rear, still had half his body outside the cave. He was directly crushed into a pulp beneath the boulder.
[ Ding! Killed Body Tempering First Layer martial artist. Cultivation Points +10! ]
Inside the cave, everything instantly plunged into darkness so complete one could not see one's own fingers.
Only the heavy breathing of the One-Eyed Boss and Black Bear remained, along with...
In the darkness, a pair of eyes bright enough to terrify.
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