Kill stealing

Everything before his eyes rapidly receded.

Shi Lai, who had recovered from being a puddle, glanced at Zhou Xiaoxian's retreating figure in the distance, then turned to Xia Yi with a smile that did not reach his eyes and shuffled back a few steps.

He said nothing.

Xia Yi's expression remained unchanged. He smiled. "There's no keeping a grown daughter at home. That girl has never been this worried about her own father. Well, at your age, romance does matter more. Come on, let's help her find her sweetheart."

[Ding! Xia Yi has issued a quest: Help Zhou Xiaoxian find Zhou Lizhu.][Quest reward: Increased favorability with Xia Yi]

Shi Lai was dumbstruck.

That wasn't what you said a moment ago!

Just then, dry leaves crunched underfoot, and a voice boomed like muffled thunder.

"Who are you? Moo has never seen you before."

"Are you Xiao Xian's elder?"

"Can you marry her to moo?"

Shi Lai immediately shrank back again, watching Xia Yi warily. Xia Yi paused where he stood, removed his bamboo hat, and turned around, his long white hair whipping through the air.

What an imposing presence!

"Child, stay back!"

Shi Lai was utterly bewildered. Does he mean me?

How can you act one way to someone's face and another behind their back?

Xia Yi paid him no more attention. His gaze lingered briefly on the young Human Race man approaching beneath a shroud of black light, and he barked, "How could a Human Race girl marry a thing like you, neither human nor demon!"

Zhou Lizhu froze.

"Neither human nor demon? Moo? Moo is... this on moo... moo... Moo~!!"

With a long bellow, Zhou Lizhu lowered his head and charged!

Holding his bamboo hat in his right hand, Xia Yi clenched his left fist. Black light hummed into being around it as he poured in saint soul power, twisted, and punched!

Bang!!

Fist met head with a metallic clang. A gale erupted, tearing up the ground and sweeping Shi Lai away amid his shrieks, sending him crashing down in the distance!

Once he could move again, he scrambled and rolled behind a distant tree, then poked his head out to watch excitedly.

"So strong! Who won?"

The distant ground looked as though a tornado had ravaged it. All the greenery had been stripped away, exposing yellow sand deeply imprinted with two trails of Xia Yi's footprints. He stood in the newest pair! Meanwhile, a streak of blood trickled down Zhou Lizhu's forehead!

"Evenly matched? No, a fist against a head-is the old man going to lose?"

What he failed to notice was the look of relief on Xia Yi's face, turned away from him.

"So it's only a remnant soul possessing a body. Nearly scared me to death. Huh, strange. Didn't that girl say Xiang Yu killed the Twelve Demon Gods five hundred years ago? How did a remnant soul survive until now?"

"That hurts! Moo will kill you!"

Zhou Lizhu charged again, both fists clenched.

Xia Yi loosened his right hand, letting the bamboo hat fall freely before him. Halfway down, it transformed into his wings. With a beat of those wings, Xia Yi became a blur. White hair streaming, he evaded Zhou Lizhu's fist and circled to his side, then slammed his right hand onto his spine. Using the momentum of Zhou Lizhu's own punch, he drove him straight into the ground!

Boom!!

The ground cracked and caved in! Zhou Lizhu's body sank several meters deep into the earth! He twitched twice beneath Xia Yi's palm, then lay still!

"As expected, nothing but raw strength... hmm?"

Bang!!! A fist the size of a sandbag suddenly struck Xia Yi's chest!

Xia Yi shot backward, smashing through seven or eight trees before slamming into a towering tree so thick it would take three people to encircle its trunk!

Leaves and dust swirled. As Xia Yi slid down, faint cracking sounded, and even that massive tree snapped at the point of impact, toppling in the opposite direction!

A hundred or so meters away, Zhou Lizhu spread his arms, clenched his fists, and bellowed skyward, "Moo~!"

Shi Lai's eyes widened. That fierce? Did he beat the old man to death? He looked at the tree before him, then at those Xia Yi had knocked down, and suddenly felt anything but safe. He shrank back farther, peeking out at Xia Yi as he moved.

"Oh, he's fine. He activated a shield!"

A few seconds later, Xia Yi rose with a grim expression. The round blue-green barrier before his chest was riddled with cracks. It shattered with a bang, turning into streaks of light that vanished.

"One punch shattered the defensive shell of the turtle longevity saint soul. A demon god's remnant soul really is extraordinary."

"Not dead?! Moo will kill you!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Zhou Lizhu's running footsteps seemed to shake the very earth. Though his build suggested he weighed around two hundred jin, at this moment he was as heavy as a mountain!

Xia Yi tapped his right foot against the ground. His wings beat, carrying him into a backward somersault through the air, and he landed atop the massive tree he had just knocked down. The edges of his wings took on a faint sharpness, slashing several cold gleams through the air!

The huge trunk fell apart. With a rapid series of kicks, Xia Yi sent chunks and splinters of wood shooting out at tremendous speed, filling the air and engulfing Zhou Lizhu!

Zhou Lizhu's eyes widened. Crossing his arms over his face, he mooed incessantly. Every chunk and splinter shattered, unable to slow him in the slightest!

But just as he felt the space ahead clear and lowered his arms, Xia Yi's wings crossed in a slash before him, and blood jetted from his chest!

"That hurts! I'll kill you!!"

His fists swung forward with a howling rush of wind. Xia Yi pushed off repeatedly with his toes, retreating swiftly to watch from afar.

By then, Zhou Lizhu's gray vest had become fluttering rags, exposing his bare chest.

Across that chest, Xia Yi had carved a huge, blood-red X! It stretched from his collarbones to his waist, with bone faintly visible. Blood streamed freely, soon drenching Zhou Lizhu from head to toe!

Yet Xia Yi frowned slightly. He noticed the gruesome wounds writhing and healing at an extraordinary speed. Within just a few breaths, only two faint marks remained.

"He even awakened the Demon Race's innate regeneration? First time I've seen this happen. Should I say that's a demon god for you? Ah, looks like I can't afford to hold back. Sorry, girl."

Though he said this, Xia Yi felt little guilt. Humans killing demons was only natural!

Besides, once a demon soul entered someone's body, there was no saving them.

He deeply regretted that this young man had suffered such an unforeseen calamity in the prime of his life, but he would not show mercy.

Letting him escape would bring endless disaster!

The pitch-black wings dissolved, reverting to a bamboo hat upon his head. Xia Yi raised his right hand and pressed his thumb hard against his forehead. A humming sound rang out like a bell, and a phantom suddenly expanded around him, gradually forming an enormous illusory human figure over ten meters tall that enveloped him!

On closer inspection, the figure's face bore an eighty-percent resemblance to Xia Yi's, only somewhat younger, with hair that had yet to turn white. Its clothing, however, was completely different from his.

He wore a pure-white mink coat that looked extravagantly luxurious, its hem seemingly fluttering in the wind. A lit cigarette also hung at an angle from the phantom's mouth!

Shi Lai said, "Wh-what kind of ultimate move is this?"

As Zhou Lizhu approached, the phantom moved!

It raised a hand to remove the cigarette and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, enveloping both Xia Yi and Zhou Lizhu! The muscles in Xia Yi's clenched arm visibly swelled a little! Zhou Lizhu, in contrast, suddenly stumbled, ninety percent of his immense strength vanishing in that instant!

Five-star exclusive saint soul, Xia Yi's Minks-Banishing!

Over eight hundred years earlier, Xia Yi had managed the Xia Family's shops. With mink pelts as his primary merchandise and cigarettes as a sideline, he had made the phantom's appearance the most fashionable style among the Human Race at the time, taking the Xia Family's shops to new heights.

Mink pelt prices had soared endlessly. Countless desperadoes hunted mink demons, making the Mink Clan the first of the Demon Race's clans to approach extinction! He had brought down the minks through commerce and comprehended a saint soul on his own!

Xia Yi's Minks-Banishing was a devastating counter to the Demon Race!

Bang!! The ground boomed beneath Xia Yi's heavy stomp. As the mink-coated, cigarette-smoking phantom dissipated, another phantom, an ancient, weighty book, swirled into shape behind him.

Three-star saint soul, Martial Arts Compendium!

Fist technique, third form!

Boom!!

As though a bomb had exploded, Zhou Lizhu stiffened as Xia Yi's fists drove into his chest. His strength drained away, and he fell to his knees before collapsing facedown with a thud!

A hole more than ten centimeters across pierced the center of his back! Amid the spurting blood, half a heart could faintly be seen beating feebly, slower and slower, on the verge of stopping and losing all vitality.

After unleashing his full strength, Xia Yi's face had also grown a shade paler. He bent over and coughed heavily.

Just then, a figure suddenly rushed forward and lunged, thrusting a longsword straight at the back of Zhou Lizhu's head!

Clang!!

Amid the clash of metal, the sword tip snapped off and flew away. Shi Lai fell to the ground, staring blankly at the half-sword in his hand, the unscathed back of Zhou Lizhu's head, and the chest Xia Yi had punched through.

"Hey, isn't this a little ridiculous?"

His mouth twitched. Shi Lai looked up and gave Xia Yi an awkward smile. "Old man, I was trying to help you. Looks like... I'm not quite up to it."

You were trying to steal my fucking kill! Xia Yi wanted to kick him, but Zhou Lizhu struggled to turn over at his feet, his blurred gaze settling on Shi Lai.

"Shi... Shi Lai?"

"Why do you... want to kill moo?"

Zhou Lizhu's face was filled with grief and disbelief.

Shi Lai froze. To him, killing monsters, leveling up, and getting loot were only natural. Yet at that moment, faced with Zhou Lizhu's question, he found himself speechless.

"Why do you want to kill... moo?!"

Tears filled Zhou Lizhu's large eyes.

That final "moo" became a roar!

It rang out with full force, its echoes lingering on!