Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 73
>Chapter Title: Killing
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Chapter 73: Killing
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> “This is impossible, absolutely impossible!! How could he still be alive!!”
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> Looking at the thing emerging from the water, Yuan Er couldn’t help but shout.
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> Never had a single person escaped from the River Lord’s grasp, yet this one had actually done it.
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> He recognized this person. The one before him was the red-robed Daoist who had caused the deaths of dozens of his brothers!
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> Before these people could even figure out what was happening, he saw the bizarre Daoist slowly raise his head, leaving a bloody footprint with every step as he walked straight toward them.
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> “Kill! Kill him now!! Quick! Don’t let him ring the bell!” Yuan Er’s voice carried a trace of tension.
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> Though the enemy was just one man while they numbered in the hundreds, Yuan Er inexplicably felt an urge to turn tail and run.
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> Whooshing sounds rang out one after another as dozens of arrows glinted coldly toward the Daoist, yet not a single one hit.
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> With a ripping sound, a man’s body was dismantled alive by Li Huowang right before everyone’s eyes.
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> The water bandits initially tried to swarm him, but soon the increasingly bloody scene cooled their boiling blood.
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> This hellish sight rivaling the eighteenth layer of hell gradually replaced the fury and hatred in their eyes with fear.
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> Finally, they could hold out no longer. Their legs began to tremble as they turned to flee.
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> Not even Yuan Er’s orders could make them pause now. They were utterly terrified.
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> Once these men had completely lost their will to fight and turned their backs to Li Huowang, a naked slaughter unfolded across the reed island.
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> “Ancestor Grandpa, Ancestor Grandpa, think of something quick!” Yuan Er cried out upon seeing his own younger brother dismantled alive, completely losing his composure.
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> Only now did he realize just how terrifying the existence he had provoked was.
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> The previously dignified elder was panicking now too. His hands clasped together in haste as he muttered something toward the dark red lake water beside them.
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> The muttering didn’t last long. When he saw a mass of flesh the size of a large ship floating up from the lake bottom to the surface, the elder’s vision went black, and his body began to topple backward.
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> That was the River Lord they had worshiped for generations, and the Daoist had actually killed it!
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> Yuan Er’s heart shuddered at the sight. Without a word, he hoisted his Ancestor Grandpa onto his back and bolted toward the village stronghold.
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> Ignoring the cries and screams behind him, Yuan Er clenched his teeth and fled with all haste.
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> Li Huowang watched from afar as Danyangzi slowly killed the water bandits one by one. With each kill, the redness before his eyes deepened a shade, until finally it was so red he could no longer see the path.
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> At first, Li Huowang hadn’t wanted to stop him, but when he saw Danyangzi grab another person, he finally couldn’t hold back.
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> “No need to kill anymore! Stop killing!”
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> Amid Li Huowang’s shout, Danyangzi grabbed the man with the red dot on his forehead.
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> He slowly turned around, a cruel smile spreading across his blood-drenched face. “Kid... why not?”
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> Li Huowang opened his mouth to say something, but as he glanced toward the pitch-black lake surface and thought of his other companions whose fates were unknown, he suddenly found he had no rebuttal.
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> The agony in his heart threatened to swallow him whole in an instant. Clutching his throbbing head, he screamed desperately: “Why?! Why can’t I kill them after they killed our people?!”
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> When he came back to himself, Danyangzi was gone, and he was in Danyangzi’s position.
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> Before him now was a plump woman.
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> Tears streaming down her face, she cradled a man whose head was half-shriveled in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. He appeared to be her husband.
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> “Kill her! Either don’t kill at all, or wipe out the whole family!” A voice exploded in his ear out of nowhere.
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> Li Huowang’s eye twitching uncontrollably gripped the hilt of the sword at his neck and slowly drew it.
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> With a forceful swing, a white arc flashed through the air, and the miserable crying cut off abruptly.
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> In that instant of striking, Li Huowang felt a peculiar sensation surge from his spine straight to the back of his brain.
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> That feeling washed away the despair and pain in his heart.
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> “Heh, hehehe.” Unable to suppress the mad laughter on his face, Li Huowang gripped his sword tightly and marched toward the reed village, one bloody footprint at a time.
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> Before long, a storm of gore and bloodshed erupted within the village.
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> Watching face after different face get easily torn apart, watching one fresh life after another wither away, Li Huowang laughed. The more he killed, the louder he laughed, his guffaws uncontrollable.
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> The sounds of blades and swords piercing flesh rang out endlessly as the dark yellow reed island was gradually blanketed in red.
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> By the time night had fully fallen, the screams across the entire island had dwindled to nothing.
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> Inside the Yuan family ancestral hall, Li Huowang—drenched in blood and dragging his bloody sword—approached a scrawny youth step by step.
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> There were no other sounds anywhere else. This youth must be the last one left on the island.
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> Faced with the blood-soaked killer before him, the youth had completely broken down in terror. Urine streaming down his legs, he flailed his hands wildly and babbled incoherently.
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> Just as Li Huowang slowly raised his longsword, a familiar voice came from behind him.
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> When he turned woodenly, he saw Bai Lingmiao—completely soaked—standing at the doorway, clutching a glowing stone and trembling.
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> The instant he saw her, the killing intent in his heart and that strange sensation at the back of his brain receded like the tide. “You’re not dead?”
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> The moment he spoke, Li Huowang realized his voice had changed. What should have been a clear voice was now extremely hoarse.
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> That sword wound on his neck had luckily—but also very unluckily—damaged his vocal cords.
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> “I know how to swim. There’s a pond in front of my village, and I’ve been playing in it since I was little.”
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> Li Huowang walked over with his sword and took off his Daoist robe—now crusted with a layer of blood—and draped it over Bai Lingmiao.
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> At that moment, it was as if Li Huowang snapped awake. He stared blankly at everything around him, at the corpses strewn about in all manner of gruesome deaths.
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> Regardless of age or gender, everyone was dead—all killed by his own hand.
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> Looking at the dead girls still clutching their mothers, and at the lifeless cradle, the guilt and pain that had vanished earlier surged back into his heart, pressing down so hard he could scarcely breathe.
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> Li Huowang slowly bent down to pick up the dagger from the ground, clenched his teeth, and viciously stabbed it into his own palm.
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> He had never understood before why Sister Hu from the ward next door at the mental hospital self-harmed, but now he did.
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