The world always hides its true monsters," He Sun muttered, his voice thick with bitterness. "You never realize you're standing in their shadow until it's too late."
Mo Xuan didn't answer. He stared into the treeline, his silence more suffocating than any threat.
"Brother Xuan," Bai Lu stepped forward, his hands trembling. "We can't go back empty-handed. Senior brother Su Qingmei was clear, we were to retrieve that item from the girl at any cost. But we killed her, If were to return with nothing now..."
Mo Xuan's knuckles turned white. Senior brother Su Qingmei... Just the thought of his disappointment made his skin crawl.
"Brother Xuan, what are you—"
"Shut up, you idiot," Mo Xuan snapped, shoving He Sun aside. He turned on them both, his eyes cold enough to freeze blood. "You two are trash. Absolute, useless trash. Just like that boy we encountered."
"But Brother, it wasn't our fault!" Bai Lu said. "That old woman, she.
"Then whose fault was it?" Mo Xuan's voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "I was the one handling the boy. You two were supposed to be our eyes. If you had been doing your jobs instead of shaking in your boots, I would have stripped that technique from that kid and later find the treasure that girl dropped in this gods-forsaken woods."
He Sun and Bai Lu withered under his gaze, their heads hanging low. "We're sorry, Brother Xuan," they echoed, their voices small against the looming trees.
"Shut up," Mo Xuan shout!, turned away. "Just keep moving."
They pushed deeper into the brush until Bai Lu suddenly froze. "Brother Xuan... wait. I hear voices. Coming from over there."
Mo Xuan was about to bark another insult when he saw it, a flicker of movement near the boundary of a hidden village. The three exchanged a look of predatory curiosity and followed. As they crossed the threshold, Mo Xuan's mind began to race. He then wonder, Is this where that brat came from?
"Brother Xuan, should we observe first?" He Sun whispered.
Mo Xuan narrowed his eyes, a cruel ambition rising in his chest. "Clues. Information. If I can bring brother Su Qingmei the head of everyone in this village, perhaps he will forget our incompetence."
But as they stepped into the clearing, their eyes widened. The air didn't just feel heavy, it felt like it was screaming.
Deep in the forest...
Wang Fang's fists were no longer just bone and skin. They were vessels for a rage that had been brewing since the day his sect burned. His Qi didn't just flicker; it roared, a golden tide fighting against the suffocating pressure of the beast tide.
The monsters moved as one, a wall of fur and teeth closing in from every side. There was no room to dodge. No air to breathe.
Wang Fang closed his eyes.
In the white-hot center of his mind, a voice drifted through the chaos.
"My child..."
It was his mother. Just two words, yet they hit him harder than any Tier Three beast. The memory of her face, the smell of the Eternal Flame Sect before the fire, it sparked something Primal.
Wang Fang's eyes snapped open. The iris was no longer human; it was a storm.
In the space of a single heartbeat,
He unleashed sixty punches.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The sound barrier didn't just break; it shattered. Each strike was a concentrated explosion, compressing the air until it became a physical weapon. Shockwaves tore through the area, turning the atmosphere into a meat grinder.
Fifty beasts didn't just die, they were obliterated.
Blood and bone sprayed outward like a crimson ocean, coating the trees in a gruesome mist. The ground beneath his feet buckled, spiderwebbing with deep cracks as the very forest trembled under the force of his transition.
Old Lady Shen, who had spent decades watching geniuses rise and fall, stood up so fast her chair tipped over. Her calm mask was gone, replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated shock.
For the first time in a long time, old lady shen was afraid of wang fang terrifying talent