After the voice ended, the yellow light screen before Sevrin's eyes slowly revealed the interior of a strange room.
This room was filled with exquisite ornaments made of gold and silver.
Between the gaps of these ornaments, many jewels, porcelains, and antiques were also displayed.
At a glance, this room, like a treasury, was filled with precious gems and artifacts, making one feel dazed.
Amidst this surround of gold, silver, and jewels, a man with white hair and beard but with a weathered aura and youthful facial features sat in the center of the screen. He gazed at Sevrin on the other side of the screen with cold eyes.
"Ah,"
This strange man looked calmly at Sevrin for two seconds, then suddenly sneered, "I wondered who it was, turns out it's you, Sevrin."
"Eh?" Sevrin's thick brows rose, "It seems you know me?"
After hearing this question, the man showed no intention of answering Sevrin at all. He picked up a golden bracelet encrusted with jewels, and while carefully wiping it, said unhurriedly:
"To be able to talk to me while floating in the water, and so unconstrained and leisurely at that, it seems you have excellent swimming skills. I suspect, the salt-slave has already been killed by you."
"Salt-slave?" Sevrin tilted his head slightly and said indifferently, "Are you referring to the Salt God of Ly Lake?"
The man gave a silent laugh, "Salt-slave, Salt God, HAHAHA, whatever name you call it doesn't matter, it's merely a dog at my feet anyway."
After saying that, he raised his head to look at Sevrin and asked, "By the way, Sevrin, do you want to be my dog? If you're willing, these gold and silver jewels,"
The man pointed to the mountains of gold and silver behind him and laughed, "I'll give you half, how about it?"
"I have a general idea of who you are."
Sevrin ignored his offer entirely, squinting his eyes and sneering, "In the entire Mount Qing region, the only one who possesses so much money and silver, and who is so arrogant and domineering that people find him repulsive, is the First Leader of the Black Wolf Bandits, Lan Yuca, right?"
"You guessed correctly, young man."
Lan Yuca gently set down the bracelet and picked up a jade vase, beginning to wipe it meticulously. Without looking up, he asked, "Sevrin, you killed my disciple Coeu, how do you think I should torment you? Should it be a death by a thousand cuts, or castration and sending you to a brothel?"
At this point, he suddenly looked up and smiled gently, "Tell you what, you become my dog, and this matter will be water under the bridge. How about it?"
"Your disciple? Ah,"
Sevrin still didn't take the bait. He crossed his arms and sneered, "You mean the bastard born from you stealing someone else's wife? Your good disciple Xin Gein told me everything."
"Bastard? You are insulting me."
Lan Yuca's expression turned cold. "Fine. From this moment on, even if you become my dog, you won't get a single grain of gold."
"Don't worry, I'll have it all."
Sevrin said with a bared-teeth grin, "Once I kill you, everything you have will be mine. Including all your bastards, I'll kill them too."
Immediately, without waiting for Lan Yuca to speak, Sevrin continued:
"Lan, I actually have one thing I don't understand. Why is your hobby so disgusting? Stealing another man's wife is one thing, but making them watch? What kind of behavior is that? You're a beast."
"Disgusting? A beast? Hmm,"
Lan Yuca stopped his movements and actually thought about it quite seriously for a moment, then said, "You are right. From another perspective, everything I do is indeed disgusting and beastly."
"Eh?" Sevrin said in surprise, "So you know it yourself."
"Of course I know. But, I am just that kind of selfish person."
Lan Yuca said dismissively, "No matter how many evil acts I commit in the eyes of the world, I still eat well and sleep soundly every day. What can I do? HEHEHE, besides,"
He gave an inscrutable smile and said slowly, "If I didn't commit every evil act, if I didn't act recklessly, how would the world know of my heavenly martial prowess and my dominance over this region?"
"Fine, very good, HAHAHA. From the looks of it,"
Sevrin gave an understanding laugh first, then said coldly, "For you, there is only one word: kill."
"Good. Come and kill me, then. Come and kill me."
Lan Yuca laughed raucously. "I'll be waiting for you to kill me, Sevrin. See you there."
With that, he abruptly shut off the screen.
On the Ly Lake side, for Sevrin deep within the water, the candle-yellow light surrounding him also came to a sudden halt.
"A fine Lan Yuca indeed, a fine man of boundless evil."
Sevrin said with a murderous grin, "Only by killing an unparalleled piece of trash like you can I be truly satisfied."
...
"Fellow villagers, the Salt God has been killed by this official beneath Ly Lake. From this day forward, there is no need to worship it again. If you dare to practice human sacrifice again, then the next ones to arrive will be the bandit-suppressing army. All participants in human sacrifice will be treated as bandits who disregard human life and will be captured and beheaded!"
On the Ly lakeshore, Sevrin stood on high ground, looking down at the Lialod Village villagers who were all looking toward him. He preached in a deep voice:
"Remember, every deity in this world that requires living human sacrifices is a filthy and unbearable Heretical God, without any exception.
The more you sacrifice to these heretical and evil gods, the more misfortune you bring. In the end, it will only lead to the tragic outcome of ruined families. Do you understand?"
All the villagers responded loudly: "We understand!"
"Mhm, very good."
Sevrin nodded in satisfaction, then said indifferently, "As such, this official shall take his leave."
With that, his figure flashed, accompanied by SONIC BOOMS and wind storms as he charged into the high sky, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
After Sevrin had completely departed, the old village chief standing among the Lialod Village crowd suddenly froze, and his gaze became blank.
He stared around in a daze, murmuring somewhat helplessly:
"Truly strange. How do I feel, hiss, feel like something is very wrong."
Just then, several villagers suddenly asked the old chief:
"Chief, the Dragon King has left, we should head back to the village now."
"The Dragon King left?"
Just as the old chief was about to ask which deity that was, a segment of memory suddenly surfaced in his chaotic mind.
This memory was of everything he had said and done while under Sevrin's mind control just now, all crystal clear as if unfolding before his eyes.
However, it felt extremely foreign, as if he were an observer watching someone else's experience rather than his own.
This made the old chief instinctively suspect if he had been possessed by something earlier.
So, he squinted his eyes and began to think.
"I understand now,"
Having thought it through, the old chief muttered softly, "The one who possessed this old man just now must have been the Prime Minister Turtle of the Dragon Palace. He is a divine servant of the Dragon King, who else could it have been?"
Following that, he looked at the villagers gathering around him and said in a resonant voice:
"Fellow villagers, we are going back to the village now, to work!"
"Eh?"
The villagers looked at each other and then asked in an uproar, "Chief, what kind of work are we going to do?"
The chief said, "Tear down the old temple and build a new one!"
The villagers asked, "Which deity's temple are we going to build?"
"Who else could it be?"
The chief said decisively, "Naturally, it is the Dragon King who saved our Lialod Village."
...
After leaving Ly Lake, Sevrin was like an arrow released from a bowstring, streaking across the sky like a flash of lightning, piercing through clouds and space. Carrying layers of grayish-white SONIC BOOM clouds, he flew rapidly toward the distant horizon.
His destination for this journey was the lair of the Black Wolf Bandit First Leader Lan Yuca, a fortress-camp named Wolf's Nest.
Sevrin learned from the mouths of Coeu and Gein that this so-called Wolf's Nest was located in the midst of a continuous mountain range a thousand miles away in the direction he was headed.
There, mountains overlapped upon mountains, with treacherous and solid terrain spreading everywhere, it was a superb location, easy to defend but difficult to attack. Furthermore, it leaned against rivers and lakes, with abundant water sources and plenty of fish and crabs.
Consequently, at the Wolf's Nest situated there, besides housing several thousand Black Wolf Bandits, there gathered many vicious and evil individuals who had surreptitiously arrived from northern Graew and various southern groups.
Thus, acts such as roadside murder, on-the-spot dismemberment, extortion, robbery, and the disposal of stolen goods, various crimes occurred frequently in every corner, inside and outside Wolf's Nest, every day.
It could be said that within this Wolf's Nest, ordinary commoners simply did not exist, even if they did, they would soon be bullied to death by the wicked.
Those who could reside there long-term were basically all scum and thugs, though the degree of their wickedness varied, some deep, some shallow, some strong, some weak. Those fierce and wicked enough enjoyed good food and drink, while the rest were driven like oxen and horses.
But as for Sevrin, he didn't care about any of that, they were all wicked people anyway, and it would be best if they all died.
"No need to rush, whether you're a minor thug or a total piece of shit,"
Sevrin, flying rapidly through the shattered clouds and space, said with a bared-teeth grin, "I'll kill you all."
During his rapid flight, he instinctively glanced at his personal interface.
In the Expert Shards column above, there still sat a large "1".
Indeed, after killing the Salt God and obtaining this Expert Shard, Sevrin didn't immediately rush to use the shard to upgrade on the spot, as he had before.
He chose to save it up and not use it for now.
This was because of the considerations he had made over this recent period.
Sevrin had begun to gradually understand the acquisition mechanism of this important 'system currency', the Expert Shard, and what its overall gameplay was about.
First, since it was named Expert Shards, such shards were naturally closely related to the concept of an expert.
But, what kind of person was considered an expert?
According to Sevrin's conjectures and summaries, a so-called expert was someone who could be considered his equal.
In fact, based on Sevrin's observations.
The enemies along his journey who had provided him with shards were basically all living individuals who were at the same level as him, or slightly higher, or slightly lower.
Therefore, Sevrin deduced that if he upgraded another level.
No matter which system he upgraded, as long as his overall combat power intensity had a clear leap, for example, if a trait in the Special Traits column reached Level 4.
Then living individuals who were previously at the Level 3 trait level would no longer be able to provide him with any Expert Shards.
Even though Sevrin had beaten the Salt God quite easily, under the System's judgment mechanism based on the factor of Special Traits, the two of them were peers of equal standing.
To put it more bluntly, they both had many Special Traits, and their highest-level ones were both at the Level 3 threshold, therefore, they belonged to the same rank.
However, despite being at the same rank (Level 3 traits), Sevrin was far more comprehensive than the Salt God, and he was slightly superior in every aspect, so in the end, he was still able to obtain an Expert Shard from the Salt God's body.
From this, it could be foreseen that once Sevrin pushed himself to a martial arts realm higher than a Valiarior.
If he wanted to obtain Expert Shards again, he would have to find those who were as powerful as him but even more scarce, those above the Valiarior rank.
But that would lead to a serious problem.
If Sevrin picked one cultivation system, such as Mainstream Martial Arts, and just desperately climbed all the way up.
Once he reached the peak, the very top, reaching level seven, eight, or even a dozen levels higher, becoming the undisputed number one under heaven, who would he find then to get shards from?
Could it be that he would be stuck at that level and unable to advance further?
That would never do, it would truly lead to death.
Think about it: the unknown causes that led to the collective extinction of a pile of prehistoric civilizations, the mysterious Death-Realm and alternate Interfaces that existed somewhere unknown, and, that so-called Golden Apocalypse, whose mere name caused Sevrin such pain that he wished for death.
None of these were easy to deal with, they were all terrifyingly dangerous.
Therefore, he must not stagnate, he had to reach a level much higher than everyone else in the world to be considered safe.
So, after being 'baptized' by the various data within that prehistoric iron box.
Sevrin's true goal was no longer as simple as being the so-called number one.
But rather, how to ensure his survival in the face of the massive crises that could descend at any time in the future.
"Save up shards, save up several hundred or even a thousand of them,"
Sevrin whispered as he sped through the firmament, "Then I'll upgrade directly to a realm where I can blow away countless stars with one punch. By then, those divine and ghostly things shouldn't be able to do anything to me."
At only Level 3 traits, he had already evolved into a supersonic lifeform capable of going on an unparalleled rampage in Earth's society.
If his traits were at Level 100 or even Level 1000, what kind of terrifying power would he possess?
Sevrin was quite looking forward to that.
Flying through the high sky, he imagined the grand scene of himself having upgraded all his Special Traits to hundreds or thousands of levels, for a time, he couldn't help but hum a soft tune.
...
Viewed from above, the Qing Mountains, which wound and rose for thousands of miles, looked like a thick arterial vessel.
The numerous large and small branches extending from this vast mountain range snaked and twisted like a dense network of capillary vessels.
And the headquarters of the Black Wolf Bandits, Wolf's Nest, was situated in the mountainous region formed by several of these 'capillary vessels' converging together.
But unlike conventionally shaped Fortress towns, Wolf's Nest, viewed from afar, looked more like a massive, collection of illegal structures.
Unlike ordinary towns, the overall framework and basic materials that formed the Wolf's Nest mountain fortress included wood and bamboo, rock and cement, and even sheet metal and steel, as well as animal skins and human bones.
So at a glance, the entire Wolf's Nest gave an impression of being extremely cluttered and messy, yet it was also faintly filled with wild vitality.
Perhaps only unrestrained bandits and outlaws could create such a distorted architectural cluster.
But no matter how distorted or chaotic, Wolf's Nest, as a massive fortress-camp, naturally had city-guarding sentries watching the gates, constantly on alert for enemies that could appear at any time.
...
"Han, what are you looking at with that telescope over there?"
On the gate tower of Wolf's Nest's outer fortress wall, a tall bandit asked his stout companion, "Have you seen anything?"
"I see wolves and wild boars,"
The stout bandit, holding a crude telescope, looked calmly toward the distant mountain peaks and replied, "But no people."
"Nonsense," the tall bandit laughed raucously, "Who would dare come here?"
"True enough," the fat bandit chuckled and intended to take one last look before putting the telescope away.
But with this look, he saw among those distant mountain peaks a person dazing, staring, flying rapidly toward them, and at a very high speed.
"There's someone!"
The fat bandit hurriedly put down the binoculars and shouted at the thin bandit, "Someone is flying toward us from those mountains, they're flying!"
With that, he quickly climbed down from the gate tower to report.
But the thin bandit was somewhat skeptical, "Someone flying from the mountains? Is that for real?"
Immediately, he also pulled a telescope from his coat pocket and squinted toward the distant mountains.
However, he saw nothing at all, only a few flying birds passing by.
The thin bandit looked back and forth several more times without discovering any anomalies, so he cursed and put away his telescope:
"Fucking Han must be so full of it he's having hallucinations, there isn't even a fart out there."
After a good while, Han came back up the rope ladder to the gate tower, bringing a middle-aged bandit with him.
But this old bandit, who was clearly a superior to the two, also saw nothing after gazing through the telescope for a while.
It was as if the figure Han had seen in the distance earlier was merely an illusion.
But in reality, it was no illusion.
The truth was that the figure flying from the mountains, Sevrin, had long ago transformed into an invisible ghostly entity, crossed the vast distance, and arrived directly above the entirety of Wolf's Nest.
WHOOSH ——
In the high air, the invisible Sevrin suddenly shifted from ghost to human. After adjusting the angle of his body, he stepped on the air and lunged straight downward.
WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR
As his speed grew faster and faster, the various situations within the Wolf's Nest fortress-camp became increasingly clear in Sevrin's vision.
Finally, a towering gate tower rapidly entered his sight.
There, three Black Wolf bandits happened to be standing with their mouths agape, heads tilted back as they stared dazed at Sevrin.
SHUA
The figure flashed past.
Sevrin, falling rapidly, stepped heavily onto the fat bandit's large face.
BOOM!
Following a massive BOOM, this fat bandit was instantly crushed from head to toe by Sevrin, his entire body turning into large splashes of blood and minced meat that splattered in every direction.
The other two bandits, almost in the same instant, were struck by this head-on, explosive spray of bloody sludge and meat scraps, turning into piles of pulp.
This towering gate tower also roared and collapsed under Sevrin's falling strike, turning into a pile of rubble and ruins.
Such a massive commotion naturally soon drew a large group of bandits over to investigate.
"What happened?"
"Don't know, that tower just collapsed all of a sudden."
"Is it because the tower wasn't sturdy?"
"Who knows."
These bandits discussed loudly while walking quickly from all directions.
But just as they drew near the ruins of the gate tower surrounded by billowing dust, a dark red whip shadow rapidly lashed out from within the dust of the ruins, instantly blanketing every direction.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Amidst a series of loud thuds, these bandits were instantly blasted into piles of blood and meat scraps by this extremely fast, blood-red whip shadow.
"People are dead!"
"What the fuck is going on?!"
"Did you see that red shadow just now?"
"I did, it looked like a whip. It blasted people apart instantly."
"Retreat, retreat! Don't go over there!"
This extremely bloody scene instantly terrified the bandits standing further away, causing them to retreat one after another, no longer daring to surround the area.
Sevrin, having completed his first-kill performance, then strolled leisurely out from the ruins of the gate tower, appearing in the fearful and suspicious sight of the hundred or so bandits around him.
"Eh?"
Seeing these bandits surrounding him from afar with sabers and blades, Sevrin frowned and scolded coldly, "You see me and you still don't run? You're looking for death, aren't you? Fine, I'll satisfy you."
With that, his figure flickered, crossing over thirty meters in an instant and flying into the crowd of bandits. While crushing some unlucky soul under his foot, he waved his hand, dancing out dozens of dark red whip shadows that rapidly blanketed every direction.
Amidst the continuous sounds of tearing flesh and shattering bones, every bandit within a several-dozen-meter radius of Sevrin was cleared out simultaneously, all blasted into piles of blood-spraying pulp.
"AAAAHHH!"
"It's an expert! Retreat, retreat!"
"Run! Run quickly!"
"Help! Help!"
Witnessing this bloody scene again, the bandits who had been dazed by fear suddenly shuddered and immediately used every ounce of strength to flee frantically in all directions.
But Sevrin had no intention of letting them go.
He immediately snapped the steel whips in his hands, charging toward the largest clusters of bandits like a lightning bolt to begin a massive slaughter.
And so, under the bright daylight, a bizarre scene unfolded within this Wolf's Nest.
Those bandits, every one of them tall, burly, and vicious-looking, were terrified by Sevrin alone, howling like ghosts and wailing like wolves as they scrambled in every direction, like a flock of sheep suddenly encountering a giant lion, frantically fleeing in every direction.
During this, it wasn't that no one dared to counter-attack; indeed, some did.
But facing Sevrin, who constantly flickered and flashed, his movements as agile and rapid as a fast-forwarded animation, all bullets, darts, and arrows failed to hit him completely, not once.
Conversely, every one of Sevrin's attacks inflicted massive damage upon the Wolf's Nest bandit horde.
With a flick of his two blood-red steel whips over here, he would lash a group to death, with a sweep over there, he would blast apart another pile of bandits.
Thus, in a short period, every street and alley of Wolf's Nest was filled with large piles of severed limbs casually stacked by Sevrin, along with patches of freely flowing crimson plasma.
At the same time, the bloodiness of the scene stirred the latent ferocity hidden within his heart. Consequently, Sevrin's speed and intensity in killing grew faster and stronger, until he held nothing back and unleashed his full power.