Chapter 1044: Violence

Ah

"Ah!!"

"Beat you to death! Still trying to run!? You damned dog!"

Miserable screams came from the forest one after another; amidst the crackling whip blows, a few vicious curses were mixed in.

Stepping on the soft ground, Lin An fixed his gaze on the distant forest without changing his expression.

He lightly waved his hand, signaling Zhang Tie to stand by.

Just after leaving the wooden house, the three of them instantly saw the outline of a city in the distance.

Their location was outside a forest, and not far from the gate, the dirt road bore many tire tracks.

"Captain Lin, should we go over and take a look?"

Hearing those miserable male screams, Xiong Hanzi whispered to Lin An, while the lingchi blade in his hand was gripped tightly.

The sound came from not far away, sounding like a slave master whipping a slave.

After a slight nod, Lin An gauged the number of voices, then his whole body vanished like a ghost, using stealth to swiftly approach the source of the sound.

Within a few seconds, Lin An, now an intangible shadow, instantly appeared at the direction of the sound.

In the clearing of the forest, a fat merchant in a long robe was panting heavily, repeatedly swinging his whip and beating a man lying prone on the ground.

The attendants around him held his coat indifferently, obviously accustomed to such a scene.

Ordinary people..

Concealed in the shadows, Lin An silently sensed the nearby few people, and in an instant determined their strength.

There was nothing unusual; they were indeed ordinary people.

The fat man in the middle was even somewhat weak.

Just as fast, behind them, Xiong Hanzi brought Mo Ling and rushed to surround the merchant, setting up an ambush.

At this distance, anyone in the team could easily kill this ordinary merchant convoy in an instant.

"Lin An? Should we capture him?"

Seeing Lin An seemingly still observing, little Mo Ling unconsciously whispered in the team channel.

Upon entering this unfamiliar instance, the most efficient way to gather intel is to first capture a few wild NPCs.

After a moment, Lin An, standing before the merchant, gave a slight nod.

Seeing the merchant, panting and exhausted, just about to rest a moment, an intangible ripple swept across his neck in an instant.

In that instant, the fat man's eyes bulged suddenly.

"Ah! Ahhh!!"

Seeing Lin An appear like a ghost before their eyes, the attendants around were first stunned, then burst into panicked shouts.

And the merchant whose head was swept by the ripple was instantly decapitated, his blood spraying onto every terrified face.

Without emotion, Lin An gave them hardly any chance to speak again.

With an intangible sword flash sweeping around in an instant, the sharp death cries caught in their throats, the entire convoy was cut down by a single sword.

Except for the slave on the ground clutching his head, dazed and unsure, over ten people present all collapsed as corpses in unison.

"Huh?! Captain Lin?"

Hiding not far in the woods, Xiong Hanzi stared blankly as Lin An just killed everyone like that.

"Aren't we going to capture someone for questioning!?"

He wasn't shocked that Lin An directly attacked and killed; he was surprised that Lin An didn't leave a single survivor. Although there was still a slave on the ground, it was obvious that the merchant's party knew more information.

Seeing Xiong Hanzi unconsciously ask the question, Lin An shook his head without changing his expression:

"No need for a living mouth."

Having said that, cataclysmic power surged through his body, and in the blink of an eye, like awakening a corpse, it revived the merchant on the ground.

Seeing the revived corpse, Zhang Tie, who had come running, stared in shock, his large bear eyes full of astonishment:

"Holy shit, Captain Lin."

"When did you get this ability?"

It's no wonder he's surprised. In fact, Lin An had never used this resurrection skill in front of him after obtaining it; the few times he used it were in Heiyu.

He chuckled lightly, not minding Xiong Hanzi's surprise, merely swiftly circulating the resurrection power.

Rather than extracting information from prisoners, he preferred to hear the dead speak.

With a swish, the corpses on the ground sat up; the terrified slave on the floor, seeing his slave master beaten back to life, actually fainted alive from the shock.

"What do you want to do? Where is the church?"

"What do the believers here usually do, and how many are there?"

Four questions in a row, like a machine interrogation.

Directly looking at the revived merchant, Lin An casually asked.

After a moment, mechanically, the merchant's pale face from massive blood loss opened his mouth and answered dully:

"We are transporting slaves for the church; this slave wanted to flee, so I was disciplining him here."

"There are two churches: one is the main church on the eastern mountain peak of the city; the other is the worship church beside the municipal center in the city."

"The believers normally live in the church, occasionally coming out to preach and collect donations."

"They number about two thousand."

Following the direction indicated by the corpse's finger, Lin An's gaze shifted slightly, and he nodded in satisfaction.

The needed information was now in hand.

With a wave of his hand, after confirming nothing was missed, Lin An directly dispelled the resurrection power; with a plop, the merchant's corpse returned to its original state and collapsed to the ground.

"Captain Lin, are you done questioning?"

"What should we do?"

Rubbing his head, Xiong Hanzi watched Lin An finish asking the questions so quickly, and for a moment he felt a bit unaccustomed.

Although he had followed Lin An into dungeons before and rarely spoke much, Lin An always found a way to grasp every piece of information inside the dungeon.

Even if he wasn't fond of thinking, he could tell that this caravan probably had a mission.

Transporting slaves to the church—could it be some kind of evil ritual?

Accustomed to Lin An always unraveling things like solving a puzzle, they for the first time felt that Lin An didn't seem to care about what secrets this dungeon hid.

On the side, Xiao Mo Ling also looked at Lin An, somewhat unaccustomed.

"Lin An, shouldn't we ask if there's anything strange here?"

"Should we investigate a bit? To prevent any special events?"

Hearing their thoughts, Lin An chuckled and shook his head:

"No need."

"The problem with this dungeon has already been scouted by Tai Er and them."

"The main problem is the abnormal power on the believers."

"It's quite obvious, combining the dungeon's name, this power either comes from some evil god or is obtained by the believers after sacrifice."

"There are no supernatural or special events inside this dungeon; otherwise, the people Tai Er sent out couldn't have escaped back."

"Of course, maybe there'll be a problem when we take the equipment at the end, but the first half won't have any issues."

Quickly giving his opinion, Lin An turned his gaze toward the distant city:

"Then since this dungeon has no mission, and our need is only for the equipment inside."

"Then everything becomes simple."

"Find the church, charge in, seize the equipment!"

Neat and decisive.

Lin An knew that behind this dungeon there was likely some secret hidden, possibly even a side quest.

This can be seen from the paintings upon entry and the human flesh on the racks.

But.

What the hell does it have to do with him?

Every previous mission was something he had to do; without solving the puzzle he couldn't complete the mission. But this time, he only needs the equipment.

So, let's just go violent! Otherwise, what's the point of boosting his strength? With a psychic shield, even if there's some weird attack method, he can still react in time!

Having reached this thought, Lin An unhesitatingly issued the battle order:

"Zhang Tie, after entering the city, start indiscriminately killing all targets. I will drop cloud-burst bombs from high altitude."

"Mo Ling, after all humans die, turn them into zombie mutants; we'll directly lead the zombie army to assault the church!"

"Charge in! Ignore any abnormalities! Once we get the equipment, we withdraw!"