Chapter 33

"Strange, why have all these traps been dismantled?"

The shabby man was filled with doubt; last time he came, the traps had been intact, with no sign of disturbance.

His eyes suddenly sharpened—he thought of one possibility—and sprinted swiftly toward the depths of the tunnel.

Soon, the shabby man arrived before the underground palace, and what he saw startled him.

The corpse of a goblin swordsman lay plainly on the ground.

What shocked the shabby man even more was that there was not a single trace of struggle—the intruder had slain the goblin swordsman with a single strike.

The shabby man immediately returned and told his newly appointed leader what he had seen.

"Bad news, boss—someone got here first."

"What? Harris, what did you say?!"

The bearded giant's eyes blazed with malice; he had long considered the young dragon beneath as his own possession and would not tolerate anyone stealing it.

Harris stammered: "I went down just now and found all the traps dismantled along the way."

"Realizing someone might have arrived ahead of us, I rushed to the entrance of the underground palace."

"I found the corpse of a goblin swordsman there—and most importantly, it was killed in one blow. The intruder is extremely strong."

The bearded giant's murderous gaze didn't fade—strong? Ridiculous. Even he could cut down a goblin with one slash.

Besides, our bandit gang rules the eight-hundred-li desert through sheer ruthlessness—how can we back down before even meeting the enemy?

"Forget all that—lead the way. I want to see which brat dares steal from Grandpa."

"Yes." What could Harris say? He could only lead the bandits into the underground palace.

……

Inside the sacrificial hall, blood flowed like a river, corpses littered the ground.

"Splat, splat."

Fang Shi sat alone on the altar, eating roasted meat.

These roasted meats came from firewing birds—this morning, Fang Shi had ordered Xiao Xi and the other to hunt them.

He was completely unaffected by the environment, savoring every bite.

Having survived three years in the apocalypse, if he couldn't handle this much bloodshed, he'd have been reincarnated long ago—there'd be no chance for rebirth.

"Huh?"

His high perception served him again—Fang Shi sensed someone's arrival in advance and vanished into a corner of the hall with a few flashes.

"Is this a hidden quest? Or a clue from the stone tablet?"

Fang Shi clearly remembered the abnormality of the temple's stone tablet.

Indeed, not long after, outsiders arrived.

"Harris, what are you staring at? Keep moving!"

One of the bandits, seeing Harris standing frozen up front, urged him on.

"You… don't you… smell… the blood…?" Harris's voice trembled.

The bearded giant sniffed: "Of course I do—but someone's here, so blood is normal. What's the big deal?"

"No—it's different. All these goblins are dead."

Hearing this, the bandits froze, then rushed to the hall's entrance, leaping over the charred cart.

Before their eyes lay nothing but ruins.

Blood soaked every tile, not a single patch remained clean.

Walking on it, one could feel the slight stickiness of blood.

"This… how is this possible?" The bearded giant, though a killer of countless men, still had sharp eyes.

Ordinary people might only notice that all the goblins bore wounds from identical weapons.

But he could go further—he could judge the killer's fighting style.

Every style was identical—almost certainly the work of a single person.

And the wounds matched those on the goblin corpses he'd encountered earlier.

This filled the bearded giant with dread.

"No, it could also be an organization's signature—

The same training methods producing fighters with identical techniques." The bearded giant tried to reassure himself.

Yet despite this, he carefully examined the scene again, seeking to verify his theory.

The more he looked, the more his heart trembled—every clue shattered his hopes.

This was unmistakably the work of one person; no trace of a second could be found.

The bearded giant's heart pounded—he feared even a group.

Though goblins were weak, mostly civilian miners, at most thirty or forty were combatants.

As a species, goblins ranked at the bottom of all life forms.

A Level 1 goblin warrior could be defeated by even a Level 1 human with no combat training.

A Level 5 goblin sorcerer could be challenged by an average Level 4 combatant.

The Giant Scorpion Bandits had one Level 5 warrior, one Level 4 warrior, six Level 3 warriors, one Level 3 rogue, twenty-eight Level 1 warriors, and two Level 1 rogues.

Yet even with such strength, fighting in this hall, they'd be wiped out.

After all, goblin sorcerers were at least spellcasters—and with cannon fodder, their advantage was enormous.

The bearded giant never intended to fight in the hall—he planned to pick them off one by one, wearing them down before facing the goblin sorcerer.

But now, one person—only one person—had stormed the hall and annihilated every goblin in a direct assault.

And to prevent escape, they'd blocked the exit with a cart.

Such a figure—he had only ever seen them under the nobles in the Eight Hundred Li Yellow Sands.

Those Ranked transcendent beings had undergone a sublimation of life; compared to ordinary people, they were already a different species.

The burly man with the stubble had already begun thinking of retreat, and just as he was about to give the order to withdraw, the splashing of footsteps rang out—pat, pat, pat.

He turned his head and saw that, at some unknown moment, a young man had appeared on the left side of the great hall.

The man had a buzz cut, handsome and dashing, dressed in strange, exotic-style clothing, a long sword in his hand; the patterns on the blade were arranged in layered rows—at a glance, no ordinary item.

His body was dotted with specks of blood, yet not the slightest bit of it marred the man's bearing; on the contrary, he was like a death-guardian of the underworld, reaping the lives of all beings.

"Who are you!" someone in the Giant Scorpion Bandit gang drew his blade at once and bellowed.

The ignorant are fearless, and so they met him with cold steel.

"Hold!" The burly man with the stubble hurried forward to stop them, and even slapped the blade-drawer hard across the face.

This move left part of the Giant Scorpion Bandits utterly baffled, but another part instead showed relieved expressions.

"My lord, this one is Pade, leader of the Giant Scorpion Bandits; please forgive my men for their ignorance."

The stubbled man bowed respectfully toward Fang Shi, speaking humbly, his movements practiced—as if it were not his first time.

Of course—the Giant Crab Bandits had existed in the Eight Hundred Li Yellow Sands for so long, they had long known who could be provoked and who could not.

Before the nobles of the Eight Hundred Li Yellow Sands, they had long since bowed their heads.

Their so-called disregard for life and death was nothing more than a kind of momentum shown toward those of equal standing, or the weak, in order to gain the upper hand in battle.

It did not mean they still had such courage when facing a disparity in strength that was too great.

Fang Shi gave a cold laugh: "The man who pointed a blade at me—just let off so easily? Where would my dignity be from now on?"

Pade clenched his teeth at the words, turned to face the blade-drawing man, and softly said "sorry."

His left hand gripped the man's right hand; his right hand then picked up his own steel blade.

The blade-drawing man seemed to realize he had erred; a trace of despair flickered in his eyes, and he tried to struggle.

But ever since Pade had stopped him, he had already been restrained by two of the Giant Scorpion Bandits' veterans behind him, completely unable to resist.

The steel blade fell.

"Ah—!"

The drawn-blade man's scream had barely gone on long before those restraining him behind stuffed a rag into his mouth, so as not to offend the ears of the lord before them.

Pade personally picked up the severed hand, held it up in both palms, and said respectfully to Fang Shi: "The guilty man has been punished; I beg my lord to forgive us."

Fang Shi narrowed his eyes, gave an "mm," and nodded in satisfaction.

The moment he had realized it was a band of bandits coming in, Fang Shi had already conceived a plan.

He intended to impersonate a Ranked powerhouse, intimidate the bandits, and thereby make use of them to work—helping him chisel out a passage leading to where the young dragon was.

The result was naturally a great success; Fang Shi had been Rank Two before his rebirth, and so he had a very precise grasp of a Ranked professional's bearing.

Added to that, the floor was littered with kobold corpses, and the bandits were unaware of Fang Shi's ambush plan; naturally, the intimidation was more than sufficient.

Chopping off the blade-drawing man's right hand was an added layer of intimidation on top of that.

Bandits fear danger, not virtue; if Fang Shi had shown any mercy, they would have pressed the advantage, haggling over his orders.

"You lot are here looking for the young dragon?"

How could Pade dare admit it; he hastened to say: "No, no, we're here to wipe out the kobolds."

Fang Shi snorted: "No need to lie to me; my perception is high enough to easily tell truth from falsehood."

Pade said with an apologetic smile: "That's because this one didn't know my lord was here, didn't know this place belonged to my lord; please forgive us, my lord."

"Heh."

Fang Shi's smile made everyone's scalp go numb on the spot—such a ruthless person was no less than the nobles of the Eight Hundred Li Yellow Sands.

When Fang Shi drew his sword later, should they resist or run?

As the saying goes, when you meet a dragon, you don't need to outrun the dragon—just outrun your companion.

For a moment, undercurrents surged within the Giant Scorpion Bandits, each harboring their own schemes; the timid Harris had even, the moment Fang Shi appeared, slowly edged his way toward the passage exit.

"Enough, no more flattery; I have a job for you lot."

Pade slapped his chest and said at once: "Whatever my lord wants is what I want; doing things for my lord, I'd even die for it—brothers, isn't that right?"

"Yes!"

Someone in the Giant Scorpion Bandits immediately led the response, and under the herd effect, the rest began shouting "yes" as well.

Unfortunately, Fang Shi didn't trust these bandits in the slightest; if he really asked them to die, not resisting would already be considered good.

Fang Shi pointed at the pale-white hall door: "See this door? You lot are to chisel out a passage into it right now."

Pade was taken aback; he hadn't expected it to be this kind of task—seemed pretty simple, just a bit time-consuming.

After all, a single passage was enough; a few men would do. Space was limited—more people couldn't take part in the work.

But then he heard Fang Shi add: "It has to be fast. You lot go all-out chiseling the door, exhaust yourselves, work in shifts—it must be fast, finished before nightfall."

Pade said cautiously: "Does it really have to be that rushed, my lord? The difficulty is a bit high!"

"It can't not be rushed; inside is the young dragon you lot want."

Pade's eyes went wide.