Chapter 127: Retreating Unscathed, The Day of the Slow Slicing

The sounds of slaughter outside rose and fell, sometimes distant, sometimes near.

Both Clan Heads had left, and the silver shop managers and clerks were busy taking inventory.

The members of the Hunting Team in the courtyard had not yet left.

These Blood Qi martial artists had gathered specifically to deal with the Flower-Plucking Thief; now that the thief was dead, they could disperse.

However, who could be willing to leave just like that?

Since the Blood Qi martial artists from the gangs had already left, it went without saying that they would definitely participate in the siege of Lu Zhigang.

The remaining people were all harboring their own agendas and did not intend to make a move immediately.

"I'm sleepy, I'm going back to sleep first, you guys also..."

Shi Gaofei yawned, waved his hand at the crowd, and walked away without a care.

He felt he was very lucky; this errand had been painless and injury-free, and he could go back to the martial arts hall to slack off again.

As for Lu Zhigang's good fortune, the 'Lazy Tiger' Shi Gaofei did not envy it at all!

"Hmm?"

Zhou You was surrounded by murderous intent on all sides; five or six Blood Qi martial artists struck simultaneously, and even a Martial Master could not be careless if they were in his shoes.

Yet, under the Battlefield Perspective, every move these people made was under his control.

Lv3 Basic Lightness Skill activated at full speed.

Zhou You's back suddenly turned into a blurred shadow, like an ink mark left by a calligraphy brush, moving in several 'Z' shapes in the air.

The attacks of the Blood Qi martial artists landed behind him one after another, unable to catch up.

The surrounding encirclement tightened further, yet Zhou You was like a loach; every time he was forced into a dead end, he could find a gap to break through the crowd.

Blinding red dots were gathering all around, representing powerful enemies at the middle and even backend stages of Blood Qi.

The richness of this bounty made countless Blood Qi warriors bow down for it.

No wonder the panel issued an escape mission; to retreat unscathed in this situation was already a miracle.

"Flying Goose Soars to the Heavens."

The sound of the goose's cry was deafening! The feather-Qi from Zhou You's double wings accumulated to over a hundred layers, and his speed surged instantly.

He rose toward the high sky above, his posture graceful and light, as if clouds were swirling beneath his feet.

The Blood Qi martial artists participating in the siege were shocked to see this!

You're cheating with your Lightness Skill and want to escape? In an instant, a dozen arms intertwined into a forest, and the crowd squeezed together, attempting to drag Zhou You down from mid-air.

Even Blood Qi martial artists who were not skilled in Lightness Skill could jump to a height of several dozen meters in one breath if they used their full strength and speed.

They jumped higher one after another, and it looked like someone was about to grab Zhou You's ankle.

Further away, the Blood Qi middle-stage and Blood Qi backend experts who had arrived one after another had already begun to sprint at full speed.

Who could have imagined that at the moment Zhou You was high in the air with nowhere to borrow force and his momentum had decayed to the extreme...

He suddenly changed direction, he changed direction! This scene, in the eyes of the many Blood Qi martial artists, simply defied common sense.

"No need to see me off, I'm off!"

Swish, Zhou You glided like a large bird, flashing over the heads of the Blood Qi martial artists one by one, and streaked toward the end of the deep darkness.

At this moment, he was as proud as a hawk, looking down at the frustrated martial artists.

This direction was the only way out among the countless dense light points under the Battlefield Perspective.

Carrying a massive fortune of 100,000 taels, retreating unscathed, Trial Project successfully completed, Experience Points +1000.

The next day, Zhou You woke up in the martial arts hall and heard footsteps everywhere in the courtyard.

"At the wasteland square in the west of the city, the Flower-Plucking Thief will be executed by slow slicing in public."

It turned out that the Flower-Plucking Thief had been gutted and had his limbs broken by Zhou You, and then torn apart by hunting dogs, already becoming half-dead.

Taking advantage of the fact that he still had a breath left, Captain Chang ordered him to be dragged outside the city to be executed by slow slicing in public.

To ensure he finished all 9,999 cuts, they even specially fed him old ginseng soup to stimulate all the vitality in his body.

"Have you heard? It was Lu Zhigang who captured the Flower-Plucking Thief alive; he took all the bounty, 100,000 taels!"

The apprentices were extremely excited, vying to pass on all kinds of gossip and chatter.

Some even calculated how to spend those 100,000 taels. No one knew that 'Lu Zhigang', who had received this sky-high bounty, was listening quietly right beside them. Zhou You shook his head and wanted to laugh; saying it was 100,000 taels, in reality, most of it was real estate.

Gold, silver, grain, farmland, and property all had names attached to them, so it wouldn't be too easy to track.

Unless Zhou You abandoned his own identity and lived as Lu Zhigang from now on, these riches could only exist on paper.

For him, the most valuable things were the 20 Scale-Beard Pills and some other small, precious goods.

"Zhou You, let's go take a look together."

Xu Ying and Li Hao were about to go out, and they enthusiastically invited Zhou You after seeing him.

Slow slicing was the highest-grade death penalty, generally not used lightly; the person being punished had to be an unforgivable villain.

The Flower-Plucking Thief had offended the powerful and influential, which was why he received such rare treatment.

The person in the city who possessed the craft of slicing people was already old and frail, and was invited out of retirement to do the job.

The wasteland in the west of the city was a scene of withered grass stretching to the sky.

The half-dead Flower-Plucking Thief was tied to a wooden stake, hissing and groaning in his mouth.

The scene was bloody and bizarre; the onlookers were terrified but carried a hint of excitement.

The motivation was similar to watching a beheading; seeing one's own kind being punished triggered a thrill born from the instinctive release of dopamine.

The mastermind behind this bloody public execution was Captain Chang.

As one of the Eight Great Ghost-Catching Captains, he held high authority and was very vengeful.

The Flower-Plucking Thief had caused the death of his daughter, so he had to die by a thousand cuts, not a single cut less.

When Zhou You and a group of martial arts hall Apprentices arrived at the scene, the death by a thousand cuts was already halfway through.

Suddenly, the flower-plucking thief, whose head had been drooping, seemed to sense something and abruptly lifted his head to look at the crowd.

Zhou You's expression was calm; he could be certain that the other party would never recognize him as "Lu Zhigang."

"Beep-beep-beep-beep!"

From the mouth of the flower-plucking thief came a short, sharp whistling sound.

Subjected to the punishment of death by a thousand cuts, the massive loss of blood from his body indirectly caused most of the potent poison of the Seven Step Poison Sand palm to drain away.

Through a twist of fate, the flower-plucking thief had actually recovered a small amount of strength.

He used the tip of his tongue to flick out the whistle he had Zang in his wound, blowing it to summon the exotic beast bat.

A sense of foreboding shrouded the scene.

Amidst the whistling wind, a black spot high in the sky gradually grew larger, rapidly approaching the wasteland.

"A Demon, it's a Demon! A bat bigger than a water buffalo, it has simply become a spirit."

Zhou You thought to himself how lucky he was; he had struck first last night and hadn't given the other party a chance to summon the exotic beast, otherwise, it would have been difficult to succeed.

The city residents around him were filled with terror, pushing and shoving back and forth like a tidal wave.

In an instant, the exotic beast bat dropped into the crowd, biting off a person's head in one gulp, blood splashing onto the yellow earth.

Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! Several martial artists punched the bat, the sound of the strikes like beating a cowhide drum, leaving their webbings between thumb and forefinger numb.

This was no ordinary wild beast!

From the bat, Zhou You detected a trace of something familiar.

Could it be that this bat was related to the Beast Charm?

After eating two people and tasting the blood, the exotic beast bat became increasingly irritable and restless.

The whistle blown by the flower-plucking thief also began to make it impatient.

"Beep-beep-beep-beep!"

Suddenly, the bat raised its sharp claws and slammed them down onto the wooden stake with a *clack*.

The wooden stake snapped, and the flower-plucking thief was turned into a pile of meat paste directly under the claws.

What a mess; the flower-plucking thief died at the hands of the exotic beast he had raised himself.

After killing the flower-plucking thief, the bat let out a joyful and ferocious cry; it wanted to eat more people.

(End of chapter)