Chapter 467: The Blood Pact Strikes

Post-battle merit assessment is based on the cultivation realm and quantity of the Witch-people killed.

Considering the battlefield is ever-changing and the situation critical, it is impossible to bring back entire corpses; even cutting off heads is too cumbersome, and five or six heads are already a handful.

The evidence is simple: remove a part from the corpse, such as an ear, a finger, or a tongue, etc.

The Qi and blood traces on the corpse fragments can be used to deduce the cultivation realm the enemy had before being slain.

Can one exploit this rule? No!

First, the method of chopping a corpse into pieces to pass them off as different enemies does not work.

In this world, Qi and blood are a unique form of authentication; even the Qi and blood cultivated by twins have differences.

Imagine bringing back a pile of parts, only for the Qi and blood check to reveal they were all dismantled from a single corpse—wouldn't that be embarrassing? Second, what about using a sharp blade to cut off a part of an enemy's body during a fight and taking it back to claim merit? That also doesn't work; as long as the main body is alive, the Qi and blood hidden in the body fragments react differently than those remaining in a corpse.

Therefore, this technique of Ji Xue Zheng Gong has been verified over countless years and passed down without flaws.

Zhou You cut an ear off every Witch-person he killed, stuffing the rest into his Hunger Pouch for later use.

This Witch-person was an exception; he was qualified to enter the corpse bag as Qi and blood because Zhou You saw that his identity was unusual.

The Amulet shattered by a single strike was worth nearly a dozen; if placed in Fucheng, it is a treatment only the direct descendants of top-tier noble families would receive.

Besides this, he also carried a large amount of special Witch-medicine for feeding Witch-beasts and Gu Insects.

Witch-medicine is a rare commodity; any Witch-person carrying it on their person is either wealthy or noble.

He estimated that this guy was also a "Witch-second-generation" out to farm merit.

Although he did not know much about the structure of Witch-people tribes, as long as a group forms an organization, there will inevitably be actions taken to benefit the descendants of those in power; this is not about selfishness, but purely for the continuation of their own bloodline.

Survival of the fittest does not represent primitive barbarism; true primitive barbarism is reproduction, plundering resources, ensuring descendants continue to occupy an advantageous position, and perpetuating one's own genes forever.

Noble families are like this, and so are the high-ranking Witch-people; there is nothing new under the sun.

As for whether this action would provoke the hatred or even pursuit of the Witch-people, Zhou You did not care at all; he was already so deep in debt he had no more worries.

On the battlefield, life and death are decided regardless of status; it all depends on strength and luck.

From the perspective of a martial artist like Zhou You, the more enemies killed, and the stronger and more precious their identities, the greater the merit.

Now, there was a "great merit" in front of Zhou You: the Intermediate Martial Master among the Witch-people, Mudahan.

This guy's fierce reputation circulated among martial artists, and Zhou You had heard legends of him from passing martial artists.

Among the young elite of the invading Witch-people tribes, there was also a ranking of the "Ten Prodigies."

Mudahan was one of these prodigies; young and already an Intermediate Martial Master, he had a limitless future, and his status in the tribe was similar to that of Liu Fengji before his cultivation was crippled.

The Witch-person of equal fame, Tu Ni Tian, who was also listed among the Ten Prodigies, had already proven his value through actual combat.

Tu Ni Tian was not an Intermediate Martial Master; he was a mid-level martial master, yet in the early stages of the conflict, he challenged Yan Shan, the number one person in the Fucheng martial arts circle, head-on.

Although Tu Ni Tian was defeated, he withstood a full-force strike from Yan Shan's spear without dying and retreated unscathed.

This battle was also Tu Ni Tian's fame-making battle; originally only known to the Witch-people, now martial artists knew of it too.

Yan Shan's strength was terrifying; holding a spear in one hand, he could break through thunder, and even enemies who were also Intermediate Martial Masters could not take one of his blows.

Facing the provocation of the Witch-people, he had no reason to hold back and would certainly use a killing move from the start.

That Tu Ni Tian could escape under such circumstances showed his extraordinary strength; at the very least, in Zhou You's self-assessment, to escape from Yan Shan's hands head-on, he would need to use a puppet to assist from the side. Mudahan was an Intermediate Martial Master, his strength certainly above Tu Ni Tian's, and now he was blocking the path directly ahead.

Zhou You weighed in his heart: should he have a fight, or take a detour? A prompt from the panel sounded in his ear: "Trial Project (Five-Star); Ge Er Bu Han's blood pact, you are about to face Mudahan's revenge; there is no reward for death, you may choose to survive, escape, or counter-kill."

Blood pact? Zhou You remembered; there was a secret technique in the Totem with this name. Sworn brothers would exchange totems; if one died, the other could sense it no matter where they were, and the totem would turn blood-red.

The blood pact totem cannot be washed off or peeled away until the enemy is killed, only then will the blood-red mark disappear.

Witch-people have fierce and violent temperaments and consider the blood pact a shame; once they discover someone with a blood-red totem, they are mocked at best and beaten or scolded at worst.

With Mudahan's status as one of the Ten Prodigies, bearing a blood pact must also have put him under immense pressure.

No wonder he was searching everywhere for Lu Zhigang to take revenge! The panel had already given a warning; there was no escaping now.

Zhou You took a deep breath and subconsciously touched one of the pouches at his waist; that was the Poison Nest hiding the fist-intent puppet.

Originally, he did not want to use this item, but the enemy in front was an Intermediate Martial Master; he had to use his trump card.

The perception of the Witch-people's strong martial artists shrouded the surroundings of the battlefield, so the fist-intent puppet must never be active for more than two hours; once the time limit was exceeded, its existence would risk exposure.

Don't end up failing to solve the enemy while attracting the attention of a strong martial artist; that would truly be a case of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice.

Actually, he had the advantage now.

The advantage was that the enemy was in the light while he was in the dark; information was unilaterally transparent to Zhou You.

The panel gave a prompt in advance, so Zhou You knew of Mudahan's existence and purpose, while Mudahan knew nothing and still thought the enemy was Lu Zhigang.

On the 3D map, there were still many Witch-people distributed around Mudahan, both strong and weak.

This area had clearly been cleared by Mudahan and his men; there were no green dots in the surroundings, only bright red dots.

Under these circumstances, with Mudahan's arrogance, it was clearly impossible for him to be hiding in a Witch Banner.

Although the other Witch-people were patrolling the surroundings, they all consciously avoided Mudahan because Mudahan loathed the gazes of others, always feeling that everyone was looking at his blood pact totem.

His sensitive and irritable temper made the other Witch-people warriors avoid him.

Zhou You held the talisman book and, with the cover of the Witch Banner, secretly observed Mudahan's movements, calculating his plan in his heart.

To defeat the strong with the weak, one must settle the outcome in one go with the force of a thunderbolt.

For instance, at a gambling table, if the other person's capital is much thicker than yours, playing hand by hand is by no means wise; he can afford to lose, but you cannot. To win, it is better to bet everything and look at the hole cards.

How many trump cards did Zhou You have to bet?

"."

Mudahan suddenly felt his chest burning faintly; it was the location of the blood pact totem.

He, the enemy he had waited so long for, had appeared; Lu Zhigang had also appeared on this battlefield.

Originally, he had already despaired; no matter how the martial artists he had captured alive were tortured or interrogated, even using Gu Insects to drill through their eye sockets, nostrils, and excretory orifices, they would not confess Lu Zhigang's whereabouts even when on the verge of death.

Mudahan had thought Lu Zhigang had not come to the battlefield, but unexpectedly, the situation turned around; the blood pact reminded him that the enemy was nearby.

"You all spread out and search for a martial artist who uses Poison Palm; when you find the person, do not act, leave him to me."

(End of chapter)