Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

----

"This world is getting stranger and stranger." One-Eyed squinted his only eye, looking the chief up and down, seemingly unable to believe that he had just said such a thing. "Friends? You, and a group of a hundred people, have become 'friends'? You, and those white people who burned down our homes, killed our compatriots, forced us to flee thousands of miles, and caused our families to be destroyed..."

"They've become friends instead?!"

His voice grew louder and louder, a complete outpouring of emotion that rendered rational thought a mere pipe dream.

"Ha, what do they call you, Red Barbarian? Or something even more vulgar and offensive!" Indignation seemed to erupt twice as fiercely from his remaining right eye. With a force that seemed to crush his teeth, he clenched his back teeth and roared, "I heard, twenty thousand dollars... that must be a huge, huge sum of money, right?"

"You got this job by kneeling on the ground like a dog, licking the toes of those white men's shoes, didn't you?!"

……

The veins on the chief's forehead throbbed, and the smile on his lips froze.

Seeing him clench his fist, One-Eye laughed instead. He wasn't afraid of fighting, he was afraid of not being able to fight at all, and that he would be fooled by One-Eye's few words.

----

“Young man, you’ve got this all wrong.” Mike was the first to speak from the crowd. Despite the astonished looks on those around him, his expression remained unchanged. He was smiling, but his dead fish eyes were already showing coldness. “Take you for example.”

He parted the crowd and slowly stepped forward. "To be objective, someone like you, even if you went outside and licked other people's shoes for two years, you still wouldn't be able to earn $20."

"Mike?!" The chief's pupils widened instantly. "How could you..."

“Our boss was willing to give him $20000 simply because he trusted his brother, nothing more.”

Chapter 657: A God Dwells Within His Body

"My God, it's a white person?!"

"How did two white men get into the tall tree? Where are the lookouts? Where are their eyes?!"

"It seems like it was last night. I heard noises outside the tent, so I got up to check. They entered the camp with the night patrol team."

"See that white girl? The claw marks she has mean she fought a wolf in close combat and survived... That's amazing..."

Is she really white?

"This is fucking unbelievable! How could they just swagger around among us like that!"

……

It was a very spacious platform, and all sorts of voices came from all directions. Mike was at the center of the discussion, but he was completely unafraid, maintaining the serious expression as if someone owed him tens of thousands of dollars. He strode forward and patted the chief on the shoulder.

"This matter has caused quite a stir outside. Old Zhang happens to be in Mingdeng City on business and has heard about it." Mike gave the chief a boost of confidence with his concise words, "Igor is coordinating things. Manpower, weapons, and supplies will all be available in a few days, don't worry."

“…Igor…” The chief’s expression changed abruptly, and in his agitation, his voice became distorted, “I…I really don’t know what to do…”

Mike patted him on the shoulder again, indicating that he didn't need to say anything more.

“As he said.” Zhang Renfeng stepped forward, blocking his way, and looked at the restless young man expressionlessly. “We’re here to help.”

"what……"

"Hahahaha-!"

One-Eye didn't even utter a word at first, bursting into exaggerated laughter. He even turned back to exchange glances with his companions, asking incredulously, "Seriously, Hummingbird? This is the reinforcement you called in? An old white man older than you, a little brat, and..."

"Oh, right, who are you again?"

“Someone who’s very willing to teach you a lesson,” Zhang Renfeng said expressionlessly.

Although he was only twenty-nine years old, he had seen far too many people and experienced far too much in his life. Emotionally, he could understand One-Eyed's feelings at this moment, as well as his deep-seated hatred for outsiders. But rationally, he felt that the young man before him was pitiful to the point of being somewhat despicable.

“You.” He pointed his finger at the one-eyed man without any politeness, then drew a circle to include the young people behind him as well. “And you all, you’re all so pathetic.”

"What did you say?" The one-eyed man's sarcasm turned cold.

“This man is your companion.” Zhang Renfeng pointed to the chief behind him and said seriously, “When I first met him, he was at the docks of Saint Quintak, fighting in underground boxing matches. Don’t be fooled by his big physique; after taking punch after punch, he was bound to have bruises all over his body.”

"He's saving money not for himself, but to buy this land from the government. Whether it's feasible or not, at least it's an attempt to allow people to live here without shedding blood."

Some murmurs began to rise from the crowd.

Whether it was good or bad, Zhang Renfeng raised his voice and continued, "You are compatriots, with the same skin color. Perhaps, tracing back thousands of years, you even share the same blood. He loves this land just as much as you do."

"You fought back in your own way, and he fought back in his own way, that's all. Why can't you give him a little trust?"

----

"Trust. Trust, right... Okay..."

One-Eyed muttered the same thing over and over, then grinned and suddenly drew his short knife from his waist, tearing his clothes open with a single stroke.

Beneath the soft whistling of the blade, skin covered in scars was revealed.

Everyone exclaimed.

“This was done by ‘they’,” he said in a deep voice, pointing to a deep wound in his abdomen to show everyone.

“This! ‘They’ did it…” He raised his finger half an inch, pointing to the burn scar on his chest. Judging from the mark, it looked like someone fired a shot and then pressed the still-warm gun barrel directly against his skin, causing the burn.

Zhang Renfeng's eyes sharpened, and he sighed softly.

“This! They did it!” He pointed to the scar that had permanently closed his left eye, and roared at the top of his lungs, his voice trembling with rage. “You want me to trust him? Let his white friends solve our problems!”

"Tell me, how can I pretend that none of this ever happened?!"

His anger burned away the last vestiges of his reason, and as he spoke, his furious words brought him back to that night filled with flames and thick smoke.

In his remaining eyes, he saw the destruction of his people—a nightmare he tried so hard to escape, yet which clung to him like a malignant tumor.

"ah---!!!"

He raised his knife and lunged at Zhang Renfeng!

"Danger!" Flying Eagle noticed that his mental state was not right and reacted immediately. He tried to step forward to stop him, but he was too far away to do so in time.

In a fleeting glance, not only Mei, Mike, and Hummingbird, but even Silverfrost, who was relatively close to him, didn't budge. The group just calmly watched One-Eyed go mad, draw his knife, and stab him, without reacting at all, which made him uneasy.

What happened to the brotherhood we were promised? These guys all seem pretty capable; they shouldn't be scared off by this unexpected situation, right?

He could only pray that the knife wouldn't hit a vital spot, and that a little bleeding would be enough to save him, especially since the peregrine falcon was there too.

----

"when--!!"

The blade struck his lower abdomen as if hitting a layer of rock, piercing his clothes but unable to go any further.

"..."

The impact jolted One-Eyed back to his senses. He looked confused and tried to apply more pressure to his wrist, but still couldn't pierce it. However, there was no armor or soft armor hidden under his clothes, leaving only one possibility.

The person before me possesses an invulnerable, godlike physique.

When he looked up again, his eyes were filled with awe. "You..."

"Thump—!!"

Zhang Renfeng raised his hand and gently pushed him, sending the young man flying several meters away. His arms and legs swung in the air for a moment before crashing into his companions behind him, knocking down a group of people with a thud, like a bowling ball.

……

It's still very necessary to show a little bit of strength. At least by showing this skill, many people who would have been coming for them and said some harsh words will have swallowed them back.

Zhang Renfeng dusted off non-existent dust and slowly walked towards the other person, saying, "You're right, you really shouldn't have forgotten. If you can even forget something like that, can you still be considered a person?"

He crouched down, picked up the short knife that the one-eyed man had dropped, and, to the astonishment of the crowd, turned the blade around to face himself.

He handed him the hilt of the knife.

"However, they're not here to play house with their massive army this time."

"If you can't even unite your own people, how can you fight against others?"

Chapter 658: I feel like I've seen you somewhere before

A sharp, whistling sound came from the air, and Zhang Renfeng's expression hardened. The sound of such a sharp weapon cutting through the air set off alarm bells in his mind.

"Boom!"

The instant he turned his head, a ram's head staff landed beside him and One-Eye. The staff was made of birch wood and seemed to have been soaked in animal fat; it was quite sturdy, firmly driven into the ground like a nail driven into a plank, fitting perfectly without the slightest tremor.

Unlike the cicada-shaped wooden staff in Istavo, which uses cicadas as decoration, the top of this staff is a genuine sheep skull, making it more like a ritual implement used in some kind of ceremony.

In the sheep skull, the two empty shadows in the eye sockets seem to connect to the boundless night.

The ritual implement was thrown from a height and still managed to embed itself so steadily in the mud...

It seems I'm not the only one who wants to demonstrate my abilities.

"boom---!!"

Flash calmly took a step forward, choosing not to climb down the rough bark, but instead free-falling directly from the platform high in the tree. He landed like a superhero, Saturn flying everywhere. Flash absorbed most of the impact with his knees, slowly straightening his back. Zhang Renfeng was horrified: his physical abilities and his half-white hair seemed completely mismatched.

"There are people like this on the other side of the ocean..."

……

For the people of the High Tree tribe, this day and this moment were undoubtedly quite shocking.

Everyone knows that the High Tree has a de facto ruler who lives in the treehouse at the highest point. But he rarely goes out, and even rarely shows himself in front of everyone; he is more like a spiritual totem. Before this incident, the actual affairs of the tribe had been largely handed over to Flying Eagle, who was the true person in charge of this large family of nearly 2000 people.

And now, the true king of the trees has come down from the tree.

It's as if the statue of a god has come down to earth and is walking, or the totem has spoken, creating an indescribable sense of awe.

The local tribal members all knelt on one knee, clenching their right fists and gently tapping their hearts to show their respect for the King of the Tall Trees. With everyone kneeling, Zhang Renfeng and his group naturally became the tallest people in the crowd, facing pressure from all directions.

Nearly two thousand people made the same movement in unison, forming a continuous line; the scene was quite awe-inspiring.

Xiao Mei instinctively tried to imitate them, but Zhang Renfeng raised his hand to interrupt her. Neither he nor Mike intended to kneel; instead, they stood tall and looked at the King of the Tall Trees who was walking towards them step by step.

In just a few steps.

He stopped just five steps away from Zhang Renfeng, a move that coincided with Zhang Renfeng's own habits. He usually liked to stop at this position, as five steps was enough to react whether a handshake or a fight was about to break out.

The wind in the woods ruffled Shan's already graying temples. Looking at him so closely, Zhang Renfeng felt a sense of familiarity.

The other person's figure and physique seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place them.

----

"Please rise, everyone."

His gaze was deep and unfathomable, making it impossible to discern his thoughts. After a moment of silence and eye contact, he finally spoke, “Our new friend is right. If we can’t make sense of the voices of our own people, then we can’t expect anything else.”

His use of the term "new friend" effectively ended the tribal dispute over the identities of Zhang Renfeng and the other two: since Zhang Renfeng was a "friend," then Mike and Xiao Mei would naturally receive the same treatment. Many young people found it unbelievable that a leader of an Indian tribe would define a white person as a "friend"; to them, it was far too advanced.

But Shan had the confidence to do so. After he finished speaking, the room remained silent, and no one dared to question him in public.

They remain unassuming and inconspicuous most of the time, but when it comes to crucial moments, they possess the decisive power to deliver a final blow.

“Flying Eagle, my eldest son,” Flash asked in a deep voice, “what are your thoughts on what’s to come?”

"...No matter what anyone says, this is a battle we must fight; we cannot sit idly by and wait to die." Eagle finally had a chance to explain his point of view, and his proposal was not as radical as One-Eye's; it was more like a pre-battle mobilization: "This is our homeland. We are here, we have lived here. It was those outsiders who suddenly broke in and destroyed everything."

"We must defend our own homeland! We must fight the invaders to the very end!"

His voice was firm and powerful, and his rallying cry elicited a chorus of cheers from the young people. It was clear that this fire had been burning within them for quite some time.

Flash was wearing a mask, so his expression was obscured, but from the relaxed corners of his eyes, one could guess that he didn't take this show of force seriously at all. It was even hard to say whether Flying Eagle's answer satisfied him.

He turned his gaze to another person on the field.

"Hummingbird, you've been traveling all these years, but you haven't forgotten Tall Tree. You've worked hard."

The chief was taken aback. This dignified seven-foot-tall man bit his lip hard at those words and shook his head, saying, "No, this...this is nothing..."

Share your thoughts.

"We can't fight. At least, we can't win with our strength alone." The chieftain steadied himself. With the support of the King of the Tall Trees, he turned around and spoke to the crowd in a louder voice than before. "Gentlemen, I know the situation outside better than you do. I've followed our leader and experienced one or two small wars."

"But this time is different. This time, we are facing a real army! In terms of logistics, weapons, personnel mobilization, and organizational capabilities, to put it bluntly, we are not even on the same level as them."

"Small cavalry raids might give us an advantage once or twice. The dense forest can also serve as cover for a few brilliant ambushes, but with our current strength, at best we can only force the enemy out of the forest. Really, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this is the best we can hope for!"

"On the other hand, if we were truly capable of dealing with the invaders on our own... why would so many tribes have suffered such annihilation?"

These words were like a sharp knife, piercing deep into everyone's hearts.

But with the war situation pressing, the chief couldn't afford to be lenient with anyone. He had to get the most people to agree with him in the shortest amount of time.