Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Once inside the military camp, all three men's horses were taken away by designated personnel, leaving them to walk.

Walking through muddy, swampy areas, it's inevitable that your boots will get covered in mud.

"Sending messages like this can be done by the subordinates or by me," the stranger said with a hint of complaint. "Why do you have to deal with these clueless people and put up with their bad temper?"

“It’s alright, kid. I’ve had enough of this in my life, one more won’t make a difference.” Lu Aniu waved his hand dismissively. He treated him like his own son, telling him everything. “The Awakener didn’t originally plan to make a move against Gao Shu so soon. Their unauthorized action disrupted their plans.”

"Why?" the stranger asked, puzzled. "It's just an Indian tribe. Many tribes have been wiped out over the years. Why leave one tall tree standing alone?"

"Kid, you should ask this question the other way around. Why were all the other tribes wiped out, but only the Tall Tree and the Great Waves survived?"

Lu Aniu suddenly changed the subject, "What do you think, Jack? Have you ever dealt with Gao Shu's tribe before?"

The old cowboy was silent for a moment, then spoke in a hoarse, whetstone-like voice, "I've seen Flash."

"Who?" the stranger asked suspiciously.

"When?" Lu Aniu asked curiously.

“Forty years ago, he was already the King of the Tall Trees,” Jack recalled. “Back then, I knew nothing about those taboos. On their territory, we encountered poachers. It was dark, and we couldn’t see anything. We exchanged fire… which attracted the Tall Tree tribe.”

"They took me back to the Hightree camp. I don't remember exactly what happened, I only remember those black eyes..."

"He stared at me for a long time and told me that I would live to be 65, but would eventually die at the hands of my own people."

"How old are you this year?" the stranger asked. "You're not exactly 65, are you?"

"..." Jack answered with silence.

"Ha, then you'd better be careful, that guy's got some skills." Lu Aniu teased, "When you get back, quickly treat those who know how to use guns to a drink. You're usually too aloof, take this opportunity to get on their good side, so you don't get shot by your own comrades without even knowing why."

“No one is better with a gun than me.” Jack’s calm tone exuded confidence. “I can be killed in a thousand ways, but I can’t die by someone else’s gun.”

"Ha... There's always someone better, and you're 65 already, so don't be so sure of yourself." Lu Aniu teased, then brought the topic back on track, "Anyway, that guy called 'Flash' is no ordinary person; he's quite skilled."

“Every time I try to use divination to predict things related to the tall tree, the divination results will change inexplicably. The results are pieced together and incomplete, and do not reflect the true meaning of my inquiry. It is probably because this person is trying to confuse me.”

"That powerful?" The stranger looked astonished. "The only person with this kind of ability before was the Faceless Man from the Xunshan Hermitage, right?"

“It’s not quite the same.” Lu Aniu shook his head. “The Faceless Man has hidden himself. He has no face, no identity, and no action. He’s like a snowflake, floating in the air, nowhere to be found. But Flash is interfering with me in the opposite direction. This is not something an ordinary person can do.”

“Predicting the future, huh?” Jack lit a cigarette. “You’ve always been very perceptive in this area, Lu. Last time too, you sensed that little painter, what was his name again… he didn’t do anything to you, and you had someone set his house on fire.”

“I don’t remember his name,” Lu Aniu said expressionlessly. “But I remember the person you mentioned. He could influence me in my dreams; he was an exceptionally talented dreamer. How can such an uncertain factor remain in the world?”

"So, that's why you're personally taking action to level the tall tree?" Jack exhaled a puff of smoke. "You thought it was a secret to victory that only you knew, but you've discovered that other people, or other forces, can do the same thing. That makes you very nervous, doesn't it?"

“Heh.” Lu Aniu chuckled. “You don’t need to provoke me with words, old Jack.”

"Ultimately, it's useless to just 'see' the future. The real skill is to make it move in the predetermined direction."

"Besides all that, I also want to meet this King of the Tall Trees in person and see just how capable he is."

----

"arrive."

The notebook led them to a wooden house, its eyes filled with resentment and malice.

"..."

Lu Aniu stood in front of the door and could already hear the commotion inside.

His expression changed slightly.

"Are you sure it's in here?"

"Why would I lie to you?" The notebook made a "please" gesture and sneered, "The three of you, come in with me."

Chapter 666: Bone-Melting Palm

"Stop...stop hitting me, I've already told you everything I know...I really don't know anything about what you're asking..."

Bloodstains on the floor.

Broken teeth and nails.

These men were unrecognizable, their faces bruised and battered, not a single patch of undamaged flesh visible. Blood was still dripping from their wounds. Meanwhile, the soldiers in charge of the interrogation laughed loudly, kicking their bodies with their thick-soled military boots as if venting their anger on sandbags.

And these men, tied to chairs, barely alive, their faces covered in wounds, their consciousness already clouded, yet still begging for mercy, reminded Lu Aniu of some terrible things.

Fire pit.

Iron chair.

Bloodstains.

The person interrogating.

……

Gulp...

Lu Aniu stared blankly at everything before him.

The memories buried deep in his mind, in the dark corners of the palace, seeped up like black water, soaking his ankles in a moment.

----

"Boom!"

The soldiers behind closed the gate.

"What do you mean?" The stranger hadn't expected to be treated this way. He was furious, almost laughing in exasperation, and demanded, "What do you take us for?"

"Ha, who are you? What do you think? You bunch of damn swindlers... You all got your scams trained in the same place, didn't you? The same trick you used yesterday, and you're doing it again today. Do you really think I'm stupid?" The notebook finally couldn't keep up the act anymore, its expression instantly changing. Pointing at Lu Aniu, it cursed, "Even if you're going to scam someone, can't you choose someone better?"

“Pick a damned, lowly yellow-skinned beast, write a decent-looking letter, and then, are you going to say that this yellow-skinned donkey is also very familiar with Colonel Jarworth?”

The stranger's hand reached for the hilt of the sword behind his back.

Lu Aniu gently raised his hand, stopping his movement.

"Dad?!" The stranger's expression was one of utter shock.

“These…these people…” Lu Aniu shook his head, as if trying to banish something from his mind, “What’s going on?”

"Ha, old man, you're about to die and you still care about others." The notebook sneered. "These are all traitors who funded Gao Shu. The world is so big, why do they have to trade with the Indian tribes... What are they if not traitors?"

He walked over, patted Lang's cheek, and grinned maliciously, "Especially this one, he even went to the High Tree Camp. He has valuable intelligence hidden in his belly, but he refuses to share it with us... I'm in a difficult position, you know?"

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

He slapped Lang hard twice, temporarily rousing him from his pain. Upon seeing the notebook's grinning face, he trembled like a leaf and pleaded, "I...I really don't know anything more. I only went there once, and that was a long time ago...Ah—!!"

The notebook ripped off his beard, causing his eyes to roll back and him to scream in agony.

“You’ve misunderstood the purpose of torture.” Lu Aniu’s face grew even darker. “If you’re trying to extract a confession, that’s fine, but what you need now is intelligence! Under severe torture, he might not even know what he’s saying and just make up some nonsense to cover it up. What’s the point of going to war with faulty intelligence, only to end up losing troops and soldiers?”

“You broke his fingers too. This kind of pain is unbearable for an ordinary businessman. He would have confessed long ago.”

"Let them go."

……

Jack finally raised his head, and beneath the brim of his hat, he looked at Lu Aniu with utter astonishment, as if he had seen a rare animal. This seemed to be a completely different person from the one he had always known.

"what……"

"Hahahahaha————!!"

The soldiers inside stared at each other wide-eyed until the notebook craned its neck and burst into wild laughter, at which point they dared to join in. The atmosphere was extremely cheerful, filled with laughter and merriment, a stark contrast to the horrific state of the tortured and the bloodstains on the ground.

The notebook laughed the loudest, the veins on its neck bulging from the laughter. "See? This is a saint, after all."

"Alright, alright, since you like this old thing so much, I might as well give you a hand and make him a little more 'noble'."

"Ghostage him!"

He waved.

Two soldiers immediately stepped forward, grabbed Lang's wrists, and pulled down his pants. Another soldier took a pair of red-hot iron tongs from the stove fire inside the house. Notebook took the tongs, making them crackle and sparks fly, and grinned as he brought the tongs close to Lang's groin.

Lu Aniu stared blankly at the scene, his expression numb, seemingly lost in thought.

Seeing that he was using this scene as a show of force, the stranger's expression finally changed from shock to terror.

He grabbed Jack's hand, signaling him not to draw his gun, and instead took a few steps back, as if he were afraid of a bomb about to explode.

……

The scalding temperature and the clanging of metal brought Lang back to his senses, causing him to scream in terror.

"No! No! No! You perverts, I've told you everything I know, what do you want me to do—?!"

"Oh, don't blame me, blame that saint over there. But, friend, why didn't you tell the truth?" the notebook chuckled. "Don't misunderstand, think positively, it's just two balls. If you don't cut them off, they'll cause you trouble sooner or later."

"You should know that in the Roman Empire, eunuchs were the happiest and most loyal servants!"

"Ha ha ha ha---!!"

Everyone laughed as usual.

Lu Aniu's expression was neither sad nor happy, like a puppet with its strings cut. He staggered forward, only to be stopped by two soldiers who held his shoulders.

----

"Can't you wait that long?" Notebook scoffed, holding up the red-hot pliers. "It's him who's being castrated, not you. Why are you in such a hurry?"

……

Lu Aniu grabbed one person's wrist and flung him aside like a piece of trash.

"boom-------!!!!!"

The soldier's body exploded in a Mach ring, disintegrating in mid-air into a rain of bones, flesh, and other organs. By the time he crashed into the wall, he resembled a swatted mosquito, a pool of blood and a barely discernible human outline.

Tick, tick.

Blood mist fell.

This scene left everyone present speechless for a full ten seconds. They couldn't understand whether what was happening before their eyes was real or some kind of nightmare.

The other soldier, who had placed his hand on his shoulder, instantly lost all color in his face, his lips turning purple. But because he was so terrified, his muscles were frozen, and he couldn't remove his hand from his shoulder. He could only mumble a single word.

“No……n……”

"Sizzle—!!!"

Lu Aniu remained expressionless, piercing his heart with one palm, then tearing him in two with a single blow!

"Boom!"

He stomped his foot and exerted force, using his innate skill to instantly disperse the blood droplets covering his body into mist.

Slightly rotate your wrist.

A palm strike launched from a distance!

……

"boom----!!"

The notebook trembled slightly. Looking down, it saw that its clothes were torn at the abdomen, and a dark green handprint appeared on its body. Green lines seeped out from the center of the handprint, spreading like a spider web throughout its limbs and bones.

"what……"

With blood flowing from his seven orifices, he looked at Lu Aniu, who was standing ten steps away from him, and uttered the last syllable with an indescribable look of terror.

Then...

It melted like ice cream.

……

"Clang!"

The red-hot pliers fell to the ground, scattering sparks.

Chapter 667: I promise, I won't say a single word!

"Don't."