Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Stranger pressed down on Jack's right hand, which was reaching for his gun, and said with utmost seriousness, "Let him vent his anger."

"...What exactly happened?" Jack retreated to a relatively safe position, his confusion mixed with apprehension. "I've known him for a while now, and I've never seen him use that kind of move before...that..."

Jack pointed to a pool of blood not far away. The notebook had just disappeared, leaving only a stack of shredded clothes.

The scene was incredibly grotesque. Even Lang, who had just been tortured, didn't feel "saved." He had essentially witnessed the entire process of the notebook "melting" from a first-person perspective and was so frightened that he fainted on the spot.

"what exactly is it?!"

"The 'Bone-Melting Palm' is an extremely difficult and insidious martial art. Once struck, one's bones become as soft as cotton, shattering into pieces, lungs and internal organs bursting open, resulting in a gruesome death," the stranger exclaimed. "This is the first time I've ever seen anything like it. My father even used such a move..."

Presumably, he truly hated that blind officer to the core—the words swirled in the stranger's throat, but after much deliberation, he swallowed them back down.

“Although your description is already terrifying, the actual effect is many times more horrifying than you describe.” Jack swallowed hard, saying, “A living person, just like a snowflake, melted away silently.”

"My father has innate skills, and his internal strength is on a completely different level from ordinary people. Once he masters these moves that require the use of internal strength, he will be much stronger than ordinary people. With a single palm strike from a distance, he can turn a person into bloody foam."

"Just how many of these things does he know?" Jack couldn't help but shudder as he watched Lu Aniu weaving through the crowd and slaughtering everyone in the distance.

"I don't know. All I can say is that... the time we've known him is just a very small part of his life."

The stranger turned aside, dodging a splatter of blood and flesh, raised a finger, and said with utmost seriousness, "Let me make this clear from the start: after Dad has vented his anger, we'll pretend we never saw anything about what happened here today, including the cause and effect."

"Even when you're talking in your sleep, you can't utter a single letter, understand? I'm doing this for your own good."

The stranger lowered his voice and spoke in a sinister tone, sounding more like a threat than a warning.

Jack hesitated for a few seconds, then suddenly realized the crux of the matter, and his face turned ashen.

The saying goes, "It's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with his underlings." This idea holds true throughout history and across the world in terms of power structures. At a certain level, the top leader, who holds the most important position in the group, cannot afford to be tainted in the slightest. Furthermore, the larger the power structure, the greater the energy that spills over downwards.

If there's anything to be dissatisfied with, there's no need to show anger. Just go down to the lower levels and give a few pointers to the middle managers. That alone, the overflowing information, is enough to drive those below crazy.

When a top leader starts swearing, losing his temper, throwing things, or even using physical gestures to express anger, it usually means his position is becoming increasingly unstable. During the sensitive period of power transition, he is unwilling to be ousted and is prepared to mobilize all his resources for a desperate fight.

However, Lu Aniu is clearly not in this situation at present, and his position within the Guangzhao Sect is quite stable.

So, there aren't many possibilities left.

The only thing that could cause such a cunning and ruthless man to lose control and go on a killing spree is something that was said or done in the notebook that truly crossed his bottom line. Everyone has such a bottom line that cannot be touched or tested.

Given Lu Aniu's age, he must have already experienced the vast majority of ridicule in this land.

Something like "Huang Fan" is simply not enough to break through his defenses.

What exactly triggered Lu Aniu's emotions?

The notebook's words were just a few sentences, but after breaking them down and analyzing them, Jack quickly came to a rough guess, which is why his expression changed drastically.

The stranger cast a meaningful glance at him.

“Understood.” Jack realized the importance of the matter, nodded, and promised, “I won’t say a word.”

……

With a loud thud, the door of the wooden house was kicked open. The soldiers who had come to provide support were immediately taken aback by the sight inside, their faces changing and their steps freezing. The commanding officer, who had intended to ask a few questions, swallowed his words back at the visually stimulating scene before him.

"vomit---!!"

Some people with poor mental resilience knelt on the ground and vomited.

"..."

Lu Aniu slowly turned around and tossed aside a rib that was clearly pulled from a human body. Despite the absence of wind, his nearly gray hair stood on end. His face was expressionless—no anger, no sorrow, no rage, nothing at all, nor did it need to be.

His body and face covered in blood alone are enough to say everything.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, a murderous aura soaring to the heavens!

Even Jack and Stranger, standing right to the side, were ignored; no one saw them. Lu Aniu simply straightened his back, his calm gaze sweeping over each of the approaching people. Their morale plummeted to rock bottom. For a full minute, time seemed to freeze; no one spoke.

"boom!"

Unable to resist the atmosphere, someone fired the first shot.

Lu Aniu slightly twisted his neck, effortlessly dodging the bullet. Then, his almost ethereal gaze pierced through the crowd and landed on the soldier who fired the shot.

----

"No...something's wrong, Colonel, Colonel!"

A messenger soldier practically tumbled into the tent, crashing headfirst into the sand table and rearranging the terrain and chess pieces. Those who held meetings in this tent were all figures of authority, and they all looked at this reckless intruder with disgust.

"It's a notebook, he..."

“Oz,” Jaworth sighed helplessly, seemingly unsurprised.

He had seen through this man's obsequiousness towards him and his harshness towards his subordinates. Such a middle-level manager was naturally only fit to be used as a cover. He would only be assigned the kind of work that would draw criticism and gossip. He was not qualified to participate in strategic meetings, as he was always busy with the notes and other tasks.

But this guy had just made a mistake a few days ago, and now he was causing trouble again, which made Jaworth a little annoyed. He began to reassess this person's place in his heart.

"What trouble has he gotten me into this time?"

At this point, Jaworth's tone was still rather impatient. In his mind, it was probably something like the notebook had overwhelmed the people below, resulting in someone beating him up—something of that magnitude—and they were wasting his time on it.

The messenger took two deep breaths and said with a look of fear, "He's dead! Along with the soldiers in the makeshift outpost..."

"They've almost all been killed!"

Chapter 668: You'd better not mess up this charade.

The temporary outpost and camp were eerily quiet. No one was in sight, only the horses in the stables, thankfully tethered safely. The military camp was entirely populated by men, a place that should have been brimming with masculine energy, yet now there wasn't a sound. This stark contrast to one's expectations—a deathly silence—was enough to make one's heart race.

Surrounded by a group of soldiers, Javos dared to move forward. In fact, even now, he still didn't understand what had happened—because he knew that everyone who had come in with Lu Aniu and the others was already dead.

The remaining soldiers were crushed to death by a monster in the ensuing battle, as if stepping on ants. The messenger, seeing the situation was turning against him, didn't join in and immediately turned and ran to deliver the message to the colonel.

"..."

Jarworth took a deep breath only when he reached the half-closed wooden house.

blood.

He considered himself a veteran of the battlefield and believed he could withstand the stench of blood.

But he had never encountered anything like this before, with such an intense and lingering stench of blood. Just a door's distance away, the surging blood energy was enough to cause physical discomfort. Not only him, but also the officers in front of and behind him showed expressions of horror or fear. The entire group stood frozen in front of the thin wooden door for quite a while.

Finally, as the pressure was passed down level by level, the two lowest-ranking soldiers among the crowd reluctantly pushed open the door.

"crunch-"

A thin wooden door.

"what……"

Javos's pupils constricted sharply as a surge of emotions—surprise, fear, dread, horror—rushed through him. Despite having mentally prepared himself countless times, this scene still terrified him. It was something beyond imagination, something that shattered his worldview. At that moment, he believed that if hell existed, it probably couldn't be more like this.

----

There wasn't a single person left. To even make out the outline of a human figure was a luxury; most of them were so lifeless that they couldn't even be discerned as human shapes. Here a pile, there a pile, red and white like paint, filled this small, cramped space.

It's hard to imagine what kind of forces they endured in their final moments. To put it metaphorically, it's as if these hundreds of people were all tied to the ground, and then a raging elephant entered the room and started trampling them indiscriminately!

However, there were no elephants in the house, only three people.

The old cowboy stood aside, calmly observing them, completely ignoring them.

The man carrying two swords on his back brought a bucket from the camp, cut a slit in it, and half-squatted down, holding a small piece of mirror. He remained completely unresponsive to the sound behind him, like a statue frozen in time.

The old man was cupping water in his hands, washing the bloodstains from his face. He looked as if he had been drenched in blood; there wasn't a single clean spot on his body. So he only symbolically rinsed his face, and compared to his blood-soaked body, his clean face was even more terrifying!

"call……"

After being splashed with cold water, Lu Aniu calmed down, a "friendly" smile spreading across his face.

He ran his hand up his forehead, using the bloodstains as hair oil to create a menacing hairstyle.

"Do you...do you know...what you're doing?"

This question seems unconvincing, especially since people have already been killed and hundreds of bodies are lying here; it's pointless to ask about the motive.

Jaworth himself felt guilty. He didn't know how the other side had done it, but the corpses scattered on the ground were the best proof, making him, for the first time, lose confidence in his violent intimidation tactics. These soldiers were all armed, yet they were dying one after another. Compared to them, how much better was he?

After a moment of silence, Lu Aniu suddenly burst out laughing.

He slowly stood up.

This single action startled all the soldiers and officers who had come casually, causing them to tremble and retreat in unison.

Lu Aniu nodded slightly, and Jack handed the envelope to Jarworth once again. He took it, and with surprise and awe, opened it and read it word by word. Cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead—he had roughly guessed the whole story.

The letter didn't list the names of the three people, but the fact that they were able to obtain the letter was itself a signal.

In his heart, he cursed the notebook a thousand times.

"This...this is a misunderstanding." He stammered, trying to find the words. "Please believe me, I didn't mean it..."

"I have two things to say."

Lu Aniu completely ignored his apology. Even setting aside the absolute difference in strength, when considering the immense power of the Illuminati, Javos was far, far below him in rank. Frankly speaking, he didn't even have the right to apologize to Lu Aniu.

He had come with high hopes, wanting to test his skills against the King of the Tall Trees, but now, after this ordeal, Lu Aniu felt utterly disgusted, as if he had swallowed a fly. His initial enthusiasm had vanished, and he found the people before him utterly repulsive.

Let's handle this as a business, get it done and leave.

"First, let all the merchants behind me go. Make arrangements to send them out of the war zone."

Lu Aniu pointed to the merchants behind him who were terrified, which was actually his original request, and he hadn't forgotten it.

At this moment, his tone had become very impolite. It was the commanding tone of a superior to a subordinate, leaving no room for discussion.

"Uh... well..." Faced with this direct challenge to the military's authority, Javos hesitated. Still clinging to bureaucratic thinking, he tried to stall for time by playing coy. "These merchants all have a history of sponsoring the Gaoshu tribe. Of course, I must respect your wishes, but we'll have to wait for their testimonies to arrive..."

"Get it done immediately," Lu Aniu said expressionlessly. "If you delay, I'll kill you first, then I'll kill all of you."

"You can try and see if I can do it."

"..."

A truly ruthless person doesn't need exaggerated expressions or tone when making threats; their achievements speak for themselves.

Having been put on this front, Jaworth had no choice but to agree.

"second……"

“Your current tactics are correct, keep it up. The High Tree tribe is a deep and complex group, don’t go into the forest to fight them, once you enter the forest, you will become their target. Right now, the ‘High Tree War’ has become a hot topic of conversation in the surrounding prefectures and counties, as well as the entire south. Your little schemes, father and son, have attracted too much attention, and the higher-ups are not satisfied with them.”

Lu Aniu said coldly, "So... you'd better not mess up this charade."

After saying his last words, Lu Aniu turned and left, with the two of them following closely behind.

So many people, like Moses parting the sea, actively carved out a clear path, and not a single person dared to utter a word to stop them.

Chapter 669: The Thief Cries "Stop Thief!"

"Including the amount we have stored now, and adding the crops from the three sisters' fields, it should be enough to last about a week."

"Even if we can't go out, we can still hunt in this forest. There are many animals living in the forest."

"Don't be silly, the little animals in the forest aren't even enough to fill our teeth. If we really followed that standard, we'd plunder the forest bald!"

"In these extraordinary times, there's no other way. Temporarily clearing the forest is better than everyone starving to death. But my worry is, even if we include everything we can hunt and gather, I'm afraid it still won't be enough..."

Meanwhile, in the territory of the Gaoshu tribe, a war council was also being held.

Eagle's expression wasn't good. He couldn't balance the accounts no matter how he calculated them. The war hadn't even started yet, and they were already worrying about food. What was worse, this wasn't a secret; everyone could see the tribe's food reserves. If more people started talking about it, it would be a huge blow to their morale.

“The hummingbird is right, we really should…”

"Whoosh—!!"

"Whoosh—!!"

Two long blasts of a horn came from outside, interrupting their meeting.

Flying Eagle's expression changed drastically: one cry meant the night patrol had returned, two cries meant the enemy had invaded.

Someone broke in?!

"How could this be?"

"They've already reached our doorstep, why didn't the lookouts give us any warning? Have they already been killed?!"

"What are we going to do now? There are so many elderly people and children in the tribe. Aren't they all sitting ducks?"