Chapter 171 – Spoils of War

Silence!

Extreme silence enveloped the mountain forest, where even breathing seemed like a grave sin at this moment.

Whether it was the weakling bandit players or the blacklisted criminals who had committed numerous robberies, all stared wide-eyed with terror and fear.

Hundred-Faced Scholar—with a bounty of 320,000 Soul Sand, having repeatedly evaded capture by the Taixuan Association, manipulated countless female players at will, and having climbed to the Peak of the Elite Rank—had actually…

Lost.

Defeated in a single move!

That wealthy young girl… no, that girl commanding the crow flock, who exactly was she? If she wasn’t the Lord, then who was the Lord?

What kind of newbie Lord could employ and command such a powerful figure?

Minds raced, but no, there was no time for racing thoughts.

The bandits were slain one by one.

The several wanted criminals accompanying Hundred-Faced Scholar were relatively elite, each at the Elite Rank and positioned in the upper-middle tier within this major rank.

In terms of level, they were higher than Lu Liu.

In terms of combat power, one-on-one they couldn’t last a single move against Lu Liu, and even ganging up on him was nothing but a disorganized mob.

No matter how large the wolf pack, it could never shake a giant beast.

Lu Liu at this moment was like an invincible war god, his every move shaking the earth, shattering soil, rocks, and trees as if they were thin paper.

The Halberdiers and Imperial Guards, having Awakened self-awareness, shouted the name “General Lu.”

Only Dolai looked nervous, continuously muttering, “Be gentle, be gentle, don’t break anything!”

It then glanced around—the clever General Dolai had already noticed that one enemy had vanished unnoticed.

The most valuable one.

“Can General Dolai launch the attack now?”

“Granted.”

For the sake of the bounty, Lord Mu approved Dolai’s request to attack.

After all, White Fox Daisy’s combat ability wasn’t great, and a heavily armored brute like Lu Liu would find it difficult to catch up with the fleeing enemy.

To avoid any mishaps, General Dolai shot up into the sky.

“Guji—!”

…

Deep within the dense forest, Giant-Hand Scarface—imposing, burly, with a ferocious visage that could make children stop crying just by his presence—was currently fleeing at full speed.

“That Scholar is trash! Trash! What kind of target did he pick?!”

He cursed angrily.

He, the mighty Giant-Hand Scarface with a bounty of 400,000 Soul Sand, who had repeatedly escaped official pursuits and bounty hunters, had actually fallen into the hands of ‘prey.’

It was a disgrace.

A nightmare!

This merchant caravan was clearly a tyrannosaurus rex in sheep’s clothing!

Giant-Hand Scarface fled swiftly. He was a player specialized in frontal combat, lacking the flashy tricks of Hundred-Faced Scholar, and he dared not enter official towns. But now, as he fled, he moved as lightly as a bird or beast, leaping and bounding across slender branches, producing only faint rustling sounds.

Suddenly, Giant-Hand Scarface halted.

He stood on a branch no thicker than an arm. His body, over two meters tall with arms thicker than an average person’s thighs, did not break the branch.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at the figure blocking his path not far away.

It wasn’t the girl controlling the crow flock, nor the seemingly invincible black-armored brute, but merely…

A girl who appeared utterly ordinary, harmless, with light blue hair gently flowing in the breeze.

Her gaze as she looked at him was exceptionally fervent.

“So there’s a third strong one?”

“I, Scarface, have lost to no ordinary opponents.””However, are you certain you wish to stop me? The entire heist was planned by Hundred-Faced Scholar. Let me go, pretend you never caught up. You can justify it to your Boss, and avoid a life-or-death struggle. How about it?”

Yet the girl before him seemed not to hear his words at all, merely murmuring something under her breath.

Murmuring a number.

Her gaze grew increasingly fervent.

As if… as if she were looking at prey on a chopping block.

Giant-Hand Scarface was enraged—even the association’s bounty hunters had never made him suffer such humiliation!

But the next moment, he calmed down again, his expression no longer ferocious as he calmly stared at the distant Dolai. “The reason I withdrew was merely to avoid unnecessary combat and further erosion. But now… you’ve forced my hand.”

Scarface violently tore off the white bandages tightly wrapped around his left arm.

White fragments scattered chaotically.

Revealing beneath them an abnormally swollen, enormous left arm covered with crimson tendril-like patterns. The muscles twitched and squirmed as if possessing a life of their own.

Hundred-Faced Scholar was merely a collaborator, a tool, an arrogant fool to him.

He was different.

Though appearing rough, he was actually meticulous—he rarely acted unless necessary, all to mislead his enemies.

To make those bounty hounds tracking his scent fall into his traps again and again.

“A 400,000 bounty far from represents my true power.”

Scarface lunged forth like a fierce Dragon, drawing a rare-grade firelock with his right hand and firing several shots at the distant Blue-haired Girl.

The bullets infused with explosive energy suspended one by one before the girl, rippling faintly as if trapped in mud and solidifying.

Gravity Repulsion Barrier!

Scarface wasn’t surprised—the firelock shots were merely a feint. His true killing move was…

His already thick left arm swelled several sizes larger, transforming into a crimson giant hand. A massive mouth over one and a half meters in diameter split open within the palm, from which countless terrifying tentacles emerged.

This was the erosion power obtained from a Fallen God Attendant.

The power itself possessed life, and even Scarface as its master had to offer sacrifices to wield it—otherwise, the erosion would Devour him.

“Now, you shall serve as its sacrifice!”

The giant hand slammed down.

But behind the Blue-haired Girl, a silver giant hand abruptly shot forth.

The two colossal palms collided violently, stirring a fierce gust through the dense forest that sent fallen leaves swirling and rustling incessantly.

Yet Scarface’s erosion giant hand held more than mere strength.

The giant mouth in its palm gaped open, seeping erosion energy spreading continuously alongside countless tentacles.

But at that moment, a fissure also tore open in the silver giant hand’s palm—a dark, bottomless maw that seemed to Devour everything.

The surging erosion energy was entirely…

Devoured!!

This was the power of a Fallen God Attendant!

Yet the crimson giant arm was visibly withering as its energy drained away.

“Ptooey!”

Dolai spat, and a brilliant burst of lightning erupted from the silver giant hand.

Dazzling arcs of electricity danced, trees toppled, and earth and stone shattered explosively.Amid the violent shockwaves, Dolai stood firm and unshaken. The gravity barriers spread around its front repelled all flying debris and wood splinters.

It gazed ahead.

Through the dust and smoke, Giant-Hand Scarface, leveraging the momentum of his backward flight, was already fleeing with all his might.

Several cannon-fodder minions he had summoned to buy time roared as they charged at Dolai, only to combust into ashes the next moment.

But by this time, Giant-Hand Scarface, running at his fastest and most desperate pace, had already covered over a kilometer, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake. Monsters blocking his path were crushed to dust with a mere wave of his hand.

In his reckless rush, his escape speed was extremely high.

However,

how could human speed surpass light, surpass thunder.

A dazzling flash of lightning erupted from behind, and silver projectiles shot out from within the thunder, piercing through Giant-Hand Scarface’s massive hand like electromagnetic projectiles… then continued unabated, penetrating trees and boulders one after another before finally exploding in the distance.

Scarface’s body jolted to a halt.

The next moment,

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Several silver electromagnetic projectiles wrapped in lightning pierced through Scarface’s torso, shattering his heart.

He finally collapsed to the ground with a thud, devoid of life.

“Finally… finally took care of ’em.”

Dolai paid no mind to its own “critical moment” and “to avoid damaging important evidence” triggering a Universe Awakening, allowing it to master the true Railgun.

It only nervously rushed forward, and only after confirming that the scarred man’s head remained intact did it heave a deep sigh of relief.

“Hooray!”

“But, how much money is 400,000 Soul Sand anyway?”

…

While Dolai was catching up and eliminating the high-bounty Giant-Hand Scarface, the battle on the other side had long since concluded.

Following Lord Mu’s reminder, everyone quickly cleared the battlefield, erasing all traces and relocating.

Afterward, they proceeded to tally the spoils obtained from these bandits.

“So poor, caw!”

In Stone Ridge Town, Sophia felt she was poor, where renting a base for a day cost 1,500 Soul Sand. But after searching these bandits, she thought they were even poorer.

“That’s normal. Who would become a bandit if they had money?”

Daisy chimed in.

From the first group of bandits, they gathered over four thousand Soul Sand in total, more than a dozen Remnant Souls, and some common equipment and items.

As for the second group—notorious fugitives like Giant-Hand Scarface and Hundred-Faced Scholar—they yielded less than a kilogram of Soul Sand.

Somehow, they seemed even poorer.

“That’s normal.”

Mu Yuan explained, “The first group were likely veteran players overcome by greed, trying to moonlight as bandits, killing and looting in lawless lands. Little did they know that once greed takes hold, they’d fall into the abyss. Such players tend to have some Soul Sand on them, but since they’re weak, they naturally don’t have much money.

“The second group are proper fugitives. These players usually concentrate their limited resources on themselves and don’t keep much Soul Sand on hand, so it’s normal for them to be poor. However, they aren’t truly poor.”

Mu Yuan signaled a few self-aware Halberdier Imperial Guards to remove the armor and clothing from the Scholar, Scarface, and the others.

They laid them out one by one.

These items were now ownerless, so Dolai, with its Hero status, used Appraisal on each. To their surprise, they discovered a total of seven rare-grade pieces of equipment among them.The scholar’s pair of daggers were still top-grade items among the rare tier.

Their discounted value was certainly not poor.

After all, they were merely from a ranger player, and couldn’t compare to a Lord—especially a second-generation Lord.

Beyond that, there were some scattered miscellaneous items.

Among the miscellaneous items, there seemed to be treasures as well. Dolai, relying on its keen intuition, fished out a wrinkled, aged blueprint.

It appeared to be a Treasure Map.

Though it looked dilapidated, upon testing, it was found to be extremely resilient—neither Saber nor Sword could cut through it, nor could fire burn it.

However, this Treasure Map was only half-complete, its essence not fully revealed.

One could only vaguely make out the characters for “buried underground.”

Perhaps only by gathering the other half could the true information be unlocked?

This was a blueprint that might be useful, but most likely useless.

Mu Yuan had Dolai store it away, then turned his gaze to the sealed heads present one by one.

(End of Chapter)