Chapter 1 Firelight

The firelight of Deep Rock City pierced the night.

Several people sensed something was wrong and quickened their pace.

As they got closer, the sounds of burning, crying, and footsteps in the city became clearer and clearer.

Zhou Jing and his party arrived at the gate of Deep Rock City and found that the city gate had been broken open from the inside out, and the ground was covered with incomplete corpses of guards.

Looking through the gate, they saw houses on both sides of the street burning fiercely, and a wave of heat hit their faces.

"What's going on? Did a different beast attack the city?" Cole asked in surprise.

Zhou Jing crouched down to check the bodies of the guards, his eyes narrowed: "These are wounds caused by weapons, not a different beast attack."

"It's man-made? Could it be that a riot has broken out in Deep Rock City?" The leader of the hunter squad was wary.

Just then, chaotic footsteps came from the burning street in the distance.

A group of civilians came running from afar, disheveled, like a temporary group gathered to flee the disaster, trying to escape the city.

Upon discovering Zhou Jing and his party in front of the city gate, the group of civilians seemed to have seen something terrifying, panicked, and were about to scatter.

Cole and several other hunters immediately stepped forward, caught a few dusty civilians, and questioned loudly:

"What's happening here?"

The civilians trembled, answering in a chaotic chorus.

"I-I don't know, I just want to escape!"

"Many people are dead, the whole city is in chaos!"

"A group of hunters have gone mad, killing anyone they see, and setting fires everywhere!"

Zhou Jing also came over, listening to his companions interrogating the civilians, and roughly understood the current situation.

At this moment, a group of thugs, suspected to be beast hunters, were looting the city, slaughtering wantonly, and setting the city on fire.

The number is unknown, the origin is unknown, and the strength is unknown...

"If I'm not mistaken, it should be a group of bandits strengthened by Exotic Blood. Some accomplices pretended to be free hunters to enter the city, broke open the city gate from the inside, and let others into the city to burn, kill, and loot." Cole gritted his teeth.

Among the transcendent beings who underwent Exotic Blood enhancement, there were noble and dedicated beast hunters, pragmatic mercenaries, and, naturally, evildoers who relied on their power to do evil.

Although the threat of different beasts was the biggest problem for the Terra Empire, and the general environment was united against the outside world, it could not prevent evildoers with power from doing whatever they wanted. There were still bandits, but the frequency was not high, the scale was not large, and it was generally rare.

"I actually ran into something like this." Zhou Jing raised his eyebrows and turned to look at Cole: "Has this happened before?"

"At most, they loot villages. This is the first time I've seen them attack a fortress city. It's too arrogant, they simply don't take the Empire seriously... Let's go, let's stop these people."

The group asked for directions, drew out their weapons in unison, temporarily abandoned the spoils, and headed straight for the Lord's Castle along the road.

If the town still had the ability to resist, then the troops would most likely gather in the castle.

As Imperial Hunters, protecting the town was their duty. Although it wasn't a beast attack, they couldn't sit idly by since they encountered such an evil deed.

Zhou Jing had no objection either. He carried his twin blades and followed the group, advancing quickly.

...

At the same time, at the Lord's Castle.

Hundreds of guards' bodies lay scattered on the ground, and blood stained the castle hall red.

The Lord of Deep Rock City leaned against the wall, his face full of panic and fear.

Two Exotic Blood guards covered in blood stood in front of him, panting heavily, looking nervously and desperately at the scene before them—they were the only guards left by the lord's side.

At this moment, a dozen or so thugs surrounded them, all Exotic Blood warriors, with different weapons and armor. The only thing they had in common was that they were covered in the blood of the guards, and they were now staring at the lord with malicious intent.

"Y-you, who are you people?"

The Lord of Deep Rock City's voice trembled.

Hearing this, a leader emerged from the group of thugs. He had a head of rough, disheveled hair, a face full of fierce flesh, and carried a two-handed scimitar. He said coldly:

"Dead people don't need to know so much."

After saying that, the disheveled man ignored the lord and instead looked at the two nervous Exotic Blood guards, his eyes showing appreciation. He said loudly:

"Brothers, I'll give you a chance to live. Join us."

The two Exotic Blood guards gripped their weapons tightly, not trusting him at all.

Seeing this, the disheveled man took two steps forward, not caring, and said in a deep voice:

"Ask yourselves, you have undergone Exotic Blood enhancement where you were close to death, and finally gained extraordinary power, but in the end, you have to listen to the orders of mortals and give your lives for mortals. Are you willing to die here?"

"Don't come any closer!" the two Exotic Blood guards shouted angrily, nervously pointing their weapons at the disheveled man.

The disheveled man stopped, treating the enemy's bright blade as nothing, and said in a deep voice:

"Why should we listen to the orders of mortals? Why can't the one who gives orders be a stronger person? When this weak mortal directs you to run around, haven't you ever fantasized about smashing his head?"

The two Exotic Blood guards gripped their weapons even tighter, pursing their lips without responding.

The disheveled man suddenly opened his arms and said loudly and boldly: "They fear us, they are wary of us. They don't give you what you want. They want to tame us and use order to bind our power. When morality and law forbid your desires, you should seize it by force!

Nothing in this world should bind us. All power and wealth in this world should belong to strong people like us. Mortals should serve... We can do whatever we want!"

What crazy things is this person saying?!

The Lord of Deep Rock City widened his eyes, subconsciously giving birth to such thoughts.

However, he found that the other dozen or so thugs showed a look of course and fanaticism on their faces when they heard these words.

The disheveled man looked at the two Exotic Blood guards who were shaking and said slowly:

"We have the same power, so I'll give you a chance—kill the people behind you, liberate the shackles in your hearts, become one of us, and from now on, we will be brothers!"

The Lord of Deep Rock City couldn't help but retort: "Don't believe him, he just wants to..."

However, before he could finish speaking, a cold light suddenly flashed past.

The Lord of Deep Rock City suddenly covered his neck, and streams of blood overflowed from between his fingers.

He looked in horror at the guard on the right, who had unceremoniously slit his throat.

"You..."

Before he could finish speaking, the other Exotic Blood guard also turned around and stabbed the lord in the abdomen with a knife.

The Lord of Deep Rock City fell to the ground with a thud, covering his bleeding wound, staring at the two guards, and said hoarsely:

"The Empire won't let you go..."

Bang!

His head exploded like a watermelon and was kicked by one of the guards.

"Well done, my brothers!"

The disheveled man applauded with relief.

The two Exotic Blood guards looked at him expressionlessly, but they didn't put down their weapons and remained vigilant.

The two understood the situation clearly. If a dozen thugs rushed up, their ending would only be to be hacked to death by random knives, and they wouldn't even be able to drag a scapegoat with them.

They just wanted to live, and since the other party gave them a chance, even if it might be a lie, it was better than fighting hard with no way out.

The disheveled man didn't care about the two people's vigilance. He suddenly turned his head, exposing his back to the two without defense, and laughed loudly at his other companions:

"Put away your weapons and welcome our new brothers!"

A dozen thugs did as they were told, and the tense murderous aura suddenly disappeared. Only the strong bloody smell in the room was still pungent.

The disheveled man turned around, pressed the two people's hands, pressed the weapons back into their sheaths, then put his arms around their shoulders, and said with heroic ambition:

"Tonight, this city is our carnival. You can vent your desires however you want. After tonight, you will understand how cowardly and narrow-minded you were in the past. The happiness of seizing by force is better than everything."

The two Exotic Blood guards were a little at a loss, but looking at the rampant smiles of the many thugs, it seemed that a chord in their hearts was touched, and the dark desires were like fierce beasts being released, walking out of their cages.

Finally, one couldn't help but ask:

"Who are you people?"

The disheveled man patted the two people's shoulders hard and chuckled:

"I am Dotun. As for this group of us, we are all Exotic Blood warriors. You can call us—Children of Exotic Blood!"

Children of Exotic Blood...

The two chewed on this name in their hearts.

At this moment, two thugs suddenly rushed in from outside the castle, carrying a corpse, and shouted loudly:

"Dotun, some of our brothers who were looting outside have been beaten to death!"

Dotun restrained his smile and asked in a deep voice:

"Who did it?"

"I don't know. We heard the sound of fighting and rushed over. When we got there, we only found our brother's body."

As he said that, the two thugs put the corpse on the ground.

Dotun went over to take a look and was suddenly stunned.

This corpse was not killed by a weapon. It was pierced by more than a dozen earth spikes. At first glance, it looked like it had fallen into a trap, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem like it.

Dotun didn't understand, so he simply shook his head and said coldly:

"It seems that there is more than just the group of hunters we subdued and imprisoned in the city. There are other forces. Gather everyone and find them!"

As he said that, he strode out of the castle, and the other thugs followed behind him.

The two Exotic Blood guards hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to blend in.

...

Another corner of Deep Rock City.

A simply dressed man was walking through the burning streets, looking like an ordinary fleeing civilian.

He had a piece of tattered cloth with blood stains wrapped around his head, which looked like it was torn from someone else's body, and used it as a simple hood and mask to cover his face.

The man ran forward panting, muttering in a low voice.

"Damn it, Deep Rock City is such a safe fortress city, but there's actually a riot. I knew I shouldn't have lived in seclusion here, it's not reliable at all."

The man passed through the alley and turned into a main road.

Just then, a thug happened to turn out of the alley opposite, buckling his belt. In the alley behind him lay a naked woman, her eyes glazed over, her neck purple, having been raped and strangled to death.

The man and the thug discovered each other across the street, and both stopped in their tracks.

"Hey kid, lost?"

The thug showed a grin, took off the flail hanging from his waist, swung it in his hand, and walked step by step towards the man who looked like a lamb to the slaughter.

The man took a step back, not looking at the approaching thug, but focusing his eyes on the ground behind the thug.

His pupils trembled slightly, and earthy yellow ripples bloomed in his eyes.

An invisible force quietly shot out, attached to the ground, and penetrated into it.

The thug was completely unaware and was still approaching the man slowly, as if toying with him.

Just then, the ground that the man was watching suddenly cracked.

Bang!

Mud and dirt sprayed out, quickly turning into a dozen small earth spikes in mid-air, hitting the thug's unguarded back at lightning speed.

Pfft pfft pfft—

The earth spikes penetrated the flesh one after another.

The thug trembled all over, suddenly widened his eyes, and looked incredulously at the tips of the earth spikes that had pierced through his chest.

"Who is it?!"

The thug turned his head sharply, but there was no one behind him.

At that moment, the man reached out and grabbed, and whispered.

"Mind Merge · Earth Spirit!"

A sharp stone pillar suddenly rose rumblingly from between the thug's legs.

Pfft!

The thug couldn't dodge and was directly pierced by the stone pillar. It entered from his lower body and came out of his mouth, and the bloodshot eyes instantly lost their luster.

Whoosh...

The next moment, the stone pillar collapsed and turned into mud.

The thug's corpse also fell to the ground, blood gushing like a spring, completely dead.

"Fortunately, this guy didn't rush over directly..."

The earthy yellow light in the man's eyes disappeared, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Not daring to delay, he hurriedly left this place, fearing that the thug's companions would arrive.

...

When Zhou Jing and the others arrived at the Lord's Castle, it was already empty, and only the corpses all over the ground could prove that a fierce battle had broken out here.

"There aren't any survivors?"

The group walked in carefully, groping around, and finally stopped in front of a headless corpse, judging from the clothing that this person should be the lord.

Cole squatted down to check the wound and frowned, "Damn it, this person is the Lord of Deep Rock City. It looks like he's dead."

"Did you really need to look to figure that out?" Zhou Jing rolled his eyes.

Cole was speechless, turned his head to observe the surrounding traces of battle, and said: "Looking at these traces of destruction, there were probably more than ten Exotic Blood warriors fighting here before. I wonder where they went now."

"The lord is dead, and the army has been almost wiped out, but we didn't see a single enemy corpse on the way. Maybe the enemies are all Exotic Blood warriors. Being able to destroy the city to this extent, I estimate there are no less than twenty enemies." The squad leader said in a solemn tone.

"Where did all the hunters of Deep Rock City go? It seems like no one is stopping them."

"Maybe they were killed... Think about it, since this group of thugs used the method of impersonating hunters to cooperate from the inside out, then they will definitely take advantage of the convenience of their identity to easily solve the most troublesome hunters in the town first, right?"

"This is terrible. We don't have any allies. Can we stop this group of thugs with just a few of us?"

The members of the hunter squad were worried.

Zhou Jing looked down and observed, and suddenly discovered that the death of one corpse was different from the others. It was covered in earth spikes, and the clothes were not those of a guard.

"Come and take a look, this may be an enemy corpse."

Everyone immediately gathered around to observe the abnormal corpse.

"It should be the enemy... Why did he die so strangely? Did he fall into a trap?" Cole asked in confusion.

"Hard to say."

Zhou Jing pulled out the earth spikes one by one and found that they were different in shape and size. If it was a trap, then it was a bit too crude.

"Does anyone recognize this enemy?"

"Never seen him." Everyone shook their heads.

Zhou Jing pondered for a while and suddenly thought of the tribal independence plan. He asked, "By the way, is the Lord of Deep Rock City a tribal lord or an imperial lord appointed by the Empire?"

"I know this. He was appointed." Cole replied.

Since he was appointed, then there is no tribe as a foundation in the local area... Zhou Jing scratched his head, not sure if it was a change caused by the tribal independence plan, but it didn't seem like it.

After all, no one would burn their own home during tribal independence, right?

At this time, the squad leader said in a deep voice:

"The Lord's Castle has fallen. We can't find any helpers. If we rashly search for the enemy, we will also suffer. Let's go to the hunter's tavern and workshop first, and try to find the town hunters and guards who are still alive, and gather the troops."

Everyone nodded and hurriedly left the silent Lord's Castle.