Chapter 93: Liberation

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“Eh?”

Everyone stiffened.

Was there really a crystal core?

They all knew the man-eating vine had killed countless people and drunk endless blood and flesh, so the crystal core it formed had to be a rare, high-grade treasure.

“Earlier you said there was no crystal core. Hand it over now!”

Third Brother beside him barked, impatient.

Lin Dong looked at him.

“Come over. I’ll show you.”

“Fine!”

Third Brother didn’t think twice and strode straight toward him, unaware that each step drew him nearer to death.

Around them, Wu Dazhi and the others stared in silence, curiosity flaring at what a corpse-fed vine core might look like, while muttering to themselves.

Outside he’d said there was no core. Now there was one. It was obvious he had no real intimidation there—only the captain did.

“Where is it?”

At that moment Third Brother had come within two meters of Lin Dong.

In the next instant, Lin Dong lifted his long, elegant hand and thrust it forward. It sank straight into the big man’s skull.

Then, with a light pull, he pulled out a soil-brown crystal core.

“There. Isn’t this it?”

Lin Dong said, as if it were nothing.

Because he moved swiftly, and because no one had expected him to do such a thing, no one could react in time.

“Khss—”

Everyone sucked in a breath as they realized what had happened.

Before their eyes, Third Brother’s massive body slumped and fell, limp.

“Y-you…”

One companion beside him started to speak, eyes wide in disbelief.

With a wave of Lin Dong’s hand, a long knife flashed into view and with one stroke hacked at his neck. A wet, splitting sound, and the head flew off. Whatever words he had left died in him.

“Damn it! He ambushed us!”

“Kill him!”

“How dare he toy with us!”

“……”

The surrounding men grew furious and charged.

Lin Dong was still as a maiden and quick as a hare. Once he let loose, he left no room for them at all.

His eyes glowed red as a terrifying corpse domain surged in.

The first two who rushed him seemed to have been frozen by an unseen spell. Their fury curdled into terror and panic in an instant.

His broad blade swept low and cut down two more heads.

“So vicious.”

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Wu Dazhi was deeply shaken. This man killed like butchering dogs—smooth, practiced. He clearly had done this a lot; he was no ordinary survivor.

What had he, in fact, summoned here?

A sick terror rose in him.

He stepped back quickly and hugged the side of Zhang Zihang, for whom he believed to be the strongest.

“Captain… what should we do?”

“He’s dangerous—very dangerous.”

Zhang Zihang, as an awakened core bear, had already sensed it.

“Hm?”

Wu Dazhi’s eyes widened.

Even the captain said this? Around them the mountain’s interior was in uproar, the security squad dying one after another, heads flying, blood-mist drifting in the heat.

In the firelight, everything was smeared with a demonic red.

For these lower-level awakened ones, Lin Dong was an outright slaughter—no one could stand against him.

In a heartbeat, they would all be wiped out.

Jiang Xue and the others, drawn by the noise, looked up. Their faces showed the same stunned disbelief.

In a corner, the tycoon’s wife’s eyes flashed with renewed hope.

“Honey, look—those brutes are being killed. Could we be saved now?”

“Yes… I hope he’s rescue from the shelter...” the tycoon muttered, praying in his heart.

In any case, seeing the security team fall was a relief.

Zhang Zihang gritted his teeth. He watched his own men die off, and though he felt the peril closing in, there was no longer any retreat. He had to go forward whether he wanted to or not.

Heat radiated from him, flames roaring upward and circling his body. He was clearly a B+ fire-class awakened.

Zhang’s way of striking was ordinary and direct.

With energy sheathing him, he leapt and drove a fist toward Lin Dong. The burning fist hissed through the air, ringing with a chain of concussive cracks.

To a normal eye, it looked blisteringly fast.

“Come on, Captain!”

Wu Dazhi shouted in his chest; he was only a Brain-Pilgrim-stage awakened and could not really join the fight.

Still, seeing the captain move gave him a glimmer of hope.

But then—

Lin Dong noticed the fireman’s assault and, with one glance, released the corpse domain. It rolled over everything like a tidal wall of terror.

Zhang Zihang’s body locked up, as though he had fallen into the abyss.

He clenched his jaw hard.

Even at full power he could barely move.

But it was useless.

Lin Dong’s blade swept diagonally, razor edge slicing through his body, and he was cleanly cut in two.

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“Whoosh—”

The blazing flames vanished at once. Zhang Zihang’s body crashed to the ground, and a fire-red crystal core burst free.

“Wha… what—”

Wu Dazhi stood dumbstruck.

In his eyes, the captain he had thought strongest was felled by a single stroke, no different from an ordinary kill.

“How could this happen?”

In that instant, it was as if his faith had collapsed.

Lin Dong swung his blade several more times and disposed of the awakened ones. It did not take long—only a few heartbeats.

Since he had killed the earth-type awakened, the others who tried to leave this burial pit found themselves trapped in a nightmare with no route out; death had already been written for them.

After finishing Zhang Zihang, Lin Dong, blood-slick knife in hand, stepped toward Wu Dazhi.

Wu Dazhi saw it and shivered through and through, trembling like a chick in the wind. A thought suddenly burst out of him.

“Was the man-eating vine… killed by you?”

“Mm. You’re the only one who guessed the truth, and there will be no reward.”

He said, and with that swept the blade again. Another life dropped for the underworld.

By then every member of the security team had been killed, and the whole burial pit sank back into silence except for the crackle of burning flames.

The wavering light cast flickering shadows, bright one moment, dark the next.

The ground was littered with headless corpses, blood streaming in channels, the stench thick and rotten. In the sealed space, it felt crushingly oppressive.

Lin Dong glanced at the survivors in the corner and walked toward them.

“Good. You were all too sinful brutes to live!”

The woman snarled, and there was a cruel, shrewish edge in her face.

“Quick! Get me out!”

“Mm.”

Lin Dong did not ask, did not explain. He raised his hand and in one stroke severed her throat.

The woman’s eyes went wide, stunned beyond words. She tried to cry out, but only a wet choking sound came. Blood flooded her windpipe and she suffocated, collapsing into her husband’s arms, convulsing twice before going still.

“Don’t kill me—don’t kill me…”

The tycoon had gone near-mad with terror, sniffling and crying at once.

“I have plenty of money. I’ll give you everything. Just let me live!”

“Listen to yourself. You’re already babbling.”

Lin Dong glanced at him as he whispered.

In the end times, money and scrap paper are the same—useless.

These people had nothing else of value for him, so he unceremoniously gave him release too.

……