66: Chapter 66 I Don't Draw Lots, I Slap Faces

In the withered forest at the edge of the wasteland, the accumulated snow crunched softly beneath Chen Fan's feet.

He leaned against an old locust tree, his throat still tasting the metallic sweetness of blood after his frantic sprint, yet his gaze remained fixed on the fragment clutched in Su Shuang's hand.

That half-sheet of blood-stained paper was crumpled by her grip. Moonlight filtered through the branches, illuminating the words "Double Blood," which felt like two small knives stabbing into his eyes.

"Double Blood... one is my fox demon blood, but who is the other?" Su Shuang's voice was as light as snow scattered by the wind, yet her fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

Chen Fan saw the fluff on the tips of her ears shaking along with her. This was the first time he had seen her look so helpless—the Su Shuang of the past, whether calmly brewing tea while being hunted by the system or ruthlessly burning through an enemy's armor with Fox Fire, was like ice coated in sugar. But now, the red mole at the corner of her eye had faded slightly, making her truly look like a little fox with its claws and teeth pulled out.

His Adam's apple bobbed. Suddenly, he pulled a folding knife from his trouser pocket.

The moment the blade sliced his palm, a sharp pain shot up his nerves. Beads of blood vied to gush out, dripping onto the fragment.

Su Shuang let out a cry of alarm and tried to stop him, only to see the dark red droplets touch the paper, causing the fragment to suddenly emit a ghostly blue light.

Runes seemed to come alive, swimming through the air before finally condensing into a phantom image—layered green tiles and flying eaves, with a massive bronze tripod engraved with the words "life furnace" faintly visible amidst the swirling mist.

Su Shuang took a half-step back, her lower back hitting the tree trunk as her fox tail fluffed up uncontrollably. "This is... a map of the Qingqiu Ancestral Land!"

"How could you have a resonance?"

Chen Fan stared at the blood in his palm, suddenly recalling that fire at the construction site three months ago.

At the time, he was running out with the last two bags of cement when he saw an old man curled in a corner through the thick smoke, his white beard already on fire.

By the time he dragged him out, the old man had only half a breath left. He pressed a copper coin into Chen Fan's hand before passing away.

He had kept that copper coin hanging around his neck on a red string ever since. Right now, it was burning against his chest, hot enough to leave a red mark through his clothes.

"It might be this." He pulled out the copper coin, the fox tattoo on it shimmering with a gentle light under the moon.

The moment Su Shuang's fingertips touched the coin, she recoiled as if burned, her pupils shrinking into vertical slits. "A Qingqiu Token... this is the Soul-Guiding Coin passed down through generations of Qingqiu Lords."

"You were chosen long ago."

"Chosen?" Chen Fan looked down at the coin and suddenly laughed aloud. "I didn't draw any lots; your system forced this on me." He remembered squatting in a corner smoking a three-yuan pack of cigarettes when the foreman withheld his wages at the site; he remembered entering his first novice dungeon, bleeding all over from monster scratches but having to grit his teeth and run; he remembered the cry of "Qingqiu is not dead" as Broken Brush turned to ash in the snow just now—it turned out that everything he thought was a coincidence had long been strung together into a line.

The sound of clashing metal suddenly echoed from the distant snowy plains.

Chen Fan's ears twitched, and he tucked the copper coin back into his shirt.

Su Shuang's fox ears also stood erect, her nose twitching slightly. "The Patrolling Enforcer's tracking technique." Before her voice could fade, a faint scent of ink drifted on the wind, much like the pine soot ink Green Face always sprinkled into his tea.

Chen Fan's pupils constricted. "They know we're going to Qingqiu."

Su Shuang's nails dug deep into her palms, her fox tail tensing into a straight line behind her. "We can't take the main road anymore." She pointed north, where the sky was darker than elsewhere. "The Forgotten River Marsh, a system blind spot—too many dead, the data is so chaotic even the system can't untangle it."

Chen Fan grinned, revealing white teeth. "A good place, perfect for an ambush."

As the night mist drifted into the Forgotten River Marsh, Patrolling Enforcer Jia twirled the iron ruler in his palm.

He stared at the "Target HP 89%" flashing on the system panel, his Adam's apple bobbing—this was the anomaly he had been chasing for three days, a troublemaker even the system had flagged.

The stench of decay from the swamp seeped into the gaps of his silver armor. He frowned and gestured for the two Data Puppets to spread out and flank the target.

"Target located, coordinates 07-12." Just as the system prompt finished, a dark shadow emerged from the mist ahead.

Patrolling Enforcer Jia squinted and saw the silhouette bending over to pick up a stone—Chen Fan's signature move, even the scar on the back of his neck from the construction rebar was identical.

"I finally caught you," he growled. The silver glow condensed on the iron ruler sliced through the mist, aiming straight for the other's heart from behind.

The moment "Chen Fan" turned around, Patrolling Enforcer Jia froze.

The face was clearly Chen Fan's, but the eyes held no human emotion, only a flickering ball of Fox Fire—an illusion!

Just as he was about to retreat, the muddy ground beneath him exploded.

When Chen Fan emerged from the water, he still had a piece of rotten wood in his mouth.

He held his breath, watching Patrolling Enforcer Jia's iron ruler graze the shoulder of the decoy. The only thing he could hear was his own violent heartbeat.

This was the "Breath Compression Method" he had mastered at the construction site. In the past, to carry three hundred pounds of cement up to the sixth floor, he had to press his strength bit by bit into his muscles. Now, he pressed his critical strike power the same way—Hidden Critical Strike x4, it had to be driven like a nail into the enemy's softest spot.

The water's surface split silently. His fist, wrapped in critical strike power compressed to the extreme, smashed precisely into Patrolling Enforcer Jia's back.

The silver armor made a sickening sound of deformation. Patrolling Enforcer Jia was sent flying two meters, his iron ruler clattering into the mud.

Chen Fan stepped on the man's chest to leap up, his second punch smashing directly into his face—this time he didn't hold back. The muffled thud of knuckles meeting bone mixed with the sound of shattering armor plating, sending ripples through the swamp.

"You people love drawing lots to decide fate." Chen Fan tore off the man's shattered helmet, looking at the face covered in data streams and smiling like a child who had found a treasure. "I don't draw lots—I only slap faces." He snatched the patrol edict token from the man's waist, his fingers leaving deep marks on the system emblem of the metal badge.

Suddenly, the copper coin on his chest burned so hot he almost let go.

Chen Fan looked up. At some point, the sky in the direction of Qingqiu had filled with dark clouds.

In the very center of those clouds, something was slowly taking shape—not lightning, but something heavier and darker than lightning, like a sword hanging overhead, ready to strike at any moment.

Su Shuang stood behind him at some point, her fox tail resting gently on the crown of his head. "The Fate Tribulation Lightning... they want to destroy the life furnace."

The wind swirled the stench of the swamp into his collar. Chen Fan gripped the patrol edict token tightly, feeling the blood from his fingertips seeping into the metal engravings.

The dark clouds over Qingqiu pressed lower and lower. Purple electrical arcs danced at the base of the clouds, looking exactly like the warnings on the system panel he couldn't understand—but this time, he didn't want to look at the system's prompts anymore.

"Let's go." He pressed the patrol edict token into Su Shuang's hand. "To Qingqiu."

Su Shuang looked at his blood-stained palm, then at the dark clouds over Qingqiu, and suddenly smiled.

Her fox ears stood straight in the night, and the red mole at the corner of her eye regained its vibrant color. "Chen Fan, do you know why the foxes of Qingqiu aren't afraid of lightning?"

"Why?"

"Because we bite off the lightning's tail." She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss with the warmth of Fox Fire against his cheek. "Now, it's your turn to teach me how to slap faces."

The mechanical roar of Data Puppets echoed from deep within the marsh, but Chen Fan could no longer hear it clearly.

He gazed at the dark clouds over Qingqiu, where purple lightning surged like an awakening behemoth.

He touched the burning copper coin on his chest and then the patrol edict token in his pocket—this time, it was their turn to issue a challenge to the system.