124: Chapter 124 Brutality

The mission has finally appeared!

During his last dream, Chu Xuan had considered this point.

Since both locations were within the Place of Gloomy Convergence, why did a mission appear at the dormitory, but not in Yinshan Village...

It wasn't until he overheard Old Wu and the others talking, learning that they received System mission prompts every time they came here, that Chu Xuan could roughly confirm his theory.

This was very likely due to the nature of the dream; his physical body was actually still sleeping in the hotel and hadn't truly arrived here.

“exclusive skill synthesis crystal...” Chu Xuan didn't know what this was, but he figured it shouldn't be too bad.

Seeing Tang Zheng's gaze go blank as well, Chu Xuan's heart stirred, and he asked, “Did a mission prompt appear for you?”

Tang Zheng nodded slightly, his expression grave. “My mission is to liberate at least 20 villagers and leave Yinshan Village alive. The mission reward is a choice between two God-Ascension Sequences.”

Just then, Fox suddenly cried out in alarm, “What's going on? Why has my mission this time turned into a survival mission? Leave Yinshan Village alive...”

“Mine too!”

“My mission changed as well!”

Old Wu, Xiao Zei, Fox, and Baldy—all four of them turned pale at the same time, feeling as if a great disaster was imminent.

Fox's expression was frantic. “System missions often contain subtle hints; something must have gone wrong here...”

Chu Xuan's eyes flashed as he suddenly thought of something.

In the original timeline, the Great Buddha began his slaughter because Xiao Zei stole the demon-subduing pestle and violated a taboo, eventually promoting to A-Rank before sunrise today.

But in reality, even if Xiao Zei hadn't committed the Steal, the Dark Rift actually couldn't have lasted much longer and might have closed today anyway.

When that happened, where would the Great Buddha and these 'villagers' go?

At this moment, these people's missions clearly indicated that the slaughter in Yinshan Village was an inevitable outcome!

“Little brother, what is your mission?” When Old Wu walked over to ask, his eyes flickered uncertainly, his thoughts unreadable.

Chu Xuan ignored him, instead asking Tang Zheng in a low voice, “Can you use your talent here?”

Tang Zheng nodded. “No problem.”

“Then proceed according to the original plan.”

Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly. Fortunately, only Ranks were suppressed here, and Tang Zheng's [Fighting God] talent wasn't restricted. Otherwise, he might have had to play along with these people for a while like in the dream, which would have been a waste of effort.

“Hey! You kid, don't play deaf!” Xiao Zei said irritably. “An unknown danger has appeared; we'd better work together...”

Before he could finish his sentence—

Da-da-da!

A burst of fire erupted from the muzzle of the submachine gun. Xiao Zei's head was blown apart instantly; he died on the spot without even having time to react.

Chu Xuan was about to turn the muzzle, but he found that while he intended to point it left at Old Wu, it veered to the right instead.

This conflict in his sense of direction made Chu Xuan feel completely uncoordinated, even giving him a sensation of weightlessness as if he couldn't stand straight.

Chu Xuan immediately realized this must be Old Wu's skill, [Confusion]!

“You brat, you're crazy!” Old Wu drew a short blade from his waist, his eyes nearly bursting with rage as he slashed toward Chu Xuan.

“Don't move!”

Silver light flashed in Chu Xuan's eyes as he suddenly let out a thunderous shout. Old Wu froze as if hit by a Body-Binding Curse, coming to a complete halt.

Although a look of struggle quickly flashed in Old Wu's eyes as he regained consciousness, that brief moment was enough for Chu Xuan to break free from the Confusion.

Da-da-da-da-da!

Five consecutive bullets were fired, blowing away most of Old Wu's head. Blood and brains splattered everywhere as he fell straight to the ground.

Next was Fox. Her figure vanished instantly, but Chu Xuan already knew her Transcendent Skill was related to invisibility. He immediately sprayed half a magazine of bullets into the area where she had disappeared.

Fox was knocked out of her invisible state. Both her legs were shredded by bullets, and her face was filled with agony as she let out a shrill wail.

“Roar—!!”

At the same time, Baldy let out a roar. His already burly frame suddenly shot up in height, and his entire body turned a blackish-red, shining with a metallic luster.

The monster inside Baldy seemed to sense a threat and chose to directly take over his consciousness at this moment, transforming into its monster form.

“Forcing me to emerge early... you deserve to die!!”

A tyrannical aura swept out. Where the Baldy monster's feet stepped, craters appeared as if from explosions. In an instant, he leaped in front of Chu Xuan, throwing a punch that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand tons.

Bang!

A thunderous explosion rang out.

A palm emitting a faint glow intercepted the attack with seemingly slow but perfectly timed precision. It grabbed the Baldy's smooth, shiny head and slammed it violently into the ground in front of Chu Xuan.

The ground was smashed into a human-shaped crater, with Baldy completely embedded inside.

Bang!!

Another loud crash followed. The Baldy monster had no power to fight back as its head was crushed by the next punch.

Tang Zheng slowly stood up, the light around him gradually dissipating. A faint look of joy appeared on his face. “100 points of spirituality value! I'm rich! This feels great!”

Chu Xuan asked, “How many seconds left?”

Tang Zheng gestured a 'six' with his fingers. Chu Xuan immediately understood that he had about fifty-six seconds of talent duration remaining.

Suddenly, Chu Xuan's brow twitched, and he immediately turned his gun.

Da-da-da-da...

Accompanied by continuous gunfire, the two remaining young men in suits tried to escape, but their bodies were pierced by ruthless bullets. They collapsed to the ground, and in the blink of an eye, the earth beneath them was dyed a deep crimson red.

This gruesome scene left the other passengers, who had been hesitating to run after getting off the bus, completely stunned. Like frightened little quails, they didn't dare move another inch.

Hua Jun's legs gave out, and he knelt on the ground. “Chu Xuan, I was wrong! Please spare me! I'm just a pawn; Tao Jiajia ordered me to do everything. I had no choice, I was truly forced...”

“Hua Jun, what are you saying?!”

Tao Jiajia's eyes widened in disbelief. “Didn't you say you would protect me? How did you become like this...”

“Jiajia, I...”

Hua Jun's eyes flickered away for a moment, then his face twisted into a look of ferocity as he roared sharply:

“Why should I protect you?! Do you really think I don't know? You just treated me like your lapdog! You've never even looked me in the eye, and now you want to take me down with you? Stop dreaming!”

Tao Jiajia couldn't believe her ears. She said with immense fury, “You actually dare to betray me! I was truly blind to have misjudged you!”

“Betray you? What kind of thing are you? Did you really think I was your slave? If it weren't for your family background, someone like you... even if you knelt naked in front of me, I wouldn't spare you a second glance!”

Hua Jun scolded, “You're just a selfish, useless brat raised by your family. Everything today was caused by you! You've gotten so many people killed; the person who deserves to die most is you!”

Tao Jiajia trembled with rage and lunged forward to slap Hua Jun, but Hua Jun stood up and backhanded her to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

“Chu Xuan, hurry up and kill her! I'm willing to testify for you—I'll say she entered this place on her own and was eaten by monsters. It has nothing to do with you!”

Hua Jun looked at Chu Xuan with eyes full of hope and said excitedly, “If you don't trust me, I can kill her for you as a token of my loyalty. Just please let me go. I'm willing to be your dog and work for you...”

“Too much talk!”

Chu Xuan, who was checking his System prompts, had a cold expression as he turned the gun muzzle directly toward him.

Bang!

A single gunshot rang out. Hua Jun was hit between the eyes and fell dead, his eyes still filled with a desperate longing for survival.

“Serves you right! You really deserved it! Everyone who betrays me should die!”

Tao Jiajia's face was full of schadenfreude as she kicked Hua Jun's corpse hard. She then looked at Chu Xuan and said excitedly:

“Good kill! From now on, everything between us is settled. If you let me go this time, I'll recruit you into the Investigation Team later. With your skills, you'll definitely have a brilliant future...”

Click!

The submachine gun had run out of bullets, making a crisp sound that caused a flicker of terror to appear on Tao Jiajia's startled face.

“Consider yourself lucky.” Chu Xuan tossed the submachine gun to the still-dazed Qin Shaowu nearby.

Joy immediately resurfaced on Tao Jiajia's face. “So you're willing to let me go? Don't worry, I'll definitely keep my word. Please believe me, my grandfather is...”

“Yeah, I believe you.”

The next second, Chu Xuan pulled a pistol from his lower back, racked the slide, pressed it against her head, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

A line of blood sprayed from the back of Tao Jiajia's head. Even in death, her eyes held remnants of terror and shock, as if she couldn't believe that Chu Xuan actually dared to kill her.