31: Chapter 31 is interesting.

Zhang Qiming looked at the introduction of [Dark Blade] on the screen, and his eyes lit up:

"Killing an entire family is great, interesting… interesting…"

"Let them kill Wang Lin, then go kill Chen Long, haha…"

"I wonder what kind of expression their [Dark Blade] leader will have when he sees Chen Long,"

"Just thinking about it makes me feel excited…"

Zhao Hu didn't bother paying attention to Zhang Qiming; this guy's brain often cramped, and his thoughts were different from others.

He continued to ask: "What rank does Commander Leí Héng hold within Dark Blade?"

"Peripheral. Not core, but not the kind of small fry that can be easily discarded either."

"He hands over quite a lot of resources to Dark Blade every year; he counts as a peripheral member with some weight."

"Then will Dark Blade stand up for him?"

"Hard to say." The middle-aged man frowned.

"If it were a core member who died, Dark Blade would definitely retaliate like crazy."

"But for a peripheral member, it depends on what Dark Blade thinks."

"Commander Leí Héng is dead, so they'll lose a stream of income every year; they'll definitely be unhappy."

"But whether it's worth making a big fuss over, it's hard to say."

Zhao Hu was silent and lit another cigarette.

Zhang Qiming looked at him and asked: "Should we give that kid a heads-up?"

Zhao Hu exhaled a puff of smoke, not answering immediately.

After a few seconds, he suddenly laughed.

"Why remind him?"

"That kid can kill Commander Leí Héng, so he can kill Dark Blade."

"Besides, when have we, the Twelve Zodiacs, ever been afraid of Dark Blade?"

He turned and walked out.

Zhang Qiming was stunned for a moment, then also laughed.

"Well said."

"If Dark Blade dares to touch him, that means they are touching our Twelve Zodiacs people."

Walking to the door, Zhao Hu suddenly stopped, turned back, and said to the middle-aged man:

"Keep an eye on Dark Blade's movements. If they do anything, tell me immediately."

"Understood."

Zhao Hu pushed the door open and walked out.

Behind him, the people in the hall looked at each other.

"What does Master Hu mean? Protecting that kid?"

The person next to him shook his head and didn't speak.

But everyone knew one thing: that young man named Wang Lin, from today on, had officially made a name for himself with the Twelve Zodiacs.

...

Wang Lin walked out of the pass and headed back along the road he came from.

The wounds on his body were still aching faintly; although the blood hole in his left shoulder had started to heal, every step he took caused pulling pain.

The depression in his chest had recovered quite a bit, and the broken ribs were slowly knitting back together; Calamity's self-healing ability was indeed formidable, but it would still take another hour or two to fully recover.

After walking for over ten minutes, noisy sounds came from ahead—the clashing of weapons, shouting, and screaming…

The people from Wildfire and Wild Wolf were still fighting.

Wang Lin continued to walk forward.

Soon, silhouettes appeared in the fog.

A dozen or so people were entangled in a fight, with blades flashing and Superpowers flying everywhere.

Deputy Leader Su Muqing stood at the very front, the short blade in her hand already notched, and she had added several new wounds to her body.

Opposite her were the last three remaining squad leaders of Wild Wolf—two LV2s and one LV1—all of them wounded but still resisting desperately.

The first to notice Wang Lin was one of the Wild Wolf squad leaders.

He had just slashed out with a blade when his peripheral vision caught a silhouette in the fog.

He froze.

The second, the third, the fourth…

Everyone stopped what they were doing one after another and turned to look in that direction.

In the fog, a young man covered in blood stood there.

Deputy Leader Su Muqing's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

The faces of those three Wild Wolf squad leaders turned from pale to ashen.

"It's that kid…"

"Where is the commander?"

Wang Lin raised his right hand, holding a blade.

The blade was long and narrow, gleaming with cold light, with a wolf head carved into the hilt.

That was Commander Leí Héng's blade; this blade had been with him for a full five years.

Wang Lin raised the blade, pointing its tip toward the sky.

"That is… the commander's blade…"

"Where is the commander?"

Wang Lin did not answer.

He simply threw the blade forward.

The blade stuck into the ground, its body trembling slightly.

Afterwards, he turned around, without saying another word, and walked toward the camp.

Deputy Leader Su Muqing watched Wang Lin's back disappear into the fog.

Then she turned her head to look at the ashen-faced remnants of Wild Wolf.

She smiled.

"Your commander is dead."

"Now, it's your turn."

The three squad leaders looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and gripped their weapons tightly.

"Deputy Leader Su Muqing, don't be too arrogant! There are still three of us; you might not be able to finish us off…"

Before the words were finished, Deputy Leader Su Muqing had already moved.

She brandished the notched short blade and, like a wolf that had been hungry for three days, pounced toward the nearest squad leader.

The blade flashed.

Blood splattered three feet high.

That LV1 squad leader clutched his neck, eyes wide, and collapsed limply.

Deputy Leader Su Muqing shook the blood off the blade and looked at the remaining two.

"Who's next?"

The remaining two squad leaders were deathly pale, their legs trembling.

They looked at each other, then turned and ran at the same time.

The remaining Wild Wolf members scattered, throwing down their weapons and running, terrified that if they were a step too slow, they would die here.

The people from Wildfire wanted to pursue, but were stopped by Deputy Leader Su Muqing.

"Forget it, let them go back and report. Wild Wolf is finished."

Then she suddenly smiled.

"Let's go, back to the camp."

...

When Wang Lin walked into Laifu Inn, it was almost dark.

Behind the counter, the skinny old man was dozing off. The sound of the door being pushed open woke him up.

He opened his eyes, saw Wang Lin's state, and was stunned for a moment.

"Back again?"

"Yeah."

The old man didn't ask any more questions, just took out the instrument, preparing to scan for points.

Wang Lin walked over and extended his left hand. Beep. A number popped up on the screen.

The old man looked down. Then he froze.

"Thirty… thirty thousand? Thirty-one thousand two hundred?"

Wang Lin didn't speak, withdrew his hand, and walked upstairs.

The old man sat there, his eyes almost popping out.

On the first day, when this kid walked in, there were 100 points on his wristband. He stayed one night, ate two meals, and spent it all.

The second day he went out, and when he returned, there were 7,900 more on the wristband. He had already thought that was outrageous enough.

But now… this kid went out once, and when he came back, the wristband showed 31,200.

He had run this shop for so many years, and this was the first time he had seen such a bizarre customer…

The old man put down the instrument, leaned back against the chair.

"Interesting, really interesting…"

...

Three days later.

Mist Camp, East District, Dark Blade stronghold.

It was a three-story gray building, looking dilapidated on the outside, no different from the abandoned buildings around it.

But those familiar with this place knew that the people living in this building were the group you absolutely couldn't provoke in this camp.

Third floor, meeting room.

At the end of the long table sat a man in his early thirties, with a stern expression and a thin scar at the corner of his left eye—a souvenir left by a LV4 Mist Beast three years ago.

His name was Captain Han, one of the squad leaders of Dark Blade, a LV5 Shadow-type Awakened, Sequence 072.